u/Crapahedron

I love playing thieves and rogues in videogames. Even better, I love games that support stealing as an actual viable, mechanical means of progression.

Most muds and MMO's I've played however, stealing/pickpocketing etc is a frill at best and acts mostly as a novelty for chump change.

Are there any muds where pickpocketing is actually meaningful to the acquisition of gear or income?

I want to get my immersion on and five finger discount my way to riches.

What's out there?

edit: I should mention I'm looking for a PVE experience. I don't enjoy stealing high end gear from other players. I want to sneak through a zone undetected, find a baddy in the corner, lift his dagger or gems and get out like nontheweiser. Maybe fence them to an NPC middle man in exchange for gold etc.

I used to play on Aalynors Nexus back in the 90's and mechanically, it was very very simple. It kind of stepped out of the way to let roleplay, vertical progression and story telling be the focus without burdening everyone with a prolific, combersome system-layered-over-system game getting in the way.

I'm looking for a mainly PVE mud that is mechanically easy to pick up and get going. I'm getting tutorial fatigue trying to memorize a thousand different commands, how to interact with a dozen different systems, their sub systems and the convoluted mess that is most mud's helpfiles.

I just want to explore, kill some shit, talk to people and find some sweet loot. I want meaningful vertical progression but I don't want a computer science degree to come with it.

Catrub quests in poor English, invisible rooms that require special keywords that make no damn sense to find, a hundred commands to attack something despite all of them doing basically the exact same thing for the exact same damage only to have a WALL OF TEXT blast up my screen like the console of a high volume production server.

Maybe I'm getting old but a lot of muds I feel are trying to over complicate themselves and do too many things while trying to be too many things and get in the way of themselves.

Any recommendations for a simple PVE mud that's neat, clean and pretty looking and isn't going to give me carpel tunnel or an aneurysm?

Heya.

It's still kind of crazy that we have two chromie-like progressive level-gated servers progressing at the exact same time, offering almost identical experiences while competing for active players interested in such a thing.

Both are running upstreamed azerothcore 3.3.5 backends. Both are 10 level bracket progressive content servers. Both have adjustable exp rates up to the previous level bracket. Both have custom built raids (Scarlet Monastery as a raid etc). Both have transmog systems, both have clean websites and moderated discord servers etc etc. The only notable difference is Alterac making Death Knights an available class after reaching level 20. (and subsequently starting them at level 15)

Practically speaking, why should someone play on one over the other? I would assume in a situation like this, part of what would separate them would be a vibe check. How does one server's culture compare to the other? What is the temperament of the staff? What is the size of the active support staff? how much development support does it have? Is the server contributing back into the Azerothcore project?

What's your take on this? Has anyone done a deeper dive on both servers and could offer some first hand feedback?

Good morning!

I was wondering what the latest server releases were lately! Every server I have ever joined were halfway to nearly fully progressed when I found them. I have never had the luxury of playing on a server from beginning to end. :*(

The few servers where I did start at launch, ended up blowing up, or turning into a chinese server (lol darrowshire)

I prefer anything between 1.12 to 3.3.5 and I'm not a big fan of plus content. Level bracketing (chromie style) is ok, since I'll be playing in bursts anyway but the current alterac server has just way too much random custom stuff in it for me. (I also don't want to download or mess with custom MPQ files or installers. I just want to be able to change a realmlist and go)

What's out there and what's coming up?

Thanks!

edit: NO CUSTOM LAUNCHERS PLEASE.

So I've been experimenting with the game for a few days and it definitely feels like this is more like a demo than an actual commercial game right now. There's literally nothing to do. I don't get it. Maybe I'm missing something?

We have Expedition, Rush and then challenges. The challenges, to a reasonable level given my lack of power ups took less than an hour to complete. I could try to hyper-minmax and play the "get carried by teammates" lottery by queueing nonstop for the elite ones but I'm otherwise a huge drain on the random queue comps since I'm new and lack the power orbs.

