GemStone IV - Old School MMO MUD

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Bane_sl

shitlord
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-9
So I stumbled across a blog post of a guy who was reminiscing about days he was playing in old MUDs and got my thinking to revisit the world of Elanthia, a la Gemstone by Simutronics. Happy to see the game is still running, and has been updated to now run as GemStone IV. Old school rolling for stats, dice rolls to hunt, cast, etc. Great player interactions.

30 day trial free for everyone with an email address, so I am going to fire it up and use the old Stormfront Front End to try and get back into it.
 
Nemesis

Nemesis

Bridgeburner
1,191
628
funny you mention this...

I just went through the same thing and ended up doing a trial run in Dragonrealms (another Simutronics game)


I started playing Gemstone and DR waaaaay back in the AOL days.. and seem to keep coming back to it every couple of years.

i think the population there is a good bit lower than in DR, or isnt it?
 
Sir Funk

Sir Funk

Lord Nagafen Raider
1,251
155
I played this maybe 5 years ago. Never got really far, but this is probably one of the best MUDs of all time. The world is amazing! Played a thief and loved how even finding the thieves' guild was a feat--players would just NOT spoil it and you had to find it on your own which took quite a bit of effort.

Loved the idea of it, and it's a great social game, but I don't think I could put in the time or effort to learn the whole thing nowadays.
 
Nemesis

Nemesis

Bridgeburner
1,191
628
For what it's worth, re-acclamation to the game isn't that bad... they just updated the whole game to code version "3.0", and by whole game I mean most of it.. as always, they've left several systems/abilities/skills to be finished down the road.

For someone that stopped playing shortly after the "2.0" release back somewhere btwn 2008-2010, it actually didn't take that much effort to get up to speed.

I've got a 80 thief and 30 thief on DR Prime (yeah I know, try something different right?). I'm not rich, but I'd be happy to help out with whatever advice or basic starting gear that I can.
 
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Bane_sl

shitlord
599
-9
Nemesis_sl said:
For what it's worth, re-acclamation to the game isn't that bad... they just updated the whole game to code version "3.0", and by whole game I mean most of it.. as always, they've left several systems/abilities/skills to be finished down the road.

For someone that stopped playing shortly after the "2.0" release back somewhere btwn 2008-2010, it actually didn't take that much effort to get up to speed.

I've got a 80 thief and 30 thief on DR Prime (yeah I know, try something different right?). I'm not rich, but I'd be happy to help out with whatever advice or basic starting gear that I can.
Click to expand...
Is DR still based on training whatever you want by just doing it? I remember have a Warrior Mage I think and just macro'ing my way to all kinds of skills just because I could.
 
Nemesis

Nemesis

Bridgeburner
1,191
628
yes DR is skill based

everyone can train every skill, with a few exceptions for guild-specific skills like empathy (for empaths only) and stuff like that.

each guild has primary skills, secondary skills, and tertiary skills - with each subsequent set of skills being harder to train

so for a thief, hiding and stealing (now stealth and thievery) are in the survival skill pool, which is primary.. so I learn them easily. whereas armor is a tertiary, so I learn it slowly... a paladin would be the opposite (not to mention that they'd be in trouble for learning stealing to begin with)
 
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Bane_sl

shitlord
599
-9
Sounds like a good time. I'm almost Level 10 in GS4 now, going to get my Vultite gear and see how much I still enjoy it. May jump onto DR soon. Assuming they have the StormFront FE as well there?
 
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Killjoy_sl

shitlord
91
0
I played the shit out of Dragonrealms and Gemstone back in the day. Tried it again a few months ago and it didn't grab my attention like when I was a teenager. The cliquish community, awkward role-playing, and prevalence of scripts that play the game for you just made me lose interest.
 
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Aevian

Silver Knight of the Realm
242
54
Yeah I used to play Gemstone quite a bit in the older days. Like EQ, I try this out every year or other year or so and find that without a big social community, it's not near as fun. Especially in Gemstone. I remember that in the day if you died, you were instantly located by someone. Nowadays, you have to send a message on Psinet to get a rescue. I would still enjoy playing this game. If we can get some people that are wanting to start a small group that can play, I would love to get something going.
 
Denaut

Denaut

Trump's Staff
2,739
1,279
I still play Dragonrealms for a few weeks a year. It still has some of the best systems I've ever seen in an online game and is by far my favorite progression system.
 
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calla_sl

shitlord
202
0
their subscription model just got annoying for me. lich is probably the best scripting engine you can install for the game. two most fun classes i ran around with were a pure bard and a pure empath
 
Rangoth

Rangoth

Blackwing Lair Raider
1,566
1,715
I played Gemstone III back in the day too, I was an Empath. First real online game I ever played and it was awesome!

Now, not sure I have the attention span and intelligence to play something without bright colors and flashy goblins swinging clubs at me, but it's certainly a good MUD game.
 
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Bane_sl

shitlord
599
-9
Random necro bump

GemStone IV went Free to Play on new accounts. If anyone wants a seriously retro experience, this is the way to go.
 
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Aevian

Silver Knight of the Realm
242
54
I used to play the fuck out of this game. Is there a good consolidated list of the F2P restrictions anywhere? I can't seem to get a good listing on their forums.
 
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