Top Mud Sites Forum - View Single Post - Community survey: What do MUD players want?

Erisine · 07-14-2011, 10:29 AM

Hi Ter!

Well, the first bit of advice that I would offer would be to think about what KIND of players that you want on your game. "MUD players" is very broad -- merely look around the design and administrative topics to find that our community is drastically split on what folks consider "essential features" based what they like to play (RPIs, RP-enforced, PvP, Group-Based, etc). It would seem like you're maybe wanting to go with the "fun, sexy, and very casual" group-style.

- Races
I applaud you in your efforts to drop your race number down to one; that said, I'm not sure that this actually appeals to a lot of players outside of the "hardcore RP" arena. A lot of people enjoy multiple races, not because of "more class options" but because it's just plain fun to run around as something that isn't human.

Since you want to allow players to customize their characters in much more meaningful way, perhaps you could design extra races that had drastically different play-styles and playability. Everyone knows what running around as your generic biped means -- you get all the same basic equipment slots, same combat mechanics, etc -- and the only difference are some racial abilities and such. You could spice this up by making the game-world's feel totally unique to a different race.

- Player Rewards
You cannot go wrong with achievements. They don't technically even have to do all that much. A similar system to what I'm suggesting has been adopted by a lot of the popular MMO's now -- in that you can perform some difficult task and get a badge, or some related mechanical award or something. What I DO suggest you do, though, is avoid "grinding awards", and instead work on stuff that will encourage players to try all the different facets of your game.

- Advanced Client Functions
You may want to consider whether you want to have a "custom client" such as through Flash, or if you want to work with your community to provide easy-to-set-up modules for popular game clients (MUSHClient seems to be ruling the roost, now). I've grown fond of games that will allow me to click on words that will automatically bring up in-game information on them (especially great if you're having players look at lots of different items), or will launch external links. If you are going to allow game mapping, you could also provide visual interactive overhead maps, or set of a semi-graphical interface.

Are you going to allow levels? If so, avoid bunching up content at the top.

07-14-2011, 10:29 AM	#2
Erisine New Member Join Date: May 2011 Posts: 21	Re: Community survey: What do MUD players want? Hi Ter! Well, the first bit of advice that I would offer would be to think about what KIND of players that you want on your game. "MUD players" is very broad -- merely look around the design and administrative topics to find that our community is drastically split on what folks consider "essential features" based what they like to play (RPIs, RP-enforced, PvP, Group-Based, etc). It would seem like you're maybe wanting to go with the "fun, sexy, and very casual" group-style. - Races I applaud you in your efforts to drop your race number down to one; that said, I'm not sure that this actually appeals to a lot of players outside of the "hardcore RP" arena. A lot of people enjoy multiple races, not because of "more class options" but because it's just plain fun to run around as something that isn't human. Since you want to allow players to customize their characters in much more meaningful way, perhaps you could design extra races that had drastically different play-styles and playability. Everyone knows what running around as your generic biped means -- you get all the same basic equipment slots, same combat mechanics, etc -- and the only difference are some racial abilities and such. You could spice this up by making the game-world's feel totally unique to a different race. - Player Rewards You cannot go wrong with achievements. They don't technically even have to do all that much. A similar system to what I'm suggesting has been adopted by a lot of the popular MMO's now -- in that you can perform some difficult task and get a badge, or some related mechanical award or something. What I DO suggest you do, though, is avoid "grinding awards", and instead work on stuff that will encourage players to try all the different facets of your game. - Advanced Client Functions You may want to consider whether you want to have a "custom client" such as through Flash, or if you want to work with your community to provide easy-to-set-up modules for popular game clients (MUSHClient seems to be ruling the roost, now). I've grown fond of games that will allow me to click on words that will automatically bring up in-game information on them (especially great if you're having players look at lots of different items), or will launch external links. If you are going to allow game mapping, you could also provide visual interactive overhead maps, or set of a semi-graphical interface. Are you going to allow levels? If so, avoid bunching up content at the top.