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Jazuela · 04-11-2004, 08:55 AM

Are you willing to consider a game that meets or exceeds most of your criteria, but falls short on a very small bit of it? If so, perhaps Armageddon is for you.

1) It's free, no "add-on" stuff for extra, just plain free.
2) No levels, but it does have its own equivalent of classes. However, those skillsets (guilds/subguilds) give the character a very wide variety of skills, which eventually branch out to other skills that the character doesn't start with. It's a fairly realistic, logical setup.
3) It's an RPI, in the strictest sense. No global OOC capability whatsoever, both intensive and strictly enforced roleplay, and the code supports the intensity.
4) There is an "OOC" command, which can be seen by anyone in the same room as the person using it. This is used -very sparingly.- Example of why it is needed: newbie shows up and doesn't know how to get out of the building. His -character- would know. His -player- just needs some syntax help. Player asks, ooc, "Syntax to get out of her please?" Someone in the room answers, ooc, "Syntax is leave." Boom. End of OOC discussion. Another example of why it's needed: Characters want to meet tomorrow at 9AM to discuss a trade agreement. But, the game world has its own calendar, which can be difficult to translate to real-world time. Player oocs, "Tomorrow 9AM eastern okay?" Other player oocs, "Make it 9:30?" Roleplay resumes. That's pretty much the extent of OOC in Armageddon. Once in awhile it'll go further than that but if a newbie needs more help than a 1-line answer can provide the players are great about bringing the newbie to an unpopulated area so they can talk OOC without disrupting RP for everyone else.

5) No "exp" but there are health points, stamina points, stun, and mana. It's a completely OOC code device to help the player know whether or not they're about to drop dead and if maybe they should get the heck outta there. If you are being attacked, or attacking someone/something stronger than you, or a spell backfires, or you're walking in the desert and dying of thirst, seeing nice text sentences is nice but you might miss it with the room/activity echoes. Having those numbers available for you to see (you don't HAVE to see them - in ordered to see them you have to either set a prompt echo up, or type stat and/or score) can make the difference between your character's life and death.
6) Physical damage, unfortunately, is measured only in how many HPs you have. When you look at an injured character you will only see whether he is in perfect health, in moderate condition, stunned and unable to move, etc. etc. and whether or not he's bleeding, and to what extend (bleeding profusely, for example). There's been occasional discussion on how some folks would love to see injury-locations added to the code, but so far the staff hasn't implemented anything like that. HOWEVER - while you are getting injured, the code WILL tell you where the damage is being done. So you at least will have the opportunity to hold your battered arm, or press against the gash in your belly, etc. etc. in a RP'ed manner.
7) Permadeath - you betcha. It wouldn't be a very good RPI if it didn't have this!
8) Genre: Inspired by a combination of Dark Sun and Dune, with many familiar ideas in the world (some of the critters you might recognize), but this is nothing even remotely resembling a "stock" game. Semi-post-apocalyptic fantasy (no dark elves, the dwarves do -not- have beards, no "hobbits" but instead rather nasty halflings that eat what they kill - including you), harsh desert world.
9) Crafting, emote system, help files, improvement and new skills learned by DOING things, not by sitting there absorbing experience and checking into some trainer to train off points, totally hard-core roleplay, no cuddly cutsey empaths bouncing around giggling while they bleed from every pore on whatever is left of their skin.
10) Top-notch staff of Implementors and Immortals.
11) No list of 20-zillion verbs/socials. You learn the emote system, which allows for extremely dynamic, almost limitless expression.
12) It -is- a DIKU derivitive, but it is absolutely positively NOT a "hunting" game. You -can- play a combat-oriented character and some people do, but I don't know how to stress enough that hunting/killing mobs/pking is -not- necessary to become immersed in the RP world. You could start out with a warrior-type skillset and end up opening your own bakery, or start out as a "burglar-type" skillset and spend your character's life living in the lap of luxury as a noble's aid or spy for the noble's house. Your skills don't have to have anything to do with what your character DOES, in other words. They can, but it certainly isn't necessary and many people will pick a skillset only because they want to use a single skill that set comes with, and not bother ever trying to use the other skills.

Again, Armageddon does fall short on some of your criteria, but I feel it exceeds several, and meets most, so perhaps you might want to look at their website and decide for yourself.

