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Beginner Joined: 19 Jan 2002 Posts: 12 Location: USA

I'm looking for some recommendations. Honestly I've only been that heavily involved in one mud, Ancient Anguish. I'm so familiar with that mud that playing anywhere else, starting from scratch, is almost a little frightening. However the population is going down, it isn't what it once was. That sense of wonder and adventure just isn't there anymore, and most of all, their ideas about PvP and PKing are... antiquated, to say the least. I want something new to master.

So, ITT: the muds you play (or like, if you don't play anymore) and why. ;)

Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 8:26 am

Try a ranking site like TopMudSites. Anything on the first page will be good.

Do you have a codebase preference? I've been spoilt by IRE MUDs now and literally can't play MUDs with the KILL command, or ones where there's not even an attempt at RP, or where PvE is the only thing to do. Without knowing what you're after, we can't really make recommendations other than "this is what I play and it's fun". So, with that said, I play the Iron Realms games. There're two new ones in development if you can stand to wait; other than that, I suggest trying whichever catches your eye.

Beginner Joined: 19 Jan 2002 Posts: 12 Location: USA

Thanks for replying Fang,

I've looked into those Top Sites listing services a few times for other things like downloading roms (which I don't see anything wrong with if you can't find a rare cartage anymore for less than a few hundred dollars on eBay), and in my experience, they're generally polluted with padded statistics of webmasters trying to screw the system, or they get you caught into endless loops of "click here to vote before you proceed" and all clicking there does is reload the page so you get to see an other banner ad, and the admin gets another tenth of a cent for the view. That, or an ActiveX Trojan. Rolling Eyes

That, and I'm not really that interested in what the unwashed masses, with their philistine ways and hideous unkempt neck-beards, think is a good MUD. No, I'm much more interested in the more cultured and refined palate of real zMUD and cMUD users. Battle-scarred, misanthropic, and jaded with life, your average dyed-in-the-wool zMUD forumer does not suffer well the insolence of fools, and as such, their recommendations should be considered gospel. Very Happy

What do I like? Well, there are many things I like, but I'm willing to settle for any one of them. I like a populated game, perhaps 150 - 300 active users. I prefer a fluid skill based leveling system over a rigid class based system. I enjoy PvP/PK, but I'd simultaneously like to avoid a slaughter fest like the feeling I'm playing Star Craft against Koreans (zerg rush kekeke?). Role Playing and In Character justification for actions would be a nice change of pace, I've only ever gotten any substantial and rewarding RP out of a MUCK/MUSH or IRC (and if RP is going to be encouraged, I'd like to be able to type out a long description for my character). A very high level cap (or no level cap at all) is preferable. And lastly, I'm sick of Ancient Anguish's policy on items: you drop everything when you log off. No keeping anything, even that rare/unique you worked your ass off for. And reboot is every 25 hours, so if you're planning on just not logging off, you're going to be sorely disappointed. I'd like to be able to keep stuff.

I'm hoping for too much if I even thought of putting two of those together, but one of any would be great. So, just list your favorite MUD and most importantly, why you like it (or a suggestion of something I might like given what I said above.) Wink

Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 10:35 am

If your a Tolkein buff, try Shadows of Isildor.
Highly immersive, roleplay enforced, noncombative roles, self descriptions, all rooms save dropped items, no levels at all, you only get naked by choice, and a single life.
It's a bit slow to get into at first, but if you stick with it, you will enjoy.

GURU Joined: 23 Dec 2000 Posts: 4834 Location: USA

If you have between $15 and $60 to blow each month for a great game, try out Dragonrealms. $15 will get you standard (aka Basic) access to the Prime instance, which has by far the most players (500-700 ranging down to a couple hundred at low times).

Basic -- 100 items in the vault (no shelves or anything), one character slot, unable to access a few features or areas of the game (ie, you cannot own a home.)

Premium ($25-30, I forget what it's at now) -- 100 items in the vault plus another 25 items per year until you reach the cap of 325 total items; the vault also has furniture inside to help you organize things. 15 character slots. Able to own a house, access premie-only areas (a centralized Sea Caves area, various clubhouses with special services, various hunting areas). A faster and separate line of communication to staff. Outside of the game, you also get discounts on real-world services--pay quests, tickets/hotel fees to sponsored conventions and other events, etc.

Platinum ($50) -- Premium subscription plus access to a separate, RP-heavy server. More tightly-enforced rules, too, and very few players. Lots more (frequent) events and special services to take part in than regular Premium, such as a permanent ice skating rink that only comes to Prime during a festival. Long-term benefits also include special portals and specialized items that allow you to easily access far-off areas (like a subway system). 15 character slots per instance, so you've got over 30 characters.

+$5 -- access to a third server called The Fallen. Except for bug abuse and mech abuse, all other rules are completely out the window. As a consequence, GM interaction is practically non-existent and you often don't get all of the perks associated with your subscription package. You can AFK script, swear/cyber/get vulgar, and kill or be killed to your heart's content.

