Raycaster
Inactive Member
Greetings, Star Army! I've been gone for awhile. I honestly hardly ever existed here in the first place. But not for lack of will or want to do so.
I'm here to talk to you about an excellent night spent roleplaying, comfortable and entertained, writing paragraphs with a keyboard dimly lit by the monitor. But not as we know it here on the forum. I'd like to introduce you to the idea of a MUD! A Star Army MUD, more specifically. It would be a realtime roleplaying venue, and basically a text-based MMO. There'd be a system of rooms, connecting exits. You'd be able to go north, east, south, west, and a few more ways. You'd find the dining area. You'd visit the bridge, or crawl into access shafts with a flashlight to be able to see. But the best part is, you'd encounter other players as well. You could talk to them, interact with them, and either work your posting, or enjoy downtime.
A well developed system like this could be a rich and elaborate environment, rooms would live and have things to interact with, there would be NPC given quests and goals. There could even be stats, inventory, and other such systems to add some spice. Even less developed systems would also allow a player to contribute and create their own items, rooms, and area up to a quota... or unlimited, if someone has a big idea they want to work on.
For the initial opening of a Star Army MUD, I had an idea for a little plot to kick things off. The first members would be on a mission to reclaim a derelict space station outpost, somewhere off out of the way, but still significant enough to be valuable. Taking a breach vessel, the crew would board it, and system by system, bring the dead station back to humming life. First areas being the boarding ship, and then more of the station as it gets built and reclaimed.
Now for the distinction.
A MUD is a little bit more MMO-ish, gamey, with stats and level and gear. You can roleplay and describe yourself extensively, but there is still very much a coded limit to things, however lenient they might be. One benefit to this type of system is that it would allow you to select a race, and assuming they were implemented properly, you could use their abilities naturally. If there were a hatch in the cieling, but no ladder, a minkan could simply float up to it, while an unfortunately grounded crew member would be left below. You could wander in dangerous areas, wear equipment, and kill monsters.
A MUSH is a much more relaxed environment, significantly easier to build areas for, and with an emphasis on the roleplay element as its primary goal. There aren't any stats to worry about, or races to pick from a list. You are what you describe yourself as, and anything extra is just for flavor or personal entertainment. Making a room is as easy as entering a command, and then describing what the room would look like as you normally would. More mechanical systems and dice rolling, or even an entire MUD-level of a game could be implemented within a MUSH, using its built in softcode systems. One time I recreated a (basic) Cookie Clicker copy in a MUSH in an evening. It's probably still running, years later. I should check on it. Anyway, I digress!
Both of these systems have their merits and their pros and cons. Both of these types of games do typically require a client to be able to connect to them, but the same client would work for both, as they are just served through telnet, in most cases. The need for a client can be evaded, as there are plenty of web clients and browser plugin clients available.
The question now is, would you like to see something like that? I think it would be cool.
I suppose I should link some resources for people to sample to get a feel of it. I'm sure that a fair number of people in Star Army are already fairly familiar with them as well.
Grapevine: a MUD-listing website with a basic and responsive web client. There are a lot of games ready to be played there.
Arx: This is a very roleplay intensive MUSH based on an evennia codebase. It's got nothing to do with Star Army or its themes, but the way in which it lists character profiles and stores logs of canon roleplays for later reading is noteworthy.
Awakened Worlds CE: a Shadowrun MUD, with a very vibrantly coded world, and very creative systems. The extended character creation is incredible. You can load yourself up with cybernetic parts and such. It's noteworthy for its implemented game systems.
MUSHClient: Gammon MUSHClient is my preferred client for both types of games, and it is quite extensive in its features. Windows only.
Mudlet: For Windows, Mac, and Linux, there is Mudlet. It's probably in your linux package manager already.
I'm here to talk to you about an excellent night spent roleplaying, comfortable and entertained, writing paragraphs with a keyboard dimly lit by the monitor. But not as we know it here on the forum. I'd like to introduce you to the idea of a MUD! A Star Army MUD, more specifically. It would be a realtime roleplaying venue, and basically a text-based MMO. There'd be a system of rooms, connecting exits. You'd be able to go north, east, south, west, and a few more ways. You'd find the dining area. You'd visit the bridge, or crawl into access shafts with a flashlight to be able to see. But the best part is, you'd encounter other players as well. You could talk to them, interact with them, and either work your posting, or enjoy downtime.
A well developed system like this could be a rich and elaborate environment, rooms would live and have things to interact with, there would be NPC given quests and goals. There could even be stats, inventory, and other such systems to add some spice. Even less developed systems would also allow a player to contribute and create their own items, rooms, and area up to a quota... or unlimited, if someone has a big idea they want to work on.
For the initial opening of a Star Army MUD, I had an idea for a little plot to kick things off. The first members would be on a mission to reclaim a derelict space station outpost, somewhere off out of the way, but still significant enough to be valuable. Taking a breach vessel, the crew would board it, and system by system, bring the dead station back to humming life. First areas being the boarding ship, and then more of the station as it gets built and reclaimed.
Now for the distinction.
A MUD is a little bit more MMO-ish, gamey, with stats and level and gear. You can roleplay and describe yourself extensively, but there is still very much a coded limit to things, however lenient they might be. One benefit to this type of system is that it would allow you to select a race, and assuming they were implemented properly, you could use their abilities naturally. If there were a hatch in the cieling, but no ladder, a minkan could simply float up to it, while an unfortunately grounded crew member would be left below. You could wander in dangerous areas, wear equipment, and kill monsters.
A MUSH is a much more relaxed environment, significantly easier to build areas for, and with an emphasis on the roleplay element as its primary goal. There aren't any stats to worry about, or races to pick from a list. You are what you describe yourself as, and anything extra is just for flavor or personal entertainment. Making a room is as easy as entering a command, and then describing what the room would look like as you normally would. More mechanical systems and dice rolling, or even an entire MUD-level of a game could be implemented within a MUSH, using its built in softcode systems. One time I recreated a (basic) Cookie Clicker copy in a MUSH in an evening. It's probably still running, years later. I should check on it. Anyway, I digress!
Both of these systems have their merits and their pros and cons. Both of these types of games do typically require a client to be able to connect to them, but the same client would work for both, as they are just served through telnet, in most cases. The need for a client can be evaded, as there are plenty of web clients and browser plugin clients available.
The question now is, would you like to see something like that? I think it would be cool.
I suppose I should link some resources for people to sample to get a feel of it. I'm sure that a fair number of people in Star Army are already fairly familiar with them as well.
Grapevine: a MUD-listing website with a basic and responsive web client. There are a lot of games ready to be played there.
Arx: This is a very roleplay intensive MUSH based on an evennia codebase. It's got nothing to do with Star Army or its themes, but the way in which it lists character profiles and stores logs of canon roleplays for later reading is noteworthy.
Awakened Worlds CE: a Shadowrun MUD, with a very vibrantly coded world, and very creative systems. The extended character creation is incredible. You can load yourself up with cybernetic parts and such. It's noteworthy for its implemented game systems.
MUSHClient: Gammon MUSHClient is my preferred client for both types of games, and it is quite extensive in its features. Windows only.
Mudlet: For Windows, Mac, and Linux, there is Mudlet. It's probably in your linux package manager already.
