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DragonRealms
Bloodshed
I smoke my friendsDown to the FilterRegistered User regular
I smoke my friendsDown to the FilterRegistered User regular
That's right. Simutronic's Super-MUD. Circa 1996.
I recently had a bout of DR Nostalgia and decided to sign up for a 30-day Free Trial, see how the game is doing, having not played for over a decade.
I figured since I'm back,temporarily or otherwise, I'd see if there are any current/former players frequenting the G&T threads.
If this is a recurring thread or a long-dead subject, you'll have to forgive me. I've never seen it brought up and a Google search failed to reveal any current threads on the topic.
As much fun as I'm having again, which is pretty surprising, really, I'm really not sure how this company manages to keep people paying their rediculous monthly fee's for a text-only game.
Standard account with 1 Character: $14.95/mo
Additional Character Slot: $3/mo
Premium Account: $14.95/mo + $25.00/mo (You get access to some extra stuff in-game and 10 character slots. Some other random in-game bonus's.
Platinum Account: I've never actually looked. I'm almost afraid to ask.
There are actually 3 DragonRealms servers now. Prime, Platinum and The Fallen.
Prime: The original game server. Low population, ranging from 175-450 or so people at any time (So far since I have been playing the Free Trial)
The Fallen: A Free-For-All server that costs an additional $5/mo to play on. No rules, no GM's. Open PvP, unlimited scripting, slower exp gain than Prime server.
Platinum: Heavily moderated, RP enforced with supposed extra attention from GM's and more frequent In-Game Events.
There has been one In-Game event that I know of since I started playing 2 weeks ago. An Invasion in Theren, Red Bear Orc Scouts & Marauders came through and demolished some shit. The HLC's were even gettin' their asses kicked as far as I could tell.
Anyhow, if you play or used to play, feel free to comment, tell a story, whatever.
There's a level of immersion and complexity in DR that I haven't found in any other MUD or MMO since. DR often can feel like a bit of a sandbox, where almost anything is possible.
You don't even have to be a HLC to make an impact in the world and in your surroundings. I'm not a hardcore RP'er, never have been, but I never minded a bit of it to help my immersion, and the Prime server seems to have just about the right amount.
DR was the first real online game I ever played back in 97'. I had played MUDs, but most of them had maybe 15-50 players, tops? Even today I can easily lose track of a handful of hours, smacking away at goblins with my broadsword and target shield.
I recently had a bout of DR Nostalgia and decided to sign up for a 30-day Free Trial, see how the game is doing, having not played for over a decade.
I figured since I'm back,temporarily or otherwise, I'd see if there are any current/former players frequenting the G&T threads.
If this is a recurring thread or a long-dead subject, you'll have to forgive me. I've never seen it brought up and a Google search failed to reveal any current threads on the topic.
As much fun as I'm having again, which is pretty surprising, really, I'm really not sure how this company manages to keep people paying their rediculous monthly fee's for a text-only game.
Standard account with 1 Character: $14.95/mo
Additional Character Slot: $3/mo
Premium Account: $14.95/mo + $25.00/mo (You get access to some extra stuff in-game and 10 character slots. Some other random in-game bonus's.
Platinum Account: I've never actually looked. I'm almost afraid to ask.
There are actually 3 DragonRealms servers now. Prime, Platinum and The Fallen.
Prime: The original game server. Low population, ranging from 175-450 or so people at any time (So far since I have been playing the Free Trial)
The Fallen: A Free-For-All server that costs an additional $5/mo to play on. No rules, no GM's. Open PvP, unlimited scripting, slower exp gain than Prime server.
Platinum: Heavily moderated, RP enforced with supposed extra attention from GM's and more frequent In-Game Events.
There has been one In-Game event that I know of since I started playing 2 weeks ago. An Invasion in Theren, Red Bear Orc Scouts & Marauders came through and demolished some shit. The HLC's were even gettin' their asses kicked as far as I could tell.
Anyhow, if you play or used to play, feel free to comment, tell a story, whatever.
