Medievia

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Medievia is an online fantasy-themed text-based game, often referred to as a MUD. The game was initially created by Michael Krause and his development staff in the early 1990s, using the Merc 1.00 MUD engine. The relationship between Merc MUD codebase and Medievia's code is the subject of some controversy.

Contents

[edit] In-Game Environment

The world of Medievia is a fantasy-based game with similarities to RPGs involving Orcs, Elves, Dragons and such (i.e.: Dungeons and Dragons type content). Whether Medievia can truly be considered a true role-playing game is debatable, as people do not generally act out roles or speak in a medieval fashion although the game makes numerous relative references.

[edit] Game Size

Medievia's game world size is approximately 4,139,000 rooms, most of which are built off a template and considered wilderness rooms. Among these wilderness rooms are zones in which players can fight Monsters (referred to as MOBs or Mobiles in-game) for Experience and Equipment. Zones and the wilderness may have PvP areas; these are described below in the zones section.

[edit] Classes

Medievia contains the original four DikuMUD classes. Each class has its own specific strengths and weaknesses. There has always been a controversy over the equality between these classes and are constantly subject to tweaks over time. The Warrior and the Thief are archetypal fighters, while the Cleric and the Mage are the spellcasters.

  • Warrior - The Warrior class is marked by its high hit points and low mana statistics. In simple melee combat, warriors deal more damage than Thieves.
  • Thief - Thieves have less base hit points than Warriors in exchange for more mana. The major advantage of the Thief Class is the ability to deal a large amount of damage instantly.
  • Cleric - Clerics have around the same amount of hit points as Thieves. As their name implies, Clerics have the invaluable ability to heal themselves and other players.
  • Mage - Mages have the least hit points and the most mana. The Mage has most potent offensive spells of all the classes.

[edit] Multi-Classing and Reclassing

Players start out at level 1 as one of the classes described above. By fulfilling all of the requirements for each level, players gain levels until they reach level 31. The most basic type of level requirement is experience; additional requirements include leading points, autoquest points, trading points, egg points, and dragon points. The requirements increase with increasing levels, making the higher levels harder to achieve. Upon reaching level 31, the player has the option to multi-class, in which case the player starts out again at level 1 as a different class, retaining the abilities from the previous class. This process is repeated until the player has completed all four classes and has successfully completed a total of 124 levels. At this point, the player commands the skills and spells of every class and the disadvantages of only the current class - these players are referred to as heroes. Regardless of the order in which a hero completed the classes, as a hero the player has the option to reclass. Reclassing is similar to multi-classing in that the hero chooses a different class and must reach level 31 to become a hero again. Heroes also have the option of enhancing their bloodline.

[edit] Equipment

Equipment is a special type of item that players can wear in order to increase different statistics or otherwise gain an advantage. It is one of the driving aspects of the game as the majority of players want to have the 'best' equipment. Useful equipment is obtained by killing a mob who has the desired equipment and taking it from them. Most equipment in the game has a limited lifespan and when its lifespan ends, the equipment's statistics deteriorate to what is called its 'base stats'. There is a way to extend an items life beyond its original lifespan using eggs.

  • Object Tweaking - Tweaking is claimed to be an integral part of what makes the game interesting. Tweaking refers to the scrambling code that is applied to an item's statistics that randomly adjusts the stats of the piece of equipment. Every tweakable item starts with base stats (which are somewhat random), and is subject to a random roll on its different attributes. There are limits as to how high or how low an item will tweak, however every object is unique in its own way and is subject to a possible 'freak tweak' meaning stats can potentially roll very high or extremely low.

For example, a given piece of equipment may give hit points to a player when worn. A common base stat for a hit point item is 20 hitpoints. Every time someone obtains this particular equipment, the code will randomly assign it a hit point value that could even be negative. For the sake of example, pretend that the item gives 30 hit points when worn. After the item's life span runs out, it will deteriorate and only give 20 hit points when worn.

[edit] Zones

A zone is a collection of rooms that sometimes has an accompanying storyline to it. Some zones in the game are found directly on the wilderness map while others are not as easily accessible. Many zones have internal puzzles or 'mazes' to solve in order to obtain experience or equipment while others are cities where players gather and socialize. Zones are either LPK, NPK, CPK or some combination of the three.

