Realistically, do I essentially need to be a software engineer to compete in a MUD? I've been trying to read about aliases, triggers, etc., etc., and the best I can do is vaguely, and only sometimes, understand what it is they DO, but not how to actually write them or even use them properly. I have no idea how to code, how to write aliases, triggers, echos, etc.. And, looking at and trying to decipher the paragraphs of code people post and talk about non-chalantly, is harder than trying to learn an actual speaking language to me (and I only speak English).

Now I know, everyone's gonna say "Oh, no, you don't need all that stuff, alot of people do fine without it, and you can still have fun in the game!", especially because I'm sure every game is longing for bigger player-bases and every last person counts. However, judging by the severe advantages that these things can bring, it appears that if you want to be competitive in PvP, maybe even influencing, and hell maybe even in fighting/influencing NPC's, you're going to NEED a plethora of scripts, aliases, hotkeys, echos, etc.. I mean to me when someone says to me, "Oh, no, you don't need all that stuff! . . . ", I feel like a guy with no arms who wants to compete in Olympic Swimming, who's being given pity-encouraging speeches from friends like, "Well no, I mean, you'll do fine!.. You've... Got your legs! And... they help propel you, so, you should be fine! You'll probably be able to make do with that! You're good to go! You'll probably hold your own in alot of races!".

I just have a hard time believing it and feel like people are just trying to be nice and get a vibe like they're too embarassed to just say, "Reality is, if you wanna actually be really good, you've gotta be a software engineer irl and know how to work the scripting magic, the game-behind-the-game. Without knowing that stuff, you're going to be drown out by hoards of unimportant text spam during a fight and not know what's going on. You're not going to be able to have the computer automatically heal everything for you and cure every ailment you ever get so that you mentally don't have to worry about it (leaving you enough peace of mind to plan your next move in the few seconds the computer is automatically doing things for you the fraction of a second you're available to, both of which, and especially the first, provide an unfathomable advantage).


I just wanna know the stone-cold truth here:

Is it possible to be competitive in a MUD without knowing all this stuff? I love text-based games, there's worlds more you can do in them that a graphical game simply cannot reproduce. I want to play them, but I also don't want to have to study computer programming 14 hours a day for 3+ months to play them or be competitive in them. And, I just don't wanna get a month or two into a MUD just to discover I'm obsolete. I mean the ability to auto-heal, auto-cure, not to mention just the interface advantage of cutting down text-spam from long explanations to just " cures left arm.", and have everything all color-coded so you can figure out what's going on at a glance, provides such a huge overwhelming advantage to anyone who doesn't have that at their fingertips that it's laughable.

I know I'll probably get crucified for this whole post, especially since my experience in most MUD communities is that, if everything you speak and every action you take isn't hugs and rainbows, you're blackballed and exiled and made out to be a major douchebag and community-crushing cancer, one who is majorly disrupting the echelons of elitist societies who've worked hard for months or even years to mold and keep a peaceful atmosphere (even the "evil/bad" guys) through which they never have to encounter any kind of confrontation or situation which may make them feel socially awkward in any way, shape, or form (or make them upset, nervous, irritated, etc.).. .. But, it's something I had to ask and bring up.

I just wanna know the pure, honest, stone-cold truth here, so please be kind enough to let me know if it is possible to be competitive and get the game to work for you without knowing all this stuff!

It's terribly frustrating walking around in Lusternia (or any MUD) feeling like you're a sub-human man living in a mud-packed cave who's enthralled that he just learned about fire, while everyone else around you is a superior alien being who posseses technology and philosophies light-years ahead of your own.

There is plenty of help available through this forum and forums for specific clients. You just have to ask the right questions the right way to get a good response.

There are also screencasts and other tutorials on how to script or just do simple things with clients like MUSHclient and Mudlet, so you should really check those out. I know MUSHclient has a Getting Started forum with a lot of great stuff posted by the author.

Nope. Lots of people make credits off of your lack of knowledge by selling all of those things to you. I'd look up Ethelon or Vadi's system.

The sort of thing you're talking about is only a necessity if you want to be involved in PvP combat, which is only a small part of the game. My in-game husband hardly ever leaves the city and would last less than a second in a fight, buy he still enjoys the game. No one is mollifying you when they say that you can still have fun without intensive coding abilities. If, however, you are looking to get involved in combat, then yes, you either need coding knowledge, or the money to pay those who do.

I've been on Mudlet for several months now, without any training in coding, and I've picked up enough that I've made a very simple curing system, and I've worked some of my own combat stuff into Vadi's m&m system. There's a clan in-game for the Mudlet client, and people here on the forums are always glad to help people who are trying to learn. Like Zarquan said, you just have to ask.

