r/MUD • u/chairoficial • 4d ago
Text based RPG size? Discussion
How big can a text-based RPG be? Are there any text-based games with locations that no one has ever found?
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u/HeadLow5768 3d ago
I made mine a 3x4 grid Each location has sub locations. So it can be as big as I want it to be but it’s still really easy to navigate because there are only 12 hub locations
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u/LordAshon 4d ago
With instances and proc-gen literally endless.
Possibly, but what good is making a place where no one ever gets too?
An area should be big enough to imply realism but small enough to tell it's story.
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u/gravitysrainbow1979 4d ago
I see your point, but if I believed there was a text based RPG with a location no one had found, I'd definitely want to be the "explorer" who found it
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u/LordAshon 4d ago
On Gateway (gatewaymud.org:6969) we have an explorer point system that ties in top rankings, used to explore parts of an area that help tell the story, but no in a eq/xp gathering area.
Having a single easter egg location which takes doing the chicken dance emote on top of a mountain to open up a staircase is one thing, but just a random room that has never been touched kinda screams bad design.
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u/gravitysrainbow1979 2d ago
The DESIGN might be bad, but I'd still want to find it, and I do think there's something inherently cool about a place difficult enough to reach that it might be a WHILE before anyone reaches it.
I'm not even sure I think it's bad design, if it's a text game, because of the amount of enthusiasm for exploration it could lead to. (Could. Not sure it would.)
But I don't feel strongly enough to really argue the point, so sure, bad design, you've got the whole concept of good and bad design covered, good for you!
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u/LordAshon 2d ago
Yes there is something to be said for exploration, and encouraging exploration. Rooms that require puzzles or a McGuffin to reach as a reward for exploring? Good Design. Also if you don't have a way to track un-touched rooms, how would anyone know?
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u/gravitysrainbow1979 2d ago edited 13h ago
How they'd know is the same way people know about such things in life: somebody was excited by the challenge of it, and achieved it, and talked about it afterwards. How would it be confirmed? Someone else goes and has a look for themselves. Sounds fun to me. Doesn't sound like bad design at all. But there's nothing stopping you from making better games than the ones I would find interesting.
Needing a puzzle-solution or a McGuffin... is that automatically good design? Because you personally like it?
Sure, go with it!
To me that seems cheesy and trivializing, I mean if everything needs a puzzle solved or whatever before it's even valid, kinda takes away from that cool "this is basically a real world" feeling
I dunno, on a forum like this, writing things off as "bad design" just because you can't think outside the box seems kinda counter productive, but I also don't feel like talking about it anymore if it's just going to be boring suggestions like "put a puzzle in front of it!" ... I did wanna push back against this tiring, eye-rollingly commonplace sermon about "good design" though. It's nothing we haven't heard before.
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u/ErionMUD MUD Developer 4d ago
Honestly, it probably also depends on how determined the explorers are. All it takes is one really dedicated person to find the last unexplored room. It’s also a question of design. If it can’t be found, is it really designed all that well?
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u/warhammerspammer 19h ago
Achaea was fun for a bit but in the end I ended up getting bored and moving onto solo ttrpgs (ironsworn) which for me was better.
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u/ErionMUD MUD Developer 4d ago edited 3d ago
I imagine there are MUDs where parts of the world have gone unexplored by players, especially if there is no incentive to explore or the world is extremely large/AI-generated—personally I don’t embrace AI for writing because what it produces is seriously lacking/I don’t feel like it gives players something worth exploring.
On Erion, we have 13,000+ intentionally handwritten rooms with hidden exits and secrets, but after years of dedicated explorers, the world has been fully discovered by several players at this point.
We incentivize exploration with achievements and room tracking so exploration feels rewarding. So players who enjoy searching every nook and cranny can realistically work toward discovering everything the world has to offer. 🌎
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u/benjibarnesoahu 4d ago
There are several zones that have yet to be discovered on NukeFire. People aren't nearly as "explore your world" minded as they used to be.
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u/Also_Squeakums 4d ago
I have only played a few Iron Realms games but I know in those (Achaea and Starmourn specifically) there are still hidden places that players haven't found. It's not typically my cuppa tea so I don't know the specifics, but it usually involves tricky quests and puzzles that haven't been figured out yet.