Valhalla FAQ

What sort of driver does the MUD use (MOO, MUSH, LPmud (MudOS, Amylaar's, CD, DR), COOLMud, MUCK, TinyMUD, etc)? Is the driver publically available (where?)? Is the MUDlib (database) based on one produced by some other group? Do you make your MUDlib (or core database) freely available?

• Valhalla's mudlib is entirely homegrown, and not available to the public.

How long has the MUD been around? Does it have an interesting history? If so, please describe it.

• Valhalla was founded in late 1989, and has been running near-continuously ever since. At the time of its creation the only other MUD ever to have tried a stat-based system of any kind was WarHammer which crumpled almost immediately. Since that time Valhalla has moved its home eight times before coming to rest here. It spent two years as a self-supporting entity, before this too proved unfeasible. It currently resides on a HaL machine at the good graces of the employees at that site.

What hardware/operating system does your MUD run on?

• Valhalla runs on a dedicated Sparc 20.

Is the MUD open to the public? If so, what is the address of your MUD?

How many people do you have that are allowed to add code to the MUD? How many people can build objects in the MUD but aren't allowed to add code? How many people do you have that are essentially only playing the MUD? [if you have it, include information on totals registered to do so vs. how many actually exercise the privilege]

• Valhalla has a current "Wizard" (those authorized to build) staff of roughly two dozen. This number grows slightly with the passage of time as new Wizards are accepted and old ones eventually fade away.

How does one obtain a character on your MUD?

• To begin playing, simply telnet to the address listed above and select a character name. This will get you started.

How much disk space does your mudlib (database) take up? (don't count backup copies and other things that aren't ever used by the running MUD).

• Valhalla uses around 100-150M of disk space for its database at this time. It is equipped with a 300M hard drive purely for expansion, and can grow beyond that if need be.

How many players do you have during busier times? How many on average?

• Valhalla averages somewhere around 25-30 users at any given time. An extremely busy period may have close to 50. Slower periods, will of course, have less.

How long does your MUD generally stay running between reboots? What is the most common reason for reboots? How often does your MUD crash?

• Valhalla's memory management system is excellent, allowing it to run continuously w/out need of reboot more or less indefinitely. It is relatively crash-resistant, though the wizards will occasionally manage. Average time without crash is about one month.

What is the main purpose of the MUD (e.g. role playing, entertainment, education, teaching mud coding, world building, mudlib development, social interaction, research on MUD, other research, etc.)? If the MUD has a mixture of purposes try to characterize the weight given to each purpose (in terms of percentages or whatever you like).

• Valhalla is here purely for enjoyment. We try to provide a coherent world that will be a stable reality for any and all who care to visit. We work very hard to make sure that this world is welcoming and safe for any who care to join us.

How is the MUD actually used as opposed to how it's intended to be used (assuming there is some intent)? E.g. maybe the MUD was intended as a pure Adventure/combat/quest-solving game but people mainly sit around and talk.

• Everyone applies their own slant to how they use Valhalla, but the collective whole is pretty much what we had envisioned. There are those who play purely for the hardcore gaming challenge, others who enjoy a more relaxed exploration of an alternate reality, others still who find it simply to be an excellent place to socialize with new and interesting people. All come to do so within the environment established, and all share their enjoyment.

What unusual, unique, and/or well-implemented features or characteristics does your MUD have that distinguish it from other MUDs?

• Valhalla strives to be ever dynamic, ever evolving when it comes to new abilities, new details, new depths to explore. There simply are no other MUDs out there that will feel like Valhalla. Valhalla believes that every experience should be as detailed, as interesting, as complete as realistically possible, and we're always looking to improve.

What about your MUD would you most like to change/improve?

• Valhalla would like to see a larger number of 'quest' type scenarios (combat and non-combat both). These currently exist, but generally each guild could use a couple more.

Does the MUD have a main theme? If so, what is it. Describe it. Is the theme mostly based on (derived from) some other work? Was permission obtained from the original author(s)? If the MUD has multiple themes, how are the themes interfaced (separated)?

• Valhalla can perhaps best be described as "dark fantasy". Although the magic and heroism of "heroic fantasy" is present, the good guys are not guaranteed to win. But then, no one said you had to be one of the good guys anyway.

What is the goal of the MUD. What are players (and creators) striving to become or accomplish?

• Players work to achieve Noble status. Once the Noble realms are implemented, there will be an additional game beyond that, but currently reaching Noble is the end goal. Once a player reaches Noble status they may also choose to petition for Wizard status, wherein they help build the game.

Does your MUD provide guidelines for building, for writing good descriptions, quests, etc?

• Valhalla is very quality-conscious in all of its creations. New Wizards must have new additions reviewed by a high-ranking Wizard for balance and overally quality, before anything can be put into the game. As the Wizard progresses, this review can be done by one of the Wizard's own peers in order to double-check for possible oversights. All material is subject to global guidelines and standards clearly indicated.

What is the adminstrational/managerial structure of the MUD? How are decisions that affect the MUD made? What rights to players have? Does the MUD have any sort of explicit social contract? How are disputes resolved? How are obnoxious and/or destructive (threaten the MUD or another player or just make themselves a general nussiance) people dealt with?

• When such events do occur, one of the Wizards will moderate. If someone is specificly attempting to be problematic, then their logon priveleges will be revoked. Guest logins and the creation of unvalidated characters from a given site can also be turned off with ease, so problematic types are quickly disposed of. Doing so does not restrict validated characters from that site.

How do people gain creator/building/programming rights on your MUD?

