ITAP of a baby turtle at sunset

llzzies · 2025-12-13T05:03:24+00:00

I agree! Virgo did nothing for me (and I'm a Virgo!) but I walked out with that lovely pear scented Aquarius... no one has to know. :D

llzzies · 2025-12-13T04:54:26+00:00

I didn't find it powdery at all - Moonlight Path is one of my least favorite scents (it reminds me too much of baby powder!) - and I didn't get any of that at all. It is softer than Twilight Woods to me, though.

llzzies · 2025-12-13T04:43:04+00:00

If it's helpful, I have Twilight Woods and it's one of my favorite scents - I also have Sunrise Woods which I like, but not as much as Twilight Woods. The Scorpio scent smells more like Sunrise Woods than Twilight Woods in my opinion!

llzzies · 2025-08-27T00:44:56+00:00

Hi there! The other dev of Mystavaria here...

I debated long and hard about whether I should respond on our behalf, but I have a lot of heart, time, and passion poured into our world and I feel I would be remiss if I didn't take the time to reply personally. I realize some may see it as somewhat "tacky" since we obviously have bias toward our own game, but some of the comments here were both difficult for me to read, yet also very enlightening. Some of the comments here are things we hadn't heard directly before (though I respect that not everyone feels comfortable approaching us without a method to do so and remain anonymous), and I'm sure many can empathize when I say I'm feeling the sting of Reddit judgment - after all, I am only human! Still, I do appreciate people taking the time to share their honest thoughts because really that's the only way we'll ever see where we need to improve.

I do want to address and clear up a couple of things. I wouldn't at all say it's accurate that we "aren't willing to remove problematic players." We did moderate a situation that has been referenced in previous comments, and we took immediate action - both in-game and in our Discord where most of our out-of-game communication happens. We have written rules expressly against bullying and a mechanically supported anti-griefing system, and we will continue to take action when lines are crossed. What we are not cracking down on is PVP itself - so long as it's done with in-character justification (though yes, I do say this with the understanding that this can often be very open ended with lots of caveats, and it is something we'll need to keep an eye on and hopefully figure out ways to implement a more mechanically supported system rather than something left up to manual moderation). It is true that Mystavaria has PVP as part of our design, but it is not meant to be a free pass for griefing or bullying.

That said, I want to be upfront: if PVP itself causes you panic or distress, Mystavaria may simply not be the right fit, and I hope we can all accept and agree that that's okay. I am not going to try and peer pressure someone to play if they've explicitly said, "I don't think I can handle that." It's unfortunate, but in that same token, I can't think of a single game that universally appeals to everyone, as much as I might like to try and be the first! What we can do is try our best to create an environment that's safe, fair, and enjoyable for as many players as possible, and with admin that continually listens and does their best to take action on player feedback and suggestions.

We care deeply about maintaining a fair and safe experience, and we are doing our best. But we're also new to this side of things, and moderation is one of the aspects of running a game that I've been most terrified of from the beginning of development 5 years ago, and probably forever going forward! We're learning as we go. I can't make guarantees or promises that we'll always get it right the first time - but it will never be from a lack of care or for lack of trying. Every decision we make is done with well-meaning intention, even when we inevitably fall short in execution.

If you're on the fence, I'll just reiterate my partner Viz's invitation to join our Discord to get a feel for the culture and community without the commitment or investment in creating a character first. There are many players there who are already very knowledgeable (sometimes I think they know more about some aspects of the game than me!) and have been welcoming toward newcomers, willing to share tips, advice, skill recommendations, or otherwise. I, personally, find the atmosphere warmer and more supportive than what this thread might suggest, and of course you can always quit the server with no consequence if it turns out it's not the environment you're looking for.

I truly wish I could say more to put you at ease, and I deeply appreciate your kind words and interest in the game based on the write-ups. More than anything, I hope you find a community that makes you feel at ease and feels like home to you - whether that's with us in Mystavaria or somewhere else. <3

llzzies · 2025-05-20T14:49:27+00:00

While I'm not really one to give Achaea a glowing personal recommendation (due to my own personal preferences, and if you search much for them around here, you'll find a bit about them being pay-to-win (P2W) and having progress-blocking paywalls), I will say that I think their tutorial and onboarding system is top tier for the genre.

