Newbie Guide Light Sources and Seeing
Newbie Guide Light Sources and Seeing
This guide written and published by p(Baca/Endo)
"I give you the light of Earendil, our most beloved star. May it be a light for you in dark places, when all other lights go out." Galadriel, The Two Towers
This guide is about light and seeing in MUME, or what to do when you cannot see.
Many parts of this guild reference to the MUME help pages which can be found at:
https://mume.org/help/help_index
Bold words can be looked up in the games help files. Like help lantern.
One of the most deciding factors of survival in MUME's Arda is if you can see your foes or not. So we'll be going over some of the ways to address vision in MUME.
Contents
Types of Vision
Different races have different ways to see the game. Almost all of the Free Peoples of the West have what I call normal vision. Normal vision means you can see when a room has light and you can't see when a room is dark. Most of the tips in this guide apply to those with normal vision.
But some races in the game have dark vision. Trolls, all types of orcs, and Beornings metamorphed into Bears can all see in the dark. No light sources are needed.
Cycles of Light
The main cycle of light is the sun. If the sun is up you can see in many rooms of the game. If the sun is down, it's dark and you can't see. In the summer, it is daylight longer and the night is short. In the winter, the days are shorter and the nights are longer.
For more about the cycles of light check out help time and help month.
The moon has no effect on vision. The moon affects several other things in the game however!! Like magical doors, Beornings becoming Bears, or magical fountains. Just not vision in anyway. Does not matter if the moon is up or down for the purpose of seeing.
Some evil races in the game have penalties in the sun. The sun doesn't really affect Free Peoples of the West other then being able to see or not.
Types of Rooms
Many rooms in the game have different ways of how they are lit. Here's the main types:
OUTSIDE - this room types light level depends on the day and night cycle from the sun. They can be either lit or dark from the time of day. Type time to help.
LIT - these types of room always have light, regardless of the time of day. Most of these rooms are indoor rooms in buildings that would be assumed to have torches, fireplaces, lamps, lanterns, campfires, candles, magical lighting, etc... They are always lit.
DARK - these types of rooms are default dark, unless you bring some light in with you. Most of these rooms are in tunnels, mines, caves, ruins, in buildings, underwater, but even very dense forests can be dark.
Also rooms will be unseeable to you if you are sleeping. You can't see what's going on around you while asleep.
Weather Vision Effects
Over all the weather in MUME doesn't really affect your vision very much. It can be a strong thunderstorm, heavy rain, a blizzard of snow... and you can still see fine. As long as the sun is up or the room is lit.
There is one type of weather that DOES affect your vision in the game, and that is fog. There is light fog, which reduces your senses slightly and does make it harder to see. Then there is the dreaded heavy fog. You can't see a damned thing. Even dark vision races have some issues in heavy fog. About the only thing to do is leave the zone that is foggy, or beg someone to come and cast control weather spell to help clear the fog up.
To know the weather about you, your area, or even the entire map try these commands,
weather local, weather fog, weather global
Lighting up a Room
You can bring or make your own light in a room, so it's not dark anymore. That room is now treated as temporarily lit. One of the easiest ways to do this is to make a campfire. That room is now lit, and will stay that way, even if you walk in or out of it. Another way to make a room lit is to light a pile of corpses on fire, like a funeral pyre. The command burn corpse will help with this.
Another option is to drop a lit lantern in the room. It will stay lit and keep providing light from the floor. You can always pick it up later.
camp, burn corpse, drop lantern, get lantern, light lantern
Types of Light You Can Use
Most commonly people just bring the light with them. You can use torches, candles, lanterns, or even magical lights.
TORCHES - you can find torches laying around or in containers in many areas of the game. You can even purchase them pretty cheap from general stores, travellers shops, or some grocers. Torches can last you an entire night easily. To light a torch, simply hold it. If a torch is burned out, simply remove it and drop it. It's now just useless weight.
CRUDE TORCHES - these you can make from a campfire. Make a campfire and then just type get torch fire. They do have a drawback of not lasting very long however.
CANDLES - like torches, just hold them to light them. They are not very common and really can be kind of heavy. Most players don't use them for light.
LANTERNS - Lanterns last for a few MUME days easily. You can light a lantern or snuff a lantern to put it out. Lanterns run on oil. If you snuff a lantern, it does not burn up your oil. Most mobs snuff their lanterns during the day to save oil. You can loot both lanterns and flasks of oil in many different areas, containers, and mobs in the game. Or you can also buy lanterns and flasks of oil pretty cheap from most shops.
Lanterns are better then torches in that they last longer, can be refilled, and you can wear them on your belt instead of having to hold them. To keep a lantern full with oil, just type fill lantern if you have a flask of oil in your inventory or on your belt. If a flask of oil is empty, simply drop it. You don't need to carry around that extra now useless weight.
hold torch, get torch campfire, light lantern, snuff lantern, wear lantern belt, fill lantern
Also you can control if your light source is emitting light or not. Sometimes you might want it dark where you are at. Many scout and thief characters prefer this at times. To lower the light level your light source is giving out, type cover item. To let it produce more light again, type uncover. This may help some characters who hide or sneak alot.
cover lantern, cover ruby, cover campfire, uncover lantern, uncover ruby
Magical Light or Vision
A few rooms in the game are lit up by magical light. But there are even more magical choices when it comes to light sources.
