Review Submitted By: boots
Author Status: Player
Started on Dragons' Star: 2003
Submission Date: Aug 30, 2005
TMC Listing: Dragons' Star
The following review is the opinion of the review's author [boots]
and in no way represents the opinions of this website or its staff.
Dragons' Star is a pretty unique MUD that, like many others, is
experiencing a lowered playerbase. Which is a shame because frankly,
it's one of the best MUD's I've ever played.
What makes it such a powerful play experience is the finesse with
which it has been constructed. Like any good RPG there is depth,
balance and symmetry to all the aspects of character creation and
advancement.
It's not that DS is a simple game, far from it - the game makes use
of each aspect of a character so your ability in a skill is tempered
by your race, your professions and your choices within the game. But
with all this depth you feel like everything works logically.
All the horrible little things that distract from adventuring have
been removed so that you can focus on making a character, exploring
the world and enjoying the social atmosphere.
DS is a classless mud, so your race restricts the maximum percentage
you can gain in any of the 500+ skills. Each skill is part of one of
10 groupings and it's the race that restricts your % in each of these
groupings, or spheres as they are known in-MUD.
Professions add special abilities, affect your sphere percentages and
allow you to perform special quests and the like.
Oh, did I mention you can buy your own spaceship? Like all things in
DS it isn't something you'll do in 2 days of playing. I like that
though, I like that I get rewarded for playing and that instead of a
simple grind, I can go from area to area, exploring and being
challenged by mobs who have AI scripted fighting patterns. The more I
learn about the MUD the more I feel confident in progressing to the
next tougher zone etc...
There is a remort system allowing access to new races and new spells,
and a lot of players take advantage of this to expand their playing
experience. Still, there are many people who haven't completed the 50
mortal levels and remorted, a sign that there is more to do than just
level up.
While the immortals aren't constantly visible, the players are
extremely helpful to new people and the Implementors seem to be adding
code slowly. The other week I logged on to find that there was a new
integrated skill system and some changes to the PvP guild - a
voluntary system that provides rewards for success.
So, I found a sci-fi mud that's balanced, has a nice friendly
playerbase and is full of innovating features and a totally original
world that I haven't begun to scratch the surface of yet. There is so
much to learn but the balance is kept so I don't feel rushed, like
I'll have to delete this character and start again once i 'really'
understand how it all works.
Anyway, I'm happy. I'm hoping this mud will make a good home for
the next couple of months - now if you'd like to join in, I highly
recommend it.
And say hi to me, boots, if you do! I could use some help getting
into this illegal nano-technology workshop in downtown Erinyes...
