Information

MEM II - Existing

Non-D&D Combat System

Bonuses:

Middle Earth Mud employs an OB, DB, PB combat system. That is OB: offensive bonus, DB: dodge bonus, and PB: parry bonus. These are listed as percents, but will generally reach well over 100 percent. They start at around 100% for an unarmed character. That is the base bonus. The characters base bonus will rise one to three points for each level they gain, depending on their stats and race. Wielding a weapon or wearing a shield will improve the bonus depending on the weapon/shield and the characters skill with that weapon or shield. No skill will cause the bonus to drop, as the item will be more of a hinderance than a help. During combat your offensive bonus will have to over come first your opponants parry bonus, and then his dodge bonus. There is a significant amount of randomization, so a string of good luck could allow you to defeat a much stronger opponant. Likewise, a string of bad luck could cause you to have a much harder time defeating an enemy who is usually easy.

Moves:

Moves have a large effect on combat in MEM. When your moves drop below a certain point (moves:winded) they'll start to lower your bonuses. Stat and info will show this. This means when your moves drop too low you should flee and sleep back up during combat. However, it also means that it is possible for you to wear down a more powerful foe if you play smartly and conserve your moves. Combat itself uses up moves. When you take hits your moves will drop considerably, you also lose small amounts of movement points when you dodge a hit, parry a hit, or miss your opponant.

Armor:

Armor in MEM works as an absorb percentage. Each piece of armor covers a certain part of the body and will absorb damage for that part of the body when it gets hit. The heavier the armor the more damage it will absorb.

Races and Subraces

Races:

Middle Earth Mud Currently has three races avalible, they are the races most commonly found in an around Bree Village. They are: Men, Hobbits and Dwarves.

Dwarves: Dwarves are probably the best race for starting players. They are tough and have lots of hits and moves. They can absorb a lot of damage and go for quite a while. They don't die quite so easy. Dwarves favored weapon is the axe and they start with a small bonus to their axe skill, they can however learn other weapon skills quite easily. The dwarves are counted amoung the Free Peoples of Middle Earth.

Men: Men are the base race, the most common of the races found in Bree. They vary greatly depending on what subrace you select. They are also split between the sides of the War depending upon the subrace you select.

Hobbits: Hobbits are probably the most difficult race to play in Middle Earth Mud. They are weak at combat and while they are very sneaky and very dexterous they have very low hits and moves and so cannot take much in the way of damage. They are counted amoung the Free Peoples of Middle Earth. Experienced players only should play hobbits.

Subraces:

Dunadan Men: Dunadan Men are the decendants of Numenor. They are longer lived than other men and generally stronger. They are knowledgable about the wilderness and skilled with blades. They are counted amoung the Free Peoples of Middle Earth. They are a very good choice for the starting player.

Eriadorean Men: Eriadorean Men are the common men of Bree. They're stats are very average, and they can be skilled at just about anything. They are counted as neutral in the war, and can go either way.

Black Numenoreans: The other decendants of Numenor, these are the decendants of Numenoreans who were corrupted by Sauron but survived the downfall of Numenor. They are stronger than most other men, and longer lived. They are about even with Dunadan Men, though slightly less knowledgable as to the ways of the wild. They are counted among the Forces of Sauron.

Dunlendings: Dunlendings are the men of Dunland, the land east of Tharbad, west of the Misty Mountains and north of Rohan. They tend to live rather primatively, and thus have great knowledge of the wild. They have recently been migrating north to escape the troubles brewing in the south. Many of them have come to live in Bree. They are counted among the Forces of Sauron.

Global Communication Limited to Cities

MEM's global communication function, narrate, is limited to the cities of MEM. Once your character reaches level 11, it will only be able to send and hear narrates if it is in the village of Bree. Once Rivendell is open narrates from Bree will be heard in Rivendell and vica versa. This is to simulate how news tends to travel between cities. However, if you are out in the wilderness you will not receive the news. Newbies, characters below level 10, can send and receive narrates from anywhere.

Extended Character Creation

Players have a great deal more control in the creation of their character than in many MUDs. Things that may be set in character creation are: name, gender, race, subrace, stats, height, weight, alignment, eye description, hair description, and a long description for the character may be written. The stat selection is not a randomized system rather, it is a point based system. There are plans for further improvements and expansions in the future.

Customizable Ansi Color

MEM employs customizable ANSI color, which may be set for each individual character using the 'color' command. Things that may be colored include: enemy, hit, damage, miss, say, tell, narrate, look, weather, and yell.

Expanded Skill System

Guilds:

Guilds in MEM do not work the way they do in a typical Circle or DikueMUD. Since MEM employs a classless system, any character may practice at any guild. The guilds merely differentiate the type of skill and what skill may be learned where. The current guilds offered are Warrior, Ranger, Theif and various crafting guilds.

