Uglymug Newcomer Tutorial
by Lursa
Welcome to UglyMug!
The purpose of this tutorial is to guide new users through the wonders of the Ugly world. Whether you are a complete novice or have arrived at Ugly with a knowledge of other MUDS and a complete encyclopaedia of computing terminology at your fingertips this tutorial should have something for you.
In the interests of clarity the following applies when examples are used:
So have a read, switch your computer on and have a go.
The first thing you need to do before connecting to Ugly is to decide on a character, you do not need to spend too long on this initially as a name and a password will suffice.
When you first connect to Ugly you will be asked to enter a name for your character.
If you would prefer to log on for the first time without a specific name you can enter the name 'Guest'. Ugly will give your character an identification prefix (e.g. Emerald Guest or Dolby Guest) to distinguish you from any other guests logged on at the time. This is not a permanent character but it will allow you to explore Ugly whilst you decide who and what you would like to be. You can use this as an opportunity to see the other people logged on, what names and characters they have chosen, and it may help to give you some ideas of your own.
If you wish to enter a name you intend to keep for yourself then you can do so at this point. There are hundreds of thousands of potential names you could use. Think of your favourite characters from films, books, TV, history, are there any words you like the sound of that you could use? Make the name something relatively easy for other users to type if they are talking to you. You can use your own name if you wish. The only names that would be prohibited are those which other users may find offensive.
Examples of current user names include Reaperman, Omally, tc, Lursa, Tarka, Refresher the list goes on.
Once you have entered your chosen name Ugly will check to make sure that there are no other characters in existence with that name. If another user already has the name then Ugly will inform you of this and ask you to enter a different name. At this point it would be better to think of a different name and not to simply try variations on spelling or add or remove letters.
If you decide at a later time that you want to change your name you can do this by typing:
@name me = <New name>
This is useful if you want to change capitalisation of your name, or if you think of another name you would prefer.
Once you have your character name Ugly will ask you to enter a password. This is done so that once your character is created you are the only person who can log on as them. As with all passwords choose one that you will remember and that will not be easy for other people to guess.
If you wish to change your password at any time simply type:
@password <old password> = <new password>
Ugly does give you the option of checking certain pieces of information before you log on.
This gives you basic information about Ugly's background. Type:
INFO
where it asks you to enter a character name and you will be able to read this. Once you have read it just type your character name and Ugly will continue the process of creating your character. Info does different things after you have logged on so the best time to use it is before you do so.
This allows you to see who is logged on before you enter Ugly yourself. Type:
WHO
where it asks you to enter the character name and you will be able to see the Who List. The List will be explained in more detail further on. Once you have read it just type your character name and Ugly will continue the process of creating your character. Who can be used after you have logged on, but at that point you do not need to type it in capitals.
If you logged on as a guest you will find yourself in the Guest Room. If you logged on as a character you will start in the Welcome Room. The description for both of these rooms is exactly the same and is designed to give you a quick summary for communicating and moving around. The main exit is to the Pub, this is the place where you will usually find several of Uglys users. Once you have looked at the room type:
Pub
and you will go straight there.
Within a few minutes of logging on you will receive a message from a user known as a Welcomer. The ranks of users are explained in more detail below but in summary a Welcomer is someone who is there to welcome new users and assist them as they become familiar with Ugly. You can ask the person who welcomed you any questions you may have and they should also be able to introduce you to other users.
The best way to get to know Ugly is to start communicating with the other users. This can be done is a number of ways depending on where you are and who is in the room with you.
Typing this will let the person who welcomed you know that you need some assistance.
Typing:
page <User>=<message>
will send a message to the person you are speaking to that only they will see. This is useful when talking to someone who is not in the same location but can also be used when you are both in the same room. In the latter situation no one else in the room can see the message.
When you receive a page you will see the following message on your screen:
PAGING from The Red Lion(#53572 RjP), Lursa(#55856 PBC#L) says "How much longer are you going to be?"
The first sentence tells you that you have been paged, the location of the person who paged you, the identity of the person who paged you and what the message is.
