The Last Outpost used to have three immortals, though there seems to
have been only one for the last decade or so. That one tends to be
active for short periods and then disappear for months at a time.
When he does show up, he seems to spend more time harassing players
than making the game more enjoyable. His lack of dependability has
worsened to the point where he completely took the game down for
a year. At this time he also wiped the player file, which he seems
to do from time to time for no real benefit to the game.
The game world is not very large and, unlike stated in the
description here, is not completely original. I've seen at least two
of the zones also installed on other muds.
There are several other false statements in the description here:
Player killing is not restricted. There is no player killing, period.
I would hardly describe it as having an extended race or class
selection. There are 6 races and 4 classes.
It is definitely not newbie friendly. Groups are extremely rare, and
even more rarely include newbies. This is largely due to there
generally being 0-4 players connected at any given time.
There is no level based equipment system. There are only
restrictions based on alignment and class.
The lack of a player base can obviously be attributed somewhat to the
dated code and small world, but the main problem is the
administration. He encourages people to write new zones, and then
after they spend large amounts of time writing and submitting them he
doesn't even respond. I don't mean they just don't get used. He
goes for years ignoring inquiries from the authors about the status.
Eventually these people give up and go somewhere else. He is also
very biased and inconsistent in his enforcement of rule violations.
We've had a player completely abusing the no-botting rule and getting
exp while afk for months on end. Nothing was done to that player.
The game was changed instead. Meanwhile, a different player that
didn't even have any triggers has been stripped of all his equipment
for botting. We've had a player ignore the 'no foul language on
public channels' rule, to the point of gossiping obscenities and
racial slurs (the 'N' word, etc) at others, yet nothing was done to
that player. Yet we've had a character completely purged because a
higher level character was helping him level. Not only
is 'pleveling' not against any rule, but this activity was a regular
part of the game for years before and continues to be a regular part
of the game to this day. The only difference was that the immortal
that did the purging didn't like the player.
There is a subjective tone to this, which I find unavoidable in
describing the game from a player's perspective. However, everything
I've written here is factual.
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Comment posted on Thu Jan 24 14:05:00 2013 by Jason:
Please view John's review in the spirit that it was intended...
Someone bitter and jaded because they were punished for cheating.
I will agree that the gods (or god since only one of the three is
visibly active) arbitrarily enforce the rules depending on their mood
and whether or not they like the player. As someone who was constantly
on the wrong side of the gods for killing their mortal characters and
friends, I have been unjustly jailed many times in my career here
without breaking any rules. I viewed it as just one more challenge in
a game filled with challenging features. In the past 10 years, the
enforcement of rules has become much more relaxed and only people that
have been caught flagrantly cheating have been punished.
Having played on a hundred or so different MUDs over the past 20+
years, I would say that this game has one of the largest playing
areas, with an incredibly interesting layout and detailed
descriptions. Back before graphical games like EQ and WoW I would
marvel at the depth of description put into this particular game and
every so often I turn off brief to read them. The zones are all
completely original and were written specifically for this MUD. If you
see them elsewhere, they were copied. I have written several areas for
this game, but only one was implemented, and was changed quite a bit
from the way it was written. The gods have their own vision of what
they want the game to be like and thats just the way it is... and to
be honest thats how it should be.
It is very odd that John says there is no player killing on this mud,
considering I have been killing him here for the past 20 years until
he quit. As of late, the player killing system has been changed and
while it is harder to kill players, it is not too terribly difficult.
Zones must be claimed (kill all mobs in a zone) into player killing
zones and then they become FFA areas. All zones can be claimed so the
player base determines which are safe zones and which are not.
There are 4 classes (Mage, Thief, Warrior, Cleric) and 6 races
(Gnome, Ogre, Human, Dwarf, Halfling, Elf). Your overall stats are
mainly based on your choice of class/race combo. However, you are
technically all 4 classes as you can level up each class to 20 for a
maximum of 80 levels. Your character will excel in the skills/spells
of your native class while not being as good in the skills/spells of
their non-classes. As you level, there are special quests built into
the game that force you to explore the world and give decent rewards
and experience. When you hit level 80, there is a quest that will
allow you to remort. Remorting will allow you to pick a new race/class
combo if you wish and you will get a bonus to your stats as you
relevel back to 80. There are infinite remorts.
The game is definitely not newbie friendly as there is nothing stock
for a new player to be familiar with. Any new character is viewed with
suspicion as they are usually an alt or an old player returning. We
just don't seem to get many 'true' newbies. If you have some decent
MUD experience, you can pick up the gist of this game but the learning
curve is kind of steep because of all the tricks and nuances that take
time to learn. Because rarely anyone helps new players, it is a tough
game to learn, and there is no attempt at a MUD school, new players
usually quit sooner rather than later.
Thankfully, there are no level restricted items. I find the very
concept to be stupid. As stated, there are class and alignment
restrictions. I have suggested race restricted items, but that has not
been implemented. Each item in the game is limited to a particular
maximum so some items are truly unique and worth killing another
player to get. Items wear down and break as you use them thus
returning into circulation.
It is unfortunate that the player base is not larger here and there
are usually not more than 1 or 2 people online at any given time. This
game has a lot to offer in the way of content and history that is
unrivaled anywhere elsewhere. Many times players from the past 20
years log in just to chat with old friends, but not to play. I would
say this is because the game has evolved over time and people either
do not like some of the changes as they take away the nostalgia or do
not have the time to learn as they are now in their 30s/40s with wife,
kids, job, etc.
