My files and folders for Achaea take up quite a chunk of my disc space. Every now and then I go through and sort them into folders, and sometimes I just browse through. I have text documents with scraps of code, a line of thought, copied data… not to mention all the logs I have. I’m so glad I’ve started logging far more efficiently, and got a nice search program to match. The Windows Search tool really wasn’t cutting it when you want a word or phrase within the document. I now use PowerGREP, not the latest version but similar. Basically you tell it where you want to search, what words, and off you go. For .txt and .doc results, it’ll tell you how many matches in the document, and give you excerpts. So handy.

Rereading old logs is time consuming, but sometimes makes me laugh and lifts my mood. I get all nostalgic, and remember back to when I was a true newbie. So embarassing to read now, but I crack up when I read it, especially the very first few times I ever logged into Achaea.

Anyway, I opened up a document which wasn’t labelled clearly (I tend to do this far too often, and end up frustrating myself) and found the following quote. I’m not quite sure how to summarise the feelings I get whenever I read it, since it seems so simple and amusing. There’s more to this quote than what it is at surface value, to me. Though I suppose that’s the case with a lot of things.

Kidasu says in a strong, confident voice, “I did learn the other day.”
Kidasu says in a strong, confident voice, “No matter how old you get.”
Kidasu says in a strong, confident voice, “Or grumpy at snuggle bunnies.”
Kidasu says in a strong, confident voice, “You can always skip.”
Kidasu skips about merrily.

I won’t go into how much I love and appreciate the relationship Kidasu and my character had. I’ll just say, thank you for times like this. Thank you for all the times we shared. And continue to share. I’ll leave it at that, it’s a far deeper and revealing topic that I may write about later on.

Missing someone is hard. Loving someone can be hard too. Is it better than the alternative?

I’ve probably spent more time scripting for Achaea than I have spent in realms lately. I really like the challenge, I set myself a small or sometimes large task, perhaps a little utility script, perhaps a feature of a complex script. I learn how to do it, think about how to do it, try, fail usually, and tweak until I succeed. That feeling of overcoming that little challenge, figuring it out by yourself… it’s quite an elation to finish something. I almost feel like bragging about what I’ve scripted to people, showing off screenies… but I’m not ready to share them with many. I think of all the scripting I’ve done, there’s only been one utility script I’ve sent to someone. It was a getfrom script requested by a friend, basically examining the contents of a container, capturing that data, then getting things from the container. I’ve modified it for my own use already, it exceeds the simpleness of the script I gave away.

It’s also quite humbling sometimes, scripting, since I know that I don’t know all there is, many functions escape my grasp, my code is far from the most elegant and efficient it can be. But it’s my code, I made it from scratch. When the output first matches my requirements, especially if it’s been a long time and many errors coming… I did that.

I’m currently working on a w.h.o script, I refused to buy anything to help me out though. It’s slowly forming into a more complete, faster, neater piece of code. (or so I like to think, it’s also getting slower the more I add) I set myself small tasks in features I want it to have. Started out with, I want it to tell me where Mister X is from scanning the w.h.o list. Then moved onto telling me who else is at that location. Who’s in the area. (This one I’m still working on) It does quite a bit more than that, but there are still a few things that just elude me right now. Some features I’d like to add but can’t see how to do it without using massive amounts of code or variables. It’s an ongoing challenge. I don’t -use- my w.h.o.script that often anymore, even when I did I’d never utilise all it’s current capabilities.

I use Zmud. I’ll probably move over to Mushclient in the future, I actually started out using Mush when I first started playing Achaea, but switched. At the moment I’m content with a small challenge in a client I kinda know, rather than facing not only a whole new language and style, but also recoding all or most of my current stuff. I’m too lazy for that. Later, maybe, for now I’m happy.

This post started out initially as writing about Achaea itself, but I spent some time scripting and coding today so I thought I’d focus mainly on that. This is the first real tangent of the whole post. Unicorns, fairies and square root of one. <– First non-real tangent. Ha.

Damn. The Dark Side must be pwning the place. Good thing the Stormtrooper is slacking off.

