Although I can't speak much for the global domination games (mainly because I haven't really played them), Dani's work explored the duality in imperialism and capitalism. "Coexist" is probably the best way to summarize it. In Seven Cities of Gold, if one upsets the natives of a land you are "sharing", then one is less likely to succeed. In MULE, players who play just for their own score will never see the high scores of a truly optimized, specialized, and coordinating colony.

Dani Bunten was an entrepreneur. In this simulation we call life, we'll fall under the wheels if we try to directly oppose large problems; particularly the problems we cannot solve alone. Unfortunately, we must at least at times be part of the wheel.

I'm sure I don't speak alone, but MULE didn't just teach me economics, it taught me how to cooperate and play with others. Dani is on record as saying what happens outside the computer during a game (the meta game) is as important as what is happening in the game. When we're playing MULE, we're not conqueroring (albeit mostly empty) planets, we're playing with each other. And if we're introducing MULE to a younger generation, we're teaching them valuable life skills.

Hey everybody.

I created a survey asking various things related to MULE:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/KDVQ85C

I call it the MULE Census 2024.



There's been good Planet MULE engagement but I figured I'd share the link here too in case anyone has missed it. I'll keep it up for a little bit longer--I'll use the making popcorn method. Apologies if it's down by the time you see this post.

I plan on sharing the results.

[lp_solve_5.5_java/lib/ux64]

Well, it appears as though version 1.2.4 does not work out of the box for Linux users running a 64bit kernel.

Upon running the new version I got this error:

UnsatisfiedLinkError
...mule/data/lib/liblpsolve55j.so: ...mule/datalib/liblpsolve55j.so: wrong ELF class ELFCLASS32 (Possible cause: architecture word width mismatch)

liblpsolve is most likely the product of the new AI system introduced in this version. 64bit Linux users were fortunate that the developers used a very 32/64 bit friendly cross platform game engine to remake this game. However, they overlooked such when they packaged the lpsolve library, only including a Linux 32bit binary.

I believe I have gotten it to work, requiring an additional download and some file deletion/replacement.

First, download the liblpsolve55 java package:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/lpsolve/files/lpsolve/5.5.0.15/lp_solve_5.5.0.15_java.zip/download

Extract it and navigate to the lp_solve_5.5_java/lib/ux64 directory. Copy the liblpsolve55j.so file and put it into your copy of planetmule under the mule/data/lib directory. In doing this, you will be replacing the file of the same name which is a 32bit version Java lpsolve library.

Next make sure you have lp-solve installed on your computer. I run Kubuntu and it was already installed for me at one point, but you should be able to issue a sudo apt-get install lp-solve to download/install it (assuming you are running Ubuntu or some Debian derivative with lp-solve available in its repositories).

Regardless of which Linux distribution, if you don't know where it is installed, perform a locate lp_solve to find where your native binary is located.

Lastly, go to the mule/data/lib directory and delete the liblpsolve55.so file. This file is the main 32bit lpsolve library that is packaged with planetmule. Simply create a link to your appropriately installed version of lpsolve (the one found from the locate command before) in this directory, easily done by ln -s /usr/lib/lp_solve/liblpsolve55.so . for me.

The cross platform game engine the developers used made the appropriate 32/64 bit linking at runtime, however, it doesn't look as though lpsolve is as sophisticated. Either you manually make sure you are using the correct lpsolve files, as directed above, or wait for the developers to either package two versions of Linux planetmule or what I think would be better, utilize the runtime upgrade system to download the appropriate files for you.

Yea, the control scheme needs to be more adaptable, letting you define every key command (chat, add AI, etc).

Could try unifying the controls too.  Make everything accessible from just the up, down, left, right, and button controls (using cursor or highlighted options).