This is not a flame, but I need to be factual about this mud. I do not believe this mud can be called newbie friendly. The staff and players are very nice, but the game itself is not for those who have not played an ACK! before. While it has most of the same features that an ACK! does, there are some differences that completely change the gameplay and make it very hard for new players.

Fighting takes your movement points...all of them. This wouldn't be too bad except that you cannot flee if you have no moves. You also cannot recall from combat. These two things together mean that if you're in a fight that's going badly, you're going to die. Wimpy is obsolete, again because you can't flee. Even casting refresh to regain movement points is pretty much useless due to the fact that the mobs will just follow you wherever you flee to. Since you can't recall for a certain amount of time after a fight, you're just going to have to let them kill you.

Also they have taken out the multiple attacks, so no matter what level you reach, you're only going to attack once per round. Kind of takes the power away from any warrior class. With all this combined, you can be sure to die often...due to the fights lasting longer with less attacks and not being able to flee from them if they go badly because of having no movements.

Nearly everyone I've seen logged on has been a Realm Lord or higher, so they've already been through the low levels. Unfortunately since these changes have recently been put into affect, they do not know how hard it is to be a newbie here. I will continue to play here, but for now only because it's the only ACK! around with players. However, I cannot recommend it to those new to the ACK! code base.