Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[anubite]

Just any old thing?

[Kagus]

Pretty much.  It's an afk-checker to make sure that you're torturing yourself by actually sitting there instead of just leaving the room and letting your char suffer the nothingness.

It also gives you the chance to say some pretty weird stuff and have it solemnly accepted like you're in some old kung-fu movie.

[quinnr]

I think you can still finish if you don't answer the questions, but it will take a great deal longer, at the very least.

[anubite]

I think I'm sort of finding out HellMOO isn't for me - it has a lot of things that I like though. It's one of the few text-based MMOs that really pulled me in. Most of the MUDs I've tried to play suffer from a really, really slow start (you're stuck in some training hall, have no context to roleplay your character, and the game tends to play like World of Warcraft, with an over-emphasis on doing themeparky fetch-quests and grinding).

A little bit off topic, but I'm interested in exploring more games like HellMOO. Anyone got any suggestions for me?

[jetex1911]

I'd also like to hear some suggestions for more MUDs and MOOs like HellMOO.

[zombat]

What is it that you don't like?

[anubite]

I don't really want to derail the thread by stating what I didn't like. I'm sure others will have contrary opinions.

But my biggest gripe is the community is way too focused on character development. I guess I'm looking for something where players take the roleplaying aspect more seriously. Too many people had one sentence descriptions of their characters, nevermind they were so often preoccupied with doing their daily grind that they would rarely stop to interact.

I guess I'm looking for something where roleplaying is rewarded and encouraged? Does something like that even exist alongside intuitive world design? I've tried playing a lot of MUDS but I usually just end up getting lost in the massive world, unsure where I can find my character's place in it. HellMOO makes a lot of sense to me in that while the world is big enough to explore, it feels like Freedom City is the central focus of the game. Players always return to it and so it keeps everyone connected. It also de-emphasizes combat by giving such large experience rewards for exploration and crafting and larger money rewards for scavenging and stealing. The game is less about how many monsters you can kill per hour, heck, I was avoiding combat whenever I could.

[TempAcc]

If you are really interested in roleplaying then HellMOO is most definitely not the thing for you, if it still is like it was in the past years. Roleplaying used to be actively discouraged by pretty much everyone in the game. People would really hunt down anyone who tried to roleplay publicy.
Then again I haven't played once after Mada and the other admins went insane so I can't say its like that anymore. TBH hellmoo was fun when it was about a 40 or so people being jerks to eachother but without admins joining in and ruining it with admin powers and never working in its development.
It was always grindy tho I think, which is the reason I eventualy left.

[Rakonas]

Yeah, hellmoo and MUME are the two muds I always come back to, but they both have the problem of much potential for roleplay yet none in practice. Great worlds, good game mechanics, but too much gaming.

[anubite]

I never really noticed any active attempts to disrupt roleplay, but it could be the case. I do find it odd 1 out of 3 players is an admin, however.

I guess my ideal MUD would be a game that has an intuitive semi safe haven where you learn the rules of the game and come back to for shopping and player interaction. I also like the mutation system in HellMOO over something like classes and racial bonuses. Mostly, because I don't really know anything about the world until I've tried playing the game. Secondly, because it's far less restrictive about character advancement. You don't need to kill ten thousand rats, you just need to find the mutations in the world in between doing jobs. It makes a lot of sense to me that exploration is rewarded better than simple grinding. Of course, I think there should be more options for players who don't want to mutate, but I'm wondering how the concept of mutation could be applied to other RPGs, I've never seen another game do such a thing.

I imagine HellMOO is one of a kind, then? I've tried playing some more roleplay-heavy MUDs and MUD-likes, but the problem with a game like that is, if no one is available to RP with you, you're just kind of stuck sitting around idling. The appeal of a MUD with basic combat mechanics is you can do other things to flesh out your character and his/her wealth, while you wait for opportunities to roleplay. It also keeps players retained as a result.

So, I guess I'm looking for a MUD which balances the grind and the roleplay. It's a shame, because HellMOO has a lot of features that would probably make it ideal under different circumstances.

[Kagus]

I'm sorry, this was too good not to share...  I've started up on Hell again just recently, and I've been mucking around with a few of the folks I knew off of HATE.

Here's the setup:  I've rolled a zombie, and after figuring out that zombros (summoned zombie allies) don't get bored and mysteriously leave after a set period of time, decided to see just how many of them I could stack in my apartment.

