It's Not Just a Game |------[ http://www.retromud.org ]------| It's an ATTITUDE

6 Planets. 60 Races. 1,000 Skills & Spells. Infinite Possibilities.

1. ACKMuds	rate thread hide Raw Rating: 3.67 3 rating votes to-date You have not rated this thread Useless Poor Average Good Useful	Fri Jul 18, 2008 [3:56 PM]
Koron Email not supplied member since: Aug 1, 2000		Reply
It's my first thread on TMC, please be gentle... Having "grown up" in a sense with ACKMuds, they're what I'm used to, but it seems as though they're pretty unpopular. There are a lot of features in other codebases which I am enamored of, but I find that I prefer to import them to my mud instead of abandoning that codebase and switching to a more well thought out one. Certainly, I've never met a stock mud that I actually enjoyed working with right out of the box, but I suspect people have their own predispositions toward muds derived from X bases. So, what I want to know is essentially this: what codebases draw people to play them? Why? I'm comfortable with ACKs because it's what I know, but other bases offer things that ACK lacks. Is it a turn-off to see that a mud comes from a codebase you aren't used to? Furthermore, is there a negative stigma that turns people away from ACKs, or are they just generally obscure?

2. RE: ACKMuds	rate thread hide Raw Rating: 3.67 3 rating votes to-date You have not rated this thread Useless Poor Average Good Useful	Fri Jul 18, 2008 [4:16 PM]
Drizzt1216 Email not supplied member since: Aug 12, 2005		In Reply To Reply
I would assume their just generally obscure, but I've actually never even played one to know if I had if the codebase would turn me off for some reason as well. I can say that the two most popular (not necessarily best, actually hands down not the best IMO) are ROM/SMAUG. As for people being turned off by non-familiar codebases, I'd say yes and no. A new DIKU derived codebase doesn't generally turn me off, whereas LPC does. The main reasoning is something totally different tends to turn me off, it's not worse I just usually don't care to take a massive amount of time to learn new game mechanics whereas something that is similar to what I'm used to, but not exactly the same tends to intrigue me more than turn me off.
"Are you tired of MUDs made for money cluttering your searches for free games?" http://mudquest.org

3. RE: ACKMuds	rate thread hide Raw Rating: 3.67 3 rating votes to-date You have not rated this thread Useless Poor Average Good Useful	Fri Jul 18, 2008 [4:18 PM]
Lobotomy Email not supplied member since: May 25, 2007		In Reply To Reply
I have no experience with these ACKMuds of which you speak, so I've no idea of what they are like. However, what I can relate of my own experience on the matter is that the key thing that interests me about a codebase is functionality. I don't mean to down creators who are much more focused on creating the actual game content than anything else (for instance, Hades_Kane's End of Time mud). It's just that when I check out a Mud, and various systems are lacking in functionality or seem otherwise far out of date, it bothers me a bit. Although I suppose there is a fair bit of stigma that can follow certain codebases around. I.e, the older a codebase is, the more likely it is to retain old stock code and thus be less functional, such as Diku, Merc, ROM, etc. Again, though, I can't speak on where that would pertain to ACKMud as I'm not familiar with it. You may be right about it just being generally obscure.
It is better to live alone, there is no companionship with a fool; let a man walk alone, let him commit no sin, with few wishes, like an elephant in the forest.

4. RE: ACKMuds	rate thread hide Raw Rating: 3.67 3 rating votes to-date You have not rated this thread Useless Poor Average Good Useful	Fri Jul 18, 2008 [4:43 PM]
Koron Email not supplied member since: Aug 1, 2000		In Reply To Reply
ACK is a Merc derivative, and if memory serves, it's also the code from which Godwars was derived? (Somehow I suspect there's someone on the TMC boards with the background knowledge to confirm or deny this...) I must confess that I always expected the opposite of older codebases. I figure that if there's a mud (with players, that is) which has an old codebase, it has been thoroughly modified from stock. Then again, I say this largely because I cannot even fathom playing a stock mud now. It always blows me away how many players diku muds have, in spite of their (theoretically--I realize this is not necessarily true) primitive codes.

