Honestly I think both of the games are worth checking out. They've both got their many issues, but they've also both got some pretty awesome features if you can get passed either the profile writing and draconian hosts on sc, or the casual assholery of miriani.
Miriani for example has a bunch of different planets to explore, and things to buy there. I remember when I played, one of mine and my friends favourite things to do was customize our ships iwth neat things.
As for SC, what really makes it stand out is IMO the super unique activities. You can salvage debris, mine asteroids, and later on even go look for alien artifacts in spacestations you need to clear out with a battlesuit. SC is a bit more group focused than I'd like it to be, but this is mainly because I find people to be strange and frightening creatures I try to avoid for the most part on a daily basis.
Hope that helped

Also, maybe I'm just picky, but I don't understand why 99% of soundpacks are written for VIPMud.
I get it, in the blind community there is a tendency to prefer things developed exclusively with the blind in mind, but MUSHClient is much better than VIP, and the idea of paying to buy a client, to play games which are almost always free to play just turns my stomach.

I hven't logged into SC in forever honestly. Kinda forgot on it.

And to go a little off topic, but no, it's not the RP I mind in VH. It's the hunch I have that the staff need to waard you RP points to get anywhere with it. Which, okay, full disclosure, I staff on another RP game, but I'm not okay with worry about somebody looking over my RP and going mmm...nah, not giving out points for that...

If I'm wrong, do correct me, but that's the feeling I get after having not logged in for a few days. I'll cross post this in the VH topic to.

I get it. VH is suposed to RPI but...with 3 or 4 people on, you're looking at BNefore the Dawn levels of activity, i.e. 3-4 people on, and staff that don't show up on who making a game look even more dead than it realy is. If you add in that all the staff team are logged in, that easily adds another....what..4-5 to the active list

@zenothrax, you're going to get conflicting statements and opinions here, so I'll do my best to be as factual as possible concerning both of these muds, starting with Miriani.  Let me remind you, however, that even as I do my best to be factual I wil inject a bit of opinion in an attempt to illustrate things the way I see them and why.
1.  Miriani is free to play, but there are perks for being a donator, such as having all of your popular ship upgrades in one place.
2.  Miriani is less strict about enforcing roleplay than Star Conquest.
3.  Miriani's playerbase is a bit more diverse than SC's, meaning that yes, you can get pirates, and many people view this as the way forward because it's like the proverbial get rich fast scheme.  On the other hand, you can also get genuinely decent players who will help you out with most anything and everything, which I find is a bit harder to do in SC if you don't fit the roleplay mold.
4.  Miriani can feel like a bit of a grind in the beginning, but if you get into it, you'll go far.
5.  A ton of good paying/rewarding content on Miriani requires group effort, but a ton of people are usually around to help you get it done, including the pirates, who also want those rewards.  That being said, people have soloed some of the hardest activities on Miriani and felt good while doing it.
And Now, SC...
1.  SC has better mechanics.
2.  SC has more activites worth doing.
3.  SC is just a tad more realistic/believable than Miriani.
4.  Donating to SC, as far as I remember, just gives ou an item, but that also means that you never need to donate to get any perks that are not available to anyone who isn't a donator.  In essence, you'll just feel good for supporting your mud of choice.
5.  Felo farms.  You'll never get such an awesome concept on Miriani.  Turn your ship into the most amazing feline friendly space you've ever seen and watch them grow, which will combat various threats which I won't get into here in detail.
Yours truly prefers Miriani over SC, not because Miriani is a better built game, but because overall, I have more fun on the former than the latter, and to me, that's what gaming is about.  On the other hand, there's just no getting around the fact that SC is just built with more lasting features and functionality and ideas and depth.

