---+-o0- A General Guide for Zone Writers, Version 11 -0o-+--- "How to Make Basternae 3 Glow in the Dark." Last updated: May 7, 2007 EMAILS: Xangis: [xangis][at][yahoo.com] (Xangis was previously known as Veygoth) THE BASTERNAE WEBSITE: http://www.basternae.org. THE BASTERNAE FORUMS: We do not have forums. When we do, they will be at http://forums.basternae.org. THE DIKUEDIT RELEASE SITE: http://www.basternae.org. EDITOR: DikuEdit (written by Tavril of Duris and currently maintained by Veygoth) is our current editor. This file should accompany DikuEdit version 3.10 or newer. OLC (Online creation): Is NOT yet used by us. Although it is being implemented, it is expected to only be available to the immortals and implementors for ease of adjusting things once they're already in the game. Expect to use an offline editor for writing zones. This could change once OLC is implemented, but I wouldn't count on it. A NOTE ABOUT OUR CODEBASE: The codebase is both very new and very old. We're taking the fun bits that were written for old Basternae 2 from around 2000 and adding them to an entirely new codebase. Scraps of code written by Xangis through the years are being added in. Magma, the original codebase, was written in C and based on UltraEnvy (a Diku derivative). The new codebase is written in C++ and is not based on anything. We will be releasing a Basternae-specific client that runs in Windows and Linux (and maybe Mac if I can get MacOS running in VMWare). Although your old standbys of Zmud, Wintin, Tintin, and telnet will work, the new client will have some graphical elements. Note that we're not saying that this is going to be a graphical MUD. THIS GUIDE: I realize a lot of this guide won't apply to some of our more experienced zone writers who have been with us through the years. Some of it will. Since I'm going to be proofreading each one of these, I figured it would be a good idea to at least level with each other on balance so I don't need to change eq stats, mobs, etc for balancing. In regards to your zone theme, I won't change a thing. Just keep it within taste (not too obscene, perverted, etc. or I'll send it back). SUBMITTING YOUR ZONE: Send finished zones to xangis@yahoo.com. Please zip this when you send it. I do not need your *.dwd. What I will need are your *.set, *.mob, *.obj, *.zon, *.wld, *.qst, *.shp, and *.txt (important!). You may not have all of these, as not every zone has shops (.shp) or quests (.qst), but send what you have. NAMING YOUR ZONE - IMPORTANT! Please do not send me your zone named forest.zip, ruins.zip, caves.zip, dungeon.zip, etc. There are soo many forest/ruins etc zones in the mud, it doesn't help me one bit when I try to go back for your zone and can't remember which of the forest.* it is. Try to name the files for your zone something easily understandable, like HumanHt or something if it's the human hometown, or something unique that will make it easy to discern it in a directory of 60+ other zones. ---+-o0- Item Stats -0o-+--- At this time, we won't be adding more stoneskin eq, a buttload of max_con eq, etc. Please keep this in mind. I'd like to go back to pre-Shabboath equipment balance in the game. If you are using the newer editor please be conservative with the special bits. ATTRIBUTE BONUSES/PENALTIES: I'd like items to not boost a stat more than 1-4 for lower level equipment, 5-8 for higher. With very few exceptions, go over that with your own judgment. And remember, offsetting stuff with negatives doesn't necessarily make an item a bad piece of eq. I don't want any max_con, max_anything really in lowbie-mid level zones, unless there is a very special reason. Include this in your .txt if it is _necessary_. ARMOR VALUES: Below is a list of some standard ranges of AC values for the various equipment wear locations (that Veygoth wrote up). It's not really a rule that I'm going to check on each and every piece of equipment, but I don't want some mage having the wicked AC from hell either. "AC is based on the 100 to -100 point system. With a full suit of adamantine equipment of high quality, a player would have an unmodified AC of about -60. When dexterity bonuses, spellups, and silly magic earrings/rings are added, a player can easily get to -100." cloth leather steel mithril/adamantium/duralithite badge 0 0 1 1 head 1 3-4 7 9 earrings/tail 0 0 1 1 eyes 1 1-2 3 4 face 1 2-3 6 7-8 neck 1 2 3 4 body 2-8 5-12 15-22 25-27 about