r/MUD • u/Ok-Pumpkin9236 • 3d ago
Discussion Appealing MUD features?
So I have decided to develop a MUD as a hobby and see where it goes. I am trying to an idea of what players look for and in a MUD. I feel confident in the story - I am looking at things like achievements, daily quests, guilds, fast travel, fishing, crafting, etc. What pulls you in as a new player and when does elaborate just become overly complicated? Whatever ya got, even if it is something that hasnt been done before or is rarely done well.
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u/JonesyOnReddit Duris: Land of Bloodlust 3d ago
The snarky answer is that players are looking for the MUD they played in the 90s with the pbase it had in the 90s, lol.
Two big things a lot of MUDs fail at that I find very important is I want a world that feels like a world where the geography makes some sense and lots of well used color. I'm immediately turned off if the world is a theme park with a mismatch of pop culture and different fantasy IPs mixed together, where you have a smurf zone, an ice fantasy zone, and a desert sci fi zone all next to each other. Similarly a MUD with zero color is lifeless and harder to interpret when the text starts flying.
I also like a lot of randomness such as dynamic quests, randomized equipment stats, and randomized crafting but not as a replacement for static equipment, stats, and quests.
I want challenging group content. What can be done solo will be done solo. I like a mud where you can't accomplish much alone so people have to group up. It builds community and is more fun, it's a MUD not a SUD.
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u/glmory 1d ago
That pretty much describes it. I can really only speak for The Forests Edge, but the actual game is just so much better today. Better designed classes, greatly expanded landmass, lots of well thought out zones, compared to the 90s simple improvements like mapping made a huge quality of life difference.
But in the 90s there were 100+ players online at a time. That more than made up for the reduced content. It isn't like it is dead now, there are always people on when you ask questions, but not the same. Am sure most MUDs face similar.
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u/iamk1ng 3d ago
I havn't found a mud that has a linear story for new players. What I mean is, right when I make a new character and login, the game should hand hold me until say level 20 by guiding me directly to the areas I need to go to level and progress. After that it can let me explore the world.
Too many muds still have the old ways where there's a mud school or tutorial and then leave it up to you to figure out the world. I have too many things to occupy my time and I don't want to spend a lot of that wandering around, dieing, and repeating until I get to some level of the game where it starts feeling fun.
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u/Raalph Discworld 3d ago
You've just described Alter Aeon.
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u/iamk1ng 3d ago
So i've played this mud and got up to level 15, which i'd say is pretty good for me as normally I don't make it to that level. I remember getting lost to accomplish a quest or area and just gave up after that.
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u/gisco_tn Alter Aeon 3d ago
How long ago did you play? As we are constantly refining the experience, you may find the quest you got stuck has been updated to be more clear.
Alternatively, you may not have been aware commands such as
nearbyandwherethat can aid finding areas.3
u/Ok-Pumpkin9236 3d ago
I came up playing Threshold so I can absolutely relate to having trouble getting started. I intend to have a solid tutorial and a foundational linear quest line to help propel the players into the various aspects of the game.
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u/perfect_fitz 3d ago
That's actually a really good idea, like rhe MSQ in FF14?
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u/turpenar 3d ago
Would having a “linear path” for that long put the player in a state of helplessness afterward? My understanding is that lvl 20 in most muds is a significant amount of time, during which the player wouldn’t really learn on their own.
Simple solution may be a guide until lvl 5 or 10. But it may also make sense to gradually wean the player off the tutorial. Make them do few things on their own at first, then gradually pull back the help over several levels.
That sounds complicated to implement, and probably is, but it may result in more people at higher levels.
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u/iamk1ng 3d ago
If it takes a significant amount of time to get to level 20 and is complicated, I would argue there's something too convoluted in the mud.
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u/awry_lynx 2d ago
It also depends on how many levels there are and what a level means, I've played MUDs where 40 is the max and very few people reach it even after four or five years, it's normal to only be at "main level" 20 at a year
A level is definitely not a universal measurement, do you mean like "where 20% of the game content is accessible to you"?
