Monday, September 26, 2011
Discontinued
It is with a heavy heart and much sadness that I inform my readers that the MUD Report is being discontinued until further notice. I urge my readers to continue to keep me followed in case my work-load decreases. I know I haven't held true to my goals and promises of giving you a steady stream of MUD spotlights and reviews, but I am far too busy between getting ready to graduate from University, work, and appeasing a high-maintenance boyfriend. I just no longer have the time to do much aside from my obligations. If you would like, follow me on Twitter @GaymerCraig for quick tweets about gaming news, (old and new), upcoming games, and all other things game related!
Sunday, July 17, 2011
New Worlds Ateraan
New Worlds Ateraan (NWA) is a slightly smaller MUD than other's I have reviewed so far, but still has a very large player-base. At any point in time about 100 or more players will be online.
NWA is known as a TORG. As described on the NWA website, "a GORG or MMORPG is like a movie with all the digital sound, SFX, and CGI, and a TORG is like a book with all the detailed description, indepth character involvement, and imaginative prose that allows you to be creative in your selection of imagery." TORGs are different than a normal MUD in that they have rules that both enforce and support role-play.
The fighting system is quite different from Avalon or Achaea. In NWA you start a battle by attacking, which will begin you auto-attack with your weapon. Once in battle you may use powers dictated by your profession. Your auto-attack damage is dictated by your weapon, and you defense is dictated by your armor. Gear is very important for fighting, unlike many MUDs.
Nearly every aspect of NWA involves role-play. Whether you are fighting monsters (hunting), socializing in the bar, defending your city from an invasion, or doing your tasks to join a guild, everything supports and even enhances your role-play experience.
There are many rules within in NWA, most of which are in place to facilitate a heavy role--play environment. Keep in mind some rules are meant to be broken, though in NWA I have yet to break any, either purposefully or by chance; They're not too over-bearing. The use of triggers, speed-walking with client maps <such as double-clicking locations with zMUD maps>, and chain-command aliases ***my parenthesis key just broke so brackets will do*** <putting multiple commands into one alias> is prohibited. You may also only have up to 2 characters.
Ateraan has been a great experience for me. On my first character, Ayrian, I was a Waylumi priest <the goodie goodie huggy wuggy kind> and he was a bit of a neurotic nymph. Well I developed him over a few days and wanted to see how hard it would be to change guilds. APPARENTLY it is VERY HARD!!! Ayrian turned his back on his faith and was struck down publicly for it... FOREVER. Yes! Permadeath! This sounds bad, but is reversible, though rare. Generally it is reserved for those characters that have backed themselves in a corner through role-play and permadeath is the only way out. Anyways, that's just one of my characters. My other character was a slave in the south. He gained his freedom and was doing tasks to become a Shaman... Sadly he was denied after completing his second or third task. Getting into a guild is no easy feat, your character must convince the guild that they want in.
NWA is free-to-play, but allows you to "donate" money for in-game rewards such as coins or experience. The total amount donated is placed in tiers <copper, bronze, silver, gold, etc> the higher tier you are in, the better the passive awards are.
Overall I give New Worlds Ateraan a 7 out of 10. A great game for the social MUDder.
Find out more at http://www.ateraan.com.
NWA is known as a TORG. As described on the NWA website, "a GORG or MMORPG is like a movie with all the digital sound, SFX, and CGI, and a TORG is like a book with all the detailed description, indepth character involvement, and imaginative prose that allows you to be creative in your selection of imagery." TORGs are different than a normal MUD in that they have rules that both enforce and support role-play.
The fighting system is quite different from Avalon or Achaea. In NWA you start a battle by attacking, which will begin you auto-attack with your weapon. Once in battle you may use powers dictated by your profession. Your auto-attack damage is dictated by your weapon, and you defense is dictated by your armor. Gear is very important for fighting, unlike many MUDs.
Nearly every aspect of NWA involves role-play. Whether you are fighting monsters (hunting), socializing in the bar, defending your city from an invasion, or doing your tasks to join a guild, everything supports and even enhances your role-play experience.
There are many rules within in NWA, most of which are in place to facilitate a heavy role--play environment. Keep in mind some rules are meant to be broken, though in NWA I have yet to break any, either purposefully or by chance; They're not too over-bearing. The use of triggers, speed-walking with client maps <such as double-clicking locations with zMUD maps>, and chain-command aliases ***my parenthesis key just broke so brackets will do*** <putting multiple commands into one alias> is prohibited. You may also only have up to 2 characters.
