| B U I L D I N G S T A N D A R D S |
A great deal of these building standards were taken from the PhoenixMUD builders' pages and converted to reflect Valarin's own builder standards
Room Length
All rooms must consist of at least three lines which describe the room, not the exits from the room. Every room has something special, even if what is special is that it is totally unremarkable. Room should not be more than 8-10 lines in length--more than that and they get incredibly boring for everyone involved.
Description Content
Don't tell the character what he feels emotionally. To say 'You are scared' is unacceptable. To say 'The dark and foggy atmosphere is chilling and would scare even the most stalwart of adventurers' is acceptable. Don't EVER tell a character what he thinks or wonders. To say 'You wonder what is behind that door' is unacceptable. To say 'The strange markings and huge locks on the outside of the door must be keeping something valuable...or dangerous...within' is acceptable. Don't ever talk about a humanoid mob masturbating, urinating, or defecating... no one wants to hear about it. Including any of these in your zone will cause it to be rejected until the offending material is removed. When choosing your vocabulary don't use 'playground' words that your grammar school teachers would have forbidden in their classroom. There is really no reason to use them. Specifically, including the words 'shit, fuck, asshole, and cum' in your descriptions will get your zone rejected.
Typos/Spelling/Grammar
We know everyone can't be a super-speller/grammatician . But everyone can at least remove typos from their room descriptions. Please try to do so. Spelling and grammar will be fixed by a team leader or other zone-reviewer at the time of review. However, if your grammar sucks to a point where the reviewer cannot understand what you are trying to say your zone will be rejected. You are expected to READ AND LEARN the items in the Language Tips section of the webpage--visit it every once in a while to see if there are additions, bookmark it!
Uniqueness
We expect that all builders will be original zones unless they are otherwise authorized. You can take your ideas from roleplaying game modules and even your descriptions, but you CANNOT steal areas from another mud that YOU did not build. Any builder found to have stolen areas from another mud will be deleted and will not be eligible for another builder EVER.
Repeat Room Descriptions
You may use the same description for a room only once per 33 rooms. So if you have a 33 room zone every room description MUST be different. If you have a 34 room zone you may have two rooms with the same description, in a 67 room zone you may have three, and so on. An exception to this is made in the case of mazes but they must be authorized by your Team Leader beforehand.
Need for an Area
Please make sure that your zone is needed before commencing work on it. You can do this by authorizing your zone idea with your Team Leader. If there are 40 newbie zones in the world then we really don't need yet another. If there are 3 dwarf towns then we don't need another--please use your brain and look at what other zones there are in the world before deciding on one. If you need help thinking of something just talk to other builders on any of the teams.
Area Theme
Your area must have a purpose besides providing a place for people to kill random monsters and get experience. It has to fit into the world somehow. Valarin has a medieval/fantasy theme and all areas should fit into it. For a really well-written zone a rift *can* be created--but we prefer medieval/fantasy.
Mapability
It should be possible to map your area on paper with a minimal confusion. This doesn't mean don't make it complex, just make it possible for an immortal to map it easily using vnums and for a careful mortal to map it. If Brokken can't map your zone using vnums you will be asked to mail him (via paper mail or if you have a scanner via email) a *neatly* drawn map which includes vnums and room names.
Implementation into the World
YOU are responsible for figuring out how to link your zone to the rest of the world unless your Team Leader tells you differently. This means you have to pick out a couple different places you think your area would fit and write the appropriate connection rooms.
Room Names
Unless the person who reviews your zone volunteers to do it for you, you must capitalize your room names properly yourself. This is a major hassle to do after the fact so you might as well do it right when building. The first letter of ANY room name is capitalized, no matter what. Then capitalize the first letter of each of the following words unless they are unimportant like "of" "a" "the". Do not tell the person exactly what room they are in unless it is apparent from the description. Rather than say "The King Ogre's Bedroom" say "A Royal Bedroom" or "The Royal Bedroom".
Mob/Object Descriptions
All mobs and objects should have a short and long descriptions (except for special objects like bookcases which are mentioned in the room description--those don't need long descriptions) as well as detailed/extra descriptions. A zone full of objects with no extra descriptions is an incredible yawner. Make the descriptions interesting/amusing or include clues in them in order to encourage players to look at them.
Exit Descriptions
Include exit descriptions for all rooms. This is ESPECIALLY important for death traps but still very important for the rest of the rooms.
Room Extra Descriptions
There should be a MINIMUM of one *useful* extra description per five rooms.
Mob/Object Supply
There should be a MAXIMUM of one *loaded* mob per two rooms. So if you write a ten room zone and want 5 mobs in one room then none of the other rooms can have mobs, even if all five of those mobs are the same thing--there will be only ONE mob in your .mob file. There should be a MINIMUM of one mob per ten rooms--fewer than this and the zone gets boring. The same maximums and minimums go for individual objects but you can load as many or as few as you like. If you have 5 ogre warriors feel free to equip them all with chainmail and swords.
Mob/Object Stats
Stats on mobs are automatically generated so you don't need to bother with HP/hitroll/damroll/AC, gold, and experience. Stats on objects should be consistent with the rest of the world--any ridiculous stats will be changed. All personal items or items which do not fit into the theme of the world will be removed. The highest damage allowed for any normal weapon is an average 20. This INCLUDES plusses to damroll. Items like this should load ONLY on level 50 and over mobs.
Stay In Zone Flags
All mobs must be flagged with the stay zone flag to keep them from wandering away.
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