Armageddon

[Carl White]

Since it doesn't seem like anyone officially in the know is going
to say anything, I might as well.

Port 4444 of thrash.isca.uiowa.edu has seized, and will most likely
remain in this state until Tuesday (this being the Labor Day weekend),
when someone can be physically present to reboot the machine.

This does not mean Armageddon is down. In fact, it is cheerfully
running elsewhere. Where, I will not tell you, since it has been made
abudantly clear to me that regular players are not welcome. Allow
me to relate the circumstances. If you don't really care, now is the
time to stop reading.

[1] 4444 seizes sometime Saturday afternoon.

[2] Unhappy at the prospect of Armageddon being down an indeterminate
period of time, I cast about and by a lucky fluke, discover where
I can connect. Logging in, I see an Overlord and thank him for
putting Arm up while 4444 is locked.

[3] Over the next day, I log in at various times and run around.
Different immortals are visible during these times, and generously
tolerate my presence, even giving notice prior to reboots. Over
time, a few other players appear, seeming to have discovered where
they can connect as well.

[4] Intermittent SYSTEM messages appear, separated by a few hours.
In order:

SYSTEM: Log off now, guys.
SYSTEM: Log off.
SYSTEM: Leave.

Each time, I and the others on comply as quickly as possible (a
matter of a few seconds). I figure some invisible immortal is
about to do something risky, and doesn't want players around for a
while.

[5] Finally, late this evening, the last message comes through:

SYSTEM: If you come back again, you'll regret it.

I am then yanked into Flint's Tavern just as I type "quit".

I'd be interested to know just what I did to merit this sort of
treatment. A simple "Log off, please, we're not open for regular
players here" is all it would have taken in the first place. Instead,
I get told nothing, and then am suddenly treated like a criminal.

It wasn't like I was making a pest of myself, either. I left the
immortals alone, quit when they asked me to, and didn't say a thing
when all that I owned mysteriously vanished twice. Please excuse me
for being enthusiastic about the place.

So, be warned, all. Armageddon is a very different mud with some great
ideas, and if you're interested in roleplaying, you'll get hooked in no
time. I like it even better than Arctic, and that's saying a lot. But
you'll also be tormented by crashes, inexplicable outages, and being
between characters. And sometimes get treated like third-class dirt.

[JayBird]

:>[2] Unhappy at the prospect of Armageddon being down an indeterminate

:> period of time, I cast about and by a lucky fluke, discover where
:> I can connect. Logging in, I see an Overlord and thank him for
:> putting Arm up while 4444 is locked.

It's called test port for a reason. Its there for testing stuff out,
not for regular players playing. The 'lucky fluke' is generally regarded
as 'hunting for the test port' which can make some imms pretty mad, as they
seem to think that people should be nice enough to just wait it out instead
of scour the site in hopes of 'catching' them having fun on Arm.
Really, what they did for you was pretty nice actually. They have said
many times that they will unquestionably zap anyone who logs onto the test
port. If you want up-to-date information, use isca bbs at bbs.isca.uiowa.edu
and (j)ump the the Mudding forum. It's as easy as that.

J. Pierce
jpi...@tamu.edu

(not a god on Arm btw)

[Carl White]

Today Fate rolled the dice and came up with a seven. :)
Armageddon is alive and kicking on thrash.isca.uiowa.edu
(port 4444).