The Art of Building was an online resource that acted as a basic guide for anyone wanting to help build areas on MUDs. We are simply archiving the information here as a resource. The information presented here is credited to Michelle A. Thompson
[tabby title=”Fundamentals”]
Qualities of a Builder
Imagination
I do not think I need to expand on that one. 😉
Curiosity
Ask questions, lots of them! How do I do this? Can I do this? The more questions you ask, the more you will learn. Administrators generally like new builders who ask a lot of questions. They do not mind answering them. Some administrators enjoy it because it shows that the builder has a genuine interest. Answering the questions makes them look smart, too. 😉
Patience
Patience is actually required in a couple of different ways when you are learning to build.
- The chances are good that your first area will not be the “Area to End all Areas.” Very few people submit an excellent first area. Building is a learning process. If you stick to it, you will master it.
- The aforementioned administrators who love answering questions can sometimes be quite busy. When your work is at a stand still, wait even if it is hard to. Be patient, they usually get back to you as soon as they can.
- Building a good area is a long sometime tedious process. Parts of it are not that much fun but are very necessary. If you take the time to do it right, other people will notice the difference.
Common sense, and pride
Use what you disliked in areas to build guidelines for yourself. I.e., I hate when I am walking west in a hallway that assumes I am going east. My personal pet peeve is copied room descriptions; changing one line at the end does not make a difference in my book. There are players who look at everything in the description. Flush everything out with as much detail as you can. Take pride in your work. One new builder told me that most people do not pay attention to such things. I told him I do not build my areas for them, I build them for the people who do true exploration. Just because “most people” ignore the extra work does not mean it should remain undone. A player who only cares about the game will not notice the extra work if it is there; however, a player who notices and explores areas will notice if the extra details are not there. Take pride in your work, be thorough, and you will be a good builder.
Before Building your First Area
Know your tools!!!
Building does have some things in common no matter which code base you are working with. A poorly written room description is still a poorly written room description. However, since the actual building processes can be very different, you should start by making a minimum of one room, one object, and one creature. A basic familiarity with the tools at hand is essential. It will help you to comprehend what is within the realm of possibility when you are building your area. If you do not completely understand something, ask about it. No one will think any question you ask is silly. The more questions you ask, the more you learn.
This step may not be possible if you are building on a LPC mud, or other types of non-Diku muds. Most LPCs do not have building interfaces, or OLC tools. If you are building for such a mud, it may be better to plan your area first, and learn the tools by building an area.
Invest in a Thesaurus
Synonyms are part of the key to having rooms that could be repetitive look slightly different. They also help if you are searching for the perfect word. Sometimes, if I cannot find the word I am looking for using the thesaurus, I start looking up synonyms of the synonyms I have found. The results are slightly different.
Determine your mud’s standards
Every mud has different standards regarding rooms, creatures, and objects. It will save you a lot of time if you check the standards before you start building your area. Putting a lot of work into an area then having to redo elements that do not match your mud’s standards can be frustrating. If you are building your first area for a mud, have an administrator check the first five to ten rooms you build to see if they measure up to their standard. Creature and object balance is difficult to determine on your own. Ask the administrators on your mud if they have documents that will help you determine this for your area. If they do not have those documents, ask if there is an area, or areas currently on your mud that they consider well balanced for the player levels that you are making the area for.
[tabby title=”The Approach”]
Planning an Area
I originally wrote the following article for The Mud Journal’s Builder Bazaar.
Planning an area is one of the most important aspects of building it. Unfortunately, sometimes the planning stops once a builder has a general idea of what type of area they would like. It is easy to be excited about an idea and rush headlong into building it without having thought it through.
The first step in planning an area is to pick a topic. What, in general, will it be about? Once you have decided this, it may be tempting to jump into the editor, or file, and just start building. This is not a good idea. Each area should have a theme and history. A more fleshed out idea will be easier to build, and will produce better end results. Instead of saying this area is going to be a faerie area, for example, the area could be Tir Na Nog, a refuge for faeries from the world outside. Consider why they are where they are, and what they need to survive. Research an idea at a library, or on-line. Jot down notes as you go. After you have compiled a few pages of notes, take a small break. Look at the notes. What do you see that fits together? Just because something is cool, does not necessarily mean that it belongs in the area you are building. If you come up with something cool, that really does not fit the area you are working on currently, keep track of it for possible use in another area. Who knows perhaps it could spawn another complete area.
Write a short story about the area. Do not worry about perfect grammar at this point; just see where it takes you. Let one idea lead to another. It does not matter if the story lacks cohesiveness at this point. Write ALL of the ideas that come to mind. Some will be good, some will not. Some that do not seem good the day you do it may spark something good the next day. Do not be critical of yourself and stop yourself from writing. If you think it, write it.
Next try to answer practical questions like: What is the history of the area? How did the area get to be the way it is? How will the area evolve? What could it be like in one mud year? What could happen to get it there? How do the creatures interact with players? How do the creatures interact with other creatures? What happens if equipment is left on dead creatures? Does it just lie around on the ground cluttering the mud? Is there a creature that collects things and creates a treasure hoard? Do looters take it off the corpse, and sell it to shopkeepers? Will there be any quests as part of the area?
Review everything you have done up to this point. Now try to write a cohesive theme for the area. Add as much detail as you can. After doing this, you should be ready to begin mapping. Again, this is still not the time to rush into the editor. Map out your area on graph paper, or draw it by hand, or draw it in a graphics application. However you do it, make a visual representation that you can look at when you are building the area. Even if your area has trick rooms and exits, mapping helps to create a well-designed area, and makes for a smoother building process.
It is important to plan your area, not just build it. Areas that builders took the time to plan carefully generally appear more professional. They are easier to maintain and add to as well. Personally, I have never had an area that is completely done. Areas should evolve, just like code should. If an area is planned poorly, it may be difficult to follow the layout when the area is revised.
Where to Begin Making your own Area
After you have mapped out your area, go through and do a skeleton or backbone of the area. Just make one room with the most common sector type, and copy it to all of the rooms you will need. I do not name room or create a description at this point. The reason for this is that in some code bases you cannot make an exit to a room that does not exist. It is easier to be able to make the exits when you make the room.
Once you have the backbone, there are two ways you can go about it. Some people go through and make the rooms first, then the creatures, the objects, then the shops. Personally, I go through and make each room completely before moving onto the next. That includes the creatures and objects that go there, and shops etc.
Whichever way you decide to use, I suggest that you finish a room, creature, or object completely (if possible) the first time you do it. It is much easier to add details then than to go through the whole area making sure you have gotten everything at the end. Do a thorough job the first time through. You will have fewer errors in your finished product that way.
[tabby title=”Content Development”]
Sources of Inspiration
Books
My favorite source of inspiration is books. Reading them conjures vivid images that burn themselves into my mind. I suppose there is more to life than reading books. Someone has yet to convince me of that though. 😉
Book topics that I have found helpful:
- Fantasy and Science Fiction
Fantasy and science fiction can be thought provoking. Seeing what other people create with their imaginations is interesting. - History
History contains many interesting facts if you travel off of the beaten path. Looking at the same historical events through the eyes of opponents is also interesting. - Mythology and Folklore
Many stories reach back to mythology and folklore as their foundation. Different countries will have similar, but not identical stories. I like reading two or three versions of the same tale. It shows you how retelling a story changes it. Creating distortions based on retelling can be fun. - Cultural Studies
Studying different cultures helps you to know what each culture deemed as important. Most societies have something that they consider important as a whole. It can shape villages, cities, states, and even nations. - Languages
Speaking a different language involves understanding a different thought process. The way a language uses possessive or deals with gender can teach you some things about the people who use that language. All right, the depth that you would have to go into for learning a language to be helpful might be a bit extreme. Learning languages is fun though. 🙂
On-Line Research
If I am floundering for idea on an area I am in the midst of building, I get a quick fix by researching the area on-line. There is a wealth of information available on the web.
Your Mud’s Map
Look at your world’s map. There are always gaps that could be filled in. If your world does not have a map, work on sketching one out. It may help you notice holes and inconsistencies in the world. There is always something that needs done. While it may not always be awe-inspiring to start off with, doing something that needs to be done can be enough to get you over a block.
Music
Certain sounds inspire thoughts and feelings. The haunting sound of the flute sets my mind adrift. Lyrics often tell short stories that can be interpreted and expanded upon.
Artwork
Think of artwork as a moment frozen in time. Something happened to cause that moment. Now thaw the moment. What happens? You can create a past and a future for the piece of art.
General Tips
Only the title is shown for tips that contain extended examples. The link will take you to the complete tip.
- Assume everyone who enters your areas has a vivid imagination, and curiosity. Cater to them. Although it is not true, there are enough mudders out there who do appreciate a job well done.
- “Feelings, you, smells, and sounds”I would have to say one of the harder things about building is getting players to feel a certain way without coming out and saying something like, “A feeling of fear overcomes you.” The player sitting at their computer very well may not be afraid. A couple of alternatives could be:
“The acrid smell of fear lingers in the air”
“An eerie wind rustles softly through the leaves.”A couple of good rules of thumb for using ‘you’: never use it to start a room description, never use it more than once in a room, and use it in as few rooms as possible.
