4 ms·

Just wanted to remind everyone of the wonderful world of MUDs

serf 10mo ago
absolutely agreed. warning to those just trying them out now though : a lot of MUDs have gone the unfortunate route of having premium shops and other MMO pitfalls. I don't think Aardwolf does -- not positive. I think Achaea and some of the other big ones do though. I recommend Discworld. https://discworld.starturtle.net/lpc/ https://discworld.starturtle.net/lpc/
- Twisol 10mo ago
  > I think Achaea and some of the other big ones do though. Achaea's had a premium shop for a long, long time, yes. It seems they've recently added ways for players to accumulate "credits" (the premium currency) just by playing the game normally -- it's called the "renown" system. (And there have always been other programs that involve volunteering behind the scenes -- the most obvious and in-the-open one is being an official newbie guide.) I haven't felt any strong desire to put money into Achaea, personally. There are a lot of nice-to-haves, and yes, a good number of premium artefacts that give real advantages in gameplay; but the selling point for me has always been the RP-focused world and community, and mechanically speaking you don't need artefacts for PvE. Probably the most common premium items I've seen are non-decaying vials (which are, IIRC, extremely cheap and very accessible via accumulated renown) and the Atavian wings that let you travel to a lot of different locations very quickly. I did make a small cash purchase once, to ensure that my character would never get deleted from inactivity, but these days it seems a sufficient amount of total game time is enough to avoid that fate. I'd definitely recommend Achaea if you're interested in a heavily character-driven world with a community that's passionate about roleplay. The cash shop is by no means a necessity (unless you're getting very deep into PvP, where my expertise runs out, so it could go either way). The volunteer staff (the "Garden of the Gods", as it were) are super active with both large and small RP events, so there's a lot of both official and "unofficial" goings-on in the world. It's really fantastic. (If anybody here remembers Soludra, hi, that was me!)
- deleted 9mo ago
  [deleted]
- skulk 9mo ago
  Aardwolf does not have, and has never had, any content gated on payment. You can "donate" (legally purchase) money for in-game currency but it doesn't really affect game balance (you still have to grind for a billion hours to reach endgame).
agentultra 10mo ago
Funnily enough I took up trying to develop a new MUD engine from scratch in Haskell, with an embedded Lua interpreter for scripting as well. https://github.com/agentultra/bakamud https://github.com/agentultra/bakamud And I often stream working on it at https://twitch.tv/agentultra https://twitch.tv/agentultra MUDs are great! Achea is another great one. Happy gaming folks.
- nateb2022 10mo ago
  I love how concise that Haskell code is! I've also started building a new MUD engine, but in Rust (previously I've written a partially complete one in Go), and this time around I'm working on implementing a MUD using an ECS (entity component system).
  - agentultra 10mo ago
    I'm also planning on an ECS system as well! Very cool. Are you publishing the code somewhere? There's also a Slack for MUD developers if you're interested in chilling with like-minded people: https://mudcoders.com/join-the-mud-coders-guild-6770301ddcbd/ https://mudcoders.com/join-the-mud-coders-guild-6770301ddcbd...
    - ctoth 10mo ago
      > There's also a Slack for MUD developers if you're interested in chilling with like-minded people I am very much the target person for this but also am oddly sad that this isn't like ... a MOO? Or something!
      - kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 10mo ago
        Right? This is ripe territory for a talker
  - PenguinCoder 9mo ago
    I have 'Create a MUD server' on my side project todo list. I Want to do it with golang too. I have some experience with C and SMAUG codebase; just tinkering around. What were your biggest challenges and wins with a Go based MUD server?
stavros 10mo ago
I had such a magical experience with the Realms of Despair MUD from the age of 16 up to around 24. That's where I learned most of my programming, and made friends I talk to every day even now, twenty years later. MUDs take some getting into, but they really are fantastic.

serf 10mo ago

absolutely agreed. warning to those just trying them out now though : a lot of MUDs have gone the unfortunate route of having premium shops and other MMO pitfalls. I don't think Aardwolf does -- not positive. I think Achaea and some of the other big ones do though. I recommend Discworld. https://discworld.starturtle.net/lpc/ https://discworld.starturtle.net/lpc/

Twisol 10mo ago
> I think Achaea and some of the other big ones do though. Achaea's had a premium shop for a long, long time, yes. It seems they've recently added ways for players to accumulate "credits" (the premium currency) just by playing the game normally -- it's called the "renown" system. (And there have always been other programs that involve volunteering behind the scenes -- the most obvious and in-the-open one is being an official newbie guide.) I haven't felt any strong desire to put money into Achaea, personally. There are a lot of nice-to-haves, and yes, a good number of premium artefacts that give real advantages in gameplay; but the selling point for me has always been the RP-focused world and community, and mechanically speaking you don't need artefacts for PvE. Probably the most common premium items I've seen are non-decaying vials (which are, IIRC, extremely cheap and very accessible via accumulated renown) and the Atavian wings that let you travel to a lot of different locations very quickly. I did make a small cash purchase once, to ensure that my character would never get deleted from inactivity, but these days it seems a sufficient amount of total game time is enough to avoid that fate. I'd definitely recommend Achaea if you're interested in a heavily character-driven world with a community that's passionate about roleplay. The cash shop is by no means a necessity (unless you're getting very deep into PvP, where my expertise runs out, so it could go either way). The volunteer staff (the "Garden of the Gods", as it were) are super active with both large and small RP events, so there's a lot of both official and "unofficial" goings-on in the world. It's really fantastic. (If anybody here remembers Soludra, hi, that was me!)
deleted 9mo ago
[deleted]
skulk 9mo ago
Aardwolf does not have, and has never had, any content gated on payment. You can "donate" (legally purchase) money for in-game currency but it doesn't really affect game balance (you still have to grind for a billion hours to reach endgame).

agentultra 10mo ago

Funnily enough I took up trying to develop a new MUD engine from scratch in Haskell, with an embedded Lua interpreter for scripting as well. https://github.com/agentultra/bakamud https://github.com/agentultra/bakamud And I often stream working on it at https://twitch.tv/agentultra https://twitch.tv/agentultra MUDs are great! Achea is another great one. Happy gaming folks.

nateb2022 10mo ago
I love how concise that Haskell code is! I've also started building a new MUD engine, but in Rust (previously I've written a partially complete one in Go), and this time around I'm working on implementing a MUD using an ECS (entity component system).
- agentultra 10mo ago
  I'm also planning on an ECS system as well! Very cool. Are you publishing the code somewhere? There's also a Slack for MUD developers if you're interested in chilling with like-minded people: https://mudcoders.com/join-the-mud-coders-guild-6770301ddcbd/ https://mudcoders.com/join-the-mud-coders-guild-6770301ddcbd...
  - ctoth 10mo ago
    > There's also a Slack for MUD developers if you're interested in chilling with like-minded people I am very much the target person for this but also am oddly sad that this isn't like ... a MOO? Or something!
    - kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 10mo ago
      Right? This is ripe territory for a talker
- PenguinCoder 9mo ago
  I have 'Create a MUD server' on my side project todo list. I Want to do it with golang too. I have some experience with C and SMAUG codebase; just tinkering around. What were your biggest challenges and wins with a Go based MUD server?

stavros 10mo ago

I had such a magical experience with the Realms of Despair MUD from the age of 16 up to around 24. That's where I learned most of my programming, and made friends I talk to every day even now, twenty years later. MUDs take some getting into, but they really are fantastic.