The last month for ExVenture has seen mostly metrics improvements and some client additions. There is also a new website for it at exventure.org. You can see the latest additions here on MidMUD, my running instance of ExVenture.

Metrics

I started looking into Prometheus for work and started adding in metrics for various aspects of ExVenture. Some of the metrics include:

• exventure_command_parsed_in_microseconds
• exventure_command_ran_in_microseconds
• exventure_command_bad_parse_total
• exventure_player_count
• exventure_session_total
• exventure_login_total
• exventure_login_failure_total
• exventure_new_character_total

GMCP

The server also supports GMCP now, either through normal telnet or the web client. The web client has it pushed over as a special websocket event. GMCP Modules now supported are:

• Character
• Character.Vitals
• Room.Info
• Room.Characters.Enter
• Room.Characters.Leave
• Target.Character
• Target.Clear
• Zone.Map

More information about these can be found on the wiki.

Client

The updated web client uses the new GMCP pushes to allow stat bars and a side bar with room information and a mini map.

Maps

Maps got a fairly big update in that multiple layers are supported, there are doors now, and you can go up and down. Multiple layers allow things like going under a bridge or heading up to the second floor of a house.

Doors are now in place and prevent movement between rooms if they are closed, obviously. They are indicated with a = for closed and / for open states.

Finally up and down are movement directions. There isn’t map indication yet, but I want to add something similar to this:

+---+
|[ >|
|   |
|< ]|
+---+

Next Month

I want to add more in terms of NPC interaction. I started on an event system for NPCs that can really only respond to things it hears and when a character enters a room. I want to add in targetting and combat back from NPCs.

A few people have signed into the game and I get to see what they attempt to do and failed at. I think a goal every month will be to continue to smooth out things that people are attempting to do.