Updates on Insomnia MUD

Halcyon, Leyreach and the faction seats

Sun, 08 Nov 2026 19:58:34 -0800

Halcyon (85-93) is the Ethereal’s home above Penumbra, where pilgrims are washed, weighed and made into light, and nothing comes down. Ballast, Clemency, Orison and Remorse are its rares.
Leyreach (85-93) is the Luminarium’s railway with no rails, pegged along the strongest leyline. Errata and Lodestar are its rares, and Apogee comes only at dawn.
Diamondine (89-97), the Duskwalkers’ seat, is the press at the bottom of Duskhollow and the hardest ground in the Expanse: bring a group. Lapidary’s Shadow, Anvil and Carat hold it.
Luxspire (92-97), the Luminarium’s seat, is a tower whose Stair costs more at every turn. Aspheron and the four masters keep its rooms, and Severin Hale reads the dawn at the top.
Perfection (92-97), the Ethereal’s seat, is one figure grown in living nacre, where every way of not being hit counts for half. Two twins rule it, and five more come when one falls.
The first playtest: the early levels are kinder. No corpse at level 5 and under, more practices to 30, faster sleep to 10, and easier casting to 24. Consider’s verdict is coloured, and every channel reads [Tag] Name.
Thieves hit harder with backstab and circle, spears are polearms, the staff skill is quarterstaff, and six new quarterstaves fill the gaps.
The Wild and Fever Dreams are denser, and the help files are rewritten: one entry a help, for every command, system, class and place.
Nightlite gets a map of the rooms you have seen, and a damage meter for your group.

Penumbra, Duskhollow and the factions

Mon, 02 Nov 2026 00:34:32 -0800

Penumbra (85-90) opens the Expanse: a half-lit borderland where the Duskwalkers, the Ethereal and the Luminarium hold three camps in a standoff. Five rings of worked stone, hidden in the world, are the way in. Three deserters are its rares: the Decurion of None, Clarity at the Gate and Adept Mirren Vole.
The factions: from level 85, standing with the Duskwalkers, the Ethereal and the Luminarium is earned by the kill, and rank opens each faction’s trinkets.
Duskhollow (85-90) is the Duskwalkers’ home below Penumbra, where everything an ascension sheds falls and nothing lands. The Eldest Brood and the Walker Who Asked are its rares, and Fear of the Dark comes only at night.
Announcements: five rare deeds are told to the whole game as they happen (announce turns them off).
Doors, locks and keys mended across 25 zones, and Gullet’s lighthouse has its key.
Every class of weapon has a trait of its own (help traits), and the weapons were audited, class, noun and flag.
On the website: Leaderboards and Lookup, straight from the game (leaderboard off keeps you private), the home page dreaming with the game, and Your first night for new players.

Lune, Gullet and achievements

Thu, 29 Oct 2026 20:35:36 -0700

Lune (45-60) is the moon above the Astral Plane, where hares pound sleep in stone mortars and the lorcs keep watch on the Lake of Death. Wane and Totality are its rares, and orcs are Watchful now: hard to put to sleep.
Gullet (55-70) is the inside of Pharos, a fish that passes for a lighthouse, where the modrons keep signalling to get out. Primus fights in two phases. The Plane of Nirvana is gone: Pharos ate it.
Achievements: badges for what you’ve done, on one seven-tier ladder from Copper to Radiant, shown on whois.
The food pass: 29 new foods and drinks in fourteen zones, and music for Glimmerfield and Steamvale.
Enchanting: one pick per enchantment, and your own gear shows its (+N).
Every creature in the world now belongs to one of 23 races.
Every room’s flags and terrain, and every creature’s behaviour flags, checked and fixed across the world.

Ofcol, Steamvale and the nightmares

Mon, 26 Oct 2026 23:17:35 -0700

Ofcol (5-48) is reworked: the town keeps a dragon asleep, the Golden Citadel is half again as big, and evil characters have the best hunting in the band. Argent and Aurenne are its rares.
Steamvale (25-35): the yetis’ hot springs, and the dead of a watch that never slept.
The Wild Dream, and two nightmares: the Blackout and the Hunger.
Restless: a subscription earned in play with dream points, never bought.
Gardening: fifteen plants, from Pip Larkin’s seed and from the wild.
The story begins: the first scene plays on your first night.
Login screens for phones, and animated login screens and a picture for every zone in Nightlite.
Thirty zone helps now give the walk from the Temple of Noctus.

