After many years of an isolationist approach to advertising after some scary code issues, Clandestine MUD has been preparing for a public re-opening and pairing with myself. As a long-time player of Clandestine(8 years now) and admin of several other MUDs, I can promise you with sincerity that my description of Clandestine is not an exaggeration. It is an amazing game, marketed to every kind of RPGer imaginable.

If you're looking for a new home and enjoy MUDs with an active playerbase and never-ending things to do - then Clandestine MUD is the place for you. I have posted its description below. Ask if you have any questions!

Jason Sebek's Clandestine MUD has been 100% Free since its opening in 1997. Clandestine's primary focus is to create a fun environment that can appeal to any RPGer. To this end, we offer:


- The most beautiful text-mmorpg asthetics in original color coding, descriptions, combat gameplay, channels, and more. Simply put, playing Clandestine is as easy on the eye as it gets. Infact, we have an extra-ordinary number of legally blind players who are still able to enjoy Clandestine because of the care we have taken with our asthetics.

- Clandestine supports and promotes two new MUDing Clients; the small, sleek, fast, and travel-sized "cMUD", and the long-waited free MUSH Client and zMUD alternative, "wxMUD".

- Clandestine's completely original world offers secrets, puzzles, and Boss fights that challenge a player's brain and not just his stats. Clandestine's world has given off-shoots to single player graphical RPGs, fan-games, fan-fiction, and fan-music.

- Clandestine offers you the option to player-kill. Our combat is centered around a dozen player-run religions, and the group combat is challenging, competitive, large-scale, unique, and fun. If you want to join a religious cause, but would rather stick to roleplaying, the religious Priest-Sects are given charge over interviewing new members and various roleplayed rituals and events.

- Clandestine offers player-created homes, Castles, towns, and more to aid roleplay. While roleplay is not mandatory, those who seek RPI quality roleplay are free to create their own private worlds and even join the RP-Only Continent on Clandestine.

- Clandestine offers code and gameplay options never seen on other MUDs. From over a dozen in-depth minigames(from freeze-tag, to jousting, to casinos, to Bloodbaths) to an original Blacksmithing system, original Spellcrafting system(breaking down elements from spells to create new spells), Fusion(combining multiple player-characters into a more powerful character controlled by both players), a completely original and complex Questing system, Animal Empathy, Spirit Enslavement, Soulwalking, Alchemy, Chemistry, Channeler Pocket Dimensions and Mazes, and more... Clandestine has so many toys, you will never find yourself finished with the game.


CLANDESTINE MUD


telnet:: mud.clandestinemud.com:9476

You will probably want to include the mud website, connection address and port number in any future advertisments.

Hey everyone.

Though Donathin Frye said it all, I still wished to give my greetings to everyone looking for a new homeMUD aswell.

Being a longterm clandestine player (98-00 and 03-...) I can
say that the mud has been growing and still grows in it's beauty and variosity of activities to do over there. Even when you think you've got it all, there will be more to achieve cus of the constant changes that accure.

Anyway what I want to say is: welcome to join Clandestine and find yourself a new home where friends are easy to find and something interesting happens to you every day.

The Estonian server our website is run off of is shut down for a few days while we attempt to fix an issue with Estonian voting. You can still connect to the MUD, though, using the telnet in the original post of this thread. And nice to see you again, Letita! : )

The website is up and fully functional again.

--------------
Mart Raudsepp

Webmaster of
Project Manager of

Sounds like someone didn't read their rules and policies then. :-P

Multiplaying happens, you're welcome to come back so we can harrass you for your teenage, criminal actions. :o

We are in the process of switching to a new, improved server; this process has caused us to close down for a day or two - however we will re-open them very shortly. I will, of course, post when we do.

I define "multi-playing" as using mule characters to augment a main character or using multiple characters in unison to achieve a task. It's one of my pet peeves, something I truly, truly detest. I have no problem with people playing two characters at a time, however, as long as they stay IC and don't "multi-play."

