Wiseblood's Views -
The project called Badlands started out as many things to wind up where
it is. A complex web of people spanning a few select muds basically got
together and decided they wanted their own version of a world.
For me the idea started when a mud called "Pandemonium" went the way of
all things, and ended. The mud itself was great and had hundreds of
ingenious things worked into it, making it one of the best muds I have
played. The thing which ended it probably has killed more muds than any one
person can count, and that thing is a lack of time, concern, ambition to
continue working on the mud. Many people hoped of reviving the mud, but that
never happened, so then I migrated to a mud called "Discordia", where I
worked as a builder and met Malcor. As I built I found a few "Pandemonium"
refugees, like Dankar, and got some of them to build with me. Eventually I
realized that the mud was going the way of "Pandemonium" when the
implementers began to show a lack of ambition, concern, etc. One person
named Creeps convinced me to try and code a special for a mobile that was
the beginning of my coding. I then thought of the possibilities of coding
and what I could do for "Discordia." As I self taught myself C Dankar and I
brought the mud to a decent state. After almost a month of work the head
implementer came back and basically said what I did wasn't needed and
wanted to change everything. Although it was his mud, it disappointed me
that my work was so undervalued as well as my opinions. Malcor then
approached me one day and wanted to discuss the possibility of our own mud,
where we could call the shots. I loved the idea and Badlands was off with
the help of a few people who followed me. So taking our own ideas and
merging them with ideas of old, from previous muds, such as "Pandemonium"
and "Discordia", we began constructing our world.
We never wished for Badlands to be run by Malcor and I alone, but wished
for a democracy where everyone's opinions were valued. That's what we
always hope to be.
-Wiseblood
Dankar's Views -
So this project started, and I couldn't have been more overjoyed to
have dedicated people working on it. Malcor coded in major items, such as
re-doing the fight code, changing the mud to 128bit, and fixing the other
100 major bugs that stock circle mud comes with. Wiseblood went for the
spells, skills, smaller bugs, and the "looks" of the code, such as the
score, who list, etc. Next came my part, the world, but I was not alone.
First it was a unanimous vote from Wiseblood and I that all zones would
connect well and we would not have a single bad zone in the mud. After this,
half of the stock zones were thrown out, we had a few zones from Discordia
we built, and we started. The connections came first, and up to 10 rooms
were often added to make zones flow and connect, the world was laid out,
and put togethor. Soon the hunt for zones came, and we found every Merc,
Rom, Mush, and Diku zone out there, only putting in the good ones. As
Wiseblood worked on positioning the rooms, spending all 1500 hours of his
time before the first pwipe on that and re-doing rooms, I re-did descripts.
Room through room I fixed everything in almost all the zones, except for a
few exceptionally bad ones, which were thrown out. After almost 800 hours I
had re-done possibly near 1000 descripts, and ended up adding six original
zones built by myself. Malcor, although coding offline, racked up 200 hours
of pure coding time online, and fixed almost all the bad circle code and adding
an un-godly amount. Now came time for a pwipe, as Malcor soon tackled the
HUGE project of changing the mud to 128-bit. It took us only 1 month to do
what other muds had done in years.
The pwipe is done, we are back in business, and have a new recruit, Kain.
Wiseblood started coding more and more, getting better and better, and the
layout of the world was pretty well finished. Now came re-doing every mob, as
we had race modifyers, class, multi-class, new exp charts, and new gold
standards to re-do. Every mob was then touched by hand, EVERY mob, and finally
after Kain, Wiseblood and I had worn out more than several keyboards, we were
done with the mobiles. Malcor was still churning out code-projects, and building
us a brand new server which we thereafter moved to. First, although came Winter,
one of my old building friends from Pandemonium, and an excellent player. He brought
nigh 300 original rooms with him, and lots of experience, which no mud can pass up.
So we moved... after only 3 months!
This is where we currently are, and now it is time to do all the objects
in the game, modifying their weights, stats and materials. Wiseblood soon put
in a new hit equation, making eq weight, dexterity, strength, intelligence
and hitroll come more into play when hitting a mobile. Also, I currently
have a 120 room zone that is almost complete, and a new newby zone coming
in. Objects are next, and god save my soul they will all have to be touched
by an (im)mortal's hand before the mud can open. Soon the objects will be
done, 2 new zones from myself, 2 new zones from Winter, and a new zone from
Wiseblood will also contribute to the world. So come visit the fruits of
over 4000 hours of labor in 3 and a half months.
-Dankar