[svarnmarn]

Hello there, I'd like to talk about a problem I've seen when starting play on an unfamiliar mud. There's nothing quite as frustrating as rolling up a character, playing for several hours, and then discovering that a choice made at char gen (such as an attribute choice or race/class combination) is far less than optimal. Equally discomfitting is learning (after the fact) about unwritten rules that experience players know; for example, an experience player might know that maxing wisdom is very important in the early levels to maximise your skill practices; to not do so would leave a character at a mechanical disadvantage.

Let's take the above examples as examples - I'm aware they are pretty system specific but the message remains clear - some MUDs have a learning curve that can really screw over new players. When I join a new MUD I don't want to have to reroll after several hours having learnt the intricacies of the system - I want my new character to have a fair chance.

Two ways this could be achieved are better documentation (if a high wis is important for my fighter - let me know about it) and better systems (allow players to retrain or simply not have a system that can penalize lack of knowledge - have skill points based on level, not on attributes - train through usage as opposed to practices, etc).

Have you experienced this problem before?
Have you seen MUDs that suffer from these problems or perhaps MUDs that avoid them well?

Let me know.
Svarn.

[Ide]

First off Svarn welcome to TMS. Good topic.

I'm going to play devil's advocate here a bit and say that MUDs in a sense are designed for you to fail. Much of the fun of playing a long-form game like a MUD is learning its intricacies, and in a large sense that means you'll need to lose before you win.

I admit there is a genuine problem that most muds don't make losing very interesting, so that when you do lose it feels more like punishment than what it is -- a step on your road to winning.

There are some muds that have taken positive steps in easing the game for new players, for example those that allow you to reroll or redesign your character in play, such as God Wars II and Legends of Karinth (last time I checked). I think Blood Dusk lets you shuffle skill slots as well. There probably are other muds like this, hopefully a few more will come up in the thread.

[Mabus]

As was stated before, welcome to Top Mud Sites.

Learning the mechanics of any game can be a bit rough. Sometimes it is best to drop by a game's forums and discuss the intricacies with the current players. Often, you may get varied opinions on how to min/max a character (if that is what you are looking to do) from those that are mechanics-explorers. There are people that actually love to figure out the hows-and-whys of the code.

I can fully understand the "wisdom is king" dilemma used by most DIKU MUDs. It never fully made sense to me that wisdom and intelligence should be so highly prized in training a melee class. In the code I have been working on the practices/trains gained depend on the prime used (often the main attack, except in the case of artisans) statistics for the class.

Strangely, just tonight I had updated our code to change the maximum that a skill could be "practiced" with a teacher. It does use the base charisma, intelligence and wisdom of the teacher, and the intelligence of the student to define a max % for practice, within a minimum of 40% and a maximum of 90% range.

In a case like this I posted the change in our "Changes" thread and started a thread under the "Idea" folder (on our forums) so that players could discuss the changes with staff and others. I also changed the in-game help file (which is also available on the website) on practice to reflect the change.

I agree that proper documentation is key, but on some games it is a guide rather then a hard and fast character setup system. However. the onus is often on the new player to read the available documentation, and ask questions, before they have invested a large amount of time into a character.