body/cloak 1-3 4-6 10 11-13 on back 1-2 2-3 5 6-7 arms 1-3 4-6 10 11-14 wrist/horn 1-2 3-5 7 8-9 gloves 1 2-3 5 6-7 finger 0 0 1 1 waist 1-2 2-3 5 6-7 legs 1-3 4-6 10 11-14 feet 1 2-3 5 6-7 shield 1-3 4-6 10 12-15 Total averages: 17-35 45-71 120 143-161 "If you don't like these numbers, remember that magic changes everything." WEAPONS/DAMAGE/HIT: I'd like to keep the weapons, hit, and dam all relatively low on easy to obtain items. I don't see a need for an _earring_ to give +2 dam unless it's magic, but I can see a spiked bracer inflicting some combat pain. I don't see any difference on these unless it's an artifact, in which case 1) talk to me about it, and 2) I don't think Veygoth has the time yet to work on them. These are the _maximum_ stats on these items (unless it's an arti). Newbie Lowbie Midlevel Highlevel Epic (< L10) (< L25) (< L40) (> L40) (51+ quest items) Axe 1d6 1d8 2d5 3d5 3d6 Battleaxe 1d8 1d10 2d6 3d6 4d6 Great Axe (2h) 1d9 2d6 2d7 4d5 5d5 w/proc, 5d6 without Dagger 1d4 1d6 2d4 3d4 4d4 Parrying Dagger 1d3 1d5 2d3 3d3 3d4 Knife 1d3 1d5 2d3 3d3 4d3 Dirk 1d4 1d6 2d4 3d4 4d4 Kris 1d4 1d6 2d4 3d4 4d4 Stiletto 1d4 1d6 2d4 3d4 4d4 Pick 1d5 1d7 2d5 3d4 4d5 Flail 1d6 1d8 2d5 3d5 3d6 Morningstar 1d7 1d9 2d6 3d5 3d7 Hammer 1d6 1d7 2d4 3d4 3d5 Warhammer 1d6 1d8 2d5 3d5 3d6 Longsword 1d8 1d10 2d6 3d6 4d5 w/proc, 5d5 without Katana 1d8 1d11 2d6 3d6 4d6 Bastard Sword 1d9 1d12 3d4 4d4 5d5 Rapier 1d7 1d9 2d5 3d5 4d5 Scimitar 1d8 1d10 2d6 3d6 5d5 Khopesh 1d8 1d10 2d6 2d9 3d8 Falchion 1d8 1d10 2d6 3d6 4d6 Two-Handed Sword (2h) 1d10 2d6 2d7 4d5 5d5 w/proc, 5d6 without Claymore (2h) 1d10 2d6 2d8 4d6 5d6 Flamberge (2h) 1d10 2d6 2d8 4d6 5d6 Mace 1d6 1d8 2d5 3d5 3d6 Spikedmace 1d7 1d9 2d6 2d8 2d10 Spear 1d6 1d8 2d5 3d5 3d6 Spear (2h) 1d8 1d10 2d6 3d6 3d8 (2h spear = pike) Polearm (2h) 1d10 1d12 2d7 4d5 5d6 Halberd (2h) 1d10 1d13 2d8 4d6 5d7 Glaive (2h) 1d9 1d11 2d7 2d10 3d10 Naginata (2h) 1d9 1d11 2d7 2d10 3d10 Pike (2h) 1d8 1d10 2d6 3d6 3d8 Shortsword 1d6 1d8 2d5 3d5 3d6 Cutlass 1d6 1d8 2d5 3d5 3d6 Sabre 1d7 1d9 2d6 3d6 3d7 Wakizashi 1d6 1d8 1d10 2d8 2d9 Club 1d4 1d6 2d4 2d6 2d8 Spikedclub 1d5 1d7 2d5 2d7 2d9 Staff 1d6 1d8 2d5 3d5 3d6 Scepter 1d5 1d7 2d4 2d7 2d9 Quarterstaff (2h) 1d7 1d9 2d6 2d8 3d7 Whip 1d3 1d5 2d3 2d4 3d4 Lance (2h) 1d10 1d12 2d7 2d10 3d10 Sickle 1d6 1d9 2d6 2d8 3d7 Scythe (2h) 1d9 1d11 2d7 2d10 3d10 Fork 1d5 1d8 2d5 3d4 4d5 Trident (2h) 1d9 1d11 2d7 2d10 3d10 Horn 1d4 1d6 2d4 3d4 4d4 Claw 1d4 1d6 2d4 3d4 4d4 Fang 1d3 1d5 2d4 2d6 3d5 Nunchaku 1d6 1d7 2d4 3d4 3d5 Gythka (2h) 1d9 1d11 2d7 2d10 3d10 Chatkcha 1d6 1d8 2d5 3d5 4d5 For weighting the one-handed sword so that it isn't dualable, I'd give the example of the artifact 'light and darkness', which has a weight of 20. A pretty safe guideline on +hitroll/+damroll on weapons is that it should never be more than the number of dice, i.e. a 3d6 weapon shouldn't ever have more than +3 to hitroll and +3 to damroll. Don't be too generous with hitroll and damroll either. Just because that's the maximum doesn't mean you should go that high. SIZE/QUALITY/MATERIALS: See the frequently asked questions section for the item flags, Xangis details what he wants done with this. WEIGHT: This does matter. It makes a sword not dualable, for instance. It makes players encumbered when they carry 32 sets of adamantite platemail, or not able to move at all! EXTRA BITS/FLAGS: At risk of repeating myself, please don't add stoneskin eq, etc. If you absolutely think your zone *needs* this item, explain why in the .txt file about your zone. TAKEABLE: Make sure that all items meant to be taken by a pc are takeable. Quite often people will put items, which aren't worm by mobs but meant for player characters, in an inventory and forget to flag it takeable. People often forget to make keys takeable as well. ARTIFACTS: At this time, we still have the artifacts from EP, AP, FP, ethereal plane, Shaboath, Vecnas, and TT. It will be a while for us to add these procs, let alone new ones for new artifacts. If you absolutely must have an artifact in your zone, give me a good reason in your .txt file. ITEM DESCRIPTIONS: Please make sure your objects have a main description (mandatory), you can add extra item descriptions if you like (optional). All descriptions for objects are made under the 'extra object description' menu, in the main edit object menu. ---+-o0- The Zone Itself -0o-+--- THE .TXT FILE ABOUT YOUR ZONE When you submit your