Difference between revisions of "Area Style Guide"
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| − | + | =Area Style Guide, 2nd Edition= | |
| − | + | ==I. Overview== | |
| − | + | ::Welcome to the Area Style Guide, originally written by Iandir and updated | |
| − | + | : by Dovolente. This guide is intended to a) Help new writers find out what we | |
| − | + | : expect of them, b) Give the areas of Avendar a consistent tone/mood/feel, | |
| − | + | : c) Aid builders in thinking up areas. | |
| − | + | :: Many of these points will seem minor, or pointlessly strict. What we're | |
| − | + | : aiming for here is to maintain the quality of Avendar and increase it. Minor | |
| − | + | : sloppy points make the MUD look bad. Many of the founding staff endured years | |
| − | + | : of MUDing on very poorly-written MUDs; if you think no one cares whether all | |
| − | + | : the room titles match, you're wrong. | |
| − | + | ::Anyway, on with the pretentious and pedantic Area Style Guide! | |
| − | + | ==II. Area Design== | |
| − | + | ===A. Area Concept=== | |
| − | + | ====1. History==== | |
| − | + | : One thing that's important is that an area is well thought-out. This | |
| − | + | : means having some kind of story to the area, a history behind it, and a | |
| − | + | : purpose for each room. The history doesn't have to be complicated: | |
| − | + | : Krilin Fortress was built by Baron Krilin to protect the people of the | |
| − | + | : mountain community after their city was destroyed by hill giant raiders. | |
| − | + | : After the fortress was built, they conducted several campaigns to wipe out | |
| − | + | : the giant menace. Now the fortress has become the city, for the safety of the | |
| − | + | : people, and Baron Krilin leads them. | |
| − | + | : A very simple story that adds a nice feel to the area, and gives it a | |
| − | + | : purpose. Iandir could have just as easily said "Well, it's just this fortress, | |
| − | + | : and everyone like lives in it and stuff." But that's not as cool. | |
| − | + | : An area that's not planned out will usually have things that don't fit, | |
| − | + | : or don't feel right. For example, one builder had a forest with a garden in | |
| − | + | : the middle of it. Who put the garden there? Why would there be a garden in | |
| − | + | : the middle of the woods? When asked to explain these, it became obvious that | |
| − | + | : he had not thought the idea through. | |
| − | + | : Something that the development staff expects to see are areas the build | |
| − | + | : on the specific history of Avendar. Read through the MUD history, look at | |
| − | + | : texts in the Earendam library or entries in the Canon. At this point (Feb 08) | |
| − | + | : we still need an aelin home area (Ilodaiya? -- and even if we get one for each | |
| − | + | : race, why not two?) For more specific inspirations, read all the pillars/mob | |
| − | + | : descs in the Titan Castle. | |
| − | + | : Or, many of our writers come up with ideas that are completely new but still | |
| − | + | : build on the universe. Melikor came up with the idea for a tower of fire | |
| − | + | : mages that lost control of their magic (or something) and their souls got put | |
| − | + | : into the bodies of fire elementals. A great idea! (He left before he built | |
| − | + | : much, but Iandir still hopes to do that tower someday.) Nordath and Arisuth are | |
| − | + | : good examples of fresh but fitting Avendar concepts. | |
| − | + | : Areas that don't specifically build on the world history (example, my | |
| − | + | : monastery) were OK as the rough form of Avendar took shape, but after a decade | |
| − | + | : of development and lore, there's no excuse for writing an area that is disconnected | |
| − | + | : completely from the lore and backstory of Avendar. | |
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| − | + | ====2. Area Originality and Tone==== | |
| − | + | : Make sure that the area fits in with the feel of Avendar, as well. For | |
| − | + | : one thing, we don't want areas that are based on a fantasy novel, movie, | |
| − | + | : comic book, or anything. Inspired by, sure. Many of our areas will have the | |
| − | + | : same tone as, say, Tolkien, but we will disallow areas that have Bilbo, | |
| − | + | : Sauron, or Gandalf. | |
| + | : Furthermore, many times the area won't be the right mood, even if it | ||
| + | : doesn't directly take from a series. One builder wanted to make a Ravenloft- | ||
| + | : like area, but early implementors agreed that it really didn't go well with | ||
| + | : our other areas. Be sure to run your idea by some of the senior staffers (Chadim, | ||
| + | : Kestrel, Dovolente, Ramc, Girikha) before you get too excited about it. | ||
| + | : Original, fresh ideas that build on the fantasy landscape are superior | ||
| + | : to boring, unoriginal ideas. (Although some of the old standbys are always | ||
| + | : good.) For example, it would have been OK for Avendar to have a cave system | ||
| + | : inhabited by gnolls. But to go on and add a cave system inhabited by goblins | ||
| + | : too... that's a standby, but in this example we already have something like | ||
| + | : it. We would want something more original, like Iandir's chaja caves. | ||
| − | + | ====3. Area Location in Avendar==== | |
| − | + | : Make sure that we have a place to connect it in the world. Before you write | |
| − | + | : it, you should know where it goes in relation to existing areas and how it might | |
| − | + | : connect to them. Talk to senior staffers about where we could fit your area, and | |
| − | + | : if there's nowhere, maybe you could write a connecting area just to lead up | |
| − | + | : to your main area (like the Vorinden Road and Kor Thrandir). | |
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| − | + | ====4. Types of Areas==== | |
| + | : There are several basic types of areas. You have to decide which your | ||
| + | : area is. The question at hand is, why would adventurers want to go into your | ||
| + | : area? For most areas, the amount of traffic they get determines how | ||
| + | : successful the area is. (Although some areas aren't meant to be heavily | ||
| + | : traveled.) The area types are basically different reasons for folks to go | ||
| + | : into an area. The types may be mixed, and usually a successful area either | ||
| + | : does more than one of these, or does one extremely well. Area types: | ||
| + | : '''a.''' The City. People come here because it's their hometown, to buy things, to | ||
| + | : practice, or to cower in their guilds. | ||
