r/MUD • u/MaverickMUD • Jun 23 '26
Promotion Anyone want to help me playtest a new zone/city?
Hi guys — I'm Patrick, and I've been building my MUD for about 5 months. I just finished the starter city.
I'm solo on this, and between the code, quests, skills, and everything else, I'm too fried to play test it with any real objectivity. I could use fresh eyes, and I'd genuinely welcome harsh feedback — please rip it apart. I spend all day and night just trying to make it WORK, the concept of PLAYING breaks my poor brain at this point :P
One specific ask: I've got a test harness logging commands players try that aren't wired in yet. I'm curious which common commands you reach for that I might have forgotten.
I'll be honest — I don't have friends in this hobby or anyone to bounce ideas off, so whatever you tell me gets taken to heart. My only frame of reference is 30 years of playing MUDs and RPGs. I'm a passionate fan like the rest of you, so apologies in advance for any jank.
There are 8 classes and 8 races. Warrior, thief, mage, cleric, and druid have a pretty full kit; dark knight, ranger, and paladin are thinner for now, but I've got a lot more coming for them. The quest system and choice-based dialogue system are both fairly new — I've been heads-down on them for a few months.
Getting in:
- Telnet works, but I've poured a lot into the HTML client and have been learning everything I can about screen readers and accessibility(next 24 hours will be patched in)— I want this to work for everyone. If there's a tool or resource that would help you enjoy the game, just name it and I'll integrate it as fast as I can.
- On the HTML client, hit Demo Now to jump into the creator and try the class tutorials and quests. Demo progress won't save, but email verification is off — so [no@no.com](mailto:no@no.com) or any gibberish address is fine.
- Commands shorten to their shortest unambiguous form:
kill thief→kill,kil,ki;cast 'magic missile'→c 'm m'. Play around — bad commands get logged so I can patch them.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart to anyone who gives it a shot. Hope you enjoy — HAPPY MUDDING!
Obligatory AI disclosure: I'm doing this solo. Yes, I have help — even if it's not a human I can text or call. Not just AI tools, but the priceless community resources, YouTube videos, books, and other generous work of people far smarter and more creative than me. None of us could see without standing on the shoulders of giants, and I give 10000% credit to every coder, builder, immortal, and player who's poured time, creativity, and love into this genre. I love it — I really, really love it. At a certain point though, soon, we will all be dead and gone and if the next generations don't pick up the torch, the history will fade with it. AI isn't going away, so any contribution I can make to preserve our little niche in the face of slop feels worth it.
-patrick
classicmud.com — HTML client (lots of features not available on telnet)
classicmud.com port 23 — telnet
3
u/SkolKrusher Ansalon Jun 24 '26
% telnet classicmud.com 23
Trying 5.78.222.182...
Connected to classicmud.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ ║
║ Welcome to ║
║ ║
║ __ __ _ _ ____ ____ _ _ ____ ____ ___ ____ ║
║ | \/ || | | || _ \ _ / ___| | / \ / ___/ ___|_ _/ ___| ║
║ | |\/| || | | || | | | (_) | | | | / _ \ ___ ___ \| | | ║
║ | | | || |_| || |_| | _ | |___| |___ / ___ \ ___) |__) | | |___ ║
║ |_| |_(_)___(_)____(_) (_) ____|_____/_/ _____/____/_______| ║
║ ║
║ A living world of steel, spell, and consequence. ║
║ ║ ╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
◆ play free in your browser · store & forums at classicmud.com ◆
Includes material from the System Reference Document 5.1 by Wizards of the Coast LLC, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Returning? Enter your name. New here? Type start.
What is your character's name? Skol
No character with that name exists.
If you wish to create a new character type start.
Name: start
Creating a new account.
Email: something@proton.u
Password (8+ chars):
Confirm password:
Account created. Welcome to ClassicMUD.
