It's not super hard to write a big map system with only the most primitive monsters, random encounters, events and treasures... as long as there's not a lot of AI.
And the AI, events, NPCs, plot devices, clever traps, special magic, any new stuff the server game mechanics allow. These would be Artificial-Dungeon-Master-Daemons coded during and AFTER the server was done with I expect that AFTER could completely remake the game over and over.
All run on MCU's, likely AVR Duinos.
So if you have a powered hub and 4+ 328's then you can get a certain level of "interesting game world" and if you are online and everybody has a Duino or more running then a whole persistent living, changing world or galaxy could happen as long as the game mechanics allow.
This could apply to space games as well or even Farmville.
Isn't this the forum to Nick Gammon's blog? Nick who used to moderate over on the Arduino forum and helped tons of people there and discussed MUD's there before leaving, that Nick, isn't this his forum?
Suppose that instead of a human playing a text MUD RPG, it is a program on an MCU?
I didn't get from your initial post that you were talking about making an Arduino client (rather than server). It would be an interesting exercise, although most MUDs don't like bots.
Fiendish is just suspicious of short posts that seem a little off-topic, they tend to be the precursor to someone selling shoes (you know, to help when you walk in mud ... MUD - get it?).
I was thinking myself more like making a micro-based server. Maybe not the Atmega328 which is a little low on memory but one of the larger models, probably backed up by most data on disk (eg, SD card).
I've played RPG's and simulations since about 1971 and always there was a lot of information usually on paper.
Gradually on computer games it's all gotten moved to screen with hotkeys to switch between infos but regardless, the more info you can see quickly/at once has a big role on the quality of the game and play.
4 lines x 20 chars, I'd need a notebook and colored pens at the least.
On the PC side I have made maze makers and small POV maze runners for ANSI terminals and later a mono-Hercules graphics card. Those turned out to be easy. Simple monsters and traps were also easy. AI worth having... not so easy.
But with the right I/O, external programs could fill that in after the game world server is made final. The game server being final/stable would be necessary before add-ons could flourish.
BTW, OSH Park is selling RJRC Teensy 3.1 for $17 + shipping. I got mine for less than $20. That's an ARM with 64K RAM, 256K flash and extra ports, 13-bit ADC and 1 12-bit DAC. In the Arduino IDE you can set the speed up to 96 MHz (overclocked) which seems normal.
I had to get a USB micro-B cable (got 4 Samsung phone cables for $4-something) to test, and it works fine.
As for screens, someone needs to make cheap terminals, just saying.
That does look good. Last I thought I remembered the resolution was more 320x240 or was that someone else's Arduino TV?
I wonder if you could get a free Teensy 3.1 for making a version of that doc for the Teensy 3.1 and PJRC? You'd need one to test and debug after all and they would get site docs worth every penny.
Changing topic, you like Lua. Have you ever heard of Dark God? He's been making the T.O.M.E series that started out as an Angband flavor but through Lua and the T-engine has evolved. I think one of his tags is "Lua Rocks".
I was running Hack on XT's in the 80's and maybe Angband before 2000, TOME then was Tales Of Middle Earth. It's been worked on steadily since. Here's the TOME (Tales Of Maj Eyal, the title evolves) Wiki:
http://te4.org/wiki/Main_Page
Note there is a section on Lua and a link to a Lua engine.
And here's Thangodrim, the Angband home page.
http://www.thangorodrim.net/
Some things from Angband get me feeling is started from a text RPG like The Crystal Caves.
I have the first 4 D&D manuals, these games stick pretty well to those guidelines and many of the details too.
But whatever, it's for you having a look if you haven't and whatever you take or leave may serve you down the line. What you don't want can draw lines as definite as what you do.
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I made a one-pass compiler to do store security work back in the 90's, learned a few unexpected (good) things and got insights that didn't get followed up on. The compiler ran on a PC using objects fed mostly by a few serial streams and made what might as well be serial output.
One thing I understood was that the whole could have been distributed, it was the serial streams that are the bones, not the hardware. And this can be (probably is) true in business and industrial control systems. What's more, it is a way to get around monolithic code that's all but obsolete by the time the package is finished, and that includes games or at least parts of games.
I just found 2.8" 320x240 TFT displays that I can afford more than 2 of so I thought I'd share.
They have SPI interface. That means no big cable or adapter board, doesn't it? Just maybe voltage leveling and power?
Anyway, that means hardly much need for a PC screen. With an 8x8 font, 30 lines x 40 chars I am thinking 2+ screens would allow a lot of flexibility to keep one set of data and be able to page through and interact with other sets, like when a character picks something up from the ground.
I'm not rich and I'm thinking of getting 4 to save on shipping.
