Review Submitted By: Juxquin
Author Status: Player
Started on Warhammer MUD, Wolfenburg: June 2001
Submission Date: Jul 23, 2004
TMC Listing: Warhammer MUD, Wolfenburg
The following review is the opinion of the review's author [Juxquin]
and in no way represents the opinions of this website or its staff.
The first thing to mention is that as of March 2004, this game is no
longer a Warhammer MUD and has been renamed Kingdom of Heroes. The
roleplaying is as fantastic and engaging as ever though, and the
fantasy medieval setting is still strongly influenced by Warhammer.
Roleplaying is very much the focus of Kingdom of Heroes, and the
currently small playerbase has led to very strong interaction
between players. There's no PvP combat, which means that people
tend to cooperate in roleplay -- though there's no group experience
system, so hunting tends to be quite solitary.
The Guilds system has recently been changed; instead of 26 small
class based guilds, we now have 9 large multi-class ones. This seems
to be working very well, as characters mostly have a choice of 2 or 3
different Guilds to join, and a greater range of Guild companions to
roleplay with or hunt alongside.
The players of Kingdom of Heroes are what makes the game special;
there's always been a high level of roleplaying, which is encouraged
rather than enforced by the staff. The majority of players live in
the UK, and so real life meets tend to be in the UK and are always
popular. There's a definite sense of community.
However, player numbers have dropped recently. We're not getting more
than 12 or so at peak times, whereas last year it was about 30. The
big recent changes to the game have probably contributed to the loss
of players, as well as OGC concentrating on their other MUDs. This
looks set to reverse -- Kingdom of Heroes is getting a new server at
the start of August, and the website has recently been updated and
redesigned.
Character advancement is very much based on levelling; new skills are
gained when a character levels up, as well as a few extra hit points
and other such goodies. There is no builds point system as in OGCs
other MUDs, so there's no way to choose what skills to in which to
specialize. However, there are 26 different classes, with different
'skill trees', and skills are currently under review.
The game does have it's problems; the lack of consistent investment of
time and money by OGC is the main one. Things do seem to be looking up
at the moment though, with the new website, the changes to the game
background and Guilds system, and a new city in the works. The close-
knit playerbase is the game's main strength, and many people have
made lasting friendships through Kingdom of Heroes.
Another of the strengths of the game is the custom Wizard, a
glorified telnet client through which you connect to Kingdom of
Heroes. This is designed specifically to work with the game, and is
very userfriendly for the new MUDder, as well as being customizable
through macros, aliases, various options, and lots of clever things
that I haven't even tried! :) It can be downloaded from the website
at www.kingdomofheroes.com
The game costs £9.99/month for one account, which holds three
characters. Or if you pay through Paypal, it costs $15/month --
which tends to work out a bit cheaper due to the exchange rate. It is
fairly pricey, but I reckon it's worth the money. Also, players tend
to be quite committed, due to the cost. You get 5 free trials per
character before you have to register to continue playing.
Take a look at the website if you're interested in finding out more
about the game or glance over mine at www.juxquin.com -- it's got
quite a lot of information for new players, especially those fairly
new to MUDding.