“Finding the balance of using ‘you’ is tricky. Some muds disallow the personal pronoun ‘you’ at all, although I think that’s a bit extreme.”
Arachne of Oddville
Some muds have a guideline that states you should not use smells or sounds either, on the basis of a “scry” skill, where players can see where other players or creatures are. I do not agree with this. Smells and sounds are a good way to add depth to the game. - Using hidden objects
- Overcoming writer’s block
- Using ASCII Art
- Do not get discouraged!Yes, there is a lot to learn.
Take it at whatever pace you can.
Nobody expects a new builder to instantly whip out the perfect area on his or her first try.
Room Specific Tips
Only the title is shown for tips that contain extended examples. The link will take you to the complete tip.
- “When writing a room description, the idea is to picture the room in your head and point out any and every little detail in the description. The only exception is if the player is in a completely dark room with nothing in it. Remember, YOU are the builder YOU get to decide what goes where. You, as the builder, just have to dig enough detail out of the picture in your mind to fill the descriptions.”Gad of Age of Destiny
- Walking, and standingAnother problem that is generally, but not always, associated with the use of you is walking and standing. Some characters fly instead of walk. Unless there is something about the room that forces one or the other, it is better to write descriptions that could fit either walking or flying creatures.
- Description lengthDescriptions should be a bare minimum of three full lines. In general, they should be four, however, a small concession is made for the fact that when avoiding duplicate room descriptions, four full lines may be harder to accomplish. Rooms should never be longer than 15 lines. Anything over that length runs the risk of scrolling off the screen before the player has a chance to read it. Only key rooms should have extremely long descriptions. Four to seven lines is a good length for most rooms.
- Walk this way …A pet peeve of mine is when a builder writes a room description assuming that players are coming from a specific direction. Unless there truly is only one entrance to the room, it looks odd to see “As you enter from the west” when you are leaving the area headed east. If you really want to have rooms that have more than one exit/entrance, yet have direction specific rooms, the answer is to create a room for each direction of travel.
- Creatures and objects in room descriptionsIf a creature or object loads into a room, do not refer to it in the room description. If it is possible to kill a creature, someone will kill it, whether it was meant to be killed, or not. If you want to have, for example, a flock of birds overhead, add an extra description with the keywords flock and birds. The same general concept applies to objects. If they load in the room, do not describe them in the room description. If they are in the room description to add depth to the room, a common example is “a picture hangs on the wall,” then make an extra description so that players can look at the “picture.” My general rule of thumb for extra descriptions is that if it is in the room description, and it is a noun, it should have an extra description.
Secret Doors and Hidden keys
OK, here’s a room I made for an area with an adjacent Monastery and Nunnery. It’s full of secret passages between the two convents and in one of those passages is a cache, with a hidden choice object. To get the object the players have not only to find the key to the cache, but also to know the true name of the key to be able to get it from where it is hidden. To find the name of the key they have to read the extra keyword descriptions in this and other rooms. I dropped a hint about the special item at the entrance of the area. So far nobody has found it, though some have tried…
*evil grin*
Molly O’Hara of 4Dimensions
Room:
Name: Study
Description:
This is a small room, but well furnished and well lit, from a large leaded window in the north wall and a smaller one in the west, that stands slightly ajar. There are also some oil lamps, burning with a slightly smoking wick. You sense the fragrance of the perfumed burning oil, lingering in the air like the scent of incense. The walls are covered with floor to ceiling shelves, all filled and overflowing with ancient looking, leather bound volumes and yellowish parchment scrolls. There is a mahogany door in the south wall, and a simpler, oaken door in the east.
Extra Descriptions:
- Keyword: scrolls
Description:
Most of the scrolls are very old and fragile, almost falling to pieces in your hands. Since they have been used as palimpsests, the parchment is worn thin as spider web in some places. The text is in Latin, so you can’t understand a word of what is written on them. - Keyword: window
Description:
It is a leaded, stained window, showing an image of The Good Shepherd. Appropriately enough, you can see real sheep grazing outside, through the panes. - Keyword: message
Description:
The message reads: “The true name of the Key is Unholy”. How strange… - Keyword: book
Description:
As you take the book to get a closer look at it, it falls open by itself. On the front fly-leaf someone has scribbled a message with a feather pen. - Keyword: volume
Description:
Most of the books are very old and very dusty. It seems they don’t get opened very often. However you notice one book, that is completely free from dust. Strange… - Keyword:volumes
Description: Most of the books are very old and very dusty. It seems they don’t get opened very often. However you notice one book, that is completely free from dust. Strange… - Keyword: button
Description:
When you push the button, the bookshelf slides silently to one side, revealing a secret trap-door underneath it. - Keyword: object
Description: The object is a small stone, shaped like a scarab. - Keyword: shelves
They look like ordinary shelves to you, but curiously enough you notice that one shelf is half empty. You catch a glimpse of what looks like a button behind the remaining books.
Directions:
- North:
Description:
Through the leaded window you can see a pastoral scene, with grazing sheep under large oak trees. The window is fixed though, so you can’t open it. - East:
Keywords: oaken door - South:
Keywords: mahogany door - West:
Description:
Outside the west window you see Convent Road. The drop down to it is about three meters though, so I’d be careful if I were you.
Keyword: window - Down:
Description:
You see a secret trap door, leading down into darkness.
Keyword: trap
Mob:
Short Description: Brother Assar
Aliases: Brother Assar
Long Description: Brother Assar winks at you.
Look Description: Brother Assar is a young and rather skinny novice. This isn’t because the novices don’t get enough to eat in this monastery, though. On the contrary, all the novices get the same good and nourishing food as the rest of the Brothers. The trouble with brother Assar is, that he’s got tapeworm.
object
Name: book
Short Description: a small book
Long Description: A small and evil looking book has been left here.
Extra Description:
Keyword: book
Description:
Beware! This book contains some ancient magic formulas, that are forbidden for mankind to read. Only the Immortals and the highest and most holy of the Cleric Class, are able to deal with the information given in this book.
Avoid Copying Room Descriptions
A common cheat in building similar rooms is to copy the same three or four lines into the beginning of several rooms, and then to add a new line on the end of each room. The two rooms listed below could have easily been built by that method. Writing separate descriptions is better because no two rooms are exactly alike. They may be very similar, but they are rarely identical. Also, reading the same description over and over can get boring and monotonous. People play muds to have fun. An exception to the copy and paste rule is if the area is a maze. These types of areas use duplicated descriptions to disorientate the player.
Michelle Thompson
Room name: The Museum Of Natural Wonders
Description:
Brown, weathered vines as thick as a child’s fist rise up from the floor in a tight weave. Bending overhead, they form an arch that returns to the floor on the other side. The air is wet and clear, much like a forest before a storm. The rich smell of spring greets you from the east. Golden-brown light squeezes between the vines. The walls themselves whisper of adventure. Brave explorers have gone forth to distant worlds. Though their names may be lost in the shroud of history, they live here through their discoveries.
Exits:
- East: Description:
The living walls of vine beckon, inviting you deeper into the museum. - West:
Keyword: door
Description
The stained mahogany doors open out into Copernicus Circle.
Extra Descriptions:
- Keyword: floor
Description
The floor is a very dark, polished gray. - Keywords: vines walls
Description:
The surface of the vines is similar to paper, brown and wrinkled. Something has stopped their growth at just the perfect time to keep the stability of the wall. - Keywords: doors mahogany stained
Description:
The large, double doors are made of a richly stained mahogany.
Room name: The Museum of Natural Wonders
Description:
The walls and ceiling consist of papery, brown vines that swell and diminish like waves frozen in time. A refreshing breeze ripples through the humid air. The distant calls of animals and birds join together in a natural song. The vines to the north look softer, more malleable, in some way. A sign is attached to the richly stained, wooden door to the south.
Exits:
- North:
Keyword: vines
Description:
Though the vines want to hang down; they can be opened and closed acting as a door. - East:
Description:
The warm golden light continues, illuminating the hall that stretches farther eastward. - South:
Keyword: door
Description:
The rich mahogany door is a smaller version of the doors at the front of the museum. A polished sign with black lettering is hung upon it. - West:
Description:
The doors that open out into the street are still visible past the vines.
Extra descriptions:
- Keywords: vines ceiling walls
Description:
A thinner, darker vine that climbs with them encircles the thick vines. - Keywords: door mahogany stained
Description:
The stain on the mahogany door gives it a slightly reddish tint making it a rich brown color. - Keyword: floor
The slate gray floor is polished to a shine. - Keyword: sign
Office of the Curator
_______Museum of Natural Wonders
Using Extras to Fill Out a Room
Extras can add depth to a room. A curious player may well want to know what the painting on the far wall is of. I believe that all nouns within the room description should have an extra description for them. Some extra descriptions warrant extra descriptions as well. For an example of this, read the desk extra below, and then read the nameplate extra.
