I would say that this mud has the most potential out of many of the 'Wheel of Time' theme MUDs/MUSHes currently in existence. The main problem with this MUD is overall lack of accessibility and lack of freedom with character creation.

A common critique of most Wheel of Time-themed MUDs has to do with trying to stay true to the limitations and mechanics presented in the series while maintaining some element of playability. Some MUDs, do this brilliantly. It is for this reason that particular MUD routinely boasts 40-80 players a night, while more worthy, attractive and detailed MUDs, such as Sea of Storms, struggle in obscurity.

There are a great group of players on this MUD, many of whom have been here for years. The RP is good, the location descriptions are very well done, and the presentation is extremely polished.

My main critique has to do with the character creation system as it applies to magic using characters (hereinafter referred to as 'channelers'). Four of the six main characters are channelers and it is arguably the magic system that sets this series apart from a multitude of fantasy series that quite frankly use the same concepts, storylines, plot progression and themes much more ably. Thus a large portion of the fans play these games to create channelers.

The Sea of Storms character creation system and the implementation of the progression of channelers seems designed to thwart the desires of the player and even worse, punish new players for their lack of familiarity with the MUD - much of the information about which channeling abilities are available to a character can only be gleaned after a character has been created since the helpfiles and spell information system is not accessible during creation, and it is quite possible to play a character for upwards of hundreds of hours only to find out that the spells you made many decisions and sacrifices for are inaccessible due to an invisible gameplay mechanic that can make your character sub-standard and even worse, not what you wanted at all.

This has gotten worse recently, in the form of hard-coded changes to the creation system that extends the range of channeling capabilities from the very weak to the very strong. While this seems a good thing, the problem is that the changes now make it impossible to reach the minimum requirements for the strongest spells, which once again, required a trade-off in overall capability in the first place, and worse, directs characters down an avenue with lessened control over the streets they may want to take. You can literally have an idea that, like some characters in the series, it is exceptionally hard for your alter ego to access spells involving fire or earth to the point of uselessness, and be told by the system that this is impossible.

It is puzzling why a skill-based, level-less MUD would put so much weight on numbers chosen before you started RPing your character, and I can only guess that it has to do with the desire to maintain the theme itself. My only suggestion is that they modify the system so that, for these characters, capability can be raised within specific elemental affinities via in-game experience points. It's ironic to give up eight spells in order to get one that you really want, only to be told that the help files misrepresented the information and truthfully to learn this spell let alone cast or be exceptionally good with it, you need to go back to character creation, readjust an allocation of points and then go through the process only to be stuck in a loop where character creation refuses to allow you to meet the minimum necessary requirements for the spell.

So, it's a great MUD, responsive immortals, likable players and well-polished execution, but it is not always the most enjoyable, mostly due to the character creation system for a character archetype. They need to strike a better balance between staying faithful to the series and playability, and I think the code base is part of the problem rather than part of the solution. It's a good niche MUD, but they may have issues retaining new players due to the fact that the character creation system weeds out hardcore roleplayers and players who like having more control of their characters. Perhaps if they made the system more intuitive and easier to understand they will start growing and flourish.