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Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs): What Are They? and How to Play

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Re: Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs): What Are They? and How to Play

#121

Post by hazeii »

Mauricebranagh wrote: post #114
hazeii wrote: post #29

Way back in the day (1985) I was figuring out how to do timeslicing on a 4MHz Z80, and once I had it working on multiple terminals I slung a simple MUD on it (Shades). Connecting it to a couple of modems (this was the days when BB's were the thing) got people playing, at which point British Telecom's Prestel/Micronet decided they'd like to run it on their system. The demand was sufficient that it kept crashing the en…

Hi Hazeii LTNS I remember playing on shades (TG and Prestel) and going to some of the meets with Cuthulu (we both worked for Telecom Gold / Prestel) I was Mouser on Shades I believe

Hi! Those meets were great fun (though one or two did get a bit out of hand :) )

Just logged and checked, your account is still active on Shades. Quite a few of the old names log in from time to time, maybe we'll have to organise a virtual meet one of these days.

Re: Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs): What Are They? and How to Play

#122

Post by iron_ball »

CodeMage wrote: post #108
Twisol wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(context: I played Achaea without access to a source of cash) Back when I played, you could buy "artefacts" with real money, but they were less "pay to win" and more "pay for convenience". They were definitely far more than mere cosmetic items, but it was more than possible to play without ever buying one. Though I was always, always jealous when I saw somebody using wings. Those things took you to a kind of cloud te…

I tried Achaea after I got too frustrated with MUME. What turned me off wasn't the way people could pay to avoid grind, but rather how you absolutely needed a client script for combat. If you didn't have some kind of script that provided automated reactions, PVE was really hard and you couldn't even consider PVP. And, of course, people who made the best scripts were charging for them.

True, but not strictly true. I played with 100% manual attacks and cures, but made heavy use of color coding to recognize threats in the rapid scroll of incoming text. It wasn't any harder than playing a competitive puzzle game: recognize colors, make matches, try to throw sand in your opponent's gears and make combos faster than they can.

Re: Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs): What Are They? and How to Play

#123

Post by JauntTrooper »

nokraenom wrote: post #111

WoTMUD, the Wheel of Time MUD, is something I sunk so, so, so many hours into in the 90s. It’s still around too, and was officially sanctioned by the late Robert Jordan himself. Had/has the most intense and fun PK/PvP of any online game I’ve ever played. Played it a bit again during the pandemic and surprisingly still holds up as fun some 25 years later. https://wotmud.info

I also spent much of my youth on Wotmud. :)

Re: Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs): What Are They? and How to Play

#124

Post by GoatOfAplomb »

shostack wrote: post #4

I give Gemstone III and Dragonrealms full credit for my current typing speed. And I remember setting up a local TinyMUD instance for my friends on the school network then creating all sorts of weird items and creatures to mess with them. It's funny... These games largely didn't have graphics (you could argue some of the more advanced interfaces like with Simutronics stuff did). Yet I have vivid memories of specifics…

Gemstone is still going strong! There were over 1000 characters logged in at times during the recently-concluded festival.

It has profited a lot from a pay-to-be-uber kind of model. You can level up just fine with ordinary gear, but people pay as much as $25000 (in equivalent game currency )for the most expensive items auctioned nowadays.

Re: Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs): What Are They? and How to Play

#125

Post by Dartan »

bradleyjg wrote: post #9
Jemaclus wrote: post #2

This post is great. I love MUDs so much. I fell in love with them in the late 90s when I was finishing up high school. My favorite MUD was A.V.A.T.A.R., which I think is still around. (Update: I checked. It's still there!) The best part of a MUD is, like the article says, the multi-user aspect. It was an MMORPG before it was cool! Whenever I learn a new programming language, my go-to project is to write a MUD from sc…

Wow, that’s a blast from the past. I played on that MUD for a couple of years in the mid to late 90s. Never got too far, but had fun playing.

10+ man groups every day multiple times a day still going on. Lot of fun! I started back in Aug 2019 and haven't put it down since.

