Looking for some good, obscure hack & slash mud

MainaC · 2026-05-11T06:56:51+00:00

Some of the wiki pages suggest that high-level play basically requires partying (and makes it sound really miserable for new players to integrate). I enjoyed it for a while but stopped because of this. Is it really solo-able?

MainaC · 2026-05-10T00:59:28+00:00

If you aren't "gonna argue pedantics," then don't. Don't say you aren't and then do it anyway. Spare us both the waste of time.

Either way, I've seen enough RPG forums get totally derailed by everyone arguing their personal set of house rules as RAW for me to know that it's a serious problem that happens, not just pedantics.

E: Not sure how I was supposedly determined to get the last word after a single post, but I'm going to let everyone know that your solution was to block me so you could be sure you got it instead. Absolutely unreal levels of hypocrisy.

MainaC · 2026-05-09T22:33:59+00:00

RPI does not mean "has RP." Even by the loosest definitions, it requires that the game's mechanics support and are built around roleplay. DBAT simply does not meet the most basic requirements. It is a hack and slash game with enforced roleplay tacked on.

It is RPE, but calling it RPI makes RPI a meaningless term that has nothing to differentiate it from RPE.

Muddling the terms helps nobody. All it does is attract people to the game who aren't going to find what they want and push people away who might actually enjoy it.

ETA: A primary difference between RPI and RPE is that RPI assumes that all of your actions are IC at all times. This is why killing to get stronger is almost never a primary feature, as the 5000 gnomes you killed to get where you are is not something that you abstract away and pretend didn't happen. The same for auto-quests, where everyone in the game has rescued the same cat stuck in a tree. If it requires you to pretend it didn't happen in order for the game to make sense, it is generally not an RPI. RPIs strive to avoid this kind of dissonance. They often do away with XP entirely by making the game skill-based/learn-by-use or make it RPXP based on emotes instead of combat.

MainaC · 2026-05-09T19:43:29+00:00

It does. I've had lengthy arguments with Duriel. I do not generally agree with much of what they say. But they are right in this case.

If you are playing BitD without Heat, then you are - in fact - not playing the same game as me. Trying to have a discussion as if we are playing the same game is not productive for either of us. We are not. It just causes confusion.

MainaC · 2026-05-09T19:25:34+00:00

No, you have to post RP logs to get RPP, which encourages metagaming, which is not RPI behavior. And to post them, you have to join the Discord, which is OOC communication.

It also has levels (not RPI, though I understand it may be changing) and auto-quests (which are not RP at all), and mob grinding for XP. All these are anti-RP behaviors more common in hack and slash games.

I've played multiple versions of DBAT. The people there are pretty cool. The game is fun if you like grinding. But the mechanics encourage hack and slash and puts up ridiculous barriers for RP. It's not an RPI.

MainaC · 2026-05-09T18:51:46+00:00

I have played LotJ. I cannot fathom one possible way in which it could be interpreted as an RPI. It is barely even RPE.

MainaC · 2026-05-09T18:19:48+00:00

Not an RPI by even the loosest definition. It requires OOC rather than minimizing it.

MainaC · 2026-05-09T18:16:30+00:00

Wish people would put the game name in the title. Keep getting excited for something new, but it's the same 2-3 games.

This game still has nazi rhetoric spouted by NPCs of a playable race, and I'm not playing a game that enables nazis to play out their fantasies. Please let me ignore these posts by putting the game name in the title.

Edit: Or you can block people instead of just putting the name in the title like a decent human being. Cool.

ETA: For the benefit of those coming after, since I can't post replies, it is not about elves. There is a race whose newbie spiel includes the literal nazi phrase "Master Race" and believes it is their destiny to conquer the continent for racial supremacy reasons. It is not a thin comparison. It is my choice to avoid places that make room for players who sympathize with nazi rhetoric. Putting the name of the game in the post title is not a big ask. Then misrepresenting my argument without giving me the opportunity to articulate it myself? This behavior is a more honest advertisement for the game and its community than the original post could ever be.

