[Throttle]

I'm looking for a MUD to play on the side, a secondary to the one I play on mainly. I tend to be kinda picky, so I ask that you recommend a MUD that's fairly close to what I'm looking for:

- Not a roleplaying MUD. I don't care if it's encouraged or not as long as I'm not expected to do it. I play an RPI mainly and I'm just looking for something relaxing and simple for when I'm tired or waiting for something to happen.

- Should be straight-forward and not too complicated. It doesn't have to be a stock DIKU codebase, but I'm not interested in something that is wholly different from conventional MUDs. I'm looking for a game that I can jump straight into and play without too much reading and experimenting. The codebases I prefer are DIKU and ROM, but it's not required.

- A manageable playerbase. I prefer it to be around 20-50ish at peak. 250 becomes too impersonal and 5 gets lonely. If possible, a playerbase that peaks at Euro-friendly times would be nice but not strictly necessary.

- Should be grind-oriented but not mindless. If it takes great effort to figure out then I can't use it as a de-stressing pastime, but it should take more than typing "kill orc" every 15 seconds for hours on end.

- Should not have 50 races and 40 classes to choose from. I don't like that.

- No ridiculous themes like Disney amusement parks or pop culture references in areas.

- Should only have the 6 conventional exit directions - N E S W U D. A bit of an odd preference, I know, but I've never been able to get used to NE/NW/SE/SW.

[Newworlds]

That is indeed an odd preference.

[Molly]

Since the activity seems to be pretty low on this board, I thought that I'd recommend my own Mud, 4 Dimensions, even though we don't reach one of your requirements - our playerbase is a bit lower than that. We usually drop to half our normal number during summertime, and even if we usually recover in the fall, we rarely peak above 20 nowadays.

As for the rest, we've got it all, and a lot more features too, that you can take or leave as you please.

There are loads of different things to do in 4D, but we started out as h&s and that is still a big part of the gameplay. However, you can also advance on trading, or some basic professions like farming, gardening, mining and lumberjacking.

Our main attraction is however the zones, and the built-in Quests that have become the hallmark of 4D. Our building standards are high, so our over 200 zones have a lot of depth and extra features for those who care to look a bit deeper. And we still have an active Builder staff, so you'll never run out of new things to explore. The zones and the built-in Quests range from extremely easy to the extremely hard, so there will be good hunting places for all levels.

There is a lot more to combat than 'kill mob', but you could get along well enough with that simple command as well, if you are lazy. All the extras, like offensive and defensive skills and spells are well documented in our helpfiles and on our pretty extensive website, where you can also find info about the zones and Quests and many more things.

We've stuck to 8 races and 8 Classes, and also to the usual 6 exit room - (I share your preferences there myself).

RP as well as PK is optional.

The codebase is heavily modified Circle, so we have the 'normal' DIKU type commands, plus of course a lot of extras, but these too are well documented and mostly quite intuitive. We offer the opportunity to make advanced aliases in-game, and many of our players also use scripts on their mud clients. I know a lot of Muds disallow this, but we accept it, because it's pretty hard to prevent even if you wanted to. I personally don't fancy having rules that you cannot implement, (preferably by coded restrictions).

I can really recommend our customed Mud School and the Quest Academy. which will give you a solid introduction to our world.

All in all I'd say that 4D is a fun Mud to play and really deserves a much larger playerbase, but since we've always targeted the 'smart' players, it's kept pretty stable and small over the years.

[Sandra]

I'll take a few moments to respond to your queries and give some information about LegendMUD.

Legend does not require Rp. We have several players that love RP, and we have a fair amount that don't. We like to cater to everyone.

Legend was originally DIKU/Merc. It's heavily modified, but we have pretty much the same commands.

Just like 4D, we too lose some players over the summer months, but pick back up in september. Right now we're usually around 20-25 players max. A fair portion of our playerbase is from non-US countries as well.

As I stated above, we try to cater to everyone. You could go around using 'kill' for everything, but we've got plenty of skills to make the grind more enjoyable. Not to mention that our in depth and well researched areas have plenty of fully automated and custom, simple and epic, quests to add to the enjoyment.

Legend doesn't use races or classes. You decide what you want to be based on your hometown, the skills you choose and your stats.

Legend is based on the myths of the earth. We have 3 eras - ancient, medieval and industrial - in which you can stroll through ancient Rome, visit with the Bane sidhe of the Irish underhill, climb into Hell as told in Dante's Inferno, or retrace the steps of Odysseus in ancient greece, plus much, much more.

Never could stand those extra directions for some reason. We stick with the standard 6 as well.

is the new player section of our website with some helpful info.

Good luck in your search!

Sandra

[bytre]

I feel like I'm overdoing it because I'm posting about Ancient Anguish in response to two posts in a row. I don't think it meets all your criteria, but it may be what you'd like:

RP: We have some role players, but they're the minority. Be yourself.

Straightforward: Some classes are very straightforward, others are much more involved and complex. Pick your preference. There's an immense amount of different things to do, nobody does them all. LP based.

Userbase: Over the course of a week, we'll peak in the low 60's and bottom out in the high 20's. We still retain and attract a number of european users, having started out in Switzerland 16 years ago, and have people online around the clock.

Grind oriented: There is a great appeal in "the grind" for our power players, which are a segment of the user base. There's different types of players, who all fit into the ecosystem.

Race/Classes: 5 races, 8 or 9 classes. Races are rather generic, classes are very independent and varied.

Themes: Medieval europe technology level, with tolkein type magic. Strict world continuity is enforced among the hundreds of areas added over our 16 years.

Directions: The vast majority of exits are the 6 directions, but there are some areas with additional exits.