merc/README

Merc Release 2.1
Sunday 01 August 1993

Furey	mec@shell.portal.com
Hatchet	hatchet@uclink.berkeley.edu
Kahn	michael@uclink.berkeley.edu



=== Introduction

Merc Diku Mud is a Diku Mud with many enhancements and contributions.  See our
'contrib.txt' and 'help merc' for acknowledgements.  Send us your contribution,
and you'll be in there too!

Enjoy our mud.  May your visit here be ... Mercenary.

This is the 2.1 production release of Merc.



=== Copyright and License

Diku Mud is copyright (C) 1990, 1991 by Sebastian Hammer, Michael Seifert,
Hans Henrik St{rfeldt, Tom Madsen, and Katja Nyboe.  Their license agreement
is in the file 'license.doc'.

Merc Diku Mud is a derivative of the original Diku Mud and is subject to their
copyright and license agreement.  Merc Diku Mud contains substantial
enhancements to Diku Mud.  These enhancements are copyright 1992, 1993 by
Michael Chastain, Michael Quan, and Mitchell Tse.  Our license agreement is in
'license.txt'.

The license terms boil down to this: the people who wrote this mud want due
credit for their work.



=== Contents of the Release

	area	Area files.
	doc	Documentation.
	log	Log files    (initially empty).
	player	Player files (initially empty).
	src	Source files.



=== How to Install

First, group with your highest level Unix guru, and have him or her tank.
Merc is easier to install than other muds, but every site is different.

(1) Get the release Merc_21.tar.gz from one of these fine anonymous ftp
    sites:

	ftp.tcp.com (formerly ferkel.ucsb.edu)
	ftp.math.okstate.edu
    
(2) Unpack the release:

	gzip -d -c Merc_21.tar.gz | tar xvf -

(3) Go into the 'src' directory.  Choose the Makefile for your operating
    system and copy it into 'Makefile':

	Makefile	Most machines with 'gcc'
	Makefile.aix	AIX
	Makefile.hp	Hp/UX
	Makefile.isc	Interactive Systems Unix
	Makefile.mip	Mips Risc/OS
	Makefile.nex	NeXT
	Makefile.sol	SunSoft Solaris 2.1
	Makefile.tra	Traditional C (see 'trad.txt')

    Merc.exe, a pre-built MsDos executable, is included in the release.
    See 'port.txt' for more information on porting, including the
    single-user MsDos and Macintosh versions.

(4) Run 'make' with the following options:

	make -k >&! make.out

    This will take 10 minutes to 60 minutes, depending on the speed of your
    computer.

    If you encounter errors with 'make', send us your 'make.out' file:

	mail -s make.out mec@shell.portal.com < make.out

    Also we'll need to know what kind of hardware, operating system,
    and C compiler you have.

    We will help you get Merc running, but obviously we can't guarantee
    Merc will run on any particular machine.

(5) Start the game:

	startup &
	telnet localhost 4000
	
(6) To make your first immortal character, just start as a mortal
    character, play at least as far as level 2, and then edit the
    player file and change your level.  (After the first immortal,
    you can advance the rest).

(7) If you haven't already done so, read 'license.doc' and 'license.txt'.
    Because Merc is a derivative work of Diku Mud, you must register
    your mud with the original Diku implementors.
  
(8) Of course you're going to change the title screen, help files, and so on.
    Don't just globally erase the 'Merc' references, ok?  You wouldn't
    like it if we did that to your work, so don't do it to ours.



=== Support

First, read the documentation in the 'doc' directory.  We rewrote all of the
documentation files from scratch for the 2.0 Alpha release, and have been
keeping them up-to-date since.

Also check the 'wizhelp' command and read the 'help' descriptions for the
individual immortal commands.

There is a mailing list at 'merc@kpc.com'.  Send mail to 'merc-request@kpc.com'
to join the list.

You can write to us directly at the e-mail addresses at the top of this
document.

When you write us, we need to know what kind of machine you're running on.  If
you can give us specific information about the problem, that helps too.

Specific information means: an adb or gdb stack trace (if you're reporting a
crash), or a syslog with the relevant commands logged.  The player files are
ascii files -- dump them into your mail message too.

If your e-mail is too vague, we're likely to bounce it back.  There are three
of us and dozens of you -- we simply can't engage in long-distance debugging,
on unknown platforms, with the added factor of more code that you've dropped in
since the release.



=== Future Plans

We have finished core development of Merc.  There will never be a Merc 3.
It's your mud now -- the end of our development is the beginning of yours.

We will continue making maintenance releases to fix bugs, add new platform
support, and fold in contributed code and areas.  The next release of Merc,
version 2.2, will be on 05 Sep 1993.