Top Mud Sites Forum - View Single Post - Looking for a mud with complex economy with crafting

Kal · 09-30-2009, 02:02 PM

Hi,

I have been playing a variety of muds since the mid 90s. Starting to fear for the extinction of goblins after all these years, I would now like a fresh start in some interesting mud, and focus on resource gathering, crafting and economy. Many muds offer some kind of crafting, but often as something you preferably do while regenerating from your last goblin onslaught. From the muds I have tried, the one that I found most interesting is Batmud. In the merchant guild I could spend lots of time mining and lumberjacking to get resources for building things like chests and complex ships. In the alchemist guild I first had to research my personal potion recipes, and could then collect ingredients and produce for a profit. They have made an excellent job creating these guilds indeed, and they offer pretty much what I am looking for. However, there are two main reasons I am looking for something else, so I will try to explain what I would like in my next mud.

There must be an interesting and rewarding economy for crafters. Even though it might be mighty fun to spend weeks or more to build a ship, it's pretty frustrating when nobody wants to buy it for any decent amount of <enter your local mud currency here>. Or when your potions are only so-so much worth to the adventurers that they are not willing to pay all that much for them. When you realize it's quicker to just bash another zillion of goblins and collect the loot - where you gain both experience and money - you will eventually get bored of crafting, even if the crafting is fun by itself. I understand there is a dilemma, the adventuring party must also feel it is worth their time to kill a difficult boss to get their über-fancy cloak of divine superiority rather than easily craft an even über-fancier cloak too easily. Are there any good muds out there that have made this balance work nicely?

The other thing I want, is to be allowed to use triggers. No, I don't want to build a bot that I start when I go to work, and come home at afternoon to find that it has built ten million potions, a castle and a couple of smaller planets while I was away. But I want to be able to use my mud client to set up the some triggers to do boring tasks for me. I'll give you an example. Let's say I have been walking around (manually) looking for a good mining spot. After some time I found a nice rock, where I use the command "mine gold" to get the process started. After half a minute I get a piece of gold, or possibly fail the action. Now I write "mine gold" again. After 45 minutes and 90 “mine gold”s the rock is depleted, I have run out of storage capacity, or Windows Vista has decided I needed a break and shut down the entire computer. In any case, this gets boring. It might be fun the first 10 times, while you learn how to do it. When you have done it 5000 times it is... not quite as fun any more. So let me put up a trigger that make a new attempt at "mine gold", until I can do it no longer. Or make the concept of mining fun and rewarding to do manually.

I know there are strong feelings about triggers out there, and I understand a good mud might very well get ruined if there are hordes of bots running around by themselves all day long. To prevent this, most muds seem to have some kind of anti-bot policy. In some cases you are not allowed to use triggers at all, in most cases you may use them to some extent, as long as you promise you sit at the keyboard and watch the screen. No laws work unless enforced, and I suppose the easiest way to catch a botter is to unexpectedly give them some question a bot wouldn't be able to answer. My problem is, if I want to stay at the same spot for 45 minutes mining that rock with my cool trigger, I will definitely also get bored from staring at the screen. Sure, often I can chat with friends, read bulletins, or open a browser and watch pictures of cute Russian tennis players while waiting. But more often than not I might read something interesting on the net, or find something better to do with my time. And I don't want to have my character deleted by a 15-year-old nazi-admin who has dedicated his (there are no 15-year-old nazi-admin girls) life to find and punish those who break any law. No, it hasn't happened to me, but you get the point. If there are rules, I honestly want to follow them. But I also want to enjoy my time while playing.

So what else is on my wish-list? I don't want the mud to enforce RP. I admit I am a nerd who actually think it is fun to chop down 5000 trees, make planks and build a vessel. Probably I don't share the psychological profile with those who write a minor novel for their character background and want to discuss the weather in dwarven tongue. But I certainly don't mind to share the server with them. It's also ok if I have to kill goblins to get exp for advancing or get goblins noses for my potion of invincibility, but I would prefer if I didn't have to kill mobs for two years until I am powerful enough to switch over to crafting. And I don't like PK. Ideally there are PK zones, where those who are into that kind of gameplay can compete, but I'd prefer to be left alone while picking my flowers.

Now, do you think there are any muds for guys like me? All suggestions are much appreciated!

