Oh god, please, no. NO.

I am ashamed to admit that was my first MUD. I know. I know. But it was.

Just as an aside, forgive me if I'm wrong but isn't AO a MMORPG in the vein of EQ, FFXI and so on rather than an immersive environment such as IRE's? I mean, if you tell me otherwise I'll believe you, but it just seems to me that there are quite different standards for "good story" (and it has to go a bit further than that in MUDs as opposed to graphical MMOs, I reckon) between the two subgenres.

Was thinking about this and had another idea that might get the juiciest bits of this in a form that could actually make a profit and appeal to enough people, so I thought I'd necro this thread to talk about it.

Similar to how Lusternia has planes, this MUD has alternate timelines at varying tech levels and some means (out of player control) to open pathways between them. So you would have a medieval fantasy world in one plane, but you'd also have an Industrial Revolution one, and a modern techno spy/thriller one, and a space opera one, and an Iron Age one. Each of these would be a base for PCs (analagous to a city/commune). There would be other planes which would be more like bashing areas -- for instance, the Jurassic would be a high-level bashing area. It'd be easy to open new "cities" without having to plan them beforehand -- I have an image of opening one set in the Renaissance, with Leonardo da Vinci as the city tutor, which is mostly peaceful and attracts those who just want to engage in crafting and trade, for instance. Or one set in the Age of Exploration with pirates and musketeers and other swashbucklers.

The cool thing, though, is that powers, skills, and objects you acquired in one plane might not work the same, or at all, in other ones. Nothing that broke each plane's theme would work. So if a wizard goes into the modern techno plane, magic wouldn't work except that which was not overt, for instance. There would be ways to "steal" abilities from other planes, however. The Industrial Revolution folks could mount a raid on the Space Opera realm to steal advanced technology; not all of it would work back home, but they would then be able to use it in further raids in places where it does work. And there'd be means to take those things back, plus having them would have unwanted side effects -- when you come back to the Stone Age with a bunch of James Bond spy gear, the Spirits of the Dreaming (which are normally the source of your Stone Age powers) are less willing to work with you, so every power you gain from one plane reduces your power from your home plane.

It wouldn't be hard to set up conflicts between plane-nations with elaborate tactical possibilities. Imagine if the Space Opera folks allied with the Stone Age because of an interesting synergy between The Force and the Spirits of the Dreaming as they work in the Age of Exploration, to do a raid there to steal back some wyvern's tongue they stole from the Medieval Fantasy world. But while this could lead to something vaguely similar to "conflict quests", the impact on people's abilities would be limited because it'd be more integral -- you already have those kinds of limitations every time you travel anyway. Stealing that wyvern's tongue might annoy the wizards of the Medieval Fantasy world, and might make it impossible for them to use some power until they get it back, but that's a power they already can't use in a lot of places, and they might gain some other power as a result, and besides, as long as you hold the wyvern's tongue, gremlins keep mucking about in your Difference Engine and making things not work as well as they should anyway, so the ability to breathe fire (in those places where that even works) comes at the price of some other things you used to be able to do. So there's negative feedback that ensures conflict is self-limiting, but viable.

I like this idea so much I'm almost willing to take it seriously. Maybe I should do a writeup and send it to Matt.

Wow, in the moments when I'm bored and thinking about the ideal MUD to create (next to Lusternia, of course!), that kind of setting is almost exactly it! The idea of combining the best of all worlds, past, present, and future, is just so intriguing. In my own version though it'd just be three timespaces, one 'medieval-ish', one present day nearly identical to our own earth, and one 'post-apocalyptical sci-fi world', and the initial goal of the game is to find out what happened between each of those timespaces (which, in case of the latter, was global warming! ) Yay for educational games.

You know, I don't usually like your ideas that much, but that sounds really cool. I'd totally play a MUD like that (provided it was well-made with a good combat system, etc).

Seconded!
(Even though I'd still come back to Lusternia. I always come back. )

Anyone played Chronotrigger? Its a console RPG with a timetravel system which has 5 major eras like that (Prehistoric, Darkages (floating continents + earthbound magicless people), medievil, modern, future).