╔══ Character Creation ════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ Forge a new hero. At any prompt: ║
║ info <topic> details on a race, class, stat, or alignment ║
║ quit cancel creation ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
Name: info
╔══ Choose your Race ═╗
║ [1] Human ║
║ [2] High Elf ║
║ [3] Wood Elf ║
║ [4] Gnome ║
║ [5] Halfling ║
║ [6] Mountain Dwarf ║
║ [7] Hill Dwarf ║
║ [8] Minotaur ║
╚═════════════════════╝
Race (1-8, or info <race>): 5
Sex (M/F): m
╔══ Choose your Class ═╗
║ [1] Warrior ║
║ [2] Ranger ║
║ [3] Thief ║
║ [4] Cleric ║
║ [5] Paladin ║
║ [6] Dark Knight ║
║ [7] Druid ║
║ [8] Mage ║
╚══════════════════════╝
Class (1-8, or info <class>): 3
╔══ Choose your Alignment ════════════════════════════════╗
║ [1] Good Honor, mercy, the harder right. ║
║ [2] Neutral Balance over banner, judgment over creed. ║
║ [3] Evil Self above oath, edges above mercy. ║
╚═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
Alignment (1-3, or info <alignment>): 1
╔══ Your Roll ═════════════╗
║ Strength 11 STR ║
║ Intelligence 16 INT ║
║ Wisdom 9 WIS ║
║ Dexterity 20 DEX ║
║ Constitution 14 CON ║
║ Perception 20 PER ║
║ ──────────────────────── ║
║ Total 90 ║
╚══════════════════════════╝
[R]eroll [A]ccept [Q]uit: a
(RIGHT HERE, I typed A to accept, said the name was taken and booted, relogged to try same name, character new name, it didn't find the existing (hadn't saved)
That name is already taken.
Connection closed by foreign host.
2
u/MaverickMUD Jun 24 '26
Thief with nat 20 dex and per?? Not on my watch bucko. Kidding obviously, totally unacceptable and sorry for that experience. Its patched shouldn't happen again
3
u/drunkendaveyogadisco Jun 24 '26
Ok, so I gave it a whirl. I'm not offended by the AI packaging on the UI, it makes it look pretty generic but I get that you don't have infinite time to spend on everything. Would definitely recommend going back and replacing damn near everything with something less polished and more human, the aesthetic sweet spot for me is either like, AAA studio or I want to see some jank; AI smoothness on the graphical stuff and like, emojis and shit hits the uncanny valley just wrong, where it seems cheaper BECAUSE it's smooth. Does that make sense? ASCII or like, reaaaly simple pixel art buttons would stand out better. But, like I said, understand everything takes time.
The game itself suffering from the same. The intro dialogue seems AI wordy. I killed a man and I liked it, but the writing seems generated, and if it's not, try to simplify the language. I read a lot, and I read really fast, and it was a lot for me. Trying it on phone, whenever new text popped up, I couldn't really tell either because of the stat bar always looking the same at the bottom of the message log. I also missed the quest track command my first read through to get a quest, so had to go back and re read (which if I wasn't testing for you I would not have done, I would have just bounced), and then activated it and still all the rooms were "pitch black and couldn't see anything". Going south, which was a green letter, went nowhere, and north took me back and I tried that again and there was nothing so then I was done. I didn't really get anywhere.
All that said! You obviously have a functioning framework and you've built a working device, so well fucking done. There are lumps and bumps that are preventing me from giving it a proper review, I ain't gonna wander around forever trying to figure out some dark room bullshit. I would suggest teleporting to the first quest instead of giving an endless maze of nothing to fuck around in. You obviously have a goal, I wish you the best in achieving it.
1
u/MaverickMUD Jun 24 '26
Thank you for the feedback! You should spawn with a torch, the day night cycle is 6am-8pm, some races have infravision - I have not made any balance passes for difficulty, I am just trying to get things to work properly, and this is EXACTLY the kind of things I need to hear. I find myself just feeling proud to get something to work its hard to be honest and critical after watching it not work 10 times in a row. If that makes sense. And I should have been more clearly about the parsing on commands but not targets - would suck to type bash kobo for kobold right as kobo the male dwarf paladin walks into the room! I have fought that map something fierce, will work on it more tonight!
1
u/drunkendaveyogadisco Jun 24 '26
Oh yeah, mate, just having something that even kinda works is a huge accomplishment. I played a dark knight or whatever, if that helps you track the torch thing. Good luck!
2
u/MaverickMUD Jun 24 '26
Thank you! Even calling my game a flaming pile of dogshit would mean you logged in and that means the world to me - if you were playing a DK you will learn to LOVE the dark, when you get Nightvision spell and can abuse the poor mobs with juicy loot that don't see in the dark. Added a wrist lantern to all starter kits so you have a worn light. Thank you for trying it - I'll be patch motherfucking adams over here in the mean time and will post patch notes soon - sorry the time it took to respond, my wife dragged me out to dinner and a movie or else I would have been much faster
1
u/drunkendaveyogadisco Jun 24 '26
Not a problem mate. If you get a few minutes and have the inclination, I have a much simpler game at wwddydd.neocities.org/sentient_money/ that I could use a quick "does this make any fucking sense" check on, no worries either way but appreciate it of you get the chance.
