General Concepts of Medievia
By: Rapscallion
There are a number of concepts that figure
heavily in Medievia that aren't really big enough to warrant a
page of their own. These are collected here on this particular
page.
Hit Points (Hp) - This is how much damage you can
take before you die - when your Hp reach 0 you perish. LOOKing or
GLANCing at someone will give an idea of how wounded they are -
this is translated in a table on the HOARD. Displayed constantly
on the command prompt.
Mana - This is used to cast spells. Any
spellcasting class draws on this power to cast the spells - when
there is not enough mana available to cast the spell you would
like then you will be told. Displayed constantly on the command
prompt.
Movement - this is how far you can move before
needing to rest. The main areas cost 4 movement points per room
travelled to but wilderness areas will cost more. A character
casting STONESKIN will have a penalty in this regard if not
currently classed as a mage. If mounted you will see your mount's
movement points on the command prompt line.
Breath - when moving fast this will decrease
fast. Steady movement is needed to keep at reasonable levels. It
recharges fast by staying still for a moment or so. QUICKNESS
spell means much better recharge rates. If a character moves too
fast for their breath they have a chance of falling over for a
second or two. Your own or your mount's breath is displayed on
the command prompt. Breath gives the MUD some real time aspects
to consider when playing.
Tick - every so often Medievia has a tick. This
occurs every 30 seconds or so but this can vary slightly - any
good mud timing program can be adjusted to take this into
account. When a tick occurs, every player and every mob regains
some Hp, Mana and Movement if these values are not at full.
Sleeping when a tick happens boosts the effects of this
considerably and is often a standard tactic. 'Tick' is often used
as a verb - as in "Tick for two chaps" from the form
leader meaning everyone needing Hp or (more importantly) mana is
to sleep for two ticks to regain combat potential.
Sleep - any player can sleep at almost any time.
Obvious exceptions include when mounted or fighting or flying on
a dragon etc. When asleep the effects of a tick are magnified but
a player can also use the DREAM channel to communicate with
sleeping people anywhere on the continent. Often underused and
usually full of frivolous conversation, this channel is generally
ignored. One to bear in mind. Mobs who are asleep are better
victims for a Backstab (or so it is said) - some forms often have
a mage or 2 dedicated to attempting to cast sleep on their target
so an extra backstab can take place. This usually slows the
process down and is not recommended by the Riverton Wrecking
Crew. Any combat vs a sleeping person or mob brings them to
wakefulness again immediately.
Lag - the mudder's worst nightmare. There can be
any number of reasons for lag ranging from a technical fault in
the connection, your ISP playing up, something of interest to
everyone on the internet causing massive bandwidth usage (eg the
Starr report) or even downloading files while playing. The effect
is to either delay the implementation of your own instructions or
your receipt of the results of your actions. Occasional cases are
known of up to 10 minutes of lag being reported but this is very
rare. Sometimes there is general lag due to a problem at Medievia
HQ or a phone fault in the area around Medievia HQ, or the MUD is
busy at the time and this affects everyone to a small degree.
People on different ISPs often find different results and it is
not unknown for players to subscribe to different ISPs for
different times of the day. Sometimes the lag is spurty where
everything runs fine for a while and then slows for no reason for
a few minutes, then back. Either grin and bear it or try and
boost your social life for a night if it's just too bad.
Alignment - everyone and everything in Medievia
is aligned in one way or another, whether this be evil, good or
neutral. The system is based around absolute neutral (0) and
ranges from absolutely pure (1000) to absolutely evil (-1000). A
player's alignment changes with each kill - killing a good mob
will turn you towards evil while an evil mob will turn you to
good. There is no known effect for killing a neutral mob. Some
equipment cannot be used by people of certain alignments - should
an item be anti good or anti evil, a player whose alignment is
greater than 350 in the penalty area will not be able to use it.