zone, include a .txt file about your zone's theme, the intended level of players/how many it takes for your zone, your Email, your player name, and any extra things you want me to know about your zone. I don't want your real name for the credits, more appropriate would be your player name. formal name of your zone: name for credits: your player name: your email: room number that connects to the map: notes: THEMES: I'd really like zones to have a purpose. Even if it's as generic as a sacred temple overrun by some demon, try to make a reason for mobs to be there rather than a random grouping of mobs. Also keep in mind the level of your intended players. Level 1s shouldn't be fighting demons/ethereal bossmobs. Level 50s shouldn't be fighting killer squirrels. Please keep zones within Medieval fantasy (like AD&D). Please include your theme idea in the .txt. TIPS ON THEMES (for those who lack inspiration): If you have a problem making a purpose for your zone, and are simply uncreative, pick up a newspaper and flip through the stories. Watch some television, or read a magazine. Even looking at some fantasy art on the net can give inspiration to a story. I _do_ however want to keep this based loosely on Medieval fantasy (like AD&D). I'm not however an AD&D "Dungeon Master" nazi for rules/themes/expansions. Use your imagination and if it works, run with it. Please do not use names, places, items, etc straight out of D&D, White Wolf, Games Workshop, FASA, etc. Be creative! TILDES: You know, that little ~ symbol. While it looks really spiffy, it's used in the code, and if you even think about using it in your zone descriptions, the mud will spit your zone back out and throw an awful temper tantrum. Don't use this please! COPY DEFAULT ROOM (duping rooms): I'd really prefer that you use this command minimally, to prevent repetitive rooms in a zone. There's nothing more boring than being in a zone with a whole bunch of rooms that are the same. Alter the room name, or change the room description noticeably, etc, if you absolutely have to use this. If you submit a zone with a lot of copied rooms, I'll send it back to you to fix the rooms. SPELLING/GRAMMAR/Things that annoy Xangis: If you would briefly look over your zone before you send it to me, and catch any obvious spelling or grammar errors, that would make my life much much easier. Oh, and please nothing too profane. Thanks. Do not use abbreviations, such as & for and, or 'btw' when you want to say 'by the way'. If you want to say 3, please write out the full 'three' instead of using the number. Please CAPITALIZE room titles, no need for punctuation in the room title. Refrain from using _underlines_ and *asterisks* to emphasize... if it is really necessary, use ansi to draw attention to this. INDENTING THE ROOM DESCRIPTION: ...is a good idea. Write the room description like it is a formal paragraph. I'd like three spaces on your first line to start the room off. As a guideline, try to write about three lines as a minimum for each room, unless there is a reason. Feel free to make rooms as long as you like, but really short room descriptions make it look as though the zone was either not finished or hastily thrown together. PORTALS: Make these ALLOW_ALL if everyone is to use them. If you want to limit this for some reason (like the necromancer portal), make it ALLOW_WHATEVER. This should be a very rare instance that it is not ALLOW_ALL. Make sure the portal is not takeable, and that it has -1 charges to enter. SECRET EXITS: Make sure you hint these in the room descriptions well, or somehow give hints to the average player. DOORS: Make sure there is a key if you make the door locked and not pickable. Make sure that key is takeable. If the "key" is a word, make sure there is a way to discover that word, by quest or extra room description of some sort. QUESTS: Please make this something the average player can figure out. I don't want quests to turn into an elitist thing that 5 people on a mud of 300 know. Mobs that are aggressive cannot give the quest messages. AGGRO_EVIL/AGGRO_GOOD mobs: Remember when making quests, that if a mob is aggro_evil an evil player cannot complete this. If this is the case, there had better be a really good reason in the .txt file. Like I said, I don't want this to be an elitist thing, but rather something any *good* or skilled player can do. Please don't use the aggro_one-side-of-the-racewar on every mob