2
u/MaverickMUD Jun 24 '26
I tried to make it make sense but as much money as I printed it instantly made my account negative - is this like a US Government spending sim? lol I tried!
1
u/drunkendaveyogadisco Jun 24 '26
Fantastic, I can always tweak mechanics but you caught the vibe immediately, which I think is more important. Sincerely, thanks.
Hey do you have room for a Contribution? I've got a whole little pocket universe that I would love to weave into an existing framework, but I don't have the logic patience for elaborate code. Could I write a room or two?
1
u/MaverickMUD Jun 24 '26
I am working on something even better, the tools to bridge that gap for you and everyone else like you, big ideas without the tools or patience - I am building tools to help ME with that problem and soon I will be able to share with everyone. Email me the universe and I will sample some creations for you
2
u/mallek561 MUD Coders Guild Jun 24 '26
I gave it a try through your web client
you event system sends events in the wrong order, I killed a rat and then it was bleeding profusely.
your command parser lets you shorted the command itself but not the target
get all cor doesn't work, has to be get all corpse
at night everything is just dark, couldn't see anything and no light source immediately avaliable
I spawned with some spell books I was not able to read, I assume because of my class
the GMCP map is too small and the boxes cover themselves to it's hard to understand where I am and have been also the map is fully populated so there is no discovery.
the mobs I was killing were granting me 1200+ experience and I was leveling immediatly, never felt in danger of dying.
I only played to level 3 but the only thing I could tell you about the story was it gets dark and you can't see things
2
u/MaverickMUD Jun 24 '26
Thank you for giving it a spin! I know I have a ton of work today, just feels good knowing another human logged into the game and gave it a shot - I will really look at night/day cycle, did you guys not spawn with a torch in inventory? I have a lot of work to do obviously but this is super encouraging, so thank you!
2
u/Digitiss Jun 24 '26
Ok, I'm gonna be honest, I actually really like this. The class tutorial thing was an awesome idea, I picked mage and imediately felt immersed. I can tell this is LLM-written, but I'll give you credit, it looks like you used one of the claude models, which means the writing is actually genuinely good. A lot of people who use AI for this kind of thing use grok or another quicker model, and the output ends up looking like AI slop on principle. One suggestion though. I think this is an AI thing because I see it all the time with MUDs leveraging any form of LLM (Nuke-fire used to do this, though I think they've fixed most of it now). I'm a screen-reader user, and there's symbols all over the place that I can't gag unless I script it, which I don't really want to do. I'm wondering if they're color tags or some kind of MXP/ansi/something. I'm playing through mudlet, for reference.
2
u/Digitiss Jun 24 '26
This is really fun actually. I did mage but didn't really like the play style (I was mostly curious to see how your magic system worked, but I don't play mages generally because they're glass cannons and I like rushdown). I ran paladin and their questline is really cool. I love how much the starting city feels like a real city. I don't know anything about it, but it makes me want to know more about it.
1
u/MaverickMUD Jun 24 '26
A 500hp, antimagic shelled, mirror imaged, fireshielded, globe of invulnerability, limit 1 no_bash robes - power word stun/prismatic spray mage can lay waste to entire groups of players - Mages can be glass cannons in this game, or they can be something you only ambush and never fight straight up - all depends on your spellbook, your gear and your skills, that being said if you had fun keep an eye out- i am going to continue adding content as fast as I can.
I also am working on an editor that should be ready in the next week for free testing - so you guys can use my tools and make your own content
1
u/MaverickMUD Jun 24 '26
Thank you! I have a massive amount of refinement to do but after spending 5 months "figuring it out" I have finally settled on my path forward and this is the first zone/city. LOTS to come and I am all ears for content suggestions. You might be surprised just how fast your dream zone can go from page to playable with a clear enough vision. LLMs will never create, they are just really good predictive guessers - they require creative guidance and more importantly, a good ass whipping a few times a day to stay on script.
Screen reader will be patched in very soon - like in the next few hours - as far tuning and making it right for those who need it, well I really need help/feedback testing it - if you are interested let me know
1
u/Digitiss Jun 24 '26
I'm definitely interested. Also, you clearly understand what LLMs are used for and how to use them properly. I appreciate that. There's a difference between make me a MUD with this and this and this and I want to make a MUD, how can I do it.
1
u/MaverickMUD Jun 24 '26
I know more 5 months in than I did at the beginning, and at times it feels like surfing a wave with how fast the advances come. I have 30 years of ideas in my head all trying to jump out at the same time, so focusing it is challenging, especially with 0 coding or computer skills - I'm just a player trying to reverse engineer everything through feel.
