Hey, I can nominate Molly. I am not one one to really care what, or who, I promote and praise, as long as they deserve it.  And I think that most of the seasoned builders of 4 Dimensions are up there among the best.  See, it was a long time since I last played, and even built a half-witted Mayan temple zone, on 4D back in 1997-98 some time I think, but I remember one thing: well-written descriptions and innovative ideas.  I've stopped by a few times, and I am never disappointed, it always feels good to take a stroll along the streets of York (I think it was) or roam about in the robot factory.

I've seen other great muds out there as well, but none with as much time and effort put into their writing as 4D.  Well, there's a couple, but I can't think of any on the top of my head that really sticks out like 4D.

Ooo, ooo, details.

Dave. Dave can do more than paint a portrait with his words, he can make digital video. There are quite honestly times when his descriptions scare me, because they're just that vivid and beautiful.. or grotesque, in some cases. And he's flexible. He can go from making a village to an island to a forest to a mountain to a dungeon. Anything I ask him for, he can do.

And he does it so quickly. He often comes to me and says, 'give me 25 rooms, I have 3 hours, I'll make something.' And make he does. Rooms with twelve or more lines per room (ten, he says, is a compromise for when he doesn't feel creative). Mobs that have elaborate descs, and mob progs that make you wish you really could be in the area.

And he does it all for me, just because. He started out with a team project on a city, and he managed to finish a quarter of the city in a night.. and it's by far the most wonderful quarter of the city. His talents as far as writing far exceed my own, and one of these days, if I'm not careful, he'll pick up that 'head builder' slot out from under me.

Melly

Although it seems somewhat bad form anymore to pump up stock areas, I would say Raff greatly impressed me. Dwarven Catacombs, Dangerous Neighborhood, and Elemental Canyon are some of the more enjoyable Merc stock areas.  Loads of mobs, interesting equipment, and (although I'm not sure who gets the credit for writing these) spec_functions that are an excellent springboard into mprogs.

Other than that Strahd's Decent to Hell is another fun area that can make you cry (stupid penguins whipped me again) or make you laugh (I always knew St. Nick would be here someday).

Heya all,

Well I just recently started building and I'm certainly bad.

I know though that Cordir, who plays on the mud where I play and is Head Builder on her own mud, makes wonderful areas. You gotta like the style though. I myself love long descriptions other people might look for fun things in an area which would be a different thing.

Greetings Dre

I, too, have found the builders of PhoenixMUD to be helpful.  There must be something in the water over there.

Cymynedd hosted The Art of Building for free for four and a half years.

Ghelan answered a survey that I sent out to builders with generic questions about what builders liked in codebases and editors.  His reponses were detailed and helpful.

Illuvatar took over some of the things that I was doing for the mud community when changes in my workplace meant I had to cut back on my hobby workload. He also is working on other stuff for the community.

Eh?  What?

Actually, there is a lot more to building than pretty descriptions.  I just focus on content in The Art of Building because there did not seem to be much that addressed that aspect of building at the time I created the site.  I would have to agree that the builders of PhoenixMUD have been selfless in sharing knowledge with me.

Neranz Laverani, Seeker of Knowledge

Cymynedd, PhoenixMUD and I are/were most honored to be of assistance to you guys and to many who have asked. Cymynedd has retired in favor of her committment to Inetsolve but she has always been and remains my mentor and advisor.

Molly and Neranz and any of the same quality and common sense approach to world management and creation are always welcome at PhoenixMUD even as observers. I believe they are among the elite of our Mu* world and totally respect them.

Thank you, Ladies

I really like the idea with this thread, because it gives us the chance to actually thank some of our Builders. Which I am pretty certain that most of us don’t do often enough. So I give you the 5 top Builders of 4D (in alphabetical order, because I would not put one before the other):

Bloodqueen, because of her evil and devious mind, and the funniest DT in the game. She says that descs bore her, but is actually very good at them. She is even better at making objects and Quests, probably because she’s always been a packrat herself. She is one of the few to use colours in an aesthetic and tasteful way, not just flashy. So far she’s built 3 challenging 100 room zones with the theme of Old Egypt. She is now working on a grand project, a 500 room big Future Shopping Mall, which I expect will attract a large crowd –who might come in the hope of doing some cheap shopping, but end up getting a few nasty surprises...

Crystal, my right hand, because I can trust her completely and because she always actually FINISHES the large projects she starts. And because her descs are so poetic, with flavour and atmosphere, and always true to the Time period. But more than anything else, because she relieved me of the tedious and thankless task of making personalised player equipment, which has to be done on line. She has built totally 600 rooms of medieval zones up so far, and is working on a really big Future zone, ‘The City of Sinsations’. And no, that isn’t a typo - this zone is really a bit X-rated and you’ll have to be above 18 to even enter it. *snicker*

Mordecai, because his first zone is still among the most popular in the mud, even though it is also one of the most challenging. But above all, because he is a wizard at scripts, he has more or less revolutionised our mud and revived several of the oldest zones with his funny, twisted, imaginative and totally amazing scripts. Most of the Builders, including myself, rely on him for support with tricky scripts. Regrettably I am about to lose him to the coder, who seems to have discovered his special talents too. Mordecai is looking for bigger challenges and will be helping to code the mud in the future. My loss, but the Coder’s gain, I hope.

Shartrance, because of her humour, wit, intelligence - and kinky twists. Her 400 room zone, the old bedside story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves retold for ADULTS, has kept her audience amused, challenged, frustrated and cursing her name for quite some time now. I laughed out loud myself the first time I read some of her descs. Shartrance has more or less left 4D by now, but can usually be relied on to return, when some Twink has blabbered about the solution to one of her Quests. Return, to stamp her foot in anger, and then take the zone out to revamp it, making it yet a bit more evil, twisted, frustrating and hard to get through...

Tanaea, my fellow evil bitch, who started out as the best player in the mud, went on to be the biggest bug abuser, then the biggest bug reporter, then the best Builder of her time, then our Website designer, then - just about as she was going to rise to the state of Coder - decided to go on a year long Around-the-world Tour. She’s returned home to Australia now, and although we more or less lost her to her RL job, she still runs our Website and visits the mud occasionally to dish the dirt with her friends. And we still have her zones, 750 rooms of spicy Australia, ranging from the gay Mardi Gras Parade in Sydney, to the aborigines in the Outback.

I could easily have mention five more Builders, some of those have left us by now, others are ‘on the rise’, and might be in the top soon. But I’ll end it here, so as not to spam you too much.

I nominate Brianna from my mud:

You really need to come to the mud to see for yourself!

To much to explain here... Good Job Bri!