I found that video on a blog while I was visiting

Tofu

It was exactly 8 am GMT+8 when I started clicking some links to some blogs about Japan and I think I got hooked! I thought I was just reading for a short while but, when I decided to take a break, I looked at the clock and it said 10 am! Damn!

I guess I was too interested in reading the posts that I forgot to check the time. Japan gets more interesting everytime I read a post. I, actually, got interested in Japan because of a girl at school but I got even more interested when I started watching videos from Tofugu’s channel at Youtube.

Here’s one of his videos:

Really hilarious part at 2:15. XD

Still hooked on “Relentless by Robin Parrish”. Damnit.. The action just keeps on rolling.

Anyway, my friend, Matthew, told me that he and my classmates were making souvenirs for our batch this morning. I told him that I’d ask my parents if I could go. Then he told me to bring my laptop. He said that they were going to burn are slideshows, video tributes, and other stuff into cd’s. And by burning I mean

errr...

I mean

Obladi!

Though, when my parents arrived at lunch, they told me that I couldn’t come because:

1) I have to take care of my sister. Actually, this has been the only reason that I couldn’t leave my home every time anyone I know invites me somewhere.

2) My mom needs to use the laptop for work.

It can’t be helped, I guess..

Well.. I’m going to try being an Otaku.

Wikipedia says:

Otaku (おたく/オタク ^?) is a Japanese term used to refer to people with obsessive interests, particularly anime, manga, and video games.

Boring as my life is, it would be a great experience to be exposed to a myriad of stories, moral lessons, fun, culture, and especially people! Maybe it will make me even more creative. Ever since my Video Production project, I wanted to make my film. It could be a vlog, an action movie, or anything random. It’s going to be easy since I’m one of our group’s video editors. I’m also the one that put in all the special effects. Except the sound. :| My friend’s girlfriend did the sound effects. Didn’t even know how to.

Writing a book would be great too! I’ve always been imaginative. When I was still in 9th grade, I would think about “.hack” and “Megaman Battle Network”. I got some ideas from them and made a world of my own. Since, MBN, navi’s like Megaman can be “jacked in” to a computer or any electronic device, I thought, “What would happed if humans could do that?”.

Then I thought about “.hack”. It’s about a virtual reality game called “The World”. It’s very cool. Can’t explain it. Just watch it. I recommend “.hack//Legend of The Twilight Bracelet”.

happy.

There are many other series but “Legend of the Twilight Bracelet” seems a bit more fun to watch. If you want some more emotion but don’t want to lose the action, then “.hack//Roots” is pretty cool too.

sad.

Anyway, I mixed the ideas then… damnit.. I forgot. :|

Ei.. I’m getting interested in photo editing too. I’m starting out with GIMP.

I’m also planning to change to Photoshop.

What got me was the idea of using parts of other images to make something even more beautiful. Check this out!

ROARRR!!!

heh… part lizard and part dragon. Awesome… Actually, there’s a bat somewhere in there. :|

It got it from this tutorial right here.

There’s just so much that I wanna do with my box now that my hard drive has lots of space. Right now, I’m downloading Counter Strike Source and Ran Online. Evidence of my boredom. Although, I still miss that MUD. It  was called “Achaea”.

Ah.. The good ol' days.

If you ask me, worlds in MUD’s are much more detailed than those 3d online games. The community was awesome. What dragged me in was how the players interacted with each other. In other kinds of RPG’s, it was all about getting stronger and you didn’t give a damn about the other people. I think that an MUD is a much better place to make friends than any other kind of MMORPG. By the way, I still remember Colgano. I forgot what house we were in but I still remember that the city was called Cyrene.

Damn… Another long post. Too many flashbacks… I guess, that’s all I have for now. I’ll post as soon as some of my other memories come back.

Rakenrol!,

Rage

A few thoughts about MUDs and MMORPGs based on points raised in this thread on the Zuggsoft forums.