Skill Levels:

MEM has a slightly unusual take on skill levels. When a character practices a skill, that character uses one of its practice sessions on the skill. The number of practices put into the skill effect how much is gained with each practice. The more times you have already practiced a skill the less your percentage in the skill will rise. Eventually a character will only gain a single percentage point per practice. Generally, this happens around or a little before the character reaches 100% in the skill, assuming high scores in the abilities required, otherwise it will happen much earlier. Guilds often will offer maximum percentages of between 300% all the way up to 1000%. Sometimes there is a lower max for some skills, it depends on the skill and the guildmaster.

Stamina and Endurance:

In most Circle and Diku based MUDs, characters gain moves and hits as they level. They start with a very low number of moves and hits, and gain between 5 and 10 with each level, depending on their abilities. MEM handles hits and move gains differently. In MEM characters start with a fairly high hits and moves score, depending upon the characters race and stats, its hits will be between 200 and 500 generally, even higher for trolls. A starting characters moves will be between 90 and 200 generally. Characters do not gain any moves or hits when they level, rather they may use practice points to practice the skills endurance and stamina to raise their moves and hits. Each practice in endurance will raise the characters hits between 2 and 10 points, depending on race, stats, and how much they've already practiced endurance. Each practice in stamina will raise the characters moves between 1 and 7 points, again depending on race, stats, and how much the character has already practiced stamina. Both stamina and endurance also increase regen rates for moves and hits respectively.

The War

There is currently a war raging in Middle Earth. Sauron has returned to his fortress in Mordor and is preparing his forces to attack the west. Gondor is currently barely holding his forces at bay in the south. In the north orcs and trolls from the Misty Mountains are getting bolder and more aggressive. Black Numenoreans, who have long been in hiding, are starting to show themselves, and Dunlendings are migrating north out of Dunland to escape the troubles of that land. In Bree the war is still mostly below the surface, but barely. There are many Eriadorians who are not the most reputable of people. Many Dunlendings and BNs are choosing Bree as their new home as they move north and the Dwarves, Hobbits and Dunadan of the free peoples are becoming hard pressed to keep Bree a peaceful quiet town.

Item Crafting

MEM has a detailed item crafting system that is currently under construction. The code is written and it is simply awaiting builders to enter the data on the items to be crafted. The system will include everything from butchering a corpse for a pelt or skin then tanning that skin to make the leather for a suit of armor that much then be sewn together to smelting ores to pure iron that may be then used for weapon forging.

Magic

MEM is currently lacking magic completely. One of the first things done was to remove the old Circlemud magic system. Magic is very rare in Middle Earth in the Third Age, and only the more powerful of elves and men can employ it. The plan is eventually add a custom magic system back in, however magic using characters will be a rarity.

MEM III - Planned Features

Middle Earth Mud III is planned to feature a complete revision of the Middle Earth Mud game engine. The code is being completely rewritten from the C based CircleMUD to a new C++ based RealMUD, retaining only the basic telnet function and command interpreter from the CircleMUD base. It will retain many of the features included in the current version of MEM II, however it will include a myriad of new features including the following.

Grid Based Movement and Combat

MEM III will include a new system for movement and combat. It will be based on a room grid which will allow characters to move around inside each individual room. This will allow for much more detailed and realistic single and group combat as the combatants will have to attempt to out maneuver each other as they fight.

Movement:

Movement in the grid system will continue to use the same basic directional commands as are used in most DIKU and Circle Muds (north, east, south, west, up and down). However, rather than moving a whole room in said direction a character will merely move a certain distance. Whether or not the character moves rooms depends on where with in the room the character is located and how big the room is. This will allow characters to move with in a room in relation to each other and in relation to objects.

Combat:

Combat in the grid system would be very different than combat in your standard Circle or DIKU Mud. There would be constant motion and jockeying for position. Ranged weapons would have actual meaning as it would be possible to keep a foe at a distance. Group combat would involve much more communication and group maneuvering to flank the opponents and protect your own flanks (this could be aided by coded formations which the group leader could form -- the details of this haven't yet been worked out). Over all the system would be far more interesting, entertain and realistic than current MUD combat systems.

Craft

MEM III will include a detailed and extensive craft system. Eventually anything and everything will be craftable. And not just weapons and armor, but buildings, food, potions, tools and equipment, carts. The plan is to have every object in the game makeable by some craft skill. And the object system will be extended to allow far more kinds of objects than are typically seen in MUDs. In fact, not only allow them, but have them be useful in some manner or other.

Online Construction

MEM III will include an extremely extended and expanded shape system which will provide builders with a wide range of tools with which to build the world. Everything that exists in game will be shapeable via the shaping system including things usually hard coded such as terrains, skills, and mobile scripts (done through a built in python interpreter).

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