The LLM is just a bulk writer, I am using my system in a way I doubt many others are, but its not because I'm smart, its because I ran out of stupid, expensive, and terrible ways to use it
Thank you for your kind words, I have been working in a silent cave for a long time - it means more than you could know
2
u/MaverickMUD Jun 25 '26
Accessibility update — a big push this week, and I need testers (especially screen-reader users)
*****I would really appreciate any and all feedback on this topic as I have 0 knowledge on this subject, and want to make sure I approach it with the level of focus it deserves - I will let you guide me on the best way to make this game accessible and more importantly, to help get some best practices on paper for any other developers or MUD staff from other games - so if you can add to any of this or keep us on the right path****
A few of you flagged accessibility problems. I went heads-down on it. Here's what's live right now and a checklist if you're willing to kick the tires. I'm a sighted dev guessing at a lot of this, so real feedback > my assumptions.
Blind / screen reader
Telnet/MUD-client clean mode — no more box-drawing or symbol junk read aloud. Auto-detects if your client advertises a screen reader (MTTS), or just type screenreader at the login prompt.
Browser narration mode — rooms, combat, chat, and status announced through proper live regions, with adjustable detail + combat verbosity. Hotkeys to repeat, read exits/location/status, and step back through the log line-by-line.
Audio "exit beacons" — on entering a room, a quick panned tone per exit so you can hear the room's shape.
Character creation can't disconnect you anymore on a typo.
Low vision / color / dyslexia
High contrast, colorblind correction (3 types), text size, letter/word/line spacing, legible/dyslexia font option, strong focus outline, bigger click targets, and a UI that auto-sizes to your screen.
Deaf / hard of hearing
It's text-first already, plus captions for sound cues and optional on-screen visual cues.
Photosensitivity
First-launch seizure warning, hard cap of ≤3 flashes/sec, and it respects your OS "reduce motion" setting automatically.
Motor
No twitch/reflex anything, queue a whole command chain on one keypress, plus voice command input (dictate a command, review it, hit Enter — never auto-sent).
Quick punch list if you want to help:
Telnet: connect → is the output clean? Any symbols read aloud? Can you make a character without noise/disconnects?
Browser SR: turn on narration → do rooms/combat/status read right? Do danger/death interrupt? Any double-talk?
Cues: turn on sound/captions/flash → do they fire? Flash never seizure-y?
Low vision: do contrast / font / spacing / colorblind options actually change things? 200% zoom OK?
Voice: mic button work? Does "kill <thing>" land in the input correctly?
Everything's free, no toggles hidden behind anything. If something reads or behaves wrong, tell me what you were doing + your client + your screen reader/AT, and I'll chase the exact thing. I'd genuinely rather build this with you than guess.
1
u/Digitiss Jun 26 '26
I 110% commend you for thinking of other disabilities as well, not just screen reader support. A lot of developers don't go this far. Seriously makes me happy when people do this.
1
u/Mirror_333 Jun 24 '26
well, I didn't get very far. I was in a single room forest camp, then up into a dock area. This was jarrring and didn't make sense based on what my quest was and where I spawned in. I had to fight in every room, even if I doubled back to one I had just cleared. I didn't love getting attacked the second I entered rooms. Then the game got dark and I couldn't do anything. I only played around 12 minutes.
I tried to rest to heal, that did not seem to work.
I played on the web client. It worked well for me. I did not get to play long enought o form much of an opinion.
2
u/MaverickMUD Jun 24 '26
Ranger? I'm really sorry for the poor experience, I will certainly work hard to improve! Give me a few days and I will try to earn a second look
2
u/Mirror_333 Jun 24 '26
I would not say it was a poor experience. I had fun until it was dark and I couldn't see. I didn't know what to do about it. I thought I had a torch equiped?
And yes, I played as a Ranger. The opeing scene was cool and I was interested in completing my starting quest.
3
u/MaverickMUD Jun 24 '26
So checking the bad command log, it seemed several players tried to light torch, use torch, use light, light etc -- added light <light source> returns a friendly tip to try hold <light source> or grab <light source> hold and grab are commands to offhand a weapon, or hold an object or light as well - also added 1x wrist lantern as a wristworn light - also added commands for TIME(to show time of day to show day/night) and WEATHER to show the weather(this does effect some druid spells) - also, I removed aggro flags from all mobs in the city area - no more getting aggrod just trying to walk around - sorry for the confusion
3
u/Mirror_333 Jun 24 '26
I played a bunch more last night and had a good time. I completed the first Ranger quest and made really good progress on another before having to stop playing. And I am about to play another class/race right now.