in your zone. Even if it may be a hometown, I'm looking for playability not necessarily reality. USING EXTENDED ANSI/ASCII IN YOUR ZONE: I would highly suggest to not do this. There's a lot of folks who use term programs that can't handle this, and it will turn out as a garbled mess. If you absolutely can't resist, make sure it is used on nothing essential, and only in extra descriptions. INTERESTING ARTICLE FROM A NEWSGROUP CONCERNING ROOM DESCRIPTIONS: > >Brief is useful for one thing: Speedwalking. That's the only time I'd > >use it as a player, or encourage it as an Imp. I guarantee that when > >I'm building, I include things in the Long that are critical to the > >game. > > Brief is invaluable when logging rp. I don't need dozens of copies > of the same room descriptions sitting on my hard drive, especially > if they're as long and detailed. Brief can be made less "appealing" by encouraging builders to continue working on their areas. Suppose you've got an outdoorsy area -- natural disasters and the weather are likely to shape the terrain, so why not drop a creek in the middle of what was once just rolling hills? A flood could do that :) Keep the area fresh, and players will be FORCED to keep their eyes open, so to speak, unless they enjoy going on autopilot, and not knowing where they'll wind up ;)" ---+-o0- The Mobs -0o-+--- MOB BITS: Remember, a hasted mob can waste a newbie. A hasted mob in the astral plane doesn't mean squat. Keep the location and the players you aim to cater your zone to in mind. Stoneskined mobs in newbie zones is kinda silly. SHOPKEEPERS: Good idea to flag them sentinel. Shops are made by editing the mob that will be the shopkeeper, and where it says Q/S will be the options for quest/shop info. MOB HOMETOWNS: This is actually ignored by the MUD, since it is a waste of memory and serves no purpose. Don't bother setting this value. If we need to know a hometown we will just be stereotypical and assume their hometown is the race's hometown (if one exists). MOB MONEY/EXPERIENCE/THACO/AC/HPs/DAMAGE: Don't waste your time setting *any* of this. The MUD completely ignores this information, and sets it itself. Besides, most zone writers really shouldn't have access to setting these anyway. In fact, if you have a recent version of DE, you won't be able to change these. There is, however, a new mobile act flag "No Exp Value" which causes players not to gain experience for killing the particular mob. Use it sparingly and with good reason. ADDITIONAL MOB RACES AND MOB AI: Here's a list of the new mob races supported by us. It will say unrecognized in an older version of DE. No biggie. In addition, we support MobProg 2.1 for the advanced and rather masochistic zone writers to create mob artificial intelligence. If you have questions about MobProg, ask Veygoth. Though DikuEdit may not recognize them (They will show up as unrecognized species), the following mob races have been added and will be recognized by the MUD: If you would like to have a mob race added to the MUD, email me -- adding a race is a fairly easy task. Send inquiries to Veygoth, Sarim, or Illic. Since we now have a pretty extensive list of races, you'll need to give a good reason why the existing races aren't adequate. DRAGON BREATH: This is relatively easy to set. Let me know in the .txt file which mobs are badass dragons that breathe. Options for breath: Shadow, Cold, Fire, Poison, Ice, etc. (Yet again, use this discreetly, newbies shouldn't be fighting mobs that breath shadow and kill them instantly.) See the keywords.txt file to find out how to set breath weapons yourself. ---+-o0- Writing a Hometown -+-0o--- There are a lot of considerations in making a hometown that differ from making any other zone. For instance, how high a level should a player be able to get in a hometown? What equipment can be in a hometown? What zones might be related or near the hometown? How 'safe' should a hometown be? Should it be completely unraidable? These are all things you have to keep in mind. I don't want people sitting in their hometowns for most of their time on the mud because it is the best place to be. I'd prefer players maybe getting up to level 20 by mobs, then after that it get much harder or leave for other zones. I'd like the equipment to stay basic to some extent, so people have desire to do the other zones whose purpose is equipment. If it helps, think in terms of AD&D. If a race