Ahh ok, thanks, I'll look into some of that. I know I came off almost demeaning in my first post, I guess I'm just a little bitter because a couple times a year I get bored to tears with conventional games, and I want to play a MUD for it's depth, even RP and chat-wise. But when I get into a game, I do 3-days worth of reading help files only to remember that there's a whole 'nother world out there of aliases and programming, and alot of times when I start asking about it I just get met with a pissed-off attitude like they think I'm so lazy I've never even glanced at manuals or help files, heheheh (not saying you guys are being like that, I just meant in the past). Sometimes when people point me out to things to go read, they forget that I don't even know what it is that I'm looking at, I can't decipher it. It's like if someone tells you they wanna learn German, and you hand them a book written in German and say, "It's all in there, read up!", as opposed to handing them an English-written book on how to read German, if that makes any sense. And, yeah, while I'm not lazy as far as reading goes, it is also demoralizing to read hours and hours of help files only to remember that you need to read hours and hours of how to program.

In any event I'll stop my QQing, and thanks for the places you've pointed out! I have read through a few threads here btw, it's just that like I said, it was like reading an alien language, none of it made any sense to me at all heheh.

I wanna stay playing Lusternia bad because it seems to have pretty much every element in a MUD I can remember wanting, and has a pretty vibrant PvP community! I'm not even entirely sure I wanna get into combat PvP, but I am very interested in debating and influence, which I know is a form of combat in a way. Would I need something like Vadi's system for that too? I mean, I'm willing to buy something like that if it gets what I wanted out of it, but I'll read on his site and ask him about that personally. And I mean to be honest I'll be spending alot of time gambling and hanging out as well, it's not completely about the influencing/pvp, it's just I wanted to know if it was even possible for me to participate in competitive stuff like that if I didn't have programming experience, because I love PvP in any game really; I'm a competitive person by nature.

So, I kinda apologize for the way I came off at first, but you gotta understand the frustration of not only being a Luste newbie, but having only played one other MUD in my life that wasn't a BBS Door Game, and also being a complete newbie to the alias/etc world! It's all a ton to try to take in at once, and I mean I'm on my 4th day of reading stuff now; I havn't taken more than about 10 steps in the game since I made a character

Sometimes you need to stop reading the help files and just go explore.

Will you die or get into trouble? Well, this is Lusternia, if you haven't run into something strange and wanting to eat you as its morning breakfast, you don't leave your nexus.

Influencing is much like bashing, except no afflictions. Debating, well you could get away with not having a system, as with anything, having a bit of code to back you up just makes it that much easier to handle at first.

It's pretty simple to make aliases and triggers, highlights and echos, that sort of thing. You can just fool around pressing buttons in the client and eventually you'll be able to work out how it works! I know I learned a reasonable amount looking into the code of Treant (a free, but no longer supported, combat system); and I don't mean going deep into the lua or xml files, just looking at the aliases and triggers that are in place already.

You'll eventually learn how to do more complex things - sure it might end up a lot longer and unwieldy than absolutely necessary - but if it does its job that's pretty good anyway!

And yeah, just go explore and talk to people and things like that. And mercilessly attach yourself to someone and leech. Leech. ( I don't mean leech xp, I mean leech knowledge! I think it's really important to be able to have that one person where you don't feel like an idiot as you barrage them with questions.)

Some of us are software engineers, and this stuff comes pretty naturally. It's easy to forget how difficult it can be for others. However, I see too many people who just keep repeating "I guess I'm just too dumb," and I find that attitude to be the worst possible mindset for learning anything. So, just try not to be that guy!

Yeah, I should try just messing around with stuff in itself. And I know what you mean Zarguan, I get annoyed with that too sometimes. I guess part of the reason I was frustrated is because I know I'm smart enough to get it if I just delve into it enough, but I don't even really know where to begin or exactly how to read the material I'm working with, heheh, but yeah hopefully it'll come to me more naturally when I start reading more and more about it. I guess for now I'll just wander around a bit and when I get into a situation that annoys the hell out of me in the game, I'll try to find out if there's some kind of macro/trigger/etc that can fix what's annoying me and try to take it one step at a time that way. Thanks again everyone!

For the first two years of playing Lusternia, I was using the Nexus client, had no curing system what so ever, had basic thrown together triggers, aliases using the serverside alias system and not Nexus'. And it was pretty easy to learn and I had fun every time I logged in. Near the end/beginning of 2009/2010 I finally switched clients, first with Mush, then mudlet. I found mudlet easier to learn and over the year I've learned a lot. And I had never encountered any serious coding or even knew much about coding languages. Depending on which client you use, you'll look in different places to learn how to do things, mudlet has the many videos made by Vadi, the mudlet forums, and the mudlet-help irc, which you can now connect to from mudlet. Can't say for Mush though. Knowing how to code, even if it's something small really helps, but there are more than enough people who would be more than willing to help you out, by either making something for you, sometimes with a price, sometimes not, or walking you through the process and pointing you in a good direction to start.
Everything I know was learned from

• Having people readily available to answer my stupid questions.
• Constantly reading over the mudlet manual.
• Referencing the lua wiki and online manual every chance I get.

How fast you learn depends on you and how much time you have to devote to it. It took me a year or so, because I was in school at the time, and only learned on the side.

tl;dr
Keep at it, use every resource available. If at a loss, there's always someone available to help. Start off small, look over others code if it's available to you and learn from there.

I may have gone past the point after the third or fourth sentence.

I think other people have covered most points pretty well, but I'll just throw in my two cents...

