Check back in later for more information!
In the very near future I will have many helpful hints for newbies on Baternae 2: Phoenix Rising. I will offer help on the basic commands, ideas and newbie experience zones available. Check back around November first. I will then hopefully have something for you to actually look at.
Basternae is MUD. A MUD is a great way to make friends, entertain and waste massive amounts of time. Basternae is unique MUD. It offers many different kinds of races, classes and zones to play in. When you just start out on the Basternae MUD you are considered a NEWBIE. A newbie is a person who is brand new to MUD. On a MUD like Basternae newbies are looked down upon as lesser people. You are basically a newbie until you prove somehow (By deed, by level, by attitude, by something else) that you are not. It’s ok! We were all newbies once.
Basternae runs on the Magma mud codebase, developed by one of our Immortals, Veygoth. He is a great guy and has been workin very hard for this to work. We originally were an off spring of Duris, another PK MUD. After Duris shut down we opened. Then, in August, we were forced to shut down. Well, the coders and builders busted their asses and now we have reopened. The world is going to be all new so there is much to explore.
Basternae is a community of sorts. There are many other players from all over the world. Past countries have included Sweden, Canada, Singapore, Russia, U.S. and many more I cannot think of off hand. These many players make it a very diverse MUD. There are many smaller clicks of people that offer a great time.
Along with having to deal with other real people, one must also deal with something called a MOB. A mob is a computerized monster/helper/teacher/demon from hell/insect that can be used for gathering information, fighting, or just to look at. Mobs are the other citizens of Basternae. An example of a MOB would be a "goomba" on Mario Bros.
Zones
A Zone is an area created for the MUD on an editor program. Think of a zone as a level on a video game. I.E. Level one of Super Mario World. There are many zones on Basternae and some are only suitable for high levels.
There are several zones that NEWBIES can effectively gain levels in. First and foremost is each races particular Hometown. Your Hometown is where your particular race starts out or where they are born. There is usually some mobs that are small enough to effectively gain levels from. Another benefit to the hometown setting is that races on the opposite side of the racewar cannot easily attack you.
Some other zones that newbies can effectively level in include The Abandoned Settlement, The Rattling Caves, The Svirfneblin Slave Camp, The Twisted Wood and The Clawed Caverns. If you can easily gain access to any of these zones, you could find ample MOBS on which you could do exp.
EXP
Exp is both a thing, an idea and a command on the game. Exp is basically "points" you get for a kill or casting a spell. Exp in an another sense is the actual act of going out and killing. For instance, Tembo says, "Lets go get some exp." He is saying he wants to go kill stuff. Exp the command is what you type in to see how close you are to achieving your next level. Just type in "exp" and the MUD will let you know how you are doing.
BASTERNAE IS A PKILL MUD!!!!!!
Basternae is a PKILL MUD. Pkill is short for player killing. That means your character can, and will, is killable by other players. ANYONE can kill you. This makes the MUD very violent but also very very fun. When one achieves a higher level PKILL becomes more and more important. Frags are used by Basternae as a kind of informal point system. You get one Frag for killing another player that is around the same level as you.
Racewar
There are two sides to the Basternae racewar. The racewar is pretty simple: Good versus evil. Goodie races are generally easier to play and more friendly for a newbie. Evil races should be left to only seasoned veterans as they are very hard and not newbie friendly. The evils generally are ruled by powerful groups of people who do not take kindly to newbies who think they can play an evil. NOTE: If you are a newbie and play an evil your life will be absolute HELL. It sucks. Learn how to play by using a Goodie character. Goodies are generally helpful and don't necessarily Kill for the sake of killing like many evils are known to do. You've been warned.
When you talk about Racewars, raids are the next topic to discuss. A raid is essentially a Pkill adventure. On a raid the goal is to find a member of the opposite side of the racewar and kill them. Raids are often done by large groups to ensure each members safety. Raiding can, however, be done by a single person. Leave this to the high levels!!! A level lower than twenty is ridiculous to raid with. Stay home. Raids are very hard to do and are extremely dangerous. It is good to know where you are going. A very good place to find enemies is around hometowns. If you can learn the locations of the opposite sides hometowns it will help raiding very much.
