#scenesys

Here is a guide on how to install SceneSys:

* GitHub page: here.

Choose if you want constant updates or not. If you do, log onto M*U*S*H at mush.pennmush.org:4201 and ask for Walker to connect the SVC bot to your MUSH (Recommended). If not, look through this list for the most recent version. If you need any help with any of these steps, contact me at M*U*S*H or on Final Kingdom MUSH.

Make sure you have the following items installed on your system: MySQL, PHP5, Apache2, PHPmyadmin.

On PHPmyadmin, use the root/admin user to create a new database, OR, use one of your old databases. Now use the SQL tab and paste in what is found on the GitHub site.

Go into your pennmush/game folder, and replace the existing text in the GETDATE.TEMPLATE file with the information found on the GitHub site.

If using the SVC bot, use the following commands that follow underneath at step 6. If not, use the installer and skip to step 7. 

Ensure that you do these one at a time, until the commands seem to indicate they are 'done'.

+svc create SVC SceneSys=Mercutio_SceneSys NULL +svc checkout +svc client SVC SceneSys

@tel first(get(SVC SceneSys/LOCAL`OBJMAP),:)=config(master_room) th ansi(hr,SceneSys object is DBref [first(get(SVC SceneSys/LOCAL`OBJMAP),:)])!

Look at the attributes found in DATA`SQL`DATABASE and the leaves under DATA`SQL`TABLE in case you changed database settings from the standard.

Using Myrddin's BBoard system, create a new board for the Scheduler to post to. +bbnewgroup Scene Announcements

Edit the DATA`SCHEDULEBOARD attribute to the 'number' of the Schedule Board (alternatively, set it to its name), and edit DATA`SCHEDULEBOARD_DB to give it the DBref that was made for the schedule board. (@find Scene Announcements)

Ensure you have an isic() function, or otherwise edit the FN`IS`IC function for it. The system should only be recording when someone is IC!

Ensure you have a ancestor_player set (@config ancestor_player)

@trig Scene System/DATA`INSTALL`ANCESTOR

Assuming you don't mind us changing the way your @emit, SAY, POSE and SEMIPOSE work, go to the next step. If you don't want this, you're most likely going to need to get some help from me personally on how to set up your game.  

@trigger Scene System/startup. 

PHP files are here: the wiki page is set up specifically for a type of Form for SymanticMediawiki. If you want help with this, contact me, or wait for a later Tutorial. You want to change the db.php file with your own information. It is highly recommended you use a seperate user for this, which is only able to 'select' from the SQL database. That way, you can be sure in the knowledge that nothing insecure will happen. Files are found on the GitHub site.

http://svc.pennmush.org/installers/Mercutio_SceneSys_73.txt

I've now reached a point where SceneSys is almost packagable. I just need to do a few more things, because I can probably make it so that it 'automatically installs' with some very simple commands run.

I know there's at least one game now which is using SceneSys, as I've helped them install it; and there's another where it is being suggested as a startup item. 

In setting up SceneSys on Tenebrae MUSH's dev server, I found some simple bugs that were in need of fixing, but nothing too weird. I found a few times where in fact, the way I coded things allowed for easy expansion, so that made me happy. I'm glad they saw the Light and switched over from TinyMUX to PennMUSH.

I recently (finally) made the simple addition to make idle scenes go proper idle - it took me a while to figure out the SQL statement. Luckily, Mike@M*U*S*H helped me half the way there. 

This is a prepared statement in Walker's SQL Prep Format running my Extensions ~ and could probably do with improvement:

SELECT scene_id FROM ( SELECT DISTINCT config.`scene_id`,`scene_ctime`,MAX(`pose_time`) as pose_time,`timeout_unfinished` FROM `$DATABASE$`.`$POSES$` as poses INNER JOIN `$DATABASE$`.`$CONFIG$` as config ON poses.`scene_id`=config.`scene_id` AND `scene_state` IN ('0','1') GROUP BY config.`scene_id` ) as groupedcontent WHERE NOT ( (`pose_time` BETWEEN (NOW()- INTERVAL `timeout_unfinished` SECOND) AND NOW()) OR (`scene_ctime` BETWEEN (NOW()- INTERVAL `timeout_unfinished` SECOND) AND NOW() ) )

So where should I go from here? 