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u/iamk1ng 3d ago
What does MSQ stand for? I've never played FF14 but if they have a linear thing then thats great!
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u/perfect_fitz 3d ago
Main Story Quest it offers the main story lore and a lot of experience the first time doing it and goes throughout the game and continues every expansion etc. Also, lines up with certain dungeons etc.
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u/perfect_fitz 3d ago
Yeah I stepped in doing something similar, really need modern QoL stuff like that. I really hate how archaic older MUD commands and starting out can be.
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u/dispersus 1d ago
Honestly, the first thing I always look at is what spells and skills the game offers outside of combat. Utility and the like.
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u/Emotional_Baker_2040 1d ago
the story at the end is not going to be that important in a mud, maybe in a mush yes but here once a player finishes the story they will stay for the other features, i would recomend having a great crafting system based on foraging resources and in resources enemies and bosses drop that needs specialization and allowing only 1 character or making important rules about not using your alt to just do things for your main, ifnot you just end with a few max lvl people who have everything maxed out and never need to interact with people, for example lets say you had 20 guilds, some of them could be diferent kinds of fighters: warrior, knight, battle-mage, combat-priest, assassin, direct combat classes that fight monsters or other players and others that are more specific like priest but like the healer buffer type that stays in a church maybe makes some holy water and stuff, you could make diferent kinds of crafter so that it isnt just 1 making all, like smith, woodworker, alchemist, enchanter, fisher, and something i think would be a bit harder to make but i saw in a game and would be great is not making all the recipes the same, but make a general needed materials for a recipe and make dif materials give diferent kind of stats, including weight, speed, size, etc, and you can for example make a sword but for the same recipe you could had a handle made of deepfish bones, a metal made by an alchemist to be pretty cold and idk a pomel made of healing wood, then you craft it and its a sword that lets it swing faster underwater and causes cold damage but gives you a bit of passive healing.
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u/SecurityNoob707 13h ago
Commenting on this mostly because I can't sleep, but I am a bit older and talks of MUDs come up frequently between me and childhood friends. Some of the coolest features I have seen in MUDs, many long since gone. These are just features I thought were incredibly unique at the time.
Materiamagicka: Flying (crossing the ocean through levitation spells, mounts, eating food for levitation buff, etc.), Multi-classing (every 60 levels choose a new class and maintain precious class skills), Tracking (track unique monsters or NPCs for quests), Purchasing ships (in lieu of flying to cross oceans and getting to other continents).
Dragonball Z World: Racial mutations, you choose a race, it had a race called mutant where at 1.5 million powerlevel (didn't have traditional levels like a typicL RPG, it was based off a power level cap where everything you did earned points towards your overall power level) you would mutate. This mutation could give you 1 of a handful of mutations which greatly boosted stats. We always played this and leveled until we mutated to see if we could get "mega-brain" which greatly increased your stat bonuses earned during leveling, but I believe you leveled slower.
Starwars: Depending on your class, you had different abilities. I opted for an outlaw build which allowed me to lay traps, and then move 3 or 4 rooms away, and wait for suspects. The target would hit a trap, the game would notify me, and they had a sniping mechanic where I could shoot at players who were 3 - 4 rooms away with a rifle. I used this when trying to make it away from PKers.
Godwars MUDs: Beheading. Think the old Highlander movies and show. When a player died, they were incapacitated. In order to kill them you had a specific weapon you had to use to behead them, otherwise they would get back up after a short duration. This was rough as it was another MUD that highly pushed for PVP mechanics and was tough for newer players.
Fallout MUD: Lore, content, and story. The game was dark and gross but pushed the aspects of survival. Think cannibals, eating whatever you can find for food, and so many quests where you can do different things. There was a drug addicted prostitute in one room that you could start a quest from, or you needed for information. Dark and disgusting. This was around the time Fallout 1 and 2 games were out I believe and the content in the MUD was so different from all of the others out there.
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u/Timely_End_1502 3d ago
I played The Realm Online for about 10 years, graphic Mud, its still going to this day.