How Players can help code SWmud areas

Players can design areas if they wish. For the player the work means getting a wizard to co-operate with you, designing a map and making room descriptions. The wizard will then convert all of these into actual code and real mud areas.

Following are instructions on how to submit the area so that the wizard coding it will have an easier time converting it to code. Be sure to find a wizard willing to work with you first however.

What you'll need to do is draw a map of the place and then make an ascii map out of that. Sort of like this:

  01--02--03
      |     \
      04     05--06

Then you need to write the descriptions for each room, something like this (additional comments are written inside [ ] )

01: End of a hallway
"You are now at the end of a hallway. There is not much to see here. "
"The floor and ceilings are both white. You can go only east from here."
"\n"

[Each description should be at least 3 lines long. I'd like each line be inside ""s, so that when making the rooms I can simply cut and paste everything. Notice the extra space at the end of the line. Also need the \n at the end of the description.]

item descs:
({"hallway","hall"}), "floor", "ceilings"

"The hallway goes to the east of you.",
"The floor is polished and looks very clean.",
"They are above you."

[There should be an item description for each noun mentioned in the room description. Also, I'd like them submitted as they are here. First the list of the items, each inside ""s, then the descriptions for each, also inside ""s and separated by commas. Again, much easier for me since I can then just cut and paste the whole thing.]

smell:
"The air smells fresh here.\n"

listen:
"You cannot hear anything.\n"

items:
monster: guard3

[Smells and listens are optional. Also monster is optional, not each room has to have one. Some rooms could have objects in them too. You can write like:]

action: 'pull lever', player gets a backpack or opens a secret exit to X

Do all these rooms in this fashion. Then you can do the monsters and other things sort of like:

monsters:
guard3: level 19 mercenary & smuggler, wields a blaster
desc: This guard looks bored.

We cant make everything exactly as you describe, especially the monsters, but at least getting descriptions for them would be nice. Players are allowed to create areas like this, but the only rule is that the area will be changed a little, so that even the creator won't know all its secrets. The point is that even you will not be a 100% expert in the area when you first step onto it, but you will also have to explore it a little, because otherwise you could just easily make yourself all kinds of things that only you would know about; e.g. 'pull lever' in this room gives the player 1000 exp, and then only you would know about it and use that to get yourself exp.

Q: What about extended sounds/smells, such as 'listen to wind', or 'smell roses'?

A: Just add an entry in the listen/smell section, i.e. smell: roses, "The roses smell nice."

Q: Can our mobs talk and emote and stuff?

A: Yep... just note somewhere what you want the mob to say/do, i.e. chats: "Joe says 'hello'.", "Joe kicks you in the rear."

Q: Can our mobs follow or wander?

A: Yes, for following just note that the mob follows. For wandering, note that the mob wanders, and if you want to limit the rooms the mob can wander into, note that as well.

Q: How does aggressiveness work?

A: Mobs can be aggressive to no one, everyone, or the opposite align(s).

Q: How do I do doors?

A: Just note in each of the two rooms that the door connects that there's a door. Give a description, and give any additional info such as whether the door's lockpickable, whether it's open, whether it's locked, is there a key, and if so where is it, etc.

Q: Is there a limit on the size of my area?

A: Areas can be as big as you want them to be. If it's a planet or an area that should logically be large, make it large enough, though.

Note: Lines should be 75 characters long.