There's a level of immersion and complexity in DR that I haven't found in any other MUD or MMO since. DR often can feel like a bit of a sandbox, where almost anything is possible.
You don't even have to be a HLC to make an impact in the world and in your surroundings. I'm not a hardcore RP'er, never have been, but I never minded a bit of it to help my immersion, and the Prime server seems to have just about the right amount.
DR was the first real online game I ever played back in 97'. I had played MUDs, but most of them had maybe 15-50 players, tops? Even today I can easily lose track of a handful of hours, smacking away at goblins with my broadsword and target shield.
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I played GemStone III for years. It's why I don't really play MMOs anymore and it's where my username is from.
I mean, I've played MUDs, and I've spent a lot of money on them in the past. But that is still obscene.
All that said, Elanthia is a great setting, and there's nothing quite like the staff led events. The world is really dynamic, not just with random invasions, but on-going wars and whatnot. Even better, the staff take over as the important NPCs, and interact with the PCs. If you're lucky and/or involved in the game, you can get some unique items that are both functional and fluffy. There was one guy who stockpiled a whole shit of blackfire scrolls, which were incredibly rare in game, and, lore-wise, either taboo or illegal.
I'd go back in a heartbeat if they had a $5/month option.
-signed, off-and-on player from the ancient AOL days in the mid-90's.
I mean, 14.99/month for a MUD?! It's not like it takes a lot of bandwidth, tech support or even customer support (considering the low subscriber number), and yet they haven't lowered the price in like 10 years? Hell, they may have increased it. The worst part is I would TOTALLY pay $15 a month if there was a playerbase, but the high price point is keeping that number WAY lower than it should be, so there's no reason for my to get involved in such a poorly populated world.
And yeah, Platinum is $50/month and there are a few people who actually pay it. All Platinum and Fallen really do is divide the player base (because Platinum and Fallen are separate servers) and divide the attention given to game events.
The management is just stupid; no business sense whatsoever. If they dropped the price to even $10/month, made Premium only a $5 upcharge, and consolidated all the servers (or at least Platinum and Normal, since everyone on the Fallen is like circle 150 after scripting all day every day), they could actually see a large influx of NEW players with the right advertising.
Instead, they desperately cling to the slowly dying player base, looking for new things to charge them assloads of cash for, like premium upcharges, loot events, and an additional 10kb of data to store another text-based character on.
Looking back on a time when there were 2000 people on, huge game events like racial wars, player feuds, and new content being added constantly, it really is sad to look at it now and see that maybe 3-400 people are still trying to fill that massive world - and they're all super high level since they've been playing for 10 years. No newbies, the lifeblood of any MMORPG.
It's really sad, because this is one of the most deep and engaging games I have EVER played. The story, lore, crafting, combat and magic systems are absolutely incredible. Since there's no indication that they plan on going F2P or even intelligently reevaluating their subscription system, I'm just hoping that when it falls apart in 2-3 more years that one of the designers keeps all the code and launches a "freeshard" type service down the line.
Pretty much. They also don't have a dedicated staff. Instead, it's largely volunteers. That's the main reason why things progress so slowly on the technical side of things. One person will start writing a new system, but be expected to put out player conflicts and griefing in game, as well. They barely (if at all) get paid for their work, so they do it as a hobby. When it gets to be too demanding/boring, they leave, leaving behind unfinished code for the next person to work with. And, in many cases, the new person doesn't like the direction the new system is going in, so they decide to scrap it all and start over. Lather, rinse, repeat.
It's a testament to the original, 15+ year old systems that the game still has some appeal aside from being a place to RP.
A ranger asked me if I planned on training any ranged skills so I said "I was thinking about short bow, actually". 5 minutes later he carved me up a 38-point bow and handed me some arrows, saying "Go pin-cushion some rats for me"
I agree pretty much agree, hjparcins, they could probably do a few small things that would invite players back, and the pricing is a damn big one. I'm not sure I'll be able to justify the $15/mo once my freebie time is up, but I have to admit I've been tempted to re-sub my original account. I didn't have any HLC's, I was the slowest circler ever, but I remember having fun. I only played for about 2 years (97-99) and left right about the time I decided to ruin my social life with EQ1.
