m/MUD - Online text-based adventuring awaits

Hey folks, wanted to ask what everyone thinks of automation in MU*s for players. What I mean is slightly more advanced than just triggers and actions, but scraping data, building tools that make playing easier/faster, and giving yourself an advantage. I play a Star Trek themed MUSH, and one reason I really like it is that I can build tools that give me an advantage. In other MU*s I've played (EmpireMUD) that level of automation is strictly prohibited. Wanted to get the community's thoughts. What do you think?

I have played Armageddon MUD for over a decade and have noticed a rising sentiment within the community that can only be described as reactionary. Whenever a change to the game is proposed, a change that would in theory address the game's balancing issues or make the game more fair for newer players, a group of old players rise up to not only pooh-pooh the idea but sometimes even suggest a change in the opposite direction. For example, Armageddon rolls stats randomly, within a range for each stat, dependent on your character's race and class. For a roleplaying-focused game, it's easy to imagine why completely random rolls are inconvenient: they throw a curveball at the player and prevent them from making the character they actually want to make. But when a point-buy system is suggested, the old guard rises up to explain how the game is "intentionally unbalanced" and that it's always been the case that some characters are simply superior to others. A tweak to the system - say, to ensure all stats add up at least to a certain number - would be minor, mostly keep the current system in place, but even something like that is disagreeable to those who never want their game to change. Even as the game measurably loses a dozen players a year permanently, every year for the past 7 years, there is never a single thought spared to the possibility that perhaps the game is losing players because it is designed poorly. This is to say nothing about the aggressive culture of the game itself, something which proponents of new player recruitment want to reign in so they can try to build a more story-focused game, whereas old vets want to keep the game as basically a PvP arena with some roleplaying features. It feels like older games in particular suffer from a lack of clear direction on what their game should be. How has your game handled the winds of change? Does it adapt to grow, or does it primarily exist to entertain the players that have stuck it out?

Are there any MUDs still running, that you would consider to have really game changing mechanics? I'm doing research while building server framework from scratch, as a pet learning project. I'm familiar with a lot of the basic functionality from playing MUDs a lot as a teen. But admittedly it's been a good decade since I've touched one, and I'd like to find some interesting ones that have pushed boundaries. Thanks! EDIT: If anyone is at all interested in following the progress of the project, my github is linked in my profile.

Welcome to Atharia. A world where magic is commonplace and there are 4 known kingdoms. The mortals angered one of the Gods, Larthin, who decides to take ‘time’ from each mortal as retaliation and some of the mortals strive to appease him. There is a fanatic religious cult that works against the mortals. There is royalty, nobility, meddlesome Gods, exploration. The exploration involves finding ruins or mythical creatures (which may not necessarily be exactly like RL’s mythical but are heavily based on them) or discovering new lands or kingdoms. There are Children of Gods that have herculean tasks they must complete. Marriages tend towards being political and it is, should both parties agree it is okay, okay to have a Consort (love spouse) that is all about love. It is not uncommon for the Gods to meddle in the lives of the mortals be it to make their lives worse or better. **OOC:** Atharia is a high fantasy MUSH that uses PennMUSH with a heavily modified version of FS3. Everyone can use some sort of magic. What we have as possible things to do: Play the social games (events, slice of life RP), political games (there are different kingdoms, political marriages), exploration, scholarly endeavours, religious focus. We also have a roster system and player CG that has generators in almost all the rooms. There is no preference to whether you take a roster, use the generators, or neither of those. The purpose is to make the point of entry as easy as possible. An important note is that Atharia is a casual game. Sometimes scenes for plots and over all can come in rapid succession, sometimes it could take a couple weeks or so before another scene happens. We're more interested in being inclusive and telling stories everyone can enjoy over 'getting plots out quickly' or something. Most plots on Atharia will be 1 to 2 scenes long, sometimes more. The plots with more than 1-5 scenes, at most, are typically ones that will involve player focus. Feel free to join us and see if it is a place that fits for you: > > > The website: [https://atharia.vertinext.com/](https://atharia.vertinext.com/) > To connect: atharia.vertinext.com 4201 > Discord: [https://discord.gg/RMVTKuAh9B](https://discord.gg/RMVTKuAh9B) > > This is what staff is looking for when it comes to new characters. The suggestions can be done as a combo, where applicable or just as is. Some NPCs can be adopted, if they are listed in +news Adopting Named NPCs. * ``` Children of Gods ``` * * Any God but Mataya and Ossian * * A Child from any Kingdom but Luminat - Note: We are trying to balance the power of the Children across all Gods. We are including characters who have left in this 'balance' as they are still, technically, there (unless they have died) * ``` Combat Types - Any ``` * ``` People from Choisi and Santua - Choisi has 1 player, Santua has 2. All other kingdoms have 4+ characters. ``` * ``` Royalty from the Choisi, Santua, and Divinus Kingdoms ``` * ``` Clergy for any God ``` * ``` Courtesans ``` * ``` Title Holders, noble or common. ``` * ``` Other is whatever else that might interest a person to play. ``` Staff welcomes anyone who wants to contact about these suggestions. The story lines currently going on: The current plots can be found here: [https://atharia.vertinext.com/index.php?title=Plots](https://atharia.vertinext.com/index.php?title=Plots)

It's hard to find time to play, but what have you been playing lately? Since restarting from a long break, I've mostly stuck with Sindome and Starmourn, both due to the futuristic theme. Sindome isn't bad. I really like the cyberpunk style and how there is a strong focus on narrative. I don't like that you really can't use anything outside their browser client and there isn't any expansion on the UI outside of the main window. Ideally, running through Mudlet is how I prefer to run. Starmourn is really fun. So far, I really haven't had much opportunity to just explore and do combat. I'm hoping that opens up more, but the narrative reminds me of the slightly cheesy Backyard Starship book series or almost a kind of Commander Keen vibe. It doesn't take itself super seriously which I like.