Michelle Thompson
Room name: Office of the Curator
Description:
Finely, pebbled, light-gray walls surround a small, windowless, square office. Although a profusion of papers rests on the desk, they are meticulously sorted and stacked. Metallic shelves lining the wall by the door are stacked with odds and ends that may one day be displayed in the museum proper. A soft, whirring noise comes from a white device by the shelves.
N
door
The polished mahogany door is framed on either side by shelves containing finds from every known world.
Extra desc:
device white
Air is processed within this purifier to ensure that the precious artifacts are not damaged.
Extra desc:
desk wooden
The perfect wooden desk looks like it belongs in a display. The moldings around the edges have been carved lovingly by hand. A single scratch does not mar the smooth, shiny surface. A small nameplate rests on the desk.
Extra desc:
shelves metallic
The shelves have the silvery sheen of metal. Yet, if you reach out and touch them, they do not have the cool feel of metal.
Extra desc:
odds ends
A virtual treasure trove sits here on the shelves. One person could not in their lifetime collect all these unique items from different worlds. An adventurous story must lie behind each one.
Extra desc: door mahogany polished
Though the stain of the wood is rich and dark, the grain of the wood is still evident in a long, swirling pattern.
Extra desc: papers
Journal entries from adventurers past are stacked neatly and categorized.
Extra desc:
walls gray pebbled
The gray walls have a grainy texture not much larger than sand. Each wall seems to have come from one solid block of rock.
Extra desc: nameplate plate name
Illyana Mynan, Curator
Creature Specific Tips
Creatures and equipment
One way to make creatures look better is to equip them with clothing. All humanoids of at least an average intelligence should have a minimum of a shirt and a pair of pants or a skirt. One of the arguments against dressing most creatures is that the cumulative stats of all of the equipment combined could make a creature too powerful. The stats on the clothing could be practically non-existent. They would serve as a window dressing. Another argument against this style of building is that most players do not care if non-key creatures lack equipment. I have never heard a player complain that there was too much clothing on a creature. However, I have definitely heard players complain that there was not enough clothing on creatures, and that they did not look realistic.
There are four things that the builder should check before they follow this philosophy.
First, make sure that clothing the creatures does not bring about an excess of gold in the mud. This could be done by setting the value of clothing for display purposes only to 0 or 1. This should decrease the incentive for selling these items to shopkeepers.
Second, ensure that the mud can handle extra, disposable equipment. How well does the mud handle equipment lying on the ground? Does it have a method of cleaning itself that works well? Some muds do not. If you walk through a mud and see large piles of equipment outside of town frequently, chances are that the mud does not handle spare equipment well.
Third, see what your head builder thinks of this issue. This is something where the opinions of head builders vary widely from one extreme to the other.
Fourth, be aware of system constraints. A lot of muds are hosted on systems run by people other than the mud administrators. This means that they are not fully in control of the resources they can use. Some mud accounts can be purchased that have only 8MB of memory. Consider the following data submitted by Arawn of Lensmoor:
“If 3/4th of the mobs on Lensmoor were considered sentient, and had to have 2 additional pieces of eq each, to represent shirt and pants, that would be an additional 2.5 Megs of runtime memory. Granted, Lensmoor’s a big mud, but the concept is the same.”
[tabby title=”Area Design”]
Cities, More than Buildings
The city is a central part to any MUD, a place where the inhabitants of the MUD’s world live, meet, work, and spend their money. Making a city can be easy: just some streets, shops, citizens, and you’re done. But making a city that has life – that the players truly enjoy being in – is a more difficult task. Breathing life into that city requires several elements, most of which involve you, the builder, going further in your ideas about the place, and what or who you put in it.
— Money —
Money is something we all need, both in real life and on MUDs. The people of your city should be no exception. After all, they have to buy the basic necessities of life, with some personal spending as well. How do they make their money? This may be an easy answer: if the city is on a major river or the open sea, probably from fishing or commerce. The climate of the city may make it an ideal place to raise crops en masse, things such as corn, wheat or oats. Perhaps the climate is tropical, and they grow exotic fruits that get high prices at market. They could also have rare spices that sell very high in other places that do not have them. It could be a mining town, which makes its money from iron, gold, silver, gems or other ores which lie in the earth, and which are highly valuable things to others. And of course, it could be a major trade city, built on a highly traveled stretch of road, where people come to sell whatever they have.
Once the citizens of your town are making their money, what do they spend it on? Of course, the obvious answers of food, clothing and shelter come up. But what else? Take the idea of the mining town – they would need tools with which to mine: pickaxes and shovels. A farming community would need ploughs. A fishing community would need nets to catch fish. And all of these things need to be repaired at one point or another – simply buying new ones would get much too expensive. Coming back to clothing and shelter, though – what are they like for these people? Do they wear simple linen outfits, or the latest silk finery from far away? Their decoration – jewelry and the like – are also a consideration. While a peasant girl might adore a simple silver band, a high-class lady would most likely scoff at that, preferring her gold ring set with a large gem. The peoples’ housing strongly reflects on the general wealth of the community – is it all small, wooden shacks, or larger stone houses? Perhaps a few people live in grand mansions in a trade city. In general, the simpler and more physical the activity of the people in the town, the simpler their clothing will be, because they don’t need expensive things that will get torn and dirty when they are out in the field or on the waters.
— Politics —
Now your town is making money and spending it – lovely, no? But wait … they don’t have a leader, someone to make decisions about the town and plan its continued prosperity. This leader could be a single person, or a board of several people, voting on decisions. So who is in charge, and a bit more importantly, why? Certainly, in a smaller village the leader would most likely be a single person who was born and raised there, who everyone knows and trusts. Did the people of that village elect him to be leader or did he assume the position in a time of trouble and stay there? Larger towns are more likely to be run by a council of townsfolk, who together can make better decisions on what to do. Again, how did they get there? Most likely it is that they were voted to the place they occupy, rather than inherit it. Nobility will most likely run capital or central cities. The positions may be inherited, or they may be voted to their place. Either is likely. Consider also how the people of this place feel about their leader. Are the leaders fair and just, promoting prosperity; or are they cruel and rule harshly, with strict laws and high taxes? Something else to think about is who will rule after whoever is in charge now. This opens up quite a few opportunities for various events that you may or may not want to set up. If the people of the land are prosperous and comfortable with their lives because of a good leader, raiders may come and burn, loot and pillage. If the leader is a bad one, the people could be planning a revolt against him. The current leader might be assassinated, setting the stage for a civil war.
— Community —
Your people are making their money and are being ruled. Ask yourself the question now: how do they feel about each other? Are they close and friendly to one another, or are they bound there because of a common situation and have little or no choice to live there now, so they merely tolerate their neighbors? Hand-in-hand with how they feel about each other is how they feel about outlanders and strangers in their town. It stands to reason that a community that is friendly to each other will also be friendly to most people who do not live there. The opposite is also true. A more backwoods, isolated town would most likely be unfriendly to outsiders than a place that sees a lot of them, such as a trade city. In fact, the citizens of the backwoods town may be hostile to strangers, even resorting to threats or violence.
In addition, how is the community divided? A large city will definitely be stratified to some degree, because of the larger population. A village, on the other hand, will most likely not be, unless it is by trade (smiths, tanners, farmers, etc.). Are the reasons behind the stratification purely tradition, or is it more of an economic matter? It could also very well be that it is the “classic” serf/peasant/nobility division, as in medieval Britain.
The Burbs Making Cities and Areas to go Around Cities
One of the most frequently asked questions on one mud board I read is this: “Where do I start making my mud?” And the most frequent answer is, of course, the start town and the areas around the start town. Of course, one can either make one’s start town make sense, or just make whatever the heck one wishes, but most admins like their world to make at least a little sense. Hence, this article, which hopefully will guide someone.
When considering a new town, I draw my sources from history. Sure, orcs or kzin or elves aren’t historical, but their makeup probably isn’t radically different from ours. The same basic needs drive them; the same things are required of their cities. We can draw from history what works and what doesn’t for habitation. Getting too far outside history means that a knowledgable audience will lose patience with you, or not take your work seriously.
So I’m ignoring fantasy, because fantasy typically is just that — imaginary. If you want a purely imaginary mud, then ignore this whole article. Make whatever you want. Put your city in the middle of a swamp. Make it inaccessible to any trade. Put whatever races you want in it, make it entirely unsupported by farms, fisheries, or herds, ignore the question of where the crafters are that make all the clothes and armor, and if it makes no sense at all, justify it by saying “Oh, it’s magic”, or “Oh, it’s on a different world.”
If you want it to make sense, however, read on.
Cities are founded primarily because they are close to resources. The primary resource we’re talking about here is water. Think about the major cities in the world. They are next to water — rivers, oceans, big lakes. Another big resource is trade. When the highways in the USA were made, tons of little towns sprung up or blossomed around them, as they had a hundred years ago around railroads, and a thousand years ago around primitive trade roads. Locations in easy to defend locations, proximity to other things people want (metal mines, firecracker stands, outlet malls).. these all happen too, but mostly, it’s water or trade. Decide why your city got built to start with, and you’ll have most of its surroundings just like that.