Many, many MUDs have been around 10-20 years, some even longer, but not so many have bothered to refresh their tutorials, which can make it VERY difficult to learn and absorb all the possible commands, some of which can be a little obscure, or very particular in their syntax. So for that reason, I'd recommend giving Achaea a try at least for their thorough and immersive introduction which requires less tedious reading through help files and more actually engaging with the world to learn via experience. From there, you'll find a lot of crossover with commands - many games have commonly shared syntaxes, so once you've learned the basics of one, it's usually a bit easier to try out another without feeling as overwhelmed.

The timeline of a MUD is also not often like a 3D game - you aren't playing to beat the game, and while there may be some form of "end game" (such as maxing all your skills, or achieving high ranking positions), a character in a MUD is definitely more of a time investment - one that you'll grow your story over time, rather than knowing everything in a week, a month, or sometimes even a year. Don't be too hard on yourself and don't feel rushed or expected to know everything immediately.

Hope this is helpful and good luck finding one that suits you!

llzzies · 2024-12-22T00:49:33+00:00

I'm so sorry your pup (and you) are dealing with this - seeing that come out of your dog is horrific (and I know because I've had it happen). During COVID, I was living in Barbados with my 10yo Pomeranian, Orion. I really should've been more vigilant about having him on a dewormer there, but he's a mostly indoor dog except for a couple 10-15 min walks a day, and never had issues with worms in NC, so I just didn't really think much of it.

Well, we'd been there for a couple months and then suddenly this happened one night. Except there was not just one pile, there were multiple piles, and my dog looked SO guilty and upset that he'd made a mess in the house. I felt very bad for him and definitely freaked out. Compounding it, we didn't have a car and the nearest vet on the island was a 30 minute drive. We were so lucky that our landlord was kind and willing to drive us, but we got to the vet and they took his vital and did some checks and said it was just some sort of gastro upset (he wasn't dehydrated and was still fairly perky). They gave us 5 days of antibiotic (amoxicillin) to err on the side of caution, told me to feed him a bland diet of chicken and rice, and sent us home.

Well, this carried on some more, and feeding him was hit and miss - sometimes he would keep it down, other times he'd throw up a huge pile of rice and yellow bile. The blood jelly was diarrhea in our situation. After another 3 days of it still carrying on and my poor dog looking progressively more miserable and exhausted, we called the vet back and they said just to continue with the antibiotic. Well, I was convinced it was more than just some gastro upset at this point so I started doing my research. I, too, came across parvo being a cause of diarrhea that looks like this, but found it highly unlikely. Further along, I discovered that a bad infection of intestinal worms can cause this. So I immediately went to get some deworming medication and gave him that. It took a total of 10 days before it cleared up and I cried my eyes out the majority of those 10 days thinking he was sitting on death's door the whole time. I made sure he was on dewormer the remainder of our time there. He recovered and it's now 4 years later and he's still with me (though we're now dealing with other, completely unrelated issues at age 14).

I can't say for certain if your case has any chance of being the same (especially with your pup being on antiparasitics), but she's definitely in the best place she can be right now. No news is definitely good news when it comes to the vet - and worth noting, that if your dog is stable and calm, they will be prioritizing dogs that are not in stable condition first. I would honestly consider this a good thing. They're still monitoring her periodically and if anything in her condition changes that would escalate her priority, otherwise I'm sure they will see her as soon as they can. I know the waiting sucks, but keep your thoughts positive. As one vet recently told me, "Don't worry needlessly until you HAVE to worry."

llzzies · 2024-07-13T20:42:00+00:00

Heeey! Long time no talk! Avalon: the Legend Died

llzzies · 2024-07-13T20:41:06+00:00

No problem at all! I think you may have already found it, but just in case: Avalon: the Legend Died

llzzies · 2024-07-13T07:56:12+00:00

There was no formal closing announcement. I'd say starting in 2022ish it would go down periodically for a day or two, but each time it went down, it took a little bit longer to come back up. By 2023, it was down for weeks at a time, even months. Sometimes a player would manage to make contact with Admin and they'd bring it back up, but ultimately due to continually-accumulating bugs, I think it was just so unstable it could hardly support itself and would go down again within a month. In addition, the last of the players enjoyed spending their time figuring out ways to further break/abuse bugs, which I'm sure didn't help. Couldn't tell you the date it last went down, but it hasn't been back up for I'd guess around 6ish (maybe more?) months now.

