By Candor, January 2004
So you’ve been given the keys to your new area and you’re ready to start building! There are a lot of new things you will experience while building your world, which is why I wrote this page. Knowing some of what is to come will help to make your experience more enjoyable.
Once given permission to build, you will start in a single, empty room on the builder site, which is very similar to the MUD you are used to but on a different port. Often, there are even other builders on the site to keep you company. Your new (private) area is yours to populate and bring to life. It is a chance to give your imagination free realm; to paint a vista that others will enjoy adventuring through. However, it must also conform to the world of Mystic that we have all come to love. So, please understand ahead of time that because you are making a zone that will affect the world that many others have worked hard to hold to a standard, your ideas will be closely scrutinized by the staff of MA. It’s our job to ensure fairness as well as helping you to make the area the best it can be.
Thus we come to the first and most important tool used in building: PATIENCE! Each segment of building simply takes time. This is the beauty of it as well as the hardest part to swallow. How many games can you play for 6 months and not get bored? Building can take even longer, so be ready. I sometimes spend an entire night just enjoying the tweaking of a few mobiles. Of course, much of the reason we build is to share new ideas with our fellow players, and it is also hard to have to wait so long to bring the area to life. Add into the mix that it’s not just your time, but many many hours of imm time are needed to help you with questions, write progs, and especially, check your area over once it is complete. Remember, there are many things going on at Mystic – we will do as much as we can to your area as soon as possible, but it will take time.
The first place patience comes into play is the time after you write your proposal. It may take some time to approve / create your builder character. This is not a problem, for it is also the most critical time to plan! The success of a good area is directly related to the solidity of the blueprint. Before tunneling even one room, make sure you have at least a good idea as to the following:
- Theme in Depth – Your area proposal defined general attributes. Now that you’ve been granted the area, it’s time to get deep! Some areas are just hack and slash. And some are magnificent masterpieces of fiction. How much of a story do you want, or how little? You’ll find new avenues for your creativity that you may have never even thought about before. For example, if you have an area that is made in the far north, what do the buildings look like? How have the denizens adapted to fit the bitter cold? You can even make up back-stories for each character in your area that you may never even include, but they are there to help you shape your mobs as living characters. If you plan on putting in objects, how can you fill in a story as to why those objects are there? An ice lance would fit, but not an oriental hand fan.
- Layout – Many people suggest making a map of the area ahead of time. I don’t personally like to do this, but at the very least, have the ‘framework’ in your head, and perhaps a rough drawing on paper as to what your area will look like before starting. You don’t need to have it all thought out, but at least the first segment you will work on and the shape of that segment. Later segments don’t need to be as well defined at the start, but a good idea of what they are ‘for’ is important.
- Puzzles / Quests – It will payoff greatly if you can detail these fairly well before you begin building. Where will they be in your area? Who will be the mob controlling them/starting them? How can you write the room descriptions to aid the puzzle? Also – since an imm will be writing the programs, make sure you speak with an imm before you get your heart set on something, just to see if it is possible or to perhaps get an idea of a timeline to create your quest/puzzle.
If you get your blueprint/plan completed before you’ve been given an area on builder, go ahead and start writing your room descriptions in notepad. You can then copy them directly over to builder once you’re set up.
Once you are all set with the pre-construction details and given your new area, its time to dive in. At mystic, the building process is similar to many MUDs with OLC (Online Creation). Take the time to read the other builder documents on this site. While you do not need to know how to program to build, there is a bit of a learning curve. Again, patience – you did not start mudding and learn what spells did, how to prac, and which socials were cool all within a week – you can’t expect to learn all the building commands in a day. There are alternatives to directly interfacing with our OLC out there; windows type programs found on the web to help you create. MZF (Make Zones Fast) is one that will work. You can experiment with it to see what suits you best. For me, I like to have my hands on the controls – and once you learn Mystic’s OLC, it very quickly comes naturally. Most importantly, the OLC gives significantly more flexibility than the standard windows type programs.
A lesson that we have all had to learn is, what is an acceptable object/prize? The imms judging your area love to play as much as you, and want to see cool new areas with good enough incentives to risk death to get to them. However, there are some things that are not gonna fly. A wand that has 100 charges of Regenerate, obviously… But, a general rule is that a spell that is specific to a class will not be allowed in the area. The idea is that we don’t want to take away from the uniqueness of a class. An example would be a ‘wand of Detect Terrain’. If we continue to do class-specific spells, why play the class? Or, why group with the class if you can just zap away yourself? Further to this idea – you haven’t seen it on MA so far, so it probably isn’t gonna work now. Think of all the builders who have come before who wanted to have that special ‘wand of FOD’ and have been turned down for the above reasons – how fair would it be to allow you include one now? Discuss crazy objects ahead of time before wasting your time/thoughts on something that will never fly. As for weapon/armor strength, use common sense: If there is nothing within 50% of the power of the item you want to include – it isn’t gonna fly.
During the building process, *everything* will be new to you at some point. And in many ways, it’s like learning a new language. Mystic is blessed with several experienced builders who are friendly and patient. Never hesitate to ask questions. Many questions! If I’m around – I’d love to help, just ask. On the flip side, once in a while, you may do something that the MUD doesn’t like and it will crash the site. While this is obviously something we’d like to avoid, this is the specific reason the builder is on another port – so we don’t bring the main site down as well. If you do crash the site, and you know what you did, please write a short note to imm to let us know what happened. If the builder doesn’t come back up, please post a note to imm on the MAIN site ASAP so that someone can re-start the builder.
Eventually you may ask for mob programs to be added to your area. These can bring tremendous benefit to the ‘life’ of the area if they are well thought out. This is another place where patience is a strong asset. First, the programmer must schedule the time, which could be a few days to a few weeks. Then, the actual programming must be done. Please understand that a single, moderately complex program could take the imm an entire night to complete. By their very nature, programs need a bit of de-bugging, and this can take a while. One way to help the programmer is to make sure your description of what needs to be done is clear and detailed. Doesn’t have to be in ‘computer-speak’ - just logical.
Finally you will put the finishing touches on it and request that the area be reviewed and opened for the general MUD population. Whoohoo!! Guess what you need at this point…. Patience!! Think of the hours you sweated over each object – whether to add 10 hps or to subtract a few save vs. spell points. The imm who reviews your area must do the same thing for *every* object in your area, making sure nothing will throw the game out of balance. This is a massive task! As well as a critical one. One single overpowered object that the reviewer misses can actually destroy the fun of the whole game. Nobody really wants to zap from level 1 to 50 with a single wand. (You may think you do, but where is the fun/challenge?) The review process is continuous – the reviewer will try to keep you up to date with the changes that need to be made as they come up. The reviewer tries to be as fair as possible and will always be open to discussion on special items. For example, an overpowered weapon may be turned down at first, but explaining that the mob that holds the key to the object only pops once a week, might make a difference. Keep an open mind to the process :)
Finally, once the area is opened, there is one last ounce of patience you must stir up. You have no-doubt endeavored to build challenges into your area. Perhaps even secrets. You will surely have players asking you for anything from hints to downright answers to the hardest quests you made. It really is hard to keep the secrets, but it is critical that you do. Once they are ‘out of the bag’, you can never put them back in – your area will age before its time. Allow players to enjoy the adventure that you laid out for them.
Overall, building is one of the most rewarding parts of the game if planned out well. I sincerely hope you have a wonderful time. Please know that my door is always open for questions – I’d be happy to help you.