Rush mode seems to just revolve a single event that basically triggers roughly every 2 minutes and takes half a second to kill/complete. Wash repeat. And Expedition I guess is suppose to be the persistant open world for grinding and doing jobs/quests? The issue is all of the jobs combined take 5 to 7 minutes to complete then I'm just running laps around a very tiny map shooting things for no reason.

What is the actual player goal after the jobs are done? To shoot mobs endlessly for hours on end farming the small power cube things to slowly and eventually mend them all into bigger ones? If that's the only reason to aimlessly grind than no thanks. It's a massive gap between finishing the entire game loop in 5 minutes only to need days upon hours and days farming powerups in the vicinity of the hundreds to make mega powerups. That is a long, aimless grind of doing nothing for a 10% dps increase.

I have 4 or 5 weapons unlocked so far. Everyone in the game I see who's much higher level than me seem to favor one of two weapons in game (so what are the others even for?).

What's weirder is besides grinding for the powerup things, there is no vertical progression. If I'm not getting power drops, I'm not getting anything. Levels don't give you hp, dps or any other mechanical changes. it's just an arbitrary number.

It's a shame because the base platform they built for this game is spectacular. The graphics, the lightning fast pace, the music, the overall design themes and color palettes are amazing. The design team did an incredible job laying a fantastic foundation down. There's just zero execution of an actual game build within it. I feel like I'm playing some janky demo.

TLDR: The game a power up shard generating Rube Goldberg Machine and I don't understand it. Help me understand. :)

thanks!

I love roguelikes, but they're so solitary in nature, I feel like a creature in the dark playing these by myself.

I don't have the time to spend on a sprawling MMO right now, but I do want to bridge the gap a little and find a RL that has some kind of active community features behind it.

What's out there? Thanks! (bonus points if it's free, I was laid off not long ago. Thanks AI :\ )

I get there's a lot of custom content, but one thing that I've seen is there were attempts to do some class balancing.

How well did this work? Are all the 'meme' specs viable now? Can someone raid as an enhance shaman or ret paly? (in a meaningful way, not as a nightfall enjoyer charity case)

Do any of the specs FEEL mechanically different or changed in their identity? ELI5 the class changes and attempts to balance them.

Secondly, are there multiple servers? A PVE and a PVP one? Or different regions? I dont want to play on an open world PVP server. I'd be looking for a PVE server that's geographically/ping friendly for someone on the east coast NA.

How is the economy and population? Can you actually sell things on the auction house or do people rely on raw gold farming? I've played a string of micro population servers in a row where I was relegated to raw gold farming for everything. I want to sell arcane crystals and titan flasks damnit! I want a grand economy to participate in again. It's been a few years since I've enjoyed one.

lastly, how far behind is Octo to what the most recent patches were of Turtle? From what I understand, they're rebuilding the realm off of a legacy version of turtle somehow?

Thanks a ton!

I can't play right now due to workload, but September a lot of things free up for me and I really want to dive into something. Preferably something between 1.12 and 3.3.5.

Anything on the horizon coming or are the launches earlier this summer essentially what we have to work with into this winter?

Thanks!

I've never played ragnarok before but I've been bombarded with ads for it on instagram and FB. I was watching a few YT videos and it looks like a lot of fun.

What I'm finding though is there are so many different versions of the game now, I have no idea what is what.

Essentially I'm looking for a PVE time sink that eventually leads to team based raids or boss fights etc. I'm not huge on PVP, and I was recently laid off from my job so I can't afford premium currencies or whaling. Will be f2p the whole way.

Anything worth trying?

I'm looking for games where the monetization is geared to cosmetics so that I have equal competitive skill floor to everyone else and money buys pretty things, not mechanical advantage.

Wild Rift was great for this but I'm exhausted from the game and need to play something else for a while.

What else is there on IOS that is carried purely off cosmetic purchases? I'm open to most game styles. I was laid off and can't afford to buy premium games right now :(

Thanks!

I know Chromie has one. Nostrum had one...