It sounds great to me.

Totally skipped the rest of the thread, but...much for Transhuman Space and this post.

Go go Necromancy powers!

IRE Game idea huh?

Setting: An arctic wasteland type area.

Era: Sci-fi/fantasy. (Laser swords/Laser Guns and magic kinda thing)

Organizations: Four recently established colonies on an uncharted ice planet.

Conflict: Conflict would be shifting, instead of static conflict, like Mag vs. Celest; the game would have opened with the colonies just making contact after a few years, so there would be no immediate conflict. Conflict would come about in one or two ways:

• Method one: Player started, one colony would be pissing off another colony and it would degrade into war until they decided enough was enough.
• Method two: Admin started, the admin would decide that it was about time for two colonies to maybe start fighting. After discussion with the two colony leaders (OOCly) about the conflict -do you wanna do it?, how long do you wanna do it?, what do you want to start it?- a small event would take place sparking the conflict, and maybe some conflict type quests to add flavor, and boom, we have conflict.

Specials:

• Something similar to Aetherspace, except that it would hold larger meaning. Because the planet is deserted, there are no villages, so instead of village influencing, we'd have Asteroid Mine company influence: Some of the Asteroids around the planet are very rich in exotic sci-fi type minerals. Colonies can influence these private companies that have established mining operations on asteroids to contribute the resources mined from the asteroids to give them to their organization for a time. To get to asteroids, players would have to hitch a ride on a friendly Pilot's ship (see below), or they could use a teleporter to get the asteroids that your colony owns.
• More on the Aetherspace type thing, it would be a main attraction so-to-speak of the game, Pilots (an archetype so to speak of the game) would be able to construct space-ships ranging from one manned fighters, to capital warships and bombers. Only pilots can own and operate a ship, but anybody (with training) can crew a ship. From repairs, to gunning there would be a lot of options open. Bombers would be able to bombard an enemy colony from space damaging infrastructure and defenses (see below), and could only be attacked by other ships, or colony defenses. Pilots could equip their ships with beam weapons for an infinite ammo weapon, or rockets for long range damage, or bombs for ground damage.
• Colony infrastructure, because these are relatively new colonies that players are in, it is required to construct things like farms, power plants and mines, to bring in some commodities to the colony.
  Infrastructure buildings:
  --Farms: Brings in different food commodities depending on the type of farm built, fruit farms would produce fruit, veggie farms would produce vegetables, dairy farms would produce cheese and/or milk, and meat farms would produce chicken and/or beef.
  --Mines: Would bring in the basic metals to construct basic weapons and armor.
  --Power Plants: Would be required to power Defensive structures. Extra power plants beyond what is required for the defensive structures would increase the efficiency of Farms, and Mines, as long as there are surplus Power Plants.
  --Research Laboratory: The research lab would over time slowly increase the output of farms, and mines without the aid of power plants, increase the efficiency of power plants, so fewer plants can power more defensive structures, increase the strength, and range of defense structures (longer detection range on sensors), and the sturdiness of all structures. Only 1 research lab can be built at a time per colony. Destruction of the lab would not mean that all is lost; it would just require a rebuilding for anymore improvements to happen. A lab is a fairly large undertaking.
• Colony defense structures, because the space around the planet is such a vital and intricate part of the game, it would be possible with the correct space ships to bombard an enemy colony from space, damaging/destroying infrastructure of the colony. With defense structures, player can fight back from the ground.
  Types of Defensive Structures:
  Rocket Launchers:
  --Limit: 4 per colony
  --Requires: 2 power plants, 3 players to man effectively, anymore would increase firing speed, and help with any repairs needed.
  --Purpose: Launches ground based rockets at enemy ships in range. If a launcher runs out of ammo, it is worthless until it can be restocked.
  --Add-ons: Warehouse: gives storage of rockets close by to the launcher, allowing quick restocking if in a dicey situation. Structural shielding: increases the power plant requirements of the building by 1, but allows for a shield to be erected around the building, giving it its own set of shields. Power generator: In the event of a loss of power plants, the generator allows the building to function on it's own for a limited time. If there are enough plants, the generator picks up the cost of shielding, without stressing the regular power plants. If the launcher has shields installed, and there aren't enough power plants, the shields won't function, but the launcher will.
  Beam Batteries:
  --Limit: 6 per colony
  --Requires: 3 power plants, 2 players to man effectively, anymore would allow for repairs of structure.
  --Purpose: Fires beams at enemy ships attacking the colony, no ammo requirements.
  --Add-ons: Structural shielding: See rocket launcher. Amplifier: Increasing power requirements by .5 more power plants per amplifier installed (limit, 4 per battery), the range and power of the battery is increased slightly. Power generator: See rocket launcher, also, will pick up the cost of two amplifiers when there are enough power plants. If there aren't enough power plants, shielding and amplifiers will be switched off, and the battery can function for a limited time.
  Sensors:
  --Limit: 1 per colony.
  --Requires: 1 power plant
  --Purpose: Allows for detection of enemy ships (enemies are dictated by either player or admin initialized conflict), and gives warning of enemies that are closing in.
  --Add-ons: Structural Shielding: See above. Power Generator: Picks up the cost of shields when there are enough power plants, or allows the sensors to function on their own without stressing the plants. This is not limited in time.
  Colony Shield Generator:
  --Limit: 1 per colony.
  --Requires: 3 power plants for minimum protection, 6 for best.
  --Purpose: Protects the colony from orbital bombardment, also, will protect the colony from freak asteroid impacts. The Colonial Defense Minister can set the shields/power reading several ways: Always minimum, the shields will always use 3 power plants for protection. Always optimal, the shields will always use 6 power plants for protection. Minimum, unless enemies are detected (requires sensors), the shields will use 3 power plants for protection, unless sensors pick up enemy ships, in which case it will consume 6 until the threat has passed, in which it will go back to using 3. Minimum protection will protect against freak asteroid impacts, and can take some punishment from orbital bombardment. Best protection will protect against freak asteroid impacts, and will take a fair bit of punishment before dropping from orbital bombardment.