+$2 -- extra character slot. Allows you to start other characters without having to destroy existing ones taking up your subscription-provided slots. Mostly used by players with Basic access.

Wizard Joined: 11 Jul 2002 Posts: 1265 Location: USA

I like IRE MUDS as Fang already suggested.
Personally when I have time I play Achaea.
I USED to play Avalon exclusive and compulsively, (I have a prepaid lifetime subscription), before I got fed up with the constant bickering/fighting and largely un-moderated PVP killing, the war system, (changed substantially now), that made home ownership a joke, as did/does theft.

Nowadays I don't have near the time to put into my character and frankly I don't want to be watching my back and be constantly paranoid.

In Achaea I'm able to be a non-combatant AND still use my skills. (Supposedly you can do this in Avalon now too I've not checked into it and wouldn't hold my breath.)

As far as playing muds that use the KILL command the idea makes me shudder. I was spoiled early on by Avalon's system.
When I got sick of Avalon I tried a variety of other MUDS and simply didn't have the patients for the ones I could write a bot for in a few hours that would become level a billion if I left them running for a week.
Note: I only did this once and the creator did finally notice me when players started attacking my bot and losing to it, something I hadn't allowed for and never intended... Twisted Evil

The point being role play on such a robotic oriented MUD was pointless and the combat and leveling systems were mind-numbing. So I built a bot in an attempt for entertainment.

I looked into the Wheel of Time MUD and you may enjoy it from a role play point of view. I looked over the web site and liked what I saw. I created a character but never played it enough really say. It does let you keep your items *I think it has a locker system*. You have to rent rooms or something like that when you log off though. I believe I left it because I didn't want to be checking in on my char every few days to keep him equipped.

Wanderer Joined: 19 Nov 2005 Posts: 53

Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 8:22 am

Mmm, I should've checked on this thread earlier. It's an excellent site, and they go out of their way to make it difficult to pad the statistics. The IRE games used to offer you a 12hr (that's the minimum voting interval) XP bonus if you voted - obviously they had problems with that.

Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 4:25 pm

TMS is definitely a really good site for looking for popular MUDs. I also play various IRE MUDs and I also personally play Aardwolf a lot.

Wizard Joined: 26 Mar 2008 Posts: 1547

Dark and Shattered Lands is free and averages around 100 players at a time, as low as 30 and as high as 150 (we've had 300 on at once). It's a fun RP enforced MUD with a clan system for PK, and a kingdom system for those who don't want to PK.

If you've played a MUD before, it'll be slightly easier, but there will still be a learning curve. Usually the community is pretty good at helping newbies of all levels.

http://www.dsl-mud.org/

Wanderer Joined: 31 Oct 2004 Posts: 94

I'll add my mud to the mix. The Two Towers Mud. We're in and out of the top 10 on TMS, and its a very very polished, well coded game.

Beginner Joined: 19 Jan 2002 Posts: 12 Location: USA

Sixty bucks a month (for all features) on a mud? Well, I'm glad you're having fun with it, but I just can't see justifying that when I can't think of a single MMO currently available that costs more than twenty a month. Or even fifteen, for that matter. (Eve Online is what I play for my MMO fix, not to get too far off topic)

What are these other muds that some of you are mentioning that don't have a kill command? I guess I've never played one that didn't have that, how is it functionally any different? Don't you need some command to initiate combat? I guess I didn't realize there was even an alternative to what I assumed was the only way. I'm very interested to hear more about the alternative combat systems that are in regular circulation with popular muds. Could any of you with experience on this please elaborate further? Thanks a bunch.

PS: I think I'm going to try out Aardwolf next, what do you think?

Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2008 9:08 am

EVE Online is so pretty :(

Basically, imagine combat where there was no auto-attacking, only the abilities that you enter yourself. In more detail: some abilities have individual cooldowns and some abilities trigger a global cooldown called balance for physical attacks and equilibrium for mental attacks. Most abilities can only be used when you have both balance and equilibrium, and take one of them away when you use them, but some don't need either, some need only one, and some take both or none when used.

So at any given point, you're deciding what attack to use next and not just waiting while your character smashes on without you. Even combat against mobs (where you generally only use one or two attacks) is more fun because you still have lots of options - putting up a defensive shield, drinking a healing potion, casting a spell that creates reflections to confuse the enemy, and so on. PvP combat has much more depth because not only are there loads of defensive options, each of you have a hundred or so abilities to choose from at any given moment. Typing KILL ORC and then going and making a sandwich pales in comparison.

I've tried Aardwolf and it seems pretty fun, but like I say, I'm spoilt by lack of KILL command. I just can't play MUDs like that any more, they bore me. I also like the way IRE pretty much forces you to socialise with people - it gets you into the community much faster. Many MUDs (and all the MMORPGs I've played) have much looser communities, which really works to their detriment.