User:Wikianon/new/Aardwolf (game)

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This is a first draft for an article on the MUD game Aardwolf. The article was deleted in 2007 July because it did not demonstrate its notability. This draft will start by listing verifiable independent sources from 1998 or 1999 that attest to the MUD's existence and popularity.

Deletion review 26 July 2007

1 adapted from 293 day old backup from nationmaster.com
2 Expansion
3 V3
4 Citations
5 References
6 External links

[edit] adapted from 293 day old backup from nationmaster.com

Aardwolf MUD
Developer(s)	Lasher, others.
Platform(s)	Telnet
Release date	1996
Genre(s)	MUD
Mode(s)	Multiplayer
Input methods	Keyboard

Aardwolf is a MUD established in 1996 by a group of players from the defunct "Aardvark" MUD.^[1] It opened to the public in December 1996,^[2] with about 70 players in early 1997^[3] and over 170 in 1998^[2], quickly became one of the most popular MUDs in the world,^{[citation needed]} usually having over 400 players online at any time.^{[citation needed]} Player populations peak at approximately 800 on in-game holidays, such as its birthday of December 7th.^{[citation needed]}

Originally based on ROM MUD code^[2] with patches including color, autoquests, and an increased level limit for players (201 instead of 50), it quickly expanded. While the majority of the game was made up of stock areas, builders recruited from the player base rapidly expanded the MUD to over 14,000 rooms. Aardwolf continues to gradually phase out all ROM-based stock areas while continuing to add player-built ones. With the July 2006 addition of player-built continents to replace the original road system and remove additional ROM based areas, Aardwolf has grown to over 25,000 rooms.^{[citation needed]}

The game is known in the mudding community for its ease of use, which is accomplished through the implementation of simple channels, newbie helpers, channels for each race and class, and race and class specific wars.^{[citation needed]}

In its early days, Aardwolf was hosted on one of the first MUD hosting services, Mudservices. When Mudservices executives sold the company to Fastnet, the MUD hosting side of the business was quickly phased out and Lasher moved it to its own independent site. The game is currently hosted at the private residence of its primary administrator home on a leased T1. Player donations contribute to offsetting the expenses of bandwidth and hardware.

Like many MUDs, Aardwolf is free to play. The administration has expressed a commitment to keeping the game free to play indefinitely.

Lasher is currently the administrator of Aardwolf MUD. The administration team also includes Delight, Dirtworm, Filt, Halo, Kharpern, Obyron, Timeghost, Tymme, Vilgan, Vitae, Xantcha, and Xyzzy.

[edit] Expansion

This section does not cite any references or sources. (March 2008)
Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

The game has experienced many expansions and rewrites over time. One early one was the introduction of 'remorting,' which allowed one to multi-class until they had all seven classes: Paladin, Ranger, Psionicist, Warrior, Thief, Mage and Cleric. From there, one is able to "tier"--to return to a single-class, level 1 player with various bonuses that greatly enhance their combat abilities. One particular upgrade, finished in 2002, was called "Aardwolf V2." In it, many "Aarditems" (some of the most powerful items in the game, purchasable with points gained from doing quests and campaigns) were overhauled to have stat bonuses, along with every single skill and spell in the game in order to make base stats (strength, intelligence, constitution, dexterity, wisdom and luck) more important. Prior to this, stats did not go higher than 35 and players instead focused primarily on gathering high hitroll and damageroll (derived stats controlling damage) scores in order to be more effective in combat, changing to "leveling gear" immediately before they leveled to make use of the otherwise-useless stat bonuses. Stats now go up to a maximum of 600; 400 of these can be trained, but the remainder can only be gathered from class bonuses, equipment and magic. There are also caps on the total number of trained stats which ensure that even with the bonuses of a tier 9 (the highest tier), no mortal can maximize every stat.

[edit] V3

This section does not cite any references or sources. (March 2008)
Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

There is now a project to rewrite the game with a new codebase coined "Aardwolf V3." This is confusing to some because several "V3" improvements have been backported to the currently running "V2" code, so that the MUD can continue development while the overhaul is underway. Some of the "V3" improvements are a new VNUM system that will allow for larger areas and make expansion (or fixing) of existing areas much simpler, custom channels and channel creation, custom exits (such as "climb ladder" or "push button" instead of the usual north, east, south, west, up, down, and portal entry). Several of these upgrades have already been added, such as the custom exits and some of the upgraded channel code.