  • Area Types - There are three area types in the game that are broken down in to the following:
    • LPK (Lawful Player Kill) - In LPK, players may attack NPCs but are restricted by the code from attacking each other unless a player has blood. A mob killed in LPK will give less experience points than if it is killed in NPK or CPK
    • NPK (Neutral Player Kill) - Players may attack each other in NPK subject to certain conditions. First, a player gets blood when he or she attacks another player. Players with blood can be attacked in LPK. Secondly, if a player is killed in NPK, he or she is teleported a random distance away with only one hit point. There is no penalty for being killed by another player in NPK.
    • CPK (Chaotic Player Kill) - CPK is the most dangerous area in the game, but it also is the most rewarding in terms of experience and equipment. If killed in CPK, a player will lose a level and for a brief time, other players can steal equipment from the deceased player. The existence of CPK in the game has been drawn into debate in recent weeks as the owner of the game is dissatisfied with how players who often CPK abusively treat players who do not CPK.

[edit] Clans and Towns

A Clan is a group of at most 51 players led by the Clan Leader and Co-Clan Leader. Clan members have a special channel dedicated to them so they can communicate with their fellow members at any time. Towns consist of at most 2 clans and have another channel dedicated to communicate between members of the same town. Towns and clans can be thought of teams - all the towns are competing against each other for their Clan rank. Clans get points for their ranking in several different categories within the game. Higher ranked towns get a hit point bonus based on their overall ranking in each of the following areas of competition:

  • Towngame Ranking - A Towngame is a direct competition between two Towns in a single category. The two clans are given a goal and must obtain a required amount of points before the other town in order to win.
  • Egg Ranking - When a player collects eggs from the catacombs, their clan's egg ranking raises accordingly.
  • Experience Ranking - When a player kills a mob for experience, their clan's experience ranking increases.
  • Clantown Ranking - Towns are given a small zone that they can edit at the cost of in-game gold. Each Town is evaluated on the size of their town zone. A clan's tax rate helps balance this ranking between the two clans in a town by devising ownership of a percentage of rooms by how much tax is paid to the leading clan.
  • Trade Ranking - Like other ranks, this is a ranking based on how much trading a clan does.
  • Fae Ranking - With the introduction of ships came Fae harvesting. Fae does not have any significant use in-game except for the clan ranking and how much they collect. Fae, and how it is acquired is explained in greater detail under the ships section below.
  • Townland Ranking - The newest ranking category, Townland is currently a direct function of the size of one's clantown. A circle of land around a given clantown is owned by the clan and is used for the Townload Ranking. In the near future, islands will be implemented and islands will play a large role in Townland rankings.

[edit] The Catacombs

The Catacombs, or 'The Combs' as they are referred to amongst the community are one of the fundamental areas related to the storyline of the game. The catacombs randomly move about the land from time to time and are an LPK zone. MOBs in the catacombs drop eggs which have many uses.

  • Eggs - Aside from clan ranking, eggs are used for a number of different things. The deterioration of a piece of equipment can theoretically be lengthened to over a year by a process referred to as 'egging' in which the player trades eggs in exchange for a extra amount of life span to be added to an item. Eggs can also be traded to acquire practice points which players use to train their stats or class skills. Most importantly each player needs 1000 eggs to multi-class or reclass. Eggs are traded amongst the players and contribute to a significant part of economic activity within the game.

[edit] Dragons

There are three types of dragons which serve three different purposes within the land.

  • Transportation Dragons - Good dragons are ones which assist players by transporting them abroad. Due to Medievia's enormous size it is not feasible to walk everywhere. A player may call upon a dragon at a cost of gold determined by a formula based on their total level.
  • Wilderness Dragons - Wilderness Dragons are evil dragons that hunt people. Originally evil dragons only hunted people who carried large amounts of gold on them in the wilderness. This criteria has become somewhat obsolete and dragons may hunt people for other reasons. The specific reasons a dragon may choose to hunt someone have been changed and it is kept relatively secret by administrators.
  • Lair Dragons - Lair dragons dwell in lairs throughout the land. Groups of players hunt these dragons for their precious dragon hide. This hide can then be used to make special equipment, arguably some of the best equipment in the game. The type of equipment that can be made with these hides depends on the color of the dragon. Additionally when players encounter these lair dragons, dragon points are obtained and count towards a player's multi level requirements.

