Replacing the OOC portal with an OOC subway system
This page was imported from a forum post dated January 18, 2009 in the category World Building and Coding by Otter. Its content is likely to be out of date!
This post had 16 replies.
Sun, 01/18/2009 - 12:59
Aleltai built a subway underneath parts of the MU. He did so without a W flag, so there were limits he had to work around. However, it got me thinking about a full featured subway in MUF with permissions to let players interact with it.
My thought is to build the subway program and replace the 'portals' OOC command with it. Players could add 'OOC platforms' to their IC area, such that a player going 'ooc' from their IC area lands in their ooc platform (that code is in place now to have IC areas map to OOC areas with the 'ooc' command). Then, players would "take the subway" to where they wish to go, which could involve changing trains. The subways move. So if you sit in a car, you will see various stops go by.
Below are the rules (well, ontology, events, some rules, some requirements intermixed) for the system. (NOTE: this is in the NMC tree officially as nmc/specs/Mu Railroad.txt for those with cvs access.)
Any suggestions welcome!
Keep the Light,
Otter
MU train
1. Each train has a room so the people on it are together.
2. Each train is "on a route".
3. Each route has a "sequence of platforms" it visits that is always
circular.
4. There is a 'time' between platforms on each route specified by
by the railroad.
5. A station can have many platforms (imagine uptown/downtown circle).
6. All train rooms are owned by Railroad.
7. Each platform has link-in/link-out permission to Railroad.
Should the permission vanish, the railroad will 'forget' the platform.
8. No route can have LESS than two platforms.
9. No platform can be in any route more than ONCE.
10. Every platform entry carries the following data:
1. time period (in seconds) after "leaving" this platform
before the next is arrived at.
2. #id of the platform
3. time period (in seconds) to board on this platform
4. The message given on arrival into the platform (inside the train)
with substitions defined.
5. The message given PENDING arrival with substitions to the
platform.
11. If a train is empty it still 'runs' (by setting timers and updating
its own properties).
12. If a train is empty the exit is not linked to reach the platform.
13. If a platform is empty, the exit is not linked into the train.
NOTE: Rules 11 through 13 reduce DB hammering. The train will still
move, arrive/depart messages will still happen, but that's
all in-memory stuff. It doesn't require forcing things and
loading the logs.
14. When a train is due to arrive, if there is no train present, it
arrives. If there is a train present, it sets a 5-10 second delay
and tries again. Because the MU single-threads and each MPI runs
to completion, this will ensure two trains don't share a platform
at the same time. It also ensures that trains won't literally
trample each other. A busy platform will thus "back up" the system
(which is exactly what should happen on a busy platform). This
does NOT do FIFO order -- the actual arrival is random. Trains in
the real world don't "jockey" as they are on tracks ... this is not
the real world.
To make it real, a queue would be added and when a train departs, the
departing train would kick off another delay job to bring the next
train off the queue. This is not sought this version.
15. A railroad office has the program to allow a platform owner to
request that their platform be added (and optionally to which
routes, but it's just a text string, nothing special).
16. A Railroad Office has the program to allow a platform owner to
adjust their platform settings or _remove_ their platform (whether
or not the platform is yet on a route). All settings are sanity
checked so a platform can't damage the system as a whole.
17. A railroad office has the programs with _locks_ to allow trusted
people to create and edit any route.
NOTE: Platform owners can add a platform to a list of platforms, but
only Railroad 'staff' can add a platform to a route. The owner
can however remove their platform, which will pull it from all
routes. The removal is irreversible to the owner (though they
can re-apply to have the platform added again).
18. On arrival to a platform, an announcement is made in the train
providing the platform message and listing the count of people
present on the platform.
19. On arrival to a platform, an annoucement is made to the platform
indicating the arriving train, it's route, how many people are
aboard it and the next station's name it will visit.
20. On arrival to a platform, both train and platform receive the same
announcement indicating how long the train will be 'stopped' for
boarding and disembarking.
21. There must be a way to force passengers from a train to a
platform.
22. A railroad program exist to "add a train" to a route (which causes
the train to start from the starting point immediately).
23. A railroad program exists to say "remove train at completion for a
route" which will cause the next train to hit the end of the route
to force its passengers off and vanish. The ROUTE is given, not any
sort of train ID. The next train to end is the one that will vanish.
24. Every route should provide a "best time for loop" by adding up
the station wait times and the delays between stations. This must
NOT be stored, as the values are all subject to change.
25. No route can have more trains than platforms.
26. An announcement is made at the NEXT destination that a train is
due in "approximately" wait seconds and which route and platform
will FOLLOW. (Message like "A Blue line train is approaching in 15
seconds. It's next destination will be Town Hall"). See 10.5 for
the message.
27. A Railroad office has a program to list each train and it's current
location (either "at platform X" or "en route to Platform X").
28. Each platform owner must have an easy way to list approximately
how long each route served will take until the next train. This
is allowed to show expected time for EACH train (instead of next
train only) if desired.
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