Re: Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs): What Are They? and How to Play

#126

Post by aurelius12 »

reaperducer wrote: post #73
aurelius12 wrote: post #10

MUDs may be history to most people, but at Iron Realms we still have five commercial MUDs running live with dedicated paid staff on each constantly working to improve the gameplay and enlarge the already massive worlds. Honestly, it's pretty surprising to me, as when I launched our first one - Achaea - in 1997 right around when Ultima Online launched, I gave us five years. https://ironrealms.com

Since you run the place, I'll state here that it would be nice if I could look at your web site and decide if I'm interested before being hit with a pop-up window asking me to sign up for a newsletter. How do I know if I want your newsletter, if I haven't figured out what your product is? Window closed. Sale lost.

Fair point, and you're right.

Re: Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs): What Are They? and How to Play

#127

Post by aurelius12 »

atsushin wrote: post #43
aurelius12 wrote: post #10

MUDs may be history to most people, but at Iron Realms we still have five commercial MUDs running live with dedicated paid staff on each constantly working to improve the gameplay and enlarge the already massive worlds. Honestly, it's pretty surprising to me, as when I launched our first one - Achaea - in 1997 right around when Ultima Online launched, I gave us five years. https://ironrealms.com

Woah, Sarapis! I've seen MUDs discussed here on HN before but never Achaea. I wouldn't be who I am today without having played that game. Thank you for so many years of fun.

You're welcome, and that's really cool to hear.

Re: Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs): What Are They? and How to Play

#128

Post by aurelius12 »

CodeMage wrote: post #120
Twisol wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's true! I did very little combat overall -- I spent most of my time on the social side of the game -- but I did build a few of my own convenience scripts anyway, so the criticism is well-founded. You can get by in PvE without anything overly complex, and it's honestly more fun to figure out how to deal with the damage and affliction patterns from individual monsters yourself than relying on an autocure system. (…

Yeah, I remember the rules about "botting", too. I don't know if they changed a lot since I played, but back then they basically amounted to "don't automate your character to farm while idle". In light of the pay-to-avoid-grind system, it didn't take me too long to conclude that the rules were pretty much "don't affect our bottom line, anything else goes".

Because botting is basically impossible for us to detect algorithmically (we're a tiny company and don't have the resources to engage in that kind of battle with botters), our line boils down to, "If we come and talk to you and you don't reply, you're not playing the game and that's not allowed."

It's the only standard for botting that works for us.

Re: Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs): What Are They? and How to Play

#129

Post by aurelius12 »

Twisol wrote: post #25
aurelius12 wrote: post #10

MUDs may be history to most people, but at Iron Realms we still have five commercial MUDs running live with dedicated paid staff on each constantly working to improve the gameplay and enlarge the already massive worlds. Honestly, it's pretty surprising to me, as when I launched our first one - Achaea - in 1997 right around when Ultima Online launched, I gave us five years. https://ironrealms.com

Former player of Achaea here (if anyone recognizes the name Soludra) -- can attest, the Iron Realms MUDs are top-tier. I tried to get into volunteering, but my work ethic wasn't really up to snuff at the time. Sorry ^_^;

Nothing to worry about, it happens! Glad you enjoyed Achaea. :)

Re: Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs): What Are They? and How to Play

#130

Post by aurelius12 »

kwk1 wrote: post #33
aurelius12 wrote: post #10

MUDs may be history to most people, but at Iron Realms we still have five commercial MUDs running live with dedicated paid staff on each constantly working to improve the gameplay and enlarge the already massive worlds. Honestly, it's pretty surprising to me, as when I launched our first one - Achaea - in 1997 right around when Ultima Online launched, I gave us five years. https://ironrealms.com

The combat system in Achaea was always so fascinating to me in terms of balance, but back when I was still playing it I was on bad dialup or satellite internet, which gave me a pretty big disadvantage against other people.

Oof, yeah, relatively low ping is important. Not like FPS important, but still important.
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