Where are cities NOT built? In the middle of war zones, in the middle of swamps or other difficult terrain, off in the middle of nowhere away from ANYTHING people’d want. Oddly, however, one sees mysterious cities springing up in these kinds of areas all the time. I suppose their writers subscribe to the imaginary-mud model.
Once a city is founded, it must be able to sustain itself. Very few cities in ancient times were able to import all their food and exist solely for trade, for example, though it did happen occasionally. Most families were themselves self-sustaining, farming their own food, making their own clothes, etc. Only when a village grew a little more were people able to specialize — a man might be just a tanner, and through sale of his products eke out a living to enhance whatever kitchen garden he was growing. There have to be enough people there to buy enough product to support the craftsman, for there to be craftsmen. If you want there to be scribes, there has to be enough business there to support scribes. More on this later.
That said, the city will have extensive farmlands or fishing waters around itself, plus enough forests or quarries to build from (unless you’re going the clay brick route, which entails a lot of labor — who’s providing all that labor?). It’ll need some degree of economic and political stability, or it won’t get very big; an astute ruler can do wonders, but you still need a way for the city to grow. If it’s concentrating on war, it won’t grow very fast — all the men will be off fighting, not farming or procreating. Stability makes cities big.
One last thing about city placement I’d like to point out: Cities don’t tolerate lots of conflict nearby. Nobody tolerates a cave full of nasty undead monsters next to his home. Putting a horrible super-dangerous forest two steps out your west gate is unrealistic. Nasty monsters don’t tend to hang around settlements; heroes get ideas, and farmers are happy to make posses to go destroy the wolves so their kids will sleep safely. A lone, desperate predator might from time to time make an appearance, but this isn’t at all common. The trend toward making a mud-world so dangerous one can barely step outside the start town is prevalent, but it’s not in the slightest realistic.
Now that we have established the setting for the city itself, one must consider what gets built around it. If your city is walled, it’s entirely possible that people have built homes around the wall, just outside it, spilling over from inside. You’ll need some way to support the city. A city can import much of its food, but it can’t import it all — and if it isn’t wealthy, it can’t import much at all. A city without a means of support is a city ripe for siege; it is a city that exists upon the goodwill of its neighbors. If your city has no means of support, it needs to be utterly indispensable to its neighbors.
Farms are a primary means of support. Grain cultivation is one of the most important technological advances our world ever made in terms of population support. Grains also give a city fermented drinks, which are regarded as important. Be aware that some grains require special terrain to grow, such as the wet swampy land required by rice. Weather is also important to consider in picking your city’s staple crop. Whatever it is, be sure to include lots of variations of it in your city’s taverns and food shops. Even the evil races have to get their bread from somewhere; slaves or serfs can accomplish this, or perhaps a lower caste of your race.
Other means of support include herds, particularly of horses or cows. However, herds have to move around a little, and require more land than farms do. They also have to eat, and this means they compete with people for grains (unless you’re going the straw route, but even then, grain supplements). Pigs are good because they don’t need much space, will happily eat trash, and can be let loose in the woods to forage most of the year without any help from people. Most herding civilizations will go for sheep or horses, however, and history shows us that they are largely nomadic. You might also consider fisheries, if you are near a coast (and you probably are, if you got this far). A strong navy would go far toward explaining why your city is independent, and would certainly be a natural outgrowth of a fishing industry. That, and players really seem to like sailing code.
Forests are a good source of lumber, but if your city uses this source, be sure to include lots of chopped-down areas. Convert them to farmland if you wish. It can be fun to periodically go chop down some forest rooms and turn them into “A Field of Stumps”. Bear in mind that rarely will aggressive creatures hang around cities, so if you want aggressive bears, wolves, etc., to be around your forest, they need to be skittish, or desperate. Hunting down a rogue wolf can be quite fun for your PCs, but again, this shouldn’t be a regular pop. Forests can be quite tame, and one near a city almost certainly would be. It should also be noted that most rulers declare forests off-limits for hunting, preferring to let nobles and higher-ups enjoy this privilege. Poaching can bring a whole new level of conflict to your game.
If your city is on a trade route, most of the rules can be suspended. There are numerous examples from thousands of years back on up of trade villages in hostile areas (I refer you here to the history of the Great Wall, the Biblical Sodom and Gomorrah, the medieval Silk Route, and modern-day Little Five Points of Atlanta, Georgia and Rice Village of Houston, Texas). While the immediate vicinity might be dangerous to outsiders, strong walls and a fiercely protective police/military force can ensure safety for caravans passing through. Food can be almost entirely imported, for the village is completely indispensable to its allies, who will gladly supply it with its needs. The city quickly becomes a major immigration goal. The problem here is that these cities are ephemeral. While Rome can last three thousand years, a trade village might last only a couple hundred. When the object of trade peters out, or another route is discovered, the village quickly dies.
Trade routes can be very dangerous, very urbane and cosmopolitan, fashionable, and filled with action-oriented conflict. Political maneuvering can be severe, as well, as merchant houses vie with each other for tax breaks and contracts. Trade route cities are prime locations for slave trader type interaction, which also provides fabulous conflict. Stability is almost unheard-of, but, again, there is always the bitter knowledge that this will all pass, and probably quickly — so get what you can out of it now. These cities don’t have a lot of history, and almost certainly won’t have sewers or other fun established places.
So, in short, one can examine the great cities of the world to see how they started and why they have endure the centuries. Why a city appears is as interested as why it disappears, and these reasons can be complex. Luckily, the basic reasons are fairly simple: A city needs to be able to provide for its people in the beginning, and this means water and food, trade and resources like stone or wood. Provide a means to obtain these, and you will have a good site for your city.
Making MUD Schools
In general, I’d suggest the following:
- Make it optional. New players, that aren’t new to mudding in general, hate being forced to go through Newbie schools of any kind. So there must be the option to bypass it. If they miss some useful info by skipping it – it’s their choice.
- Make it interesting – no mobs in cages, no empty rooms you have to go to just to learn how to type NORTH. Have some funny mobs to kill, some minor quests to perform. Make it look and work like any normal area, with the addition of the explanatory signs, that they can read or not read at choice.
- Make it rewarding. Put some good equipment in it that doesn’t load anywhere else in the game. Put some qualified info in some of the signs that not all players necessarily know about.
- Make it pedagogic. Start with the easy stuff, proceed gradually to the more advanced. Try to remember how bewildered you were yourself as a newbie.
- Make it in steps. In my mud we have 4 different classes, each teaching different stuff. You can skip any of the classes, depending on whether you think you know all about those things or not.
- Make it useful. Use the academy to give info about special features in your mud. We have one of the classes devoted to the use of ranged weapons, transporters and vehicles, since those features aren’t found in any mud. The same goes for things like climbable and descendable objects, special commands like LISTEN, SMELL, FEEL – any features you have that are non-stock.
- Make it challenging. We have put a Quest Academy on top of our school teaching some neat tricks that only few players know. Each quest you solve leads you on to the next, and teaches you things on the way. If you give up, there is a solution to what you should have done in each room.
Just some food for thought…
Building for Newbie Friendliness
Newbies are a mud’s lifeblood. Muds that do not provide a welcoming hand to newbies deserve whatever they get — we all hear about these muds, but they rarely last long. There are a number of things builders can do to foster newbie friendliness:
- Don’t put high level areas next to low level areas. Segue into them. Provide lots of buffer zone, and lots of warning. I quit a mud for doing precisely this. I just got sick of being blindsided.
- And while we’re on that topic, don’t don’t don’t put high level mobiles into low level areas, especially and particularly guard types. Keep the level range consistent, for both objects and mobiles. Objects should not be so cool that higher-level characters come in and plunder the area before lowbies can get in there every repop.
- Low-level objects in high-level areas is also a mistake. It will encourage high-level players to give away the objects, and worse, newbies to learn to ask for those objects; you hopefully don’t want a begging economy to start!
- Have a consistent theme and areas that fit that theme. Super-dangerous-sounding fights between good and evil probably shouldn’t happen at the newbie level. Newbie mobs should be less intimidating than higher-level mobs.
- Objects should reflect level. “Thor’s Hammer” probably shouldn’t be level 5. “A pointy stick” probably won’t be level 99. High level players like having cool-sounding gear, and who can blame them?
- When it comes to armor, be consistent. There’s no WAY a linen robe could give better protection than a coat of mail. Newbies don’t have much money, so they judge effectiveness by intuition. Let your newbie gear, at least, be logically consistent. When players hit the high levels, then let the magic armor rule, where “tightly-fitting purple tights” are much better to have than “ice-steel leggings”.