I'd gotten up to 19 trapped in there, when I was leading another batch of 10 up the stairs of my building.  I walked up the stairs as quickly as possible and into my room, because I know these guys can and will attack any non-zombie player in their square (they ignore non-zombie NPCs though, until you attack someone).  As I was walking up, I saw one person get caught in the group, but they got out of there.  I then sat in my apartment and hoped for the zeds to give up and come join the party.

Then I looked outside my door and saw that some N-tag had logged off in the corridor right outside my apartment, and that the zombros who had been following me were now going after her.

Not wanting to walk out and get the 19 extra boys in my apartment to follow me out and attack her, I just sat idly by and waited to see what would happen.  Some gorillabots came up and started attacking my zombies, and I got a bit preoccupied with trying to find some way of stopping them destroying my dudes.

When I looked back out, all the zombros were gone and the N-tag was dead.  I waited a while, took out a couple more gorillabots...  Then opened the door to drag her in and see what she had on her.  I mean, this is HellMOO after all.


What followed was a rage from one of her corpmates demanding an explanation for my actions.  I explained the situation, said that it was NOT, in fact, intentional, and asked that he please tell me that whoever she was happened to have connection issues and wasn't honestly silly enough to just log off in some open place like that.

While waiting for a reply, I see corpmate no. 2 barge in my open door (another gorillabot), issuing a pvp challenge to my corp, and drag her out.  After a short time I got a page from him telling me "Nice try, asshole".  I respond saying that I wasn't trying anything and that there were more elegant solutions to this dilemma if they'd just fucking communicate.

Corpmate 1 starts yammering at me again after a long silence, and it's around this time that I get poofed to the admin senate, where two admins come out and berate me for being a griefing shitlord committing a spree of douchebaggery, and that if anything like this happens again I will be banned.  Suggesting that they could, perhaps, prevent zombros from automatically aggroing all non-zombie players (which is actually a major pain for the zombie player) was met with derisive glares.


HellMOO's changed, apparently.  But one thing that hasn't changed is that the admins won't listen to a thing you say if they've made up their minds about something.  Also, their scrotometer scanned me and noted I had raisin balls, so that's reminiscient of the old days.



Nevermind that the other corp in question put camped sentries outside our corp HQ and that they completely vacuumed one of our members' apartments multiple times in a row...  I guess I really will have to read the PvP help file a few more times to figure out how exactly they qualify what I did as being so horrible.

Hell, I didn't even take any of what she had on her.  Now, mind, if their corp hadn't expressed an interest in getting her back, I probably would have...  Not gonna try and claim purity and innocence here.  Just that I find this to be a bit of a funny overreaction.

[MadMalkavian]

Yeah, HellMOO has changed. I don't even bother with it anymore because of these changes.

[DoomOnion]

snip

Things would have gone a lote more civil if you hadn't dragged the corpse inside, I mean, you even admitted that you tried to look what she had on her.

I don't know kid, I think you fucked up.

[umiman]

Hellmoo is a nice social experiment that helps illustrate the difference between people playing at mental illness and anarchy, versus those actually mentally handicapped.

You can't beat them Kagus, using logic and arguments cannot assist you in such an environment. It's like trying to explain to a horse or a rabid bull that what it's doing is irrational.

[Kagus]

snip

Things would have gone a lote more civil if you hadn't dragged the corpse inside, I mean, you even admitted that you tried to look what she had on her.

I don't know kid, I think you fucked up.

Things also would've been a lot more civil if the peeps in question had actually bothered to communicate with me and asked to have the damned body back instead of just flipping and going kamikaze.

Oh, and I just got vendetta'd by another member of that corp.  This was apparently payback for my earlier crimes, particularly "bullshitting the challenges", which really didn't have anything to do with me.

As a result of this, however, I wound up spawning in Necro (zombie...), so I wandered around and did Clusterhunt/Clusterfuck and wound up with more cash and XP than before I'd died.


And I also found out that the admins are now honestly tailing me.  Caught one of them mucking around and trying to sneak up to me in an NPC.  One thing is being the Big Bad Corp and going around enforcing your iron fist, but it's another thing entirely when you get the game's moderators and administrators to help fight your own damned war.

Hellmoo is a nice social experiment that helps illustrate the difference between people playing at mental illness and anarchy, versus those actually mentally handicapped.

You can't beat them Kagus, using logic and arguments cannot assist you in such an environment. It's like trying to explain to a horse or a rabid bull that what it's doing is irrational.

It's strange how much I don't want to believe that...  And also how fitting it seems.