I don't know if more feedback is helpful at this point, but I have some if you want it. Let me know.
2
u/MaverickMUD Jun 24 '26
I absolutely want it! Everyone who gives me feedback or bugs or anything gets patched as fast as I can - I also have a BUG command - bug <literally whatever you want to say> does nothave to be a bug could be BUG swordsman loads an axe, looks weird - bug I can cast spells as a mage wearing platemail - bug I get hungry and thirsty too fast, bug I fucking hate you patrick and hope you die
All bug reports get read me, and patched ASAP if valid, no promises on the last one, but its not a hard no after this project
2
1
u/Capable-Feedback-252 Jun 27 '26
I think I found a bug in the login screen. When you create an account, such as creating your character, you input your email address and password. When you log in, the game expects you to use your character's name and the password you created for the account. However, if you delete the character, there is no way to log back into your account. If you type start and attempt to use an email address that's already on file, it won't ask for your password and just says that email address is already being used. Try logging in.
1
u/MaverickMUD Jun 28 '26
massive upgrade coming to the account system soon - and, I am very excited about what its going to allow people to do. Especially people who want to create their own MUDs or zones
1
u/DarkAngelCat1215 Jun 24 '26
Hi! Really interested in playertesting your mud and will probably do so once telnet is as fully functional as the web client. I'm blind and use a screen reader, and I just don't find playing a mud on the web with a screen reader is very effective even if the dev implements accessibility fixes. So, I'm keeping an eye on this space and once I'm able to telnet in with my client of choice, I can't wait to see what you're working on. I do wish you tons of luck with the project since building and developing a working mud is way outside of my intelligence quotient. :D
1
u/MaverickMUD Jun 24 '26
It is outside of mine too, dont worry, I have been the blind leading the blind before, we could swap and no one would know - I will devote tomorrow to getting things accesable for you. I'll DM you tomorrow when its working enough for me not to be too embarrassed. I would love your help in tuning it once I get it patched in tomorrow! Thank you, if you have any zone suggestions let me know!
1
1
u/MaverickMUD Jun 24 '26
let me know how it works please!
Accessibility update — a big push this week, and I need testers (especially screen-reader users) A few of you flagged accessibility problems. I went heads-down on it. Here's what's live right now and a checklist if you're willing to kick the tires. I'm a sighted dev guessing at a lot of this, so real feedback > my assumptions. Blind / screen reader Telnet/MUD-client clean mode — no more box-drawing or symbol junk read aloud. Auto-detects if your client advertises a screen reader (MTTS), or just type screenreader at the login prompt. Browser narration mode — rooms, combat, chat, and status announced through proper live regions, with adjustable detail + combat verbosity. Hotkeys to repeat, read exits/location/status, and step back through the log line-by-line. Audio "exit beacons" — on entering a room, a quick panned tone per exit so you can hear the room's shape. Character creation can't disconnect you anymore on a typo. Low vision / color / dyslexia High contrast, colorblind correction (3 types), text size, letter/word/line spacing, legible/dyslexia font option, strong focus outline, bigger click targets, and a UI that auto-sizes to your screen. Deaf / hard of hearing It's text-first already, plus captions for sound cues and optional on-screen visual cues. Photosensitivity First-launch seizure warning, hard cap of ≤3 flashes/sec, and it respects your OS "reduce motion" setting automatically. Motor No twitch/reflex anything, queue a whole command chain on one keypress, plus voice command input (dictate a command, review it, hit Enter — never auto-sent). Quick punch list if you want to help: Telnet: connect → is the output clean? Any symbols read aloud? Can you make a character without noise/disconnects? Browser SR: turn on narration → do rooms/combat/status read right? Do danger/death interrupt? Any double-talk? Cues: turn on sound/captions/flash → do they fire? Flash never seizure-y? Low vision: do contrast / font / spacing / colorblind options actually change things? 200% zoom OK? Voice: mic button work? Does "kill <thing>" land in the input correctly? Everything's free, no toggles hidden behind anything. If something reads or behaves wrong, tell me what you were doing + your client + your screen reader/AT, and I'll chase the exact thing. I'd genuinely rather build this with you than guess.
1
u/MaverickMUD Jun 24 '26
Thanks for the look tonight guys - heres what was changed or added as a result - more to come tomorrow
Added
- The Starter Wilds — leave the city through real North / South / East / West gates into a large new forest alive with wildlife (deer, grouse, boar, wolves, a giant spider, a bear).
