MMORPG: "Free" ones? Space based combat ones?

[RussSchultz]

Well, the title mostly says it all.

Are there any no monthly charge mmorpgs?

What about space combat ones (like elite or something)?

What about free space combat ones? ;)

[Saem]

http://www.mudconnector.com

That's about the only place where you might be able to find them, there is a graphical MUD section as well, if that's what you're interested in.

[RussSchultz]

Thanks for that link. I'll look at the graphical muds/mmorpgs tonight.

I also searched for the mud I managed a 8 years ago. Its still going strong. :)

[Saem]

You just pay for the server now, Russ?

[RussSchultz]

No, I've long since given up any sort of management/development/time/money in the mud. I drop by every once in a while (like 6 months) to see how things are going. I've usually forgotten my password and fumble around as a newbie for a few minutes before somebody I know picks me up.

Those were the days. I cut my teeth doing C programming on a DIKU. Amazing how much you can learn from such crappy code. Its also amazing how much politics can evolve in a stupid mud.

[Saem]

Those were the days. I cut my teeth doing C programming on a DIKU. Amazing how much you can learn from such crappy code. Its also amazing how much politics can evolve in a stupid mud.

I know what you mean and again, I know what you mean.

That code was horrid, I look back and I figure if I was to make one now, it'd be so much better with a UML tool, Java and a DBMS -- DBMS wouldn't be absolutely necessary and possible TOO restrictive. As for politics, that's what you get when you have "no nothings" whining about this and that. The worst is when the "let chaos rule" vs the "noob friendly to the max" vs the "roleplaying is key" vs the "I'm the leader" all have at it.

[MasterBaiter]

Give this one a shot Russ: http://www.planeshift.it/main_01.html

[epicstruggle]

i was so addicted to muds. :sigh: 2 years of my life down the drain. used to play realmsmud

later,

[Tagrineth]

If you're that desperate for a free MMO, there's always RuneScape (http://www.runescape.com/). Warning: This game is really, really bad. Basically its sole redeeming value is that it's free... :?

[Quitch]

Eve Online (I think)... massive space game. You have to pay, but it sounds like what you're looking for otherwise.

[RussSchultz]

Yeah, I just got it a few days ago. It is a timewaster, that's for sure.

I've yet to determine if I like the game or not. I'm still at the newbie-what-the-hell-am-i-doing stage.

[Tim Murray]

Russ--I played in the beta (for about a week and a half :p got the account from a friend who ended up with two, and then the beta ended) and never left that stage.

But, he most definitely digs it. (http://forums.shatteredstar.com/user-cgi/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum;f=41) Ask there about how to leave the newbie-what-the-hell-do-I-do bit, and somebody should let you know within a few hours.

Good graphics, though. And if they fixed the lag, it MIGHT ACTUALLY BE GOOD.

[RussSchultz]

Agreed. the lag is awful. I think somebody needs to teach them about asynchronous completions.

[MfA]

Dont think that is all that important in a game, all you really need is non blocking I/O IMO. The far more difficult problem is prediction, to get little visible lag is damned hard.

Personally I dont mind a little lag, client side prediction can only take care of so much. To really get extremely smooth games on high ping connections you have to use either server side prediction (ick) or client authorative games (ickier). As a LPB I am of course opposed to those two options :)

BTW it is not exactly space combat in the sense you mean it, but there is always Subspace (http://www.subspace.net/) :)

[RussSchultz]

My ping is low.

I get the same second long stutters while docked inside a base, with nothing happening but my ship rotating.

When I open a window, or drop down a menu, the whole game pauses for the data (occasionally).

It appears to me that they operate in a very synchronous manner, stalling the entire client while data is not available, rather than simply extrapolating or not displaying the information requested.

[jvd]

the game has allways been very laggy. I don't thikn the servers are ready for the size of the game. In beta when only 20 people were on at a time you'd lag like no tommorow

[Tim Murray]

It seemed to me that the problem wasn't necessarily a lack of bandwidth, it was that there wasn't another CPU power at the server level to take care of the number of simultaneously connected clients.

It seems like just about everything is kept server side (the game does not seem to cache information at all, or at least did not seem to during the beta) in order to prevent any kind of cheating, but still.. it seems stupid not to cache little things.