09-30-2009, 02:02 PM	#1
Kal New Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 2	Looking for a mud with complex economy with crafting Hi, I have been playing a variety of muds since the mid 90s. Starting to fear for the extinction of goblins after all these years, I would now like a fresh start in some interesting mud, and focus on resource gathering, crafting and economy. Many muds offer some kind of crafting, but often as something you preferably do while regenerating from your last goblin onslaught. From the muds I have tried, the one that I found most interesting is Batmud. In the merchant guild I could spend lots of time mining and lumberjacking to get resources for building things like chests and complex ships. In the alchemist guild I first had to research my personal potion recipes, and could then collect ingredients and produce for a profit. They have made an excellent job creating these guilds indeed, and they offer pretty much what I am looking for. However, there are two main reasons I am looking for something else, so I will try to explain what I would like in my next mud. There must be an interesting and rewarding economy for crafters. Even though it might be mighty fun to spend weeks or more to build a ship, it's pretty frustrating when nobody wants to buy it for any decent amount of <enter your local mud currency here>. Or when your potions are only so-so much worth to the adventurers that they are not willing to pay all that much for them. When you realize it's quicker to just bash another zillion of goblins and collect the loot - where you gain both experience and money - you will eventually get bored of crafting, even if the crafting is fun by itself. I understand there is a dilemma, the adventuring party must also feel it is worth their time to kill a difficult boss to get their über-fancy cloak of divine superiority rather than easily craft an even über-fancier cloak too easily. Are there any good muds out there that have made this balance work nicely? The other thing I want, is to be allowed to use triggers. No, I don't want to build a bot that I start when I go to work, and come home at afternoon to find that it has built ten million potions, a castle and a couple of smaller planets while I was away. But I want to be able to use my mud client to set up the some triggers to do boring tasks for me. I'll give you an example. Let's say I have been walking around (manually) looking for a good mining spot. After some time I found a nice rock, where I use the command "mine gold" to get the process started. After half a minute I get a piece of gold, or possibly fail the action. Now I write "mine gold" again. After 45 minutes and 90 “mine gold”s the rock is depleted, I have run out of storage capacity, or Windows Vista has decided I needed a break and shut down the entire computer. In any case, this gets boring. It might be fun the first 10 times, while you learn how to do it. When you have done it 5000 times it is... not quite as fun any more. So let me put up a trigger that make a new attempt at "mine gold", until I can do it no longer. Or make the concept of mining fun and rewarding to do manually. I know there are strong feelings about triggers out there, and I understand a good mud might very well get ruined if there are hordes of bots running around by themselves all day long. To prevent this, most muds seem to have some kind of anti-bot policy. In some cases you are not allowed to use triggers at all, in most cases you may use them to some extent, as long as you promise you sit at the keyboard and watch the screen. No laws work unless enforced, and I suppose the easiest way to catch a botter is to unexpectedly give them some question a bot wouldn't be able to answer. My problem is, if I want to stay at the same spot for 45 minutes mining that rock with my cool trigger, I will definitely also get bored from staring at the screen. Sure, often I can chat with friends, read bulletins, or open a browser and watch pictures of cute Russian tennis players while waiting. But more often than not I might read something interesting on the net, or find something better to do with my time. And I don't want to have my character deleted by a 15-year-old nazi-admin who has dedicated his (there are no 15-year-old nazi-admin girls) life to find and punish those who break any law. No, it hasn't happened to me, but you get the point. If there are rules, I honestly want to follow them. But I also want to enjoy my time while playing. So what else is on my wish-list? I don't want the mud to enforce RP. I admit I am a nerd who actually think it is fun to chop down 5000 trees, make planks and build a vessel. Probably I don't share the psychological profile with those who write a minor novel for their character background and want to discuss the weather in dwarven tongue. But I certainly don't mind to share the server with them. It's also ok if I have to kill goblins to get exp for advancing or get goblins noses for my potion of invincibility, but I would prefer if I didn't have to kill mobs for two years until I am powerful enough to switch over to crafting. And I don't like PK. Ideally there are PK zones, where those who are into that kind of gameplay can compete, but I'd prefer to be left alone while picking my flowers. Now, do you think there are any muds for guys like me? All suggestions are much appreciated!