I actually agree with 8 for the most part... except what I will add about SC is that personally, I don't have to be concerned every time I want to say something on public channels. The longtime players there, the Mutuality aside are basically always willing to help out, even if it's something like teaching you how to fly in combat against a single enemy ship. I've never gotten a hostile response to just asking for help in well over 2-3 years of playtime added up.
The biggest downside for some people to SC though is the fact that your decisions actually will matter. What you do reflects on your alliance, and yourself. So if you do something terrible... well. Case in point, the AEU.
Lastly, tracking. My god, target tracking on SC is way more convenient for space combat in this player's opinion. On Miriani, what you have is type focus, lock 1 2 3, fire... oh, it moved. Focus, lock...
Contrast that with the pilot tracking a target, down! Aim, fire, fire... north! Fire.
All this raving to say though, both games do have ups and downs. I'd recommend trying both out. Maybe you'll actually enjoy both of them? Or perhas like some of us, you'll find one grabbing you more than the other.

SC has no official soundpack I'm aware of because SC hosts don't  really like you messing with scripts, triggers and aliases.  Miriani hosts don't care, provided that your scripts, triggers and aliases are not giving you any advantage over anyone else.  That having been said, there is a few soundpacks floating around for SC, some a little more complete than others, and some a little more useful than others.  No official place exists, as far as I'm aware, where you can grab these, which is yet another thing that turns me off about SC.

Actually, no. There was an officially recognized soundpack a while back, I still have a possibly old version of it. There was a topic just made about that, too.
The one posted there is an updated version of the official one.
Basically, on paper all they ask is that your scripts don't modify the game text or execute commands of their own. If you're just playing sounds, whatever.

I will stay in miriani, it is true that you will get stranded sometimes.
stranded is  the word  describe you can not move, but  the player who stranded you actually can not   do something on you, the only thing you will worry is if a person willing to rescue you.
for this problem, you need to find some answers yourself, like who will be your friends, do you interested being the same people  who was stranded you or attack you, or you just want to do piloting like salvaging , missions, asteroid hauling, and more.
miriani stay more freely for alliance, for example, no one will say anything about AIE or commonwealth, it just about some little things  different, not really from people to  people, like it  most about mental.
when talking about pvp, miriani host just  said free, pilots are free, you just need to take your  best combat ship aganst emenies when alliance needs you, in the freetime, alliance really don't care your ship uses.

let's talk about star conquest so.
people's personality is  a little depends alliance,  just a little, and RP is more deeper, if you are a newbie, profile will be a hard thing to write, at least for me.
SC  will get more group action, battlesuit actions like  rats nests, pods and daily missions.
nearly all exploring actions need crews.
good descriptions, rooms, items, news.
it is true you get less pvp because you will make  larger effect.
about rp, you need make your actions follow your profile, it is why you need profile.
more little things  about differences in two games.
1, SC is more about rp and  your actions effect to  larger, so points  are not that hard to get, licence points, but you need to find group to  do  piloting things, so SC have more types of points, indestry, space combat, exploring, ground combat, command,  for example, if you doing salvaging or asteroid hauling, only give you indestry points, miriani, most points just two types, licence points and combat points, space combat for combat points, and most piloting actions  will give you licence points.
2, what hosts said, miriani's pilots are mostly free, if not special events or actions, alliances won't care for most actions, this is why you can attack people, or   another word, people will think to attack you in randoms., but if you getting strong like you know how to deal with, like fight back or escape, i plaie for 4 years but  only get stranded  in the first year. star conquest, if you  randomly punch people, attacking alliances in the space,, you will have special reason and  someone will ask you, and , rogue pilots, hmm, this is a title no one will wish to get.

3, in star conquest, different alliance have different ship design, league  for balance, fringe have better weapons.

in miriani, when really talking about alliance differences, it is  only special technology, like AIE for exploring, but most of  technology and ships are  the same.

In other words, if you took Miriani's Roleplay and added it to SC's mechanics, it would be the perfect space MOO, almost.

That's one thing I can say about Cosmic rage, from what I've heard this isn't much of a problem there. Now if only it were easier to reach rank 40.

If you think reaching rank 40 in cr is hard, you haven't seen anything yet. How about you get to rank 1100,then precede to do star studying and star coring, and only star studying and star coring, till your fingers fall off because there's nothing else that'll let you get ranks properly?

reaching rank 40 on cr is easy. get to rank 15 then get a volcano harvester and harvest away.