TMC Player Reviews: Dark Castle

(The following review comment is the opinion of the comment's author [ShadowWolf] and in no way represents the opinions of this website or its staff).

Very nice review, you hit a lot of the main points on the head. Alas,
I would like to add a bit though.

The players are mostly very friendly to newbies. It is easy to at
least get some sort of help with playing if you are new to the mud. If
you can't find assistance in the helpfile, then there are many that
are willing to at least give you hints to point you in the right
direction.

Grouping is a major deal in DC. As you make friends, and start
grouping you can run areas you otherwise would not be able to run on
your own and you may need their assistance for some skill quests. All
in all it is a good meshing of a well rounded community.

Then there are clans. Once you start making friends and improving your
character and your skills with that character, then you may be asked
to join, or may ask to join, one of the clans. On DC most of the clans
are very tightknit and there are even clan wars at times. They have
alliances and much, much more. Ask someone in a clan about theirs and
most are more than willing to give you a little background on it. In
the long run it is definitely to your benefit to join a clan. The
companionship, help, experience runs, gold runs, equipment runs,
grouping and benefitting from others with years of experience on this
MUD are all things that I do not think you can afford to miss out on.

Above all else, do not be afraid to die. Up until lvl 10 you do not
lose your items when you die. After that you must retrieve your
corpse. But with the assistance of friends, groups, and clannies, it
is usually easy to retrieve. You may say but what about the experience
I will lose if I die? Well, think about it this way. What about the
experiences you are going to lose and miss out on if you don't take
the chance. Wink! ;)

That's it for now. I hope you will consider taking the chance to
roll up a char and give DC a chance. I think that if you should, you
just may never leave.

Sincerely,
Wolf

(The following review comment is the opinion of the comment's author [Zoranna] and in no way represents the opinions of this website or its staff).

I was a coder on Dark Castle when it first opened on the scene. Many
changes have happen in the 15+ years of operation.

This would be a good summation of the system now.
Base code is MERC: Modifed very nicely by many coders, Morc, Pirahna,
Waz, and Sadus to name a few. The new compliment of Immortals are
decent to most players, however beware that they tend to zap (delete)
your characters if you talk about other similar muds.

The system tends to change a lot with new code going in each month.
However, things slow down when the main coder goes back to school
(Urizen).

It is not a newbie friendly mud, as the mud itself will tell you when
you log on. The clan system is fair and has clan tax modifications.
They do not yet have a vault system or player inventory save, so you
need to make 'Storage' characters for extra equipment.

The playerbase is mostly long time players with a few new people.
Some ways to compensate the players is with the Donation system.
Characters that are unable, or not very advanced, can donate cash via
paypal to get ingame Platinum. Platinum can be used to buy better
stats, Hitpoints, God Load(equipment that never scraps), or in some
cases a full character.

Overall Dark Castle is a shadow of it's former self, but being
rebuilt by a very advanced team.

(The following review comment is the opinion of the comment's author [Shortterm420] and in no way represents the opinions of this website or its staff).

Just to add/clarify/update a few things on this post and it's
comments..

When Zoranna mentioned mentioned a lack of player inventory saves,
she was refering to items in excess of what you can hold on your
person and in containers, not that player inventories empty every time
they are logged off.

Both player and clan vaults have been implemented with a share by
permission feature.

Player levels 51-60 were recently implemented with a nice sounding
'profession' system, available upon reaching lvl 60, soon to follow.
This will allow for more customization of your class.

The playerbase is still a good portion of veterans. However, many are
newbie friendly and encourage new players to learn the mud and stick
around. There are also presently a couple of unofficial 'newbie
helper' clans. Just ask questions over the newbie channel and you
shall find your answers, and, while I am only a psuedo-veteran of the
game, I am more than willing to help new players with anything as long
as they are trying to learn the game. Just send me a tell if I'm
online (Mouliani) and you can get no answer over the newbie channel.

Oh, and for a break in the never-ending quest to silence others and
earn your own smack-talking rights, they have also implemented an
ingame casino that accepts both kinds of game currency (gold and
platinum). It currently offers blackjack, slots, and roulette.
::CAUTION! HIGHLY ADDICTIVE!::

Hope to see you there soon!