[seeker33]

Sorry to intrude, but none of the other forums seemed any better.


I'm posting this on a few boards, so if you've already read it, then just skip it.

I've played enough muds now to know what I'd really like to be playing. The hard part seems to be finding it. My best chance is to advertise what I'm looking for in the hopes of getting something close, so here goes:



1. A grand conflict.

Some sort of wide-ranging, involved, on-going war is essential. Different races battling it out for overall power and territory. A common foe, attempting to invade the continent with their minions. A struggle between the nobility and the peasants. Any kind of conflict, as long as it's involving and fun.

I'm looking for player-encompassing wars, where newbies get involved with the war effort by maybe forging weapons, or manning siege engines, or delivering orders through the battle lines. Older players are in the front lines. Fighters are hacking away at any enemy soldiers they see, trying to break down defences and find a way forward. Mages are maintaining shields and lobbing fireballs at the other side. Thieves are sneaking behind enemy lines, sabotaging things when they can. Healers are running around regenerating lost limbs and such. Accomplished players are in their castles, poring over maps of the battefields, directing their large NPC armies in battle, and making heroic appearances in the battle from time to time.

A major war occurs only maybe once every 3 RL months (so it doesn't get stale) and the Imms may influence things behind the scenes to make it interesting, much like a DM does.

In normal times, it's your usual mud atmospehere (within the sides). Quests to do, people to chat with. Supporting this war effort are farmers and craftspeople and engineers. War stuff is built and shockpiled for the big day.

Oh, I'd also be interested on any other nifty war devices. Capture-the-flag, whatever. I'm basically after good co-operative, for-the-greater-good-type camaraderie and combat.

2. A dynamic world.

I like worlds that are alive. Floods ruin crops, fires burn houses down, turnados suck cows up. It makes the world dynamic.

I'd really like to experience a fierce storm once and a while, that rages across the continent causing a whole lot of chaos. A 6-month crop is trashed. The old house on the corner is damaged beyond repair. Some thieving pig has looted your weaponer in all the confusion.

Other things like illness and disease might be good too.

3. Independent factions.

I like the idea of camaraderie. Friends you pool your resources with for some gain, close friends you can count on, and something you need to defend at all costs. Nobility houses. Structured so newbies start at the bottom and rise through the ranks with hard work.

Lord houses competing fiercely with each other, with the leader of the house becoming monarch, and ruling over other lords (and their NPC armies) and everyone else. It would be good to be able to rebel against a monarch that a particular house didn't want. The monarch could try to crush them for their insolence, or whatnot.

I like Political Intrigue. Spying, sabotage, assassination, treaties, power struggles, treachery. These are all wonderful. If I had to pick, I'd take a deep, political mud that bathes in things like these, over the upfront "grand conflict" I mentioned at the start.

Things like, the monarch having to spend a fortune on spies to keep track of hidden alliances and dangerous plots. Anonymous assassination attempts on the lords. Traitors within the houses, compromising hidden agendas.

4. Context-sensitive missions.

I'd like there to be house-based quests, along with the generic all-player quests. The house-based ones might be verbally handed to certain house members and the rewards given by the lords.

Missions like, to weaken a rival house, their scheduled arms shipment must be intercepted and captured. House spies have already learned of the time and place for the interception (through a very dangerous mission of their own), and the lord gives the assignment to 5 junior fighters. The fighters disguise themselves, and leave for the mission. Unfortunately, the mission is a trap by the rival lord, and the fighters are slaughtered by the the ambushed soldiers waiting for them. Evidence is gathered and the rival lord takes it to the monarch, whose job it is to punish the offending house in some way.

Assassination of the monarch, rival house lords, key house members, and even traiterous sabotage within houses. This is the kind of action that I'm looking for. I'd also be interested in sneaky actions, like forging official documents, or carefully framing someone else for your crime, or maybe delicately hacking into a computer network for some ends (cyberpunk). I very much like remote and/or sneaky skills, but I don't mind hack and slash too.

At my current mud, they have some very involving quests, which I like very much. It's a level-less mud and stats are primarily improved through these quests, so it's a major part of the gameplay. I don't mind the automated "fetch me the demon blade" kind of quests, but I tend to enjoy well-designed, puzzle-oriented quests more.

5. A fun atmosphere.

Things should be fun. Get killed? No worries, just gather up some of the house demons and go hunt down the backstabbing pig. He was anonymous? Hire the services of a mage to reveal their identity; you might get lucky. Get knocked off the throne by your second in command? Happens to everybody!



Things I'm not looking for:

6. A hardcore-roleplay fest. If it's not coded, I don't wanna know about it. I don't want to act things out, I want to do things. I don't mind roleplaying, but I draw the line at posing the action sequences.

7. An outstanding ecconomy model. I couldn't care less. It just doesn't interest me. Involving gameplay interests me.



I've tried to search through the mudconnect.com listings, but because of the non-detailed descriptions usually submitted by the mud, I found it next to useless in locating one with these features.

If you know of a mud that's deep and does some of the things I listed, then please tell me! I'll at least check it out and see if it suits me. Those that see this description and think it'd be cool to play a mud like this, should maybe think about playing Star Wars: Galaxies when it comes out. I'm not sure how similar it will be, but I know for certain that it'll have small enclaves you can join and build-up and defend together. I myself hope it turns out well. And the ship-to-ship fighing in the second release might make it absolutely awesome. Ahh, we'll just have to wait and see...

I'm sure it must have already been done in a text-mud though, so I'm hopeful for pointers to these interesting muds.

[KaVir]

Speaking as moderator:

This post is not appropriate for the Advanced Mud Concepts forum, as should be clear to anyone reading the posting guidelines within that forum. As such it has been moved.

Please take the time to read the guidelines in future.

Regards,
KaVir.

[Dionae]

Hm... Feudal Realms has some of the things you're asking for, but doesn't have others. Large scale wars, conflict, intrigue... Ideally, that it what life in Kirganthis would be like. Unfortunately, it doesn't quite live up to that currently. We are still finishing up a transitional stage after the recent housewipe. Pk will soon be reinstated, and the new glory system will take effect, which does sound a lot like you describe.

Right now, there are ten noble houses and orders, which will soon form alliances, and find themselves up against the houses/orders which belong to a different alliance. A sort of "capture the flag", like you said, will come into play, and houses will be seeking to earn glory points, which will allow them to purchase certain benefits for their house/alliance. But.. the system is still new, and will have to be worked into the game.

Currently, a lot of the intrigue, secrecy, house-based quests, etc. occur behind the scenes. A few things are actually roleplayed out, but a lot is just assumed. As a newbie, you probably won't see a lot of these things going on, because even when they are roleplayed out, they're done in.. well.. secret... But, in the future, I'm sure a lot more of these kinds of actions will occur...

Things FR doesn't have...

A dynamic world. You may see a thunderstorm, but you won't see it do any permanent damage, or cause any floods (well, except that one time me and Boon flooded Stonegate...)

There aren't any automated quests, aside from a few "bring me this item to get a key or special thing" quests... The Ancients run quests from time to time, which can range from knowledge quests, to pk quests, to roleplay storylines (one which I have yet to finish.. darn...)

So.. it may not be exactly what you're looking for... but, if you'd still like to give us a try, you can connect to: feudal.betterbox.net port: 4444, or visit the website at:

[thelenian]