| + | : '''b.''' The Ranking Area. People come here because it's got good ranking mobs. | ||
| + | : '''c.''' The Equipment Area. People come here to kill the mobs for their eq. | ||
| + | : '''d.''' The Linking Area. People come here because they want to go somewhere | ||
| + | : connected to the area. | ||
| + | : '''e.''' The Quest Area. This is usually a rarely-traveled area with some really | ||
| + | : deadly stuff, used as a base for quests, or to hide really tough eq. | ||
| + | : Some examples. The Griffin Aerie is intended as a ranking area. It can | ||
| + | : also be used to link some air-type areas later. It's also got some rare | ||
| + | : equipment. Krilin: City, Ranking, Equipment. Chaja Caves: Ranking, Equipment, | ||
| + | : Linking. Some plain old linking areas are the roads and the rivers (which | ||
| + | : by modern standards are very basic and wouldn't be acceptable without a | ||
| + | : lot more development). | ||
| + | : So, plan ahead which types of area you want yours to be. Remember it's | ||
| + | : better to make it have more than one function. There are several areas we | ||
| + | : have right now that no one hardly EVER visits, because they don't serve the above | ||
| + | : purposes. | ||
| − | + | ===B. Plan Your Area=== | |
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| − | + | ====1. Area Map==== | |
| − | + | : You should map out your whole area on graph paper before you begin, and | |
| − | + | : be sure that you have everything where you want it before you dig. It's | |
| − | + | : annoying to see someone dig a 150-room area and then say "Can we delete this, | |
| − | + | : I did it wrong." Well, either plan it out meticulously before you dig a single | |
| + | : room, or look foolish and get used to unlinking rooms. (In the 20 areas Iandir | ||
| + | : planned/dug, he never changed the layout of one once it was dug.) | ||
| + | : So map that baby out, and then number each room. For ease of writing in | ||
| + | : tiny squares, I just number each room 01, 02, 03, and so on. If my vnums are | ||
| + | : 1500-1599, I can just mentally add the 15 when I dig. (If I have more than | ||
| + | : 100, I use 2 digits for the first 100, then go 601, 602, 603 for the second.) | ||
| + | : Also be modest with the size of the area. Areas with 50-100 rooms are | ||
| + | : good for new builders (and old builders). Trying to tackle enormous 300-room | ||
| + | : monstrosities can be overwhelming and drain one of energy and enthusiasm. | ||
| + | : Insanity lies that way. | ||
| − | + | ====2. Area Realism==== | |
| − | + | : As you plan the area on paper, try to think of the way a real building | |
| − | + | : would be laid out, or how a real landscape would be formed. Avoid pointless | |
| − | + | : hallways, or rivers that flow uphill, and so on. Don't get obsessed with | |
| − | + | : this, but do pay attention to it. | |
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| − | + | ====3. Room Realism==== | |
| − | + | : As an extra, it's nice to have some realistic rooms. If I made a | |
| − | + | : gigantic castle with no living quarters, kitchens, nothing, one would have to | |
| − | + | : wonder where all the inhabitants actually live. But please don't go overboard | |
| − | + | : on this, building in 100 bedrooms, 2 kitchens and 3 dining rooms. It's just | |
| − | + | : nice to have *some* realism. Too much will make your area needlessly huge, | |
| − | + | : and boring to boot. Not every area needs a kitchen! | |
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| − | + | ====4. Noexits and Traps==== | |
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| − | + | : Make lots of nasty traps, if it suits your area. But limit the use of | |
| − | + | : noexit rooms. Noexits should really only exist if there's some type of puzzle | |
| − | + | : or quest or mechanism to escape. | |
| − | + | : ALWAYS put warnings before traps or noexit rooms. Nothing is worse than having | |
| − | + | : an inviting passageway that suddenly traps you for no reason. The idea here | |
| − | + | : is to reward people who are careful in their explorations, and punish people | |
| − | + | : who charge recklessly around. There should usually be something in the room | |
| − | + | : desc that hints to what's ahead, or at the very least an exit description. | |
| + | : (look west, "The ledge looks weak to the west") | ||
| + | : Norecall, nogate, nosummon and nomagic rooms had better have a good | ||
| + | : reason for these properties. Rooms that have no possible way of escape, | ||
| + | : ever (noexit AND norecall or nomagic) shouldn't exist. If you have a great | ||
| + | : reason for a ton of noexits, ask senior staff about it. | ||
| − | + | ====5. Mazes/Randomized Rooms==== | |
| + | : Mazes are ok as long as they're not overdone. Ask us if your maze is | ||
| + | : worth having randomized. Don't make them too hard, unless it's a high-level | ||
| + | : area or an area that's supposed to be a real pain to get into. (A newbie area | ||
| + | : with a 15-room maze is way overdone. Newbies have problems with a 4-room | ||
| + | : maze, and even one randomized room can baffle a newbie. :P) | ||
| − | + | ====6. Area Credits==== | |
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| − | + | : To set the credits, first, aedit your area. Then type | |
| − | + | : "credits {lo hi} Immname Area name". The spacing should not vary | |
| − | + | : from this format. lo/hi = lowest levels that can go there, highest levels | |
| + | : that benefit from the area. Start of the area name should be 10 spaces from | ||
| + | : the start of the immname. Just type "areas" for countless examples. | ||
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| + | ==III. Room Descs== | ||
| − | + | ===A. Basics=== | |
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| − | + | ====1. Length==== | |
| + | : Room Descriptions should be at least 3 lines, and less than 15 lines. | ||
| + | : Too short, and it looks like the area was slapped together with minimal | ||
| + | : effort. Too long, and your writing needs to be more concise. | ||
| − | + | ====2. Spelling/Grammar==== | |
| − | + | : Rooms should be meticulously spellchecked. Spelling errors make our | |
| − | + | : glorious MUD look like trash. Likewise with grammatical errors. | |
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| − | + | ====3. Room Names==== | |
| − | + | : The room name should be capitalized like the title of a book, with the | |
| − | + | : first word and all major words in caps. Example: "The Lair of the Ice | |
