NarutoMUD

First off - this should be posted on MUD Connector, but Gatz doesn't want Naruto MUD to be able to reviewed (they should IMO). Anyway I will do it here, even though this is less than neutral.

First impression - trying to log on:
I love Naruto, I got Austar (cable TV) so that I could watch it (its not shown on normal TV here), watched all 26 episodes, then looked everywhere to find more on the internet, and found episodes 27-126 of the American version on the internet, then episodes 127-220 (end) of the Japanese version with English subtitles, and 1-41 of the Shippuuden Japanese version with English subtitles, and all 3 of the movies (a 4th has been released, but it hasn't been dubbed and put on to the internet yet), and then I found the manga and read from Shippuuden 41 equivalent right through to the end - an extra 90 episodes. And then I started reading it again from the start, and watched the episodes from the start in Japanese. I did all of this. And, like many of you out of there, I really wanted to have as much to do with Naruto as possible. That's why I came to this MUD. Because its Naruto MUD. Because its the only Naruto MUD. And after all of that, I wasn't allowed to be me! I had to create a new character name, and went through all 12 of my regular MUD names - 2 of which are based after anime names - and none were allowed. Do you have any idea how annoying that is? I didn't even have a clue what kind of name to create. What a bad impression. And then I was left waiting for ages for an authorisation. Finally, after several months of trying, I was allowed in, but then forced to change my name as now it was too close to an existing character name (they didn't tell me which one - I didn't think it was close to any character names - like many things I was meant to just magically guess).

Second impression - finally in the game, trying to figure out what to do:
Once in the game, I opted to do the newbie area first, thinking it was most likely an easy exp area like newbie areas are on most MUDs. Wrong! You couldn't get exp anywhere in the newbie area, and after a few hours I figured out that there was nothing useful in there other than some tips for how to play. And then to get out I had to do one of the most complicated quests in the game! Granted it was a bit easier to figure out than other quests, but it had 6 parts! And you had to write it all down on a piece of paper just to have a hope of getting out. Then, once I finally got out, I had no idea what to do, and mistakingly thought that I was meant to go to the Academy (not realising that the newbie area was the Academy), and then had to do the quest again!

Third impression - meeting people finally and getting help:
I had to wait 5 annoying hours before I could use OOC. In theory there was a newbie command, but in my first 5 hours of playing I didn't once meet anyone with the newbie helper tag. Finally when I had OOC the first people that I met wouldn't even respond (perhaps they were busy?) Then the few that did were annoyed at my questions. I got to level 4 (dying about 10 times) through killing rabbits but had no idea how to train or practise anything or where to go to shops or what to do. One guy took me to a trainer then laughed at what an idiot I was and told me I was a loser for not figuring it out by myself. Shiro was nice enough to take me to the city and get me a lantern, but he got me lost more than anything too.

Fourth impression - finally, after perserverence finding this forum, and a newbie guide:
It isn't obvious from logging on to the MUD that this forum even exists. On Mud Connector there is a web page, with a link to the forum, but it doesn't take you to the forum itself, and is really unhelpful. But once I found it, I soon found a newbie guide, a map (!) and was set. From there things were pretty easy. But I kept thinking - why couldn't I have been told all of that to begin with? Why couldn't people have been more helpful?

Fifth impression - deciding that I personally will be more helpful to others than they were to me:
I took it upon myself to start being helpful to new players, so I went around helping anyone who was new, offering to group with them, talk to them, and so forth. I did it with lots of people, met many people, and we discovered things together. After doing this for a while, I thought that I would write a few things in my own newbie guide on here. As I am sure many other people have thought to do. I had originally planned it to just be one post, but of course I ended up replying to myself and it got too long. But I felt good about doing that, I backed it up by putting it in my profile, I OOCed to newbies that they could look at my newbie guide by typing finger ichike, and I went around and followed them and helped them out.

Sixth impression - getting replies and responses to my guide
Most people loved that I had a guide. Of course, some of the information that I picked up wasn't 100% right. Most people offered to help me to perfect the tiny little things with it. Some people, however, a tiny minority, decided to send me nasty messages about it. People like Hitoshi. They decided to tell me that I was WRONG. Now that's all fine over such things as my putting in that the Sound Village had bunshins when as I discovered they don't. But some of the things I was told were wrong weren't wrong at all. And whilst most of the messages were very positive, Hitoshi kept being nasty about it. It left a sour taste in my mouth, and made me feel like the guide wasn't appreciated, at least not by Hitoshi. Sadly, Hitoshi is one of the immortals (seemingly one of only 2) so his way goes, hence meaning that I might be forced to delete my guide.

