Category:AREAS(BuilderInfo)

AREAS are a collection of ROOMS with a common theme in which to adventure in. AREAS can be as small as a single room, or a large as hundreds of rooms.

MODIFYING AREAS

Guidelines for Areas

Listed below are general guidelines for creating areas. These are guidelines, only, not requirements. However, these guidelines were developed over many years of area design. They are specific to the CoffeeMUD engine, especially the Official CoffeeMUD server.

• Areas should have a common theme. The Author of an area is not a common theme (an area Author could write hundreds of areas, so there is no need for this field to be limiting the area).
• Areas should have a tight level range. The lower the level of the area, the tighter the range. For an area below level 20, consider a 5 level spread.
• Players hate non-Cartesian rooms because it makes hand-drawn maps difficult. However, there are times when it is useful to mess with non-Cartesian layouts. Cartesian layouts do display better in the MUDGrinder, though.

City Features

• Cities should have laws.
• Special citizens:
  • Library (GenLibrarian)
  • Armor Mender
  • Armor Resizer
  • Armor Vendor (May have multiple for different armor types)
  • Weapon Vendor
  • Magic Shop
  • Potion Shop
  • Pet Shop
  • Pub (Food and Drinks)
  • Inn (Place to sleep, may serve food and drinks)
  • Class Guildmasters (Trainers)
  • Resource Vendors (GenResources)

Area Blurbs

For the Official CoffeeMUD server, consider adding the following BLURBS to your areas where applicable:

• AQUATIC - start off the description with the color cyan (^c). Add this blurb for areas that require lots of swimming, boating or underwater action.
• ECONOMY - Add any sort of economic biases for the area (IE, Shopkeepers preferring to deal with elves). (NOTE: Currency will be listed within the help file for the area automatically).
• LANGUAGES - Add this flag for areas where conversation may be important (IE, cities that sell things, RP areas).
• RECOMMENDED - Add this flag to all finished areas. Provide a recommendation for what levels, player skill sets (IE, hack-n-slash, observant, powerful, questers, RPers), and types of characters may enjoy adventuring in this area.
• RENTAL - For property areas that rent out their property. This Blurb should describe the rental costs and process. See Apartments of New Thalos for an example of the RENTAL blurb.
• TRAVEL - For zones whose primary purpose is to connect to other zones, this blurb can be used to list the commonly known linkages to the area.
• UNDEAD - start off the description with the color blue (^b). Add a short statement of the known undead presence in the area (heavy, light, ghosts, etc). Do not add this blurb if there are no undead, or if the undead are not generally known to the rest of the area's inhabitants.
• URBAN - start off the description with the color dark yellow (^Y). Add this blurb if the area is primarily a city or a district within a city.
• WILDS - start off the description with the color green(^g). Add this blurb if the area is primarily feral, or uninhabited by intelligent creatures, and of outdoor or cave type rooms. Do not use WILDS for water areas.