MajorMUD

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MajorMUD
Developer(s) West Coast Creations
Initial release November 4, 1994
Stable release 1.11p (January 13, 2006)
Platform PC (MS-DOS, Windows), Major BBS or Worldgroup
Type Role-playing

MajorMUD is a text-based online role-playing game (RPG) developed by West Coast Creations and released in 1994. Players create their own characters in MajorMUD, choosing from a variety of races, classes, and alignments.

There are many races to choose from, each with their own unique strengths and weaknesses. Character classes are varied and mix elements of fighting, magic, and stealth. In addition to choosing a race and class, players also select an alignment for their character. There are three alignments to choose from: good, evil, and neutral.

MajorMUD has a strong community aspect, with players forming guilds and alliances to work together towards common goals. The game's chat system allowed players to communicate with each other in real-time, and many players formed lasting friendships and relationships through the game.

Despite being over 25 years old, MajorMUD still has a dedicated fan base and several private servers still exist where players can continue to play the game today.

Historically, experienced players heavily made use of scripting languages such as Telix SALT and and QModem scripting interfaces to automate the game play of MajorMUD. Such custom scripts ultimately fell out of favor as the more sophisticated MegaMud client gained in popularity. Many BBS' had strict scripting policies designated whether or not you were allowed to use such scripts to play your MajorMUD Characters.

History

MajorMUD was created by Lance & Cathy "Dog" Neumann, Michael "Cat" Skupa, Craig "Morukai" Young, and Geoffrey "Orfeo" Rosen in the early 1990s. Collectively they were known as West Coast Creations, or WCC. Based in Canada, WCC ran a BBS called Dreamscape Online Entertainment Services (DSOE) that players and potential customers could use to try out their software. It was also one of the few places that players could go to ask questions directly of the designers. Prior to being called DreamScape it was called Nightline BBS, and from playing TeleArena and Lance not able to get reliable updates, Lance, Dog, Cat, and Orfeo decided to make their own game, along with all the users on Nightline for beta testers.

MajorMUD went into Alpha testing on Nightline BBS on April 16, 1994. Then on June 4 MajorMUD was released to twenty other MajorBBS Systems for Beta testing. MajorMUD was officially released on November 4, 1994.

The game itself was written in C and compiled with Borland C++ as with all modules for Major BBS and Worldgroup.


Pricing

MajorMUD itself was initially offered as a separate game module for the MajorBBS. Despite its significant price tag (nearly $1000 USD for a 256 user version),[1] MajorMUD was noted by Logicom to be one of the most wildly popular packages to MajorBBS sysops. A total of 9 expansion modules, or "mods", were released over a period of several years, each in kind for an additional fee to the system owner.

Sale to Metropolis

On May 25, 1999, WCC sold MajorMUD to Metropolis Gameport, a company based in Kansas. Metropolis promised to continue the work done by WCC in an e-mail that was sent to owners and others on the mailing list maintained by WCC.[2]

On April 10, 2008 Metropolis Gameport shut down and sold all 7 of their Worldgroup BBS Game Servers.[3] Metropolis continues to charge full price for MajorMUD.

Expansion modules

On November 11, 1996, WCC released their first mod for MajorMUD — Dragon's Teeth Hills. Over the years, a total of 9 content modules were released - WCC released the first 6, while Metropolis released the last 3. These expansion modules added many new monsters, weapons, items, and places to explore to the base MajorMUD install. Module 1 introduced the Reputation based "Quest Lines" — with quests for "Good", "Neutral", and "Evil" players.

Module Name Release Date
Module 1: Dragon's Teeth November 11, 1996
Module 2: The Cursed Ruins Released June 21, 1997
Module 3: Strangers in the Night October 4, 1997
Module 4: Terror from Below January 2, 1998
Module 5: The Rising Dawn May 6, 1998
Module 6: The Sands of Time September 13, 1998
Module 7: Savage Lands December 28, 1999
Module 8: A Call to Arms! May 12, 2000
Module 9: Prophecy of Plague September 13, 2001
MajorMUD Plus — Entertainment Edition

For some time the MajorMUD website listed Module 10 as a future update, but this is no longer the case. On March 19, 2007, Metropolis announced that their current programmer had resigned to move on to another company.

Gameplay

Character Races

The original release included eleven character races, with two more added in later modules.

