Area Building Pointers
We always welcome growth to our world, and encourage those of you with vision
to build an area! Following are some important starter tips which should be
read before you begin building. Implementing your area will be much quicker
if you apply each of these points to all rooms, mobs, and objects before
submitting the first draft to the area specialist. If it is apparent that
these points have not been applied, the file will simply be returned to you
for the appropriate revisions.
Before you begin:
1. Every room, mob, and object in the mud has an identifying number. These
are referred to as VNUMs (Virtual Numbers). Ask the area specialist
which VNUMs to use for your area. Failure to do so could result in hours
of work re-numbering each and every room, mob, object, and reset!
2. Plan your work, then work your plan. Draw out your area on a piece of
paper. (A grid of squares works nicely.) Note the vnums, room names,
exits, mobs, and objects you want in each room. This will help to avoid
confusion and provide an easy reference guide once you have begun building.
This will also come in handy should you decide to include any maps in your
area.
3. Remember Continents is set in the medieval time period. Modern day
conveniences do not exist.
4. Building an area is a lengthy, time-consuming project. Do not plan on
having your area implemented within a day or two. Larger areas contain
many details and require hours of review and often revision. Do not become
discouraged by this, as it is quite common even with the most experienced
builders. Your area will be seen by many over the years to come, and having
it done really well should be far more important than having it done quickly.
Grammar, Spelling, and Punctuation:
1. Remember to use correct punctuation when referring to an object or an area
that belongs to a group of people. For example, member's indicates one
member, and members' indicates belonging to a group of members.
2. If you have capitalized a room or object name in one place, capitalize it
in all occurrences.
3. When referring to someone's title, spell out the words.
Example:
Second in Command (not 2 in Command)
4. Northeast, northwest, etc are one word.
5. Then and Than - Then refers to a period in time, while than is used in
comparisons.
6. Try to avoid sentences which end with a preposition or prepositional
phrase. Watch for words as phrases such as:
- here, in, there, inside, for, at, to, under, over, of, then
- of them, by his appearance, on his own, on its side, in his eye,
from the table.
7. Avoid redundancy.
Example:
The large Orc is large and has large teeth. Judging by the looks of his
large teeth, he is a meat eater. You can tell he is angry by judging the
look on his face.
8. Copy and paste each room in a spell checker. I suggest the following site:
http://www.wellborn.net/spell.html
But remember, a spell checker finds misspelled words only. It will not
tell you if a correctly spelled word has been used incorrectly.
Examples:
-Their- were many visitors in -there- home.
-Won- of the cabinets displays a trophy which was -one- by the team.
Room Descriptions:
1. On average, room descriptions are about three sentences long.
2. Remember that most rooms can be entered from more than one direction.
Be sure all room descriptions take this into account.
Example:
As you leave the dark forest, you enter a beautiful clearing.
(Perhaps they just came from another part of the clearing)
3. A room description is supposed to paint a picture in the reader's mind.
It should describe the room, and perhaps give hints of exits, but should
not be used to describe mobs or objects.
Try to give the readers a clear and interesting visual image of the room.
For example, rather than simply stating that the reader is in a long
hallway, tell the reader what they can see in the hallway. Are there rugs
on the floor? Pictures on the walls? Is there any furniture? Compare this
to reading a really good book. What if you turned the page and it read:
"You are looking at a page in a book. You can turn to the next page, or
go back to the previous page." :)
4. Resets (meaning things which will periodically 'reset' to their original
state or location) should be not be mentioned in room descriptions.
Example:
"The shop is neat and tidy. A fire burns merrily in a stone fireplace.
A large sword lies on the table. Harry, the shopkeeper, is here to
assist you."
A large sword lies here.
The sword, an actual object in the room, may have been taken by another
player, making the room description incorrect. And the shopkeeper may
have just been attacked and is now off chasing his assailant or perhaps
even dead - in either case, the statement, "Harry, the shopkeeper, is
here to assist you." would not be true.
5. The mention of objects which are not actually in the room and, therefore,
not things which could be removed, are fine. In such cases, the use of
extra descriptions is a great way to provide the reader with more
details of a room.
Example:
You are in a large library. Ceiling to floor shelves are stocked with dusty
books. A long table sits in the middle of the room. A sign is on the wall.
Key word: sign
Extra description: This library was founded by Smaug and contains only
books about dragons.
Key word: books
Extra description: The books are bound in leather and covered with dust.
Each has a strange symbol its binding.
Key word: symbol
Extra description: ~*^S^*~
Key word: table
Extra description: The heavy table is made of very dark wood. Some words
have been etched into the table's surface.
Key word: words
Extra description: Smaug was here!