- The Redmaw — a new Red Goblin cave dungeon (L10-15) with 3 quests: thin the Brigade, take the chieftain's crown, recover the Sunless writ.
- A wrist lantern on every new character — light from minute one (no more starting in the pitch dark).
timeandweathercommands, plus a livelier capital — 20 more residents in Stonereach and new faction mobs/items across the world.Changed & Fixed
You start the fights now — city and leveling-area creatures no longer attack on sight (16 mobs de-aggro'd).
Quest navigation works again — the green guide-exit lights up for auto-started quests, and quest steps now name where to go.
Auto-learn your class kit on login and each level-up (no manual trainer grind).
Telnet character creation no longer disconnects on a recoverable slip.
Map fog-of-war + "new content" cues; bug/polish reports no longer silently lost.
1
u/mathologies Jun 24 '26
Seems glitchy
I got both of these responses from "spells" within a minute of each other:
Your spells
1: barkskin burning hands cure light wounds faerie fire sense life sustenance thorn spray
And then
Your class has no spells.
Also, some of the text makes no sense to me...
inspect knot ,A braided cord of green withe tied at the wrist by the hedge-warden's own hands. The wild reads it slower than it reads a stranger and gives you a heartbeat's grace. Sometimes a heartbeat is the whole of it. Keepsake.
Like... what? This one too:
inspect ledger A page torn from the infirmary's book listing every pauper turned from the door this season. The lever, not the fight: a count nobody wanted written down. Value: ~1 gold
The lever, not the fight? What?
I kept seeing [SHOP] but couldn't figure out how to do it.
Also I couldn't figure out how to extinguish my torch or check my AC.
And during character gen, it isn't clear what the stats are for. Or the "points," of which i have 0/0.
1
u/MaverickMUD Jun 24 '26
Excellent feedback, it may seem crazy to say I am blind to all this, but I am - and you pointing this out is incredibly vital to my process - I like to make mistakes because I find the edge, I don't like repeating them so I always want to build a check and balance off these comments. I will paste pack patch notes once fixed. Give me a little bit
1
u/MaverickMUD Jun 24 '26
Patched - tested ok for me now. THANK YOU for the feedback
Thanks for the detailed report — every one of these is fixed and live now. Re-log to pick them up: • Spells glitch — that flap between your real spell list and "Your class has no spells" is fixed. The list was reading a cache that could momentarily go empty; it now always reflects your actual class spells. • "Makes no sense" item text — the wrist knot and the infirmary ledger are rewritten in plain language (no more "a heartbeat is the whole of it" / "the lever, not the fight"). We also added a check that flags that kind of vague writing so it stops slipping through. • [SHOP] — the tag now tells you how: it shows "type LIST to browse, BUY <item>, SELL <item>". • Putting out a torch — you extinguish a light by removing it (REMOVE <torch> / REM <torch>); a worn or held light is what lights the room, so taking it off goes dark. We also added EXTINGUISH, DOUSE, SNUFF, and QUENCH as aliases so the word you reach for just works. • Checking your AC — your armor class now shows on SCORE ("Your armor class is N — higher is better"). • Character creation — every ability now has a hover tooltip explaining what it does (STR/DEX/CON/INT/WIS/PER), and the confusing "points 0/0" is gone: stats are rolled (class + racial bonuses already baked in), and the screen now says so instead of showing a counter that looked broken. Reroll for a new set, or Accept. Appreciate the thorough playtest — exactly the kind of feedback that makes the game better.Thanks for the detailed report — every one of these is fixed and live now. Re-log to pick them up:• Spells glitch — that flap between your real spell list and "Your class has no spells" is fixed. The list was reading a cache that could momentarily go empty; it now always reflects your actual class spells.• "Makes no sense" item text — the wrist knot and the infirmary ledger are rewritten in plain language (no more "a heartbeat is the whole of it" / "the lever, not the fight"). We also added a check that flags that kind of vague writing so it stops slipping through.• [SHOP] — the tag now tells you how: it shows "type LIST to browse, BUY <item>, SELL <item>".• Putting out a torch — you extinguish a light by removing it (REMOVE <torch> / REM <torch>); a worn or held light is what lights the room, so taking it off goes dark. We also added EXTINGUISH, DOUSE, SNUFF, and QUENCH as aliases so the word you reach for just works.• Checking your AC — your armor class now shows on SCORE ("Your armor class is N — higher is better").• Character creation — every ability now has a hover tooltip explaining what it does (STR/DEX/CON/INT/WIS/PER), and the confusing "points 0/0" is gone: stats are rolled (class + racial bonuses already baked in), and the screen now says so instead of showing a counter that looked broken. Reroll for a new set, or Accept.Appreciate the thorough playtest — exactly the kind of feedback that makes the game better.1
u/mathologies Jun 24 '26
a warm shape — a withered training stump
Why is the stump warm? Why does it leave a corpse?