| − | + | : Wizard". Also, every room name should composed so that it could complete the | |
| − | + | : sentence "Iandir is standing in/on/at __________". (A redundant in/on/at is | |
| − | + | : ok, but not required.) | |
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| − | + | ===B. Content=== | |
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| − | + | ====1. Originality==== | |
| − | + | : Be creative in describing a room. People get tired of repeatedly reading | |
| − | + | : "to the north is a hallway, to the west is a large alcove, and to the east | |
| − | + | : is..." | |
| − | + | ====2. No Narrative==== | |
| − | + | : Narrative in a room desc is a bad thing. What do we mean by narrative? | |
| − | + | : Narrative is a) Telling the player how she feels as she walks into a room, | |
| − | + | : b) Telling him what he's thinking, c) Describing a specific action that's | |
| − | + | : taking place. An example of a and b: | |
| − | + | : "You stand in a dark and scary room. You are very frightened as you look | |
| − | + | : around, and you edge toward the door out. You almost panic as you twirl | |
| − | + | : around and find it gone!" | |
| + | : What if I'm playing a character who is absolutely fearless? What if my | ||
| + | : character was raised underground, and loves darkness? What if I know exactly | ||
| + | : where I'm going, and the disappearance of the door doesn't disturb me in the | ||
| + | : least? This is why you must avoid telling me my thoughts and feelings in a | ||
| + | : room desc. Using "perhaps" doesn't help any, as I've seen some do... | ||
| + | : "You stand before an enormous gate, craning your neck to see the top. | ||
| + | : Perhaps it was built to keep invaders out, or perhaps to keep people in." | ||
| + | : There we are, telling me my thoughts again. These things are anathema. | ||
| + | : Also avoid describing specific actions or mobs in the desc: | ||
| + | : "Sitting around the table, a group of barbarians laugh heartily as they | ||
| + | : gulp ale and spit on the ground. One barbarian stands and stretches, then | ||
| + | : reaches for his axe." | ||
| + | : The problem with this is: Why can't I see the barbarians as mobs? What | ||
| + | : if I want to kill them? Rather than putting them in the room desc, make them | ||
| + | : mobs in the room, and give them some fun progs that make them come to life. | ||
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| + | ====3. Progs==== | ||
| + | : If you want to do anything special in a room, a sleep trap, a special | ||
| + | : effect, or whatever, let experienced builders know and they can help with it. | ||
| + | : There are many, many examples of what can be done out there. Use 'mpstat' for mobs, | ||
| + | : 'opstat' for objects, and 'rpstat' for rooms to see how others have set up progs | ||
| + | : for these things. | ||
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| + | ==IV. Mobs== | ||
| − | + | ===A. Mob Variety=== | |
| − | + | : There should almost always be a great variety of mobs in your area. | |
| − | + | : Ashur has asked that we use at least 1/4 of the vnums for mobs and objects. | |
| − | + | : Exceptions may be made, but not usually. | |
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| − | + | ====1. Mob Population==== | |
| − | + | : It's the mobs that make your area come to life. Along with a great | |
| − | + | : variety of mobs, we want to have a great number of mobs. However, don't go | |
| − | + | : overboard. One builder put maybe 1 or 2 of each type in the area, and when | |
| − | + | : told to put a lot more, the builder put (seriously) 45 of each mob type. | |
| − | + | : It was kind of silly to see 15 mobs in each room. In general, a good | |
| − | + | : sprinkling will average to about 1 or 2 mobs per room, although of course | |
| − | + | : there will be clumps and bare spots. | |
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| − | + | ====2. Progs==== | |
| − | + | : Please use progs on the more important mobs in your area (maybe a | |
| − | + | : cluster of basic ranking mobs don't need progs, but an individually named NPC | |
| + | : who has a particular purpose in the area should have some sort of interactivity). | ||
| + | : If you don't know how to prog, we can teach you. Mob progs make the world | ||
| + | : live and breathe, and nothing turns us on more than an area that interacts with the player. | ||
| − | + | ===B. Mob Act Flags=== | |
| − | + | : 1. Always make any non-magical vertebrate animal act_animal. This makes | |
| − | + | : it so that our precious rangers can befriend them. (Note: griffins, etc, | |
| − | + | : count as magical, for those of you who didn't get my drift.) | |
| + | : 2. The act_badass flag is absolutely not to be used without senior staffer | ||
| + | : permission. The use of this flag will cause us to glare at you and lose | ||
| + | : respect for you. | ||
| + | : 3. The act_mage flag is broken. It will do bad things to your mob if you | ||
| + | : use it. Out of the different class flags, the only one that does anything at | ||
| + | : all is act_warrior; this flag gives you mob an extra attack. | ||
| + | : 4. The class flag is not fully implemented and is buggy. Do not use at the present. | ||
| + | : 5. The track_gate flag is absolutely not to be used without senior staffer | ||
| + | : permission. See above for consequences. | ||
| − | + | ===C. Mob Levels=== | |
| − | + | : A variety of mob levels is usually good. Think of the level you want to | |
| + | : have ranking on these mobs, and make the mobs 5-10 levels higher. | ||
| − | + | ===D. Mob Affects=== | |
| + | : Make sure the mob's affects are appropriate. Sanctuary should only be used | ||
| + | : on mobs who can supposedly use water magic. Use resistances rather than sanctuary if | ||
| + | : you think the mob should be extra hard to damage. | ||
| − | + | : The same goes for detecting invisible... Maybe a bear could detect invisible by | |
| − | + | : smelling you out, but how could an ordinary merchant see an invisible guy? | |
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| − | + | ===E. Mob Names=== | |
| − | + | : 1. Be sure to make the mob's name include all the things anyone would | |
| − | + | : think of to call it. If the mob's long desc is "A tall bearded swordsman | |
| − | + | : stands here." You would want to make the name "swordsman tall bearded". | |
| − | + | : Nothing is more idiotic than seeing "a hairy black beast" and typing "kill | |
| − | + | : beast" only to have it say "They aren't here." This is extremely poor mob | |
