Overview

Oxidus includes a number of interconnected systems that handle everything from communication to combat to world generation. Here is a brief look at some of them.

Channels

The channel system provides global and scoped communication for players and staff. Channels are defined as modules, each governing its own permissions, history, and formatting. GMCP integration means modern clients can present channels in dedicated UI panels rather than inline with other output.

GMCP

Oxidus supports the Generic MUD Communication Protocol for both incoming and outgoing data. Outgoing modules push structured data to clients — character stats, room contents, communication events — while incoming handlers let clients send requests back to the game. New packages can be added by dropping a module into the appropriate directory.

Virtual Objects

Items and NPCs can be defined entirely in LPML data files rather than LPC code. A virtual compile layer reads the data, selects the right base class, and produces a fully functional object at load time. This makes it straightforward to add new content without writing any code.

Currency and Shops

A unified currency daemon tracks denominations and exchange rates. Shops come in two flavours — inventory-based shops that sell objects from their own stock, and menu-based shops that generate items on demand. Banks, loot tables, and coin drops all tie back into the same currency framework.

Signals

The signal system provides a publish-subscribe event bus. Any object can emit a named signal, and any object can register a slot to respond. Signals drive a wide range of behaviours — from combat events to UI updates — without requiring tight coupling between the producer and consumer.

Combat

Combat in Oxidus follows an attack-loop model with hit-chance calculation, a damage pipeline, threat tracking, and a full death sequence. NPCs use a utility-AI layer to choose actions each round, and players advance through use-based skill improvement and experience gain.