Fun Arctic Trivia/History

[Rhak]

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From: gt9...@prism.gatech.edu (Chris Boggs)
Newsgroups: rec.games.mud.diku
Subject: Re: The Future of MUDS?
Date: 30 Aug 1994 19:24:46 -0400
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology
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References: <33g1fu$nb9@sundog.tiac.net>  <33ir18$97g@harpo.uccs.edu> <340d44$qiq@news.duke.edu>
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   At one point Arctic, Armageddon, and Dark Shadows were all linked together.
There was a common room that could be used to chat with folks on the other
servers. You could even 'tell jhalavar@arm This rocks.' while you were on
Arctic and he would see 'Balstaff@Arctic tells you 'This rocks.'' or something
similar. I forget the actual syntax. This was over a year ago.

    Moving characters between servers was frowned upon, because of the vast
differences between the play systems, zones, items, and playerfile structures.

    But basically.....Your future of muds happened over a year ago, in a small
way. =]

    A real effort to bridge two muds together would take ALOT of coordination
and balancing.

-Chris

--
 |   Chris Boggs - Alumnus - MGT '94   |   Email:  gt9...@acme.gatech.edu  |
 |   Georgia Institute of Technology   |     Rotisserie Baseball Addict     |
 | ObDisclaimer: Do not mistake this post as anything but personal opinion. |
 |                      "When in doubt.......Fake it."                      |

[Rhak]

A brief mention from a post of a zone I had heard of but wasn't around to see and never knew what it really was-

But even muds with a consistent zone theme and original areas sometimes make rather lame zones. An example of a good new zone can be the old "White Worm" area from MUME and a bad one is the Highlander Village from old Arctic (which, imho, was shaped like midgaard and was just a "beat the bad guy in the room and get the treasure" area, sorta like a non aggressive, simpler version of the diku drow zone)

Post also makes me wonder if Arctic's Caverns of Lloth zone might've just been a stock diku drow zone or some alteration of it, original Arctic version was full of drow elves before all references to drow were changed to Theiwar.

[Rhak]

One last post from me-
11/22/93

In <2cpg79$e...@zip.eecs.umich.edu> west...@quip.eecs.umich.edu (David Westfall) writes:

>We are currently looking for some zone creators to work on a new mud.  It
>centers around a "lost technology" setting.  If you are interested, please
>email me and I will get back with you...  Please note, that we are not
>interested in any zones that are in use on other muds...

>Pharoah

     Ahh! You live! Gonna finish Largus Saurarian on Arctic or can we do the
4th level ourselves? =] People love levels 1-3, but keep asking why the
quest ends.

     Send us some idea of what level 4 is supposed to be like if you aren't
going to have time to finish it yourself.

-Chris


And the two most important posts-

Subject: ANNOUNCE: Arctic Mud Opening, Sept. 13th
Message-ID: <CCEILx.8pr@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca>
Originator: dga...@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca
Sender: ne...@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (USENET News System)
Organization: Arctic MUD
Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1993 04:46:42 GMT
Lines: 16

After almost two years of work, we would like to announce the opening
of Arctic to the public.  Arctic is Diku-based with a Dragon Lance
theme; we are far from a "stock Diku".  We will offically open on Sept. 13
of this year.  The period from now until then should be considered a
public testing stage.  Those who create characters during this period
should not expect them to persist beyond the opening date.

address : hobbes.linfield.edu (192.147.171.2)
port    : 2700

Unfortunately, we will not be accepting requests to create for now.
Our intent is to get a larger player base to simulate a public state.
Please join us and we hope you enjoy the game.

The administration at Arctic.
arc...@hobbes.linfield.edu

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1993 04:31:58 GMT
Approved: arc...@hobbes.linfield.edu
Lines: 10

After almost two years of work, we would like to announce the opening
of Arctic to the public.  Arctic is Diku-based with a Dragon Lance
theme; we are not a "stock Diku".  This is the official opening; there
will be no further player file wipes.

address : hobbes.linfield.edu (192.147.171.2)
port    : 2700

The administration at Arctic.
arc...@hobbes.linfield.edu


"there will be no further player file wipes."

[kanu]

For more posts to this group that are related to Arctic mud, see https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/rec.games.mud.diku/arctic%7Csort:date

David

[Terk]

This turned into a neat nostalgic thread.

I remember in my first wipe, I basically sat in Kalaman Inn with Rhak (Loafie/Clepto) and/or Koi (Wil/Murky) all day dying to cityguards, waiting to do area zones (succubus/wyne/asha), and trying, often unsuccessfully, to stay away from bashing shriners. I remember giving up/being terrified of soloing Pigmies because those damn guards would one stab my ultimately 92 hp level 22 mage whenever I tried to get cone of cold from that damn shaman--don't think I ever got cone in my first wipe, but I loved hunting for dusty runed and black leather books.

