Should I just find another MUD?

[Buster]

I have played MUME on an off for the past 8 years. My high character was maybe level 15. I just came back to mess around and this game seems all but dead. There are a handful of players, and this board is absolutely dead. Should I even bother trying to level up/play?

[Kalev]

I agree that this forum is pretty much dead, but the game itself has had about the same amount of players for the last few years. Not much change there.

You should certainly give it a try and then decide for yourself if you want to keep on playing.

[Donnchadh]

If your highest character was 15, I'd say that you have loads still to discover, which is most of the fun in playing a MUD in my opinion. I suppose it depends on how much worth you place on interaction with other players. Most of those remaining are hard-core PK'ers, so possibly if you're just looking to group up and go exploring, you're out of luck. I play on my own, so I wouldn't know for sure.

[Buster]

Well I want to get a char. to a high enough level where I can see what PK'ing is like. I've been in a couple battles but I was always the lowbie and got smoked. Around what level can I try (and fail) at pvp?

[Jahara]

Well I want to get a char. to a high enough level where I can see what PK'ing is like. I've been in a couple battles but I was always the lowbie and got smoked. Around what level can I try (and fail) at pvp?

You can start to hold your own around hero level. I would highly recommend to stay of PKing until legend level because you'll otherwise never manage to keep your levels

[Jycherok]

Also, keep in mind that MUME has a reduced player base than what it had 6+ years ago because of the rise of graphical MMORPG's.

This is to say,.. most any MUD nowadays will most probably have a severely reduced player base.

That being said, out of all the MUD's I've played, MUME is by far the most intricate and best MUD I've ever played.
I mean, you really can't get any closer to playing a well designed hardcore game like MUME when it comes to text based games.

All those other MUD's with the technicolor rainbow interface where when you hit something it says something like "YOU -==-=-=- COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY ANNIHILATE =-=-=-=- =- A FISH AND IT EXPLODES IN A MILLION PIECES FROM THE IMPACT!!!" just don't do it for me.

My 2 cents.

[Andróg]

I don't know what your playstyle is like and what you look for in a mud, so I can't really give you a yes/no answer. Thing is, though, if your experience of the game is limited to lvl1-15, then there's tons of new stuff to try out for you in MUME. You might want to give it another try just because of that.

Besides, as mentioned, you're unlikely to find many other muds with more players anyway, it's not like you can find another mud of the same size and have peripherical places (imagine BM underground area) buzzing with people.

Oh and Elvenrunes is a lot more active as a forum than this place. Although, yes, you need a lvl20+ char to sign up there.

[science]

I hated levels 1-17 or so. Then it starts to get a bit more fun in terms of what you can handle.

Hang in there! Keep spamming narrates looking for a group of lowbies - even if someone is much lower level they can maybe still lead some really good xp with you

[Antti]

The most active MUME forum, kinda daily meeting place on people in MUME is http://www.elvenrunes.com

[Lukas]

i'm the same as the OP, gave MUME another try out of nostalgia, mobdied a couple times and realized the mobdeath penalties just encourage people to take as few risks as possible and not challenge themselves. I want to like the game but it's hard when you give it another chance and find that the things you disliked about it haven't changed at all...kindof like meeting an ex

[Elestir]

The mobdeath penalties are harsh only at really high levels, especially considering the high level players tend to be very experienced, and thus mobdie almost always because of link problems. But of course there are exceptions.

However I admit that even if lowbie mobdies, it can still be discouraging and if it was upon me I would tone the loss down. Maybe you need to realize, that as long as you keep mobdying, you are really only learning the game, and eventually when you learn it well enough, you will be able to avoid these deaths with new chars you create.
Earlier the mobdeath had also the bad effect of putting you to really sucky age, where you suffered from low regeneration rates either for moves (warriors) or mana (casters) and e.g. for elven warriors, it meant almost half a rl year of bad regen . This is fortunately no longer the case, as the age you end up after mobdeath is nowadays the age of best mobility for warriors and decently balanced even for casters.

[Andróg]

i'm the same as the OP, gave MUME another try out of nostalgia, mobdied a couple times and realized the mobdeath penalties just encourage people to take as few risks as possible and not challenge themselves. I want to like the game but it's hard when you give it another chance and find that the things you disliked about it haven't changed at all...kindof like meeting an ex

It is of course true that mobdying sucks and that losing all that time spent on gaining exp that quickly is everything but a pleasant experience. However... think of the alternative: mobrip doesn't have any painful consequences, thus you simply shrug it off, when it happens, and move on to doing whatever you did before. My guess: you'd quit because of boredom faster than because of mobrip penalties.