Combat is still really fun. The combat system was revamped, along with the experience system and a few other big things. Apparently they are completely re-designing the magic system even now and they intend to revisit all of the Guilds next.
Plus, with all these HLC's running around the Crossing with nothing better to do that teach classes and give away loot, you can get pretty decently set-up fast without begging around like a bum.
Also: Necromancers and Monks.
Battletag: Kain#1658
There would be hundreds of new players, they'd wind up making MORE money since there would be so many more people, and I could actually enjoy this game again. Too bad the management is retarded. Hopefully they try it in a last ditch effort to stay afloat one of these days and it's enough to keep it going for 5 more years.
This is how most successful MUDs operate--see all of IREs games. They are 100% free to play, but you can buy Credits which are used to buy Artifacts or converted into lessons to learn skills. However, you can also buy credits with gold, just at a much slower rate. However there are quite a few players who have maxed themselves out without ever spending a penny.
I did the 30 day free trial like a year or two ago because I had that same nostalgic jonesing. It was still great, added some new, cooler stuff - changed some areas, but there were WAY less people than there needs to be.
Alas, I couldn't justify paying more for this than if I bought and played WoW. $5 per month, with an additional 5 for the platinum stuff - sure. In a heartbeat.
But, c'est la vie.
Kinda interesting that they're bleeding their currently tiny player base dry, while probably not have changed much since last I played.
I still partake in some DragonRealms from time to time. My 40th circle Kaldar Paladin is actually older than almost all of the characters I run in to, but since I play so rarely I'm still "low" level. There are still plenty of nice people around. Some areas are more active than others. Ratha is getting kinda dead these days. Just a bunch of HLC that don't talk to each other, even though some of them I've known for awhile.
Other areas are more active and fun.
Rigorous Scholarship
It's sad how dated the play.net site is. Classic, tag soup ASP. CyberStrike 2 is still listed as having 'modern' 3D graphics, yet its latest screenshot update was way back in 1999, and it (rightfully) looks like it used the Quake II engine. No site redesign in 10+ years.
Ideal Simutronics wishlist:
1. Does anyone still play CyberStrike? Modus Operandi? No? Pull the plug.
2. Make Dragonrealms and GemStone free-to-play, with microtransaction incentives. The core audience thinks nothing of laying down $20 or so for an in-game wedding currently. Chances are good that they'll pony up some $$ for some other extras, especially if the subscription cost goes away.
3. Update the website. Modern design, better access to important information (races/classes/gods/magic/combat guide).
4. Fix all broken in-game systems. Add more modern systems (like, say, dual-wielding). Get rid of the dumb primary-secondary-tertiary skill system.
5. License Elanthia as a D&D 4E setting. Empaths, Moon Mages, and Traders are unique classes. Warrior Mages could be, as well, if not lifted straight from FR's Sword Mage. S'kra Mur, Prydaen, Rakash, and Gor'Tog are all unique races.
I didn't like it, and I especially didn't like it enough to pay. There were other muds I enjoyed much more that didnt involve money for anything. But then again, I was into godwars muds so I am a different kind of beast.
MUD is basically MMO in telnet. Its all text. Its actually easier to describe it as an online text only D&D. Most muds heavilly if not completely take up all the D&D rulesets, mainly on the stats and spells available.
Because they're text-based, MUDs offer the best chance of RPing. In DR, staying in character is mandatory (and, yes, they had staff watching to enforce it).
MUDs come in a lot of shapes and sizes, and there are still some small, free, active MUDs around, of varying quality. DR and GemStone are odd due to both their cost and complexity. Both feel like an AI arbitrated living D&D campaign.
DR's strengths in particular are its setting, its in-game, mechanically supported RP system (there's a gazillion verb/object pairings with unique outcomes), and crafting/player run economy which brilliantly supplements the classic RPG item shop economy.