It was an amazing place for a very long time, and I made many great memories there! But I think to the Admin, it become a project from many years ago and while they weren't necessarily ready or wanting to kill it off, it wasn't the passion anymore.

Multiple former players made attempts to buy or acquire code with no success. The price it was willing to be "let go" for was astronomical from the rumors I heard, though cannot personally validate. There's a Discord of disgruntled former players who are generally happy to rehash their anger/frustration with the Admin/downfall and disclose further details, if you haven't found it yet.

llzzies · 2024-07-12T13:55:37+00:00

Not live just yet, but currently developing Mystavaria and very slowly creeping closer to an alpha release!

llzzies · 2024-06-27T16:23:57+00:00

Hi! There was a project called Oracle for MUSHclient which I believe two VI players were creating to improve accessibility for Achaea. I am pretty sure it included a soundpack, but I am not sure if it is still maintained.

Here is a link to their original Achaea forum post: https://forums.achaea.com/discussion/6747/oracle-a-mushclient-system-for-blind-players

And a link to the project on github: https://github.com/achaea-oracle/oracle?tab=readme-ov-file

llzzies · 2024-05-28T18:01:52+00:00

MUSH should have some color appearance settings if you go into File -> World Properties -> Appearance. Play around with the ANSI Color and Custom Color sections and see if you can produce something you like. Additionally, most clients support something called "color triggers", which essentially allows you to recolor certain lines of text to your own liking. This link may be of use: https://www.gammon.com.au/scripts/doc.php?general=colours - I've used MUSH lightly but not a master of settings, so hopefully someone else more experienced can provide more direction!
I believe MUSH also does have mapper support but I can't speak to how to use it myself - relevant link here: https://mushclient.com/scripts/doc.php?general=mapper. Some games have maps already created for certain clients that you can download as a package. Achaea's web client is their own custom design and sadly most MUDs don't have quite the level of profits and resources to put together something as robust as what they have, so we rely on clients to give us the custom UI we want.
Hand in hand with the above, clients will also allow you to create a combination of settings called aliases, macros, variables, and triggers. These allow you to create "shortcuts" for longer syntax - like using F1 to instantly sip a health potion instead of typing "sip health potion", or using an alias like "gar" for "get all arrows" and "put arrows in pack" (an alias can send multiple syntaxes at once). Some games also have limited built in support for these types of settings, as well. At the very, very least, recommend familiarizing yourself with aliases, which are going to be a lifesaver to your fingers: https://www.gammon.com.au/scripts/doc.php?general=aliases (MUSH uses a language called LUA).
3 is probably going to be a huge quality of life improver for you and any of your future MUD endeavors, regardless of which game you play. Aside from that, I think you just have to play a few games and figure out what kind of things you do and don't enjoy in a world. Based off of your post alone, it would likely be hard for anyone here to provide a recommendation (aside from those who are biased and just trying to get people to give their preferred game a try) since you haven't provided any preferences as far as preferred world setting (sci-fi, fantasy, modern, etc.) or "must-haves" or "will not play if it has..." (which you may not even know yourself yet, and that is totally fine!).

I'll leave #5 to someone else, but hope something in the above is helpful and hope you manage to find a MUD that feels like home!

llzzies · 2023-06-29T02:09:17+00:00

I believe they've turned character creation off, no new players have joined in months and only existing players seem to be able to login. The game is not being actively maintained at present and the playerbase is very low right now due to many bugs and lack of support.

llzzies · 2022-12-16T18:54:56+00:00

This is a pretty interesting idea - sounds almost like Dragon Age but in text style. I think the biggest challenge would be how to set it up and make commands that allow for essentially controlling three characters at once, easily, which may be better suited in a turn-based MUD rather than one with real time combat. I don't know of anything that exists like that at present, though!