| + | : design. | ||
| − | + | : 2. If you name your mob, like "Jorgar the Barbarian Lord" or something, | |
| − | + | : please do not use a non-fantasy name! This includes real life names like | |
| + | : "Jonah", "Harold", or "Granny Smith". Would you really expect to see a guy | ||
| + | : named Harold in a fantasy world? We have guidelines that we will be enforcing | ||
| + | : for character names. I would deny someone named "Candi" in a heartbeat... so | ||
| + | : why should we have a mob named Candi? We absolutely should not. | ||
| − | + | : 3. If you're using one of our races, please make an effort to name them | |
| − | + | : using our racial naming conventions. See the builder's page for resources. | |
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| − | + | ===F. Mob Damtype=== | |
| − | + | : Make the mob's damtype appropriate for the mob. We don't want little | |
| − | + | : girls who smash, or cityguards who have flaming bites. | |
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| − | + | ===G. Mob Hit/Damdice=== | |
| − | + | : Read "help hitdice" and "help damdice" on 5555 for the appropriate | |
| + | : values. Also: make sure that the mob's hitroll is level/2, or higher for mobs | ||
| + | : meant to be particularly tough. | ||
| − | + | ===H. Mob AC=== | |
| − | + | : Use "help mob_ac" to determine armor class values. | |
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| − | + | ===I. Mob Offenses=== | |
| − | + | : Please use your head on this. I've seen people make little girls who can | |
| − | + | : parry, dodge, bash, trip, disarm, and dirt kick. Tell me, if it takes a | |
| + | : freaking warrior 15 ranks before they can disarm someone, how did this | ||
| + | : little girl learn it? | ||
| − | + | ===J. Mob Wealth=== | |
| − | + | : Don't go overboard here. One builder put 1,000,000 gold on a mob. Wtf? | |
| − | + | : Follow the guidelines for wealth given in the oedit documentation. | |
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| − | + | ===K. Mob Descs=== | |
| + | : Mob descriptions follow the same rules and restrictions as room descs. | ||
| + | : No saying "The woman drops her bundle and attacks" or anything like that. For | ||
| + | : a mob's short description, you must start non-proper-name words with a lower | ||
| + | : case letter. Wrong: "The mudslider" Right: "the mudslider" | ||
| + | : '''TAKE NOTE:''' Race names are '''NOT''' capitalized! Wrong: "the Shuddeni priest" | ||
| + | : Right: "the shuddeni priest". | ||
| − | + | ==V. Objects== | |
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| − | + | ===A. Object Variety=== | |
| − | + | : Just as with the mobs, we want to see at least 1/4 of the area's | |
| − | + | : vnums used up by a variety of objects. If this means you have to put tables, | |
| − | + | : chairs, cups, bread, shirts, and gloves all over the place, then do it. It | |
| − | + | : brings the area to life. | |
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| − | + | ===B. Object Names=== | |
| − | + | : Just as with mob names, make sure the name includes everything an item | |
| − | + | : would be called. It sucks to see "A blazing broadsword is here, shining | |
| − | + | : brightly" and when you type "get broadsword", "I don't see that here." You | |
| − | + | : should name such an object "broadsword blazing shining", and maybe even | |
| − | + | : "broadsword broad sword blazing shining". On another note, *always* make sure | |
| − | + | : that the FIRST word used in the name is the most common word you would use | |
| − | + | : to describe it. If someone can't carry that much weight, it says | |
| + | : "broadsword: you can't carry that much weight." Now, if someone had named | ||
| + | : this object "shining broadsword", it would say "shining: you can't carry that | ||
| + | : much". This looks silly. | ||
| − | + | ===C. Object Flags=== | |
| − | + | : Very rarely, if ever, use the anti-alignment flags. They should | |
| − | + | : generally be saved for magical artifacts or other high-powered items | |
| − | + | : that it really makes sense for. It's better to make more equipment usable | |
| − | + | : by everyone, so that players have more reasons to slash each others' throats. | |
| − | + | : '''NOTE:''' the v4 values for weapons generally suck. The only ones that | |
| − | + | : should be used are "twohands" to designate that the weapon takes two hands, | |
| − | + | : or the poison flag. (Poison must be used rarely). | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | ||
| − | + | ||
| − | + | ||
| − | + | ||
| − | + | ||
| − | + | ===D. Object Values=== | |
| − | + | : I've had more fights with our builders over the subject of equipment | |
| − | + | : values than anything else. People put an avg 25 whip where it's easy to get, | |
| − | + | : and then complain when I tell them to make it an avg 17 whip. What we're | |
| − | + | : trying for here is a world where good items are hard to get. It should be a great | |
| − | + | : day when you finally get your hands on an avg 25 weapon... NOT the day that | |
| + | : you reach 15th level. I'd say the upper limit for normal eq is avg 28, and | ||
| + | : even that should be limited to maybe 5 or 10. | ||
| + | : It's far, far better to make 3 swords, avg 28, and limited to 5 than to | ||
| + | : make 1 avg 28 sword that's limited to 15. We like variety, we like rare | ||
| + | : weapons, and we adore a variety of rare weapons. Example: My death knights in | ||
| + | : Gogoth Castle. I gave them each their own weapon, and I limited each to 15. | ||
| + | : It would have been a lot easier to give them all the same weapon and limit | ||
| + | : it to 45, but again, we adore variety. | ||
| − | + | ===E. Magic Items=== | |
| + | : 1. When you make potions/wands/staves/pills, please don't use a greater | ||
| + | : spell unless it's really hard to get. Ksathan the Lich Mage, he can have | ||
| + | : them, but a level 35 mob with greater spell items is unacceptable. | ||
| + | : 2. When you are setting the spells on your item, don't forget to change | ||
| + | : "ghost" to "none". It looks bad otherwise. | ||
| − | + | ==VI. Flag, Exit Descs, and Finishing Touches== | |
| − | + | ===A. Room Flags=== | |
| − | + | : 1. Please make sure that all the room flags used in your area are | |
| − | + | : appropriate. Nomagic, nosummon, nogate, and norecall rooms all need a reason | |
| − | + | : for being the way they are, and should be extremely rare. If your area is | |
