FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

[Nic]

Game Mechanics:

Will there be a Java or Telnet based version?
Will the game be hack-able/ will cheats ruin the game?
What do the graphics look like?
Will the MUD be updated?
When will events on the MUD take place?
Will we be able to interact with characters from the books?
What is the MUD to real time ratio?
How many rooms will the MUD have?
How many players will the MUD be able to support at once?
What are your guidelines on building the MUD?
Do we have to pay to play on the MUD?
Is the mini mud engine different from the eventual engine?
What area are you most needing people in?
Do you need someone to do any sort of art?

Staffing and Release:

Release Date: when is it?
How far along are you?
Can we sign up now?
How To Take A Tour
Helping & Where to Apply
What’s done?
What’s left to do?
Will there be beta testing?
Do we have access to J. K. Rowling or Warner Brothers?
Who is the Management Team?
What do we have to do with Mugglenet (MN)?

Roleplaying Questions:

Can I start the game at a different age then 11 when I start Hogwarts?
Will players names be hidden from other players?
Will there be a system for changing a character description as characters progress through the game and grow up?
Can we go shopping for robes and such, trying them on?
Can we have the same last name as a character from the book?
If I go on a vacation and don’t play for a while, will this affect my character?
Will players be able to become professors at Hogwarts? Headmasters?
What other jobs will be available for players?
When the game first begins will there already be people who are professors and employed in other areas from the beta testing or will some of the first players start as adults?
Can a player start their own business, buy a building, and hire someone; preferably an NPC that can stay there?
How many characters can you have?
Is RPG the same as a MUD?
Difference between a MUD, a MUCK, and MOO?
What is a MUD?
Common MUD & Forum terms

MUD Interaction

Hogwarts

Will all characters start out as first years when they start the game?
Will we be able to take classes at Hogwarts and learn things like Harry, Ron, and Hermione?
What classes will be available for us to take?
Will there be tests, like OWLs and NEWTs?
If you didn’t attend a class, will you get lower marks?
How long will it take to complete school at Hogwarts?
Can you get in trouble and/or lose points for being out of the Common Room after hours? Get detentions, or be expelled?
Will there be passwords for the Room of Requirement, the Kitchens, Headmaster's office, the Common Room/Towers?
How will you implement the room of requirement?
Are there going to be any intentional errors in the books for classes and in the library (as in, the author didn't know everything and got some things a little off)? Remember that the Half-Blood Prince was able to make improvements on Borage's potion recipes. I also realize that this could make the game very complex.
Will the Chamber of Secrets exist?
Will we be able to create and join clubs at Hogwarts?
How will we be sorted into our houses when we enter Hogwarts?
Will we be sorted based off of our personality? At random?
Will we be able to be the Head Boy, Head Girl, and Prefects at Hogwarts?
What will their duties be?
Who will be assigned these titles?

Life After Hogwarts

What will characters do once they aren't in Hogwarts anymore?
Are players going to be able to publish their own books?
Can the professors then choose from the published books as well as the ones the game starts with for their classes?
Will raids, battles, and creatures be at both sides disposal?
Is it possible, after you have killed somebody, to escape the law and get away with the kill?
Will there be any reward for killing someone of the opposing side?
Will a player be allowed to kill another player for profit? (say one player asks a more skilled player to kill another player and offers payment in galleons.)
Does the MUD end when we finish our time at Hogwarts, or can we keep playing after we graduate?
Will our characters have the opportunity to have a family/social life after they graduate Hogwarts and get a job? Or is it going to be all problem solving and such?
Will characters be able to join the Order?
Will characters be able to join the league of Death Eaters?
Will we be able to start our own Order?
Will be able to start our own group that are like the Death Eaters if we don't want to be an actual Death Eater?
Will there be a market area where anyone can sell stuff? Will there be a rule banning advertising?
Can a player have guest rooms and furnish it?

Objects

Invisibility Cloaks: Will they be in the game, or required?
Will we be able to make our own items in the game?
What sort of items will we be able to make?
How will we make them?
Can items add to charisma, can a wand add to strength, or reading increase your intelligence, and wisdom?
Would the game recognize turning an object into anything else?
Will we be able to buy different clothes, jewelery, etc?
How other people will see them?
Will we be able to make our own badges for clubs, etc?
Can we, by spells, change their appearance (like size and colour), or even make them show a different text when you press them?