I think I'll take a look at Clandestine. It sounds interesting. I'm always looking for somewhere to play beyond the game I'm running. I think it's especially important for admins to keep in touch with their player side.

As promised, we are back. Enjoy, and ask if you have any questions!

To clarify, based on some questions asked - our new Estonian server is located in Estonia, Europe... however, English is still Clandestine's primary[and for the sake of peace, publically enforced] language. However, we are incredibly thankful to the Estonians for hosting us on their gift of an extremely powerful server. Now just to fix the system-time issue...

NOTE:
Clandestine's playerbase boasts incredibly unique MUD Demographics, the majority of its players hailing from one of the below minorities, with a strong showing of the typical MUD Demographical players as well(such as myself, actually).


-Very Strong European Playerbase, especially Estonia & Sweden
-Strong Far Eastern playerbase, especially Singapore & Australia
-A quite large, very supportive base of homosexual players
-Strong asthetics and gameplay for easy access to legally blind players. Thus, many legally blind players are here.
-A dedicated base of legally deaf players.

-Still your typical 16-25 majority American hack 'n slashers
-Still your middle aged RPers & strong personalities


We boast playerbases from over a dozen countries. If you are interested in playing a very social MUD, where nearly 50% of the players that you become friends with are from other countries, Clandestine is perfect for you. It doesn't hurt that it has amazing asthetics, gameplay, diversity, exploration, questing, and PvP combat either.

I hope I am not mucking up your advertising, but I thought I should mention clandestine is the funnest I have had muding for five or six years. (Just started playing three or four days ago)

I reccomend it for anyone.

There is an optional automap that you can choose to have, it can be turned off by typing automap. That should remove much of the nonsense you see room to room.

Also in the beginning zone there are a very large amount of rooms for a farm area that have ascii graphics in place of a actual room description, if you type brief it will completely shut off the room description and only show the room name, you could probably use that until you made it out of the area. After that there are very very few rooms (at least as far as I have encountered) with ascii grapic room descriptions.

Also there is a way to look at your score (which has lots of symbols etc in it normally) in another way which takes out all those extra symbols. The command is score2. (there are still symbols that represent your armor class, but your armor class is also given in numbers)

You can also configure your prompt (as you probably already know) to take out any symbols there.

I believe there is one more thing I was going to mention that may help but it has jumped out of my head. I hope this helps if you still want to play.

Telnet added to original post in this thread. : )

43 hours on the game and still having loads of fun. (Thats a helluva lot more than I can say about many other muds I have played, where soon after starting you start feeling that leveling\questing\whatever crawl)

Level 137 crusader level 48 techromancer.

You can also play roulette, blackjack, and a slot machine mini game with your questpoints. There is also a poker game but I never find many other people playing it, so I cannot take their qps:).

Come play!

Other mini-games include realm-wide PVP Bloodbaths(all safes are removed during this time), Arena Wars, staff-sponsered weekly trivia nights, Competitive Freeze Tag/tournaments, a seasonal Duel of Swords(matrix-based roleplay/PVP) league, all of the casino games mentioned before including Casino Tournaments, Blacksmithing, Mining, Soulwalking, Spellcrafting, Living Weapons(you level them up, and teach them skills, etc) ... uhh, a very deep questing system, quest crystal collecting... probably more things I am forgetting.

EDIT:  Some players reminded me of more. Death Maze tournaments(player-killers are dropped in a Maze and have their tracking skills disabled... last man standing sort of thing), and staff-run scavenger hunts and long-term roleplay events/quests that affect the shape of the entire world. Automated Quests include Assassination quests, rescue mission quests, bodyguarding quests, theft quests, item hunting, and lengthy sell-sword quests that will take you all around the world of Clandestine.


---

Basically, we try to provide a lot of mini-game options to keep people from having to grind all day long, and to supplement the social aspect of our game community. : )

After not having done so for too long, I designed a Wikipedia entry for Clandestine MUD today. You can look up the wiki entry by searching for Clandestine on wikipedia, or by going to the link below.