[edit] Autoquests

Autoquests are missions given to players to complete for rewards. The completion of an autoquest (or AQ) will usually grant a player with a gold prize, AQ points, and occasionally items. AQ points are also needed for multi level requirements.

[edit] Ships

With Medievia V came ships. Ships added a new seafaring element to the game. The overall usefulness of this aspect of the game has caused some confusion over the relevancy to the game's original storyline, but are still under heavy development.

  • Fae - The primary purpose of ships is to collect Fae. Fae is collected by killing evil MOB factions while at sea. Currently under certain conditions, it is possible to attack other clan's ship(s) and steal the ship to acquire more Fae. Having large amounts of Fae however will attract more danger. There has been recent discussion in removing the PvP aspect of ships to promote the use their intended functions.

[edit] Trading

One source of income within the game is trading which was introduced in Medievia IV. The continent of Medievia has many cities that are homes to trade posts which are connected by a network of roads throughout the kingdom. These trade posts each sell goods which a player must physically cart from post to post. Trading is a particularly long and somewhat dangerous task which requires a formation of people to group together to assist each other to complete. Most trade routes are LPK with little risk of NPK encounters. There are also CPK trade routes which yield considerably more gold, however not as popular throughout the kingdom. As a challenge, the game's Dungeon Master (or DM) attempts to improve a player's experience by invoking MOB Factions upon them. Trade points are required for a player's multi level requirements.

  • Catastrophes - The value of goods will decrease from post to post as people trade. In order to revitalize the devaluing of goods, catastrophes will occur. These usually cause drastic increases in trade post values for the affected shop.
  • Ship Trading - Ship trading is currently in development, but is expected to add a different dimension to gameplay and add more usefulness to ships.

[edit] Dungeon Master

The Dungeon Master or "DM" is a section of Medievia's game engine which monitors each player's gameplay experience. Medievia's developers claim this system can detect how a player feels and decides whether to invoke MOB factions which help or hinder each player performing different tasks. Additionally, the DM makes self-controlled decisions affecting many other aspects of gameplay including weather patterns and other internal game aspects.

  • MOB Factions - MOB factions (or MFs) are basically a group of themed MOBs which the DM sets upon a player (or players) in many situations. There are two types of MOB factions. Ones that will try to hinder a player's ability to complete a task, and ones which will help a player complete a task.
  • MF Types - The type of factions you may encounter are determined by the Dungeon Master. Little is known about how the DM determines which type a player may encounter, but the development staff have stated there is an attempt to balance a player's experience between good and bad. The severity, helpfulness and strength of a mob faction is determined by the risk level.
  • Risk Level - The easiest way to describe risk level is that the further away you are from Medievia city (which is in the center of the game map, the higher the risk level is. The risk level of an area will determine the strengths of both good and bad types of MOB factions. Risk level only affects areas of the wilderness including the waters which ships sail.

[edit] Bloodlines

When a player reaches Level 124 they are allowed to produce a maximum of two offspring. Each generation beneath a player grants the parent a special regeneration bonus giving them a greater game advantage. After a bloodline or people within a bloodline have a certain number of generations beneath them, a player becomes known as a Legend.

Bloodlines have their own communication channel similar to clans or towns, and players within the bloodline may telepath each other.

[edit] More About Medievia

[edit] Purchasing game items

Medievia is a for-profit company funded by the sale of in-game items for currency (USD). Players can purchase special pieces of equipment that can substantially increase player statistics such as hit points, regeneration or mana, or confer certain abilities (including nearly instantaneous resurrection and faster transport). These purchased objects (termed "donation" items) significantly boost characters, to the extent that players who do not purchase them are at an extreme relative disadvantage, making them effectively a requirement for competitive play (especially at higher character levels). There is an active in-game market wherein players trade large amounts of game currency ("gold") to other players who purchase these items with real world currency in exchange.