Seventh impression - forced by Hitoshi to delete the guide
Now about 5 hours ago Hitoshi sent me a nasty message (in a tell) on the MUD to say that I had to stop being so nasty to people who told me how awful my guide was or else. And that I was wrong. And that my guide was completely and utterly useless and needed to be wiped. As you can imagine, this really upset me a lot. I had spent over 100 hours working on that guide. 100 hours of my time that I spent on trying to make this MUD better, on helping new people to enjoy it, so that the MUD would grow, and help everyone. And Hitoshi, and only Hitoshi, was destroying this. So I said to him "Okay you win, I will delete it" and so I did.

Eighth impression - Hitoshi sends me to hell - although apparently this is merely a coincidence
Officially I was sent to hell for botting. Botting? Oh, right, because I had written the guide, and spent 100 hours on it, while I was playing, and they define botting as when you are doing 2 things at once. Not actually a rule, but a good excuse for Hitoshi to use to ban me, so that he can look like a big man. Of course, I'm not actually banned. He just did it when my Wisdom was gained to 99.9%, 0.1% away from getting my first extra practise, what I had been aiming for for the past 3 days, just to hurt me. And now, he says, it is clearly obvious that I am to be banned. Not because I wrote a newbie guide, of course not. Although, in saying that, he did lock the guide post, and also he locked a Genin mission description post, which I didn't write, after changing it so that it looked like I had written it. I did write a reply with the 11th description. But that post had existed FOR OVER A YEAR. Hitoshi lied by pretending that I had written it to give away quest hints. Its not actually quest hints, its mission descriptions, which anyone could get by saying "mission one" once they get to Genin level (and before you get to Genin level, its useless to you). In other words, all that post did was so that people didn't have to write down the mission descriptions every time. But hey, Hitoshi is looking for dirt, trying to justify what he knows is his horrendous behaviour. Trying to hope that Gatz doesn't ban him...

Final impression - Naruto MUD hates to help people - thanks to Hitoshi
As with a lot of things, you can have a million fantastic things about the MUD, only to have it ruined by one person. In this case that one person is Hitoshi. Sadly Gatz is short on immortals (probably because of a lack of numbers) and Hitoshi is his only immortal (or at least seems to be), so he has to put up with it. Yet of course if they worked on being friendly to people, nice to newbies, and having guides and help and so forth, then they would get more people, more immortals, and they wouldn't need to have people behaving as badly as Hitoshi does.

It is a great MUD, but Hitoshi is an awful person. Sadly, while Hitoshi remains here, this MUD will never be what it could be, and will always be dominated by jerks and poor behaviour.

Right now we have 2 problems:
1) We should have a way to lsc all stats (at present we can effectively only train 4 - CON/DEX/INT/WIS - as STR training takes far too long and LCK training is only through answering questions, and CHA training is impossible)
2) Kata Hebi and Kata Tsuru (and other styles) don't do anything

This is a way to solve both problems with one solution - to introduce Kata Hebi and Kata Tsuru. Below are my thoughts as to which stats that each of the styles and forms should raise. Feel free to offer your own ideas and rationale for these styles and forms, and any other styles and forms (e.g. Panda style).

Existing:

Kata Kame Shell - Raises CON
Kata Kame Snapping - Raises DEX
Kata Kame Gentle - Raises DEX/CON
Kata Kame Great - Raises INT/WIS

Proposals:

Kata Hebi Viper - Raises LCK
Rationale: Vipers can kill instantly, and you need luck to get out of their way.
Kata Hebi Cobra - Raises LCK/DEX
Rationale: Cobras can kill instantly, and you need luck to get out of their way. You also need a lot of dexterity to avoid the spitting venom.
Kata Hebi Python - Raises STR
Rationale: Python means snake which is not poisonous, but they can be very large, hence you need strength to get out of their way.

Kata Tsuru Sleeping - Raises WIS/CON
Rationale: Sleep is in many ways like deep meditation, hence your wisdom increases as you sleep. You also rise from a sleep well rested, increasing your constitution.
Kata Tsuru Crying - Raises INT
Rationale: Crying is a very sad thing to do, but what does not kill you makes you stronger, and emotionally stronger is intelligence.
Kata Tsuru Eating - Raises STR/CON
Rationale: Eating raises your strength as well as your constitution, as the nutrients fill you up.
Kata Tsuru Flying - Raises CHA
Rationale: You look very good up there in the skies, and it raises your charisma.

Overall justification:

At present:

STR - pushup, situp & unarmed (all very slow)
INT - kata kame great (with wis), study, waterwalk
WIS - kata kame great (with int), meditate
DEX - kata kame snapping , kata kame gentle (with con), shadowbox
CON - kata kame shell, kata kame gentle (with dex), chakramold, treewalk
CHA - not possible
LCK - answering questions (very slow)

With my proposal:

STR - kata hebi python, kata tsuru eating (with con), pushup, situp & unarmed
INT - kata tsuru crying, kata kame great (with wis), study, waterwalk
WIS - kata tsuru sleeping (with con), kata kame great (with int), meditate
DEX - kata hebi cobra (with lck), kata kame snapping, kata kame gentle (with con), shadowbox
CON - kata tsuru eating (with str), kata kame shell, kata kame gentle (with dex), chakramold, treewalk
CHA - kata tsuru flying
LCK - kata hebi viper, kata hebi cobra (with dex), answering questions

Now we have addressed the issue of having no way to lsc charisma, and both strength and luck can reliably lsced when they couldn't before. It also gives a few useful combinations to lsc 2 stats at once.

During the Chuunin exam final battles, each contestant had a card that explained their level in the 5 disciplines - Taijutsu, Genjutsu, Ninjutsu, Blood and Ninja Tool (sometimes called Ninja Art). Naruto MUD to date only has 3 of these. I've listed blood examples, so I'll also go over Ninja Tools.

We don't really see a lot about the Ninja Tools, so its a bit difficult to do it. They always say "Ninja Art: <<<<>>>>" with whatever is in there. They seem to mostly be weapons or tools to use in some way.

Anyway I just thought I'd start a thread on it, for later expansion of the mud, if and when we decide to go beyond the 3 disciplines. Of course, given that Genjutsu is far from completed, its perhaps a bit early to be thinking too seriously about implementing things like this.

Summoning uses blood.

If you look at the Ninja cards (referred to as Bingo cards I think), in use during the Chuunin exam final battles, and later on when getting missions, they refer to 5 elements, one of which is blood.

All ninjas get summoning, but they only get one animal/type each.

Mind you, there are some characters that don't seem to have any summoning. I can go over them:

Kakashe - Hound
Naruto - Toad
Sasuke - Serpent?
Sakura - Leech?
Tsunade - Leech
Jiraiya - Toad
Shino - (none) (but he has bugs inside him)
Kiba - (none) (but he has a pet dog)
Hinata - (none)
Neji - (none)
Tenten - Weapons
Rock Lee - (none)
Chouji - (none)
Shikamaru - Butterfly? (seemed to be used when looking at Chouji)
Ino - Leech?
Shizume - Leech
Anko - Serpent
Gai - ??? - Hound?
The third hokage - Monkey
Orochimaru - Serpent
Asuma - ???
Kurenai - ???
One of the sound ninja 4 - Spider
Fourth hokage (in flash backs) - Toad
(Sand ninjas during big assault) - Serpent

Of course, those without summoning might get it later on. Medical Ninjas all seem to have Leech.

Perhaps I am wrong that that is what blood meant. However, they all use blood. And calling them Ninjutsu seems inaccurate, as you can only ever, in your entire life, summon 1 type of animal.

So actually there's also Spider and Monkey types as well as the ones I mentioned above. But we don't know enough about them to be able to make code, as in both cases they only ever summoned 1. The Spider laid eggs which hatched all over Neji, and the Monkey could turn invisible, but that still didn't help the 3rd Hokage.

In Naruto, there were 5 types of Jutsu, not 3:

Taijutsu
Ninjutsu
Genjutsu
Blood
Ninja Tool

Blood basically was summoning. From what we can tell, it involved signing a contract with an animal (although Ten Ten manages to summon weapons all of the time), and then the level of their skill in that area (and the higher their chakra) depends on how big an animal they can summon, and what they do.

Then, depending on your level in blood, and how much chakra you choose to pump in to the summoning depends on what you get for them.

Of course, all of these summons require a rather complex ritual to bind yourself to the animal, and then each time you need to use blood, which means that while they are summoned you lose health (1 hp per attack round) until they disappear. Summons have a limited life span however, which could be determined based on their level. Top level summons should last perhaps half a day game time at most. They can all of course be dismissed, and if they die then they disappear.

Examples:

Hound:
(this was Kakashi's summoning animal)
Tracking animals, which let you find out the exact directions to anything anywhere in the entire MUD. At later levels it lets him summon higher level animals, then even 7 at a time. None of them, however, are particularly good at fighting.

Toad:
Some of them give advice, while others fight for you. The highest level one, the Chief Toad, is massive and can seriously hurt. But some high level ones give bonuses to your skills too. Costs enormous amounts of chakra to use, however, and low amounts of chakra mean just toads that do stuff all.

Serpent:
(this was Orochimaru and his ex-student Anko's summoning animal)
Low level ones were hidden snake hands, to attack with pure damage. Higher level ones mean larger and larger snakes, including the ones that attacked Naruto in the Forest of Death, who have the chance to swallow an opponent. However, with snakes there is the chance that on summoning they will turn wild and attack the person who summons them. To appease them, they must be given sacrifices. So you must have killed a certain amount of people before you can summon each level snake. Whilst killing, you don't get Ryo for corpses anymore, because that goes to the Snake.

Leech:
Can heal people, cure broken ribs/arms and cure poison, and when summoned if it doesn't get killed, then it will slowly remove all of your damage. Unfortunately, they get killed easily and any enemies will try to kill your leech, so you have to protect them. Higher level leeches have more hps and can take more damage. Highest level leeches can even attack to a limit degree. Mostly a defensive type summon.

Weapons:
(Ten Ten style)
Lets you summon weapons to hurt someone for massive amounts of damage in a single hit. The higher the level summon, the more weapons you get and the harder you hit.

I'll do this one more completely.

Motsu (bind)

Level: 10
Chakra cost: 25
Rounds to create handseals: 2 (with mastery/soranjiru it can become almost instant)

Binds the target to the spot, unable to move for a period of time. Works like "stun" in other muds.

Rounds where they can't move: 3

Chance to fail: 100-(practised)% (i.e. at 50% practise, it can fail 50% of the time)
Chance to be resisted: Compare intelligence of each user. If victim has INT of +5 compared to culprit, then it will probably fail. If victim has a lower INT, it will almost certainly succeed.
Chance to be repelled: If have the skill yourself, can repel for 2x the amount of chakra (50) after 1 attack round. If have Genjutsu Kai, can release for 300 (?) chakra.

Osoreru (fear)

Level: 75
Chakra cost: 100
Rounds to create handseals: 3 (with mastery/soranjiru it can be down to 1/2)

Gives the victim the feeling that they are going to die. Can lead to them being unable to move for an extended period of time, or alternatively fleeing, but remaining in this state. This was what Orochimaru did to Sasuke during the Chuunin exams before putting the curse seal on him.

Rounds where they can't move / randomly will flee: 10
Chance to flee: 1/3

Chance to fail: 100-(practised)% (as above)
Chance to be resisted: (as above)
Chance to be repelled: (as above) plus if your INT is higher than the person creating the illusion you can also opt to do what Sasuke did and stab himself (cost 100 hp damage) to get out of it

(Note: Can only use once per battle, as the victim then becomes fearless)

Well I am not going to mention which mud, but at least one certain mud has an arena where you can have an all in brawl, and brawls by race and class and level and so forth. Not needing for it to be a quest. Village vs village could be good, and could be a good way to test out to make sure that each village is equal.

Okay here is how I envision it:

General
Upon successful completion of the Genin exam, every player gets 3 practise sessions and the opportunity to use 1 of these practise sessions to learn one of the 3 types of things:
- Heiki - use of an incredibly powerful weapon (not necessarily to hit people with)
- Akuma - use of a special demonic power, with negative cursed elements
- Kekkei Genkai - use of a special power

Each of these 3 types of things has 3 levels of activation:
Level 1 - activated when you practise it, for 1 practise point. A basic, simple level, which can be unpractised if you don't like it.
Level 2 - required for you to hold level 1 for 10 regular levels. A more advanced level of the skill. At this stage it cannot be unpractised, nor can any other skills be gained ever.
Level 3 - final stage. It requires you to be at Chuunin level to acquire.

Regardless of whether you believe that a skill like Sharingan is superior or inferior to other kekkei genkais, akuma or heiki, the reality is that with perserverence in the mud, we can make sure that they are all equal (yet different).

Justification
In the Naruto Anime, both in the English version (up to episode 125), the Japanese version (220 episodes plus 41 of Shippuuden) or the Manga (384 episodes), there are an enormously large numbers of kekkei genkai, akuma and heiki, to the level where it is reasonable to suggest that all high level ninjas (both heroes and villains) have one of these special skills. Whilst not all of them are officially kekkei genkai (some suggest that things like shadow possession jutsu are not kekkei genkai) they are all just as powerful as this. It is not the skill itself that makes it powerful, it is how it is used.

Some examples

Sharingan:

Kawa su (dodge) - costs 50 chakra to activate, then 5 chakra per attack round. Gives the chance to completely avoid some attacks, or lessen the impact of a powerful blow.

Utsusu (copy) - costs 50 chakra to activate, then 5 chakra per attack round - cannot be activated while kawa su or any other jutsu is activated. Will attempt to copy the non-unique jutsu (taijutsu, ninjutsu or genjutsu) of someone who they are fighting. Can only copy non-unique jutsu and only those which are 1/3 or less levels than that of the person who is copying it (i.e. if you are level 60, it cannot be higher than a level 20 jutsu). Does not learn the skill, only gives it as an option to then practise, costing a practise point, and practised in the usual way with handseals/shuuren etc. Has a maximum number of "copied jutsu" in this way equal to 1/10 of your level.

Mangekyo Sharingan (illusion genjutsu) - costs 2,000 chakra to activate and 5 chakra per attack round. When active, opponent must fight blind, with far lower chance to hit you, draining their stamina and reducing their hit rate. If they run out of stamina then it is successful and they are killed instantly. You, the Mangekyo Sharingan user, are drained of all remaining health, chakra and stamina (except for 1), thus meaning you can be killed immediately if this succeeds.

Akuma:

Fukkatu (Regeneration) - Automatically regains hitpoints much quicker than normal, broken arms heal faster. Can activate without handseals at a cost of 500 chakra.

Genki (Enhanced chakra) - Increases chakra at a faster rate than ikioidzuku, but pay for this by losing hitpoints while gaining chakra.

Chakra shield - Protects you from all attacks, causing serious damage to hitpoints while doing so.

Heiki:

(Using a chakra stealing sword as an example)

Nihontou (sword) mastery - Lets you and only you use the sword (you will have had to find the sword first). Will hit hard with this sword.

Chakra steal - When you hit someone, gives you a chance to also reduce their chakra (up to a point - they never lose all of their chakra)

Chakra siphon - When you hit someone, gives you a chance to also steal their chakra and give it to you (up to a point - they never lose all of their chakra, and you never go above your max chakra)

-----

Of course, you don't have to have things that are officially regarded as Kekkei genkai. There's also such things as Shikamaru's shadow possession jutsu:

Kagemane no Jutsu (shadow posession) - Costs 500 chakra to cast, 50 chakra per round to hold. Prevents a single opponent from moving or attacking. It then allows you to flee, or cast your own fresh jutsu or attack yourself. Nobody else can attack your opponent while you have them in a shadow posession. Can also get the person affected to do something for you. They do have a theoretical chance to flee, and there must be shadows (i.e. it won't work at night)

Kage Shibari no Jutsu (shadow imitation) - costs 500 chakra to cast, 50 chakra to hold, but can be cast on multiple persons at the same time (+100 chakra, +10 chakra to hold per person).

Kage Kubi Shibari no Jutsu (shadow neck bind) - Costs 1,000 chakra to cast, 100 chakra per round to hold. Chance to kill your opponent through choking.

-----

I know that some people are of the belief that it would dumb down the game to allow such things in to the game. But they are in Naruto, and not just for one or two characters. They are for everyone, once they get to a certain level. Not everyone has a special ability. Some people get a weapon. Others experiment with demons and manipulating the human body. But all of the top level people have something special.

We have a Genin exam, but no Chuunin exam?

In Naruto there was a Chuunin exam. Perhaps we can use that as a guide?

Stage 1: Written exam (assume that that actually counts) - make it harder than the one in the Genin exam, maybe with random questions, changing every so often.
Stage 2: Fight against other Chuunin candidates in the Forest of Death, to get a scroll off them. In theory this could be automated against NPCs.
Stage 3: Fight (in the arena) with other Chuunin candidates. Now that we have the arena, we can do this!

On Naruto it was every 6 months that they had one. And based on the quality of the fights (in the arena) the judges decided who would graduate as Chuunin - not purely based on who won or lost.

Is this why we created the arena? If not, well, I think it'd be great to have this opportunity.

Of course, there should be a minimum level. If Genin is min lvl 50, perhaps Chuunin could be min lvl 100? And to have completed all of the Genin missions.

Great idea isken!

If I can enhance on isken's idea, perhaps have:

Village vs Village arena battle (e.g. Leaf vs Sound)

and maybe make it for Students only/Genins only etc, as options.

Okay I am trying to get in to my head the difference between Medi-Nin and Monks - BOTH of which exist in the Naruto universe (as do Samurai).

Medi-Nin first and foremost are healers.

I would suggest something like this:

Level 1 - heal - use chakra and stamina combined to heal, very light wounds only. No need for hand signs, but is a ninjutsu.
Level 5 - heal self - can use the chakra and stamina combined to heal yourself, even mid fight.
Level 10 - regenerate - own body (hps) can heal by itself
Level 15 - heal - use chakra and stamina combined to heal greater wounds / also on yourself
Level 20 - chakra regen - can regenerate chakra by itself - if not doing anything else
Level 40 - stamina regen - can regenerate stamina by itself - if not doing anything else
Level 50 - cure poison - can cure poison from someone
Level 60 - chakra donate - can give chakra to another person
Level 70 - stamina donate - can give stamina to another person
Level 80 - Power hit - strong hit using lots of chakra that hits seriously hard, but can be dodged relatively easily. Can also be used to open locked doors.

Now, as for Monks, its a different story entirely. Some of the same skills, but in a different order and with different reasons. I would suggest something like this:

Level 1 - meditation - ability to regenerate chakra/stamina/hps more quickly
Level 5 - studying - ability to learn new skills (lsc) more quickly
Level 10 - block - ability to block a blow from an opponent
Level 20 - lay hands - lay hands on a friendly person, donating your chakra/hps/stamina up to 50% of their max and losing no more than 50% of yours
Level 30 - vanish - can flee to randomly up to 5 rooms away
Level 40 - set anki / anki - monk's own version of anki, which sets any room as the anki point, up to them
Level 50 - prayer - blesses self / a friendly person to give them + hr/dr
Level 60 - pole bash - ability to hit and possibly stun an opponent using your pole

Similarities I guess, but they are different professions. Monks are meant to basically be students, not fighters, who only fight to defend the faith, and who should have good defensive skills. Medi-Nins occasionally are out battling.

Long ago in Ancient Japan people only ate rice. Rice was rather bland, but it was nutritious and it kept everyone healthy. Vegetables and meats were added to the rice to make it more interesting. Then one day they invented noodles, and on that day everyone rejoiced, because their meals were no longer as bland.

Seeing this trend towards more interesting cooking, a clan called the Ramen clan decided to do something more exciting with the noodles, and they invented a tasty treat, naming it after themselves, and calling it "Ramen". This treat was basically a soup with noodles and various other foods in it.

The Ramen clan became wealthy through their invention, and opened up various stores throughout the world, and many of their members became Cooking Ninjas (cooking-nins). However, they were very reluctant to let any of their own people become fully fledged "true" ninjas, for fear that they might not be able to cook, or make money for the family.

Finally it was decided that the 1st born son of the 1st born son, going back 100 generations would be named "Ichike", and he would have the opportunity to try out as a ninja.

Ichike of course was quite excited at the opportunity given to him, but is always tempted to go back to the family business of Ramen making and cooking generally.

I have a few ideas here.