Stats to 50, clans, weather and four zones

Sat, 24 Oct 2026 12:36:01 -0700

Stats run to 50: every race has new maximums, every class adds 2 to its prime stat, and the advanced and master classes add 1 more each.
The balance pass: every creature above level 50 and every piece of gear restatted, and 42 new pieces.
From level 60, alignment runs on a deeper scale, with gifts of its own at the far ends.
Clans: up to 64, founded by players, each with a tag, a colour, a channel, a treasury and a ladder of eight ranks. No player killing.
Weather: each zone has its own sky, with snow, thunder and a weather command worth typing.
Hunger and thirst matter again, and poison and envenom are reworked.
The Fever Dream and the Lucent Dream.
Mothwood (18-28), In the Air (26-29) and Glimmerfield (40-50) are new, and the Astral Plane (30-38) is reworked: its field is no longer a maze.
Pets are retired: charm person and dominate are gone, and saved pets were refunded.

Tomorrow, the Sanctum, Signet and Reverie, and music

Sun, 18 Oct 2026 11:10:13 -0700

Tomorrow (87-90) is the night below the Sanctum’s Closed Wing, kept an hour at a time from Midnight down to Five, with a Keeper at every door. At the bottom, the door to morning.
The Sanctum of the Sleepless (78-90) is the palace of the seven above Lethe’s Hearth: a wing for each god, and an Avatar that comes now and then to its Seat.
Signet (70-85) is the war college on the mountain east of the Dragon Tower, where candidates cross the Parapet and the dragons choose.
Reverie (66-72) is seven sealed dreams of the game, reached only through a painted window found in Dreamscape.
Music and sound: a title theme, a theme for every zone, combat music, and music for the dreams and the rare fights, played by Nightlite.
Nightlite’s web client replaces the old browser terminal at /play/, with a download page for Windows.
Creatures above level 50 now fight by class.
The website has a new look.

Canopy, Kadagru, Caldera, Dreamscape, and a third coin

Wed, 14 Oct 2026 13:12:10 -0700

Canopy (60-80) is a vast jungle of sixteen regions joined to Everwake and Hush, with Brann Coyle buying your finds and three rares: Sipsip, Wednesday and Xixitxachitl.
Kadagru (72-84), the City That Waits for Dawn, sits inside Canopy with its golem watch, shops, guilds, a second Questmaster, Aubade’s Dawn Shrine and the word of dawn, and Kazzrik fought in three phases.
Caldera (80-88) is a smoking island west of Canopy where lava burns anyone not attuned to it, dinosaurs race for the kalukalu, and Razortooth and Doomwing grow stronger by feeding.
Dreamscape (62-76) is Lethe’s orchard of forgotten dreams, islands in a sky that needs flight, where Aurelia’s death brings a dream and Nocturnelle waits.
Platinum joins silver and gold at 100 gold a coin: exchange it at the bank with deposit and withdraw, and shops pay large sums in it.
Every class and tier has its own title ladder, and each master class has a colour of its own.
Master classes now buy their spells in groups, and elementalists gain planar attunement.
Quifael’s, the Troll Den, Mega City One and Machine Dreams have been removed from the world.

Houses on Lantern Row and ten zones reborn

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 09:36:25 -0700

Lantern Row east of Temple Square sells houses in eight floor plans: buy one from Old Corvin, then use home and visit to get there.
Bram Holt sells furniture to place and lift in your house, including private storage, and Pip Larkin sells lampbloom seed to plant, water and harvest.
Ten zones have been treated: the Dwarven Kingdom, New Thalos, Drow City, the High Tower, Elemental Canyon, Dylan’s Area, Mahn-Tor, the Dragon Tower, the Descent to Hell and Olympus, each with new rooms and new rares.
Everwake (55-65) is a new connector south of Miden’nir, with a circle of standing stones, a healer who heals in its sleep, and Hask Pellam as its rare.
Affects is now one table showing every effect on you, including the flags your worn items grant, and dispel magic can now strip an item’s flag until you wear it again.
Six batches of fixes tidied master class mechanics, heals, gates, doors, zone text and help pages, and the new help rules lays out the game’s rules.

