*chuckle* This isn't easy. Especially when you say...I take it then that you're looking for casual RP without perma-death, with HP, classes, and all the other usual things.

Define "automated combat" and "non-auto". By the latter do you mean every move you make is independent of the game's combat code (that is to say that you don't attack in a "round" of combat unless you type in a specific attack move/combination)?

Well, there you shoot yourself in the foot. RPI MUDs offer a wide variety of non-combat related options. But since you're not looking in that direction, it'll be harder.

Are you saying that you want more classes to choose from or more than classes to choose from? If the former, it won't really make you "special" since everyone else would have the same options. If the latter, you're still in the same situation, though at least you'd have less chance of encountering someone who chose the same combination of skills, race, classes, etc. than you.

Can't say anything comes to mind immediately but there are likely to be a lot out there that meet your criteria. The biggest question is the "automated" combat thing though.

Take care,

Jason

P.S.--I imagine you've already run an advanced search on TMS and TMC and tried out all 60+ MUDs that at least claim to meet your criteria....

I believe what he means is that he doesnt want to type the word kill followed by a mobs name.

That seems arbitrary-- "kill" isn't so different from 'kick' or 'punch' or whatever. It often just means an unaimed attack with your primary weapon.

When he said 'no automated combat', I assumed he meant that attacks don't happen where the player isn't initiating each one. A lot of games have an exchange of normal blows going on in the background, with 'special moves' being input by the player.

I didn't get "Unless combat is not centralized." though. Did you mean you just don't want combat to be the only focus of the game? Or something else?

Well, I'd like to recommend trying out the mud I play at and I'll start with replying to the things you have listed in your post that I have quoted above.

Roleplay - Adventures Unlimited is not RPI but it does have a health roleplay community. There are several things in the game that encourages roleplay and if you pkjoin you definitely have to have some roleplay or you're not going to get very far in pk. PK is also optional though.

Combat - Like the other people have stated, I don't know exactly what you mean by automated combat and if you describe your definition of it, I will gladly tell you about the combat fomrat in this mud.

Other things besides combat - AU has lots of things you can do that are not combat related. Fishing, quests (two different types), tradeguilds (so far you can make weapons, armor, and jewelry with more on the way), gambling games, whittling, and immortal run games are just some of them to mention. There are also noncombat things you can do if you are pkjoined such as conquering territories.

Classes - While this mud does have fighter, mage, cleric, and thief, it has also has monk (which operate much differently than other classes), charlatan (thief/mage hybrid), paladin, antipaladin, myrmidon (warrior mage hybrid with magics based on runes), and necromancers are in the works. Even though there are the generic fighter, mage, thief, and cleric classes they have unique skills that you won't find on stock muds


The mud is a free to play game and there is no paying for perks. Everything that the players have here has been worked for. if i recall right the areas in the mud are now about 80% original, if not more. The staff is also very dedicated and there is a pretty consistent flow of new things to try out. AU is a newbie friendly mud, and it has a comfortable player base size that is not so gargantuan that you get lost in the crowd when you speak on channels (especially when you need to ask for help). If you have any questions before you might wish to give AU a try, just post them. Or you could always log on and ask other people that play there also. The information for Adventures Unlimited is in my signature if you are interested.

I think he means that the standard method of combat doesn't come with the DIKU style stuff of people trading blows in the background. In other words, most attacks inputted rather than automated rather than just 'special' ones automated. (I'm guessing that as he seemed to like IRE games minus the commercial aspect, and our combat systems don't have people trading blows automatically in the background, though effectively you have the same kind of thing with minions that help attack using their "AI" and whatnot.")

--matt

I feel you man, I have been playing muds for roughly the same amount of time. Serpentia up there told you about a pretty fine mud that I spent most of my mudding years so far. I have left there though, for reasons I shall not say.

I have also played...all of IREs games, I quit the instant I saw that you could pay for perks, people with money already have enough power in the real world. Even if I could just casually spend money on a game like that, for moderate things or a gift to myself or something, there is always that kid with rich parents, or those people with much money and little else to do, that are power hungry, that will ruin it for me. I have enough trouble not being able to play 16 hours a bleedin day to stay ahead in alot of places.

The quality of many places just dosent add up to IREs though, because they do take money their coders and builders probably have a little more motivation to make something better than crap or something "Just good enough". So I dont diss muds just because they take money, its just not my thing.

I found a mud after long searching that -nearly- fits your criteria.

The battle is automated, just the same as many muds, but it kinda makes sense the way this one is. I mean if you are fighting someone there isnt going to be this standstill, and if you dont feel like it you probably arent going to let your opponet pound on you while you type in a command. The simple attacks are automated, so you are always hitting with your dagger, sword etc. But yes of course the special attacks are not automated.

This mud is RPI, not perma death though, the death system I do like perhaps you will as well.

This mud has the kind of things you may expect from an IRE game, to top it off it is growing pretty fast. World and playerbase wise.

Meh, I dont feel like going on about it when I can just give you a link and you can read for yourself, here ya go.

New Worlds mud, give it a shot.

Akanbar and Evarayn sound like the perfect muds for you. They're both custom-coded muds with balance-based combat (like Avalon or the IRE muds) and, though Akanbar does let you buy lessons with real money, neither of them requires you to spend any money to get new skills, relying instead on time spent in realm and levels.

Both the MUDs are great as far as RP goes, but Evarayn wins out in that catagory. While I haven't played it actively in a while, there used to be great admin and player initiated/run events from time to time as well as just great everyday RP.

As far as skills and classes go, I'd have to say Akanbar wins. In Akanbar you can be everything from a dragon-riding warden to a demon-transforming forsaken. Evarayn's skill system works quite differently, allowing players to select what skill sets they want to learn from a large list. Mastering a particular set of skills will enable you to later learn a profession skillset, entitling you to some pretty awesome skills.

Akanbar is still fairly early in development so there aren't too many things to do besides fighting, bashing and questing, but expect that to be remedied fairly soon with the introduction of Merchants and trade skills. In Evarayn you can do anything from bashing in it's instanced-dungeons to sailing to "working" - ie playing various minigames like minesweeper and that cracker barrel peg game - for one of your city's guilds.

All and all they're both great muds. Personally, I play Akanbar right now as I find the combat slightly more entertaining, but you can't really go wrong with either one.