CREATE LIGHT - this low level mage spell basically recharges torches and lanterns. For torches it makes them like a brand new torch, that you can burn up all over again. For lanterns it magically recharges the lantern as if you had filled it up with oil. About the greatest benefit of this spell is it can save you all the weight of carting around flasks of oil. It is mostly only used by low level casters, and not even some of them.
NIGHT VISION - this mid level mage spell gives you a version of dark vision... but not quite as good. You cannot see some information in the room, like a description or some clues in the room if you look or search around. But it does allow you to see any of the mobs in the room. Another benefit of this spell is it helps in light fog and dense fog to see mobs and enemies that might attack you. Night Vision is handy for some scouts, thieves, and mage/thief combos.
SEEING POTION - this is an herblore you can possibly learn if you battle the evil witch outside of Fornost's south gate. Becareful, she's pretty difficult for low levels to take on, unless you have a group. You need an herbal kit and the ingredients to make it. If you drink the seeing potion, you will gain an increase in Perception and the effects of the spell Night Vision. The potion reduces your Constitution a little bit while you are under the effects. If you need this potion, you can always ask on narrates if anyone can mix it for you. Most players would do it for free if you have the ingredients ready.
AWARENESS SKILL - While not really magical, it mimics a magical spell. If you practice 95%+ of the Awareness skill, you now have a permanent Night Vision spell effect. This is really only feasible for characters with high Perception and Intelligence. Mostly only Rangers, Scouts, and Thieves might go this route, and some of them don't bother.
RED RUBY - this is one of the best, earliest magical items most players get in the game. A red ruby is a permanently, magically lit gem. One of the main benefits is it's VERY light weight to carry. Also you can wear it in either a neck slot OR on a belt slot, making it more flexible to use. Red ruby light gems can be purchased at most of the jewellery shops in the game, including Grey Havens (Forlond), Blue Mountains, Rivendell, Lorien, and if you want to risk it, Tharbad. They cost around 52 gold or so, depending on your race and citizenship in different towns. A magical item definitely worth saving up for and very useful. No more lanterns, torches, or flasks of oil to deal with!
LEGEND FOCUS - Some legend focus items also act as a permanent light sources, like the red ruby. They are the phial and a legend staff. These items are difficult to make, and require you to be level 21 to even try. Help create focus for more information.
Strange Black Helmet - this is a pretty rare artifact item. If you wear it you get the same dark vision that trolls and orcs get while you have it on. It will decay after about 7 real life days.
Game Commands Affected by Vision and Light Levels
"Someone is here." That is what mobs and characters in the game will look like when you can't see in the room you are in.
Multiple commands do not work well or don't work at all when you cannot see. Any command that targets a mob or player mostly don't work. Look, examine, kill, etc...
To fix this issue, you need to find a way to see in that room. Lighting a lantern, lighting a campfire, or getting out and try to find the light or sun.
These commands are not affected:
camp, light lantern, wear lantern, get torch fire, hold torch
Why Can't I See It?!?!?!?
It is very common to have an issue in the game with seeing something. The most common issue you can't see is you forgot to light your lantern, or you ran out of oil. Or simply the sun went down. You might run into some more difficult issues like these:
SAURON DARKNESS - randomly and periodically, a darkness will spread out from Dol Guldur. It can spread out for a few zones and rarely for many many zones. Under the darkness, there is no sunlight. It's safer for orcs, trolls, and Black Númenóreans to roam and fight. The darkness will shrink and contract after several hours (real life minutes), returning to normal. Very much like in the Lord of the Rings movies when darkness was spreading out from Mordor.
If you use the map darkness you'll see the extent of Saruon's Darkness near you. If you use map global darkness, you'll see the entire map and any of Sauron's Darkness there.
map dark, map g dark
DARKNESS SPELL - This is an orc shaman spell or a Black Númenóreans spell that can make temporary areas of darkness similar to Sauron's Darkness. This can be an area of a few rooms up to a couple of dozen rooms. This darkness is rumored to affect torches and lanterns, and makes any rooms dark, even during the day.
SHROUD - if you see "someone" in a room, but cannot tell who it is, there is a good chance it is another player with the shroud spell cast on them. If you are below lvl 17 or so, you cannot see very well through shroud spell. If you are higher level, you'll be able to see the person and tell that they are shrouded. The spell detect invisibility is the usual way to see through a shroud spell at lower levels.
BLIND - Blind is another spell that can prevent you from seeing. It basically makes all rooms seem dark to you. Blind does not last very long, and will wear off in 2 minutes or so. Being affected by the Blind spell lowers your dodge bonus (DB) and offensive bonus (OB), and you cannot tell what is battling you in combat. There are a couple of spells that remove blindness condition: Cure Blindness or Heal
SNEAK AND HIDE - several mobs and players in the game can sneak. Some players and mobs can even hide. Common mobs that do this are moles, robbers, footpads, assassins, scouts, thieves, hunters, ghosts, and more. There are some ways to deal with sneakers. Having a high Perception helps, the Seeing herblore can help (it raises Per), another is the Awareness skill, and the Sense Life spell can slightly help see sneakers as well.
The main way to deal with sneakers is the search command. You need to use a speed of search to do this, like search fast. The flush command can also do it, but you will auto hit if you find anyone, even your own party members. Reveal works as well. This can also find hidden players, but they are harder to find.
search normal, flush fast, reveal normal
Now go out and see everything in Middle Earth that MUME has to offer!
Link back to the wiki guides:
