I need to look at their job progression systems again, I didn't really understand if I should level up everything, or just stick with one thing.  I have a bunch unlocked, but I don't really know.  So I just train things as I got bored of the other jobs.

@26:
Hm... looks like I offended you but it wasn't on purpose. There are various ways to play and not all can agree.
Your interpretation of my post is not accurate, never said bad players, was referring to those who want everything, want it fast, and easy, and aren't sticking around.
It's a good thing that Quests aren't required to play, it's a small part of the game that eventually won't exist.
Elitist, well, I guess I could be since I've played for years although never considered myself one.
And to finish, any place that is rude and doesn't want blind players should go to hell.

Pretty sure cleric and sorcerer will become missions eventually. Their solution to fixing the quest thing is to eliminate them altogether, and boy are they doing that, not sure what part of that isn't obvious. I mean half of the questlocked jobs and abilities are no longer questlocked, heck even that last bluemage ability that used to be a quest isn't a quest anymore. Also the game has been through 3 administrations, which is why we are only now starting to see changes.

So I'm not incredibly familiar with final fantasy, despite working my way slowly through ff10.  would you recommend this mud regardless?  it looks like a lot of fun.

Okay, yes. There is effort being made toward updating things. I like that magitek is now mission-based. That's cool.
The current administration has been fairly stable for at least 3-4 years. What stops them from saying "Qinfo is no longer an issue. Discuss it privately, please, but otherwise go ahead. We're going to be making all this stuff into missions one day"
What stops them doing that? The answer? Nothing. Well, one thing. Gatekeeping. They're hesitant to just give up the goods, which is actually rather funny since there's a doc floating around with qinfo in it.
So do I appreciate that change is happening? Yes I do. But that doesn't mean that all mistakes and issues are forgiven and forgotten either. They could have done far, far more to address the qinfo situation, and while they are making strides, it's nowhere near enough.

I know how to build a character, thanks. I've built several over the years, and as I say, I've got a legend str-vit character who mostly uses swordsman/templeknight.

Regarding the bit about "you don't have to do quests to enjoy the game"? Um...okay, fine, that's fair. But they do provide benefits. Certain jobs are locked behind quests. Certain commands are locked behind quests. None of them are essential for you to be successful, but all are at least a little helpful. And to just say "well you don't have to do that so shut up and deal" is kind of silly. It was silly when elitists used it to defend their elitism in MUDs thirty years ago, and it's silly today.

I'm actually a conformist, it's a coincidence about supporting qinfo.
Administration has shifted but the old administration is still looming in the background.
Anyway, why does it take so much xp to level later on, Why do I need to be level 30, 60, or 100 to use this job,why do I need to be level 100 to have another race, why do missions ask for more mobs then I can kill in one go, why do I lose so much xp when I die, and I'm sure there's a bunch of more whys I left out.
Someone even mentioned about so many overlapping jobs.
For sure there is no perfect mud with other issues always popping up.

The overlapping jobs and abilities thing is easy to answer. For abilities, it's so that people with different stat builds have access to similar attacks or buffs that would otherwise you wouldn't have. If you're coming from a game like alter, this might seem like a foreign, concept, but here, you have the freedom to pick and choose any job in any order, but a skill's effectiveness is highly dependent on your stats, with a few exceptions, like chemist abilities. Yes, in alter you have a minimum stat requirement to use abilities, and a few skills work better if you have a good amount of a specific stat, but your stats are limited by the game's maximum class level,. To further demonstrate, in alter, the damage of greater fireball and lightning bolt cast by a player is determined by cast level, of which at this time is maxed at 55. In uossmud, the damage of firaga and thundaga are determined by your wisdom stat, of which there is no limit. So, to demonstrate my point, you might have one hp draining ability that relies on wisdom, and another hp draining ability that relies on will. And that's why some jobs have seemingly overlapping abilities. As for overlapping jobs, great care has been taken to ensure that no two jobs play alike. Kinda like how priest is focused on solo healing, while cleric specializes in group healing.

I've seen it at 20 or so recently. It fluctuates a lot. Many are coming off other muds looking to try something new, and a fair number of those are advancing quickly.