- Color is evil if it is inconsistent. Go for consistency. Eschew the “kewl”. Color can either be an aid to gameplay, when it’s consistent, or a distraction, which all too often it is if inconsistent. It can be a visual nightmare when every noun in a room desc is pure white or neon green, or if your players look like strings of Christmas lights. I seriously would advise builders not to sprinkle color around unless they’re absolutely sure it won’t detract from readability and consistency.
- Don’t put cutesy death traps in newbie areas or in newbie towns. They’re not half as funny as people think they are, and many admins and mud philosophers now feel that they discourage exploration.
- An area full of gear is a good idea at the low levels, even at the newbie levels. Newbies don’t like running around in only a leather vest/leggings and sandals. They like having lots of wearlocs covered. Also, if a character finds himself naked, through death, PK, or whatever, he has a fast way of getting a few things to re-equip.
- Behave in a professional manner on communication channels and in email. Say “thank you” to your builders every so often. Behave professionally toward area proposals and potential recruits. Give credit where it is due.
- Reconsider your decision to use the venerable Newbie School. The first muds I ever played didn’t have it, and we got along just fine. Newbie School is a cute area, but it’s old, we’ve seen it, and it doesn’t add to YOUR mud’s theme. If you must have one, and insist on not customizing it to your mud, please don’t force newbies to go through it. A newbie school is, at best, something that can be accomplished more elegantly by an original area, and, at worst, patronizing and belittling to experienced newbies. Is either something you want?
- Make your start town logical to travel. Amorphous areas that feel like they were written on an online editor on the fly do not appeal in the slightest. Consider making it fairly small. Clearly mark dangerous and shady areas. Keep aggressive things out of the town.
The Best Way to make a Forest from the Ground Up
Unless you’re running a post-apocalyptic MUD, where the world is a barren wasteland, or an alien world MUD, where the creatures living there may not need oxygen to survive, you’re going to have forests. They’re an integral part of any economy, even in today’s real world – we still need lumber for housing, furniture, and firewood. This goes doubly for a medieval fantasy-based MUD, where the people are extremely unlikely to have any technology that makes the construction of metal-based homes and furniture viable. They’re also an immeasurably vital part of a world’s ecosystem.
Forests can be either a burden or a joy to build, depending on how you look at them. Many people like building towns and cities more – they’re guaranteed player magnets. People -will- go there. Forests, on the other hand, tend to be visited less, unless they are a good place to get experience and equipment. I strongly believe that a well-made forest is better than any city, any day, and absolutely love to make them. I’ll say more on making your forest a visited place later, though.
What goes into a forest? Trees, of course, and lots of them. Depending on if your MUD has established (however loosely) climate, the trees there will vary. In a temperate climate, deciduous and evergreen trees will be everywhere – oaks, birches, pines and firs, for example. Oaks take their sweet time growing, though – so unless the forest has been there a while, keep the oaks small. Redwood trees, found in climates like that of the United States’ Pacific Northwest, are the same way, but they take even longer to grow. Tropical rainforest-type trees take a very long time to grow, as well, and if they get deforested, they won’t be able to support much later on. I’ll talk about the option of deforestation later.
Besides trees, there are very defined layers of plant life that are in every forest of the world – ground-level vegetation (bushes, shrubs, grasses, and flowers), the trees themselves, and canopy-level vegetation (mostly parasitic plants like mistletoe, vines and certain mosses). Create these layers well, and your forest is on the way to being believable.
The underbrush is where most of your players will be wandering around – through the briars and flowers. This is also the best place to put plants that can be gathered, such as herbs that give magical affects when eaten. Make the ground level detailed, and put in everything. Some plants commonly found on the ground are (depending on the forest type) ferns, bushes (with or without berries), wild grasses, flowers, herbs, mushrooms (although not technically a plant) and mosses. Lichens may also be growing on trees or rocks. The forest floor is also very cool and shady, since the interwoven branches and leaves of the trees above will be blocking a good deal of the sunlight. Fallen leaves, pinecones, fruit and berries (all but the leaves are optional) will also litter the ground. Forest fires will clear out the underbrush periodically so as to fertilize the soil and make way for new growth.
Besides the plants, there are other “normal” things that can be found on the forest floor that can be added to make separate rooms of a forest be quite different. Rocks are an option, especially if the forest is in the mountains. Some abnormal forest growth can be put into the rooms, too, like huge clumps of fungus, or a patch of stunted trees. Beehives can hang from trees, or be on the ground if the bees in question are ground bees. Burrowing animals like rabbits will have dug holes to live in. Snakes will take over abandoned burrows. The skeletons of small forest creatures and the hollow shells of turtles can be scattered about to give the impression that the predators are hunting and not just wandering the forest, and that the animals are dying quite well without players wandering around and slaughtering them. If you want to give the impression of a changing and fluid world, rocks can have fossils of extinct creatures imbedded in them, or the fossils of sea creatures. If your forest has deer, moose or elk in it (it probably should), the young bucks will rub their horns against trees to get rid of the velvet that covers their antlers. They’ll leave the velvet on the trunks, and will probably also strip some bark off. Animals that travel in herds will tend to travel one path through the forest, making a game trail. The trail will be littered with droppings (no pun intended), and will be trampled nearly plant-less.
The ground level of the forest is where nearly all of the animals worth turning into creatures (I wouldn’t recommend making a termite or a gnat and then filling the area with them, but hey, it’s your area) will be found, with the possible exception of birds and squirrels, which make their homes in trees. Birds and squirrels will have to go down to the ground to search for food and water, though. That said, the fauna will be determined mostly by the forest’s climate. Some animals are adaptable to nearly any climate – bears, wolves, and rabbits, to name a few. Reptiles cannot survive in cold weather, but thrive in more temperate climates. Fantasy creatures such as centaurs, trolls, unicorns, wood nymphs, dryads and faeries are an option, but definitely not required (I personally prefer nymphs and dryads and faeries in my woods). Most of these creatures won’t be carrying anything of worth, other than perhaps a pelt, or in the case of a unicorn, its horn. Forest-oriented people, like rangers and druids, and possibly clerics or priests who are devoted to a god or goddess of the forests, will have the more interesting things, but they’ll also be much more likely to defend the forest creatures against those who want to kill them. Don’t overly fill the woods with too many predators, since it takes a lot of prey animals to feed one predator animal.
Staying somewhat on the subject of animals, keep their levels and hit points reasonable. Anyone should be able to kill a rabbit or snake with one or two weapon hits, even a mage. Level forty-eight hummingbirds with twenty thousand hit points are not a good way to make your area realistic, unless those hummingbirds are as big as a house. But like I said before, it’s your area. And just to reiterate another thing I already mentioned, most animals probably won’t have much in the way of equipment besides their hides and furs, although a severed bear claw or deer antlers might make an interesting weapon.
The canopy will be less important, unless the forest is so thick that players can go into the branches of trees. Therefore, unless you use that as an option, you can leave the canopy less described than the forest floor. That doesn’t mean that it’s completely unnecessary; the tops of trees are there, after all.
Should your forest be on a high mountain, you will need to have two levels to your forest: above the tree line and below it. Below it, the forest is as I described above. However, above the tree line, things begin to thin out considerably. The floor-level vegetation will rapidly disappear, and trees will grow with less and less frequency. Fewer animals will be found here. This is mostly due to thinner air and rockier, thinner topsoil. The plants that do exist here will be hardier and wirier than those found below the tree line; temperatures are colder here, as is exposure to ultraviolet radiation due to the thinner air.
If the forest is close to a town, it will more than likely be used for lumber. The woods closer to the city can be deforested, leaving rooms full of stumps. You can also make this semi-dynamic, by slowly overwriting previously forest-filled rooms with logging operations and cut-down trees. That’s much easier and less of a hassle if you use an OLC editor, both for you and your players. The ecosystem of the forest will change, too – animals leaving or dying out, for instance. Should you continue to deforest the forest for a long while, you’ll be left with a field of rotting stumps, just ripe for farming after the stumps are ploughed under. However, forests will usually grow back fairly quickly if they’re not kept under control, so if for any reason your town is abandoned or destroyed, the forest will come creeping back in to retake the land.
How do you attract players? A terribly simple solution is to fill it with easy-to-kill creatures that have a lot of money and great equipment, and also give a lot of experience. On a hack-and-slash or PK MUD, that’s probably not going to be a problem for anyone. But in a more role-play oriented place, you’ll want to make it far more interesting than just a bunch of trees and scampering little forest animals. One forest area I made involved gathering some grain from a nearby field and putting it on an altar to make a sacrifice. A druid then rewarded the player with a magical medallion. Forests have plenty of places to hide things – use that to your advantage. Some things, like a bush full of raspberries, probably won’t be special enough to be turned into a -visible- object … so don’t give it a long description, put it in the room, and fill it full of berries. Holes in trees or rocks and hollow logs are some more things that can be used in this way. Add “guild rooms” for rangers and druids if those classes exist in your MUD – I use the term loosely, since it won’t be a typical guild room; it will be more of a special sort of glade. Players also seem to like things that appear to have a special significance – such as an ancient stone shrine deep within the forest – but that in reality, don’t do much of anything. Layering extra descriptions on them adds to the players’ curiosity about them.
