At the risk of asking a stupid question - what's the state of the game compared to 10 years ago?

Shay

I quit playing around 2006 and I'm now thinking of getting back into the game.  Obviously, I don't remember anything, so while I'm not a true newbie, I'd basically be learning everything from scratch.

Looking around though, it doesn't seem like the game is particularly vibrant nowadays.. I've never seen more than 40 people online, haven't seen any chat on either city or guild channels.  I could be completely misremembering this, but I seem to recall things being much more alive a while back.

Basically, before I invest time and money into the game, I just want to make sure the time and money will not be wasted

Thanks

Mereis

MUDs in general are almost always slowly going down in population. It's an unfortunate fact. However, I don't think it will ever be completely extinct. As a niche hobby, there's almost always someone who'll be interested in our itty bitty corner of the internet. 

With that said, Imperian is relatively balanced in combat (with outliers being toned down smartly [ie usually not with a big nerf hammer]), and roleplay is there, particularly in Sects (the new Divine Orders). For example, Stavenn transitioned from being the Empire into a Republic (Romanesque), Antioch aligned itself with the Orc Horde (who have their NPC city in Schro'vik), and Magick as a Circle is slowly becoming an actual force (rather than the perception of being the Lands of Always Non-com). 

Imperian's at a great stage right now. It's the first MUD I ever spent actual money on, and I'm glad to say I did

Shay

Thanks.  A couple more questions if you don't mind - what's the current state of the Assassin class? Is it still based primarily around double toxin/illusion combos?

What's the state of combat scripting (I realize there's a scripting sub-forum, but I'm trying to get a very fast and dirty overview here)?  I'm very proficient in python coding, and I was toying around with an idea of writing a full-blown python proxy for handling combat scripting, but after a quick read, it seems that things have moved quite far from the point where a competent affliction priority system was 95% of what you needed, so now I'm not so sure that it's a worthwhile endeavor...

Kryss

Illusions were done away with some while ago. You still have doublestab only now it pairs primarily with skills from Spatium, a skillset that revolves around the use of a small, personal wormhole granting you access to all kinds of awesome things. Said things include shadowplant, a skill that denies your target their next plant of the chosen type, the ability to force a chosen affliction to be cured last and an ability that instantly kills should your target have enough hypnosis afflictions. It's a lot of fun, though the class is somewhat lacking on the defensive side and it can be frustrating in group combat, which there is a lot of these days.

Jules

No XP loss, WAY less grinding that any other IRE MUD.  Lots of mechanics in place to encourage conflict without forcing people into an endless cycle of being constantly hunted (unless you really really want to be hunted).  Pretty much the only place to be if you're interested in combat and aren't already the guy who can come out on top of most fights you'll walk into.  

Iniar

People to beat: Septus, Kryss, Eldreth. If you enjoy coding, there's still that challenge there, just a lot simpler (good) than it was before. Lots of player killing happening though much friendlier to new players.

Jules

Yeah, good point to clarify.  The challenge is the same as it would be anywhere with an amazing PvP framework.  There just isn't the asinine insistence that being a bad should mean being constantly "punished" with grinding.  It really makes all the difference in the world as far as I am concerned. 

Rasca

I quit around 2007 and just came back in the past few months Shay. Don't invest any money right now, just come back and have some fun and if it really appeals and you want to go beast-mode, get some credits. Lots of fun to be had without spending a dime.