Ateraan has been a great experience for me. On my first character, Ayrian, I was a Waylumi priest <the goodie goodie huggy wuggy kind> and he was a bit of a neurotic nymph. Well I developed him over a few days and wanted to see how hard it would be to change guilds. APPARENTLY it is VERY HARD!!! Ayrian turned his back on his faith and was struck down publicly for it... FOREVER. Yes! Permadeath! This sounds bad, but is reversible, though rare. Generally it is reserved for those characters that have backed themselves in a corner through role-play and permadeath is the only way out. Anyways, that's just one of my characters. My other character was a slave in the south. He gained his freedom and was doing tasks to become a Shaman... Sadly he was denied after completing his second or third task. Getting into a guild is no easy feat, your character must convince the guild that they want in.
NWA is free-to-play, but allows you to "donate" money for in-game rewards such as coins or experience. The total amount donated is placed in tiers <copper, bronze, silver, gold, etc> the higher tier you are in, the better the passive awards are.
Overall I give New Worlds Ateraan a 7 out of 10. A great game for the social MUDder.
Find out more at http://www.ateraan.com.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Iron Realms
***NOTE: Sorry for the delayed updating of this blog, summer school has been kicking my butt.***
Last month I covered the oldest MUD in the world. This time I'm gonna review one of the largest commercialized MUD(s) in the world. I speak of none other than Iron Realms Entertainment's (IRE) MUDS.
IRE has quite the collection of MUDs available for play, and yes, they are free. They run Achaea, their most popular MUD on the internet at present, Aetolia, Lusternia, Midkemia, and Imperian. Though all use the same base coding, they each differ to some degree, be it large or small. I'll focus on Achaea for the sake of this article and simplicity.
IRE was founded in 1996 by Matt Mihaly, a former deity in Avalon (such is the similarities in the games). It started out with one game, Achaea, in 1997. He had many tweaks and edits done to the game to differentiate it from Avalon and make his own unique game in which there would be a set of rules that would facilitate a friendly and role-play intensive gaming experience favorable to his clientele.
The divinities differ from Avalon's system, whereas the divinities in Achaea are used in a more role-play capacity and rarely, if ever, interfere in "mortal" (player) affairs. Many things are player-run. The players stimulate the economy with trading and shops, and most often these shops are stocked quite nicely with a wide variety of selections. This is quite nice. There are quests and some mundane chore-type quests available to new players to help them build their character's wealth as well. Starting out as a new player is enjoyable and quite a nurturing experience.
Achaea focuses on a PVE or Player Versus Environment fighting system, with minimal Player Killing outside of the arenas. This means that more often than not, you are out killing computer controlled enemies by yourself or in groups.
The fighting system in Achaea is similar to Avalon, utilizing equilibrium and balanced-based attacks and abilities. Many of the abilities in Achaea are replaced as your progress in your profession. Which makes sense if you think about it (a business proposal made by a CEO would most likely trump a business proposal made by an intern any day).
My experience in Achaea was full of helpful players willing to guide me to learn the ways of the land and become accustomed to it's ways. It was very helpful and, as stated earlier, -nurturing- above all else. One of the most interesting facets of play was the politics system. Each city is player-run, and I literally mean that! Citizens elect their leaders, and being a leader in a city is no small feat. There are many politics that go into this, be it delegating between an enemy city, passing judgement on a wrong-doer within your city walls, or simply telling those dirty imps to stay the hell out of the holy temple of light, a politician's job is never done.
A few small issues I found fault with in Achaea was that some of the players do not care if you are new or not, they demand that you know the racial politics within the game right off. I was an elf and I spoke with a dark elf, and I nearly got killed for it by one of my city-mates. It was quite offensive to me. Another issue I did not like was the slow progression. There are so many levels within the game, I believe I only got up to level 12 or so before I got bored with fighting the computer controlled monsters and called it a day.
You may progress more quickly if you buy credits. Credits give your character in-game currency that may be converted into lessons (you spend these to learn new skills) or gold. The credit system is great if you are willing to drop some real money into your character, this also makes your character permanent (it won't be purged from the system if you don't log in for a week for example). The game is otherwise free to play, which is a great way to attract players and add to the overall gaming experience, thus making the players who do drop money on the games they play more apt to. Ingenious!!!
Overall, Achaea is a great game with a HUGE player-base and is pretty helpful to the novice player. It is role-play intensive and as such, is great for us social gamers. See more at http://www.Achaea.com
Last month I covered the oldest MUD in the world. This time I'm gonna review one of the largest commercialized MUD(s) in the world. I speak of none other than Iron Realms Entertainment's (IRE) MUDS.
IRE has quite the collection of MUDs available for play, and yes, they are free. They run Achaea, their most popular MUD on the internet at present, Aetolia, Lusternia, Midkemia, and Imperian. Though all use the same base coding, they each differ to some degree, be it large or small. I'll focus on Achaea for the sake of this article and simplicity.