[Rhak]

Dean Gaudet   

6/14/95

Address: arctic.csua.berkeley.edu (128.32.43.55) port 2700
Arctic MUD is celebrating its three year birthday on June 15th!  These past
few months we've been improving the code and the world.  We have an active
staff of coders and creators engaged in continuing improvements and
running quests.  Come give us a try!

Lazarus

So official beta opening was probably 6/15/92, there's some other conversation between people that says there was something like a 25 person connection limit at first, I guess the official opening was the lifting of this limit + the first pwipe.

[Rhak]

Original "credits" from 94, not sure if the line naming Morgion is a mistake or if there was a different person with the name originally

A project as large as Arctic has been can only be successful through the
co-operation of many people.  This file is an attempt to thank everyone
who was responsible for Arctic.

The original game idea, concept, and design of DikuMud are due to:
   
    Katja Nyboe, Tom Madsen, Hans Henrik Staerfeldt, Michael Seirfert,
    and Sebastian Hammer.

The base code that we began with had additional contributions from:

    Michael Curran, Ragnar Loenn, and Bill Wisner.

In the early days, the following people contributed code, some of which
is still used in one form or another:

    Jhalavar from Armageddon (Morgion here), Loki from Silly,
    WhiteGold from Epic, Geraden Domme from Epic, Twilight from Epic,
    Riverwind, Ariakas (Steve Hyatt), and Steve Lumetta (Valiar from Adversary)

We would like to give special mention to one of the legendary figures
of DikuMUD: Jeff Stine, otherwise known as Abaddon from Adversary.

Jeff supplied us with some useful code, but moreover inspired us to
strive for a "better mud".  Adversary was one of the most stable, and
popular muds.  One of our goals was to strive for the same image that
Adversary had.

Thanks to Alan Krantz, known as Muddy, for various ideas dealing with
performance optimization.  Flash, who gave us some useful ideas.

The principle implementors of Arctic are:

    Jason Fetterly (Paladine)
    Dale "Fish" Woolridge (Fistandantilus)
    Dean Gaudet (Lazarus)
    Kitiara, just plain Kitiara
    Christopher Boggs (Baphomet)

The following people are ostensibly "creators" however they have actually
had a much larger hand at shaping Arctic than the title "creator" merits:

    Charles Passmore (Andred)
    Jeremy Benson (Dalamar)
    Darran Smith (Magius)
    Scott Hart (Raistlin)

Additional creators of the Arctic world are:

    Carsten Wimmer (Galan)
    Dave Westfall (Pharoah)
    Derek Orpen (Tasslehoff)
    Eddie Krebs (Arack)
    Eric McKenzie (Merp)
    Fuddle
    Mel Rogoff (Elistan)
    Richard Gabriel (Reorx)
    Roger Spotts (Seoman)

Finally we would like to thank the crew of beta testers who through
bug reports and ideas helped make Arctic a game worth playing.  There
were many testers, so this list is probably incomplete:
   
    Blast, Chester, Gizo, Khamul, Lionheart, Mozart, Seoman, Skye, Sparc,
    Storm, Sardon, and Vanyel.

Arctic is very thankful for this site provided by Craig Luis (known as
Gilean) and Linfield College; and to Mel Rogoff for introducing us
to Craig.  During our long development time we changed sites at least
four times.  We are thankful to the old administrations for allowing us
to use their site for a short period of time.

We hope you enjoy the game.

[Rhak]

First person that got me playing this was a friend from high school who played Mordack, also played a bit with a few other people including a kid that played Selik and bothered pretty much every person that played through the late 90s before going off on my own to wander aimlessly.  Ended up killing or attacking a friend of Koi's at some point and being tracked down by his warrior Orka and killed, then becoming friends and playing together the rest of the time we were both active.  The one I'd say really got me into actually playing the game properly and getting into exploration and self sufficiency was Phish/Hekler/Blackjack.  Can't remember how I met him but the first real exploring I remember and actually learning how zones/traps/specs/mobs worked was him dragging me around through Den of Thieves and somehow keeping me alive.  First clans I grouped with regularly were whatever the Lucas lead clans were called, I think I still have emails on an old machine of every week bodhi, conick and lucas fighting over who got to lead the clan and everyone threatening to splinter off into new clans.  First one I actually enjoyed being in was Goda Vos, lead by Percy/Pilt who ended up with a 32hp max level 30 druid toward the end of the wipe, and purposely deleveled it to 1 and back up to 30 to end up with something a bit over 100hps max.  I ended that wipe with a mage Kiff that had about 130hps or so.  I think it was the wipe before, two of the 'big' mages of the wipe, Siglavi and Mune had something like 60 and 50hp max respectively at level 30 by the end of the wipe.  Permanent hp and massive exp loss on death, lower natural hp overall and multiple, rentable, tank usable area spell wands lead to some interesting characters toward the end of the wipe after months of brawls.  It's bizarre for me now to see tanks with over 1000hps who are limit damage and can whiff everything, heal themselves etc.

