Messages

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General Discussions / Shout out for 4D!

« on: January 08, 2010, 06:04:55 am »

On my gaming blog, I did a sort of mini-round up of some of the MUD's I've been looking at lately, and subsequently gave a shout out to 4D, since its one of the only MUD's thats kept my attention for very long, and has a unique approach to the questing side of things.

http://sugarfreegamer.com/?p=262

Thanks for being there, with intergrity, its just a shame more players haven't noticed you.

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General Discussions / Re: In-game Mapping/Automapping?

« on: January 05, 2010, 06:32:57 pm »

I think the extra levels of mapping, that are revealed with deeper probing of the texts wouldn't be shown directly with the automap, but just the actual layout as you explore it would be useful to keep your direction and not get lost. I guess it depends on your sense of spatial awareness and ability to visualise the landscape you're slowly uncovering, but if you can explore around and lay down a structure you can see mapped out, you have a better chance of getting to the places you have to pay special attention to. I'm not really sure how you would then map out special cases as such, but I'm not sure the map itself would be the best place to show these specialities. If descending into a well, or climbing a set of ladders that were hidden, takes you to a totally new map to uncover using standard movement (n,s,e,w) then so be it. Its not really to map out every thing available, just more of a guide, that you uncover and explore yourself, and just saves you getting tied up in mental spatial reasoning knots, when you're constantly circling around areas without much of a clue of the overall lay of the land.

If I get totally mixed up, I have to draw it down, so I can start to tackle the more cerebral problems of working out the puzzles and problems contained within the descriptions and items around. Its the drawing of the layout, that you've navigated with movement commands already, that seems to take some of the fun out of it for me, if that could be presented "as you explore it", and make a record of it, then you can focus on the more interesting aspects to the storyline/quests and puzzles. Rather than re-doing something the builder has already done.

I can see both sides to the argument, because you don't want to totally out all the secret locations, or place legends with information and what not on screen, but also I see and experience the sometimes bewildering mental visualisations you have to try and make just to get to a particular location you've already found, and you now can't physically remember how to get back to, because you have no visusal representation other than the one you're conjuring in your mind. I'd prefer to use my imagination to make the textual descriptions bring the world to life, than to spend valuable brain power, piecing together and remembering a room layout.

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General Discussions / In-game Mapping/Automapping?

« on: January 05, 2010, 08:20:09 am »

What do the admins and players of 4D think about MUD's that visually represent the world in map format on a constant basis? I often get quite lost, in even the most simplest area/room designs, and I'm all for MUD's that have at least a basic visual display of the area around the player. Thats not to say it replaces the vivid descriptions of the rooms themselves, but it just aids the player in remembering key features of the area and navigation to those features.

I've tried to combat my mental block when it comes to visualising areas, by using pen and paper, or even tools like zMapper, but they always fall short, and often are more trouble than their worth. Scribbling it all out to pen and paper seems to slow the whole experience down to a crawl, and its infuriating when you scrawl out an area, and then find that another adjoining feature throws your layout into chaos. I know 4D has a basic visual map (sort of like a compass representation), I wondered if 4D has considered anything more detailed or elaborate?

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General Discussions / Re: Getting and Keeping new players

« on: January 03, 2010, 10:43:19 am »

As a newbie who has only recently discovered 4D, I thought the Mudschool was one of the more interesting and gentler approaches to teaching the MUD and its features. Usually these schooling areas are quite bland, with lots and lots of rules being thrown at new players. So either they have you slaying endless reams of small wildlife, or they make you read a 100 point international charter on the rules and regs. 4D's school had a pleasing writing style, that actually had me wanting to read the next descriptions and looking at the signs etc. Each room had something different to look at and do, and guiding the player through the different time zones was inspirational. Showing different aspects of the game in a potted and enjoyable manner.

I've been assessing a number of MUD's recently, trying to find one where I'll feel comfortable, but where there is some interesting Lore and some decent written stuff. I like the more involved puzzles and what not, although I must say I'm either not seeing it, or I'm over analysing the problem too much, but I like that solo involvement. I'd like to see more narrative, and have more people come together to take part in it, in a way thats more explore the Lore idea, than tool up and make a lot of character progress and gain status. But perhaps my roleplaying background is trying to find a MUD to squeeze into. When many MUD's take a purely gaming-the-system character progression attitude. I think some of the bigger MUD's on offer pander to the ego-centric loot grabbing ladder climbing 'power gamers' for want of a better expression for them. And so you have more of a playing population - but I'd argue you haven't got a better playing population.

4D is different because it has a lot of flavour within its four dimensions, and they can cater for all sorts of tastes. I'm hoping to convince some of my roleplaying friends from a community I'm in to try out 4D, as a place to come, enjoy the questing and combat on offer, and perhaps join in with roleplaying in the different dimensions.

Anyway, I just wanted to throw in some encouragement from a newbie's perspective here, that 4D is doing some things right, for at least some of the newcomers style of playing. I think the key to attracting and keeping new players, is to provide a place for them to express themselves, but with consideration for others, and respect for the community itself.

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General Discussions / Re: HEY! How did you find us? People wanna know!

« on: January 03, 2010, 08:49:03 am »

I found 4D via http://mudgamers.com, I'm still only new to 4D, but I like the writing style and the idea of puzzles attached to the Quests. I do like the idea of having 4 different time zones to explore, especially ancient history and the sci fi future.