5. RE: ACKMuds	rate thread hide Raw Rating: 3.67 3 rating votes to-date You have not rated this thread Useless Poor Average Good Useful	Fri Jul 18, 2008 [5:05 PM]
Drizzt1216 Email not supplied member since: Aug 12, 2005		In Reply To Reply
Merc 2 is indeed from what GodWars & ACK!MUD are derived, but ACK! is not what GodWars is derived from. Also, your comment about DIKu MUDs being popular seems a bit off target. DIKU itself is NOT popular, SMAUG, ROM, and to lesser amounts Circle are popular, they aren't DIKU, they are DIKU derived, as is the same with ACK!MUD. And I'm with Lobotomy, usually old stock muds have lots of development, but it's usually things added to them and their actual base is still old because changing the core of the codebase later on becomes much more difficult. ie. A function in stock DIKU might be messy, but you ignored it for years, to fix it ten years later is a pain because you may for instance also have to change all the arguments passed to it throughout the entire game which could potentially be several hundred instances.
"Are you tired of MUDs made for money cluttering your searches for free games?" http://mudquest.org

6. RE: ACKMuds	rate thread hide Raw Rating: 3.67 3 rating votes to-date You have not rated this thread Useless Poor Average Good Useful	Sat Jul 19, 2008 [4:40 PM]
KelvinM Email not supplied member since: Apr 18, 2005		In Reply To Reply
Ironically, my second MUD early in my MU* career was Shades of Evil, the flagship ACK! at the time. I don't remember the names or the people involved, but it did very well and I really enjoyed it. It was a huge step up from the Diku (Apocalypse IV) I started on in terms of being a little more flashy and immersive. ACK!Muds are very different, I find them to be better for PK'ing. The multi-classing system is a great idea, it doesn't lock you into any one path. If I remember, the OLC was pretty good too. While ACK!Muds are very different, the same basics are the same as most MUDs. You can still 'kill', 'con', 'get', 'look', etc. just like on a Diku. There's enough that's the same that I don't think you'll run into a whole lot of problems.
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7. RE: ACKMuds	rate thread hide Raw Rating: 3.67 3 rating votes to-date You have not rated this thread Useless Poor Average Good Useful	Sat Jul 19, 2008 [5:59 PM]
Koron Email not supplied member since: Aug 1, 2000		In Reply To Reply
My first mud was AfterShock, which branched from Shades of Evil fairly early on. Most of the ACKs I've seen since have had, shall we say, no shortage of color. In that regard they've been pretty flashy. Ironically, that very same multi-classing system that doesn't lock you into one path is something I've grown to strongly dislike. In stock ACK, characters are basically identical until the second level tier, which only comes after you've maxed out half of those initial five classes. On the mud I'm imming now, we've changed this a bit, but it's still strongly ACK in terms of initial (mortal) class selection. Also, I do agree that the OLC is strong. What it lacks in stock (such as an online mobprog editor) can be made up for pretty easily (the code is already there, it just needs an interface). I think what I'm noticing may just be due to thematic differences. I worked on a Final Fantasy (ROM-derived) mud once that drew players like the plague, even though it wasn't strictly loyal to any particular FF game. Do you suppose that it's familiarity that compels people to continue playing an otherwise incomplete game?

8. RE: ACKMuds	rate thread hide Raw Rating: 3.67 3 rating votes to-date You have not rated this thread Useless Poor Average Good Useful	Sat Jul 19, 2008 [6:47 PM]
Drizzt1216 Email not supplied member since: Aug 12, 2005		In Reply To Reply
You can still 'kill', 'con', 'get', 'look', etc. just like on a Diku. That's because ACK! is DIKU...
"Are you tired of MUDs made for money cluttering your searches for free games?" http://mudquest.org

It's Not Just a Game |------[ http://www.retromud.org ]------| It's an ATTITUDE

6 Planets. 60 Races. 1,000 Skills & Spells. Infinite Possibilities.

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