I just introduced two of my sons (ages 10 and 8) to mudding, so I recently got a look at it from a child's perspective. The first thing I taught them was the basics of mapping so they could get around on their own.
Scardale is not easy for new players to map. If you grab a piece of graph paper and try and map it out assuming that the rooms are all equal size, you get a mess. I didn't bother to see if room sizes make it all line up, but I think it shouldn't matter. I suggest that someone redo the scardale zone and move things around so that they line up easier on graph paper. Adding rooms to the streets to make it all linear would probably cause the zone to feel too big.
Also, get rid of the 1way in the psionicist guild. Again difficult to map. If you want to teach these mapping concepts, I'd suggest doing it outside of the city... Not where they are going to do their first few levels.
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Also something that was frustrating for the kids. How fast the mobs move. They are still learning how to type and things are just moving too fast for them to finger peck consider xyz, read what it says then kill xyz. I realize the benefits of having a dynamic experience (which moving mobs contribute to a rich and dynamic feel), but maybe they could move slower or have more low level mobs in a specific area that don't move. For example putting in a pond at the park with turtles and fish that don't wander. Or a bird bath with birds that don't move. Set it up so that the mobs the newbies kill from level 1-5 don't move... much.
Scardale
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- Staff Member - Areas
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- Location: Vancouver, Canada
Re: Scardale
I agree with you that most zones (especially the newbie zone) should be straight forward to map. However unless you have a couple specific examples that are easy to change, I don't think the effort will have enough pay-off to be worthwhile.
Re: Scardale
Something frustrating for adults: interacting with kids who can barely type.
Re: Scardale
frustrating for adults (without kids), maybe - frustrating for other parents who are playing the game and see a new generation playing, not so frustrating at all!
Grundar tells you 'I took on the entire football team once. The only reason my mom knew later was because I had a runny nose'
Re: Scardale
Do they really need to learn to map? I never mapped anything.
It will be fixed in Toril 2.0.
Aremat group-says 'tanks i highly suggest investing 20 silver in training weapons from cm to cut down on the losing scales to shield'
Aremat group-says 'tanks i highly suggest investing 20 silver in training weapons from cm to cut down on the losing scales to shield'
Re: Scardale
Mike has them turn in spreadsheets of all the loot they find too. Damn you asians.
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- Sojourner
- Posts: 7275
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- Location: Los Angeles, CA and Flagstaff, AZ
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Re: Scardale
I think they do in order to be self sufficient or to learn how to / enjoy questing... Do any of us want the next generation of players to be babies who can't walk from WD to MH on their own?
Re: Scardale
I just run into walls. No biggie.
It will be fixed in Toril 2.0.
Aremat group-says 'tanks i highly suggest investing 20 silver in training weapons from cm to cut down on the losing scales to shield'
Aremat group-says 'tanks i highly suggest investing 20 silver in training weapons from cm to cut down on the losing scales to shield'
Re: Scardale
I told you to stop squinting, Brian. Problem solved.
Re: Scardale
For many years when I was building areas, and later when I was responsible for teaching other people who to write quality zones, one of the important things I stressed was the importance of mapping your zone out on paper before you start coding it.
While an experienced zone writer can sometimes get away with not pre-mapping their areas, a new zone writer is going to discover that the end result of not pre-planning your areas is that you end up with something that is sloppy, hard to navigate, and ultimately not friendly to the people who use the area.
Zones should be mappable and make sense on a map, and the best way to do that is to map the zone before you create it. Almost every quality zone I ever wrote started with a sheet of graph paper.
While an experienced zone writer can sometimes get away with not pre-mapping their areas, a new zone writer is going to discover that the end result of not pre-planning your areas is that you end up with something that is sloppy, hard to navigate, and ultimately not friendly to the people who use the area.
Zones should be mappable and make sense on a map, and the best way to do that is to map the zone before you create it. Almost every quality zone I ever wrote started with a sheet of graph paper.
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