IRE M.U.D.S

Aesgar

Achaea is pretty awesome! However, I'd like to know if any of the other current IRE MUDS compete with our awesomeness. If so, why?

Kresslack

I've tried Aetolia and Imperian, and while I like the lycanthropy system in Aetolia, the low playerbases of both can be a bit underwhelming. Not to mention a bit of confusing due to the cross use of factional names

Asmodron

They have their strengths to be sure.

Lusternia has amazing lore and storylines and you can really feel the depth in their area and mob creations. Their quests are also quite fantastic and can be rather impactful on the world (if at times too impactful). That said..the game can be a bit too fluffy and silly. It is sort of the equivalent of deciding to top off your candycane with some spoons of sugar. I also despised the combat there, as it can be very spammy and balance is tossed out the window. They do try though.

Aetolia is ok...but where lusternia has amazing storyline, aetolia suffers for lack of. There have been so many constant mini changes or cancels of event stories or random gods deciding to change shit cause 'why not' only for it to be changed again in a few months...that it all just fell apart. It basically lacks direction. People love to RP there...if a bit extremely. I've literally seen people writing paragraphs as emotes of what their character is feeling and thinking..it is basically a mini-series for everyone. I would definitely have to rate aetolia as my least favorite.

Only played imperian a bit...but it just didnt really connect with me. I suppose the bard class is nice.


In the end, Achaea definitely wins. Bigger playerbase, more interactions, more action, interesting storyline that thankfully has gotten out of the crux it was in before, great hunting, fun surprises, and most important of all it is very comfortable to play.

Borran

I loved Imperian.. but I've so much invested in Achaea that I can't leave.

Elsam

From my experience the other IRE games all have a few mechanics that are different and fun, but Achaea is the best simply because of A) Ships and A larger active player base.

Kresslack

Elsam said:

From my experience the other IRE games all have a few mechanics that are different and fun, but Achaea is the best simply because of Ships

        

Camroth

rip Midkemia   pour out a little liquor

Asmodron

oh gosh Midkemia was awesome...it was just lacking in a playerbase as well as production. It was still a baby and didnt get enough love T.T



I adored a lot of the mechanics there.

Cailan

Really just comes down to size of playerbase. Also I'm too stupid/lazy to try to comprehend Lusty's planar stuff. Would like to be a lycan tho that seems fun. 

Shirszae

Achaea is awesome for many things, but if Aetolia had the playerbase Achaea has I'd probably be incredibly tempted to move over.

Melaina

I'm an MKO retiree. I read Magician one summer and jumped into the MUD and loved that it really was Feist's world come to life. Getting into the Mockers (secret thieves' guild) was the biggest thrill. The Upright Man (HL) wove a whole storyline for me with a top secret mission to prove myself. I thought I was an awesome double agent but it turned out everyone I was dealing with was actually a Mocker. They trusted me so they let me in. The fact that all this interaction was created by players was what sold me on it. I was hooked until MKO went bye-bye.

After that, I tried Lusternia because a lot of MKO friends went there, but I couldn't get into it. I would stand at the main meeting place of the city, asking for help, and be plain ignored. (They weren't AFK. They were talking to other people). 

A few other MKO friends had moved to Achaea, so I gave that a go. It took me a while to adjust to the faster-paced RP here. If you try to long-form like they did in MKO, you'll get left behind.

What made me decide to stay in Achaea was again, personal interactions. Soon after I joined the Academy, @Berlewen held a gathering in the House estate so people could get to know each other and that made a big difference.

The second thing was the world events. MKO didn't have any in the time that I played, except the end of the world one. In Achaea the events are huge, and have lasting effects on the world. I read that the Tsol'teth event had several possible endings depending on what players did, and that's -so cool-!

Another thing I love is the involvement of the Gods. I've had so many interactions with denizens, sometimes for bigger events, sometimes denizens taking an interest in my Academy studies, and others just chatting with guards at Crossroads. Props to @Twilight and whoever else is behind it. It's the little things that make the world feel alive. 