When it comes to the question of qinfo, I'm coming at this as someone who's been staff on a MUD. Someone who's spent shit loads of time building an area from nothing, spending massive amounts of time filling that area with little details to enrich the quest lines that will run through that area, so it's not just a kill 50 goblins to win experience.
Some builders are perfectly happy cranking out areas that you just breeze through, get teh epic lootz and never come back to again. It's a box to tick off, you don't pay attention to the room descriptions, you don't care about the back story or anything like that.
I've always been the type that really wants the player to care about the journey as well, not just the shiny shit at the end.
That means you'll have to read room descriptions in my zones, you'll have to find hidden documents, listen in on conversations, sometimes go through flashback sequences and generally interact with the surrounding area beyond murder fucking everything and unlock a door at the end. More importantly? I'd really like it if every player that comes through the stuff I build to have that same feeling of discovery, that holy shit moment when they figure out the puzzle and are able to progress.
Every builder is going to have their own artistic vision of how they want their content to turn out, it's our only chance to take you on a journey that is a little different from the normal smash shit and gain power  cycle that everyone is used to.
So if someone spent 6 months sweating over an extremely detailed zone, spends further time scripting and playtesting it to make sure it's the best that it can be and at the end turns around and asks that no one spoils it for anyone else, I'd have to respect the hell out of that.
It's an incredibly shit feeling watching someone who's obviously following a guide just shoot through something you've sweated over and they'll usually have the Gaul to make passive aggressive comments afterwards about how hard you made it for them to tick their tick box.
I've seen players that are terrible with quests that just so happen to be best in class when it comes to other aspects of gameplay. They may be PK demons, or fantastic group leaders but they realize they aren't the best when it comes to quest solving, but sometimes you're just not going to be able to win everything. Most of these people understand this... the rest resurrect the dead horse that's the gate keeping argument Ad nauseam.

Oh wow, the sound pack that I had was 145 MB, this one is 800. Well, let's give this another run, hope to see some of you on their.  As to the topic that's currently going on, I'll be the first to say that I know I'm going to run through an area, only looking at descriptions if I get stuck, but if I get stuck, I'll look through and then go wait, what else have I missed since I was just looking for the things I need to kill?

I feel like there's a lot of misunderstanding happening here.

First off, the over-the-top sarcasm doesn't work. I don't want everything handed to me. I am generally happy to grind a job till I get better abilities. I don't need to be spoon-fed, not by any stretch. As someone who actually enjoys quests myself, I would take it amiss if someone just blew through my area. Of course I would.
But you know what I'd like even less? Players leaving because info is gatekept arbitrarily. I would rather give them hints, or guide them very, very slightly, than lose them altogether. If they get a little help and reach the end, but do most of the work themselves, I'd be totally fine with that. Frankly, I care more about the big picture than about my own ideas of how you should play the game.

Listen, once you build that area and release it - and yes, I have built plenty on different games over the years, albeit not on MUDs specifically - your rights essentially end. The very act of submitting an area to go live states implicitly that you are turning it over for your players to enjoy. This means that your opinion essentially gets left at the door, at least as a tool for measurement. Oh yes, you have every right to get salty if someone tosses a bunch of your hard work out the window, but that does not, in my eyes at least, entitle you to just say "no, it's not allowed to discuss any aspect of quest info in this mud, period, because I want everyone to have the same experience I intended". Where does anyone get off telling me, or anyone else, how to game? That is simply not appropriate, and speaks to the elitism I spoke about previously. Players who want to experience the story just as you intended will do so. Players who need a nudge, in my opinion, should be able to ask in general non-spoilery tems, and if a player chooses to help out the struggling person quietly and without just putting a wrecking-ball to the content in question, I say what the heck is wrong with that? Why is it, exactly, that we are prioritizing the hard work of builders over the time spent by those who play? People often say that without a builder's hard work, there's no game. Quite true. But guess what? Without players, you have a game with nobody to play it. Which is more sad to you?

I want to point out, second of all here, that my opinions are being stated as a player of the MUD. I do not have to extend any especial professionalism, or withhold critical opinion, just because I'm staff. Now if I was spreading lies and slander, or roundly abusing their admin, or talking about how I cheat or some such? Then yeah, you have a point. But I'm bringing up a legitimate problem I have, and whether you agree or not is irrelevant. I have a right to state it, and to defend it, and that's what I'm doing.

Last point for now: there are actually a lot of aspects of this game that I like. I love missions, for instance (well, most of them), and I like that the jobs are being better balanced. Some still need work, but this is a question of slow progress and I can definitely be patient. The reason I might have seemed demanding about qinfo is because as far as the change goes, it takes no code tweaks, no changes to anything related to the quests themselves; all they'd have to do is post an update saying that qinfo is still to be kept quiet, but that it is acceptable to ask for general hints if you're really stuck, or to provide said hints in private. This would take, what, five minutes? I say do it already, but we've beaten that to death. Anyway, good points. I hear the militia has been resurrected, and that's awesome. I like that I can dive into games I thoroughly enjoyed as a young teenager. I feel a lot of effort has gone into the general quality of most areas; typos are rare and details are good. There's a lot of content that opens up when you become legend, and while I'd like to see a little more of that open up at, say, level 50, I like the overall concept. There are issues I don't like, but this is by no means a terrible MUD. I've never said it was. It is only frustrating and a bit archaic in some ways. Why else do you think I still keep tabs on it? I'm actually really picky about the MUDs I play, and this isn't one I've given up on. Let that sink in. I'm not just here to trash the game, and it is intellectually bankrupt to dismiss my opinions thus.

I like swordsman and monk or chemist because that gives you additional healing options.