Magic

Will we be able to make potions, like in the books?
Will we be able to experiment and invent our own potions?
I was wondering how you could incorporate time with potions. So if you were given a sleeping draft that gave lets say a day in the book that would be lets say and hour. But that person wouldn’t be able to play the game until an hour again?
How will we cast spells on the MUD?
Will we be able to use wandless magic?
Will we be able to use silent magic?
Will we be able to duel with each other?
Will we be able to create our own spells?
How many spells are there in total?
Are there going to be illegal spells, like the 3 Unforgivables, that might get us in trouble?
If one were to cast a spell on another, is it possible for the spell to fail?
Can we overthrow the Imperius curse if we are stronger/higher level than the caster?
How many categories of spells are there? Like the Dark Arts, Charms, Transfiguration, etc.
Can we be killed by the Killing Curse? Can we survive the killing curse because the caster was too weak?
Are there level/stat requirements for spells?
If some body turns me into a rabbit do I run around as a rabbit for a certain amount of time, or do I need to get somebody to turn me back?
Will different aspects of the wand influence our spellcasting?
Will we be able to make horcruxes?
Will we be able to conjure patronuses?
What will a fight look like?

Quidditch

Will we be able to play Quidditch on the MUD?
How will Quidditch work?
Will there be only one team per house?
Will there be United Quidditch teams?
Will it be possible for people to be quidditch players when they leave Hogwarts?

The World of PL

How will Quests work?
Will characters be able to yell/shout eventually? And can you whisper, and tell secrets to another player?
Portraits and Paintings: Can they lead to mini-worlds or to a secret passageway?
What areas are being created for us to play in?
Will we have places like the Ministry of Magic and St. Mungo's Hospital?
Will we have other schools like Beauxbatons and Durmstrang?
Will there be other magical communities to live in?
What will happen when book 7 comes out and there are more places?
I've had this idea for a pyramidal room and so I came to wondering: will you also design some pyramids and others tombs, for those wanting to try their hands at curse-breaking, like Bill Weasley?
Will players have to kill monsters to gain experience?
Will a character who is devoted to roleplaying be as powerful as one that just kills lots of monsters?
Will dueling gain players experience?
How does character advancement work? Are there levels?
Are there levels like 1-100 in this game or are there levels like Student, Witch, Wizard, Auror, Dark Lord?
Will your characters have a limit on their memory? Such as can they only remember a certain number of people's names? Or learn only a certain number of languages? Or possibly have a cap on how many spells/potions they can remember?
Can players become Animagi or Metamorphmagi?
How do I become an Animagus or a Metamorphmagus?
How about Lycanthropes (Werewolves) like Professor Lupin?
Will we be assigned random wands?
Will we get our wands at Ollivanders?
Will there be other places to get wands?
Will there be other languages/alphabets that characters can learn to talk/write to others in? Like runic, etc.?
Will there be ways of concealing your identity?
Will there be a way to follow someone without them knowing it?
Enter a room without other players knowledge?
Generally be stealthy?
Will eating/drinking be required in the game? Will it matter what kind of food you eat, or can you survive on every flavor beans?
Are there going to be penalties for sleeping in, say a public place like Diagon Alley? If so are there going to be places we can stay, like inns or something?
Will the Daily Prophet Grand Prize Galleon Draw (and other things like that) be in the game?
Would it be possible for random users to get sick with things like the cold or the flu? Or does it depend on the health of the character?
What if someone eats food that has food poisoning in it? Would it make them sick?
If someone has been injured, what would be the rate of healing process with out potions? What about with?

Azkaban

Will we have Azkaban, the Wizard Prison, on the MUD?
Will players be sent to Azkaban if they break the law?
Is there any way to get OUT of Azkaban if you've been sent there?
Will dementors be guarding Azkaban?
When people go to Azkaban, what will they do?

Pets

Will players be able to obtain pets and/or familiars that stay with them?
Will there be any special advantages of having pets/familiars?
What will pets/familiars be able to do?
Will we be able to send owls to other players?
Can we send any kinds of objects that weigh little enough for a particular owl to be able to carry it, like Hermione and Hagrid sending Harry birthday cakes in his fourth year?
Will there be fast owls and slow owls, will there be a post office in Hogsmeade and will there be an Owlery at Hogwarts?
Can owls be intercepted?
What kind of pets are we allowed in the MUD?
Are we allowed to own a phoenix, basilisk, dragon, thestral, griffin, or any dangerous creature for a pet/familiar?

[Nic]

Will there be a Java or Telnet based version?

you can use our client once it's done, but yes, there will be a way to play our game through telnet

[Nic]

Will the game be hack-able/ will cheats ruin the game?

There is no way to decompile the game, because no one except the server ever touches it.

[Nic]

What do the graphics look like?

It's a text-only game, so there are no real 'pictures', except the occasional bit of fun with ASCII

[Nic]

Will the MUD be updated?

Yes, the MUD will be updated and ammended to include wherever JKR's world takes us. As we speak/post, people are adding dust to certain abandoned shops, putting well travelled locations into disrepair, as per book 6. Once 7 is out, we shall of course ammend to fit that world (assuming it isn't something hugely drastic like Hogwarts collapsing/the world ending). Yes, it's going to potentially make some of our work redundant but I for one would rather we lost some work for the sake of upholding our high standards for this game.