Each race has six base stats: strength, agility, intelligence, wisdom, health, and charm.

These stats are increased manually as levels are gained through skill points which are accrued as the character levels up.

Each race has its own attributes and special racial abilities, such as nightvision, stealth, and increased resistances.

The Races in the game include: Template:Cite software

Race Experience Hit Points Strength Intelligence Wisdom Agility Health Charisma Abilities
Human 0% 0 40-100 40-100 40-100 40-100 40-100 40-100 None
Dwarf 30% 0 50-110 30-90 50-120 30-90 50-120 30-85 M.R. +10, Illu +75, Encum +20
Gnome 20% 0 35-90 45-110 40-100 45-110 40-100 35-90 M.R. +5, Illu +65, Picklocks
Halfling 25% Negative 1 20-60 30-90 40-100 60-150 40-100 40-100 RaceStealth, Dodge +10
Elf 45% 0 35-90 50-120 40-100 50-120 30-80 50-120 Illu +50, RaceStealth, MaxMana +10
Half-Elf 15% 0 40-90 45-110 40-100 45-110 30-100 50-110 MaxMana +10, Illu +25
Dark-Elf 45% 0 40-90 50-120 30-100 50-120 30-90 40-110 Illu +80, RaceStealth, Crits +1, Accuracy3 +3
Half-Orc 0% 0 45-110 30-90 30-95 40-100 50-120 30-80 None
Goblin 35% 0 30-70 45-115 40-100 55-125 40-100 40-100 Illu +65, RaceStealth
Half-Ogre 30% 1 70-150 20-60 25-70 20-60 60-150 25-60 M.R. +15, DR +2
Kang 35% 0 55-120 30-90 45-110 30-90 50-110 30-85 ImmuPoison +100, DR +1, AC +5
Nekojin 50% 0 40-100 40-100 30-90 60-130 30-80 50-110 RaceStealth, Illu +50, Tracking, Rfir +10, Rcol -10
Gaunt One 50% 0 40-100 60-140 50-100 50-110 30-70 30-80 Illu +200, Percep +10


Character Classes

The following are MajorMUD's classes: Template:Cite software

Class Experience Weapon Armour Magic Combat HP Abilities
Warrior 100% Any Weapon Platemail None 4 6-10 Bash
Witchunter 130% Any Weapon Scalemail None 5 6-10 Bash, AntiMagic, HitMagic +10
Paladin 220% Any Weapon Platemail Priest-1 4 5-9 Bash
Cleric 220% Any Blunt Platemail Priest-2 3 4-8 Bash
Priest 140% Any Blunt Silk Priest-3 1 3-6 Bash
Missionary 220% Any 1H Leather Priest-2 2 4-7 ClassStealth, Picklocks, FindTraps, Bash
Ninja 185% Any Weapon Ninja None 3 4-8 Bash, ClassStealth, FindTraps, Picklocks, Tracking, Dodge +25, Crits +10
Thief 80% Any 1H Leather None 2 4-7 ClassStealth, Thievery +10, FindTraps, Bash, Picklocks
Bard 210% Any 1H Leather Bard-2 3 4-7 ClassStealth, FindTraps, Thievery, Picklocks, Bash
Gypsy 220% Any 1H Leather Mage-2 2 4-7 ClassStealth, Picklocks, Thievery, FindTraps, Bash
Warlock 185% Any 1H Chainmail Mage-2 3 4-8 Bash
Mage 140% Staff Silk Mage-3 1 3-6 Bash
Druid 190% Any Blunt Leather Druid-3 2 4-7 Bash
Ranger 250% Any Weapon Leather Druid-1 4 5-9 Bash, Tracking, ClassStealth
Mystic 250% Staff Silk Kai-1 3 4-8 ClassStealth, Dodge +25, Punch +1, Kick +1, JumpKick +1, HitMagic +5, Crits +10, Bash

[4]

Software

Popular software for MajorMUD includes:

Community Sites


References

  1. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named expensive
  2. ↑ "Why MajorMUD". The Major BBS Restoration Project. 
  3. ↑ "Metro Jumping Ship?". The Major BBS Restoration Project. 
  4. ↑ "MMUD Explorer". 1.11p. Retrieved 2023-07-16. 

External links

Retrieved from "https://breakintochat.com/w/index.php?title=MajorMUD&oldid=4451"