This has turned into a rave. TL;DR MKO was my first love but Achaea is awesome-r. 

Jovolo

MKO was actually my favourite of all that I tried. Still, it didn't really hold a candle to Achaea. Achaea is just too large in comparison, and all of the other games feel desolate when you're used to the (relatively) thriving world of Achaea. It's a shame because they are decent games, they just don't have the player bases.

Mathilda

The playerbase really makes a huge, huge difference. Sure, you can have Lusternia's lore and Imperian's QoL mechanics and Aetolia's....werewolves, but in the end those are just foundations and background. What makes a world feel alive is the day-to-day interactions between all of us, be it a first-of-the-month prayer, a secret meeting in the sewers, a Sarapin sacrifice, or a weeks-long war in Darkenwood.

So props to everyone, players and admin alike, for keeping Achaea alive and kicking! 

edit: derp, for some reason I hit the Lusternia button. 0/10 fail nation

Jovolo

I can't edit my post anymore, but I kind of wish that the playerbase from the rest of the games would just come and play Achaea instead. It would be cool if you could retire players and gain credits back across games, and then IRE phase out the rest of their games. 

Sure some people would hate it, but theoretically if people got on-board it would be so good for Achaea itself.

Melaina

Jovolo said:

I can't edit my post anymore, but I kind of wish that the playerbase from the rest of the games would just come and play Achaea instead. It would be cool if you could retire players and gain credits back across games, and then IRE phase out the rest of their games. 

Sure some people would hate it, but theoretically if people got on-board it would be so good for Achaea itself.

"Some people" being every player and member of volunteer and paid staff that's ever put time into any of those games. Just because Achaea has a larger population, doesn't mean it's better and that all the other games should be shut down to make Achaea even bigger. MKO was the smallest game of all, but that meant it had a tighter community, because everyone knew each other. We were all heart-broken when it was closed down.

Jovolo

The greater good

Khel

I like Achaea pk. I hate Achaea RP. I like Aetolia RP and hate their pk. I somehow suspect you'd lose a lot of people if you tried to merge games, because why would anyone want to come invest in a brand new game with things so different culturally when the last time they did that, the rug got pulled from under them?

Alt answer: delete Achaea instead then all those games with other strong points have more players and the biggest complaint about them vanishes.

Skye

Out of all the other IRE muds I tried, I actually went back to Imperian the most number of times because I liked the classes. But I could never stick with it because of the small player base. The game has changed a lot tbh, I barely recognised it the last time I tried to make a character.

Apart from population, one of the things that actually worked against it in my earliest attempts was the lack of website resources such as a good map. Even when I was starting out in Achaea, there were already a number of amazing and fairly current maps thanks to dedicated players like Asara and Shazara. The lack of maps compounded with the similarities between certain areas (I think they used the same room layouts/paths just reskinned them with different descriptions) made things incredibly frustrating for me.

Mind you, this was when we didn't have things like vadimapper, so I was navigating the game by memory and I just kept getting lost because I was remembering things all wrong. Also, whenever I made a character in Antioch, I was terrified to leave the city because I could never find my way back if I left it. I'd just get hopelessly lost in the desert and eventually die.

Ryzeth

Khel said:

Alt answer: delete Achaea instead then all those games with other strong points have more players and the biggest complaint about them vanishes.

This would be assuming those players actually went to one of those games, and didn't just quit IRE altogether.

Asmodron

Khel said:

I like Achaea pk. I hate Achaea RP. I like Aetolia RP and hate their pk. I somehow suspect you'd lose a lot of people if you tried to merge games, because why would anyone want to come invest in a brand new game with things so different culturally when the last time they did that, the rug got pulled from under them?

Alt answer: delete Achaea instead then all those games with other strong points have more players and the biggest complaint about them vanishes.

