[MUD-Dev] after the plague: mud report

[S. Patrick Gallaty]

Well, someone here referred me to "After the Plague" at atp.deltav.hu port 3000,
because of their interesting character generation system.  I did go there and
have
been playing it to sample the game and learn what I can from it.
I am writing here to give a summary of what I found.
What I discovered is that this is the last remaining piece of a very ambitious
hungarian mud development project called 'Coredump' which was based
on the NM 3.x mudlib.
The most interesting thing there is their 'party' system, where players
(and monsters) can put themselves into 'front' and 'back' ranks so that
fighters defend and mages/archers/thieves can throw spells and knives and
whatnot from the back rank.  I've escorted people who were in danger
of being pkilled and bodyguarded them by being in the front rank in their
'party.'
It's an excellent mechanic, and I am surprised I haven't seen it elsewhere
before.

Anyhow on to the summary :

Stats/skills based mud with an emphasis on 'aptitudes' which are guild-granted
at present.  'Aptitudes' affect learning rate and maximum proficiency in skills.
Quest based mud, most exp comes from performing quests.
Character growth potential is high, the most powerful players have semi-wizard
type powers.
Administrative staff does not interfere with player game unless there is a bug
or unimplimented feature.
Player population is very small.
I've requested and obtained the core mudlib to study.

Features :

Interesting 'aptitude' system.
Interesting player-dominated guild system.
well done language system
well done introduction system with complete flexibility
Excellent party system
use-based skill increases (feature? :)

observations :

wc/ac combat system using a 3.1.2 style combat.c (somewhat disappointing)
  this has been recently updated, and I haven't seen the new code
admins work really hard to stay out of the players' ways and really let
  the world be administered by players where possible.  This has interesting
  implications.

I've copied this to the owner of the mud, and if he has any feedback I'll
forward it here.