#define STYLE_GUIDE Chapter(1) void area_creation(FILE rooms, FILE items, FILE mobs, ...) { Creating areas can be a rather simple process. The primary element necessary is time to add together all the flags and compile the oodles of little elements to create the final whole. There are a few style guidelines we'd like to suggest. As most of the areas on Copper predate these guidelines, we can't expect everyone in the future to be perfect either. These are mainly for presenting a unified style to the mud, as well as to avoid elements which may be distracting from the game itself. /* Begin Style Guide */ 1) Avoid the use of personal pronouns in descriptions. This implies that someone is there when this is not necessarily the case - the player reading the description will not necessarily even be in the killed. This also extends to the idea of presenting actions in descriptions. If you fall into the room and land on your head in the room description, then you'll do that not only when you enter the room, but every time you look - this would not be good for anybody's head, I'm certain. 2) Several minor things which don't deserve separate point numbers: Indent room descriptions into paragraphs. Most of the indentions on the mud now are 3 spaces long. It would be nice to stick to this. Short item descriptions should begin with an indefinite article (a blue cape, some stretch pants). Reasonable exceptions will usually be for items which should be unique (The Balor's whip, Sting). Short mob descriptions should begin with the definite article (The Menacing Bureaucrat, The bone-white skeleton). Exceptions, as well, would be for certain mobs that are unique (Biff Stud, Miko) and can be considered 'proper nouns'. This is somewhat contradictory with the "rule" for items, but the way messages are set up and with the current contents of those files, this seems the best way to go. For mobs, do *not* capitalize anything in the name list. Also, do not capitalize the definite pronoun (if used). Obviously, if it is a proper noun (such as Biff, Miko), it should be capitalized. These same rules apply for objects. Do not capitalize anything in the name list, and do not capitalize the indefinite pronoun. Capitalize the short only if it is a proper noun such as 'Sting'.... 3) Areas don't have to be a series of encounters with monsters which are increasingly more dangerous until the grand finale has occurred. Players may be more interested in something that is not so straight- forward (though it should remain challenging). Basically, this is a plea for using creativity when designing an area, and isn't necesarily well-defined. Some areas may "work" very well with more ordinary approaches - the idea is to encourage the selection of the best possible treatment. 4) We are trying to make the mud "topologically sane" - so that there aren't any non-sensical overlapping of physical areas (most areas inside Midgaard, for example, are going to be moved around and retached elsewhere) Overlaps of three (or more) rooms in the same general area aren't helpful when connecting areas into a worldwide map, as we are now trying to do. It is also helpful not to have confusing directions in heavily frequented areas. There is also one feature of copper - single file rooms (see below) which requires "directional sanity" with the rooms that surrounds it, as it calculates which end of the room list to put people using the direction used to enter the room. 5) Use new features of copper. There are a number of unique things in Copper, but people won't necessarily know if they aren't used. Read on for more specifics on what these are. 6) Give some warning to players as to what they may be encountering, and (hopefully in a creative way, so as not to be too blunt) give them a reasonable guess as to if they have a chance. By this, we do not mean tell them they have to be a group of 1 16th level cleric/warrior and 2 17th level warrior/thieves, but do give a general idea -- is it a good area for mid-level single classes, beginners, or high-level multies.... While it is agreed that this is not necessarily the way real life works, it is a fact that it is more conducive to enjoyment of the game. 7) A note on numbering: It is helpful to number your items, rooms, and mobs using an odd letter-prefix, such as "QQ" so that we can move your stuff to any section of the world file. Start at "QQ00" in each file and move up from there. If you exceed 100 entries, us another prefix to indicate that, and let us know what you've done. 8) Be careful about making items which are too powerful. Items should make sense in relation to the place/mob where they are found (in other words, items do not exit purely to satisfy the needs of players), and have power comensurate to the difficulty in obtaining it. It is also suggested that most magic or otherwise powerful items have downsides in order to even things out - a sword which can hit for a lot of damage might be too heavy to carry much else, or lower constitution by a point or two. (An amendment to this, showing relative strength of items and mobs is on a list of possible additions to this document). 9) Do not use dice with 100 sides or more - it's hard to tell just which side is on top when we roll them. Also, no one- or zero-sided dice - they just don't seem to make those anymore. } /* End Style Guide */ /* End Area Creation */