[Nic]

When will events on the MUD take place?

The events will happen after the books end. Anywhere from 6 months to 5 years, we're still discussing that at the moment.

[Nic]

Will we be able to interact with characters from the books?

No major characters will be in the game.

[Nic]

What is the MUD to real time ratio?

About a 7:1 ratio. A "MUD" day is a lot quicker, there will be many MUD days to one day in real life

[Nic]

How many rooms will the MUD have?

Thousands

[Nic]

How many players will the MUD be able to support at once?

We're aiming for 1,000 players at a time

[Nic]

What are your guidelines on building the MUD?

We are building this world based on JKR's books. Though the movies can inspire us and we use them as a point of reference at times, it is not what we consider canon. Our canon for the MUD is the books.

[Nic]

Do we have to pay to play on the MUD?

No. We are designing a free MUD for Harry Potter and Mugglenet fans.

[Nic]

Release Date: when is it?

There is no release date at this time. There are many reasons why: A) this game is taking a while to build & B) why this game will take a while to finish.

1) Artemis has a vision that those who work for him admire. Having built and played on MUDs, he grew tired of the shoddy writing and grammar in the MUDs he experienced. As a general rule, MUDs repeat the same room descriptions over and over again. The writing also tends to be boring, since most builders are coders, thus making the game depend solely on RP or on battles. Artemis knew that the love of Harry Potter would bring all sorts of people, many who would want to explore & play in Harry ‘s world. Artemis decided to hire actual, talented writers to create individual room descriptions. Dinosaurs to MUDding may roll their eyes at this line of thinking, but for those who care about exploration, they will appreciate this.

2) Harry’s world is full of magic, meaning spells are cast, potions made, things being transformed into other things, etc. This is a massive undertaking to program. We’re having to figure out how this magic should work and be programmed. This is very detailed, precise work. For example, just with potions themselves we are naming and creating ingredients. Liz came up with the brilliant idea of each ingredient having a particular effect so that if you don’t know how to make a particular potion, you may be able to make it anyway from the properties of the individual ingredients.

3) PL will be a free game. Due to the nature of the game & our desire to house up to 1,000 players at a time, the type of engine that would fit our needs costs $20,000. We're modifying the Argila engine with help from Auroness, this is based off the RPI engine from SOI, which of course, takes time.


4) The Writing Services are writing every book & textbook mentioned by JKR as well as books the builders create in the MUD. This also takes time and major loads of talent.

[Nic]

Can we sign up now?

Thank you very much for the idea, but I'm afraid it's not doable right now. The Sorting Hat has to sort you into a house so signing up won't make a difference. The Hat needs to speak.

[Nic]

How To Take A Tour

Though no one has 'played sections of the game', per se, many of the posters here are MUD staff, and spend time on the MUD regularly, writing rooms, designing quests and working on code, amongst other things.

So, yes, many people will mention being there.
Tours of Knockturn Alley are available. They will be given away as prizes, generally. Keep an eye out for contests

There is a mini-mud that open to those who are interested in getting a taste of the real thing
Look here for details:

http://lumos.mugglenet.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=83

[Nic]

Helping & Where to Apply

A reoccurring question is: Can I help?

Yes. If you would like to become a volunteer employee and are at least 13 years old, feel free to visit this site to see if you're qualified and how to apply:

http://lumos.mugglenet.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=82

If you would like to help, but do not wish to put in the time to be an employee or do not feel qualified to apply, check out this link:

http://lumos.mugglenet.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=42

[Nic]

What’s done?

Little Hangleton, Hogsmeade, and almost all of the HW grounds, Azkaban, Knockturn and Diagon Alley are completed. A lot of the design is done. Several hundred items. About a hundred spells, on top of the ones you see in the books.

[Nic]

What’s left to do?

Everything else, but primarily coding.

[Nic]

Will there be beta testing?

Yes, in a style similar to Gmail’s Beta test

[Nic]

Do we have access to J. K. Rowling or Warner Brothers?

No we don’t. We do not know Ms. Rowling or anyone from Warner Brothers.

[Nic]

Who is the Management Team?

Management:
Artemis-Founder and Dictator
Calliope-Senior Administrator
Darkly Marked-Junior Administrator

Staff:
Jack- MiniMUD Head/Design staff/ Web design
Oz-Technical/Coder Administrator
Gulopine-Forum Administrator
Menituba-Writing Services Administrator
Kaya-Head Builder
Jessica617x-Lead Builder
Firedrake-Lead Builder
Beutiful_Liz-Head Designer
mira_lexi-Little Hangleton/RPIMUD Administrator
Thorn of Blood-Character Sheet Administrator
Wyvern-Character Sheet Moderator
Caity-Recreational Services Moderator
Ciarwyn-Roleplaying Administrator
Dopidee Lu-Roleplaying Moderator
Sam31-Roleplaying Moderator
Anthraxus-Roleplaying Moderator

Sorry if I've forgotten anyone! Let me know!

