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[ILikePie]

Well since this thread got kinda sidetracked lets just discuss MUDs in general. Post what you like/dislike about these games, and recommend certain games to others.

*Original Post*

I've recently discovered this awesome little game, I'm pretty bad with descriptions so here's pne from their site:

"Aardwolf is a unique free multi-player role playing game (MUD). This environment lets you assume the role of a character from hundreds of race and guild combinations then interact with other players and the inhabitants of a virtual world.  Aardwolf Mud is based in the fantasy world of Andolor where magic is common and there are hundreds of exotic realms to explore, puzzles to solve and quests to complete. Aardwolf features a realistic game world with multiple contintents and real geography. Each area includes a real time line-of-sight overhead map to see other characters and points of interest around you."

The game is really fun and easy to get into thanks to their awesome scripted tutorial. I'm currently playing a human ranger named Thompson.

Anyway, lets discuss this great game MUD thing.

Linkzorz!
Telnet: telnet://aardmud.org:4000

[Tilla]

Solid MU. I LOVE their custom client with all the maps and such on it. Very useful.

[ILikePie]

Looks neat. I've never tried a MUD before, but this seems like a good starting point.

I haven't either (Except for those 5 minutes on HellMOO), this is really easy to get into and very fun at the same time.

[userpay]

Linkies in the first post help ye know.

[Neonivek]

Linkies in the first post help ye know.

Cyborgs only link with the collective

[ILikePie]

Whoops, I knew I forgot something... 

[Lord Dullard]

Uuuuh. This looks somewhat interesting, but I have to ask the precautionary question: is this game in any way Furry-infested?

As a long time MU*-er, I suppose I've gotten somewhat paranoid when it comes to any kind of animal-related genre...

[Rhodan]

I tried Aardwolf, and I found it terrible.
The interface was ok, although the colours needed a lot of toning down, and the maps were nice, but that was it.

Most of the "exotic realms" I visited seemed out of place, I remember a hotel with a beach and a beauty contest going on. A sort of quest I had to restart a few times because it kept bugging out on me.
There was also a petting zoo somewhere.  And a tiny lake with caverns underneath with Tritons in it, it just didn't fit.  I'm not sure if the rest of the game was going to be like that, but still...
The quest system itself seemed tacked on. There's the puzzles in the various areas, whose quality probably depends heavily on the area's coder, and the quests given by quest masters that give you quest points... Urgh.
When you get to level 200 you are a 'hero' and can buy another level to become a 'superhero'.
The writing is terrible as well.  The very first room I started in already violated several room description standards, such as assuming my thoughts, actions and direction I enter the area from.  It also kept spewing descriptions at me that sounded like places from a Disneyland commercial, all magical and splenderiffic.  Compared to that, Christmas in Hogwarts is about as magical as a dried biscuit in a lonely tin in the kitchen of an empty house. A dull empty house.

Here's a few areas I noticed in the updates section:
New Goal in the Land of Oz:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

A storm is on its way and Dorothy is trying to get home before it hits. She runs for the shelter, but it is already locked. In an effort to find safety, she runs inside, searching for her relatives and is knocked unconscious. When she wakes up, she finds herself in her own house, but in a strange land. She needs help to get back home. On your path, you will meet strange creatures and interesting individuals. Before the storm hits, try talking to the fortune teller. He might be able to help you.

New Goal - The Fortress of Angband:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The Dark Lord has stolen the Silmarils. Elves have ventured into the dungeons of the Dark Lord to retrieve the Silmarils, but so far none have returned. As you arrive, the elves ask for your help. Will you help them or turn aside from the Dark Lord’s scrutiny?

New Goal - Christmas Vacation:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Welcome to the North Pole. Where elves run between workshops, preparing toys for all the good boys and girls for Christmas Day. Santa is passing out presents already so you had better hurry if you want yours. The sounds of Christmas echo through the air. But far to the west a cold-hearted presence fills the air, and a darkness clings to the land. It is the lair of the Grinch, who wants to steal Christmas! Who will stand up and save Christmas?

I mean, really?

Of course, this might just mean this particular MUD is not for me, to each their own and all, but to me this MUD is just terrible.
Plenty of great MUDs out there with large, consistent worlds, great interface, plenty of players and great writing.

[Rhodan]

The one I play is Discworld MUD, based on the Discworld series of books. http://discworld.atuin.net/
Great writing, huge world with few but very large, varied and detailed cities.  Example map of the largest city: http://daftjunk.com/dw/Ankh-Morpork.gif
There's an ingame map which works very well.  Unlike Aardwolf's map it focuses more on how the rooms are connected, which I find easier to navigate.  The map for the "great outdoors" is an ASCII map, since all rooms are completely open outside.
The parser is amazing, no other mud I know accepts commands as natural sounding as these. You can refer to any object by its name, colour, material, plural,... You can even use 'it' or 'him' or 'her' if this would sound natural. "look frog,kiss it", for example.
Only one race, human, and a handful of Guilds, but a huge variety of different skills everyone can train.  No levelcap on anything either.  The few guilds make for very tight communities where everyone is still welcomed.
A lot of crafting and customization options for equipment, and a very neat housing system where you can even paint the walls yourself.
There's also a lot of money to be made by writing for the newspaper or owning a shop and stuff.
Some players made their own guild called the "Seamstresses guild". Do a search on Discworld seamstresses to know what I mean, nudge nudge, wink wink.

