Bay 12 Games Forum

If you like the digging and making rooms, get Dungeon Keeper 2.

Arm 2?  Care to elaborate?

Also, to what extent should someone expect interaction with a staff member?  Do they act as a DM of sort, or is it more obscured than that?

Armageddon had some legal trouble for taking the Dark Sun theme, so they decided to make another game. Armageddon 2's feature list is pretty damn awesome, since Arm's codebase is quite aged and messy. But they've been quite split in attention, with the top staff members building the culture, history, rooms, etc for Arm 2.

Not exactly a DM. They do 'animate' random NPCs, who'd sometimes have a chat with you and such. Many of them like to animate mounts, since it doesn't require any character research. I had quite a bit of fun once with a bored off-peak staff member who animated every NPC around me while I was playing a thief.

If you play the game seriously, they get very immersed with you... you're encouraged to write weekly 'character reports' with random things like what you want your character to accomplish, what they've done, etc, so that they could work together with other characters and create some kind of plot.

The thing is, I don't want to waste my time drafting a character, figuring everything out along the way and find that there is something in which completely turns me off (read: fast travel or some similar shit).  I don't care about the inner-workings of how damage is dealt or anything like that.  My question is more about MUDs MOOs, whatever in general, and how Armageddon relates to the other systems.  Like I said, I have no concept of how everything works in these types of games.  I mean, I understand that you may not want to talk about it, but I don't really have the will to dive into something unless I feel like it's going to meet certain standards; forgive me if asking about such things is taboo.  There is a pretty hefty amount of effort that goes into making even a throwaway character which is why I don't really want to commit to doing so without feeling confident that it won't be a waste of time.

Even say, a link to a video of a similar MUD or some-such would be great.  Anything that will show what happens with a character when moving, exploring, getting attacked, etc. would be fantastic.

I thought you were asking for a wiki or something... no such thing

There's logs if you want to see the gameplay. Um.. hard to explain, but Arm players love DF, and DF players like Arm. Philosophically, the game is designed to kill you. You have to work with other people just to survive. No solo grinding here.

Code base is much like a typical MUD - north, east, look north, kill monster. Battles are pretty straightforward, you just watch text scroll, and type flee if your hitpoints are low. Sneaking and stealth is very strongly incorporated into the game if you like that kind of thing. Playing an assassin/thief/burglar is extremely rewarding, provided you have the patience to not let them die. If you don't have the patience, warriors kick ass right from the start, and much later in the game, but they don't have a lot of fun skills. Though the game is not at all about winning with skills - you'll find that most of the fun is in the politics, etc.

If you're wondering if it's worth trying - it is. I can say this is the best game out there for a RP lover, assuming you don't mind that the game tries to kill you, you don't mind that the average character is a villain, and you don't mind spending a hell lot of time on it. And that you don't mind reading a lot of text and using your imagination.

A dwarven 'rinther, for example, is not the best starting character - the documentation on the website doesn't even begin to prepare you for that.

Lies My second character was a dwarven 'rinther. He lived long enough that I think I've met just about most of the main Arm players with him. Eventually stored him though, because his focus was too tiring OOC.

Ah, good old Arm. I've played this a while back then, but it's way too much of a time sink. Otherwise, I could say it's one of the best games in the world - nothing quite immerses you as well.

Also, the game has gone through some malaise in the last few years as they split focus between Arm and Arm 2. Staff-player interaction has gone down quite a bit, but it's a bit of a taboo topic there.

like DF, dying is part of the fun.

Not quite true. Dying sucks in this game. Not like DF, where you build up a fortress just to see it gloriously torn down or get your char name in history in Adventure mode.

It's the end, full stop, and you're not even allowed to ask what happened after that, you lose all your friends, have to go through the applications process, etc. I highly suggest you try not to die. But it's similar to a lot of roguelikes, in that it's one of the things that makes these kinds of games fun.

But I'm serious when I say stay alive. The game starts becoming fun after you've been alive for several hours and start to know people and get a character who doesn't break easily.

Also, dying is the ultimate anti-grind. In most MMOs/MUDs, you have a long grind, because people are trying to measure how far ahead you can get ahead of others. If you simply stay alive in Arm, you will naturally have a better character.

What is the estimated average and peak user traffic (when are the busy times?  What timezone?).

Uh, I can't recall the exact hours, but around US night. This is another thing with Arm - peak hours and non-peak are very different. At peak hours you'll see people everywhere, at non-peak, there may only be only one per city. Probably one of the major reasons I stopped, because as a non-peak player, you can't really meet people. But non-peak is great if you play burglars, assassins, rinthers, magickers.

Is there a quest system which players use to gain exp, which permits and encourages frequent quest repetition?  My most recent foray into MMOs was on a NWN PW server and the quest-abuse, even in role-play enforced servers is grating and breaks immersion for me.