Its biggest weakness is combat, with a complete lack of dual-wielding, awkward ranged combat, and a balance system which is difficult to figure out. Following closely is the exp system, which is one of those "The more you do something, the more proficient you get at it" systems. Unfortunately, each class has a set of primary, secondary, and tertiary skills one must train in order to gain levels. These skills train at different rates, with primary being the fastest and tertiary being the slowest. Invariably, the boring skills (teaching, scholarship, first aid, magical devices, mechanical lore) are either tertiary skills or fall into the critical to advance category. Either way, it means a lot of time sitting around, doing boring, repetitive tasks rather than adventuring.
On that note, one person on one of IRE's muds (Aetolia.) spent over 32,000$. Yes, that wasn't a typo. Thirty two thousand dollars.
e: The more I read this thread, the more I want to build a MUD. Maybe we could start a PA MUD? I'm gonna fire up Visual Studio and play around with some of my custom server projects.
I'm something of a beginner/intermediate web developer (C#, PHP), so let me know what I can do to help. I've never made a game before, but am more than willing to learn.
I used to LOVE MUDs. Text-based mmorpgs are like candy to me and tend to have far better RPing than graphic based games. That said... those prices are beyond insane. I love the idea of the Platinum server... enforced RPing is the only way to fly for me and the lack of it is basically why I've never gotten into any modern MMO, but 50 bucks a month? Hell. No.
Any other good RP-enforced MUDs out there these days? I could use some of that action.
I've laid down money on an Iron Realms game. Lusternia, I think? I had been playing Aetolia before Lusternia was released, and got to a leadership position in the Indorani guild shortly after it was created because a friend I had been playing with became guildmaster and nepotism'd me in. Man, everyone way more qualified than me was upset.
I was willing to pay for these things because they were perfectly free games that I had become invested in and wanted to send the company some thank-you bucks. Something that won't really happen with Simutronics' model.
Armageddon.org
Medievia? Heh... way back when, when I first Hero'd my first character, and Fate was the clan to fear in CPK, I had fun. But Vryce is a tool, and his development and love of his personal people and preferential treatment drove me off.
CircleMUD's oh how I love thee.. let me count the times I've started my own and hacked through the code trying to make it into something I really liked.
LPMud's were fun, but I got tired of them quickly.
I may have to put in for that 30 free days for nostalgia's sake, though. Woe to the poor WM who takes a non-targeted spell for his/her first circle.
I can do most of the primary development myself (it's in C#, runs on Linux under Mono, uses MySQL as it's data store), though I won't refuse help. That said, you don't need to know any coding to build areas. All you'll need is some writing talent and possibly the ability to edit XML files (which will be the primary way to get data in to the system until I finish some more robust editing tools).
Also, because this would technically be us making a game, we'll need to ask permission before we post a thread, as per the sticky in G&T.
At any rate, if this is something you'd be interested in helping with, let me know. I'll ask permission and we'll put a thread together. I'd like to get discussions going on a world theme and some basic game systems, so we can actually get an alpha development server up and running.
I'll be handling the coding, at least at first. When I get to a point where I am ready to actually accept content, I'll put a simple world building tutorial together. Basically how to create a MUD area, and how to do it with the tools and such.
I don't know shit about coding but I'd be happy to build areas and such.
Forumers building things as a group thing has never been a problem in the past (see: Shotgun Sunrise)
So, hey, if this goes anywhere I'm in.
I played one very very strong heavilly modded mud called eternal night, it was basically a straight werewolves vs vampires pvp setup. And was done so well character progression (which is not level based in godwars, purely exp and questpoint progression) basically went on forever. The amount of time needed to "max" was beyond normal reasoning. Case in point, my main had hit 2000 hours and while a complete badass, it wasnt the strongest one.
They actually brought that place down then up again with like 5 times the custom coding, which is a remarkable feat considering the old one was pretty damn custom. Course this was after I was playing asherons call and soon to be WOW so I couldnt devote that kind of time to it anymore, but I prolly knew the playerbase better than my graduating high school class.
As for the actual topic, yeah it was the combat in this game that killed it for me. I love RP, but I play a GAME for the combat.