---+-0o- A Checklist Before Submitting a Zone, v.1 -o0-+--- By: Thendar, Updated: August 19, 1999 A brief introduction: I am writing this checklist because for several of you, this is your first zone. Even if this is not your first zone, there are things even the experienced forget. I want your zone displayed exactly how you guys intended it to be seen. This is your artwork, make sure it is how you envisioned it! I've received several zones, and at first I was going through and fixing all the little things. But after a while, it was getting more and more tedious, and takes too much time away from the more important things that need to be done to open this mud. If your zones aren't right, I'll send them back until they are fit to be added. Do not send them to me expecting me to fix every little spelling error. If you are bad with spelling or grammar, have a friend read through your zone. Also, make SURE your zones are how you want them. I've added many new zones so far, yet most zone writers keep coming back with things such as shops that weren't sentinel, or rooms they forgot to add a description to. Go down this checklist, and proofread your work. If you can't take the time to do this, your zone obviously means little to you quality wise, don't expect me to add it. I don't mind fixing a few typos or misses here and there, but when it is in excess, it becomes a problem and is taking too much of my time to fix your errors. I'll likely ask you to re-submit it when you have taken the time to fix and proofread your zone. By the way, all fun and no play makes one dull. I'd like to take this moment among all the seriousness to say thanks for your hard work guys. The zone writers are what makes a mud great. Thendar. (thendar@basternae.venom.org ) In your zone: Do you have a room with an exit pointing to (-1) out of zone so I know which room to connect it to? Is your reset time how you want it? In your Rooms: Do all the rooms have descriptions? Do all your rooms have titles? Are your titles capitalized correctly? (example: 'A Path Through the Forest' instead of 'A path through the forest.') There whould be no period at the end. At the end of your titles, add an &n to make sure the ansi does not bleed. For example: &+gA Forest&n Are all of your rooms indented correctly? Three spaces. Indented this way: Right way: &+g The path continues on here... (ansi)(indent)(text) Wrong way: &+gThe path continues on here... (indent)(ansi)(text) The mud won't take into consideration the second indent way. Walk through your zone, read all of your descriptions on your objects, mobs, and rooms really well, checking for spelling and grammar errors, redundancies, etc. Please omit anything too profane. Make sure all of your room descriptions are over 3 lines long. If you have duped rooms consider: 1) altering each so they look different. 2) removing the ones that aren't really necessary to the zone overall, like a room taking up 6 rooms, just because it is a big room, but it only has 1 mob in it, etc. Justify the extra rooms you had to dupe (for layout, with mobs, etc). If you have rooms players should not get to (such are load rooms and rare load matrixes), make sure the rooms are flagged so that no players can ever end up there. The basic grammar stuff (for those who need it but are afraid to ask): Do you have run-on sentences? Do you have fragment sentences? Do you have proper punctuation? Did you omit any redundant sentences/phrases? Did you is 'its' for possessives and 'it's' for 'it is'? Did you use there for a place, and their for possesive? Did you use 'we're' ('we are') instead of where (a place)? Avoid using 'you' in room descriptions. Never use 'I'unless it is a story being told in first person, in an extra room description plaque, or a book. Instead of 'you', 'one' can often be substitued and is more formal. Did you capitalize properly? Do not use double negatives. Remember: Room titles are proper titles. Room descriptions are paragraphs. Objects are nouns, their long (room descriptions) are sentences. Mob names are nouns, their long descriptions (A mob is standing here...) is a proper sentence, and needs puntuation and capitlization. When you add... to pause, it is proper to only use three periods. Do not use abbreviations in your descriptions. For example, use 'three' instead of '3', and avoid using online lingo (btw, rofl, lol...). Do not use :), :P, or _underline_, *bold*, /italicize/ to emphasize. If it is really necessary to make something stand out like that, try to use ansi coloration. LINE WRAPPING: All descriptions need to fit under 78 characters long. This is easy to check. When your desciption is in edit, ALL words should fit on the edit screen without ansi added. When you add ansi, which I would highly suggest to add AFTER you have written your whole description, remember that the code (&+m, &n, etc) takes up room in the editor, but not in the actual description. Compensate