All sixteen master classes, and the 1.0 login

Sat, 10 Oct 2026 18:35:38 -0700

The mage’s four master classes are open: archmage, elementalist, warlock and enchanter.
The thief’s four master classes are open: swashbuckler, trickster, ninja and shadow.
Players above level 50 now deal damage that grows with their level, and monster hit points from 51 to 90 have been refit to match.
Eight new damage words between ERADICATE and UNSPEAKABLE show the harder hits above 50, and tags and prompt presets have a cleaner look.
New characters start with autoexit, autocoin, autoloot, autosplit and autoassist on, colour on and a ready-made prompt.
The 1.0 login welcomes returning players straight into the game, with one line for anything unread.

Master classes arrive, and the level cap opens to 90

Fri, 09 Oct 2026 08:35:14 -0700

The player level cap is now 90.
At level 50, a character with an advanced path can choose a master class at their guildmaster by typing master.
The warrior’s four are the paladin with a warhorse, the warlord with a war camp, the grandmaster and the berserker.
The cleric’s four are the saint, the oracle, the crusader and the inquisitor, and the saint can make holy water.
Every master class can also buy from a common pool of skills shared across all sixteen.

The advanced classes rebuilt, and a quest shop

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 11:02:55 -0700

Everything since v0.17.0: every advanced class rebuilt around one identity with a third ability of its own and a wider shared pool, specializing done the way creation is, a quest shop, buffs that can be recast, and Footfall and the Iron Eye calmed down.

Waking Dreams, five new zones, and the Sleepless give more

Wed, 07 Oct 2026 08:52:06 -0700

Everything since v0.16.0: Waking Dreams that take over the whole world, five zones for the long climb past 45, the first mega rares, Hush and its drowned physics, a second round of gifts from the Sleepless, and toughness and arcane reservoir at +5 a level.

New spells, the enchanting gamble, and a Questmaster with more to say

Sat, 03 Oct 2026 05:04:00 -0700

Everything since v0.15.0: eight new spells for casters past level 40, enchanting rebuilt as a gamble with a new accessory enchant, recharge that wears wands down, and contracts with pity for the unlucky and rare ones that pay double.

Contracts reworked, and one line per effect

Tue, 29 Sep 2026 01:21:25 -0700

Everything since v0.14.0: the Questmaster’s contracts rebuilt around the clock and the walk, abilities that say what they did in one line, a level-up banner, sorted skill lists, autocoin, and keys that survive logging out.

Levels to 99, and the Sleepless

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 20:42:31 -0700

Levels now run to 99, with immortals at 91 to 99, while the player cap stays at 51 for now.
From level 18 you can follow one of the Sleepless, Insomnia’s gods, earning favour by worship.
Favour climbs through tiers that unlock 21 gifts across the seven gods: help faith explains.

The website goes live

Sat, 26 Sep 2026 23:53:44 -0700

Insomnia now has a home on the web. Here’s what’s in the game today and what’s coming.

Advanced classes, eight races, seventeen spells

Sat, 26 Sep 2026 20:56:51 -0700

Everything since v0.11.0: all eight advanced classes, one experience curve for every race, seventeen new spells, every spell and skill checked against the code, and a smoother start for new characters.

One experience curve, and seventeen new spells

Sat, 26 Sep 2026 16:21:53 -0700

Every race and class now needs 2000 experience per level, and races are balanced on their stats, traits and skills alone.
Everyone gets 60 creation points (humans 70), and unspent points can be spent later with gain.
The yeti’s roar, the orc’s war cry and the fairy’s discern are new racial skills that work for any class.
Seventeen new spells, from banquet and hailstorm to mirror image and phantasm.
Every spell and skill was checked against what it really does, with dozens of fixes.
The scroll of identify sold in Vesper now identifies, and the magic shop sells a wand of appraisal.