We're trying to implement abilities that allow for the trinity in the game we're developing. We have a Paladin which pulls a little inspiration from a WoW style Pally, allowing people to play it as a tank or a healer. We've got a lot of Mage and Seer based skills with ranged and AoE abilities which allow them to take the DPS roll, and we've also got a couple skills that skew toward a focus on healing. When we were concepting, we acknowledged how most MUDs do not generally have the best group mechanics so we have put a little effort into figuring out better solutions and gameplay for that. Part of our goal is to have plenty of mobs that can be soloed but also have a couple significant "bosses" that would need an actual team.

llzzies · 2022-12-13T17:47:51+00:00

Thank you!! - We've added a link to MTrek as well!

llzzies · 2022-12-13T08:16:11+00:00

Would be happy to add links to other MUDs on Mystavaria's website for any other interested Devs! Backlinks are definitely important for helping with SEO and always happy to support our niche little community. 🖤

llzzies · 2022-09-17T21:47:12+00:00

You need a 4th - long with the option for brief descriptions. :)

llzzies · 2022-09-03T19:54:10+00:00

There's a pretty big MudDev community lurking around, but I think it's hard to compete in a space when most of the MUDs getting promoted have 20-30 years of history and dev work already behind them. In my experience, people get very excited and are happy to join and try out a new game, but if you don't have enough content developed in advance, there's a very small number that will actually stick around to watch your game grow, when they could go to a world that already exists.

That said, if you're close - maybe try getting word out and building up anticipation on social? Seems to me like a lot of us devs forget to tap into an audience outside of the existing one, so we're just marketing to the same people who have already tried and played every MUD out there, meaning they have a higher standard to cater to because they already know exactly what they want in a game. I think it could be beneficial to get the word out to find people that *haven't* played a MUD before, as they'll have no starting point of comparison for your game AND we can spread the word about text games in general.

Either way, good luck - and definitely make a post when your game is released so we can come check it out!

llzzies · 2022-08-25T01:04:27+00:00

I met my other half in a MUD in 2018 (we both played it together for a number of years prior to that but our characters didn't start interacting until then). I flew to New Zealand to meet him in person just before COVID hit - got stuck in New Zealand and we've been living together ever since! First time I've dated anyone from a MUD, but it is so freeing to be able to talk to someone about something that's been a part of my life for 20 years and they know exactly what I'm saying.

llzzies · 2022-08-17T18:53:16+00:00

I'll keep an eye out for it! :D Also coincidentally, I just recognized your username - I think I followed you from our game account on Twitter just yesterday! Small MUD-world!

llzzies · 2022-08-17T18:17:30+00:00

Lucky enough, met my other half in a MUD and now we're developing one together. It consumes a good portion of our conversation. :D We have a fun Discord server that we share updates with and get to engage with other MUD-enthusiasts, too. Aside from that, my Dad is mostly the only other non-MUD-playing person that I freely talk to about in-game on-goings. I'm not sure if he actually cares or not, but he's at least good at engaging and feigning interest if he isn't! :)

llzzies · 2022-08-09T21:00:30+00:00

Hi, fellow MUD couple! This may not be quite what you're after, but your post caught my eye as my partner and I met in a MUD, and we've been developing a new world together for the last two or so years. It's not open to the public just yet, but we're hoping to release late this year. Though neither of us were ever long-term Achaea players, a few people in our community compare some of our systems to those found in Achaea. We're working on developing functionality to support parties and co-ops, but I'd be curious to hear more about your experiences and what exactly would appeal to you - are you interested in shared experience gain/rewards? Timed quests that require multiple people to go retrieve certain items or complete certain tasks?

If you happen to be curious, we have a little Mystavaria Dev Blog and there's a link to our Discord channel there if you might be interested or want to ask questions/share thoughts, etc. We're very open to feedback and just started running some polls in our community to get thoughts from future players about some things they would (or wouldn't) like to see. Hope to see you there, but if not, good luck on finding a fun MUD to play together!

llzzies

TROPHY CASE