Style Guide for Razors 5 zones This document provides some rules for creating zones for R5. When I say I'm looking for a quality zone, this is what I mean. I will provide good examples and bad examples from the mud - most of the good examples come from New Yorkalot. Although it's not perfect I know it well, and it has enough examples to draw on. The bad examples are taken from zones we are axing or zones that have a few minor bad parts in them * Vivid room description Good example: You walk along Third Avenue, right up to the end, where it turns into a largish cul-de-sac. There are garages all along the east and south, all with name plates above their doors. The entrance to the huge building is to the north, up some huge stairs. A large sign is sitting on the ground in front of the building. You notice that there is a car parked outside the building, and as you get closer, you identify it as a red Ferrari F40. The available exits from the cul-de-sac are up into the building, or west, back along Third Avenue. Bad example: You are now floating through the area of space which usually houses Taurus the bull. The good example contains a good description of what people can see, and provides some mood. There are plenty of extra (see below) description hooks. The bad example not only does not describe what the character sees, but mentions the mob that usually sits there. This is Bad. Here are the Rules of Thumb (TM) for room descs * minimum of 4 lines * maximum of 10 lines * describe what they see/hear/smell and the exits that are obvious. * add an extra for each hook (see below) * Extras From the above example, the hooks in the good room are: * the sign * the ferrari Other possibilities include * the garages * the building Use extras to add more flavour, but also to hide subtle (or not so subtle) clues about how to solve any puzzles your zone presents. Obviously the bad example above has nothing to look at because it lacks description. Make sure to describe every exit! There is a particular section for exit descriptions, and you are expected to use them. * Zone layout Make a map of your zone before you write it, otherwise you will make mistakes - everyone does. There is a cool tool for making maps available at http://www.stud.ux.his.no/~austad/mud/mapmaker. Make sure your zone is not linear - i.e. that the flow of the zone is not completely predictable to the user - also make sure it is not too confusing. A grid is generally a bad idea. Some good examples in the mud are Tattooine, the Prisoner, and Frankenfurter's Castle. A bad example is the Necromantic Caves. * Mobs Each mob should be interesting, even the ones that there are lots of. Unless the mob is an animal, they should generally carry some kind of equipment. Please don't put gold on animals! I know this is the case in the zoo, but other than that, it's just not good. Mob descriptions can include things like how they stand, how they look at you, what their clothes are like (but not any reference to the equipment they carry), how well muscled (or not) they are, scars, hair colour, skin colour etc etc. Mob Rules of Thumb (TM) * Descs between 3 and 5 lines * Don't mention equipment carried * Don't mention location, unless mob is SENTINEL * Mob flags, stats and eq Don't fall into the trap of making your mobs really hard. All the mobs in the zone should be balanced, and should provide a good challenge for the level of character that you are pitching the zone at. Remember, in R5, each zone has a rating, which is used to determine where it is placed in the rankings for kotm. The rating is basically a number between 1 and 100 that roughly equals the level of the characters that should attempt the zone. Use this as a Rule of Thumb (ok, enough with the TMs). * min_lev = lowest level a single character can come in, and win a fight with an average mob there * max_lev = maximum level a single character will want to come in at (i.e. no more challenge and no eq good after this level there) * grp_lev = average level of a group of characters that will come into the zone for exp and eq. * grp_lev == (min_lev + max_lev) / 2 == zone_rating If you create a zone that has a lot of level 20-30 mobs, then the min_lev should be 20, the max_lev should be 30 and the zone_rating should be 25. How much HP is enough? How much damroll? Hitroll? etc etc This is a tough question to answer, but here are a few ideas to bear in mind * 20 HP per level is the max per player, plus maybe 10-20% with eq * AV per level = roughly 2 * Players will have a damroll roughly equal to their level * Players will group, giving them a higher damage dealing ability * Mobs can only hit one player at a time * spells and eq will toughen the players and weaken the mob So, taking our 25-rated zone above as an example, how hard should a level 25 mob be to provide a challenge to a group of 3 (assuming 3 to be average number of a group arbitrarily) players? damroll of level 25 player = 25 3 players == 25 * 3 == 75 assume at 1 warrior will have 1 extra attack per round each 25 levels 75 + 25 = 100 assume 1 wizard to cast spells or one rogue to circle, which is roughly another level of damroll per round = 100 + 25 = 125. assume ave dam at level 25 to be 12 (level / 2) = another 50 damage (or so) This means that your mob will be taking 175 damage per round, assuming everyone hits. This is unlikely, but depends on a lot of factors like the mobs AV, the players hitroll etc. Assume that 5 of the attacks per round will hit, giving a damage per round == 7 * zone_rating. This means to provide a challenge for a group the mob has to be able to reduce the group tank (assume warrior) to 0 hitpoints before dying itself. You can do this any number of ways, so here are a few examples: * mob damroll = 25, ave dam = 25, 2 attacks = 100 damage per round warrior hp = 500, AV = 50 if mob hitroll = 25, then chance of hitting each round is 50/50 so 100/2 = 50 damage per round == 10 rounds of combat in 10 rounds of combat, the mob must survive 125 * 10 damage = 1250. Give mob 1250 hit points. (here's the rough formula - hitroll + d100 > AV + d100 then hit) * Same as above, but give mob 1250 * 2 / 3 HP = 820 and AFF_SANC In this case you would give the mob less experience points, because sanc can be removed, but removing hitpoints requires a fight * Same as above except give mob hitroll of 50, making 75% of hits accurate == 75 damage per round == 6 rounds of combat. This means the mob can have lower hit points (900). You can make the mob harder or easier than this, but be sure to make the reward greater or lesser (respectively!). Good rewards are high xp and/or good eq. When creating mobs, just remember they are going to take 5 * zone_rating in damage per round, and make sure they can survive long enough to provide a challenge! * Equipment Don't try and make your equipment the best in the game. It will be either rejected or moderated anyway, so don't waste our time and yours. In R5, only 10 locations will be allowed to have +damroll. * ring x 2 * weapon * hold * wrist x 2 * feet * arms * legs * hands Don't make all your eq +damroll. In general, limit to only 2 or 3 pieces of eq in the zone on the toughest mobs. Don't make something +hitroll and +damroll unless it is a weapon. Don't make all your items have magical (or technical) bonuses to stats, unless it makes sense. For example a 'pair of iron gauntlets' should only be +AV, otherwise they should have the MAGIC or GLOW flag or some other way of indicating that they are special. A 'pair of powered gauntlets' can be +STR because the nature of powered gauntlets is to make you stronger (or +DEX if your powered gauntlets make you quicker). If your eq has pluses, there must be reasons, otherwise it will be rejected. Equipment descs * between 3 and 5 lines * extra hooks are good! * give all mobs some kind of eq unless there is a good story reason * Spec procs Spec procs make the game more interesting. There are general procs available for things like buttons (push this button to make X happen), turn mobs into spell casters, make them say or do particular things. If you want a particular proc coded for your zone, this is generally easily done, provided it's not hugely complex. Jot your idea down on a mail or a mudmail and send it to Ace (ace@razors.org) Think of quests that could be run in your zone as you write it (better yet, write the quests too!). Feedback? Questions? Mail me - ace@razors.org