• In order to build on Valhalla you must earn Wizard status. Valhalla only accepts earned Wizards. Ie... it is necessary to actually play the game long enough to reach Noble status, and then successfully petition for Wizard status. Unearned Wizard status is simply not granted.

Are beginning creators given any specific training? How are additional privileges obtained?

• Most Wizard commands are available to every level of Wizard (there are a total of 12 commands restricted to Senior Wizard and above). New Wizards are generally given group demonstration classes and assigned a personal mentor to aid in their learning process.

Does your MUD explicitly encourage creators to collaborate in groups or domains?

• Valhalla feels that individual Wizard areas should flow together, so as to be undistinguishable at their points of merging. This is not always successful, as individual writing styles do differ, but certainly thematically all areas are smoothly joined, and blend from one to the next. It is possible to do work as a team, and many times in the past Valhalla has done group projects where all Wizards are invited to contribute. These are often opened as part of a holiday event, for example the Halloween area.

Is player cooperation encouraged? How so?

• Player cooperation is definitely encouraged, but rarely required. Valhalla believes that being able to socialize and interact with other people adds to the enjoyment of playing the game, but does not forcibly require anyone to do so. There are mechanisms within the game to create adventuring groups that can talk among themselves, share the rewards of their adventure, and so on.

Are players allowed any building privileges? Under what circumstances?

• Only Wizards can directly add to Valhalla. Players are welcome (and encouraged) to lend their ideas in as much detail as desired, but they will not be able to directly create anything until Wizard status is earned.

What forms of player communication are provided? (e.g. say, tell, shout, paging, broadcast, "radio" devices, bulletin boards, mail, postit notes, etc). Is there some form of communication that lets any player broadcast to the whole MUD? (e.g. shouts on many LPmuds). Is any way provided for players to choose not to "hear" such broadcasts? How "noisy" is the MUD?

• Players can make use of many forms of distant communication. There are full-MUD shouts, as well as shouts that go only to one's guild, race, various channels, etc... Players with the appropriate skills can communicate freely using telepathy, and others can focus their magics (with effort) to send messages afar using other means. The overall noise level combined with the detailed descriptions can be a tad overwhelming for the first-time visitor, but it is easily possible to turn off most of this noise through the use of the "channel" command. Simply use "help channel" for more information.

Does the MUD have a combat system, what (if anything) is the system based upon?

• Valhalla has a stat-based combat system. Your equipment will determine what you have available to fight with, but your personal attributes will decide how well you make use of it. Personal statistics are the true measure of character strength on Valhalla, superceding the "level" based ranking common to most other combat-using MUDs.

Does your MUD have any formal economy? If so, what model is it based upon? If you don't have an economy, how do you deal with inflation?

• Valhalla's economy is based on work spent for cash recieved. Realistically, a player could achieve however much money they felt necessary, assuming they were willing to put in the time and effort to do so. Unless you are willing to spend a great deal of time doing this, however, then you'll find that the average player simply earns (in treasure) slightly more than they spend earning it. This means as a character ages, they will generally have more funds available to them, but not vastly so.

What things about their representation can a player control? Are players allowed to choose a gender (which genders are available for choosing?)?

• Valhalla offers "male" and "female" genders. Players may fully control their direct physical appearance, though information is available about your guild affiliation and alignment leanings, which is determined by a player's actions in life, rather than an easily changeable option.

Is snooping possible/allowed on your MUD? If so, what are the rules governing its use? How are violations of the rules detected and/or prevented?

• We consider privacy to be very important. If someone was not invited into your conversation, then they have no business listening to it. For this reason true player invisibility has never been implemented. "snoop" is one of the 12 Wizard functions not available to low-level Wizards, though all Wizards may choose to watch through the eyes of any creature that they have created (so don't tell your dark secrets to that stone golem). Although it is possible for a Wizard to violate the anti-snoop privacy rules, the odds of this happening is really quite small. It takes a great deal of work to earn a Wizard position on Valhalla, and once there people are interested in working with the system, not against it. If there was a problem, the offending Wizard would simply be removed.

Are players given the power to "emote" (that is, display messages to other players of the form: Player_name arbitrary string of text. Do players have access to any standardized emotes (e.g. smile, laugh, tickle, etc).

• Players are quite specifically not allowed to "emote". If your character cannot leap forty feet in the air, why should it allow you to "emote leaps forty feet in the air"? We do try to provide a good range of "feeling" commands (commands like smile, laugh, etc...) to cover most emotions. Valhalla also has feeling "adverbs" which allow you to specify an adverb to whatever feeling command you are expressing.

Do players automagically "know" the character names of other players or is some form of introduction system used? If such a system is used, describe how it works.

• Character names are known and displayed by all. There is enough magic in the world for a bit of aura-recognition, so you will be recognized when seen.

Does your MUD have player guilds? Describe them briefly.

• Valhalla has numerous player guilds, both standard and hidden. The standard guilds (fighter, mage, rogue, priest, monk) are located in the main town, and are easily found and joined. Hidden guilds (such as guardians, druids, bards, etc...) must be found, and then some task performed in order to become a member. These guilds will also have some restriction upon them (for example, bards must actually perform for the entire MUD for each level they wish to advance) but in return yield slightly higher rewards for being a member thereof. Your guild will determine which abilities you can learn more easily (fewer experience needed to raise them), but there are no abilities that cannot be learned by every guild... some guilds will just need to work harder at it than others.

Does your MUD speak any special client protocol other than TELNET?

• No.