I hate to be a bearer of bad tidings, but it is doubtful the Wikipedia entry will be allowed without -significant- change. I've seen quasi-advertising entries flagged at Wikipedia for deletion before for far less, and it looks like the wiki community is already taking sides. Non-notable judgments are difficult to defend.

I've just noticed as much. Any advice for dealing with "non-notable judgements"? We've pointed towards awards we've won, rankings, establishment, large player-base, etc - I've also seen MUDs with smaller playerbases than Clandestine on wikipedia.

Just re-write it like it's not a a copy&paste advertisement from TMS or TMC and I bet the Wikipedia community will not have a problem with it. The bar for being accepted to Wikipedia is quite low provided it doesn't sound like an ad, and while I'm sure it wasn't intentional, that entry really does sound like an ad.

--matt

That definitely sounds like an ad rather than an encyclopedic entry. And there's not much notable about the entry as far as reference material is concerned. Instead, the wording is suggestive of promotion rather than information.

Remove any reference to biased material ("As opposed to most MUDs, hot copyovers and automatic crash reboots keep Clandestine up and running longer to provide more game time to the players..." )and cheerleading. The entry should not seem like it is promoting the game. The entire Features section is horrible about that.

Basically, if you really think you want your MUD listed there, come up with the dullest, driest, just-the-facts entry you can, without putting any effort into promotion. That might be of some use though honestly, no offense intended, there's nothing significant about the MUD that makes it significant enough for reference beyond a name in a list or maybe a sentence or very-short paragraph (same goes for pretty much any MUD).

Take care,

Jason

To quote Wikipedia's deletion policy:

Non-notable, nn or vanity mean that the user thinks the subject fails to meet Wikipedia's inclusion guidelines either due to its obscurity or lack of differentiation from others of its type.



Fern

It does not help that someone from an unmarked IP address is removing all of the work I'm doing every time I resubmit a section, and posting up the old entry.

Check again. I redesigned the format and approach, thanking our player for his help, but taking the responsibility on myself. I used three other MUD wikipedia entries as guidelines, so I believe this should take care of any concerns of advertising or no-notability that there were before. Thanks for your guys' input.

Still looks like an ad. The ones you based it off probably do too given that they're written by people with a motivation to advertise rather than inform which is why the reliability of Wikipedia as a legitimate reference source is questionable.

I'd recommend dumping the religion and classes sections and simply mentioning the game as having "numerous" ones without listing them. It should be a general reference. Your website is for character creation guidelines after all.

Take care,

Jason

I believe the religions and classes section to be informative, to-the-point, and specific. They also give the reader more of an idea of the specific gameplay and themes involved.

I did not create this entry, and have no intentions to make it an advertisement. I do believe that it should exist, however, and so am attempting to use the mold of other similar entries to make it comply to wikipedia standards.

Clandestine's server has been re-routed. To connect with us now, you will connect through the following address:

Clandestine.cc
Port: 9476

I have been playing Clandestine for close to 9-10 years now and i am still learning. New spells, skills, quests and other fun things are always being implemented. Any one that claims that they know everything about Clandestine Should be slapped. 98% of the time Clandestine is a thriving fun place to be, but every once in a while some idiot will come on and try to ruin things for others. Lately older players have been returning with an attitude, But luckily those players don't stay long, or are jailed after they try to start stuff. Clandestine does have issues, but what place doesn't? Don't the Issues make each place different?

Clandestine has recently redone its entire Casting System! The new system no longer automates casting, but forces the user to chant most spells before casting it, forcing players to master timing and strategy even as casters(a group of classes considered easier to play than others before).

Also added into the new system is the ability of range casting opponents who are not in the same "room" as you via a spell que, the feedback spell which is designed to counter "spammers" of spells by ending the opponent's spell queue and returning the energy from it aggressively back at the caster, and the cast stop command which can be used at any time to cancel your spell queue and avoid feedback.

