The following document is the "getting started" file from the LambdaCore distribution. In the distributed core, it is 1 on *News. It is reproduced here for your convenience.

Getting Started with your LambdaCore MOO


Thank you for choosing LambdaCore!

Initial Setup Notes

The "welcome" screen, seen when a player connects.
this is stored in $login.welcome_message

Do you want on-line character creation?
this is stored in $login.create_enabled for more detailed information, edit $login:player_creation_enabled

Do you want to limit the number of players on the MOO at once?
look at $login.max_connections the `connection_limit' message on $login is the message printed when this limit is reached.

Do you want a different default player class?
set $player_class to a different value
do not change $player

You should also set the following:
$network.postmaster
your email address, or the email address of the person who will handle your email
$network.site
the machine your MOO is running on (e.g. "lambda.moo.mud.org")
$network.port
the port your MOO is running on (e.g. 8888)
$network.MOO_Name
the name of your MOO (e.g. "LambdaMOO")
$site_db.domain
this is set to the `domain' of your address (eg `foo.com' for `moo.foo.com')

If you compiled the server with open_network_connection() enabled (allowing the MOO to open up connections with other computers on the network), then you should set

   $network.active = 1
This will enable @newpassword, @registerme, @password, @mailme, @netforward, and others to send mail from the MOO.

Setting Yourself Up

Set a password for yourself.
@password <new-password>
Set a description for yourself.
@describe me as <anything>
Set a gender for yourself.
@gender <gender>
There are, also, a large number of messages you can set on yourself. Setting them will enhance the virtual reality.

About Guests

To make a new Guest character:
   @make-guest <guestname>
This will make a new guest with the name you specify with `_Guest' appended and some other standard but useful aliases.

This is the easiest way to make Guest characters. The most important things to remember about Guests, if you want to make them yourself, are:

To set the default description and gender for a guest:


Adding to the Newspaper

The newspaper is a special mailing list. To add a post to the newspaper, send mail to it (as *News or $news), and then note the number of your post (let's call it <x>) and:

   @addnews <x> to *News
... in general, `@addnews $ to *News' will work as well.

Quota

By default, LambdaCore runs with object-based quota. This is the quota system documented in the LambdaMOO Programmer's Manual, directly supported by the server. If you're satisfied with object-based quota, which serves some people's needs better than others', you needn't change anything. However, an in-DB quota system, limiting users by total database space as opposed to total objects, has been designed, and is included here.

To enable byte-based quota:

It's best that you make this switch before users start, because converting existing object-based users to byte-based users is an awkward (and inherently arbitrary and political) move. You'd need to decide how much space your builders deserve, and it's all a mess.


Making Programmers

The command to turn someone into a programmer is `@programmer' Its syntax is `@programmer <user>'. For example:
   @programmer Haakon
The `@programmer' verb will prompt you if the user isn't set up with a description and a gender.

No code to automatically grant programmer bits is included with LambdaCore.

Making Wizards

THINK CAREFULLY

Be very careful before giving someone a wizard bit. That person can do gross damage to your database, and fixable but serious damage to the machine it runs on. That person can quite possibly open outbound network connections from your machine, and thus commit acts for which your host system will be blamed. That person can ruin your MOO's as-yet-untarnished reputation.

Wizards have technical power, the ability to change anything within the database, to create anything within the database. Be careful with the idea of a `Social Wizard' - a nontechnical person holding a wizard bit is fairly likely to, at some point, accidentally do something destructive. It's a good idea not to socialize as your wizard character, for the same reason, to make it less likely to be accidentally destructive.

That said, in general you don't turn an existing character into a wizard, you make a new character to be the wizard. This is because the existing character probably owns code and objects which could be destructive if suddenly made wizardly; it's a good security measure to make a fresh player. So, to make a fresh player:

To make #123 a wizard:

  1. @programmer #123 (a nonprogrammer wizard is a truly strange beast)
  2. ;#123.wizard = 1;
  3. @chparent #123 to $wiz
  4. ;#123.public_identity = <the player's nonwizard character's object number>

The LambdaMOO Wizards