Providing updates will probably have to become a 'thing' at some point, after all; I am not done yet. This thing can become more robust. It can use some code enhancements. The new named variables from PennMUSH are likely to be a useful thing, especially within the mapsql() function. The Scene Recall system could certainly use a touch-up, as it is visually not too appealing, and could use @mapsql.

There's two features that are basically coded up, but I've either de-activated, or are otherwise just not being used. There is also a 'journal' table that is meant for so called 'cutscenes' and 'diary entries' which is low-priority and has not seen any work done.

Chapter / Plot table. I could link you to the page, but it won't do you any good as it isn't filled at the moment. But basically, it allows you to view 'plots', and see the scenes that were under them. Interestingly enough, you could have plots in plots in plots in... yeah - recursion. I stopped using it because there's too large of a 'non-plot' to 'plot' ratio in most MUSH scenes. But what's more, since SceneSys is now aimed towards Semantic MediaWiki and storing scenes that you /wish/ to put in there, the admin can indicate plots themselves for a scene and list it based on a semantic attribute.

SceneSys isn't perfect, and one of the largest parts of that is because of how the connection between SQL and PennMUSH works. When SceneSys receives a pose on the MUSH side of things, it has the ANSI markup along with it. I won't bore you with the details, but basically, there's some weird character voodoo that goes on around it. Now, if we have the game drag this stuff back down from the SQL database, we're cool - because PennMUSH knows how to handle that stuff.

PHP does not. What this means, is that by the time I dredge it up using SQL on a webpage, I have to parse over everything that I drag up that might contain PennMUSH's ansi markup, and have to draw a large regular expression over it to convert to <span> tags. And if you've ever looked at the 'help file' for 'ansi()' on PennMUSH, you'll note that there's more than just colors to this mess. 

Long story short, the current implementation is /not perfect/. I'm also coming across some strange artifacts now and again which I can only presume to be escaped characters of a sorts. This is an item of constant research for me. I know there's someone on M*U*S*H called Sketch, who has a better parser for it, but it doesn't seem to /work/ with my system. I will have to look into this.

I will be blunt. The scene scheduling system was not my idea. Since late 2010, I've played on a game called Super Robot Taisen MUSH, where people often crowd around larger scheduled scenes. It's a faction based game, so in-character conflict is common and on a larger scale -- meaning it works well with this system. But I think all MUSHes benefit from such a thing.

The logic is simple. Someone uses a command to 'schedule' a scene on a certain date and time, indicating a title and a description. There's a command to look at all the scenes scheduled in the next two weeks, and then there's a command to look at the scene itself. It also makes a BBpost to ensure people are aware of the scenes being scheduled.

It's simple, it's to the point, it gets people organized, and it works!

I expanded mildly from what I experienced on that game and put much of what I saw into SceneSys' scheduling system - from the syntax up to the logic of listing the scenes. A recent addition was to indicate which room a scene is going to play in - so people can easily @tel (or similar) over when the scene begins. Other things are being able to 'reschedule' the scene in the schedule.

About two years ago, I started a project that I worked on now and again, off-and-on, called the Scene System, or SceneSys for short. The idea was simple; make it simpler for a MUSH to have a scene with however many players get 'logged' automatically, and stick it onto SQL because I was on a web-integration kick.

Now here I am, two years later, and SceneSys is basically finished. It was up and running in its Alpha state the moment Final Kingdom MUSH opened up. Since then, over the course of less than a year, there have been almost 1500 logged scenes on the game, counting for almost 50.000 individual poses. The scene listing can be found here.

That means that, according to the game census, 7.25 poses are being made on average per hour. Yes, that's a little pat on my own back I guess. But the more interesting part is - people like it. People love it - and people are making use of it. And no, none of our game's policies require it being used - short of one +scene per month for the FCs.