6. Room names and room descriptions are not to be in color. If you would like
to highlight a key word in the room description to lead the reader to the
extra description, use the standard object color (green).
Example: &gbook&X
(&g begins the color, &X returns the remaining text to the standard color.)
If the name of a player/char is mentioned in the text, it may be colored in
bright blue only.
Example: &BRudder&X
It is fine to use other colors in extra descriptions.
See help colors (in the mud) for a complete list of color codes.
7. References to exits can be made within the description of the room.
This allows the room to become more interesting while providing direction
for the reader and perhaps give visual hints about hidden exits.
Example:
The heavy wooden doors to the east and west shield the offices that lie within.
8. A description should be available to the reader when they look in any
direction. Often, the reader is supplied with more information by using look.
Example:
When a reader types "exits" he or she may see:
South - A clearing
North - The dark forest
When a reader types "look south" he or she may see:
A path to the castle has been cut through the clearing.
9. Avoid using "I" in reference to you, the writer. This is not a story written
in first person.
Examples:
I hope you can find your way out of this maze!
I wonder which road you will choose.
10. Avoid making references to the physical or mental condition of the reader,
and references to the time of day.
Examples:
You are standing in a field. (The reader could be flying.)
The Minotaur towers over you! (The reader could be a Giant or an even
larger Minotaur.)
You are scared. You want to run away! (Perhaps the reader is a level 68
in an area that is graded levels 5 - 30. They aren't going to be very afraid.)
You find yourself in water up to your waist. (a dwarf in the same situation
may be up to his neck, while it may not even come up to a giant's knees.)
The sunlight streams in through the window. (It may be night.)
Dynamic descriptions are available if you wish to have an active description.
Please see more detail about DDs in the area building section of the
Continents web site.
Mobiles:
1. Shopkeepers who are meant to stay in a shops, must be set as 'sentinel'.
Some shop mobs, like Dave the Dealer, are meant to wander around while
selling their goods. These would be set to 'stay in area'.
2. Any mob that will be selling items has to be set to shop.
3. All shopkeepers need to have a selling price for their inventory. Each
object has an appraised value. If the shopkeeper sold his/her wares at 100%
of the appraised value, they would make no profit. By setting the sell price
to 105%, the shopkeeper earns a 5% profit. Should your shopkeepers be set to
purchase objects from players, the purchase price would be less than the
appraised value in order to make a lager profit when the item is sold. Thus,
the purchase price would be set to 70% or 85%, depending on how greedy your
shopkeeper is.
4. When choosing key words (which are words use to look at or kill the mob),
remember that the only way a reader has to identify a mob is by reading the
mob's long description. Therefore, some of the key words need to be included.
Examples:
Short description: an old wizard
Long description: An old man dressed in very strange clothing is here.
Description: The wizard has a long beard and a tall pointed hat.
Key words: man wizard
5. Key words and short descriptions should all be in lower case letters, with
the exception of proper names in short descriptions.
6. A short description does not end in a period.
7. Long descriptions should be complete sentences, therefore, they should begin
with a capital letter and end with a period.
8. Do not use color codes in mob names or descriptions. They will automatically
default to the standard mud color.
Objects:
1. Keys which will reset should be set to type 'key'. These will not be
savable items in a player's inventory. Keys for personal use should never
reset, and should be set to type 'treasure' in order to be savable in a
player's inventory. (personal use items will be limited to Imms who are
building clan areas)
2. When choosing key words (which are words use to look at objects), remember
that the only way a reader has to identify an object is by reading the
object's short or long descriptions. Therefore, some of the key words need
to be included in these descriptions.
Example:
Short description: a pair of black boots
Long description: Here lies a pair of black boots which have been
inlaid with small sapphires.
Description: The boots appear to have some magical glow
surrounding them.
Key words: boots black sapphires
3. You may wish to disguise some objects in order to increase the difficulty
of its discovery. For example, a player may be sent on a quest that requires
him or her to gain entrance to a locked room. The key to the room may be
disguised as something quite out of the ordinary, in which case an extra
description could be used in conjunction with the key word.
Example:
Short description: an apple
Long description: A shiny red apple lies here.
Key word: apple The reader would see:
The red apple looks very delicious.
Extra description: key The reader would see:
You see an key shaped like a apple.
Personalized items such as keys will are only allowed to the clan master
of the clan area.
4. Any object intended for a player to take and hold/wield/wear has to be
checked as "take" plus the location that the item is to be worn.
5. Key words and short descriptions should all be in lower case letters, with
the exception of proper names in the short descriptions.
6. A short description does not end in a period.
7. Long descriptions should be complete sentences, therefore, they should begin
with a capital letter and end with a period.
8. Do not use color codes in object names or descriptions. They will
automatically default to the standard mud color.