Phidar
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Phidar is a texed based fantasy MUD created in 1994 which is still presently operational. It is programmed in heavily modified SMAUG 1.03 code and has such exemplary features as a fully established clan system, voluntary "deadly" player enrollment and an advanced overhead map. Phidar is a huge MUD, consisting of 15,000+ rooms and more than 100 areas.
Phidar has more than a dozen contributing builders whom have woven an intricate world of quests, puzzles and imagination. It is populated with many different races and creatures, including mythical beasts, cunning wizards and clockwork monstrosities. As a Multiplayer online game it is populated by characters played by men and women of many ages and nationalities.
Geography of Phidar
The world of Phidar consists of two main continents--Phidar and Drikur--as well as an alien world called Crystemma (based on the world of Crystal Avalon by Andrew Graham) accessible only through moongates. Areas (or zones) are small scale areas such as a city, village or dungeon to be explored by players. Areas are linked by a larger world-map, which is a large scale map making walking distance between zones significant. The world map paints a picture of the geography of the continent, and also includes some city-like features.
Races and Classes
Upon creating a character to play, a player must select one of over 25 races (including humans, centaurs, lizardmen, stonegiants, high elves, ogres, trolls, leprechauns, nymphs, gnomes, goblins, and harpies). There are currently ten classes from which a player may choose: Cleric, Druid, Elementalist, Necromancer, Paladin, Ranger, Thief, Warrior, Vampire, and Monk.Characters progress in skill and physical prowess by accumulating experience points gained through combat or quests. Presently Phidar is using a 60 level system, 60 being the highest a player can achieve. Each level brings new skills, spells and equipment to aid the character's progress. Even after reaching level 60, there are still ample opportunities to compete in pkquests and participate in cooperative play in order to defeat incredible foes.
Gameplay
After character creation, players learn to interact in the world of Phidar. Besides other human controlled players, there are computer controlled mobs (called non-player characters: NPC's). As players progress through the game, they gain new skills and spells, as well as grow in durability and magical ability. As they are "leveling", they augment themselves with equipment they find on their journey.Life and Death: After a human controlled character receives mortal injury in Phidar, he dies. However this is typically not so serious as it sounds. In any case, the player will reappear at a nearby start point, quite able to interact with his environment again. However, depending on the circumstances of his death, he may have some work yet ahead of him.
Mobdeath refers to being killed by a non-player character. The character who died will have to retrieve his corpse, which still contains all the posessions he accumulated up until his death. After finding the corpse, the player retrieve everything from it. For a character who is not top level, suffering a mobdeath also involves a loss of experience points, therefore setting the player back from his goal. NPK death Certain zones allow other human players to attack human players. Dying under these circumstances, the killed character arrives at a nearby startpoint with all of his/her eq, and there is no need to search for the corpse. CPK death refers to the gravest type of character death. A zone that is CPK type allows human players to attack other human players, just as in NPK. However the difference is that the victor will be able to claim one item from his defeated foe's corpse. After that, the defeated character retrieves his corpse as if he had suffered a mobdeath. Players participating as the Deadly Players are vulnerable to CPK type death in a majority of Phidar's rooms. (See Player versus player below)
Organization: Players in the same room in Phidar can interact physically (for instance, shake another player's hand) but all players also have access to chat channels which all players hear. A group of nine or less players can band together into a single group. While banded together, players fight as a single unit against opponents. They also gain a channel to communicate with their fellow groupmates. Yet another organization for players to join is the clan system. A clan autonomously chooses who to induct into its ranks. After being inducted into a clan, the player gains access to the "clan talk" channel so as to communicate easily with fellow clan members. "Clannies", as they are called, are a local community of players who assist fellow clannies and work as a team during PK Quests. PK Quests are a specialized type of event involving player versus player gameplay. (See Player versus player below)
Questing or Zone running: A major portion of gameplay that all players participate in is "questing". This involves players interacting with non-player characters and the environment to complete some task -- i.e. bring a famous wizard materials he needs to complete his latest spell -- or quite often to do combat with non-player characters -- i.e. slay a dragon in his lair. Finding new and better equipment is the main goal of questing.
Player versus player: There are two major ways to compete against other players. Firstly, "just for fun" events called PK Quests are held so that human controlled players can test their combat skills against each other. Dying in this type of event is an NPK type death. Some player versus player quests are free for all while others are organized fights between clans. Secondly, characters can voluntarily enroll as a Deadly Player. Once enrolled as a deadly player, the player can be attacked and killed by other deadly players. This type of death will be counted as a CPK type death.
Connecting
Phidar is free to play, and can be accessed from most computers using TELNET or a more advanced MUD client. It can be accessed using telnet://mud.phidarian.com:9000 .External links
[Phidar]- [Phidar's webpage]
- [Phidar's forums]
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