1. At start of battle, everyone has full HPs/Chakra/Stamina (and remove any Immortal bonuses they may have been given)
2. At the end of the battle, everyone has full HPs/Chakra/Stamina again
3. No exp gained or loss during battle (or eq lost)
4. People can view the battle (for a price - perhaps 5 ryo per battle?) - then they can see at least how many hps/chakra/stamina each person has at any point during the battle. Perhaps for a higher price they can even see through their eyes (whenever they wish to look).
5. Anyone in the battle has OOC disabled for the duration of the battle (although they can hear them)
6. Results of the battle appear in a different colour to anything else, and we can see them really obviously.
7. (Betting is really good as is and should stay like that)
8. The ranks should be more flexible than 1-100, 101-200, 201+ given that the highest ranked person on the mud is not yet level 200 (Shino is only 126 or so I think). Perhaps they should be more like Student, Genin and Chuunin ranks instead.
9. (Long term) there should be the possibility to have 2 or more people in the arena on the same team. 2vs2, 3vs3, or 2vs1 and 3vs1 as well, if specifically requested. For example 3 low level shinobi challenge 1 high level shinobi (or vice versa).
10. The option to put up a prize for the winner, as decided by the contestants (e.g. "I will fight you for this necklace versus your headband").
11. Everything that can work in game should work in the arena. No rules in that regard.
12. If you die from stamina stun or chakra stun YOU ARE DEAD and the other player/team is the winner!

Good idea though.

[Admin Edit: Please just edit your posts and not post multiple times when your posts are just back to back. Also, this isn't the correct spot for bug posts. Please don't mix bug reports and development suggestions.]

When I first found the mud, I used my usual mud character, and they wouldn't let me on - I was booted from the game - and yet I was the only person on the mud. After that I tried 3 or 4 more times before someone gave me a hint, that I had to use a "Naruto theme" name. I didn't understand what that meant, but then I remembered the names on Naruto, and of course the basic sounds of names in Japanese. So if I just got a sound from one name and a sound from another, I'd be fine. So I thought to make Ichiramen, to mean the number 1 Ramen eater, in honour of Naruto's play on words with so many of the characters. This was denied as it was too close to one of the character names. I couldn't think which one, so I just made it Ichike, and that was accepted. It turns out that Ichiraku Ramen is a name, I'd forgotten that one! Anyway.

So then after all of that effort, I was very thankful to be able to be let in. Then of course I am stuck in the stupid newbie area. Not your average EASY AS YOU LIKE newbie area that you see in most muds, where you can easily get 5 levels in about 10 seconds. This was a challenging area, which forced you to look through. I went through a whole login and didn't get out. Thankfully it saved my character! Then I went in a second time and then a third, then finally I found the right area, and I wrote some notes for what to do, and what phrases to say so that I could do it all. It took me a good 2 or 3 hours to get out of there. Then I didn't know what to do. I stupidly said to go back to the academy and had to do it all over again! LOL!

Then I went around and killed a rabbit, and was very excited! Then I tried a deer, and got killed! Then I kept doing that, and finally got to level 2. Wow that felt so good getting to level 2! But then what do I do? Why are my stats 5? Why am I only 6 years old?

Shino (newbie helper) was really helpful, but most of the time I was alone, and when I finally got OOC most of the characters I talked to totally ignored me and if they did say anything it was really nasty.

But the thing is that making things difficult and unfriendly to newbies it makes people want to try harder. And then the thing is that there are going to be some people who are so annoyed at how unfriendly it is to newbies that they are going to go out of their way to help newbies.

There have been some easier periods of the game, and some harder periods, but making it tough makes it good.

Leaf whirlwind - this is by Rock Lee, but also used by Gai Maito, and I think Kakashi (and maybe others) have used it too. Should be about level 60 or so, very powerful twirling kick that has the potential to stun an opponent. Of course this should be a leaf-only technique.

The secret technique (for the life of me I can't remember its name) - also by Rock Lee, as taught by Gai Maito. Should be even higher, so perhaps level 80 or so, far more powerful technique that takes 3 or 4 turns to build up, does enormous damage, but then for 20 turns afterwards the person doing it has their armour class seriously damaged, and can barely move. Will reduce their stamina to 0 instantly, but requires a huge amount just to be able to use it, drops all stats by 5 each for 20 turns. Will have to wait for stamina exhaustion to kick in just to be able to move. (Sounds awful, as it is in the game, but would be a move you could use to instantly kill someone)

I don't know if it is worth considering having some of the taijutsu skills of someone like Chouji's body enlargement and cannon ball things, as they seem to require chakra and handseals to cast anyway.