[TerXIII]

Hello community, I'm relatively new here, so forgive me if I'm a little... new.

Anyway, I've been working on a text-based MUD codebase for the last week or so with some immense progress. Thanks to C#, I've managed to set up a wonderfully simple client/server architecture, and have a completed parser as well as a simplistic built-in scripting language I've developed from scratch. From here, it's starting to look like feature implementation is going to be the next step, once the event handling sections of code are complete.

I'm interested in what the community is looking for from a MUD. I've played a few, but I wouldn't say I had extensive experience, so I'm trying to avoid common pitfalls in new text-based MUDs by looking into what the community thinks about certain features, lest I manage to write a flawed system from the get-go.

My girlfriend, and my two closest friends are working out the world and the plot elements over time, and have a fairly vivid world down on paper.

We're still somewhat unsure about the actual combat mechanics, and the faction missions themselves, and how they should function.

We want to implement many of the features that came into Online Games after the MUD era that the MUD era seems to have ignored completely.

Among these:

- A party system that will allow players to move in unison with the group leader, or to break off from the leader to split up a bit.
- Combat engine that implements ranged combat and mounted combat using a system of arbitrary coordinates that will permit some semblance of charging, disengaging, flanking, and other forms of combat mobility.
- A branching class system, allowing players to specialize or diversify their skills, and customize their character type to their liking without the choices being too wildly diverse.
- Experience system based on skill usage, rather than completely based on killing mobs.
- Reputations and factions, allowing players to work alongside NPC factions, and progress story arcs developed by the administrators.
- Dynamic quests, allowing for administrative design and randomly generated quests, as well as player-oriented quests/missions.
- Player-centric economy with NPC interaction into the trade and value of goods.
- Minimal simulation, utilizing probability clouds to give the players the feeling of simulation.
- Phasing content alongside global content, allowing players to unlock single-player zones, and letting zones change over time, both for the singular player, and for the entire world.
- Semi-roomless design. Rooms will be given coordinates along three axes of a plane, and linked to nodes and hubs. using arbitrary links in a descriptive manner. Towns will be linked by roads and pavilions, and physical structures consisting of rooms liked by corridors and portals (doors). Areas outside of town will utilize roads for easy travel, and leaving the road will place the player in the wilderness. Wilderness will be navigated by area-based nodes, and terrain will weigh into travel time, or even be physical obstacles. Outdoors areas will be very unlike indoor areas.
- Non-combat professions and missions. Players should be able to interact with in-game industries. Won't say much on this.
- One-time and repeatable versions of dungeons.

In addition, we're trying to drop the playable races down to one. The reason for this, is that I've seen far too many MUDs attempt to increase player customization by increasing the number of races and class combinations, rather than allowing for actual player customization. I'd much rather see players step into a role they understand, and be able to customize their character to a much more extreme level than I would be able to implement with multiple races.

Classes again, are going to be reduced at start to one. Players will customize their character through a tutorial process, rather than before they start playing. In order to select a class, they will have to work on the starting class, and then select the next class they will progress into via a series of choices and quests.

Again, if anybody has any suggestions for what they want to see in a modern MUD, I'm all ears, and for any discussion on the ideas above.

Thanks in advance.