This has a similar effect to paging. By typing:
tell <User>=<message>
you will send a message to the person you are speaking to that only they will see. This can again be used for talking to someone who is not in the same location but can also be used to send a message to another person in a room. Nobody else can see that message. Some users prefer to use tell for private local conversations whilst page is for long distance ones.
If you are having a conversation with someone using tell you can type:
rt = <message>
this will send the message to the last person you used the tell command on.
This is a good way to leave a message for someone who is not logged on at the time. Typing:
mail <User>=<message>
will send a Mud Mail which will wait in the recipients mail box. When they log on they will be notified that they have mail and can read it.
In order to talk to someone in the same room you need to type:
'<message>
or
"<message>
the apostrophe or speechmarks at the beginning alert Ugly that you are speaking. Everyone in the room will see what you are saying. An example:
If you type :
'Hi.
You (and everyone else in the room) will see Newbie says Hi.
In order to make a comment which is not spoken you need to type:
:<action>
or
emote <action>
the colon at the beginning (or the word emote) alerts Ugly that you are emoting. Everyone in the room will see the text. An example:
If you type
:smiles
You (and everyone else in the room) will see Newbie smiles
Channels are the main way in which groups of people can communicate without having to be in the same room and without having to use the other commands. It is useful if more than one person wants to talk. These are discussed in more detail in the Communications Tutorial.
Ugly is a massive world which is growing each and every day as users build and add to it. There is loads to see and explore, adventures to try out, games to play and even a train in Icelandia which will take you on a guided tour. In order to experience this you will need to move around.
Every room you enter is set out in the same way so you can quickly learn to explore. An example of a room is:
The Red Lion(#53572 RjP) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is a lively, and friendly local pub. There are people at the bar and others sitting about talking with their companions. Music is audible above the hum of conversation and the sounds of the fruit machine beeping and clunking. Obvious exits: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Out. Silly. Toilets. Contents: ~~~~~~~~~ *The Ozzard of Wiz *Cope *Felspar *Smeg some paper, a pair of scissors and a stone Fruit Machine
The heading is the name of the room and below that is the rooms description. There then follows a list of possible exits, a list of the people who are in the room and finally a list of the objects in the room. The names with stars next to them (eg Ozzard) are actual users anything without that star is not a real life human user.
In order to leave the room just type the name of the exit you wish to use. An example:
Silly
Will take you out of the pub and into the silly room.
If you want to look at objects in the rooms type:
look <object name>
this will give you the description of that object and may also list other commands that you can type.
This is a list of all the other players who are on Ugly at the time. As explained above you can see this list before you log on. The list itself looks like this:
Current Players: Idle 1m 04s hick the slightly mad smurf 02s 35m 53s Master Phss Jedi Master Yoda kick ass with (B)35m 12s 39m 17s Lursa (B) 00s 39m 17s Cope has three lions on his shirt! (Xw) 4m 26s 1h 31m Felspar: www.ipaterson.ca (B)14m 20s 2h 40m Milady is one fast lady. (B) 7m 29s 4h 52m The Ozzard of Wiz, dreamer of the dream that is life (Gw) 10s 10h 23m Smeg is stress testing wMug (don't boot me!) (B) 2h 09m 22h 37m Refresher the eagle has landed. (B) 8m 08s 1d 04h ariadne - 'You're seeing someone else?' 'Not for an hour(B) 1h 8m 3d 18h Tiny ist back in the UK again... (W) 3d 17h 3d 18h Dyason: I'll take 'outer planets' for $100. (B)11m 44s 4d 00h ReaperMan jogs (W) 9m 57s 4d 11h Rincewind; the man, the myth, the legend... (W) 1h 05m 5d 06h EQ Nightwing needs some sleep (B)19h 07m Users: 15 (Peak 46) Up: 5 days, 6 hours.
The first column sets out how long each user has been logged on. If a user has been logged on for a long time then quite often the time is replaced with words such as 'Muddict'.
The next Column is the name of the user, some people add prefixes to their name so in the above example Nightwing has added the prefix EQ. This will be explained in more detail below.
After the name is a sentence which is known as the 'who-string' this is a phrase or a comment chosen by the user to display some sort of information. Quite often the who string can act as something to start a conversation.