seems chaotic, odds are they would have some agros. If it's lawful there would generally be a reason for a mob to rip your head off. Just because a hometown is 'evil' doesn't justify agros. Make a reason for mobs to want to eat the players who live there if it is agro. I'd like, however, the goodie hometowns to have fewer agros. SHOPS: Players need a place to buy the basics as a newbie. I want the equipment in the shops to stay simple and geared to the lowbie player. Things a player would need to buy: water, food, spellbook, quill (use pen in the objects), sword, dagger, basic armor, totems (if there are shamans in your race or hometown). Other things that could be bought: rope, disguise kits, torches/lanterns, backpacks, bags, *newbie* magic items. Keep this within reason, and prices in reason. Keep the basic food at like 1-5 copper, spellbook at 1-5 plat, sword at 5-20 plat, armor 15-25 plat. Note on shop messages: As of version 3.00f of DikuEdit, the shop messages have been reformatted to use $N for the player's name and $t for the amount of coins in a transaction. The editor will not accept %s any longer. Use the default messages of a new shop as an example of how the messages should be. INNS/FOUNTAINS/BANKS: Inns are cool, make one. :) If you add a fountain make it basic water. Sell other stuff if you want, but the free drink is just water. Oh, and add a bank. Put the vnum for banks and inns in your .txt file, those will need to be added by a coder. JUSTICE MOBS: I'm not sure what Veygoth has planned for justice at this time, but if you want to add the mobs, and then describe how you want justice to work in your .txt file, go ahead. Remember a Justice clerk to report to, a few mobs that are flagged witness, a jail area, etc. Remember to lock the jail, !bash, !pick. Put the key on the High Justice Clerk type. SHOPKEEPERS: This should be the options Q/P on Dikuedit for mobs. You make the room then the actual shopkeeper has the shop information. Make these all a relatively high level, but not something people will take out all the time for experience. I'm still toying with the idea of making all HT mobs over level 25 !exp. Good idea to make them sentinel as well, so they stay in their shops. REPOP PLACES: Remember to add areas for the players to repop, be it the inn or an actual guild area for that class. I would prefer not in the inn, because it will make players learn their hometowns faster, and will keep some of the spamkilling that occurs to a minimum. TEACHERS: Make some mobs teachers that the players can get spells, skills, etc. Like the arch-mage in the proverbial tower. These are also good mobs to run a quest from. EXPERIENCE: I would like some mobs that a level 1-10 can kill for experience. Those are the levels players learn their hometowns at, so you misadwell add some experience to invite them to learn it. I'd prefer players not use the hometown for over level 25 experience, for the most part. A NOTE ON RELIGION: If you are planning a particular deity for your race, let me know. We are working on specializing clerics for racial quirks, and if you have something planned for you zone, I can certainly take that into consideration. ---+-o0- Frequently Asked Questions -0o-+--- "HOW MANY ROOMS SHOULD A ZONE BE?": This applies to other zones too. Don't make zones big for the sake of making them big. Make zones as many rooms as you need to make your theme/environment. There is no limit, but I don't really want to proofread a 500 room zone :) I'd prefer less than 300 rooms max, if it goes over there should be a really good reason why. Players can get bored and very lost in a large zone. It's awfully frustrating for everyone. Here's the rule of thumb for you: use as many rooms as you need to make a quality zone, without duplicating too many rooms, and making it a unique environment people will have fun in. "HOW MUCH OF THE ITEM FLAGS ARE NOT USED BECAUSE THEY WERE GEARED TOWARDS DURIS'S SILLY COMBAT SYSTEM?" This was a damned good question I had to forward to Veygoth. He replied: "Pretty much all of the extra, wear, anti, anti2 flags are used. The main wear location/coverage location/thickness/misc flags for armor under the miscellaneous stuff will not be used. The apply stuff under the miscellaneous stuff will be. Armor class is used. Size, material, and craftsmanship will also be used in the future, but are not used now. You can safely leave the size and