Do either Deviate or Maelstrom have one? Or the octowow peeps? It was my favorite part of the servers, being able to customize my character's look. There were some really creative ideas I seen.

There are some cute, small town trail races in the upper UP that run on the beautiful North County Trail but I have only been to Marquette (which is independent and not part of aravaipa nor great lakes endurance)

I'm thinking of taking a flyer on one of the 50k's in the area just to get some distance in on the weekend for funsies. I'm not sure what the local vibe is surrounding a larger organizer like Aravaipa coming in and taking GLE over. Are more people excited to try these smaller races out or are the locals pissed about a larger entity coming in and running the races? (like how the UTMB Whistler was boycotted last year by locals LOL)

I first read the Hobbit when I was very early teens (13-14ish) and really enjoyed it. I've read it twice since in my 20's. However, when I tried LotR I remember it being a total SLOG. I was a strong reader in my teens and 20's, I devoured everything reading a couple books a week for years.

I tried LOTR a couple times and eventually got my way through it around age 24-25 but I did ALOT of skimming so a) my comprehension of it is low and b) I barely remember it. All I mostly remember is it was over 100 pages straight, uninterrupted of them leaving the shire and just hiking in the woods. It drove me frigging nuts :D (now I run ultras so 100 pages of two dudes hiking is probably awesome lit). I also remember the Aragorn guy was just as or more badass than in the movies.

Not long after my reading habit fizzled out as I got into other things and I'm only now just kick starting it back in my mid 40's.

I've been going through lots of fun "popcorn" books or "page burner" books like the Robert Langdon series (ridiculous but fun), Jurassic Park, some 80's fantasy cheese I found at a second hand store (Jhereg! So good, what a surprise) and some Jack Reacher early work.

Now that my reading habit is slowly coming back, I'm getting the itch for something slower, longer and everlasting and my first thought of course was Lord of the Rings. I have read other fantasy novels, namely the Song of Ice and Fire books and it is something I want to dive much deeper in and this seems like probably the best place to start before I work on finding all the other crazy series I've missed over the years.

For those who initially found LOTR to be a total snoozefest or dryer than a sandpaper martini on first go, did you eventually get into it? Did you have to 'learn to like it' like your first scotch? Or did the maturity of going back to it over X amount of time suddenly just make it click for you in your older age?

I really enjoy very competitive games, whether it's 1v1, team based or something with a competitive ladder, the pursuit of getting better is the game loop that really drives me.

I'm currently playing Wild Rift, and even though it's a great game, the game lengths are just way too long sometimes. However, I do deeply appreciate it's free to play / cosmetics only model.

Previous to that I used to play Clash Royal at a high level (top 1000) then Brawl Stars but both really degenerated in it's design and overall philosophy (let alone it's blatant disregard for respecting it's playerbase and predatory monetization practices)

I am looking for something that is:

• 1. competitive (whether that's leader boards, rankings, MMR, whatever. I need to climb something!)
• 2. doesn't have a massive financial barrier to entry. (Where something like Wild Rift excelled. Literally install and go)
• 3. I am very open minded to the actual game TYPE. FPS, Auto battler, Moba, gatcha RPG thing, card game, whatever. I don't care, I just want to compete.
• 4. Social aspect would be nice but not a need. I love games that have strong guild/social integration.

My competitive history went something like: Dragons and Puzzles, Clash Royale, Brawl Stars, Hearthstone, Super Mecha Champions (rip), Wild Rift (with some dabbling in Pokemon Unite)

Games that are free with a cosmetic only monetization are definitely the preference but if the monetization strategy is simply pay-to-progress rather than pay-to-win outright, than I can probably stomach a grind to get ladder competitive. I also have never seriously played a battle royale type game (outside of Super Mecha Champions) so I'm battleroyal-curious :D

Any ideas? I have a leaning bias towards something newer so I don't have too big of a FOMO or "feeling behind" but it isn't a huge deal.

Thanks so much!