I hate time-based advancement. I’ll agree with Yahtzee (note:sweary) here – “seriously, why I am being rewarded for not playing the game?”. Give me levels any day. The only thing you need to do to turn a tedious grind into fun is to take some people along. There’s a reason MMORPGs are social games, and that’s it: things are more fun with more people. It’s simple to make a grind fun: bring someone along who you can trash-talk, chat to, someone you can help through the challenges and someone who can help you through them. The funnest part of WoW is the instances, for exactly that reason.

Now, the reason my MUD palette is quite tightly-focused: I can’t stand combat in most MUDs (or MMORPGs for that matter). It’s mentioned in the above-linked review, actually, that most MMORPG combat is about clicking on an enemy to start kicking him in the shins, and then waiting while he kicks you back until one of you dies. The KILL command is not my friend: it’s the reason why I play Mages and Rogues (and, to a lesser extent, Druids) rather that Warriors and Paladins. I think this combat snobbery (because that’s what it is – clearly there’s plenty of fun to be had in a MUD that uses KILL, or so many people wouldn’t play them. I don’t know what my shortcoming is, but I just don’t get it.) stems from the first MUD I played: Achaea. And then the second MUD I played: Imperian. And then the third MUD I played: Lusternia. See a pattern here?

Combat in IRE muds has no kill command. I mean, sure, PvE combat is generally repeating POKE SPIDER IN FACE and DRINK HEALTH POTION until one of you dies, but at least pressing a macro every couple of seconds makes me feel involved. I remember trying out WoTMUD one time, largely because I’m a gigantic Robert Jordan fan, and actually typing KILL SPIDER or whatever, and going to get a glass of apple juice and some hobnobs while my character happily bashed the scoundrel in the face. A game like that isn’t fun after playing something where you’re actually involved in the fighting.

And the PvP. Oh lord, the PvP. I love it to bits. My hands actually shake sometimes during a particularly epic fight, my pulse races when another guy comes into the room and tries to team up with the one I was already fighting. I’m gasping as I try to flee to safer ground, breathing a huge sigh of relief when I get there. This isn’t an exaggeration – it sounds it, I know, but it isn’t. The combat really is that good, and really does evoke that kind of reaction.

So which would you rather do: fight a battle so intense you actually have to go and have a lie down afterwards, or type KILL SPIDER and go and get a cuppa? That’s why I can’t play most MUDs: I’m spoilt.

Now, having said all this, I would love for someone to extol the merits of combat in a MUD like Aardwolf. I’ve tried, I really have, to like Aardwolf. So many people enjoy it that I felt it was unfair not to give it a chance. I tried playing a spellcaster, in the hopes that the fighting would be a bit more involved and it was, a bit, but something just didn’t work for me.

Perhaps it was because IRE MUDs – what I was brought up on – force you into some kind of social interaction. The whole game is designed to pretty much make you socialise, by forcing you to join a group to get any skills, and then strongly encouraging you to join one of the city-states that can never get along. Aardwolf, by contrast, seemed… empty. In an IRE MUD – any IRE MUD – it’d be quite common for a higher-levelled player to take a bunch of lower-levelled players killing stuff they wouldn’t be able to kill on their own. This was fun times, because there was a real sense of danger – if you weren’t careful, these guys could really mess you up. A few hits and you’d be dead.

Aardwolf, by contrast, doesn’t link you up immediately with a bunch of other players who might want to join up with you to get your twenty bear faces for your quest. You’re left to do the asking yourself, which feels, I know know… rude. It seems hard to break into the communities that have formed in Aardwolf, as well – in IRE games, everyone’s always looking for new members, and all you need to do is do HELP <orgname> to be given a list of people who are able to induct you and will be able to tell you how to go about it.

So yes, the two things I want from a MUD: Plenty of social interaction, easy to get into and easy to enjoy; and combat that really makes your blood pump. For that reason, I play Imperian and, to a lesser extent these days, Lusternia. Any recommendations are welcome, especially ones from players MUDs with a kill command – like Aard – who can explain what it is about combat that works well for them.

> AB VOICECRAFT HAIKU
Syntax: RECITE HAIKU AT <target>
Afflicts your target with confusion.