Players may purchase items ranging in price from $25 to $50 USD. During the holiday season (usually beginning sometime in October), the prices of most of these items are reduced.

The game's administration claims Medievia is free to play. However, without buying most of the $50US donation items, the chance of winning a fight against other players (and monsters) is drastically reduced. Two of the $50US items will not deteriorate, while the other two $50US and all $25US items will deteriorate after one year (basically rendering them useless) unless you donate more money to buy an item called "A Certificate of Redemption" which restores other donation items to their original working state; it costs 2 certificates to redeem the $50US items.

[edit] How to Access Medievia

The game can be played on any computer that has a Telnet client. Most players prefer to use a MUD Client like Mud Master or ZMUD because of their powerful scripting capabilities.

Medievia can be played as a completely text-based game, or players can download a special Medievia font that allows them to see a more detailed map of the game world while they are playing. Sounds are also available for download for players who wish to use them providing they are using a client which has MSP (MUD Sound Protocol) support.

[edit] The Community

The game has been around since the early 1990s yet has never had official discussion forums relating to game strategy or development as the system administrators feel this threatens the game's integrity.

The only external site dedicated to Medievia content is Dark Nomads (which also contains unofficial discussion forums). Dark Nomads contains some spoiler content and information, but very little in the way of recent game developments and discussion.

All open discussions regarding game play and development must be talked about in-game, generally on channels which require either a.) gold to speak on, b.) a total level of 124 or higher, c.) a high ranking within a clan.

[edit] Controversy Surrounding Code Authorship

[edit] Claims of License Violation

As mentioned earlier, Medievia was originally designed using the Merc MUD engine, which in turn was a derivative of the Dikumud open source codebase. The license for this codebase includes the following requirement: "You may under no circumstances make profit on *ANY* part of DikuMud in any possible way."

Critics such as Richard Woolcock (known as KaVir on the Internet), the author of the GodWars codebase, Michael Seifert (one of the original Diku codebase authors) and numerous others (see Comparison of Merc 1.0 and Medievia IV) claim that Medievia still is a Diku derivative. Since Medievia sells in-game items (termed "donation" items) for profit, this is a violation of the Diku and Merc licenses. Critics also claim that Medievia's behavior has damaged open source MUD codebase initiatives. Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt, one of the Diku creators, has written, "Vryce [Michael Krause] was indeed one of the major reasons I stopped contributing to the community, and found other places to spend my energy".

A large file containing leaked Medievia version 4 source code drew commentary from many developers that at least for some years of its existence, Medievia was a Diku/Merc derived MUD; this was the version the game's principals claim was completely original[1]. Michael A. Smith, an original co-creator of Medievia MUD with Mr. Michael Krause, has stated that the code base was and always is a Diku derivative. However, Michael Smith's involvement with Medievia ended soon after it began.

A former volunteer programmer for the game ("Thranz") has also stated that the source code was clearly a derivative of DikuMud, to the extent of retaining comments by the original developers (as of c. 2000). Other administrators of the game (see "Omawarisan's spew" below) have stepped down, citing concerns over the license violations. "Omawarisan" also addresses the question of whether rewrites affect a program's status as a derivative in a rather eloquent fashion. Richard Woolcock's page (see the "External Links" section below) contains a lengthy list of comments on the controversy from Dikumud and Merc developers, as well as former Medievia developers and administrators, along with code comparisons.

The code theft issue has been used in at least one attempt to discredit the game and its staff.[2]

[edit] Medievia's counter-claim

Medievia's owner Michael Krause claims that these allegations are unfounded and that the entire MUD has been rewritten completely in version 4, thus making it no longer a derivative work. Supporters of the game state that the Merc code that the MUD was based on was 26,000 lines of code, and assert that Medievia's code today comprises over 500,000 lines. They also state that "Medievia's code has been re-written several times and most recently it has been converted to C++ from the original C. It is now (2005) in version 5 and vastly differs from the Medievia that was started in 1992." Many programs which are valid C are also valid C++, so it may be debated the extent to which this is important. Medievia has now been updated to be a 64-bit application, but this type of change generally requires only minor rewrites as well.

[edit] References

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