This new system, carefully designed over a large period of time, merges with our already expansive casting system to give it an entirely fresh, new feel in PvP and PvE combat - spell-casting is now an adrenaline pumping competition of timing, instinct, creative-strategy, and speed, while our many unique non-casting classes continue to be just as indepth and capable of dealing with the new system. Even our MOBs are smarter now, redesigned to take into account player strategies and counter them with feedback spells and ranged attacks of their own!

As always, Clandestine MUD strives to make combat both asthetically and challenging, taking the foundation of DIKU to new heights, and in unexplored directions.

Also, look for up-and-coming announcements for Clandestine's new website layout and invitation to a massive global Roleplay and Successive Quests that will force players of the MUD to do something that they have not done in its 9 years of existance; look the Gods and Goddesses of Edge City in the face, as they come down from the Stars for a massive conflict! I began as a player on Clandestine 8 years ago, and though it is an extremely social MUD OOCly, the staff-led roleplay that I experienced on my first day there was exciting/epic enough to pull me in and make me want to play.

Sounds interesting - but I can't see anything on the website about it (or perhaps I'm just not looking in the right place). As this is the adverising forum, would you mind elaborating further on how the system works?

Well, we are in the process of changing our website entirely, so we haven't been as focused on the "old" site, which is probably why you wouldn't see it. If you logged onto the website's webserver, you could see the MOTD Board's notes on the system.

But sure, I can explain it in more detail. I'll try to use examples.


Typically, on most MUDs(DIKU, especially), the interface looks like some variation on this;

> cast fireball zombie
Donathin's FIREBALL immolates a Zombie![1852]


Clandestine used a similar interface previously, though our spells themselves were still cool - however, the gameplay for casters was direct, consistant, and unchallenging. Now, with the new system, you would see something like this;


KaVir's encircling attack does UNSPEAKABLE things to Donathin![11%]

Donathin begins to chant the Toxin spell.

KaVir suddenly multiplies his form, surrounding Donathin with images!

Donathin finishes chanting the Toxin spell.
Donathin's toxin does ETCETC things to KaVir![2%]
Donathin's toxin does ETCETC things to KaVir![3%]
Donathin's toxin does ETCETC things to KaVir![4%]
Donathin's toxin does ETCETC things to KaVir![2%]

KaVir's encircling attack does UNSPEAKABLE things to Donathin![9%]

------

Now, though at surface this seems like a purely superficial change - it is not, especially when combined with feedback and the new ranged attack system. See below, a first person caster viewpoint. Here, I show one usage of ranged attacking, as well as chanting's ability to allow you to continue to respond to things going on in combat even while preparing to cast(there is no post-casting lag for most spells, with only necessary exceptions). This allows me below to que up a series of attack spells and flee before he can "encircle attack(attack from the example above), which requires him to surround me with images first. Take a look;


>cast torment KaVir
You begin to chant the torment spell.

KaVir suddenly multiplies his form, surrounding you with images!

KaVir suddenly screams as the spirits of the dead torment his soul.

>cast toxin KaVir
cast toxin KaVir
cast toxin KaVir
cast toxin KaVir
flee
flee

You prepare toxin as a follow-up spell.
You prepare toxin as a follow-up spell.
You prepare toxin as a follow-up spell.
You prepare toxin as a follow-up spell.

You cannot escape!!
You have fled from combat!

A Bloodied Altar

Exits: South

You launch a powerful ranged attack!
Your ranged toxin does ETCETC things to KaVir![2%]
Your ranged toxin does ETCETC things to KaVir![3%]
Your ranged toxin does ETCETC things to KaVir![4%]
Your ranged toxin does ETCETC things to KaVir![2%]

KaVir flies in from the south.


>south
You run south.

Before the Altar

Exits: North, South

KaVir flies in from the north.


>south
You run south.