There's also Achaea and its cousins, all quite decent. http://www.achaea.com/
A good number of races and guilds, lots of interesting skills, detailed and large world and a lot of players.  First mud I played, I loved it, but guild advancement required too much effort in player interaction for me at that time.

[umiman]

*sprays milk and booze out of his nose*

No offense, but I would seriously take any words said by someone who says he likes the Iron Realms series of MUDs with a truckload of salt. Any MUD that requires you to invest literally thousands of dollars into it to buy in game items to be worth anything in game is definitely something you want to think twice about joining.

For those of you young'uns who missed my post about a year ago about the Iron Realms "free-to-play" system, allow me to give a brief explanation. Then you can decide for yourself:

Iron Realms gave are technically free to play. Indeed, you can become a very awesome player given vast amounts of effort and a huge amount of time. To "help" you become more powerful faster, they have a credit system where you pay them real world money for in-game credits. These credits can then be used for a variety of in-game things like a house, items, exchanged for in-game gold, etc.

Sounds good right? Let's have a closer look at their credit system. For this example, we will look at their cheapest artifact sword which you can only get through credits and, of course, is better than any sword you can earn in game without it. The meteoric longsword costs 350 credits for the guaranteed result of kicking anyone's ass who dares to wield a lesser, non-credit bought sword against you.

How much does it cost to get 350 credits? US $140. For one sword. In game. Which comprises of nothing but text. And it's only the third best.

Of course, everyone is using artifact items ranging from wings to fly around, to gems that hide your stats, etc. etc. etc. Which means that if you don't get these artifacts, you'll just get your ass kicked no matter what (barring weeks if not years of hard work to compensate for the 350 credits). Not only that, there are players who "donated" thousands of dollars to get gear so powerful that no one can kill them. They're the ones you see constantly dominating the PvP scene. Fully custom created swords with custom stats and custom attributes. Fully custom created armor with whatever damage reduction you want. All can be yours for $$$.

Of course, there's an in-game stock exchange system where people can sell credits for in-game gold. The last time I checked, and this was years ago, it took about a full day of grinding to get 1 credit. Can you imagine the amount of time it would take to outfit a non-credit-buying character with the credit-only items that everyone else uses?

So, if you think such a MUD is to your liking, where if you have plenty of money, then you can advance really easily, then go ahead and join the Iron Realms. If not, I recommend you try something else to save yourself the heartbreak and loathing you will develop when you realize you can't do jack shit in their games without a craptonne of money.

It's also fine if you don't intend to do anything in their games and just want to act like a commoner or something or just intend to roleplay a noncombatant.

[Rhodan]

Well, the last time I played Achaea was almost 10 years ago, and I never really did progress far.
I mostly included it because it's the only other MUD I have experience with besides Discworld.  Go play Discworld.

[ILikePie]

Well since this thread got kinda sidetracked lets just discuss MUDs in general. Post what you like/dislike about these games, and recommend certain games to others.

[Starver]

I would second Discworld as a MUD of choice.  It helps if you know Pratchett's creation though there are 'design differences'.  Some are a hold-over from the early days when there wasn't as much of PTerry's canon publuished, some because of gameplay.  The Thieves' Guilds 'quota' system works on a per-thief basis instead of per-victim, and the pantheon of Gods that can be effectively worshipped or catered for more directly through the Priests' Guild only slightly overlaps the book's total pantheon, but flavourwise it works.

And what's more you can get to understand these things even without the background knowledge.  If nothing else, through the (overwhelmingly) helpful co-players of the game who will guide (and occasionally hand-hold, though it's best if they don't, IMHO) newbies around the place.  As well as conduct lively OOC social interactions, so you're as likely to learn about exciting new developments in CPU technology or be introduced to things like Dwarf Fortress.

There's also a PK/NPK distinction that means that you can stay NPK and only risk your virtual lives against coded enemies, or choose to partake in the whole PK fun.


I'm not saying that other MUDs aren't like this, but I can definitely vouch for Discworld.  I'd rather not talk down the various other MUDs I've not had as good an experience of (it might just be that I didn't fit in or get into the right mindset.

I will say that I suspect that Aardwolf commonly tops the Top 10 Muds list mostly because alphabetic ordering made it the most common first MUD for people to try and (if they stuck around) vote it up.  Which is not to say they don't deserve it, just that's my theory.  And Discworld is a few letters further along (Ok, so it's not a "ZZ Zlastop" MUD, but it's hardly right at the beginning) and yet regularly is 2nd or 3rd place, depending on the current placement of Archea int he list, and some other A-initialled ones that tend to float around in that area for perhaps the same sort of reason.

[userpay]

I know theres another thread for it but might as well add it to the "list" here: hellmoo. At any rate I may try that discworld mud.

[Virtz]

Anyone know a MUD/MOO/Mwhatever with a health system that, much like Dwarf Fortress and Unreal World, does not rely on simple HPs? Somehow, being text-based and all, I'd expect them to be more complex than their graphical counterparts, but I actually haven't seen a single one that'd be more complex than Wurm Online. :S