As is the case with all building, your choice of words strengthens or weakens your room descriptions; I have found some particularly colorful words that evoke certain images. In no real order, they are vibrant, verdant, emerald, lush, damp, dewy, flourishing and thriving. Those just are words I use for the woodlands in general; it doesn’t touch the more specific plant life like flowers or mosses. A good thesaurus will give you even more words. The more varied your choice of words, the more diverse and interesting you can make your forest (and other areas) become.
[tabby title=”FAQ”]
1. MUDs
1.1 An Introduction
This section serves as a basic introduction to MUDs. By no means does it provide comprehensive coverage on the subject of MUDs. MUDs are very complicated, and generally warrant FAQS of their own. What I tell you in this section is just enough to get yourself hurt.
MUDs, multi-user dungeons, are an on-line interactive computer game. You create a character, and interact with other characters. This is done in a world created and/or maintained by the mud’s administration. A common setting for this is a fantasy world, although you can find worlds of many different flavors.
Each mud is a separate entity. There were 1560 muds listed on the Mud Connector (http:\\www.mudconnect.com) at the time this section was written.
1.2 Mud Servers
Mud servers are the software that runs the game. They are commonly referred to by their “code base.” Code bases are sometimes named after the first mud to run that code. For example, DaleMUD is named after ShadowDale; ROM is named after Rivers of Mud.
1.3 MUD Clients and Telnet
Mud clients are programs that allow you to play on a mud. These programs also have features specifically designed for use with muds. Common examples of mud clients are: TinyFugue, ZMUD, and Tintin. Most operating systems come with a telnet program already installed. Although telnet programs enable you to play a mud as well, they are generic utilities. This should be sufficient if you are unsure whether you like muds or not yet. If you plan on gaming for a long time, then you should look into getting a mud client.
1.4 Just the FAQs, ma’am
A more complete FAQ on muds can be found at http://www.mudconnect.com/mudfaq
2. What is this Building Lark?
2.1 What is building?
There is some dispute in the mudding community as to what the terms building and coding covers. The following definitions are used for the purposes of this site.
- Coding involves writing and compiling a majority of the code that makes the mud function.
- Building involves creating, the rooms, mobs, and objects that the players interact with.
- Administration involves planning out and running the mud.
2.2 Prerequisites
At a bare minimum, what does it take to be a builder?
- A pulse.
If you do not have a pulse seek medical attention. - A computer.
If you do not have a computer, seek medical attention.
There are two things that I think help to have done before someone starts building for the first time:
- Experience playing muds.
I would recommend a minimum of six months of playing muds before undertaking building. - Read a lot.
Areas, like books, rely on mental imagery to get their point across. Reading a lot gives you examples of many different descriptive techniques. Books are just plain cool.
2.3 What does it take to be a good builder?
Imagination
I do not think I need to expand on that one. 😉
Curiosity
Ask questions, lots of them! How do I do this? Can I do this? The more questions you ask, the more you will learn. Admins generally like new builders who ask lots of questions. They do not mind answering them. Some admins actually enjoy it because it shows that the builder has a genuine interest. Answering the questions makes them look smart, too. 😉
Patience
Patience is actually required in several ways when you are learning to build. The chances are good that your first area will not be the “Area to End all Areas.” Very few people submit an excellent first area. Building is a learning process. If you stick to it, you will master it. The aforementioned admins who love answering questions can sometimes be quite busy. When your work is at a stand still, even if it is hard to wait, wait. Be patient, they usually get back to you as soon as they can. Building a good area is a long sometime tedious process. Parts of it are not that much fun, but are very necessary. If you take the time to do it right, other people will notice the difference.
Common sense, and pride
Use what you disliked in areas to build guidelines for yourself. (I.e., don’t you hate when you are walking west in a hallway that assumes you are going east? My personal pet peeve is copied room descriptions; changing one line at the end does not make a difference in my book. There are players who look at everything in the description. Flush everything out with as much detail as you can. Take pride in your work. One new builder pointed out to me that most people do not pay attention to such things. I told him I do not build my areas for them, I build them for the people who do true exploration. Just because “most people” ignore the extra work does not mean it should remain undone. Take pride in your work, be thorough, and you will be a good builder.
3. Glossary
The following is a list of terms that you may come across while learning to build for a mud.
ASCIIAn abbreviation for American Standard Code for Information Interchange. ASCII is a common method of translating numbers, characters, and letters. The ASCII system is used on several different operating systems and in many different programs. It provides an almost universal method of translation.ASCII Art
- Using ASCII characters to create images.
!_ |*~=-., |_,-'` | | /^\ !_ / \ |*`~-., /, \ |.-~^` /#" \ | _/##_ _ \_ _ _| _ _ _ [ ]_[ ]_[ ]_[ ] [ ]_[ ]_[ ]_[ ]_[ ] |_=_-=_ - =_| !_ |_=_ =-_-_ = =_| !_ |=_= - | |*`--,_- _ | |*`~-.,= [] | |.-'|= [] | !_ |_.-"`_- | | |_=- - | |*`~-., | |=_- | /^\ |=_= - | |_,-~` /^\ |_ - =[] | _ / \_|_=- _ _ _| _| _ / \|=_- | [ ]/, \[ ]_[ ]_[ ]_[ ]_[ ]_[ ]_/, \[ ]=- | |/#" \_=-___=__=__- =-_ -=_ /#" \| _ [] | _/##_ _ \_-_ = _____ _/##_ _ \_ - |\ [ ]_[ ]_[ ]_[ ]=_0~{_ _ _}~0 [ ]_[ ]_[ ]_[ ]=- | \ |_=__-_=-_ =_|-=_ | , | |_=-___-_ =-__|_ | \ | _- =- |-_ | ((* | |= _= | - |___\ |= -_= |= _ | ` | |_-=_ |=_ |/+\| | =_ - |_ = _ `-.-` | =_ = = |=_- ||+|| |-_=- _ |=_ = |=_= -_ | = ||+|| |=_- /+\ | -= |_=- /+\ |=_ |^^^| |=_ |+|+| |= - -_,--,_ |_= |+|+| | -_ |= | | -|+|+| |-_= / | | \ |=_ |+|+| |-=_ |_-/ |=_=|+|+| | =_= | | | | |_- |+|+| |_ = |=/ | _ ^^^^^ |= - | | <&> |=_=^^^^^ |_=- |/ |=_ = | =_-_| | | | | =_ | -_ | jgs |_=-_ |=_= | | | | |=_= |=- | `^^^^^^^^^^`^`^^`^`^`^^^""""""""^`^^``^^`^^`^^`^`^``^`^``^``^^ - Building Port
- A copy of the MUD run for the purpose of creating new areas.
- Editor
- A program used to create and/or edit areas for a mud.
- Mob
- An abbreviation for mobile.
- Mobile
- Creatures found on a mud.
Aliases: NPC, creature, monster - NPC
- An abbreviation for Non-Player Character. This term is more commonly used for tabletop role-playing games, i.e. Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. It is used in two different ways in muds. The first way is synonymous with mob. The second way is to designate key mobs. For example, in a forest area, the animals would be mobs, but a lone ranger that lives in the area might be a NPC.
Aliases: Mob, creature, monster - Object
- Inanimate objects on the mud.
- Off-Line Creation
- Building using the resources of your computer or a network account that is not hosted by the mud. You do not need to be connected to the internet.
Aliases: Off-Line Editing - On-Line Creation
- Building using the MUD’s resources. Usually this means being connected to the MUD or its building port via the internet.
Aliases: On-Line Editing, OLC - QC
- An abbrevation for Quality Control. QC standards can be used in place of the term building standards.
- Text Editor
- A program or command generally included with your operating system that allows you to create ASCII files. I.e., edit in DOS, notepad in Windows, and VI in Linux. More complex programs can also save ASCII files.
Additional FAQ
Is it easy to code rooms?
Well yes and no.
I actually don’t find it to hard, I have written thousands of rooms. I have typed over 3 million words that’s 14,000 pages and counting. That’s more than most novelists. But the ability to write rooms is down to several things. You have to get a rythym, you have to accept there will be errors or periods where you don’t squeeze out the best from your brain. You have to learn how to make your text appear functional even when your writing areas you have little empathy for.
One moment you are looking at writing vast areas of the land that people will hardly look at the next you are finishing off areas that people treat as incredibly important.
The most usual pit falls for would be room coders are as follows:
Too much too soon
They try to write to much to soon. Try as I might I can not get people to aim low when coding rooms, the urge to be creative needs to be matched with a determination to complete the work. Sadly your imagination will always try to push you on , you don’t want to do just 40 rooms you want to construct a whole sunken city to the lizard king. I have lost count of the emails I get from would be coders who tell me they are going to write this great area, hundreds of rooms with linking quests and events. At first I tried to explain why I thought it was a little over ambitious, then I changed tact, I say to these people ‘go ahead and get back in touch when you have them done’. I will usually get an email about how the maps been drawn out on paper then I never hear from then again.
