[Molly]

You could perhaps try 4 Dimensions. It doesn't fill your requirements totally, but then again, I doubt if you'd find any mud that does. Like someone already said, if you are looking for exploration and secrets, you'll not find that in a relatively new game, since it takes a long time to develop the world of a Mud.

What you WILL find in 4D is a big, challenging and complex world, where you will never run out of exploring, quests and other things to and do, some competitive Clans, and a somewhat restricted PK, where you'll only be able to attack and kill other registered pkillers, but otherwis free-for-all. We also have a feature named the Gladiators, which you might enjoy. Basically it's the access to a number of high-level, full-skilled players, which any player can use inside a restricted area. (The idea behind them is to test the balance between the classes, and also to determine who has the best pkill skills, regardless of what level and equipment they have managed to acquire in the real game, since the Gladiators all have equal strength and equipment).

Normally I wouldn't advertise 4D at this time, since we are planning a big revamp of the fighting code and skills/spells system in the near future, which will make a pwipe necessary. But since you are specifically asking for a Mud where there wouldn't be any long-time players with an unsurpassable advantage in levels and equipment, it might fit your bill, because the pwipe and equipwipe will put everyone on an equal footing. Also we could do with some new players, since the pending pwipe has put a damper on our normal playerbase, and many of our oldtimers just log on to ask how far ahead the code change and playtesting is.

Not trying to whitewash things, just telling it as it is.