[Nic]

Can I start the game at a different age then 11 when I start Hogwarts?

All characters (apart from staff) start off at the age of 11 at Hogwarts. However, you are not obligated to spend a certain amount of time there. As soon as you pass your exams, you are set free in the world, and can reset your age to whatever you want. However, if you decide to bypass Hogwarts you will miss out on a large number of quests and activities, and probably a lot of spells.

[Nic]

Will players names be hidden from other players?

In this game you will have no idea of a player’s name unless they greet you. Instead, you will see a short description of what they look like. If they have introduced themselves you’ll see their name.

[Nic]

Will there be a system for changing a character description as characters
progress through the game and grow up?

Indeed

[Nic]

Can we go shopping for robes and such, trying them on?

Yes

[Nic]

Can we have the same last name as a character from the book?

Unless there is an absolutely outstanding RP reason for it, the answer is no. Don't count on it.

[Nic]

If I go on a vacation and don’t play for a while, will this affect my character?

There isn't a vacation mode option per se. However, if you *accidently* delete your character, we *can* restore it to its previous state. We can also manually put your character into a place called 'the vault' if you tell us you're going to be away for a long time. Normally, characters are deleted after a set period of time. For example, characters of levels 1-4 (the time when most people quit the game) is 28 days. After that, its 56 days, except in the case of characters above level 65. Level 65+ characters have a good 60 days. If you don't log onto your level 3 character for 29 days, it will be automatically removed from the system. You don't even need to *play* during that 28 days. As long as you have logged in once, it will be safe for the next 28 days.

[Nic]

Will players be able to become professors at Hogwarts? Headmasters?

Yes

[Nic]

What other jobs will be available for players?

There are all kinds of jobs. You can work for MoM, bartend, be a guard at Azkaban, own a shop, work in a shop, etc.

[Nic]

When the game first begins will there already be people who are professors and employed in other areas from the beta testing or will some of the first players start as adults?

All players will start as students in Hogwarts. Participating in the beta testing does not mean you’ll have learned enough to be out in the real world. In the beginning, the positions will be held by NPCs, but will slowly be taken over by players. Those in beta testing will most likely start a bit ahead of the original players and will become prefects.

[Nic]

Can a player start their own business, buy a building, and hire someone; preferably an NPC that can stay there?

Yes

[Nic]

How many characters can you have?

The proposed limit is a total of 5 living characters at any given time. However, strict rules govern how the characters may interact (ie, not at all). It is against game rules for one to transfer equipment from one character to the other, as is using alternates for revenge for murder, etc.

[Nic]

Is RPG the same as a MUD?

RPG's and MUD's have a lot of similarities. In most RPG's, you kill monsters and do quests to earn gold and experience to enhance your character. This is also present in most MUDs, including ours, but there will also be roleplaying involved. If you want to hack and slash, you can, and if you want to roleplay you can. And, of course, MUDs are text based, while most rpg's aren't.

[Nic]

Difference between a MUD, a MUCK, and MOO?

MUD stands for Multi-User Domain/Dungeon/Dimension- one of these 3 terms, depending on who you talk to and when they started in this world. It is generally the term used as an umbrella term to include all the variations. (E.g., MUSH, MOO, MMPORG, RPIMUD)

A MOO stands for Mud Object Oriented. These are for folks who like MUDding, but are really into the object aspects, thus desiring a more object intensive game.

A MUSH typically stands for: Multi-User Shared Hack/ Habitat/ Holodeck/ or Hallucination. These tend to be more role-playing intensive.

A MUCK stands for Multi-User Creation Kingdom.

A MMPROG stands for Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game.

A RPIMUD stands for a Role Playing Intensive MUD.

Some MUDs are oriented more towards RPing. Others tend to be more slash and hack. We intend to make ours a balance of these 2 things. Keep it interesting for those who may want to look at things a leisurely rate and those who want to battle, take on quests, etc.

[Nic]

What is a MUD?

MUD is an acronym for Multi-User Domain, Dimension, or Dungeon (contingent upon whom you are speaking to.) The most common usage at this time is Multi-User Domain.

Created in the 1970s in the U.K., the creators of the original MUD used the name Dungeon. The reason? They, and the majority of the original players, played Dungeons and Dragons. They dreamed of a game that people could play across their campus and play together in real time. This lead to the ability of those across the world being able to play or chat together in real time.

MUDs are text-based games that allow roleplaying and support roleplaying intensive exchanges, ‘hack and slash’, or a combination of both. PL, since it’s based on Harry Potter who has both personal relationships and fights, is a combination of both. For more information on MUDs, please look at this site: http://lumos.mugglenet.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=55