My favourite cousin Matt Mihaly had some absolutely fantastic news today.  He is the founder and CEO of Sparkplay Media and Iron Realms Entertainment. His company has been around for a decade or so, and has been a leader in the development of online text-based role playing games like Achaea .  He also pioneered the sales of virtual goods for real money (you can see what he has to say on that topic here).

He and his company have been developing their first graphics based game, and were looking to raise some capital for the project.  Today he announced that he closed Series A funding in the amount of $4.25 million.

Good work Matt.  I am proud of you, and your hard work.

And why I am falling behind in SKOTM. The answer: MUD. Not the kind of mud that I like to throw at my friends and slide all over in. I’m talking about those text based things where there are no graphics and you put in commands. To be more specific, this one: ACHAEA A few months ago I played a few, got extremely bored, and quit at the pathetic level of 10 or so. For whatever reason, last week, I decided to make a new character in one. I was immediately re-hooked and became an evil knight. Already I’ve gotten further than I did before. The one thing that I extremely like is the maturity. You really don’t have an opportunity to be immature, because it is all STRICTLY in-character. No OOC allowed, period. So basically, you have to act like you’re in a magical realm. The minimum age for your character is 18, therefore while there is some silliness in cities sometimes (example: “Whose falcon dropped panties on me?”, which I recently saw. The result was actually quite funny.) and among people you know, it’s kept very mature. No “lol” or “wtf”. To put it in simple terms, it’s freaking pwnage.

-DEBATE SECTION OMG-
Compare text based MUDs like Achaea (the above mentioned MUD) with graphic games like RuneScape or Guild Wars. Then argue over it. Kthxbai.

Multi-User Dungeon, or MUD as it is known to most people that have had a chance to play one. “What am I talking about?”, you might ask. I am talking about older text based games, that I used to play in High School, as well as in College. They have been around for a lot longer than that, since the early 80’s at least. They were some of the first multiplayer online games.

The reason I want to look at MUD’s a little bit today, is because I read an article that got me thinking about an old MUD I used to play. That lead to thoughts about game design, and if some things that MUD did would work in a Graphical Massive Multiplayer environment. After all MMO’s really are just fancy graphical MUD’s.

The MUD which inspired this article, is called Achaea and it is currently run by Iron Realms Entertainment. I would not be surprised if a few readers have played it, or one of its spin offs by the same company. It has been around for a while, and has had a fairly large player base over the years. The reason they have done well, and continue to do well is that they offer a number of things that no graphical MMO currently does. It is these features, that I want to look at, and talk about.

To start I think the most important thing that Achaea did right, is they did not try and create a game, they instead tried to create a world. The focus was removed from leveling yourself up to 100, and was put instead on becoming a member in one of the many guilds, and being a part of your town. It was to draw the character into one of the many storylines already in progress. This is probably the biggest problems with MMO’s today. They focus so much on the game, that you miss the world underneath them. Are we interested with Rise of Kunark that the Iksar Empire has returned, and that the Sarnak have returned as well? No the focus is instead on 20 more levels for the Guild, another 10 for all the players and 40 AA points. To that we add more legendary loot with slightly higher numbers than previous legendary loot, and some new raid targets, that likely aren’t that much different than the old raid targets. The end result feels more like a spreadsheet than a world.

The second thing that I think Achaea did correctly, was that they designed it with player conflict in mind. This meant that the players were creating a lot of the content themselves, just by being a part of the world. If things ever got boring, which they rarely did, the developers could always step in and lend a hand. The main structure that held players together was guilds. This was more a medieval type of guild, or an association of members from the same class. The guild you belonged to was what gave you the skills you could use. Your guild was usually part of a city to which they held allegiance, but guild members were not required to join that city. You could usually join a different city if you could convince them to take you in. Lastly there were a number of deities you could worship. All of this resulted in conflict, and lots of it. Usually you had to take a few of your guild mates, or some friends from your city, and go settle it with sword, or fist or magic spell.