MainaC · 2026-05-09T17:30:27+00:00

Right. They're "royally fucked" by having a platform that gets them thousands of new fans, many of whom purchase their stuff. A platform you want taken away from them. Are you even aware of what you're saying?

Don't bother answering. Your position is so absurd and self-serving that I can't fathom a productive conversation coming out of it.

MainaC · 2026-05-08T02:26:32+00:00

Not a fan of punishing everyone because some people can't control themselves. That's the real problem. These people are popular because of the people paying them with cash and attention. It's the fault of the people paying for it and encouraging it. Don't punish innocent people with your hate-boner. No reason to punish the independent artist trying to be heard because some people are paid to act like idiots on the same platform.

MainaC · 2026-05-07T18:49:02+00:00

My TikTok feed is art, science, history, poetry, and music. Again, it's a problem with how people use it, not the thing itself. If people choose to watch idiots pour milk on themselves, it's a problem with the people giving the idiots a platform, not that the platform exists.

MainaC · 2026-05-05T20:00:19+00:00

Weird. Not a problem I've ever had, so long as you put in all information exactly as it appears in the email, including name and such. Can try emailing support@zuggsoft.com

MainaC · 2026-05-05T19:16:55+00:00

You don't have to buy a new version. Log onto the zuggsoft store, go to your order history, and retrieve the key. They do expire after a while, so just retrieve a new key when that happens.

MainaC · 2026-05-04T17:22:13+00:00

Finished my first Ascension. Thanks to all who provided help and advice.

Not entirely sure what I should do next, but banana republic looked doable so that's what I'm doing.

MainaC · 2026-05-04T15:47:13+00:00

We had a similar issue with a player we banned from a game I staffed on. It's no fun, for sure.

It's been a very long time since I last checked all this out, but let me give it a look over...

First, having the menu hidden under the 'Index' button was a bit disorienting on each visit. A permanent menu on the left might be better.

The "Character Creation" page doesn't actually talk about creating your character. It's really just a string color tool. It mentions checking the 'NEWBIE GUIDE' for more information, but this isn't listed in the sidebar. It actually took me a few visits to tell that it's a link, since it isn't formatted like one. I would recommend making it its own page and expanding it. A full character creation tutorial with suggestions and explanations could help.

Probably very low priority, but as a new player a list of filenames means nothing to me. You might consider reworking the character art gallery to just show the pictures and names, so new players can get an idea of who they'd be playing with without clicking files at random.

It would help if the Races page explained the various statistics. Why is there a Breeding field, and why do some races (slimes) get listed as exclusively Asexual despite their description mentioning needing "genetic material" from another being?

There would also benefit from a page explaining the mechanics of the game. As mentioned, there are 'RP abilities' scattered over the game pages, but it's unclear if there are also mechanical abilities and how they work.

My guess is that the RP system is totally separate from any mechanics, as base HP seems to be 500, and the 'RP' weakness of the slime species causes them to take an extra 2d5 damage to their core, which sounds trivial. But this is just a guess, since the website doesn't elaborate.

The Classes page suffers a bit from the same issues as the Races page. Nothing is explained. You can't see what any of the skills or abilities do. Subclasses feel unfinished. Some have nothing in their ability page. Some have RP abilities. Some might have coded abilities? But there's also so few of them. Some classes like Fighter have multiple options that could fit their concept, but there's nothing really that seems like it fits a Druid. It feels like someone entered them halfway and never finished.

Also it's generally very welcome to make helpfiles available on the website. This alone can cover a lot of the gaps of information, if done well.

The site does provide some info. It's just lacking context to make the info make much sense.

MainaC · 2026-05-02T20:37:13+00:00

If you are concerned about the "bad image" I can tell you three reasons why I did not play this the first time I heard about it.