craftsmanship at the default value, but I would prefer if you set a material. It is not a requirement and zones without materials set will not be turned down, but it'll make life alot easier for me if you set the material type. Damage resistance bonus will not be used. Volume may be used, but it will default to be the same as the weight. If you have oddly-shaped or large but not heavy objects you may wish to set the volume. It is not really important and zones without volume will not be turned down, but it'll make life alot easier for me if you set the volume. Condition will be used, but that can always be left at the default, unless for some reason you need to have damaged equipment in your zone. For now, you should set the worth.... eventually the MUD should be able to calculate the worth of an item based on the material and the flags and abilities and level of craftsmanship of the item, but it will be a while before I get all of that worked out." "ARE THERE ANY ASPECTS OF DIKUEDIT THAT AREN'T REALLY WORTH THE TIME?" Yes. No need to add things like extra room descriptions unless there's really a reason. Extra Object descriptions aren't necessary, but this is a great tool for quests and special objects! Feel free to add these if you have the time. "CAN YOU CONNECT ZONES TO THIS ZONE AFTER I SUBMIT IT?" If you want something added in a zone, please add it. I don't really like making one zone marker several zones, it gets sloppy like Arachdrathos was. I would prefer to add it near that zone marker, but not attached if possible, but attaching can be done if there is really a need. "I'M NEW, AND HAVE NEVER WRITTEN A ZONE BEFORE." It's easy. Dikuedit is surprisingly user-friendly. It works like you are in the zone, walking around in it, looking at rooms, mobs, items, etc. The help command will give you a list of commands, as will DE.doc. If you are new, it may be best to try to write a small 50 room low-exp zone first, to get the hang of writing with Dikuedit. "HOW DO I DO COLORS?" Ansi code is easy to do. Here's from the basic ansi guide on the mud: First things first. The main thing to understand when using our version of ansi color is: you can SET things, or CLEAR ALL (back to white on black), but you cannot just turn off bold, or blink. There are 4 types of ansi control sequences: &| - reset everything, back to 'n'ormal (white on black). This is also done for every newline, to eliminate 'bleed-through' colors. &+ - set foreground color. If the color letter is uppercase, the BOLD (bright/light) bit is also set (and will STAY set) until either a newline, or & is done. &- - set background color. If the color letter is uppercase, the BLINK bit will be set (same as for &+ above). &= - set both background and foreground color, exactly the same restrictions as for setting foreground and background separately. w - white l - black r - red b - blue g - green y - yellow c - cyan m - magenta (+w is normal text, +W is bold text) So basically &n&+r makes dark red, &+R makes bright red. If you did &+Rcrim&+rson, the second red wouldn't show up, because the bright would 'bleed'. You need the &n before the darker (lower case) colors when this happens. "HOW DO I MAKE A DOOR LOCKED WITH A KEY?" This is actually pretty easy. First, create object, and make that your key. (Go to option I from the edit object menu, From there, option A is object type. Select A, and type ?. You will see that 18 is the code for a key, select 18 for object type. It will then give you things like percent chance to break, etc.) Then edit your room. Edit room, and go to Option F, Edit room exits, and choose the direction you want the door. Option C will toggle the door open, closed, lock, !bash, whatever. Option D will let you choose the key (type ? if you don't remember the object number, it will give you a list). You need to do this on both sides of the door if you want it lockable from both sides. Now when you look in that direction in Dikuedit (as if you had farsee), it will show what the door flags are, as well as what key opens a door. "HOW DO I MAKE A PASSWORD FOR A DOOR INSTEAD OF A KEY?" This is easy too, but impossible to figure out in Dikuedit. Basically, you set the door to locked, no key, not pickable. Set the key object to -2. Make sure the door is closed and locked. Make the _last_ keyword in the door keywords the password. Make sure this is something the average player can figure out. "WILL YOU