Yes...clearly deleting the game with the highest playerbase and income is the way to go...



And frankly, as some have mentioned, the others arent all that different. Aetolia, no matter how much they have tried to blow up and destroy/rename areas, is still very much achaean. The basis of Aetolia was that it was a copy of Achaea's world to begin with. Yes some would debate that it has "changed so much since then", but if you simply walk around Aetolia, you'll get some pretty strong deja vu scenarios. With the current lack of players and issues Aetolia has been facing, I could very much see it being simply folded back into Achaea as a business decision. Frankly if you dont believe me on it, you can simply go ask some players there and check recent occurrences. They arent very happy.

Ahmet

Could we get all of Aetolia's classes?

Khel

I'm vaguely baffled as to why people think the latter half of my post was in any way serious since it entirely undercuts the first half, but such is life on the internet.

Aesgar

I'm liking Aetolia a lot so far! Everyone seems pretty awesome. We'll see if I stick with it!

Ryzeth

Logged onto Aetolia the other day. Surprised my system still completely works, considering I haven't played it in about two and a half years.

Although probably missing some defences for other classes besides my own, as well as the new Wayfarer things. Still baffled they have a class locked behind credit purchases (to unlock the ability to actually switch to the class), though not entirely surprising I guess.

Borran

Wow. That's weird. Here we just have classes that seem unplayable without credits. They have it hard-coded there?

Ryzeth

Borran said:

Wow. That's weird. Here we just have classes that seem unplayable without credits. They have it hard-coded there?

Yes. You pay 100cr to unlock Wayfarer. It's the same with fishing; pay 100cr to be able to fish, as opposed to having innate skill level built into Survival.

Also no class is unplayable without credits (artifacts). Though some classes are -easier- with credits.

Ismay

I've never been able to stick with any other IRE. MKO came closest to keeping me engaged, but the movement limitations and player communication issue due to language barriers ultimately pushed me away.

Lusternia isn't too bad. It's just entirely too quiet there for my liking. Imperian used to be great, but they've really lost a lot of steam on the pk front. I tried Aetolia briefly and could never get past the first few levels before losing interest.

Achaea was always my go-to online game for downtime. Now, I generally go through spurts of interest and take long breaks before coming back.

Khel

Why blatantly lie about stuff. It's 40 cr to 'unlock' (learn) a class from someone not in the guild corresponding to the class. There is no Wayfarer guild so always 40cr. Fishing is more expanded in Aetolia, including special quests and faction involvement, as well as a relatively recent addition. It is also leveled by use (though it does cost 100cr). Multiclass slots cost an increasing amount per new slot, capping at 500, but the lesson cost does not increase like it does here, and until recently it capped at 300 not 500. Not sure how the math works out but I always had the lingering suspicion multiclass in Achaea was more expensive.

Asmodron

Daeir said:

Aetolia's just.. mechanically better in a lot of ways. Achaea's catching up pretty fast, though, but Aetolia as a whole seems far more robust as an actual game compared to Achaea outside of the combat system.

I'm not sure how you got this impression...


Having played several of the IRE, I can say without a doubt Achaea's coding is definitely the best and smoothest. I have encountered several problems in other IRE, especially balance issues, that thankfully Achaea makes sure doesnt come about. Aetolia has the issue of enabling then disabling then enabling again mechanics based on...player requests(?). Do you perhaps recall the issue of endless sentinel traps over there being utilized to make catapulting/bleeding someone from one side of the continent to the other? Something like that would be squashed out or non-existent in Achaea pretty damn quickly, but over there...it got enabled and disabled several times. why..

I wont even get started on Lusternia's mechanical problems...i'd rather not write another 1500+ post.


tl;dr: Achaea's mechanics are the most refined, balanced and smoothest I have experienced compared to the other IRE.

Shirszae

He did say outside of combat system

Ahmet

Imperian has EXPLORED. Nuff said.