Subject: First Draft of Building Guidelines Date: Mon, 31 Aug 92 18:27:09 -0400 From: Laurajean Neafsey Ok, here is my first draft of the building guidelines for Narnia (yes, we can condense some of the whitespace later for 'news') I am more interested in content at the moment. I have based it heavily on NC's building guidelines, with the exception of building contracts. Instead, builders will need a link into the building nexus before starting. I have added a few small things that I like to see in building to the guidelines that are already there. So now tell me what you think. Its fully open for discussion. :) (And gramatical editing as well) See ya! Emma/Eljay/Laurajean/Jelara/You get the idea :) -------------- In order to keep NarniaMUSH enjoyable, these building guidelines have been established. Your cooperation in following them is appreciated. If you have a disagreement, please discuss it with the building wizard. Starting a new building area: a. When starting a new building area you must ask a wizard for a link from the Wood Between Worlds (building nexus) BEFORE starting building. This is to avoid the situation where two people start working on the same area. It would be unfortunate to spend a lot of time and effort on an area only to find someone else doing the same area. b. Once you have completed your building, contact the building wizard for inspection of your area. The inspection will be based on the specific guidelines outlined in the next section. When the building area passes inspection, it will be unlinked from the Wood Between Worlds, and linked into its permanent location. All building, large or small scale, should conform to certain quality standards. These standards must be adhered to in order to pass inspection. They are: a. Every exit should have several "aliases" -- for example, instead of naming the exit just "Alsan's Den", if you want to be thorough, name it "Alsan's Den;alsans den;alsan's;alsans;alsan;den;ad;a". By convention, the primary name (the one you see in the room) for an exit should be capitalized so the capital letters reflect the minimal alias for that exit. For example, in a room where there is both a South and a STairs exit, the first 2 letters of STairs should be capitalized to indicate the "st" alias for that exit. Avoid aliasing an exit to "l" or "lo" as those are commonly used for the "look" command. Cardinal directions such as "north" and "southwest" must offer aliases such as "n" and "sw"; "up" and "down" must also provide "u" and "d". Use your discretion, and remember that the most important building guideline we have is that your area should be easily traveled. b. Every room should have an "out" exit, which should lead towards the main entrance, unless there's a very good reason for it not to. Just add "out;o" to the name of one of your exits. It's also nice to add such things as "exit;back;leave", as well. c. All true exits should have a description, a succ message, an osucc message, and an odrop message. Except in obvious circumstances, these are requirements for passing inspections. d. Maps should make logical sense. If you go east to get into a room, you should be able to go west to get out of it. Because back-linking is very easy using Narnia's modified @dig command (`help @dig'), there is no excuse for having a room with no exits out. e. In areas that use a lot of directions - north/south/east/west etc., it is often helpful to have a null exit with the names of the remaining directions in it. For example, if a room has exits in all directions except east and west, a null exit called east;e;west;w with a fail message of "You can't go that way." is very helpful. f. Room descriptions should generally be descriptions of the actual rooms; descriptions of where the exits are should be put in the room's success message. Note that the '+compass' global is of some help; don't feel obligated to duplicate its functionality. g. Please try to proofread your work. Use the @edit command to clear up any errors. (`help @edit') h. Extensive private areas (a house of twelve rooms whose entrance is locked so that only you can get into it) are strongly discouraged, as they use up disk space without contributing much. If you want to make something that extensive, unlock it so it can be explored. Areas left 'floating' to avoid this may be summarily removed. Miscellaneous: a. The time frame of NarniaMUSH is that of the Dawn Treader. Please keep your building to within this time frame. b. NarniaMUSH is proud to have global weather. Room descriptions can be varied according to the weather, time of day, and season. More information on global Narnian weather is available in 'news weather' c. Building should be in a cartographically logical sense (i.e. follow the maps.) Large areas of empty terrain when there is little to see or do is highly discouraged. d. These rules are not meant to stifle you. They're here to prevent database bloating, and insure a fun (and not frustrating) time for players. Do a good job to be proud of, and the wizards will be happy to have your construction available for all to enjoy.