CHANGE MY ZONE AFTER I SUBMIT IT?" (BALANCE...) Most likely. Will I change theme? Nope. The main thing that is usually changed are spelling errors, grammar errors, and equipment stats may get tweaked. I don't mind every mob being clothed, but if all the mobs have equipment with awesome stats, I'll have a problem with it :) A few considerations to think about would be: Is this zone for experience for equipment, quests, or a potion level? What level are the expected players, and what level equipment would be appropriate for them? Do you really need 20+ pieces of equipment in all the high level zones so that everyone gets something? No, but if you do, make sure not all of it kicks ass. Negative stats can balance items nicely, too. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN INDENT, AND CAPITALIZE TITLES?" I know this must be hard to understand, it's basic grammar :P Basically, imagine the room title is a proper title, and the room description is a paragraph. There is no need to capitalize 'a' 'the' 'and' 'of' 'in', etc unless it starts the title. Here's an example: In the Northwest Corner of Shaboath As much as the flowing, smooth architecture of the aboleth has any corners in it, this is the northwestern edge of the city. The walls curve to the east and south around you, with the constant flow of water beneath your tenta...er...feet. The description is indented, the title capitalized. The room descriptions is over three lines long, spelled correctly, with decent grammar. "WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER BALANCED?" Well, I try to keep things relatively balanced overall for all zones on the mud. Thus, if your zone is meant for levels 20-30, and you have a ring that is +2 hit, +2 dam, and Kelek's Cavrerns's 'crystalline ring' is also +2/2 but a more difficult zone, people will always choose the easier route. And there would be little reason to do Kelek's for that ring. So, things get balanced to make sure most zones have a fair chance of getting players. I don't want one zone to be the badass zone of all equipment so players don't need to go anywhere else. That gets awfully boring and defeats the work of all the other writers. The zones I tend to use as guidelines for balance are: Keleks, Du'Maathe, Kuo-toas, Clawed Caverns, Fire Plane, Obsidian Citadel, Yuan-ti, and/or Ice Tower. Also, location of the zone, agros, raidability, player level, etc. play a factor in what justifies balance. If the zone is mainly for exp, let the players find bigger equipment elsewhere, while getting minor eq as a diversion to long exp runs. If the zone is for equipment, think about balance pretty heavy, how raidable it is, and what level of players you are catering to. If the zone is for quests, potion levels, etc, there really isn't a reason to add heavy equipment or a ton of awesome exp, because players have to be there anyway. The best way to think about it, is to remember back to when you were a complete newbie. I remember that the dumb flower faerie robe and flower wreath was like the coolest equipment to me, because it had colorful ansi and I originally came from a mud with little to no ansi. Low levels aren't really about kickass equipment. Even as high levels, players will wear stuff if it looks too darn cool (despite mediocre stats) and they have a spare slot. ---+-o0- Zones we need -0o-+--- ALL OF THEM. Hometowns, adventure zones, new zones, old zones, we need everything. We currently have two zones, both written by Xangis. Sure, we have all of the old zones sitting on a hard drive here, but we don't have permission to use any of them. Until we do, they will not be connected. For any zones submitted to the MUD we will need to get a signed release form granting us permission. When Basternae II was being rebuilt, Thendar was quite meticulous about keeping records of permission emails. I don't think those emails really apply to a new MUD, even if it is also an old MUD at the same time, so we'll be starting over with that. Revision History: All versions have most likely been authored by a combination of Thendar and Veygoth (now known as Xangis). Others may have contributed, but the records have not survived. Version 1 June 1999 Version 2 July 1999 Version 3 July 1999 Version 4 July 1999 Version 5 July 1999 Version 6 July 1999 Version 7 July 27, 1999 Version 8 August 5, 1999 Version 9 September 19, 1999 Version 10 October 27, 2003 Version 11 May 7, 2007