Post by sparrowhawk on Sept 30, 2004 19:55:29 GMT
David sent this to me a few days back - unfortunately to my old email address so I've only just got hold of it (my fault, I probablyhave that email set up somewhere - Yahoo?).
Anyway, here it is. Pretty good stuff I'd say. Nicely evocative and not too much nitty-gritty, whilst providing the basics of play.
A few errors have crept in - eg Sklukrin can recruit, but they need 5 hours, and lords of the same race only take 1 hour. Also citadel grab games can still be lost if your king buys it.
If you spot any more small issues like that or feel that there are bits that need adding, (caravans spring to mind - one for you Bill
), please fell free to add comments below
So without further ado, over to you David (and thank you!):
Anyway, here it is. Pretty good stuff I'd say. Nicely evocative and not too much nitty-gritty, whilst providing the basics of play.
A few errors have crept in - eg Sklukrin can recruit, but they need 5 hours, and lords of the same race only take 1 hour. Also citadel grab games can still be lost if your king buys it.
If you spot any more small issues like that or feel that there are bits that need adding, (caravans spring to mind - one for you Bill
), please fell free to add comments belowSo without further ado, over to you David (and thank you!):
Midnight Multi-User (M/MU) - Introductory Guide
Background:
You may never have heard of "The Lords of Midnight", but suffice to say
it was and still is an epic game in every way. First released in 1984
by Mike Singleton, for the ZX Spectrum, the game soon claimed a cult
following, which endures to this day.
Midnight MU takes that game and improves on near perfection, with the
ability to play against real-life people from around the world, thanks
to the magic of the internet. The only criticism you could level at the
original Lord of Midnight (LOM) is that the artificial intelligence
wasn't too clever, but what do you expect from an 8 bit processor with 48k
RAM!
To sum up Midnight MU, it is in essence an adventure/wargame with
elements of RPG and strategy thrown in for good measure. You'll have to
learn the landscape in order to recruit an army to your banner before
unleashing it on your foes. You'll need to employ spies to hunt down the
enemy, think up cunning plans and strategies and even get involved in
diplomacy if the mood takes you.
The game employs a unique style of graphics, called "landscaping" which
means you are totally immersed in a 3d landscape which holds many
secrets and surprises for the new traveller. You'll see forests, mountains,
hills, valleys, lakes as well as keeps and citadels as you travel
around. But if you want to know what lies beyond the next mountain range,
then you'll have to walk/ride there and have a look for yourself! Or
you could send one of your vassals if you're too scared and have someone
nearby to do your dirty work.
Gameplay:
There are two types of game in MMU, with two very different aims.
Most popular is the "regicide" style of game, where you simply need to
kill off all the enemy leaders. It sounds easy but of course the enemy
are trying to do the same to you!
Alternatively there is the "citadel grab" type of game, where you have
to capture a set number of citadels to win. Again the opposition has
the same objective as you so you can guarantee that the citadels you are
trying to capture will be defended well and you may find your own
citadels under attack too!
You start off with your character at a random point on the map - it's a
pretty big map too, taking about 15 days (game time) to travel from
north to south or east to west. Your first job should be orientating
yourself to get an idea where you are before heading off in search of
action. You can learn the map as you go along or if you look on the forums
you'll probably find a link to a map you can download.
The top-left hand window (once you've logged in and started a game)
shows you a view of the area you are in, you can change the view by
clicking the direction buttons.
Once you are happy with your surroundings you can move by pressing the
move button. Each time you do this you'll be propelled forward one
league (a league is about 4 miles or 6 kilometres) and the view will
update for you. By doing this repeatedly you can see what's over the
horizon and move closer to distant keeps etc. Certain types of landscape,
noteably mountains and especially forests will totally block the view,
you can't see through them. So you'll need to move into this type of
terrain to see what resides within!
Some type of terrain are impassible and the "Move" button is greyed out
if you are unable to occupy these types of terrain. Most notable, the
icy wastes can never be traversed and you'll find enemy held garrisons
are also impassable. You could always use the "to battle" option if
you want to try to capture this type of terrain, but be aware the
defenders will be at an advantage as they make use of the defences at their
disposal. The prudent warrior only attacks if he feels he has the
manpower to win!
