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Help: Immorting

BatMUD and the two paths to immortality ======================================= An ancient legend tells the story of two dwarves, brothers by blood but not by trait, Haptur and Istur Ironmold. Even at an early age the two brothers showed quite unusual and undwarflike behaviour. The older of the brothers, Haptur, had an inclination to thoroughly consider all aspects of the world in an analytical fashion, often building strange contraptions with rotating wheels and complex steam engines to compete with his rather artistic relative. For Istur had taken up painting and spent his time drawing the beauty of nature, often incorporating subtle twists and plots into his elaborate works. Despite their peculiar behaviour and a lifestyle that was the subject of great mockery by the dwarven society, the story of Haptur and Istur would not have made it past the forgetful gust of time, had it not been for the brothers' mutual dream to become something more and their desire to leave a permanent mark on the world. Hence both Haptur and Istur implored the gods of earth and sky, to accept them among the ranks of immortals. Haptur pleaded to the gods, offering them his miraculous ability to build machines and other wonderful pieces of technology. Istur, on the other hand, prayed to the gods and asked them to let him paint beauty and life into the world, just as he had been doing with his paintbrush on a canvas before. Through an odd twist of fate, an immortal being of significant power, known only as Erelon, heard the pleas of the two brothers. The immortal had long been planning to further his domain, which consisted mainly of barren rocks, but had lacked the time and strength to complete the task on his own. Listening to the two dwarves offering their unique services, the immortal being decided to act, and before long the two brothers found themselves by the thrones of the elder gods. The elder gods saw the sincerity in Haptur and Istur, granted them the gift of immortality and placed them in Erelon's care. Erelon was a smart immortal who knew how to bring out the best in both Istur and Haptur, and the three soon learned to work as a team - Istur spent his time painting the world with his neverending desire for beauty and Haptur crafted the contraptions that were needed for the sun to rise in the morning and the stars to shine at nights. And when the two brothers argued about what color the stars should be, Erelon was quick to amend the rifts. Years became decades, decades became centuries and centuries became millenia. But what is time to an immortal? Over time other people reached immortality and joined Erelon, Haptur and Istur in forming the realm, and eventually the creation was ready - a splendid kingdom populated by magical creatures and dilligent humans, but also by tribes of orcs and goblins to keep the cosmos in balance. Erelon sighed with relief, thanked his immortal friends and sat back to enjoy the beauty of their creation. But for Haptur and Istur the journey was only beginning... ^o^ BatMUD is a massive game, powered by the creative works of hundreds of developers. We have guilds, we have cities, we have monsters - but there is always room for more. Because we are a big group of people, who work hard to keep BatMUD the best fantasy MUD in existence, teamwork and the ability to follow some rules and specifications are essential. We offer two alternative paths to immortality, roughly reflected by the lives of Haptur and Istur - the path of the libcoder and the path of the contentcoder. Neither path is superior to the other and both are needed for the future development of BatMUD. A libcoder is a skilled coder, who preferably has indepth knowledge of the LPC, C++ and/or C programming languages, as well as common algorithms, database structures and so forth. The role of a libcoder is twofold - to participate in developing core systems of the game (weather engines, news systems, bug tracking, chest code etc to name a few) and to help content coders with the more complex coding aspects (complex NPC code, advanced skills/spells, virtual map controllers for areas etc). A contentcoder is a person with a good understanding of what BatMUD's world is like, possibly coupled with a past history of gamemastering traditional fantasy rpg's. The contentcoder has good english verbal skills, a vivid imagination and an overall touch for how to make the game interesting for a player. Tho initial codingskills are not as critical as for a libcoder, the person will have to learn basic programming skills based on examples and guidance. The contentcoder participates in developing areas, guilds and other aspects of the game that are directly visible to the players. New libcoders and contentcoders work under the supervision of senior wizards, usually under the umbrella of a bigger project. What this means in practice, is that your first pieces of work will be predefined in scope by a senior wizard (consider him a teamleader or project manager of sorts). After you have a solid understanding of the immortal life, rules and what kind of things to develop, you have the option of starting your own teams (assuming your ideas are approved by the archwizards) or to continue in the existing teams. Also, the line between libcoder and contentcoder is not absolute - preferably with time you will learn something of both worlds. ^o^ Applications for immortality should be addressed to an Archwizard via email or mudmail. Please state in the subject if you are applying to be a libcoder or a contentcoder. If you want to follow the path of the lib- coder, please include a resume of your current codingskills, if any. If you want to follow the path of the contentcoder then impress us with your elaborate language and elegantly crafted opinions of what the batrealm lacks. Also include some general background about yourself and your career on bat, as well as free-worded explanation about why you want to become a wizard. The application should be in english! After you have submitted the application the hardest part begins - waiting. Your application goes into a pool with other wizard applicants - one for libcoders and one for contentcoders. Whenever a senior wizard is ready to start a new project he/she will go through our existing wizard staff, and failing to find the resources he/she needs, will go through the pool of applications. I.e. we will NOT wiz applicants until we have a clear task for them to participate in. Should you actually be selected to join the ranks of immortals, know that your mortal character, along with its experience, gold and other assets, is lost. It is possible, but not recommended, to end your wizard career and start playing a new character from scratch. Immorting twice is not possible! After becoming an immortal, you are expected to contribute to the game by participating in the project you have been assigned to. Failure to do so not only hurts the work of your teammates, but will also cause your wizard character to be removed. Do note that becoming an immortal is not a right, but rather a gift and display of trust on our part and the administration has the final say in who we feel are worthy of such a recognition, based on our evaluation of how candidates can further Bat. We have a good atmosphere in our little immortal world - wizards and archwizards are often answering the questions of newbie coders. We have our laughs and it's almost like a community within a community. ^o^ So what did this lengthy ramble have to do with Haptur and Istur? Err... well nothing really - they never existed, or maybe they did. But patience is a virtue, especially for one who aspires to join the ranks of wizards. If you have gotten this far without falling asleep or tearing your hair in frustration, you probably have what it takes :) On behalf of the wizards and archwizards, Gore See also: help coding in bat


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