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[Jack_Bread]

I wanted to put this game out here. I have been playing for a while and it is really fun. If you don't know, MUD means Multi User Dungeon. Anyway, Lusternia is strictly role-play, so no saying to someone "LOL Th4t 15 t3h funneh! )" All city government is player-controlled. Players can get involved in historical events or even make them! It's a little slow at first because you can't attack anything outside the newbie area until you are level 20(besides rats and weevils whose corpses you can sell), but once you get the hang of it, it's really fun. Lusternia even has a set of skills called trade skills which let you forge, tailor, make potion, and even enchanting. Have fun.

http://www.lusternia.com/

[Ampersand]

I've always wanted to play this, but the map is just to difficult to wrap my little brain around.

[Jack_Bread]

You mean the in-game map? Because there is the Full Realm map in the library section, it's much easier.

Otherwise, wandering helps.

[Tizer]

Ah I love role-playing mmorpgs. No annoying 1337 speaking idiots no random stuff. Yum. Another one like this I think is PlaneShift.

[Servant Corps]

...PlaneShift? But it's a MMOFPS? FPS and Roleplay do not go together...

[woose1]

Ah I love role-playing mmorpgs. No annoying 1337 speaking idiots no random stuff. Yum. Another one like this I think is PlaneShift.

|33+ $|*3@|<3|2$ @|23 |\|0+ 1[)10+$!

0|\/|6 |0| \X/+|= 1$ \X/1+|-| `/0|_|!

[Ampersand]

Oh stewardess! I speak jive!

[Grek]

Oh hay. Another lusti player.

[Vucar Fikodastesh]

I quit playing this game almost four years ago. I invested a lot of time and effort into it, even made some great friendships too. Aether, Jaeros, and Shinza, people i met and spent so much time with. Aquamancers and Paladins, Geomancers and Ur-guard, The shining city of New Celest, The ancient trees of Serenwilde, The tainted streets of Magnanora, places i visited that i will never forget.

But there were things about Lusternia that eventually drove me to quit.

This game (like all the rest of the iron realms games) is "free to play". If you pay iron realms money they give you "credits", which you can use to buy powerful items, skill points, experience points, or even sell them to players for money. This is bad enough in a normal game, but much of the gameplay in Lusternia is based around PvP.

The combat system in Lusternia is not automatic, you have to keep retyping combat as you go.

"swing sword"
You swing your sword at the rat!
"swing sword"
Your arm is too tired!
Your arm is ready to swing the sword again!
"swing sword"
You swing your sword at the rat!
etc, etc, etc.

That was from memory. There were like a bajillion different status effects, each with their own herbs, potions, and spells to counter them. Spells, counter spells, counter-counter spells, bizarre guild exclusive attacks, you needed to be able to use these things, RIGHT NOW. Oh, and don't forget to swing your sword. What was the solution to this complicated combat system?

Triggers.(dun dun dun)

Ugh, if you wanted to get anywhere you needed a full set of triggers to swing your sword when your hand was ready, drink that potion to cure (bizarre spell effect), chew that herb to cure (bizarre spell effect #2), invoke your root chakra to hold ground, because that person just used a follow tarot card on you, and he's about to portal home so he can hide you in the chefs guild where he can bind you and torture you. Oh and swing your sword again. This pretty much meant that you had to be using Zmud, which i had no money for. Nor did i have the money to buy credits to pay someone to make triggers for me.

3. Combat in the game, though advertised as realistic and in-depth compared to a simple "attack goblin with hammer", boiled down to who could program the best macro to counter all combats. Essentially, anyone without a macro couldn't survive even killing normal creeps. High level PVP was about as realistic and in-depth as pushing a keystroke and letting the program kill your enemy for you.

^ Pretty much sums it up.

I just wish i had found a bug i could abuse to get infinite amounts of money. I could have used it to buy kingdoms, order assassinations, and hold mass duels to the death! Umiman knows what i am talking about. His experience with Imperian (another iron realms world) just about sums up my experiences. http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=2699.0

Lusternia was my first MUD, though I've played many since. But since then I've always made sure to steer clear of MUD's with "free to play" and PvP triggers.

I'm not trying to spoil anyone's fun. This is just a rant i had building in me for the past four years. It feels good to get it out.

[Ampersand]

I agree.

[deadlycairn]

I played Achaea, and although I never managed to really get into it (I joined a guild that had insane rules, and died very fast) I found it had the best interface of all the MUDs I've come across. If only we could get a MUD that had (all equally important):
An easy to use interface and help guide
Real help for newbies - Achaea didn't deliver, in my opinion
Sane moderaters/admins/people in power, if possible
No real money payments! I completely agree with Umimans topic on this. The only game I've seen that does this right (at least partially) is MapleStory. Most of its items do nothing but make your character look cool. However a few are game-breakers. Not to mention the grinding was awful.
Oh and don't forget good, flexible gameplay.

As a side question, has anyone ever found a game that actually managed to avoid the pains and horror of grinding?

[Micro102]

i might play this, but it depends.

can you gather a group of people, find an empty spot, and build walls, towers, weapons, until you have a fortress? or do you scavange and buy everything?

[deadlycairn]

I'm pretty sure you can't build structures. Looks like Umiman would be the one to ask though. By the way, he is officially a God for having done what he did to Lusternia.
 I have always dreamed of being that powerful, but I never amount to more than a lackey. 

[Jack_Bread]

@Vucar: Fast typing helps. Also the up arrow key is good.

@Grek: What is your character's name? Mine is Cerid. He's a newbie because I restarted the character... Also, what city/commune are you from, Cerid is from Glomdoring.

@Micro: That would be awesome if you could!

[Soulwynd]

Did anyone mention it's an Ironrealms game yet? All their games use the same basic engine and in all their games, you're only truly good if you donate, it's the worst kind of masked micropayment.