You see room writing is not a ‘doddle’ it takes planning and bloody mindedness on the part of the writer. You also have to have a ‘inner fire’ room writing has large bits of it that are dull, deadly dull. You have to want to get past those parts before you can even think about writing the good bits.
They under estimate the task
You know how they say we all have a novel within us? Well room writing is a lot like that. If you have ever sat down to write your novel you will be aware of a few truths. Its not as easy as you thought and the work involved is disproportional to the enjoyment you get. Room writing is a lot like that, you can talk yourself into believing that its easy, you convince yourself that you will be able to rattle off a few hundred rooms a day, you are convinced that your stuff will be better than any other rooms you have ever seen. The truth of the matter is that you will never know if you have the ability to write rooms until you have a go at it, just remember you are not doing a small task, treat this like painting a house with a toothbrush. It can be done, but its a hard slog.
To complicated, try to keep it simple
The urge when your about to write a set of rooms is to try and make it a master piece. You need to learn your trade, start with simple things and then work your way up. Don’t try to construct the elven court as your first set of rooms. Pick something that people won’t want to look over with to much of a critical eye. Roads are a good starting point, that or woodland (though personally I hate woodland but thats a personal thing) Far to often I hear from people who set the sights way too high and then have to climb down.
Perfectionists can not write rooms
If you are constantly re editing your email, if you hate spelling mistakes, if you are more critical of your own work than other peoples I strongly suggest you don’t even try to code any rooms. You will only cause yourself distress. Far to often I find really great would be room coders just as I am about to get excited I find out they are perfectionists. Don’t get me wrong they will be able to write rooms and they will be great, but that will be balanced against the slow speed of the room creation and constant re editing. Some of the best rooms in Terris are not written by me, but the people who did write them either take forever to produce them or only ever wrote one section and vowed never to write any more.
You have to keep going
If you start to get the bug to write rooms you take on one real commitment. You will be adding to a living breathing game world. You owe it to that world to see the job through. That might mean hours of coding, you may have to code lots of extra rooms. The task will spiral out of control. You can not just drop in your own style if it clashes with the rest of the game world. You need to read about the world you are adding to. We have not really done a good job of this in Terris but we are paying more attention to it these days.
Your not writing war and peace
To many would be writers think they are adding the greatest bit of literature known to man. If anything you have to be more like a pulp novel writer. Your work has to be above a certain level and true to a style. You do not have the space to write masses of text (and nor would you want to) you have to get some atmosphere across a bit of description while maintaining consistency with the rest of the game world. You don’t have room to show boat. Better to be a productive hack than a nasal gazing would be literary giant with delusions of grandeur.
[tabby title=”Area Builders”]
MFZ: Make Zones Fast
DikuMUD, Envy, and ROM / Windows
Faerie
ROM / Windows
(if either of these downloads from Wayback Machine no longer work, let us know. We have the original files)
[tabby title=”Building Tips”]
This section is one of the most requested sections of our Builders’ Guide. It is composed of building tips for novice builders. Most of this is extremely subjective, and based on the past experiences of the builders at C.A.W. Not all of these techniques will be of use to the average builder, but you are welcome to read through them all the same.
Areas should be well-fleshed out stories that catch the visitor’s attention and bring out their curiosity, making them want to stay for more. The descriptions should be well fleshed out, bringing images into the players’ minds, and there should be challenges and tricks that the player will not expect, after all, even the best descriptions can only go so far.
Not all of the tips in this document are solely from C.A.W., Slash of MZF fame, Lok (author of many Merc and ROM areas), and Narien have also contributed a number of tips, as has Locke of CthulhuMud. Other contributions to this section are always welcome, and will be added with proper credits.
General Tips
The first tip is to learn how to build without an Diku editor first. Editors are wonderful tools that definitely make life easy in the long run, but if you know how the files are put together, and why they are how they are, it becomes a lot easier to troubleshoot.
Before starting work on an area, talk it over with the person in charge of the theme and world on the mud you are building it for. Make sure that your idea of the theme is very similar to theirs. Otherwise, you may end up building something that doesn’t fit the world at all. Also, suggestions from the other person may allow you to incorporate plot elements from the rest of the world, which would further integrate your area with the rest of the world.
Once you have your idea refined and compatible with the rest of the mud’s world, draw your area on paper. Do it big. The reason for this is that during the building process, aggravation and editing always make the area shrink, sometime rapidly. Also, having a visual map to work from helps immensely with exits, and provides a visual impetus for putting together the last (and often most tedious) bits.
Plots are extremely important in areas. Your area should have a strong plot which is well incorporated into it. Some ways of incorporating plots are in descriptions of mobiles when you look at them. Extra descriptions in rooms are always useful for trails, scrapings on the wall, or whatnot. Trash objects can be created that are notes, maps, or whatever. One excellent idea from Lok is to create a no-take container without a long description, with the short description the ground, and inside this container, put a ‘buried’ treasure. When players get the treasure from the container, it will appear like You get the treasure from the ground. This kind of trick catches the interest of most players, and power mudders will more than likely miss this kind of trick the first few times through.
When designing your area and the plots within, you should always consider what kind of player you want playing in your area. Keep the levels and types in mind (ie role-playing, power-mudder, etc). In doing so, try to have fun building the area. Make it well-rounded and something that you enjoy looking through afterwards. If you find something you don’t like, edit it and change it until you like it. It is always best to build when you are not bored of the area, since building when you are bored almost always turns out uninspired and boring areas.
Most builders do not take the possible ecology or economic effects of an area into account. By this, I don’t mean having a mini-model of an actual ecological enviroment, but rather having things that make the area sem more plausible. The best things to put in to make an area more plausible are useless objects that actually add atmosphere to the area. Food sources for the mobiles in your area are always neccessary to fleshing things out, as are creating import and export goods for cities, complete with customs houses.
When building your area, start with the very first number of the zone (QQ00, where QQ is the zone number, for example, 2200 would be the number of the first mobile, object, and room if your zone number was 22). If at all possible, do not leave empty spaces in the zone, try to keep the numbers in sequential order.
Finally, when writing the numerous descriptions of the area, MAKE THEM INTERESTING TO READ! Nobody likes to read room after room of stupid one line descriptions. Vary each description as much as possible. One of the greatest joys of most players is finding new and interesting rooms, items, treasures, and monsters. For those of you familiar with role-playing games, this creative use of descriptions and atmosphere should be quite well-known to you. Consider looking over other areas you enjoy before building your own, to use ideas from that area.
Remember: You don’t want to bore your players
Some final notes on spelling are in order here. Make sure you spell things correctly in your area. I have found that a good principle to make is to avoid the use of all contractions. For example, if you mean to say “it is“, do not use “it’s”, spell it out. This will help differentiate between “its” (which means ‘belonging to it’) and “it is”. Another set of problem words to take note of is the “they’re”, “there”, and “their”. The first can be avoided because it is a contraction, the second is not here, but there, and the final one means that it belongs to them. One final instance to take note of are “to”, “too”, and “two”. The first is used when you want to say something like ‘the passage leads to there’, the second is an adjective, which means that it should be used in situations where there is an excess of something, such as ‘too much red paint was used to cover the walls here’. The final one is the number that follows 1 (one) and precedes 3 (three).
The apostrophe is something else that is incorrectly used quite often, and this can ruin someone’s enjoyment of an area. The apostrophe is generally used to show that something belongs to someone. A couple of quick examples to show its use:
- Fred’s sister is Doris.
- Correct. This states that Fred has a sister named Doris.
- Freds’ sister is Doris.
- Incorrect.
- Doris’ brother is Fred.
- Correct. Note the lack of a trailing ‘s’ when an ‘s’ ends the noun?
- Doris’s brother is Fred.
- Incorrect. Actually, strictly speaking, this is a correct use, but tends to be avoided if possible.
- Fred’s sisters’ dog is named Rover.
- Correct. This states that Rover is the dog that belongs to the numerous sisters of Fred.
- Fred’s sister’s dog is named Rover.
- Correct. This states that Rover is the dog that belongs to the *single* sister of Fred.
- With all of these spelling tips in mind, you should be well equiped to start working on your area.
Room Tips
The first thing to suggest here is to start your area with the .wld file. This is the file that usually takes the longest. Once this file is completed, the other files will come much easier. In fact, often after I finish the world file, I have come up with numerous other ideas for new objects and mobiles to populate it.
Beginning with the title of a room, it is best to capitalize the name of a room, for example The Golden Tomb. Also, try to avoid punctuation in a title, unless you feel that it is absolutely neccessary. The title of a room should be a fairly coherant noun if at all possible.
In the room description itself, you should include the obvious exits and important things in the room. Do not put mobs or objects or otherwise into the room description. The obvious exclusion to this rule is no-take objects which often work quite well without a long description as they can be ‘hidden’ in the room description. Try to line up the right hand column as much as possible without going over 75 characters per line. Also, as a final note, try not to describe a player’s emotions in the room, leave that up to your descriptive text to evoke the emotions in the player, since that will make things much more exciting to the player.
