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mudnutx · 05-11-2005, 08:00 PM

Putting the DIKU issues aside, here are the good and bad points about playing Medievia MUD IMHO.

[1] Good points
The integration between various features is fantastic. For instance there are trade runs, dragonlairs and catacombs. All three are integrated like this:

A trade run is, basically, a trip across country roads from one trade post to another, handling certain monster factions that attack your wagon to steal it. If you make it to the desired tradepost with goods they want, you get gold. Certain mob factions, when killed, contain a dragonlair map in the corpse. Loot the map, get about 20 decent stat players together, and go to the dragonlair place shown on the map. Then attack the dragon in the lair. Ay about half HP down it will flee to the nearest clantown. Go to that clantown, kill the dragon and loot its corpse for dragonhide. Go to marious the wizard in Medievia city for a clue about the location of the catacombs, a zone which changes location at random. Find combs entrance, get to the bottom of combs, enter shop, an swer riddle corretcly, and make combo equipment with your dragonhides.

[2] Bad points.
Medievia's classes and skills are very limited and there are no race choices apart from a human default. Your class choices are mage, cleric, thief and warrior. That is REALLY unimaginative 1985 tabletop stuff. And their skills are pretty boring too. all a warrior does is kick, bash and charge. Combat is as boring as bat excrement witha warrior. All a thief really does is backstab. A cleric is slightly interesting with the attune spell and resurrect. But the only class that has anything to offer for interesting gameplay is a Mage, and that's pretty flattering. A mage can summon elementals with stones, use manashield to lose mana instead of hp in fights, and shockwave an enemy. but even then I have seen many MUDs with far more imaginative skillsets.

And there is the donation equipment issue. While in theory there are ways of getting uber equipment without paying RL cash for talismans etc, in reality you cannot be a competitive player without paying. You could kill seaslugs or find dragonhide eq for super stats, but to do either for talisman level stats is very VERY hard. You would have to be a very, very good player. And as for submitting articles to muds;linger or building a zone, I can comment as someone who was once a zonebuilder for MEDievia. It is extremely hard to get an immortal position; the competition is fierce and the applications graded vigorously on a 1 to 10 scale. And it is hard to get any game credit for mudslinger pieces; many articles in mudslinger get no credit.

Then there are the convenience items that are bought with RL cash. There is the blessing that shortens your time penal ty after dying from the usual stupid 10 minutes to about 3. This is where Medievia gets really stupid. You are paying RL cash to make up for the MUDs faults!!! Why doesn't VRyce have no time penalty for death and have donation equipment instead make someone's MUDding better?? Because when it comes to intelligent game design, that guy is just clueless.

****
Medievia is a weird MUD. at times its features are brilliant. At other times it is as abysmal as any ad hoc 14 year old's first wannabe Mud admin summer project. I leave the reader to make up their own mind.

05-11-2005, 08:00 PM	#52
mudnutx New Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 20	Putting the DIKU issues aside, here are the good and bad points about playing Medievia MUD IMHO. [1] Good points The integration between various features is fantastic. For instance there are trade runs, dragonlairs and catacombs. All three are integrated like this: A trade run is, basically, a trip across country roads from one trade post to another, handling certain monster factions that attack your wagon to steal it. If you make it to the desired tradepost with goods they want, you get gold. Certain mob factions, when killed, contain a dragonlair map in the corpse. Loot the map, get about 20 decent stat players together, and go to the dragonlair place shown on the map. Then attack the dragon in the lair. Ay about half HP down it will flee to the nearest clantown. Go to that clantown, kill the dragon and loot its corpse for dragonhide. Go to marious the wizard in Medievia city for a clue about the location of the catacombs, a zone which changes location at random. Find combs entrance, get to the bottom of combs, enter shop, an swer riddle corretcly, and make combo equipment with your dragonhides. [2] Bad points. Medievia's classes and skills are very limited and there are no race choices apart from a human default. Your class choices are mage, cleric, thief and warrior. That is REALLY unimaginative 1985 tabletop stuff. And their skills are pretty boring too. all a warrior does is kick, bash and charge. Combat is as boring as bat excrement witha warrior. All a thief really does is backstab. A cleric is slightly interesting with the attune spell and resurrect. But the only class that has anything to offer for interesting gameplay is a Mage, and that's pretty flattering. A mage can summon elementals with stones, use manashield to lose mana instead of hp in fights, and shockwave an enemy. but even then I have seen many MUDs with far more imaginative skillsets. And there is the donation equipment issue. While in theory there are ways of getting uber equipment without paying RL cash for talismans etc, in reality you cannot be a competitive player without paying. You could kill seaslugs or find dragonhide eq for super stats, but to do either for talisman level stats is very VERY hard. You would have to be a very, very good player. And as for submitting articles to muds;linger or building a zone, I can comment as someone who was once a zonebuilder for MEDievia. It is extremely hard to get an immortal position; the competition is fierce and the applications graded vigorously on a 1 to 10 scale. And it is hard to get any game credit for mudslinger pieces; many articles in mudslinger get no credit. Then there are the convenience items that are bought with RL cash. There is the blessing that shortens your time penal ty after dying from the usual stupid 10 minutes to about 3. This is where Medievia gets really stupid. You are paying RL cash to make up for the MUDs faults!!! Why doesn't VRyce have no time penalty for death and have donation equipment instead make someone's MUDding better?? Because when it comes to intelligent game design, that guy is just clueless. **** Medievia is a weird MUD. at times its features are brilliant. At other times it is as abysmal as any ad hoc 14 year old's first wannabe Mud admin summer project. I leave the reader to make up their own mind.