| − | + | : very special, these things can be justified, but I've seen far too many rooms | |
| − | + | : flagged for no reason. | |
| − | + | : 2. Do not use the "solitary", "private", "vault", "safe", or | |
| − | + | : "newbies_only" flags. | |
| − | + | : 3. The "nowhere" flag makes it so that people outside the room don't | |
| − | + | : see you on "where". The "noneforyou" flag makes it so that people inside | |
| − | + | : the room don't see anyone else on where. The "indoors" flag makes it so that | |
| − | + | : area-affect spells rebound on your group, and so that you don't see weather | |
| − | + | : reports. The "noweather" flag is for non-indoors rooms where you still can't | |
| + | : see the weather. | ||
| − | + | ===B. Room Sectors=== | |
| − | + | : Do not forget to go through your area and change all the sectors. It | |
| − | + | : starts out as inside, and most of our areas aren't all inside. (Even if your | |
| − | + | : area is indoors, you have to go through and set the room flag "indoors" on | |
| − | + | : every room.) If you're not sure what sector to make your area, ask me. | |
| − | + | ===C. Exit Descriptions=== | |
| − | + | : Exit Descriptions are the picky little things that you get when you | |
| − | + | : "look north", and you see "The trail winds to the north." These are most | |
| − | + | : important if you've got a trap, a noexit, or a maze coming up. These are | |
| − | + | : required for any new area (though some of our original area set may still | |
| − | + | : be lacking them). | |
| − | + | ==Appendix I: Fantasy works to read for inspiration== | |
| − | + | : George R. R. Martin (Song of Ice and Fire) | |
| − | + | : H.P. Lovecraft | |
| − | + | : J.R.R. Tolkien | |
| − | + | : Lawrence Watt-Evans (Lords of Dus, Heroes of Ethshar) | |
| − | + | : Gary Gygax (Monster Manual, Dungeon Master's Guide, Gord the Rogue books) | |
| − | + | : AD&D Modules | |
| − | + | : Robert Jordan (I guess... Put in at Jolinn's request :P) | |
| − | + | ==Appendix II: Ashur's Appendix== | |
| − | Ashur sez: | + | ''Ia! Ia!'' |
| + | : Ashur sez: | ||
| − | + | : Regardless of the type of area you try to do, I have one major pet peeve | |
| − | + | : and one major piece of advice (well, a few). | |
| − | + | : '''*''' Use mobs and objects. Use mobs and objects. Read this sentence again. | |
| − | + | : Too many people map out some huge area without any theme, write 99 | |
| − | + | : rooms, then have 6 mobs and 4 objects. That is so shatteringly lame, its | |
| − | + | : unbelievable. When you have 80 mobs and objects, your area is thick with | |
| − | + | : the chance to explore. | |
| − | + | : '''*''' A theme. Don't form scattershot crap, where you just plot terrain and | |
| − | + | : then add random mobs. We want an area with history and depth-- mobs that | |
| − | + | : have a reason for doing what they're doing, conflicts amongst your areas | |
| − | + | : inhabitants, etc. | |
| − | + | : '''*''' Do '''NOT''' design your area around making an area for equipment or leveling | |
| − | + | : or anything. Design an area built on the concept that no matter where you | |
| − | + | : go, there's something interesting to see. When you suck people into | |
| − | + | : looking everywhere, identing everything, etc, etc, you have succeeded in a | |
| − | + | : great way. | |
| − | + | : '''*''' Make a mythos. Your area needs a background...it needs history, or | |
| − | + | : culture. And that should be compatible with the rest of Avendar. All | |
| − | + | : pre-conceived mythos (wheel of time books, xanth areas, whatever) are | |
| − | + | : banned. Think it up yourself. No Tolkien mobs without permission, | |
| − | + | : especially the demi-humans (elves, dwarves, gnomes, etc -- we don't have | |
| − | + | : them). | |
[[Category:Leviticus]] | [[Category:Leviticus]] | ||
Revision as of 02:56, 5 May 2011
Contents
Area Style Guide, 2nd Edition
I. Overview
- Welcome to the Area Style Guide, originally written by Iandir and updated
- by Dovolente. This guide is intended to a) Help new writers find out what we
- expect of them, b) Give the areas of Avendar a consistent tone/mood/feel,
- c) Aid builders in thinking up areas.
- Many of these points will seem minor, or pointlessly strict. What we're
- aiming for here is to maintain the quality of Avendar and increase it. Minor
- sloppy points make the MUD look bad. Many of the founding staff endured years
- of MUDing on very poorly-written MUDs; if you think no one cares whether all
- the room titles match, you're wrong.
- Anyway, on with the pretentious and pedantic Area Style Guide!
II. Area Design
A. Area Concept
1. History
- One thing that's important is that an area is well thought-out. This
- means having some kind of story to the area, a history behind it, and a
- purpose for each room. The history doesn't have to be complicated:
- Krilin Fortress was built by Baron Krilin to protect the people of the
- mountain community after their city was destroyed by hill giant raiders.
- After the fortress was built, they conducted several campaigns to wipe out
- the giant menace. Now the fortress has become the city, for the safety of the
- people, and Baron Krilin leads them.
- A very simple story that adds a nice feel to the area, and gives it a
- purpose. Iandir could have just as easily said "Well, it's just this fortress,
- and everyone like lives in it and stuff." But that's not as cool.
- An area that's not planned out will usually have things that don't fit,
- or don't feel right. For example, one builder had a forest with a garden in
- the middle of it. Who put the garden there? Why would there be a garden in
- the middle of the woods? When asked to explain these, it became obvious that
- he had not thought the idea through.
- Something that the development staff expects to see are areas the build
- on the specific history of Avendar. Read through the MUD history, look at
- texts in the Earendam library or entries in the Canon. At this point (Feb 08)
- we still need an aelin home area (Ilodaiya? -- and even if we get one for each
- race, why not two?) For more specific inspirations, read all the pillars/mob
- descs in the Titan Castle.
- Or, many of our writers come up with ideas that are completely new but still
- build on the universe. Melikor came up with the idea for a tower of fire
- mages that lost control of their magic (or something) and their souls got put
- into the bodies of fire elementals. A great idea! (He left before he built
- much, but Iandir still hopes to do that tower someday.) Nordath and Arisuth are
- good examples of fresh but fitting Avendar concepts.