You also need to keep a close eye on the two status bars near the top
right of the screen. One of them shows how much energy your character
has and if this is getting low you need to be worried. Once you run out
of energy (utterly exhausted) then you can't move and must rest. It's
a good idea for this reason not to march across moutain ranges with
impunity, but choose the gentler route so as not to wear your armies down
too much. As well as not being able to move when exhausted, you'll
find your men fight less effectively the more tired they get. This is
where the other status bar comes in, as the more cowardly a leader is, the
weaker his men are when it comes to battle.
Of course you can increase your leaders bravery, but I'm not going to
tell you how, that's part of the fun of a learning about M/MU! As a
hint though, use the "seek" option!
You'll notice that time isn't infinite in M/MU, once you've moved a
certain distance, used "seek" too often or just generally dawdled around a
bit, you'll see it get's dark as night falls. You can then choose a
different character to control, but once everyone of your roster of
people has reached nightfall, it's turn over and you need to click the "end
turn" button near the top-right. This will allow the other leaders
their turns and also this is when the battles are worked out. You'll find
next time you play the first screen gives you rumour of battle, so you
know where the fighting is.
Apart from the "move" button, there are also several other useful
buttons to get used to.
The "think" button, which will bring up details of battles fought and
anything else of note in the vicinty. The "Seek" button will get your
character to seek for items, for example refreshment if at a suitable
location such as a lake. You can seek at any location but only some of
them are likely to yield a reward, these being lakes, liths, villages,
snow-halls and caverns. The types of reward will need to be discovered
but not all things you seek are good!
If your men are too tired and there is nothing to be sought, you can
choose to "rest" for one hour each time you click it, this in turn
returns some life to your men.
The "vassals" button brings up a pop-up window listing all your allies
and some useful information about them such as location and what armies
they lead etc.
"Strongholds" does likewise for any citadels and keeps which are
garrisoned by your men. It's a good idea to leave garrisons in some
locations, especially citadels to provide reinforcements and refreshment at
times of need. This is done by clicking the "garrison" button on the
right hand window. Citadels are especially useful as they generate more
forces when garrisoned and all garrisons will produce supplies to feed
your tiring armies. If you withdraw forces from keeps/citadels you have
to leave at least 50 men to form the garrison, if you withdraw everyone
you lose any stores which may have been there. The "consume" button on
the right hand window is used to eat any stores which may be there, 10
units are needed to get an army from "utterly exhausted" to "utterly
invigorated".
Clicking the "victories" button will let you know if you managed to
kill and enemy lords, and if you can see a "shades" drop-down menu then it
means some of your lords have been slain. "Defeats" does the same but
in reverse, ie shows who has been killed from your vassals.
Background:
You may never have heard of "The Lords of Midnight", but suffice to say
it was and still is an epic game in every way. First released in 1984
by Mike Singleton, for the ZX Spectrum, the game soon claimed a cult
following, which endures to this day.
Midnight MU takes that game and improves on near perfection, with the
ability to play against real-life people from around the world, thanks
to the magic of the internet. The only criticism you could level at the
original Lord of Midnight (LOM) is that the artificial intelligence
wasn't too clever, but what do you expect from an 8 bit processor with 48k
RAM!
To sum up Midnight MU, it is in essence an adventure/wargame with
elements of RPG and strategy thrown in for good measure. You'll have to
learn the landscape in order to recruit an army to your banner before
unleashing it on your foes. You'll need to employ spies to hunt down the
enemy, think up cunning plans and strategies and even get involved in
diplomacy if the mood takes you.
The game employs a unique style of graphics, called "landscaping" which
means you are totally immersed in a 3d landscape which holds many
secrets and surprises for the new traveller. You'll see forests, mountains,
hills, valleys, lakes as well as keeps and citadels as you travel
around. But if you want to know what lies beyond the next mountain range,
then you'll have to walk/ride there and have a look for yourself! Or
you could send one of your vassals if you're too scared and have someone
nearby to do your dirty work.
Gameplay:
There are two types of game in MMU, with two very different aims.
Most popular is the "regicide" style of game, where you simply need to
kill off all the enemy leaders. It sounds easy but of course the enemy
are trying to do the same to you!