I am a software developer, and I still didn't write my own curing system, I bought Vadi's. Even if you are a great programmer it's going to take a serious time investment to build a curing system, since you'll have to collect all the affliction lines, enter those lines, and account for the nuances in grammar by using regular expressions.

That being said, having the ability to write some basic scripts would be tremendously useful. Being able to create your own targetting alias, auto-basher, and creating alias's for your skills is awesome, but basic programming skills is something you might want to consider learning regardless of if you use them for a mud or not. It's nice to have a little insight into what your computer is actually doing.

People are always willing to help on the forums, and there's a mudlet clan in game you can use as a resource.

First thing I was taught as a software engineer is to be lazy: If someone already made code to do something, and it works fine, then don't write it on your own again. And if it nearly does what you want, tinker with it till it works like you want it. I got Vadi's system, if only because doing even a rough estimate of how much work it would take me to write it had me thinking I can really spend that time better, for example making little scripts of my own that currently are not yet shared alike.

You do not have to be a software engineer to learn how to script for MUDs. You do have to take the time to learn it. Software engineers might learn faster, but then again, I've also found it sometimes working in my disadvantage (being afraid to admit you don't get something, for example).

I self-taught myself a lot of computer stuff before I took it up as an actual study. Practically that would translate here to downloading some of the scripts that are available and look at the code. Figure out what each line does. Edit a few lines to see what breaks.

There's a Mudlet clan?

Man, you're always behind in the times.

When I entered the world of MUDs I had no programming or coding knowledge. I still don't really. I have picked up on the basics of triggers, aliases, and highlighting over the years. A game like Lusternia or any of the IRE games can be very discouraging. As they are text based they appeal to a love of reading and storytelling. On closer examination they are extremely complex and require technical knowledge to be competitive especially for things like PvP. I still don't PVP, that may change when/if I hit Demi-God, but fortunately Lusternia is a mature game developmentally. If you have the resources you can achieve a very deep enjoyment of this game without that technical knowledge.

Vadi offers his mudlet curing system for a very respectable price. There are a number of useful addons available for mudlet both for free (I use one for influencing and for harvesting) here on the forums and for a small additional investment from Vadi on his m&m site. There is even a plugin that gives mudlet the appearance of Lusternia's native GUI with a working directional compass and status gauges.

Something that has helped me is buttons. They are just like clicking icons in a graphical game. I make extensive use of them and they are easy to make in mudlet. You can even make them into drop down boxes. About the only time I have to type anything in game is when I'm talking to someone.
You will eventually start to develop the knowledge you need to do the basics on your own. It may take time but it will come.

To be honest, the stuff that you do in the game that really requires a program helping you out (PvP, Aetherhunting) is such a small, niche part of the game that unless you want to do those things a lot, it's really not worth the time or effort in learning. While yes, I'm a firm believer in learning BASIC programming skills and logic, if you just want to play the game to have fun, interact with people, and escape the dull and awful world that is IRL through the use of text-based RP, then you'll have an incredible time. Really, Lusternia has something for EVERYONE, and 90% of everything the game offers, you don't need to know anything about programming.

It's nice, however, being able to make basic Triggers, Aliases, Scripts and the like. You'll undoubtedly find yourself in a situation doing the same repetative thing. Humans are awful at doing that; computers are not. So, finding a client (hintchoosemudlethint) where you can delve into the mechanical aspects of the game without LOSING yourself in the mechanical aspects of the game is highly encouraged, and you'll feel great knowing you can do that.

However, bottom line, you don't need to be a software engineer. You just need to be weird enough to play a text-based role playing game!

Aetherhunting can be done without coding of your own, just offer yourself up for slivven duty. Will probably want a system to help with the curing. Or you can siphon and hit your alias whenever the pilot orders you to siphon. Lots of people automate that but if you just sit there and react you can pull it off manually. Probably still best to inform the pilot of that. If he really minds he'll probably explain you how to set up a trigger for it, which is easily done.

If you're at all interested in PvP the cold bottom line is you're going to need a LOT of credits and at least basic to intermediate coding abilities. Even if you buy a system there are usually a bunch of holes that you have to code yourself. I can't stress the credits part enough, either. Once you have all your abilities you can then finally begin the process of learning every skill's effectiveness and how to tie together your offense. Then you start practicing and build up your resistance to being killed. A lot. Not just by one person, but four or five people beating you up at the same time. From what I've discovered, you have to work on your own skills and then join a group of people that are good fighters. Otherwise, your allies will run away in the middle of a fight and leave you hanging dry.

Realistically, if you're here for just the PvP you might as well give up now. You're gonna get beat the crap out of and end up leaving. I suggest setting yourself up to enjoy other things as well and let the PvP be a kind of "on the side" thing.

Got facebook friends? I've gotten my hands on a bunch of credits by sending every one of them an invite. It's limited per day, but if you make sure to send out your daily limit each day you can get there. Combine that by logging on each day when there are free lessons / credits and do the easier challenges like the current weekrank (1 million exp) and you will slowly get there. It will also slowly boost you towards more levels which equals easier bashing or influencing which then equals more gold for more credits.