- Areas that don't specifically build on the world history (example, my
- monastery) were OK as the rough form of Avendar took shape, but after a decade
- of development and lore, there's no excuse for writing an area that is disconnected
- completely from the lore and backstory of Avendar.
2. Area Originality and Tone
- Make sure that the area fits in with the feel of Avendar, as well. For
- one thing, we don't want areas that are based on a fantasy novel, movie,
- comic book, or anything. Inspired by, sure. Many of our areas will have the
- same tone as, say, Tolkien, but we will disallow areas that have Bilbo,
- Sauron, or Gandalf.
- Furthermore, many times the area won't be the right mood, even if it
- doesn't directly take from a series. One builder wanted to make a Ravenloft-
- like area, but early implementors agreed that it really didn't go well with
- our other areas. Be sure to run your idea by some of the senior staffers (Chadim,
- Kestrel, Dovolente, Ramc, Girikha) before you get too excited about it.
- Original, fresh ideas that build on the fantasy landscape are superior
- to boring, unoriginal ideas. (Although some of the old standbys are always
- good.) For example, it would have been OK for Avendar to have a cave system
- inhabited by gnolls. But to go on and add a cave system inhabited by goblins
- too... that's a standby, but in this example we already have something like
- it. We would want something more original, like Iandir's chaja caves.
3. Area Location in Avendar
- Make sure that we have a place to connect it in the world. Before you write
- it, you should know where it goes in relation to existing areas and how it might
- connect to them. Talk to senior staffers about where we could fit your area, and
- if there's nowhere, maybe you could write a connecting area just to lead up
- to your main area (like the Vorinden Road and Kor Thrandir).
4. Types of Areas
- There are several basic types of areas. You have to decide which your
- area is. The question at hand is, why would adventurers want to go into your
- area? For most areas, the amount of traffic they get determines how
- successful the area is. (Although some areas aren't meant to be heavily
- traveled.) The area types are basically different reasons for folks to go
- into an area. The types may be mixed, and usually a successful area either
- does more than one of these, or does one extremely well. Area types:
- a. The City. People come here because it's their hometown, to buy things, to
- practice, or to cower in their guilds.
- b. The Ranking Area. People come here because it's got good ranking mobs.
- c. The Equipment Area. People come here to kill the mobs for their eq.
- d. The Linking Area. People come here because they want to go somewhere
- connected to the area.
- e. The Quest Area. This is usually a rarely-traveled area with some really
- deadly stuff, used as a base for quests, or to hide really tough eq.
- Some examples. The Griffin Aerie is intended as a ranking area. It can
- also be used to link some air-type areas later. It's also got some rare
- equipment. Krilin: City, Ranking, Equipment. Chaja Caves: Ranking, Equipment,
- Linking. Some plain old linking areas are the roads and the rivers (which
- by modern standards are very basic and wouldn't be acceptable without a
- lot more development).
- So, plan ahead which types of area you want yours to be. Remember it's
- better to make it have more than one function. There are several areas we
- have right now that no one hardly EVER visits, because they don't serve the above
- purposes.
B. Plan Your Area
1. Area Map
- You should map out your whole area on graph paper before you begin, and
- be sure that you have everything where you want it before you dig. It's
- annoying to see someone dig a 150-room area and then say "Can we delete this,
- I did it wrong." Well, either plan it out meticulously before you dig a single
- room, or look foolish and get used to unlinking rooms. (In the 20 areas Iandir
- planned/dug, he never changed the layout of one once it was dug.)
- So map that baby out, and then number each room. For ease of writing in
- tiny squares, I just number each room 01, 02, 03, and so on. If my vnums are
- 1500-1599, I can just mentally add the 15 when I dig. (If I have more than
- 100, I use 2 digits for the first 100, then go 601, 602, 603 for the second.)
- Also be modest with the size of the area. Areas with 50-100 rooms are
- good for new builders (and old builders). Trying to tackle enormous 300-room
- monstrosities can be overwhelming and drain one of energy and enthusiasm.
- Insanity lies that way.
2. Area Realism
- As you plan the area on paper, try to think of the way a real building
- would be laid out, or how a real landscape would be formed. Avoid pointless
- hallways, or rivers that flow uphill, and so on. Don't get obsessed with
- this, but do pay attention to it.
3. Room Realism
- As an extra, it's nice to have some realistic rooms. If I made a
- gigantic castle with no living quarters, kitchens, nothing, one would have to
- wonder where all the inhabitants actually live. But please don't go overboard
- on this, building in 100 bedrooms, 2 kitchens and 3 dining rooms. It's just
- nice to have *some* realism. Too much will make your area needlessly huge,
- and boring to boot. Not every area needs a kitchen!
4. Noexits and Traps
- Make lots of nasty traps, if it suits your area. But limit the use of
- noexit rooms. Noexits should really only exist if there's some type of puzzle
- or quest or mechanism to escape.
- ALWAYS put warnings before traps or noexit rooms. Nothing is worse than having
- an inviting passageway that suddenly traps you for no reason. The idea here
- is to reward people who are careful in their explorations, and punish people
- who charge recklessly around. There should usually be something in the room
- desc that hints to what's ahead, or at the very least an exit description.
- (look west, "The ledge looks weak to the west")
- Norecall, nogate, nosummon and nomagic rooms had better have a good
- reason for these properties. Rooms that have no possible way of escape,
- ever (noexit AND norecall or nomagic) shouldn't exist. If you have a great
- reason for a ton of noexits, ask senior staff about it.
5. Mazes/Randomized Rooms
- Mazes are ok as long as they're not overdone. Ask us if your maze is
- worth having randomized. Don't make them too hard, unless it's a high-level
- area or an area that's supposed to be a real pain to get into. (A newbie area
- with a 15-room maze is way overdone. Newbies have problems with a 4-room
- maze, and even one randomized room can baffle a newbie. :P)
6. Area Credits
- To set the credits, first, aedit your area. Then type
- "credits {lo hi} Immname Area name". The spacing should not vary
- from this format. lo/hi = lowest levels that can go there, highest levels
- that benefit from the area. Start of the area name should be 10 spaces from
- the start of the immname. Just type "areas" for countless examples.
III. Room Descs
A. Basics
1. Length
- Room Descriptions should be at least 3 lines, and less than 15 lines.