Certain spells can only be used by casters of specific alignments
while one (Hammer of Faith) has a damage effect based on the
difference between the caster and the victim. Players often use
certain good mobs in Medievia City to align evil (Boys, Women,
Guardsmen, Mercenaries and Tourists) while the Graveyard to the
east has many easy evil mobs for turning good. Is there a better
alignment to be? Many people go evil as a lot of the better
equipment is for evil players, but some hold that the best
equipment is good only. We are researching this at the moment,
but we expect it to take a long time to decide
Hunger and Thirst - every so often you will
receive the message "You are hungry" or "You are
thirsty". Your character needs feeding and watering every so
often, just like yourself, so attend to it. Any food item can be
eaten by the command EAT FOOD, although you can specify different
foodstuffs instead of just FOOD. DRINK WATERSKIN (or water
container) will help to quench your thirst although CHUG
<water container> will take a deeper draught from the
vessel. The effects of being hungry or thirsty are to reduce your
regenerative abilities at a tick - should you have both hunger
and thirst then you will have a very slow regenerative rate. Some
food will last a lot longer than others - the best we have found
is Dried Tiger from the Riverton Butcher (just BUY TIGER) - it is
very light and seems to last for ages. It is possible to eat so
much that there is no room for any drink and you can be thirsty
without being able to drink. Many people set up TRIGGERS for this
so they don't have to manually input the commands. A Bracelet of
Life from Horneg in Horneg's Keep will give some bonuses but also
means you don't need to eat or drink at all while wearing it.
Drinking from a fountain means you can go for a long time without
food or drink - when passing a fountain it is a good idea to get
a quick fillup for further endurance. Water containers can be
refilled here as well. Clerics have spells to create food and
water so in field refuelling is rarely a problem.
Alcohol - there are a few areas where alcoholic
beverages may be purchased. We are not certain of the effects of
alcohol but no doubt we will be experimenting...
Poison - players, mobs and food can be poisoned.
The Poison spell may be used on a mob (automatically starts the
combat) or player (in NPK or CPK to start a fight). Use on food
it causes it to be poisonous and is detectable through the detect
poison spell. Some creatures are poisonous in nature and have a
chance of poisoning you during combat if they hit (a saving throw
vs poison is applicable here). The effects of poison are to cause
2hp damage per turn for a number of turns (SC A or SC will show
the time before the poison wears off).
Freezing - Vryce has a punishment system that
basically prevents people from playing in Medievia. Freezing is a
warning - people who curse on public channels (more than one can
hear) and a complaint is made, that person will be called to
account and will probably end up frozen. That character will not
be able to do ANYTHING until a GOD unfreezes them - this is
thought to require an email to a god unless a time limit is set.
Purging - Vryce uses this as a last resort.
Players can be purged totally from the game and are NEVER
restored. Frequent freezing may not deter someone so Vryce does
use this. You have been warned.
Gods - These are people that create the game that
you play in. They are there to enforce the rules of Medievia,
correct bugs, settle disputes and so forth. If you have a
desperate problem then you can try and contact them but don't be
too certain that they'll answer - they are busy most of the time.
Avatars - These people also give up their playing
time like gods do, but Avatars are giving it up to help members
of the NEWBIE CLAN. To see which Avatars are online use the WHO
command with the -a modifier (WHO -A). They will chat over the
newbie clan channel and assist in this way, but direct physical
aid is unlikely to be forthcoming.
Heroes - Players who have got to the top. When
you have completed all 4 classes to level 31, you become a Hero.
You can then participate in Herobattles and chat on the Immortal
channel and other sundry benefits. Best of all, you don't need to
eat or drink any more!
Rooms - every place you are is a room. A location
in the wilderness, a part of a street, a room in a building -
these are all considered to be rooms. Spells that affect
everything in a room will affect everything in that room - the
next room will not be affected, even if it is the part of the
same street.
Zones - the continent of Medievia is made up of a
lot of wilderness with a lot of Zones. A Zone is basically an
area that is separate from the wilderness and will have it's own
basic mobs and general ambience. The Pirate Ship has many
nautical references and the mobs are sailor based, the Medievia
Graveyard has many tombstones and various undead mobs, the Gypsy
camp has plenty of Gypsy style mobs as well as caravans and
tents. A Zone does not fit within the concept of one area of
wilderness to one zone room - there can be many more rooms within
a zone than would ordinarily fit on the main wilderness map, or
even less. Entrances to a zone are marked by a @. Often the zone
will cut an area out of the wilderness and will have one or two
(or more) entrances while having various walls to prevent any
other entrances to that zone.
This page came from Rapscallion's wonderful page. This page was not originally created by the guide. Any changes that the guide has made to this page have been made in red to show exactly what was changed. If you would like to visit Rapscallion's page you can click on the link here: MEDIEVIA INFO SECTION
Click here to return to the newbie info page.