[Lukas]

So you're saying the rest of the game is less fun than mobdying. That seems backwards, but if it's true the solution is to make changes to make it more fun, not keep the punishment in to keep people playing longer. That's really backwards logic and emblematic of the problem. The people left playing are like addicts. When most people do drugs they want it to be pure and enjoyable, but addicts? They don't care what form it's in, they just need it. Anybody with any kind of self respect left the game long ago.

[Elestir]

Just like it is with evil in world in general, just so it is with mobdeath penalties. They are here to stimulate progress in your playing skills. Without them, players wouldn't give a damn about mobdying, so they would not improve their skills that help avoid them (at least not in such a high extent as they do atm). So right now, if someone is a legend, it is usually a guarantee that he posseses basic survival skills. Without this guarantee, we would have many clueless high level players, which in turn would affect other parts of the game including PK (much more XP would then come from PKing clueless targets and therefore XP on mobs would become completely obsolote for high levels - it is not far from this state as it is now, as the recent "influx" of level 100 chars prove). It could be possible to rebalance it, but this process of finding balance is very difficult.

[Ampere]

Like 1 or 2 years ago, MUME had serious problem with server. And was down for long periods... Im not adicted, but in those times I had to try other muds. There were one which you born to pk. No exp! Really fun for the first hour. Than I started a mume page

This pk stuff is over-rated, 70% is massive overkilling, xp can be sometimes more challenging. If you dont feel nice xping as lowbie, you prob wont like the pk.

XP as legend is even harder... Most ppl groups only with their mates...

[Andróg]

Without this guarantee, we would have many clueless high level players, which in turn would affect other parts of the game including PK (much more XP would then come from PKing clueless targets and therefore XP on mobs would become completely obsolote for high levels - it is not far from this state as it is now, as the recent "influx" of level 100 chars prove).

I think this assessment is somewhat inaccurate. The recent influx of lvl100 chars doesn't really have that much to do with easy pk targets. Two other main factors have played a far larger role in this:

1. All these players have played the game for years and years, they've played those same chars for years. Eventually you'll reach lvl100 like that, it's just a matter of time.
2. The larger the variety of mobs in this game, the easier it is to gain levels. Compare the available selection of mobs to kill of 2009 to 1999 and you'll realize just how many extra levels people can get by getting those first to tenth kill on all those new mobs.

[Elestir]

The recent influx of lvl100 chars doesn't really have that much to do with easy pk targets. Two other main factors have played a far larger role in this:

1. All these players have played the game for years and years, they've played those same chars for years. Eventually you'll reach lvl100 like that, it's just a matter of time.

While it is true that it helps to stick to smaller set of chars if you want to reach superhigh levels, it's by no means an argument against my statement that most of the 100lvl chars gained those xp mostly through pk on clueless targets.

2. The larger the variety of mobs in this game, the easier it is to gain levels. Compare the available selection of mobs to kill of 2009 to 1999 and you'll realize just how many extra levels people can get by getting those first to tenth kill on all those new mobs.

The lvl100 chars that I meant gained those levels mostly (90%+) from pk XP. There may be one or two who gained level 100 or are close to gain it mostly through xping on mobiles, but those are in minority. I might add that you are much more likely to find those xper types on whitie side of the war (for darkies, xping through PK on higher level is simply much more effective).

[Andróg]

Most of the lvl100 chars are whities... and, Staub? Ypsilon is probably a 50/50 case. I think you're somewhat underestimating the effect the expanding variation of mobs has had on level-gaining. But we're both really just guessing, only the A+ could probably come up with actual statistical knowledge about how many extra levels these expansion has helped people to gain.

[Elestir]

Most of the lvl100 chars are whities...

Oh really? If so, then I've missed it.
Out of head I can name 5 darkies and 3 whities. The mostly xper type suits only for Staub from them all (I may have forgot on some xper though... ). The other two whities are probably 50%/50% as you are guessing yourself. All the darkies are around 90%+/10-%, or possibly 80%/20% in one case. Using (pk xp/non-pk xp) syntax btw.

[Antti]

http://mume.pin.ee/hall-of-fame/
A : )