- Too short, and it looks like the area was slapped together with minimal
- effort. Too long, and your writing needs to be more concise.
2. Spelling/Grammar
- Rooms should be meticulously spellchecked. Spelling errors make our
- glorious MUD look like trash. Likewise with grammatical errors.
3. Room Names
- The room name should be capitalized like the title of a book, with the
- first word and all major words in caps. Example: "The Lair of the Ice
- Wizard". Also, every room name should composed so that it could complete the
- sentence "Iandir is standing in/on/at __________". (A redundant in/on/at is
- ok, but not required.)
B. Content
1. Originality
- Be creative in describing a room. People get tired of repeatedly reading
- "to the north is a hallway, to the west is a large alcove, and to the east
- is..."
2. No Narrative
- Narrative in a room desc is a bad thing. What do we mean by narrative?
- Narrative is a) Telling the player how she feels as she walks into a room,
- b) Telling him what he's thinking, c) Describing a specific action that's
- taking place. An example of a and b:
- "You stand in a dark and scary room. You are very frightened as you look
- around, and you edge toward the door out. You almost panic as you twirl
- around and find it gone!"
- What if I'm playing a character who is absolutely fearless? What if my
- character was raised underground, and loves darkness? What if I know exactly
- where I'm going, and the disappearance of the door doesn't disturb me in the
- least? This is why you must avoid telling me my thoughts and feelings in a
- room desc. Using "perhaps" doesn't help any, as I've seen some do...
- "You stand before an enormous gate, craning your neck to see the top.
- Perhaps it was built to keep invaders out, or perhaps to keep people in."
- There we are, telling me my thoughts again. These things are anathema.
- Also avoid describing specific actions or mobs in the desc:
- "Sitting around the table, a group of barbarians laugh heartily as they
- gulp ale and spit on the ground. One barbarian stands and stretches, then
- reaches for his axe."
- The problem with this is: Why can't I see the barbarians as mobs? What
- if I want to kill them? Rather than putting them in the room desc, make them
- mobs in the room, and give them some fun progs that make them come to life.
3. Progs
- If you want to do anything special in a room, a sleep trap, a special
- effect, or whatever, let experienced builders know and they can help with it.
- There are many, many examples of what can be done out there. Use 'mpstat' for mobs,
- 'opstat' for objects, and 'rpstat' for rooms to see how others have set up progs
- for these things.
IV. Mobs
A. Mob Variety
- There should almost always be a great variety of mobs in your area.
- Ashur has asked that we use at least 1/4 of the vnums for mobs and objects.
- Exceptions may be made, but not usually.
1. Mob Population
- It's the mobs that make your area come to life. Along with a great
- variety of mobs, we want to have a great number of mobs. However, don't go
- overboard. One builder put maybe 1 or 2 of each type in the area, and when
- told to put a lot more, the builder put (seriously) 45 of each mob type.
- It was kind of silly to see 15 mobs in each room. In general, a good
- sprinkling will average to about 1 or 2 mobs per room, although of course
- there will be clumps and bare spots.
2. Progs
- Please use progs on the more important mobs in your area (maybe a
- cluster of basic ranking mobs don't need progs, but an individually named NPC
- who has a particular purpose in the area should have some sort of interactivity).
- If you don't know how to prog, we can teach you. Mob progs make the world
- live and breathe, and nothing turns us on more than an area that interacts with the player.
B. Mob Act Flags
- 1. Always make any non-magical vertebrate animal act_animal. This makes
- it so that our precious rangers can befriend them. (Note: griffins, etc,
- count as magical, for those of you who didn't get my drift.)
- 2. The act_badass flag is absolutely not to be used without senior staffer
- permission. The use of this flag will cause us to glare at you and lose
- respect for you.
- 3. The act_mage flag is broken. It will do bad things to your mob if you
- use it. Out of the different class flags, the only one that does anything at
- all is act_warrior; this flag gives you mob an extra attack.
- 4. The class flag is not fully implemented and is buggy. Do not use at the present.
- 5. The track_gate flag is absolutely not to be used without senior staffer
- permission. See above for consequences.
C. Mob Levels
- A variety of mob levels is usually good. Think of the level you want to
- have ranking on these mobs, and make the mobs 5-10 levels higher.
D. Mob Affects
- Make sure the mob's affects are appropriate. Sanctuary should only be used
- on mobs who can supposedly use water magic. Use resistances rather than sanctuary if
- you think the mob should be extra hard to damage.
- The same goes for detecting invisible... Maybe a bear could detect invisible by
- smelling you out, but how could an ordinary merchant see an invisible guy?
E. Mob Names
- 1. Be sure to make the mob's name include all the things anyone would
- think of to call it. If the mob's long desc is "A tall bearded swordsman
- stands here." You would want to make the name "swordsman tall bearded".
- Nothing is more idiotic than seeing "a hairy black beast" and typing "kill
- beast" only to have it say "They aren't here." This is extremely poor mob
- design.
- 2. If you name your mob, like "Jorgar the Barbarian Lord" or something,
- please do not use a non-fantasy name! This includes real life names like
- "Jonah", "Harold", or "Granny Smith". Would you really expect to see a guy
- named Harold in a fantasy world? We have guidelines that we will be enforcing
- for character names. I would deny someone named "Candi" in a heartbeat... so
- why should we have a mob named Candi? We absolutely should not.
- 3. If you're using one of our races, please make an effort to name them
- using our racial naming conventions. See the builder's page for resources.
F. Mob Damtype
- Make the mob's damtype appropriate for the mob. We don't want little
- girls who smash, or cityguards who have flaming bites.
G. Mob Hit/Damdice
- Read "help hitdice" and "help damdice" on 5555 for the appropriate
- values. Also: make sure that the mob's hitroll is level/2, or higher for mobs
- meant to be particularly tough.
H. Mob AC
- Use "help mob_ac" to determine armor class values.
I. Mob Offenses
- Please use your head on this. I've seen people make little girls who can
- parry, dodge, bash, trip, disarm, and dirt kick. Tell me, if it takes a
- freaking warrior 15 ranks before they can disarm someone, how did this
- little girl learn it?