04-11-2004, 08:55 AM	#8
Jazuela Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: New England Posts: 849	Are you willing to consider a game that meets or exceeds most of your criteria, but falls short on a very small bit of it? If so, perhaps Armageddon is for you. 1) It's free, no "add-on" stuff for extra, just plain free. 2) No levels, but it does have its own equivalent of classes. However, those skillsets (guilds/subguilds) give the character a very wide variety of skills, which eventually branch out to other skills that the character doesn't start with. It's a fairly realistic, logical setup. 3) It's an RPI, in the strictest sense. No global OOC capability whatsoever, both intensive and strictly enforced roleplay, and the code supports the intensity. 4) There is an "OOC" command, which can be seen by anyone in the same room as the person using it. This is used -very sparingly.- Example of why it is needed: newbie shows up and doesn't know how to get out of the building. His -character- would know. His -player- just needs some syntax help. Player asks, ooc, "Syntax to get out of her please?" Someone in the room answers, ooc, "Syntax is leave." Boom. End of OOC discussion. Another example of why it's needed: Characters want to meet tomorrow at 9AM to discuss a trade agreement. But, the game world has its own calendar, which can be difficult to translate to real-world time. Player oocs, "Tomorrow 9AM eastern okay?" Other player oocs, "Make it 9:30?" Roleplay resumes. That's pretty much the extent of OOC in Armageddon. Once in awhile it'll go further than that but if a newbie needs more help than a 1-line answer can provide the players are great about bringing the newbie to an unpopulated area so they can talk OOC without disrupting RP for everyone else. 5) No "exp" but there are health points, stamina points, stun, and mana. It's a completely OOC code device to help the player know whether or not they're about to drop dead and if maybe they should get the heck outta there. If you are being attacked, or attacking someone/something stronger than you, or a spell backfires, or you're walking in the desert and dying of thirst, seeing nice text sentences is nice but you might miss it with the room/activity echoes. Having those numbers available for you to see (you don't HAVE to see them - in ordered to see them you have to either set a prompt echo up, or type stat and/or score) can make the difference between your character's life and death. 6) Physical damage, unfortunately, is measured only in how many HPs you have. When you look at an injured character you will only see whether he is in perfect health, in moderate condition, stunned and unable to move, etc. etc. and whether or not he's bleeding, and to what extend (bleeding profusely, for example). There's been occasional discussion on how some folks would love to see injury-locations added to the code, but so far the staff hasn't implemented anything like that. HOWEVER - while you are getting injured, the code WILL tell you where the damage is being done. So you at least will have the opportunity to hold your battered arm, or press against the gash in your belly, etc. etc. in a RP'ed manner. 7) Permadeath - you betcha. It wouldn't be a very good RPI if it didn't have this! 8) Genre: Inspired by a combination of Dark Sun and Dune, with many familiar ideas in the world (some of the critters you might recognize), but this is nothing even remotely resembling a "stock" game. Semi-post-apocalyptic fantasy (no dark elves, the dwarves do -not- have beards, no "hobbits" but instead rather nasty halflings that eat what they kill - including you), harsh desert world. 9) Crafting, emote system, help files, improvement and new skills learned by DOING things, not by sitting there absorbing experience and checking into some trainer to train off points, totally hard-core roleplay, no cuddly cutsey empaths bouncing around giggling while they bleed from every pore on whatever is left of their skin. 10) Top-notch staff of Implementors and Immortals. 11) No list of 20-zillion verbs/socials. You learn the emote system, which allows for extremely dynamic, almost limitless expression. 12) It -is- a DIKU derivitive, but it is absolutely positively NOT a "hunting" game. You -can- play a combat-oriented character and some people do, but I don't know how to stress enough that hunting/killing mobs/pking is -not- necessary to become immersed in the RP world. You could start out with a warrior-type skillset and end up opening your own bakery, or start out as a "burglar-type" skillset and spend your character's life living in the lap of luxury as a noble's aid or spy for the noble's house. Your skills don't have to have anything to do with what your character DOES, in other words. They can, but it certainly isn't necessary and many people will pick a skillset only because they want to use a single skill that set comes with, and not bother ever trying to use the other skills. Again, Armageddon does fall short on some of your criteria, but I feel it exceeds several, and meets most, so perhaps you might want to look at their website and decide for yourself.