for this if you added ansi as you write. IF your room is over 78 characters, this is what it will look like on the mud: " A forest path goes through a densely wooded area here bleh bleh bleh, and a cute bunny rabbit hops along. This forest is so damned cute it makes you sick. The path continues north." This is how it should look: " A forest path goes through a densely wooded area here bleh bleh bleh, and a cute bunny rabbit hops along. This forest is so damned cute it makes you sick. The path continues north." If your rooms are written this way, fix them: "A forest path goes through a densely wooded are here bleh bleh bleh, and a cute bunny rabbit hops along. This forest is so damn cute it makes you sick. The path goes north." Remember, you are writing a story or setting for the players to live in. That crap you learned in your writing classes in school should pay off here; the long descriptions should be proper paragraphs.The room short descriptions are proper titles. If you are confused by this, walk through a zone on the mud and see how they did it, or pick up a newspaper and see how the paragraphs are set up, and the titles are capitalized :P In your mobs: Double check to make SURE all the mobs you want sentinel are sentinel (ie, shops, some guy on his deathbed, etc.) Do all of your mobs have descriptions? Do all of your mobs have keywords? Make sure to add ansi breakers (&n) after all your descriptions. For example: &+Lan Orc guard&n, &+LAn Orc guard stands here picking his nose.&n, etc. In your quests: Make sure all parts (mobs and objects) of your quests are loaded. Make sure all of your quest keywords are keywords that the player can figure out. In your objects: Make sure all objects the players can pick up/get/wear/loot/etc. are flagged takeable and/or wearable in appropriate slots. Make sure weapons are flagged wielded and not held. Check to make sure all objects that players are not meant to get are not takeable (ie- fountains, portals, furniture, etc.) Make sure to add an &n at the end of ALL your descriptions, ie.: the short name &+ra red spellbook&n, &+rA red spellbook lies here.&n, &+rThis spellbook appears to be covered with red velvet fabric.&n. Make sure all portals are made -1 uses, and -1 charges. Make sure all portals are allow_all (useable by everyone) Make sure that if a portal takes a player to a secluded area in the zone that there is a way for the player to get back out, ie another portal, an exit back, etc. Shields should be flagged object type 37, and should have the correct wear bits for a shield. All objects need to have at least one description. Make sure your objects have valid keywords. Make sure backpacks have the keyword bp also. Did you set the material and craftsmanship? This is how the mud generates a price for your items in shops. In your shops: Make sure the shopkeeper does not roam, and is sentinel if you want it to stay put. Make sure the shop's sold items are in the mob's inventory (most versions of dikuedit will check this for you when you save). Make sure you added what shops the shop buys back if you have the players able to sell equipment there. In hometowns: Make sure there is an inn, a bank, some shops. Remember to either flag the bank and inn how they should be or note it to me in the .txt. Make sure there are repop places and be SURE to let me know in the .txt file. If you add a fountain (highly suggested), make it uses: -1, and do not flag it takeable. Make it regular water. Holy and Unholy water are for when players buy guildhalls. In your .txt file: Make SURE to add ALL of the following information at the start: your zone's formal name: your email: name for credits: your player name: room that exits from zone: theme infortmation, notes: MAKE THE .TXT NAME .txt ie, drowht.txt for drowht.zon/drowht.wld, etc. Do not name it theme.txt, info.txt, etc. MAKE SURE YOUR ZONE NAME IS UNIQUE! Do NOT name your zone forest.wld, etc. When I have to search through 80 different zone files, I need a better name than forest.zon to figure out which of the 30 forests on the mud I need. Plus, if people named their zones forest.*, I'd have like 30 other zones all named forest, and only one can be named forest anyway. If it's like 'The Troll Forest' name it trollfor.* or something. In your zip: Make sure you include: .txt, .wld, .zon, .obj, .mob, .set, And include these if you have them: .qst, .shp IF YOU HAVE MOB PROGS: Send me one zip with them, and one without, and note them as such. Let me know about this in your .txt. Submit zones to: thendar@basternae.venom.org Your zone may be altered once submitted. If it has been altered, you may feel free to ask for a copy of the new zone. Once the zone is submitted it is property of Basternae 2, and can be altared as the mud needs and changes. If your zone has many errors, I may send it back as opposed to fixing them all myself, or I may send it to my assistant, Trika, to fix.