I realize not everyone wants PvP in their games, but for now lets look at those that do. Why do people PvP in World of Warcraft or in Everquest 2? Has that Night Elf over there done something deserving of his death? Sure the Alliance dislikes the Horde, and there are some basic lore reasons they don’t get along, but for the most part it doesn’t seem personal. He hasn’t burned down part of your city, or defiled that shrine to your god, or betrayed your guild when you needed him. Most likely you just needed some honor points, and since he was already fighting a tough mob, he was an easy kill. Sure we even got into some tough fights, and had some grudges against players in certain guilds on the Alliance side, but there wasn’t any long lasting affects for winning these PvP battles.

Another thing that Achaea did well, was that not all sides were created equal. If you were part of an evil city, you didn’t have Paladins and Clerics among your ranks. The city of light by the same token wasn’t taking in Occultists, and Death knights. Sure there were some guilds that had an equivalent guild with the same class skills in an opposite city, but for the most part a lot of guilds were unique to one side or the other. There were also guilds that took a mostly neutral stance, and you might find members from the guild on both sides of a fight.

In many of the more recent MMO’s there is no good and evil. You can be any class you want on either side of the fence. In World of Warcraft they used to have two classes that were unique, one on the Alliance side and one on the Horde, but those were eventually changed, and the uniqueness removed with the release of Burning Crusade. In Everquest 2 we can have a Paladin grouped with a Necromancer, and not even an impolite word is said to the other. On the PvP server this isn’t done as easily, since both would have to betray to the neutral faction in order to accomplish this, but it is still done. Sides and factions end up having little to no meaning.

I will admit that a lot of things that Achaea does would be harder to do on a large scale. They get away with a lot of the interaction of developers with the players because it is one unique world on a single server with a small player base when compared to the larger MMO’s. This is however my largest problem with current MMO’s, they don’t seem to interact with the player at all. Where are the goals other than kill the biggest dragon out there? Why is Qeynos not trying to secretly rescue citizens from Freeport, and bring them to the light? Why isn’t Freeport working to bring some terrible disaster down on Qeynos? These games have occasionally had events, such as rebuilding the spires in Everquest 2, or the Ahn’Qiraj War Effort in World of Warcraft. They seem to be a rare thing though, and happen infrequently at best.

To be honest, we live in a stale, non-unique world where sides matter little. I don’t want more of this flavorless word, where my only focus is another 10 levels. I want a world that is vibrant and alive. Where my friends and I can make a difference, and effect a change, even if it is only a carefully scripted event. The kind of game you don’t want to stop playing when the latest greatest game releases because you are part of the history, and part of the story. For now its a dream, but one I will hold onto.

This is a drabble-y piece of horrid anecdote loosely based off of a conversation that took place in an online MUD game between me and my ‘brother’ (only online, not actually). Imagination was utilized to fill in the gaps with observations and actions.

“Renn, am I foolish?”

A silence. A young man, 22 years old, lifted the wide brim of his blue velvet hat from where it lay, shielding his eyes from the afternoon sun, which filtered through the leaves of the lakeside willow tree in spotted patches. Taking off the hat, he raked a hand through his short auburn hair and stared in bewilderment at the man sitting next to him.

“…Pardon? Edward, is the heat getting to your head already? Come sit over in the shade before you lose all your eloquence.”

The other young man, a few years younger than the first, quirked an eyebrow at the words. He chuckled and took out some oranges from his pack, tossing one to the man next to him.“It’s no heat, my dear brother, which prompted my question.”

“Then it’s just stupidity, and I refuse to be related by blood to such ‘foolishness’. What brought this on, Edward? Has citizenship been treating you unkindly? Did you fail to secure your lofty ambitions of political success? My god, please- stop acting like a spoilt brat. I will not babysit you.”

Edward looked at his brother, who waved the butterflies away with his blue hat, the silver plume waving gracefully in the air. A politician and a fishing bard. “We are certainly a dysfunctional family, Renn.”“Hm? You don’t say?” A yawn. Renn shook his feathery auburn bangs out of his face to properly aim a sarcastic glare at his brother. He juggled a few oranges, looking quite blase. However, inside, he could be thinking anything. “If you’re referring to ‘that’, I can tell you, that is no foolishness. Merely courage.”