IRE was founded in 1996 by Matt Mihaly, a former deity in Avalon (such is the similarities in the games). It started out with one game, Achaea, in 1997. He had many tweaks and edits done to the game to differentiate it from Avalon and make his own unique game in which there would be a set of rules that would facilitate a friendly and role-play intensive gaming experience favorable to his clientele.
The divinities differ from Avalon's system, whereas the divinities in Achaea are used in a more role-play capacity and rarely, if ever, interfere in "mortal" (player) affairs. Many things are player-run. The players stimulate the economy with trading and shops, and most often these shops are stocked quite nicely with a wide variety of selections. This is quite nice. There are quests and some mundane chore-type quests available to new players to help them build their character's wealth as well. Starting out as a new player is enjoyable and quite a nurturing experience.
Achaea focuses on a PVE or Player Versus Environment fighting system, with minimal Player Killing outside of the arenas. This means that more often than not, you are out killing computer controlled enemies by yourself or in groups.
The fighting system in Achaea is similar to Avalon, utilizing equilibrium and balanced-based attacks and abilities. Many of the abilities in Achaea are replaced as your progress in your profession. Which makes sense if you think about it (a business proposal made by a CEO would most likely trump a business proposal made by an intern any day).
My experience in Achaea was full of helpful players willing to guide me to learn the ways of the land and become accustomed to it's ways. It was very helpful and, as stated earlier, -nurturing- above all else. One of the most interesting facets of play was the politics system. Each city is player-run, and I literally mean that! Citizens elect their leaders, and being a leader in a city is no small feat. There are many politics that go into this, be it delegating between an enemy city, passing judgement on a wrong-doer within your city walls, or simply telling those dirty imps to stay the hell out of the holy temple of light, a politician's job is never done.
A few small issues I found fault with in Achaea was that some of the players do not care if you are new or not, they demand that you know the racial politics within the game right off. I was an elf and I spoke with a dark elf, and I nearly got killed for it by one of my city-mates. It was quite offensive to me. Another issue I did not like was the slow progression. There are so many levels within the game, I believe I only got up to level 12 or so before I got bored with fighting the computer controlled monsters and called it a day.
You may progress more quickly if you buy credits. Credits give your character in-game currency that may be converted into lessons (you spend these to learn new skills) or gold. The credit system is great if you are willing to drop some real money into your character, this also makes your character permanent (it won't be purged from the system if you don't log in for a week for example). The game is otherwise free to play, which is a great way to attract players and add to the overall gaming experience, thus making the players who do drop money on the games they play more apt to. Ingenious!!!
Overall, Achaea is a great game with a HUGE player-base and is pretty helpful to the novice player. It is role-play intensive and as such, is great for us social gamers. See more at http://www.Achaea.com
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Avalon-RPG.com
Okay, my first post will pay homage to the oldest functioning MUD that is still alive and well. I speak of none other than Avalon:The Legend Lives.
The history of Avalon is pretty nifty. Yehuda Simmons, Genesis in the game, developed Avalon in the early 1990's. He and a friend of his set up his own programming language called Hourglass, created an in-depth virtual world and hosted it with a small server from his home. Many times these servers crashed and the hardware was fried, but he kept at it. Now, it is one of the most legendary text-based games on the internet, many others basing their games after his, including Iron Realms Entertainment.
In Avalon everything is run by the players alone, with minimal "god" involvement. The players even stimulate the entire economy on their own, with shops that they own, stock, and price. They plant fields in the spring, harvest crops in the fall, turn these crops into commodities such as rope, food, and reagents for abilities and do with them what they will.
Avalon is a Player-Kill based game. What does this mean? Player Kill, or PK, is player versus player involvement. Players may attack ANYONE they desire (there are consequences for your actions of course). This results in "jumping", or killing a player who was not expecting it, and many duels to the death. Many nights are spent in Avalon defending your city from the citizens of the other 3 cities, ending in epic battles and ultimately in victory for one city. Not to say that you cannot go out and kill Computer Controlled Characters, or CCC's, but Avalon shines best when you're up against an enemy player.
The fighting system is like none I've ever seen before. There are no character statistics, so no need to worry about how much AGILITY you need until you can do 20% damage to your enemy in one hit or anything such as that. Avalon utilizes an equilibrium and balance-based fighting system where each ability you use will give all your other abilities a cool-down for a differing amount of time. There is no auto-attack or auto-retreat options. You must fight and run left to your own input.