Some people believe that it is best to describe locations in the third person all the time (ie, never reference the player), but I am personally of the school that you should describe the room as needed to get the point across. Taking into account the suggestions above of course.
‘Spatial Order’ is important to take into account when building and designing areas. Spatial Order is the art of making everything fit into a realistic plain. Making it geometrically correct. That kind of thing. To achieve this, the use of directional words (‘north’, ‘southeast’, etc) is highly recommended. Having an area geometrically correct makes it much easier for a player to visualize it, and thus increases their enjoyment of it.
For doors, exits, and so forth, try to include an extra description of the door (for example, one for ‘door wooden’), as well as a short description when looking in the direction of the door. Remember that for working two-way doors, the rooms on each side should have matching doorflags and doors.
Renaming doors is sometimes a good idea to create ‘secret’ doors. For example, having a doorway behind a tapestry on a wall if you want to have a concealed passageway. This can often be used together with extra direction descriptions. Since a mud defaults to looking in a direction before looking at an extra description, you can set up an exit to ‘nowhere’ by using -1 as the destination room number, and then use the description section of the door to describe what can be seen when looking that way.
Death Traps should be used to encourage intelligent exploration rather than just being used to slaughter players. A Death Trap room should always be set indoors, and never dark. This way the room name will show up with the exits command. If a room has an exit to a death trap, ensure that there is an exit from the trap to the room, otherwise the death cry will not be heard in the entry room by other players. It can also be an idea to put exits into other rooms in your area so that if someone hits a death trap, it gets heard in other rooms, and can potentially frighten other players in the area. When putting Death Traps into an area, be careful with them since too many will discourage people from wanting to visit the region. Also, the rooms leading up to the death traps should have fairly obvious warnings as to what is coming.
When describing a Death Trap, never use mobs in it unless they are supposed to be all-powerful gods or something of the sort. The best kind of description is the one which describes some complete and utterly stupid action by the player such as walking off of the edge of a cliff, walking into what is obviously a falling ceiling trap, and so forth.
For extra descriptions, try to make one for each thing that you would think to look at the the room description or in other extra descriptions. If there is one word that could mean two or more things, include them all in if you like, or direct the player to another description for such.
For mazes and paths, try to avoid the two exit moron maze if at all possible. Try to have it so that players can move off the path if they so choose. One possible suggestion for this is to have one pathway through part of your area, using exit, extra, and room descriptions to show where the path lies. This way, observant players will be able to find the path easily, whereas those players that are not quite as observant will get lost much more easily. Such hints can be hidden two or three extras deep and be as small as a scrape on the side of a tree, a thread on a bush, or whatever.
For random mob distribution in an area, you can make a mob chute. A mob chute is a room with six one-way exits leading out to places you want the mobs to go. Load all the mobiles into this room without sentinel flags and they will distribute themselves. For larger areas, several of these chutes can be interconnected for a bubble-sort effect.
You should always define the areas where any mob can wander to. This can be done through the use of no_mob rooms. These rooms allow you to define ranges of mobiles. For example, all the lower level mobiles can be set so that only they can wander on the first level of a dungeon by making the stairwells no_mob.
Finally, the first room in the .wld file should be the entry room to your area. If you have more than one exit or entrance, make sure that you list them somewhere so that the person connecting your area will have a much easier time attaching it to the world, and will know where to look for exits back to the world.
Mobile Tips
Positions of Mobiles are quite useful at times. For example, mobs wander around by default. Remember to include the ‘Sentinel’ Action flag for stationary mobs. Also, ‘angry’ mobs can be simulated by loading them sitting and agressive, with a default position of standing. After being attacked, they will wander around instead of sitting back down!
You should always try to match your mobiles to the area and the players you want to play there. For example, you should make the mobs in the area a similar level to the players you want to play there since a level X warrior should be able to kill a level X mobile if the warrior is fully healthy. Also, the quality of objects on mobiles should be matched with their level.
For the keywords of a mobile, there is no need to capitalize any of them, try to keep them all small letters for format cohesion. The order of the keywords does not matter at all, and try to have as many keywords to describe the mobile as possible from both the short description and the long description. For example:
- mayor neftlewitz man tall
- would be good for the following long description:
- A tall man is walking about here. It appears to be Mayor Neftlewitz.
- the green troll
- Mayor Neftlewitz
- Blackrazor sword broad
- barrel metal water
- bracelet emerald jewelled
- Blackrazor
- the wooden barrel
- (the system will make it ‘the wooden barrel of water’ if it contains water)
- an emerald bracelet
For short descriptions, always use ‘the’ unless the mobile has a proper name. Above all, never put punctuation at the end of a short description. Also, try not to capitalize the first letter of the short description unless it is a proper name. For example:
For long descriptions, end with proper punctuation, and make sure that the description is a complete sentence with proper grammar. Remember that the long description will follow the room description.
For the description, try to tell the player what the mobile looks like, how it is acting, etc… Do not include items in the description if possible, since if the mobile is given them, they will appear twice and it will look rather silly.
Object Tips
For the keywords of an object, ALWAYS put the most general or the most descriptive name of the object keywords first. Do not capitalize the keywords, unless the object is named and that keyword is the first in the list. Also, use as many keywords as possible, and above all, make sure that at least one of the keywords is found in the extra description. Another important point, try to describe the object in the keywords, so that a key has more keywords than simply ‘key’, for example ‘key brass large’ would be good. For example:
For Liquid containers, always make the first keyword the liquid name. In the short description, use only the name of the object and do not include the liquid (ie ‘a glass’ instead of ‘a glass of milk’)
For short descriptions, always use ‘the’, ‘a’, ‘an’, etc unless the item has a proper name. Above all, never put punctuation at the end of a short description. Also, try not to capitalize the first letter of the short description unless it is a proper name. For example:
Just like for mobiles, long descriptions should end with proper punctuation, and make sure that the description is a complete sentence with proper grammar.
For extra descriptions, try to flesh out your object with a description or three which tell the player what it looks like, etc… Ensure that all the keywords are covered by the description. Extra descriptions can add small interesting details to your area and are often remembered by players.
Be fair with the items — Good items should be very rare on most muds, and hard to get. Lousy items should require much less effort. Give the most powerful items actually to a mob; thieves and mages can often steal stuff on the ground without even bothering with the mob.
Also, take note that a lot of small items make an area more interesting than a few incredibly powerful items, for the most part. Don’t feel limited to items players consider ‘useful’, such as weapons and armour. A giant (untakeable) monolith, and other strange and odd items can add a lot of atmosphere to an area. They can also be used to distract players. Most of the useless items are often best as trash, but can be worn, and don’t feel that items shouldn’t get strange wear flags. After all, who says that boat you juts created can’t actually be a ring of water walking? All that would be needed for that is to have a boat with a finger wear position set.
Remember to put take wear-flags on almost everything. It is easier to put a take wear-flag on everything, and take off the ones you don’t need (like fountains and such).
If you plan to have an object that is not to be taken, you can either set a no-take flag on it, or give it an enormous weight (30,000 or more). This way, players won’t be able to take it very easily. Another idea to use with this kind of object is to describe it in the room’s description and then remove the long description of the object. This, in theory, will encourage players to look at the room descriptions a little harder.
Containers have many uses as well. You can disguise containers as trees, chests, or even a shower robe with huge pockets (like in the Hitch-Hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy game from Infocom). You can also create streams of water with drink containers that have no long description, but are in the room’s description. That way people can actually drink from the stream they see.
Here is a suggested guideline table for armour cost and weight. This table can easily be expanded so that you can decide how much other items cost and weigh and so forth.
Material Armour Apply Weight Cost ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~ Leather Very Low Very Light Cheapest Studded Lether Splint Mail Chain Mail Average Average Average Bronze Plate Iron Plate Black Metal/Steel Very High Heavy Extremely Expensive
Zone Tips
Your .zon file will always be wrong on the first try — Get used to it.
Comment your zone files as much as possible. Doing this makes it much easier to debug your zone file when you find an error in it. See the appendicies for examples.
The ‘P’ command sometimes gets confused if you try to load multiple objects into multiple containers IF the containers are all the same object. The solution is to copy the container over into the .obj file with a different vnum however many different containers you need.
Remember, a functioning door is a door from both sides, and needs to be closed from both sides. Thus, two door commands for each door.
Try to avoid mobile pileups. This happens when you have two or more mobs resetting into different locations. Remember that they will always load the first lines first until the limit of mobiles is reached. One solution to this is to mix up the order of rooms to which they reset. Another solution is to create numerous copies of the mobile, one per room.
Shop Tips
Any stationary mob can be a shopkeeper… this can advance the plot of a particular area to no end if used cleverly.
Shopkeepers don’t _have_ to buy anything. Or sell anything…
On another note, you can have two mobiles that look the same, but one is a shopkeeper and the other isn’t.
[tabbyending]