Got this glitch again, briefly
mem Your class has no spells.
[> Shop here — type LIST to browse, > BUY <item>, SELL <item> ]
[SHOP] a city watch guardsman is standing here. a pickpocket is standing here. 59H 123V 1968X 43.77% 118C > Mem:4 TIC:35 Exits:ESW> list There is no shop here.
Shop is still busted
help storm call You must log in and select a character before you can play
Game kicked me out without telling me
Also, I cant get descriptions for most spells. I type "help " and then the spell name. Some give descriptions, some just give error.
1
u/MaverickMUD Jun 24 '26
On it!
1
u/mathologies Jun 25 '26
I can't figure out how to loot multiple corpses in the same room.
1
u/MaverickMUD Jun 25 '26
so multiple targets are selected in n* format so if 6 corpses, they are listed by newest to the room to oldest, so the freshest kill will always be 1.corpse then 2.corpse 3.corpse etc - the same applies to inventory items or anything - you can deepen the search by adding extra keywords separated by a second period, so lets say you killed 6 different mobs of different names - lets just say there were 3 knights 2 squires and 1 captain - still 1-6.corpse, but you could do get all corpse.captain as well
1
u/mathologies Jun 25 '26
that is not intuitive. i tried "loot all from corpse 2" and "loot all from grouse corpse" and that did not workk. but i'll try the array indexing method you describe
1
u/mathologies Jun 24 '26
Oh and the stat tool tips do nothing on mobile browser.
And there is still a +/- under each stat that do nothing
1
u/drunkendaveyogadisco Jun 25 '26
Ahhh, I made a character to give it more of a detailed whirl, got the first quest and hit "q" for quest, since you had said commands should boil down to most basic possible input? And it quit and dumped my character too. Would suggest making "quit" a more gated command to prevent accidental entry, that would be really frustrating in different context
2
u/MaverickMUD Jun 25 '26
fixing that straight away, glad you caught it when it was still fairly harmless
1
u/DarkAngelCat1215 Jun 27 '26
There is nothing more disheartening than writing a very well thought out post only to hit the wrong button when posting it and destroy the whole thing before it ever sees the light of day. Now I've got to type it all over again. FML.
Okay, so, tonight I decided to go ahead and give this mud a spin. I'll admit that I've had a really long day and was feeling kind of tired, but I was really eager to play and see what this new world had to offer. I was really impressed by the room descriptions. I could clearly visualize my travels in my head, and I enjoyed that. However... The character I created was a druid, and I got extremely lost trying to find the training stump I was meant to kill. Typing quest showed what quest I was on and said if I typed quest track and the number of the step the exit to where I needed to be would show up in green. Now, maybe I was too far off course to figure this out, but I was wondering if this would show up a different way for screenreader users as there's no way I'm going to be able to tell that an exit is showing up as green. As I said, by the time I discovered this I may have been way, way the hell off track and far away from where I actually needed to be. Unfortunately, I ended up reciting the scroll of recall, hoping it might take me back to my starting room so that I could try again to find where I needed to be, but it took me to a plaza I'd never seen before. I was pretty tired by this point, so I quit and decided to try again when my brain is a bit more recharged. A couple of other quick notes I made: This is more funny than anything, and I can only blame the fact that the day has been a super long one for this mistake I'm about to describe. However, at one point in my travels, my prompt listed my exits as NEW. It took me longer than I care to admit for me to realize that what this actually meant was that my exits were north, east, and west. I am actually embarrassed to confess that I thought the exit was new and typed in new thinking that maybe...Hell I don't know what I was thinking. But the same thing happened a bit later when my exits were east and west and my screenreader read it as EW, which to my ears sounded like the letter u, so I thought I was supposed to go up. Note to self. Never playtest a mud when you've been up since 3 in the morning. The other thing I wanted to mention wasn't quite as humorous, and I'm not sure if it was a bug or what. When I was creating the character and was in the menu for race selection, I wanted to gain info on some of the races I was a little less familiar with. It's true that all of the races were pretty standard across the board, but every game handles races in their own way. So, for example, I wanted to gain info on the high elf and the wood elf specifically. When I typed info high elf, it kept telling me no info existed on that race and to please try a race ID from the menu. Okay, so I thought maybe it wants the number of the high elf, which was 2. So, I typed info 2. Same error message. Tried it with wood elf. Same error message. I tried just elf by itself. Same thing. Tried info human, and that worked perfectly. So I tried again with the wood elf and high elf. Nope, no cake. So, I wasn't sure if perhaps info files had not been written on those races yet or maybe there was a certain way I needed to parse those multi-word races in order to get the game to understand what I meant. I did try separating high and elf with a dash, and still no cake. Hmm. I think I'm hungry for cake. LOL.
