Hey all,
I'm doing a little building for a friend's mud and as I was trying to formulate some ideas, I got to thinking, what really makes a great zone? I didn't get a chance to check out any of the higher level zones on Soj2 and Toril, so I thought I might get some input from people who have. Is it just for nabbing that spanky weapon or do you guys like puzzles, quests, and challenging mobs? Thanks for all input!
Nizrath
What makes a great zone?
- The room descriptions should be creative, with ANSI that enhances what the words actually say. "Rainbow" rooms or rooms with too much color are a real eyesore. The coolest rooms I remember from sojourn were the Gnomish mines where the text was grey with streaks of cyan "ore" running through the words.
- The mobs must not be generic. There are only so many guards and warriors you can kill before they start to blend together. Keep them in theme with the zone you're doing.. no sense finding a troll in a cloud palace or a dragon in a church unless you somehow explain what they're doing there.
- Equipment should be worth getting, but not overpowered compared to what else is available. If you create an item that is clearly the "best" earring on the mud, people won't want to zone for any other earrings. Item ANSI is as important as room ANSI, and the same thing holds true about items with excessive color.
- Make the zone FUN! Some zones involve killing a lot of mobs and going home. Yeah, ok, but that's boring after the 12th time you do the zone. Add rareloads, quests, things that make the zone a little different from boot to boot. Demi was so popular because there were a bunch of rares that loaded at different times. Puzzles are great, half the fun of the Library zone was figuring out the various puzzles and how to unlock the doors (we never did open them all).
Anything else I missed?
- Ragorn
- The mobs must not be generic. There are only so many guards and warriors you can kill before they start to blend together. Keep them in theme with the zone you're doing.. no sense finding a troll in a cloud palace or a dragon in a church unless you somehow explain what they're doing there.
- Equipment should be worth getting, but not overpowered compared to what else is available. If you create an item that is clearly the "best" earring on the mud, people won't want to zone for any other earrings. Item ANSI is as important as room ANSI, and the same thing holds true about items with excessive color.
- Make the zone FUN! Some zones involve killing a lot of mobs and going home. Yeah, ok, but that's boring after the 12th time you do the zone. Add rareloads, quests, things that make the zone a little different from boot to boot. Demi was so popular because there were a bunch of rares that loaded at different times. Puzzles are great, half the fun of the Library zone was figuring out the various puzzles and how to unlock the doors (we never did open them all).
Anything else I missed?
- Ragorn
quests and interaction.
Whoever coded the SSC man has a sense of humor.
Oh, and descr's should be appropriate. I don't want to see 10 room descr's filling me with dread, talking about a place littered with corpses and leading me to suspect a big nasty lich/dragon/whatever, and then find out it was a level 10 agro.
Not that that's happened recently, but I thought I'd throw it in.
Whoever coded the SSC man has a sense of humor.
Oh, and descr's should be appropriate. I don't want to see 10 room descr's filling me with dread, talking about a place littered with corpses and leading me to suspect a big nasty lich/dragon/whatever, and then find out it was a level 10 agro.
Not that that's happened recently, but I thought I'd throw it in.
- Great room descriptions with few or no spelling errors...use a spell checker 
- A story behind the zone, accurate geography, thinking about where the mobs (humanoid or animal) get their food and water, work/play/hunt, whatever.
- Quests, but not just quests, quests that make sense, fit in with the zone, etc.
- Don't go overboard on this, or it'll be spammy and annoying, but echoes and shouting/talking mobs are good.
- Don't tell the player how they feel - a room littered with corpses might be scary to one character, but a great opportunity for an evil necro.
There is a forum devoted to building on the mudconnector, you might want to check it out.
Personally, I think waterdeep is the best done zone I've ever seen on any mud anywhere, though most people don't think of it as a "zone".
There's a forum devoted just to this on the mudconnector if you are interested.
- A story behind the zone, accurate geography, thinking about where the mobs (humanoid or animal) get their food and water, work/play/hunt, whatever.
- Quests, but not just quests, quests that make sense, fit in with the zone, etc.
- Don't go overboard on this, or it'll be spammy and annoying, but echoes and shouting/talking mobs are good.
- Don't tell the player how they feel - a room littered with corpses might be scary to one character, but a great opportunity for an evil necro.
There is a forum devoted to building on the mudconnector, you might want to check it out.
Personally, I think waterdeep is the best done zone I've ever seen on any mud anywhere, though most people don't think of it as a "zone".
There's a forum devoted just to this on the mudconnector if you are interested.
-
kiryan
- Sojourner
- Posts: 7275
- Joined: Sat Apr 14, 2001 5:01 am
- Location: Los Angeles, CA and Flagstaff, AZ
- Contact:
phat loot, rares, and quests. Hard enough that a zone group needs to be brought for the good stuff, and sane enough that a single player or small band can wander and search with a reasonable chance at cr themselves nekkid. Try to stay away from agro tracking/casting mobs except in the large group areas. I like symmetry also, makes it easy to learn and run away if you get in trouble.
I think IC vault is a good example. Few rares. You can do some of the peripherial mobs with a small group. Yet you need a large group to do the good stuff. There are even a few quests for high and low level players. The bad parts of IC is that its too easy to find the rares and if someone does the auxiliary mobs, you cant do vault anymore.
Something else that I think is pretty amazing is the offering for players at every level. Its a good place to exp for low and mid levels so lots of people learn the zone then you can come back at high levels to do the vault. I've never tried, but you might be able to do the auxiliary vault mobs for exp at higher levels.
I think IC vault is a good example. Few rares. You can do some of the peripherial mobs with a small group. Yet you need a large group to do the good stuff. There are even a few quests for high and low level players. The bad parts of IC is that its too easy to find the rares and if someone does the auxiliary mobs, you cant do vault anymore.
Something else that I think is pretty amazing is the offering for players at every level. Its a good place to exp for low and mid levels so lots of people learn the zone then you can come back at high levels to do the vault. I've never tried, but you might be able to do the auxiliary vault mobs for exp at higher levels.
Return to “S3 General Discussion Archive”
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 38 guests