No quest system. Act like you do IRL. Middle management (sergeants, templars, guild house leaders) are often controlled by very good players and they'll try to give you interesting things to do; natural quests. The game culture tries to get even newbies to merge in well with everyone else, so everyone is usually helpful OOC as much as they try to kill you IC.

Almost every character has a fairly unique skillset. And even low level characters (aside from warriors/gickers) are incredibly useful in that they're the only people who can do certain things. Or willing to do certain things.

Lastly, because I am unfamiliar with the MUD format, is there anywhere I can go which describes or demonstrates the mechanics of how game-play operates (like movement from place to place... is it in real-time? Combat... is it turn-based and how does it mesh with non-combat?  ie. if someone were to walk past a person being mugged...  I just really don't have a good idea of how MUDs work, especially Armageddon

One of the bigger downsides of Armageddon. There is the manual, but if you ask, the most common phrase is "Find out IC". Very taboo to even try and figure out combat mechanics. It just goes that you just follow what's logical, and the combat engine is designed to be completely logical. There's no DPS, etc.

If you want to figure it out in game, favorite advice is often to try and join the Tzai Byn. They're very newbie friendly and usually try to help you out with that.

Well, yeah, it is a good challenge, but doesn't quite very long. Seems like the kind of game I want to play when I'm in a casual mood (which is what would make it a good phone game, but not a great PC game).

Quote from: TSTwizby on April 23, 2012, 06:02:01 pm

Quote from: Leatra on April 23, 2012, 04:20:09 pm

Quote from: Askot Bokbondeler on April 22, 2012, 06:36:39 pm

as a fullbeardear myself i can sympathize with the op's cause, obviously, but am i the only one that thinks that playing the religion card is a bit disrespectful and unethical?

Religions are tools to be used by rulers and for justified murders. Why not use them yourself?

Quote from: hubris_incalculable on April 22, 2012, 09:55:03 pm

No, Askot, I agree. Unless you ACTUALLY convert to said religion, pretending to be of that religion is disrespectful to those that ARE of that religion, may cast a bad light (depending on your other behaviour) on said, and, is in fact Lying.

Yeah, unless you want to avoid lynching because people don't like your religion. Believe me, in some regions, revealing your true self is more disrespectful than acting like the majority.

Just because religions can be (mis)used as tools for evil does not mean all religion is evil, nor that all religion is tools. Would you claim that because statistics are (mis)used for the sake of pseudoscience or things like SOPA that it is acceptable to misuse them for your own ends as well? How about, since people have used people as slaves in the past, you use people as slaves now?

There are a lot of so-called religious people who (mis)used religions for himself. I'm not suggesting OP to kill someone and call it a crusade. It just could be an excuse to keep a facial hair. It's an easy way too. I act like I'm muslim since I was like 15 for the sake of not upsetting muslims. They are not very calm around non-muslims. Same thing goes for some catholics too.

I find that playing the religion card doesn't really work. I mean, it's not like a huge thing for Muslims (depending on sect), so you won't actually be able to get away with it with people who do a little research. Maybe if you're Sikh, you could pass it off.

And you run the risk of digging yourself into deeper shit by claiming to be of a different religion, like getting pulled into religious cliques or kicked out of other conservative groups or having your diet restricted.

If you're going to say "so-and-so religion allows it, so why can't I do it?", it's not an argument that holds a lot of ground. And most teachers don't really care whether you're making sense, they'll just 'discipline' you under some BS reason if they think you're exploiting a loophole.

Quote from: Leatra on April 22, 2012, 04:15:23 pm

I heard that too. I think it's bullshit.

You are not going to wear uniforms when you graduate.

I'd be willing to argue that point. Most companies have a dresscode, and more than a few have an outright uniform.
If it's trying to impose conformity, well guess what....the rest of your life will be doing that too. Might as well get used to it.

Heh, poor justification. Uniforms/conformity is so 20th century. The upper class of the 21st century are people who can think outside of the box. Yeah, sure, the Asians get away with doing everything by the book, but they end up working longer, harder hours, which is a fine job for people who need a lot of effort to think creatively. But you certainly shouldn't be encouraging them to be uncreative.

Uniforms are only good for identification, like if you're working at a service company or need to be quickly identified by rank. Which makes sense if you want to catch schoolkids skipping class. But heck, back in my days, if I was in the mood to skip class, I'd just hide some normal clothes and find a quiet place to change as soon as I get out of school. If uniforms trained me for anything, it was how to get out of prison and stay hidden in plain sight.

Dwarfs seems a little simple for a PC game, but I'd love to play something like that on a touch phone.

more job will follow; there is now a hefty price to pay for each opening and we don't have the cash at the ready

Quote

"We will charge a non-refundable $1.40 M for each job posting"

The hell? So the game automatically fires everyone after a few days and then charges you 1.4M to 'renew' the contract? Damn Econosian lawyers.

Hmm.. seeing how the current trend is to run over chickens with cars, maybe I should buy a SUV and run over a few lawyers.