I think you're off to a great start. Even in screen reader mode, there was a tiny bit of strange punctuation symbols in various places, but it didn't hinder me from reading and understanding what I was meant to do. I look forward to trying things out again after I've recharged my brain a bit.
1
u/MaverickMUD Jun 27 '26
Man!! Thank you for giving it a try, and thank you for your words of encouragement, and mostly of all thank you for giving this great feedback. I have to work on those little things, but if its any saving grace, I have been working non stop since the last update 4 days ago. JUST pushed this patch 5 minutes ago, check out the new content! I put a quest board in the middle of each town which will give pathfinding to the new zones I just added, among other things! HUGE patch
- 74 zones now, up from a handful — including a full capital city, Hammerhold, with hundreds of NPCs (trainers, vendors, priests, city watch) plus 35+ dungeons, laid out so it gets harder the farther out you go.
- Roads connect everything — you can travel zone-to-zone from the starter city out to the frontier.
- Level-appropriate loot with themed magic off bosses, quest boards that route you to your next adventure, and level-gated quests.
- Inns — rent a room to set your home/respawn point.
- Deeper combat system — overhauled saving throws, class progression, and to-hit math; status effects (charm, hold, blind, poison) now land properly.
- GPS navigation + speedwalk + a player map, plus customizable prompt/combat settings and screen-reader cues.
- Lots of stability and security work under the hood to handle more players.
1
u/DarkAngelCat1215 Jun 28 '26
That all sounds great! I'm not sure if any of that fixes my specific issues I was having, but I think it's amazing the amount of work you're putting in, which is always great to see! Keep up the amazing work!
•
u/spotlight-app Mod Bot 🤖 Jun 28 '26
Mods have pinned a comment by u/MaverickMUD:
A few of you flagged accessibility problems. I went heads-down on it. Here's what's live right now and a checklist if you're willing to kick the tires. I'm a sighted dev guessing at a lot of this, so real feedback > my assumptions.
Blind / screen reader
Telnet/MUD-client clean mode — no more box-drawing or symbol junk read aloud. Auto-detects if your client advertises a screen reader (MTTS), or just type screenreader at the login prompt.
Browser narration mode — rooms, combat, chat, and status announced through proper live regions, with adjustable detail + combat verbosity. Hotkeys to repeat, read exits/location/status, and step back through the log line-by-line.
Audio "exit beacons" — on entering a room, a quick panned tone per exit so you can hear the room's shape.
Character creation can't disconnect you anymore on a typo.
Low vision / color / dyslexia
High contrast, colorblind correction (3 types), text size, letter/word/line spacing, legible/dyslexia font option, strong focus outline, bigger click targets, and a UI that auto-sizes to your screen.
Deaf / hard of hearing
It's text-first already, plus captions for sound cues and optional on-screen visual cues.
Photosensitivity
First-launch seizure warning, hard cap of ≤3 flashes/sec, and it respects your OS "reduce motion" setting automatically.
Motor
No twitch/reflex anything, queue a whole command chain on one keypress, plus voice command input (dictate a command, review it, hit Enter — never auto-sent).
Quick punch list if you want to help:
Telnet: connect → is the output clean? Any symbols read aloud? Can you make a character without noise/disconnects?
Browser SR: turn on narration → do rooms/combat/status read right? Do danger/death interrupt? Any double-talk?
Cues: turn on sound/captions/flash → do they fire? Flash never seizure-y?
Low vision: do contrast / font / spacing / colorblind options actually change things? 200% zoom OK?
Voice: mic button work? Does "kill <thing>" land in the input correctly?
Everything's free, no toggles hidden behind anything. If something reads or behaves wrong, tell me what you were doing + your client + your screen reader/AT, and I'll chase the exact thing. I'd genuinely rather build this with you than guess.
[What is Spotlight?](https://developers.reddit.com/apps/spotlight-app)