GodWars is a family of MUD engines derived from Merc,[2][3] created in 1995 by Richard Woolcock, also known as "KaVir".[4][5][3] GodWars' setting is influenced by White Wolf's World of Darkness.[6]
| God Wars 2 | |
|---|---|
 God Wars II logo | |
| Developer(s) | Richard Woolcock |
| Series | GodWars |
| Engine | custom codebase |
| Platform(s) | OS independent |
| Release | March 10, 2002[1] |
| Genre(s) | MMORPG |
| Mode(s) | multiplayer |
In 1996 the code was illegally released and advertised on a website for free download.[7] After fighting extensively to stop the illegal use of his codebase, Woolcock later released the code publicly.[8]
The original GodWars was later renamed Dark City then Last City, with added wilderness code.[9]
Since 2000, between 28 and 84 derivatives of the God Wars code have been active,[10][3][11] including Vampire Wars, which is based on White Wolf's Vampire: The Masquerade and won the October 1998 Mud of the Month award at The Mud Connector.[12]
God Wars II
In 2002, Woolcock wrote a new MUD named God Wars II, a conceptual sequel to GodWars,[3] with a more personal dark fantasy universe.
Combat System
The game relies heavily on player versus player combat, like the original GodWars, and features a deep and complex combat system where the player has to manipulate the limbs associated with the attacks, creating combos when the commands are stringed together.[13][14] This combo system is inspired from the tabletop game Spellbinder, of which the complexity is comparable to chess and go.[citation needed]
The combat system was prototyped in his earlier Gladiator Pits MUD,[3] which won the maintainability award in a public coding competition, the 16K MUD competition,[15][7] and has been called "stunning".[16]
Other Features
God Wars II is also noted for its war mini-game (a strategic poker variant) and its helpful graphical MUSHclient interface. This interface includes a map that the user can click to travel faster and mechanical shortcuts. The game has a large world, without rooms typical of MUDs but using coordinates, and a process for advanced character customization.[3][14]