Inside the Church

Exits: North

You launch a powerful ranged attack!
Your ranged toxin does ETCETC things to KaVir![3%]
Your ranged toxin does ETCETC things to KaVir![3%]
Your ranged toxin does ETCETC things to KaVir![3%]
Your ranged toxin does ETCETC things to KaVir![4%]

-----

In the above example, you can see how you are able to, while in combat, queue up a series of spells. Attack spells that are que'd can be used as ranged attacks in the new system. The counter for this is the feedback spell, which is demonstrated below, from KaVir's point of view;


>encircle donathin
You suddenly multiply your form, surrounding Donathin with images!

Donathin begins to chant the toxin spell.

>encircle attack

Donathin tries to flee!
Donathin tries to flee!
Donathin has fled!
Donathin runs to the north.

Attack who? Your target has left.

Donathin blasts you with a ranged attack!
Donathin's ranged toxin does ETCETC things to you![3%]
Donathin's ranged toxin does ETCETC things to you![3%]
Donathin's ranged toxin does ETCETC things to you![3%]
Donathin's ranged toxin does ETCETC things to you![4%]
>cast feedback
You begin to chant the feedback spell.

>quaff 'super heal'
You quaff a 'super healing potion'.[-8%]

You finish chanting the feedback spell.
You summon a surge of energy at the void, and channel Donathin's mana aggressively back at him![21%]

----

Now, because of this system of checks and balances, we have also added the "cast stop" command, which works like this;

>cast toxin kavir
cast toxin kavir
cast toxin kavir
cast toxin kavir
cast toxin kavir

You begin to chant the toxin spell.
You prepare toxin as a follow-up spell.
You prepare toxin as a follow-up spell.
You prepare toxin as a follow-up spell.
You prepare toxin as a follow-up spell.

KaVir begins to chant the feedback spell.

>cast stop
You stop chanting toxin.
You stop chanting toxin.
You stop chanting toxin.
You stop chanting toxin.
You stop chanting toxin.

>wnah
You scream "WNAHHHH!!!!" and pummel KaVir![4%]

Kavir finishes casting the feedback spell!
KaVir is unable to summon energy from the void!

---

To note is that certain spells have remained instant-cast to avoid abuse, and that my hand-typing faked logs of the system is probably not the best way for you to understand the system(you'd have to play for that, probably), but I hope that gives you a more specific idea of how ranged attacks, chanting, feedback, and cast stop work. To be noted is that feedback/ranged attacks only are relevant to attacking spells, and not healing/lock-down/illusion/boons/curses or any other kinds of spells.

Okay, so if I've understood correctly, it basically works like this:

1) Instead of the spell going off instantly followed by a WAIT_STATE pause, there is a pause first and then afterwards the spell takes effect.

2) If you try to cast a spell while already chanting, it is added to your queue.

I assume different spells take a different amount of time to perform?

What happens if a spell is popped off your queue and the target has gone - it just fizzles?

Can you choose to push a spell to the front of your queue, or does it always go on the end?

Any thoughts about applying the same approach to regular combat, or even non-combat activities? For example I noticed you quaffed a potion while chanting - that might be a good candidate for using the queued system.

I know precasting/windups/whatever you want to call it has been pretty popular in games that used it heavily, among certain kinds of players, at least. I understand that a lot of Ultima Online players bitched up a storm when precasting (as they called it) was removed, for instance. Pre-casting was just the generic name for it regardless of the fictional form the actual ability takes (magic, non-magic, etc).

--matt

Just out of curiosity, would it not make sense to bundle these and any other changes to the interface that are helpful to blind players using screenreaders into one simple command and make sure the beginning of the game mentions this? You might not have a problem with some, like the previous poster, getting frustrated without realising you can turn off the things that are causing problems.

It would be a convenient addition, yes - but not really necessary. Anyone wanting to alter elements of the MUD to make it more friendly to their screen-reader need only to ask in-game for assistance, and they'd be on their way.