J. Mob Wealth
- Don't go overboard here. One builder put 1,000,000 gold on a mob. Wtf?
- Follow the guidelines for wealth given in the oedit documentation.
K. Mob Descs
- Mob descriptions follow the same rules and restrictions as room descs.
- No saying "The woman drops her bundle and attacks" or anything like that. For
- a mob's short description, you must start non-proper-name words with a lower
- case letter. Wrong: "The mudslider" Right: "the mudslider"
- TAKE NOTE: Race names are NOT capitalized! Wrong: "the Shuddeni priest"
- Right: "the shuddeni priest".
V. Objects
A. Object Variety
- Just as with the mobs, we want to see at least 1/4 of the area's
- vnums used up by a variety of objects. If this means you have to put tables,
- chairs, cups, bread, shirts, and gloves all over the place, then do it. It
- brings the area to life.
B. Object Names
- Just as with mob names, make sure the name includes everything an item
- would be called. It sucks to see "A blazing broadsword is here, shining
- brightly" and when you type "get broadsword", "I don't see that here." You
- should name such an object "broadsword blazing shining", and maybe even
- "broadsword broad sword blazing shining". On another note, *always* make sure
- that the FIRST word used in the name is the most common word you would use
- to describe it. If someone can't carry that much weight, it says
- "broadsword: you can't carry that much weight." Now, if someone had named
- this object "shining broadsword", it would say "shining: you can't carry that
- much". This looks silly.
C. Object Flags
- Very rarely, if ever, use the anti-alignment flags. They should
- generally be saved for magical artifacts or other high-powered items
- that it really makes sense for. It's better to make more equipment usable
- by everyone, so that players have more reasons to slash each others' throats.
- NOTE: the v4 values for weapons generally suck. The only ones that
- should be used are "twohands" to designate that the weapon takes two hands,
- or the poison flag. (Poison must be used rarely).
D. Object Values
- I've had more fights with our builders over the subject of equipment
- values than anything else. People put an avg 25 whip where it's easy to get,
- and then complain when I tell them to make it an avg 17 whip. What we're
- trying for here is a world where good items are hard to get. It should be a great
- day when you finally get your hands on an avg 25 weapon... NOT the day that
- you reach 15th level. I'd say the upper limit for normal eq is avg 28, and
- even that should be limited to maybe 5 or 10.
- It's far, far better to make 3 swords, avg 28, and limited to 5 than to
- make 1 avg 28 sword that's limited to 15. We like variety, we like rare
- weapons, and we adore a variety of rare weapons. Example: My death knights in
- Gogoth Castle. I gave them each their own weapon, and I limited each to 15.
- It would have been a lot easier to give them all the same weapon and limit
- it to 45, but again, we adore variety.
E. Magic Items
- 1. When you make potions/wands/staves/pills, please don't use a greater
- spell unless it's really hard to get. Ksathan the Lich Mage, he can have
- them, but a level 35 mob with greater spell items is unacceptable.
- 2. When you are setting the spells on your item, don't forget to change
- "ghost" to "none". It looks bad otherwise.
VI. Flag, Exit Descs, and Finishing Touches
A. Room Flags
- 1. Please make sure that all the room flags used in your area are
- appropriate. Nomagic, nosummon, nogate, and norecall rooms all need a reason
- for being the way they are, and should be extremely rare. If your area is
- very special, these things can be justified, but I've seen far too many rooms
- flagged for no reason.
- 2. Do not use the "solitary", "private", "vault", "safe", or
- "newbies_only" flags.
- 3. The "nowhere" flag makes it so that people outside the room don't
- see you on "where". The "noneforyou" flag makes it so that people inside
- the room don't see anyone else on where. The "indoors" flag makes it so that
- area-affect spells rebound on your group, and so that you don't see weather
- reports. The "noweather" flag is for non-indoors rooms where you still can't
- see the weather.
B. Room Sectors
- Do not forget to go through your area and change all the sectors. It
- starts out as inside, and most of our areas aren't all inside. (Even if your
- area is indoors, you have to go through and set the room flag "indoors" on
- every room.) If you're not sure what sector to make your area, ask me.
C. Exit Descriptions
- Exit Descriptions are the picky little things that you get when you
- "look north", and you see "The trail winds to the north." These are most
- important if you've got a trap, a noexit, or a maze coming up. These are
- required for any new area (though some of our original area set may still
- be lacking them).
Appendix I: Fantasy works to read for inspiration
- George R. R. Martin (Song of Ice and Fire)
- H.P. Lovecraft
- J.R.R. Tolkien
- Lawrence Watt-Evans (Lords of Dus, Heroes of Ethshar)
- Gary Gygax (Monster Manual, Dungeon Master's Guide, Gord the Rogue books)
- AD&D Modules
- Robert Jordan (I guess... Put in at Jolinn's request :P)
Appendix II: Ashur's Appendix
Ia! Ia!
- Ashur sez:
- Regardless of the type of area you try to do, I have one major pet peeve
- and one major piece of advice (well, a few).
- * Use mobs and objects. Use mobs and objects. Read this sentence again.
- Too many people map out some huge area without any theme, write 99
- rooms, then have 6 mobs and 4 objects. That is so shatteringly lame, its
- unbelievable. When you have 80 mobs and objects, your area is thick with
- the chance to explore.
- * A theme. Don't form scattershot crap, where you just plot terrain and
- then add random mobs. We want an area with history and depth-- mobs that
- have a reason for doing what they're doing, conflicts amongst your areas
- inhabitants, etc.
- * Do NOT design your area around making an area for equipment or leveling
- or anything. Design an area built on the concept that no matter where you
- go, there's something interesting to see. When you suck people into
- looking everywhere, identing everything, etc, etc, you have succeeded in a
- great way.
- * Make a mythos. Your area needs a background...it needs history, or
- culture. And that should be compatible with the rest of Avendar. All
- pre-conceived mythos (wheel of time books, xanth areas, whatever) are
- banned. Think it up yourself. No Tolkien mobs without permission,
- especially the demi-humans (elves, dwarves, gnomes, etc -- we don't have
- them).