There then follows a column with various letters in it. This sets out the status of each user. These codes (or flags) are explained below.
Finally there is the column which shows how long that user has been idle, in other words how long since they last typed anything on Ugly. As a general rule of thumb if a user has been idle for a large amount of time then they are away from the computer or working elsewhere. However, some of the Wizards and admin do watch Ugly and if you want to speak to them try paging them to see if they will respond. This is particularly the case during the day if people are logged on whilst at work.
God (G)
There is only one God on Ugly and that is the Ozzard of Wiz (Ozz for short). He is the person who designed and built Ugly. God is the top of the admin chain.
Wizard (W)
The Wizards are the next level of admin. They have the ability, knowledge and power to work on the computer code for Ugly, to fix bugs and to generally solve any problems. They are also meant to be the peacekeepers. If you have a problem, question, query etc you can ask a Wizard for help.
Apprentice (A)
Next step down from Wizards on the admin chain. These are the trainee Wizards. They have similar powers to the Wizards and can also be useful if you get stuck.
Welcomer (w)
These are the people whose job it is to welcome new users and help them through their early days on Ugly. You will receive a message from a Welcomer almost as soon as you log on to Ugly for the first time. These are meant to be the really approachable people if you need help and ideally should be your first port of call.
Builder (B)
Once users have settled on to Ugly they can become builders. This allows them to build their own homes, experiment with new ideas to improve Ugly, make objects etc. How to become a builder and what it involves is discussed in a separate building tutorial.
Experienced Builder (X)
Next stage up from builders. These are the people who really know their stuff. They build the larger scale projects on Ugly.
Haven (H)
This flag is used by users when they want a bit of peace and quiet. Any user who has the Haven flag switched on cannot be contacted by paging or telling.
Newbie (No flag)
This is the title given to all new users. It basically makes sure that they are loved and cared for by the rest of the community.
Once you have settled into Ugly there are several things you will probably want to do to complete your character.
As a Newbie your Who string is set to a phrase which will tell other users that you are new. To change it type:
@who me=<phrase>
If you don't want a who string don't type any message.
If you want to add a prefix to your name type:
@name me = <prefix and your character name>
Once you have changed your name you are stuck with it for 5 minutes so make sure that you type it right.
Every room, object and character has a description this tells other users about them. Your description does not have to be a description of your personally, it could be a description of your character, a comment about your character, a poem, phrase etc.
To get some ideas have a look at other characters there are two ways to do this. Typing:
look <User>
will show you the description of a character which is in the same room as you. Typing:
Scan <User>
will scan someone no matter where they are on Ugly and also whether they are logged on or not. If you scan another user they will receive a message saying that you scanned them.
To set your own description type:
@desc me=<description>
You can set your race to be anything you would like. This does not necessarily mean nationality. It could be an object, the true race of your character (eg Spock would be a Vulcan), an object, a word. Once again the world is your oyster. To set your race type:
@race me = <your chosen race>
The final aspect which is worth setting is the sex of your character. You can be either male (m), female (f) or neuter (n).To set this type:
@set me = <the letter corresponding to your chosen sex>
When you have had enough of your session and fancy going back to real life type:
QUIT
(in capitals) and you will leave. Your character will be left in the room you were last in.
Once you are logged off the only people who can see your character are the admin and the owner of the room you are in. This can cause a problem (particularly in a public room like the pub) where a large number of people may log off. The rooms owner and also the admin are able to clear a room of unconnected characters. It is therefore possible that when you log back in you will be in a different place to where you logged off. This is not a problem, just type pub and you will be back in the main meeting place of Ugly.
There is so much to explore in Ugly and so many people to talk to that it is unlikely you will see everything in one session. As you get used to the place you will get to know more users, will develop your own character and can move on to building etc. it is worth speaking to one of the admin about getting your own home in the town of your choice.
There are other tutorials for users and for Builders and help online if you get really stuck.
Basically, have a wander around, have a chat and see what you think.
Written by Lursa May/June 2002.
Edited by Frijj and Teppic June 2002.
Transformed to XHTML by The Ozzard of Wiz July 2002.