Aardwolf is based on a MUD originally named Aardvark (which suddenly died, but in which Lasher and several early Aardwolf IMMs like Maerchyng were also IMMs.) It opened to the public in December 1996, and quickly became one of the most popular non-commercial MUDs in the world, usually having over 400 players online at any time. Player populations peak at approximately 800 on in-game holidays, such as its birthday of December 7th.

Originally based on ROM MUD code with patches including color, autoquests, and an increased level cap for players (201 instead of 50), it quickly expanded. While it originally had mostly stock areas as well as a few areas like Jenny's Tavern, which were acquired from Aardvark, builders recruited from the player base rapidly expanded the MUD to over 14,000 rooms. Aardwolf continued to gradually phase out ALL ROM based areas while continuing to add player-built ones. With the July 2006 addition of player-built continents to replace the original road system and the removal of the last of the ROM based areas, Aardwolf has grown to over 25,000 100% original rooms.

The game has experienced many expansions and rewrites over time. One early one was the introduction of 'remorting,' which allowed one to multi-class until they had all seven classes: Paladin, Ranger, Psionicist, Warrior, Thief, Mage and Cleric. From there, one is able to "tier"--to return to a single-class, level 1 player with various bonuses that greatly enhance their combat abilities. One particular upgrade, finished in 2002, was called "Aardwolf V2." In it, many "Aarditems" (some of the most powerful items in the game, purchasable with points gained from doing quests and campaigns) were overhauled to have stat bonuses, along with every single skill and spell in the game in order to make base stats (strength, intelligence, constitution, dexterity, wisdom and luck) more important. Prior to this, stats did not go higher than 35 and players instead focused primarily on gathering high hitroll and damageroll (derived stats controlling damage) scores in order to be more effective in combat, changing to "leveling gear" immediately before they leveled to make use of the otherwise-useless stat bonuses. Stats now go up to a maximum of 500; 350 of these can be trained, but the remainder can only be gathered from class bonuses, equipment and magic. There are also caps on the total number of trained stats which ensure that even with the bonuses of a tier 9 (the highest tier), no mortal can maximize every stat.

There is now a project to rewrite the game with a new codebase coined "Aardwolf V3." This is confusing to some because several "V3" improvements have been backported to the currently running "V2" code, so that the MUD can continue development while the overhaul is underway. Some of the "V3" improvements are a new VNUM system that will allow for larger areas and make expansion (or fixing) of existing areas much simpler, custom channels and channel creation, custom exits (such as "climb ladder" or "push button" instead of the usual north, east, south, west, up, down, and portal entry). Several of these upgrades have already been added, such as the custom exits and some of the upgraded channel code.

The game is known in the mudding community for its ease of use, which is accomplished through the implementation of simple channels, newbie helpers, channels for each race and class, and race and class specific wars.

In its early days, Aardwolf was hosted on one of first MUD hosting service, http://www.mudservices.com/, which gave Aardwolf free space as its popularity acted to advertise the hosting company. When mudservices executives decided to start charging by the MB for hosting services, Lasher moved it to its own independent site. The game is currently hosted at the private residence of its primary administrator home on a leased T1. Player donations contribute to offsetting the expenses of bandwidth and hardware.

Like many MUDs, Aardwolf is free to play. Although the game is bound by no external license due to its independent code base, the administration has expressed a commitment to keeping the game free to play indefinitely.

Lasher is currently the administrator of Aardwolf MUD. The administration team also includes Aerianne, Delight, Dirtworm, Filt, Kharpern, Obyron, Plaideleon, Tela, Timeghost, Tymme, Vilgan, Whitdjinn, Xantcha, Xeno, and Xyzzy.

External links

Aardwolf MUD Official Site

Aardwolf MUD Official Wiki

Top Mud Sites Listing for Aardwolf