Vesper reborn, a bank, and five rares

Sat, 26 Sep 2026 00:53:35 -0700

Vesper has been given a full treatment, and its bank takes deposit, withdraw and balance.
The Mud School, the Mob Factory with its new AI wing, and Thalos on its last night have all been reworked.
The Warren replaces the old arena dungeon.
The areas command lists every zone by group, filters by level and shows a card for each.
Five new rares roam the world, among them the Wolpertinger, the Golden Fist, Senior Director Randal and the Wimpiest Monster.

Documentation for gear tiers and rares

Fri, 25 Sep 2026 02:03:27 -0700

Behind-the-scenes documentation only, with no change to the game.

Three tiers of gear, rare spawns, and combat colour

Fri, 25 Sep 2026 01:53:51 -0700

Issue gear now comes in three tiers: standard, a premium set, and gear carried by captains and masters.
Rare monsters now spawn across the world, carrying named drops.
Wisdom now strengthens your healing and refresh spells.
Hit points, mana and regeneration per level were reworked.
Combat lines are plainer with coloured damage numbers, and score, who, exits, equipment and affects have a colour pass.
Clear cast now fires only on spells that landed, and silently.

A mage pass and three casting skills

Tue, 22 Sep 2026 00:10:10 -0700

Mages gain clear cast, quick cast and twin cast.
Intelligence now scales mage spell damage, and mages’ hit points, accuracy and mana were raised.

Gear above your level is kept

Mon, 21 Sep 2026 01:39:42 -0700

Gear above your level now stays in your inventory across logins instead of silently vanishing.

Drag, daze fixes, and the playing-time gate gone

Mon, 21 Sep 2026 01:29:23 -0700

The playing-time gate on experience is gone.
You can wear gear up to three levels plus a quarter of your level above your own.
The new drag command hauls a creature, or a player who cannot object, into the next room: type drag <character> <direction>.
Daze is now announced, and its spell penalty is a third.
Seventeen custom items that sat in the wrong wear slots were corrected, and hundreds of monsters no longer trip you by default.
Where now names the area you are in, and the game autosaves every tick.

The pantheon renamed, and Midgaard becomes Vesper

Sun, 20 Sep 2026 14:57:44 -0700

Midgaard is now Vesper, and the old Norse gods have been rethemed into Insomnia’s own pantheon.
New lore and hidden easter eggs have been woven through the world.

Chat replaces gossip

Sun, 20 Sep 2026 14:56:50 -0700

Chat replaces gossip as the main channel.
The auction, grats and quote channels have been retired, and channels now have their own colours.

Potions, scrolls and pills work again

Sun, 20 Sep 2026 13:01:31 -0700

All 136 potions, scrolls and pills that cast nothing now cast their spells again.

The quest system arrives

Sat, 19 Sep 2026 23:26:16 -0700

A Questmaster now hands out contracts to hunt named creatures for quest points and gold.
The quest system is Vassago’s classic 1990s snippet, kept for nostalgia.

Four new races and a hundred new items

Sat, 19 Sep 2026 23:18:46 -0700

Kobold, orc, fairy and golem are new playable races, and the giant has become the yeti.
Races can now differ in how much movement they gain.
A hundred new items are worn and carried by monsters across the world.
Object flags such as Cursed, Evil, Holy and Dark are shown in colour.

Colour, affect timers, and objects that finally reset

Sat, 19 Sep 2026 11:55:44 -0700

Room names, exits, tells, low hit points, deaths and level ups are in colour, and so is the login screen.
Affects now show how many ticks each one has left, to every level.
Objects now reload into rooms, fixing a 1998 bug that meant they never had.
A full set of sub issue armour now gives +2 to each stat.

Insomnia's login screen, scan, and damage numbers

Sat, 19 Sep 2026 01:03:10 -0700

A new Insomnia login screen greets every player.
Combat messages now show the damage each blow deals.
The scan command works, showing what is in the rooms around you.

A stock immortal account removed

Wed, 16 Sep 2026 21:57:22 -0700

The stock implementor character that shipped with ROM, with a crackable password, was removed.

The first build on a modern compiler

Wed, 16 Sep 2026 21:17:28 -0700

ROM 2.4b6 from 1998 builds and boots on a modern compiler and server.
All of stock ROM’s areas load, and new characters start in the Mud School.