Also to note: Avalon has implemented a warfare system that allows the actual destruction of cities as seen in the Great Thakrian Invasion of Springdale, where Springdale was actually DESTROYED in it's entirety never to be seen again. Warfare plays a large role in Avalon's functionality.
Avalon allows the use of triggers, aliases, and advanced coding, making it a great MUD for experienced MUD-programmers. Not to say that novice-coders will not do well, there are many helpful players within Avalon that offer advice and tips and tricks.
My experience in Avalon was great. I was a staff-guide on Avalon for over a year before I left it due to personal reasons. I enjoyed the PK most of the time, the times I did not, I was being jumped by more than 2 players at a time and that is no easy feat to defend against (though I've seen it done!). I played it for over a year as a Druid, healing people and teaching the new players the basics.
There are a few issues with Avalon however. The billing system USED to hold on to credit card information allowing player's information to be hacked or stolen. If you subscribe to Avalon, I would suggest using a pre-paid Visa debit card for ultimate security. The other downside about playing is the "divine-interference". The "gods" in the game love to meddle in the mortal affairs, which is great if you're in their good graces, but terrible if you are not. Be wary when dealing with the gods.
Avalon requires a payment of $15.00 USD each month to play. The first three months players receive an introductory pricing option of $7.50 USD per month for 3 months. Within game you are able to procure many things that will help your character to progress quickly, USE WITH CAUTION, as progressing too fast makes you a target to experienced players.
See more at http://www.avalon-rpg.com
The history of Avalon is pretty nifty. Yehuda Simmons, Genesis in the game, developed Avalon in the early 1990's. He and a friend of his set up his own programming language called Hourglass, created an in-depth virtual world and hosted it with a small server from his home. Many times these servers crashed and the hardware was fried, but he kept at it. Now, it is one of the most legendary text-based games on the internet, many others basing their games after his, including Iron Realms Entertainment.
In Avalon everything is run by the players alone, with minimal "god" involvement. The players even stimulate the entire economy on their own, with shops that they own, stock, and price. They plant fields in the spring, harvest crops in the fall, turn these crops into commodities such as rope, food, and reagents for abilities and do with them what they will.
Avalon is a Player-Kill based game. What does this mean? Player Kill, or PK, is player versus player involvement. Players may attack ANYONE they desire (there are consequences for your actions of course). This results in "jumping", or killing a player who was not expecting it, and many duels to the death. Many nights are spent in Avalon defending your city from the citizens of the other 3 cities, ending in epic battles and ultimately in victory for one city. Not to say that you cannot go out and kill Computer Controlled Characters, or CCC's, but Avalon shines best when you're up against an enemy player.
The fighting system is like none I've ever seen before. There are no character statistics, so no need to worry about how much AGILITY you need until you can do 20% damage to your enemy in one hit or anything such as that. Avalon utilizes an equilibrium and balance-based fighting system where each ability you use will give all your other abilities a cool-down for a differing amount of time. There is no auto-attack or auto-retreat options. You must fight and run left to your own input.
Also to note: Avalon has implemented a warfare system that allows the actual destruction of cities as seen in the Great Thakrian Invasion of Springdale, where Springdale was actually DESTROYED in it's entirety never to be seen again. Warfare plays a large role in Avalon's functionality.
Avalon allows the use of triggers, aliases, and advanced coding, making it a great MUD for experienced MUD-programmers. Not to say that novice-coders will not do well, there are many helpful players within Avalon that offer advice and tips and tricks.
My experience in Avalon was great. I was a staff-guide on Avalon for over a year before I left it due to personal reasons. I enjoyed the PK most of the time, the times I did not, I was being jumped by more than 2 players at a time and that is no easy feat to defend against (though I've seen it done!). I played it for over a year as a Druid, healing people and teaching the new players the basics.
There are a few issues with Avalon however. The billing system USED to hold on to credit card information allowing player's information to be hacked or stolen. If you subscribe to Avalon, I would suggest using a pre-paid Visa debit card for ultimate security. The other downside about playing is the "divine-interference". The "gods" in the game love to meddle in the mortal affairs, which is great if you're in their good graces, but terrible if you are not. Be wary when dealing with the gods.
Avalon requires a payment of $15.00 USD each month to play. The first three months players receive an introductory pricing option of $7.50 USD per month for 3 months. Within game you are able to procure many things that will help your character to progress quickly, USE WITH CAUTION, as progressing too fast makes you a target to experienced players.
See more at http://www.avalon-rpg.com
Mission Statement
The MUD report is a blog that will provide unbiased information about MUDs, MUSHes, MOOs, and TORGs to the public from a first person perspective.
My goal is to experience and then inform prospective players about the different text-based multiplayer online games.
My goal is to experience and then inform prospective players about the different text-based multiplayer online games.
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