Installation and Release notes for SmaugWizard Ver 1.00
[SmaugWizard, SmaugWiz (C) 1998 BuiltByRustry]

This is the initial full release of the conversion of the popular Smaug MUD code to Windows NT.  Included is the executable program and supporting files (areas, boards, etc), and the full Visual C++ version 4.2 source code.

Before going any further I wish to acknowledge all the work and dedication to mud programming that has been done by others to make this program possible.  First, and foremost, there is The Smaug programming team; Many thanks to Thoric, Altrag, Blodkai, Narn, Haus, Scryn, Swordbearer, Rennard, Tricops and Gorog for such a fine mud.  Before Smaug there was Merc, and Diku; All the work done by those mud pioneers is gratefully appreciated.  Thanks Michael Chastain, Michael Quan, and Mitchell Tse of Merc, and Sebastian Hammer, Michael Seifert, Hans Henrik Staerfeldt, Tom Madsen, and Katja Nyboe of Diku.

License and usage:

SmaugWizard license terms are:

        -- Copyrights must remain in original source.
        -- SmaugWizard may not be sold or used in any way for commercial
           gain. (not even a copying or media fee).
        -- A mention that this is a SmaugWiz MUD must appear in the
           login sequence.
        -- You are requested to notify us that you are operating a
           SmaugWizard mud, and to include the address of your mud.
           Notify to rustry@dxcc.com

SmaugWizard makes no effort to retain compatibility with any original code from Smaug, Merc, Diku, nor with any patches, upgrades or code snippets designed for them.

Since SmaugWizard is a derivitive work, in order to use SmaugWizard, you must also abide by the terms of the Smaug, Merc, and Diku licenses.  Those licenses are in the doc directory, as license.Smaug, license.Merc, and license.Diku.  Please read them and abide.


Installation:

SmaugWizard must be installed on a Windows NT version 4, SP3, or greater platform.  It will not work with any other operating system, except perhaps Windows 95.  I don't consider Windows 95 stable enough to run a mud on, so while it has been tested and will run on Windows 95, SmaugWizard will not be supported there.

Install by unzipping the downloaded file SmaugW100.zip) into any empty directory.  Then run SmaugW100.exe to install the server, or run SmaugSrcW100.exe to install the VC++ source.  In setup you can specify where to install SmaugWizard, or use the default in the Program Files directory.

This version of Install Shield doesn't actually create a program group or icon for the start menu, even though it says it does.  So, once install has completed, you can execute SmaugWiz.exe via the normal means of double clicking from explorer, using the run menu, or typing the file name from the installed directory in a command window.  See the setup prompts for information about installing the source files.


Usage:

When SmaugWizard is first started, you'll get a blank screen with menus, but the database will not load.  You can load it by selecting 'start' from the file menu.  But before you do, click on the config menu, and select 'files'.  This should be pointed to the directory where you installed SmaugWiz, because that is the parent directory of all the support files.  However it is possible to run SmaugWiz from any other directory.  If doing so, the path to the root directory of the support files can be changed via the config/files dialog box.  Once changed, SmaugWiz will remember that setup each time it is run from that directory.  Thus it is possible to have two copies of SmaugWiz pointing to the same support files.  This could be handy for testing purposes, but I wouldn't advise trying to run them both at once!


Next select the config/System Data dialog box.  There you can set many system variables before starting up the mud.  Probably the most important thing for new startup's is to un-check the 'Wait for Authorization' box.  This will allow your first player to enter the mud, advance to level 2, and save their player file, without being authorized by an immortal.

Once you have saved that first player, quit the player and then edit the player file with notepad or some such editor.  The player file will be "playername.dat", and will be in the SmaugWiz/Players/N directory, where 'N' is the first letter of the  player's name.  Go to line #8 in the file, and change the level from 2 to 65.  This player is now the supreme entity of the mud, and can be used to authorize new players, create more imm's, set up building areas, etc.  Once that first immortal has been created, you can set 'Wait for Auth' back to on, if you wish, so that future players will need to be authorized by you.

Also in the config/System Data dialog box you can change the communications port number.  It defaults to 4000 on startup.  If you want to run more than one copy of the SmaugWizard server on the same computer, you will have to set a different comm port for each copy.

To make the mud auto reboot, AutoReboot must be checked, and the RebootDelay set to the number of seconds of delay you desire.  This will cause the mud to reboot when it is brought down online via the reboot command or when the reboot time has arrived.  It will not AutoReboot when the online shutdown command is used, or when it is shut down via the Windows file/ShutDown menu.

If the AutoStart box is checked, then when SmaugWiz is first executed, the mud will start booting after the delay in the AutoStartDelay field.  A dialog box will show the time til boot, and the delay can be cancelled, or the autostart can be cancelled.

The stats menu shows some statistics about the mud operation.

The help menu only has the about box working, where you will see the copyright notice.  For now, this file you are reading (SmaugWiz.txt) is the only help file.  Also see the doc directory for various bits of documentation.  I will add real help at some point.

Once the mud is started, you can shut it down by selecting 'ShutDown' from the file menu, or by clicking the close window box [x] in the upper right hand corner.  This will not exit SmaugWiz, but will disconnect and save any players and unload the database.  To completely exit, you can click the close window box again, or select 'exit' from the file menu.  Or you can reload the mud without exiting by using file/start.


Differences from SMAUG:

1. There is no Ident code, so you won't see any user names.  I may put that back in, in the future though.

2. Passwords are encrypted, but using a very simple algorighm.  If there seems to be a need for it, I will add more secure password encryption in the future.

3. Some of the file extensions are changed.  For instance the player files now have an extension of .dat, rather than no extension.  Other than name changes, all the files should be compatible with SMAUG files.

4. Player directories no longer need to be pre-created.  As long as the player directory itself exists, SmaugWiz will create the first letter player directories within it, as needed.

5. SmaugWiz can only handle connects on one port at a time.  If you need a separate building port, run a second copy of SmaugWizard.  (I may add a building port at some time in the future.)


Known bugs or weak areas:

1. Area building has been tested, but not extensively.  So far it all seems to work ok.

2. ???? I'm not aware of any other bugs, but this is a big program with lots of features, some of which I'm probably not even aware yet.  Please let me know about any problems that you find.

*eof* Rustry