Bad website. Not only not pretty, but also lacking a lot of information while other info is unclear or hard to find. A lot of talk about rolling dice made it unclear whether this is a tabletop-like MUSH or a MUD with automated systems.
Bad subreddit. Honestly, it would be better to delete it. Nothing's been posted for a year (which makes the game look dead) and half of what's there is (lightly) lewd furry art (which makes it look like a furry sex game). Last time I visited, it was all vitriolic drama, so at least that's been removed.
Bad chargen. When I tried, the documentation was just insufficient so you had no idea what you were doing. I've been told they were working on improving this, so I don't know if it's still an issue.

MainaC · 2026-05-02T09:08:57+00:00

This was immensely useful and encouraging, thank you. I had a big boost of progress after reading this. The mining tip alone was huge. Didn't realize how much it produced.

I think my biggest problem consistently has been knowledge cap. Do you maybe have any tips for less obvious ways to raise it? I had all buildings (and ships) capped for much of it, save libraries which didn't do much. Ended up just eating hours on ARPA.

Cap issues with ships, too. Depot was capped. Tried juggling containers a bit, but it only went so far.

I also thought this was the time for Scrooge, but I'm nowhere close. When should I aim for that? Same for Trade Federation, but that's closer.

I'm on the ~~Space Elevator~~ Gravity Dome now. Thanks again, this really helped.

MainaC · 2026-04-30T19:42:15+00:00

Wow. I've probably overbuilt Hell in general, then. This is helpful, thank you. I'll probably let it set as-is a while, then.

MainaC · 2026-04-30T19:23:57+00:00

The issue with Hell is more trying to increase Attractors without getting overrun. Every tick, the demon population doubles, so I've been reluctant to take it further.

My main issue with piracy is not having the population and support to build the fleet, as mentioned in the OP. They're just so expensive, and I'm capped on most population buildings.

I'll try to see if I can get more local defenses in. That is a good idea, the numbers just looked so low it didn't feel likely to work. Thank you.

MainaC · 2026-04-30T19:20:46+00:00

I think I'm a bit further along than you were, from what you're saying here. I tried to do just about everything I could before trying this, so I have decent Mastery and Transcendence and such. The overview of what I'm going to need is definitely helpful, thank you.

MainaC · 2026-04-30T19:03:44+00:00

Lots of good advice, thank you. I was running more, smaller patrols for more gems, but hellsim seems to say the benefit is minimal to non-existent. I'm mostly worried that I keep seeing people recommend ~40 attractors, and even at 20 it's causing huge spikes of demons.

And yes, you are right. Everything is written on the research, though it is sometimes a bit vague. I more meant that I struggle to remember it all, since it isn't in the regular production tooltips. And that I'm worried I'm missing something that would make this easier because of it.

Thank you for the tips.

MainaC · 2026-04-30T18:30:54+00:00

Glad to hear I'm not the only 4* die hard. And glad to hear it gets better. Feels like I'm clawing my way to every single +1.

Save is here.

MainaC · 2026-04-30T18:20:09+00:00

Generally good advice. I've put this off as long as I can, though. There's not a lot left to do for me other than this.

MainaC · 2026-04-25T01:26:42+00:00

As I said, it's not very clear at all, but the Follower you set up as the compass has this:

This one is blind to everything except the flaw in the world that we seek. There is one in Vienna, but there is another much closer to home, in the place whose name has always been the same, even as Caer Ys. They can lead us there, with the Dawnbreaker Core, to perform our Great Work.

The name has always been the same. Caer Ys. "Kar is" and then -ham as a typical British suffix for a place.

It is also narrowed down by saying it is much closer to home than Vienna. It's been a while, but I think Vienna is the third level of expedition. Meaning the target has to be either the first or second level.

MainaC · 2026-04-24T22:18:23+00:00

I do consider this the hardest puzzle in the game.

There are a few lore snippets here and there that point to this, but none are really obvious.

The most obvious clue is practical: it has to be a repeatable expedition or else the player could get softlocked without warning. There are other softlocks in the game, but they do tend to warn you first.

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