Alternatively there is the "citadel grab" type of game, where you have
to capture a set number of citadels to win. Again the opposition has
the same objective as you so you can guarantee that the citadels you are
trying to capture will be defended well and you may find your own
citadels under attack too!
You start off with your character at a random point on the map - it's a
pretty big map too, taking about 15 days (game time) to travel from
north to south or east to west. Your first job should be orientating
yourself to get an idea where you are before heading off in search of
action. You can learn the map as you go along or if you look on the forums
you'll probably find a link to a map you can download.
The top-left hand window (once you've logged in and started a game)
shows you a view of the area you are in, you can change the view by
clicking the direction buttons.
Once you are happy with your surroundings you can move by pressing the
move button. Each time you do this you'll be propelled forward one
league (a league is about 4 miles or 6 kilometres) and the view will
update for you. By doing this repeatedly you can see what's over the
horizon and move closer to distant keeps etc. Certain types of landscape,
noteably mountains and especially forests will totally block the view,
you can't see through them. So you'll need to move into this type of
terrain to see what resides within!
Some type of terrain are impassible and the "Move" button is greyed out
if you are unable to occupy these types of terrain. Most notable, the
icy wastes can never be traversed and you'll find enemy held garrisons
are also impassable. You could always use the "to battle" option if
you want to try to capture this type of terrain, but be aware the
defenders will be at an advantage as they make use of the defences at their
disposal. The prudent warrior only attacks if he feels he has the
manpower to win!
You also need to keep a close eye on the two status bars near the top
right of the screen. One of them shows how much energy your character
has and if this is getting low you need to be worried. Once you run out
of energy (utterly exhausted) then you can't move and must rest. It's
a good idea for this reason not to march across moutain ranges with
impunity, but choose the gentler route so as not to wear your armies down
too much. As well as not being able to move when exhausted, you'll
find your men fight less effectively the more tired they get. This is
where the other status bar comes in, as the more cowardly a leader is, the
weaker his men are when it comes to battle.
Of course you can increase your leaders bravery, but I'm not going to
tell you how, that's part of the fun of a learning about M/MU! As a
hint though, use the "seek" option!
You'll notice that time isn't infinite in M/MU, once you've moved a
certain distance, used "seek" too often or just generally dawdled around a
bit, you'll see it get's dark as night falls. You can then choose a
different character to control, but once everyone of your roster of
people has reached nightfall, it's turn over and you need to click the "end
turn" button near the top-right. This will allow the other leaders
their turns and also this is when the battles are worked out. You'll find
next time you play the first screen gives you rumour of battle, so you
know where the fighting is.
Apart from the "move" button, there are also several other useful
buttons to get used to.
The "think" button, which will bring up details of battles fought and
anything else of note in the vicinty. The "Seek" button will get your
character to seek for items, for example refreshment if at a suitable
location such as a lake. You can seek at any location but only some of
them are likely to yield a reward, these being lakes, liths, villages,
snow-halls and caverns. The types of reward will need to be discovered
but not all things you seek are good!
If your men are too tired and there is nothing to be sought, you can
choose to "rest" for one hour each time you click it, this in turn
returns some life to your men.
The "vassals" button brings up a pop-up window listing all your allies
and some useful information about them such as location and what armies
they lead etc.
"Strongholds" does likewise for any citadels and keeps which are
garrisoned by your men. It's a good idea to leave garrisons in some
locations, especially citadels to provide reinforcements and refreshment at
times of need. This is done by clicking the "garrison" button on the
right hand window. Citadels are especially useful as they generate more
forces when garrisoned and all garrisons will produce supplies to feed
your tiring armies. If you withdraw forces from keeps/citadels you have
to leave at least 50 men to form the garrison, if you withdraw everyone
you lose any stores which may have been there. The "consume" button on
the right hand window is used to eat any stores which may be there, 10
units are needed to get an army from "utterly exhausted" to "utterly
invigorated".
Clicking the "victories" button will let you know if you managed to
kill and enemy lords, and if you can see a "shades" drop-down menu then it
means some of your lords have been slain. "Defeats" does the same but
in reverse, ie shows who has been killed from your vassals.
