Frequently Asked Questions

Midnight Sun 2

What's this MUD thingy anyway?
What's the difference between a LPMud and any other MUD?

Do I need any special program to connect to Midnight Sun?
What is a mud client?
Is there a mud client for system ...?
I can't connect to Midnight Sun. What's up?
I can connect but get immediately disconnected again.

Does Midnight Sun have/allow...
Hmm but I want those things you don't have ... now what ?

Someone just said X, what does that mean?
Can I kill the monster Foo?
How long is it until that room/monster/object resets?
Can you reset this room for me?

I want to code here, can you instant-wiz me ?
I like your mud, can I have a copy of the lib (or parts thereof)

Why aren't there any more answers to frequently asked questions here?

What's this MUD thingy anyway?
This and other question related to Mudding in general can be found in the FAQ for the rec.games.mud.misc newsgroup.
What's the difference between a LPMud and any other MUD?
I'm pretty sure the FAQ for the rec.games.mud.lp can sort this out for you. The questions we will answer here are queries we have got from players and would-be-players of Midnight Sun.
Do I need any special program to connect to Midnight Sun?
You need a telnet program, which is included in all Unix systems. There are also telnet for winsock or MacTCP if you're running Microsoft Windows or Macintosh. See also the question about Mud clients further down.
What is a mud client?
A mud client is a special kind of telnet program that was especially designed to play muds with. You can program aliases, highlight certain text strings (like tells) and lots of other nice things. Many people at Midnight Sun use a client. The most popular ones are
TinyFugue. Altough created for usage with MUSHes and Tiny's, it is very good for LPmuds too.
Zmud A very popular client for the windows platforms.
Is there a mud client for system ...?
TinyFugue compiles under most Unix Systems, Zmud runs on the windows platforms. We have heard about clients for Macintosh, VMS and OS/2, but you have to find them yourself. Section two of the rec.games.mud.misc FAQ is a very good place to start looking!
I can't connect to Midnight Sun. What's up?
There may be several possibilities, including netlag, machinelag, broken network or that we're down. If you are able to reload this page in your browser than it is not the network or our server. In that case have a close look at the settings of you telnet program or mud client.
- Make sure you have specified the port (3000)
- Make sure your use that right syntax for that. Some programs require you to fill in the port in a special field others demand you add the port to the hostname. And in that case some require a space between the hostname and the port others a ':'
- There may be a problem with the program that searches our ip with our hostname. Try to connect to our numerical address (130.240.16.23) instead.
- If you still can't connect, you might be behind a firewall that prevents you from playing the game. There is little we can do if that is the case.
I can connect but get immediately disconnected again.
Most likely we have added the host you are using to our list of host that are not allowed to connect to Midnight Sun. This happens when people playing from that host broke the rules and were removed. If the situation asks for it we can block the whole host from accessing us. Blocking may last just a couple of days or for an indetermined amount of time. Make sure to read the message given to you before disconnecting. We have several restrictive measurement between normal access and no access. One of those requires you to register with us first through email before you can play. If that is the case it will be shown on your screen when you connect. Another option is that the message says that the game is temporarily closed for players, this happens when something (serious) is wrong that we need to fix before playing can continue. This is not something that happens often but it could happen. In this case the game will be reopened again when the problem is resolved. Try to connect again a bit later.

Does Midnight Sun have/allow...

Guilds	Yes, we have several guilds. A player can only belong to one guild.
Races	No. Well, NPC's can be different races, obviously, but not players.
Spells	A guildless person does not have spells, but once you belong to a guild you will have access to a variety of spells.
Skills	Some guilds have a set of skills that basically serves to improve your spell casting abilities. Your combat skills are determined primarily by your stats.
Multiplaying	No, we have stricts rules against multiplaying.
Quest hinting	No, questhinting is rude to the wizard who spent a lot of time creating the quest. Quests in MS are not required, however they will help you advance faster. No quest will ever stop you from advancing any further though.
Player killing	Not really. The intent for this game is a to have a very friendly atmosphere. Playerkilling does not fit in what we want for the game. There may be some places where players can fight eachother but loosing such a fight will not actually kill you.
Robot playing	No, robot playing is forbidden
Triggers	Triggers may only be used if they _do_ _not_ sent anything to the mud as a response to something that your client receives from the mud. So as an example coloring certain messages is legal (does not sent anything to the mud) whereas automatically doing a 'get all' when you receive a message '.... died' _is_ illegal. See the rules for more information.

Hmm but I want those things you don't have ... now what ?
In that case Midnight Sun isn't the right game for you to play. Since there are many muds out there you should be able to find one. A good place to look for muds is at the Mud Connector
Someone just said X, what does that mean?
The world of mudding is full of strange abbreviations and terms, these are some of the most common.
- AFK - Away from Keyboard
  FYI - For your information
  IMHO - In my humble opinion
  LD - Linkdead, a user that lost his/her link to the server
  LOL - Laugh out loud
  NPC - Non-Player Character, a creature not controlled by a player.
  OTOH - On the other hand
  ROTFL or ROFL- Rolls on the floor Laughing
  RSN - Real soon now
  RTFM - Read the fucking manual
Can I kill the monster Foo?
We don't know; can you? The only way to find out is to try. Perhaps you should stick to things like butterflies in the beginning and leave the dragons for the lords, though. You can get some hints by using the compare command (see the help page inside the game)
How long is it until that room/monster/object resets?
I don't know. That is not possible to tell. And if it was, we wouldn't tell you anyway.
Can you reset this room for me?
No, immortals are normally not allowed to do that.
I want to code here, can you instant-wiz me ?
We never did that and we never will. We welcome new immortals but all of them will have to reach level 15 as a player before they can become one.
I like your mud, can I have a copy of the lib (or parts thereof)
We spent a lot of time and effort to make a game we like. We try to make it as unique as we can. Giving out pieces of our code would not help us in that effort and therefore will never be done.
Why aren't there any more answers to frequently asked questions here?
Because we haven't had time to write any yet. If you think you have a question that should be put here, you're welcome to send a mail to us.