Character types: Characters would be able to choose 1 of 4 types of classes to play as:
Pilots (specialty class): Ability to own and fly your own ship. Can wear light armor, and use two handguns or a light rifle, and an energy sword. Can choose to utilize small amounts of magic.
Mage (Glass cannon class): Practitioner of an ancient art, understood by only those who practice it. Wields powerful magical effects, devastating to regular people.
Trooper (tanky/damage class): Standard run-of-the-mill soldier. Able to use any kind of weapon and armor, a backbone to any invasion force, able to choose from a variety of combat styles utilizing different weapons. Can choose to utilize very small amounts of magic.
Medic (affliction/healing class): Unlike its name dictates, the medic is not just for healing his or her comrades, while that is the basic practice of the Medic class; Medics can inflict the enemy with as many problems as they can heal their comrades. From simply blinding enemies, to unleashing toxics against an entire army, medics are a must have to your invasion force. Can use basic weapons and medium armor. Can choose to utilize small amounts of magic.

Game Backstory: Coming soon! I'll post this in a future post down the road.


Well. There's my idea. Kinda long and in depth for just a plain concept, but I have a tendency to branch out when this stuff happens.

Please keep major flames to a minimum. I might add more to this as time goes on.


A few things I'm gonna add here:
About the limits to the colony defense structures, yeah I know they seem kinda small, but either A, you'd have a lot of one man bomber ships attacking the colony, or one or two big bomber ships, so at the start they would be decent (maybe a teeny bit high but...), as time wore on and more people started playing, the limits could be raised.

Snow Crash the mud!

Just think about being able to RP a freelance hacker, and then you log into a mud within the mud!

Something like Paranoia, good job if you know what I'm talking about.

*highfive* We've been chatting about just that on IRC, only as a MUSH instead.