Another place that is good to raid is the popular EXP places. It is a lot of fun to catch an unsuspecting enemy while they are doing an EXP run. There are many ways to raid, and countless places to raid. That is what makes this MUD fun.
There are many different classes on Basternae. They can be divided into three main groups: Fighters, Fighters that can use magic and strictly Magic users.
Fighters are warriors, mercenaries, thieves and assassins. The each have their specific skills they are good at.
Fighters that can use magic are very powerful indeed. They combine the fighting ability of the fighter classes and use a fair amount of spells. They include: Rangers, hunters, paladins and anti-paladins.
Strictly magic users have powerful spells but are very weak compared to an equal level fighter. Magic users include: Sorcerers, Druids, Shamans, Psionicists (a very special class that uses their minds to will forth psionic powers), Elementalists and clerics.
It takes considerably less skill to play a fighter but once you learn the commands the magic users can be just as fun. So What then is the easiest class to play? The best class for a newbie to play is one they are sincerely interested in. Warriors have the least amount of commands though if that’s what you want to know.
Some Basic Commands
Who - gives you a list of who is on.
exp - displays how far you are from your next level.
time - displays the time it is on the MUD.
score - displays many things about your character. Check it out.
att - short for attributes. Displays your vital statistics.
frag - displays a list of the MUD's highest and lowest fraggers and also lists the top fragging classes and races.
flee - often used in battle. Causes you to run away.
kill or k - causes you to attack that target. I.e. typing kill Govno will cause you to attack Govno.
bash - if you are playing a class that has the skill bash, you have a chance of knocking your opponent to the ground. It is almost impossible without a shield.
bodyslam - used by the larger races to slam into an opponent. It is very powerful.
kick - if your class uses kick it kicks your opponent.
pray - used by druids and clerics as a form of spell learning.
memorize - used by the other magic users to memorize spells which then allows the user to cast them.
meditate - makes you pray or meditate faster.
rest - makes you sit down and rest
recline - makes you lie down
sleep - makes you fall asleep
consent - gives permission to another to do something. This is important if you wish to form a group.
follow - the command to make you follow another player.
wear - the command used to wear something.
eq - a nice command that displays what equipment you are currently wearing.
inventory - a command to display what you are currently carrying.
How to cast a spell
First and foremost you have to have the spell memorized. When you are a newbie you only get one spell so try to memorize that first. After you have memorized the spell, make sure you are standing and then type: cast 'spellname'. Now it is very important to have the ' ' surrounding the spell name. If you don't you will get a message telling you what you did wrong. It is also important to know what kind of spell you are casting. If you are casting an offensive spell you need to have a target for your spell. An example would be: cast 'fireball' Lourde. That command would cast a fireball at Lourde. Now if you wish to cast a protective spell upon yourself it would look something like this: cast 'armor' self OR cast 'armor' me OR cast 'armor' INSERT YOUR OWN NAME.
There are many more questions you may have, but I’ll let the Basternae help files help you out with that. Type Help while on the MUD. Good luck and remember: It is just for fun.
ANSI is the great colors you see on the MUD. It is important to know how to use ANSI for both zone writing and setting titles in your guilds.
To let the MUD know you are going to use ansi coding, you need to know some of the basic commands.
&: the & symbol tells the MUD that ANSI code follows.
+: the plus sign is used to tell the MUD what color is used. (example below)
N or n: is the symbol that tells the MUD to stop all ANSI
Color Codes
There are different colors you can use:
C or c: Used for the color Cyan
R or r: Used for red
L or l: used for black and grey
Y or y: used for yellow
G or g: used for green
M or m: used for magenta
W or w: used for white
When using the code, you must be very specific. For example:
&+RThe Red Baron&N <---- This would show up as all red.
&+RThe &N&+LRed&N &+RBaron <-----This, on the other hand, would show up having the following colors: The(red) Red(black) Baron(red again). The & lets the MUD know ANSI is to follow, the + tells the MUD that there will be a color, and the color code (L,R,M,C,W,G,Y) tells the color. It is important to end each ANSI with a &N in order to stop the ANSI.
The different case of the letter also makes a difference. C is a different color than c. The brightness of the color depends upon the case.
I hope that wasn't too confusing
E-mail me at: dubar@rasalvatore.com
Some links if you want.
Dubar did this, October 3, 1999. All rights reserved