[Kam]

A few people had expressed interest in seeing an update to HELP CREDITS recently so as I'm delving through the old news and newsgroups that Rhak thankfully discovered I thought I'd share a few old gems from the past:

Code: [Select]

April 1, 1995

- Tonight at approximately 8 pm site time, Arctic will hold our
  first annual Disco competition. You are invited to participate and win
  a wonderful vacation for two and TRIP the Light fantastic.


Code: [Select]

April 12, 1995
- Shopkeepers should be fixed. If any problems occur, notify your
  nearby immortal.
- I found a lone bottle of Guinness beneath the kitchen counter.

Something that even I didn't know about the board system:

Code: [Select]

Aug 9, 1995
- "look board [#[-#]]" supported to show ranges of messages on the board
- "look board new" supported to show messages since last logon
  (see "help board")
- score will you show you how long you have been connected per session
  (a "session" ends when you rent, quit, or drop/lose link)


Code: [Select]

Apr 25 1996
- Added a small feature to the who command: who <player_name>.


Code: [Select]

July 4, 1997
- Changed 'tickle' in combat message to 'bruise'

[Heo]

I would be curious to know how the shriners and black dragons/qwa kzar (or whatever they were called - team Lucas) formed.

Also, someone should shoot the old creators a note sometime, I'm sured they'd get a kick out of seeing this project they started in college still kicking around.

[Gnua]

were kender paladins ever allowed?

[Rhak]

Bane giving a bunch of information on the formation of the Shriners, full text is longer but has some irrelevant information.


2.  FOUNDER OF THE CLAN. (PLEASE INCLUDE ANY DEITIES YOU MIGHT HAVE FOLLOWED)
The clan was originally founded by Bane and Bodie. We never really had a patron deity so to speak, and usually insulted the clans that did (Darkness, Chaos, etc.) because they tended to get free items out of it, which was rather lame. We hung out with Arack a lot, but that was more because we liked him than him being a patron deity or any crap like that.

2a.  WHAT WERE THE REASONS THIS CLAN WAS FORMED?
It was initially formed as a joke. I was new to the whole mudding culture, and didn't take it very seriously. There were all of these freaks trying to roleplay, with titles like "Holy Paladin of the Order of Inner Light", and Bodie and I thought it was rather cheesy. I titled myself "Bane, Grand Poobah of the Tarsis Shriners" because I thought it was rather amusing and a subtle jab at the roleplayers. Bodie followed suit with the title "Kitchen Staff Supervisor of the Tarsis Shriners". Soon, many of our mudding pals who shared both our disdain for MUD marriages and an enjoyment of PK had silly Shriner titles, and a clan was born.

3.  DATES THE CLAN EXISTED.
The clan was one of the first on Arctic, created in the early Hobbes days, which I am thinking was in 1992, but I'm not certain about the date. It has existed and prospered ever since, although we finally stopped playing on Arctic in March of 1998.

4.  LEADERS OF THE CLAN IN THE APPROPRIATE TIME ERAS.  HOW MANY MEMBERS ON AVERAGE DID YOU CLAN HAVE?
I have pretty much always been active as Poobah, although I haven't been a very active player in the last few years. I saw my role as providing some cohesiveness, keeping the legacy alive and trying to keep the basic philosophy in tact.

We've never really had a rigid organizational structure. For the most part, newer Shriners would just look to the older members for leadership. By being somewhat exclusive about who we allowed in (picking people with a level of maturity and sass), the group worked well without having to define explicit leaders.

A lot of Shriners stepped up to provide leadership when there was a need, however, and the clan would not have been the same without them. People like Persius, Thuler, Thar, Serro, Feilong, Korg, Theoden, Shayd, Caris, and many others.

[Rhak]

Can't bring up the Black Dragons website anymore, no idea if the group existed during the first wipe.  The Shriner page first mentions Black Dragons in the second wipe, after that they changed names to Qua Kzar, and I guess a string of just different names once or twice a wipe beyond that .  Second wipe also had a clan called Guardians that fought with the Shriners, and Death Jesters were during this wipe as well. First wipe their page just mentions the clan Darkness.  OIL was one of the first also, there are some posts from the guy that started them on the usenet archives, under "dopil park"/Don Park.

[Selik]

First person that got me playing this was a friend from high school who played Mordack, also played a bit with a few other people including a kid that played Selik and bothered pretty much every person that played through the late 90s.....

LOLD... DAS BOOT JESSE! DEEEEEEEE!

[Steve-O]

I got started here back in '95 I think.  There were a handful of guys playing at U of Missouri-Rolla at the time that introduced me to the game.

I feel like I've met a lot of cool folks over the years.  Haven't really played much the past few years.

Still remember a couple of the first guys to ever help me out as a total newbie.

Arislan - Teh
Windsor - Steve

I did tours through Shriners, Renshai, BSP, CORE.

Fun times!  Too many hours wasted to count.