The Worlds of Carnage employs a web based building system
which allows for easy manipulation of MUD entities from
rooms to objects. We are looking for builders to help add to
our long standing MUD and cordially invite you to sample the
web editor at the following URL:



Cheers,
Blobule the Implementor

I didn't get a lot of hits and no replies to my post, so
perhaps if I pose the question I'll get some feedback...

What do people think of web-based building?

I've used systems with web-based building, and while I like it for objects and npcs, I don't for rooms. Why? I think it's because I like to wander through an area, adding tweaks, exit descriptions, and other extras as I go. It's hard for me to envision unless I'm virtually "inside" the room, and able to wander around. I'd think it would prove confusing for mapping out areas as well.

That's a pretty good point about the mapping interaction.
Currently my builder supports an mapping feature to generate
a map of the area; however, as we are all aware DIKU and
most muds don't have a coordinate system for room placement
and so automatic mapping systems often make assumptions and
concessions as to where a room should be drawn, especially
when in 3D the room collides with another. To solve this
I've been considering using the auto-mapper to convert all
my area files over to a 3D coordinate system. This shouldn't
be hard since I did the work some time ago to switch my mud
over to an XML database and have a DIKU to CarnageXML
converter. That in mind though, anything made in my web
builder is immediately loadable on the test port, which to
some degree solves the wander issue. Thanks for the
feedback.

I think web-based building is a great idea. You can build, and more importantly I think, modify things from anywhere. You don't need a special client or even access to the mud. But it also neatly solves the problem of cross-platform "offline" building, because web-based interfaces are quite portable =). Web-building is great for long descriptions because text-based builders don't usually support the notion of softwrapping text, and you often have to blow away and redo a line to modify a tiny piece of text within it. And if you use a database that's readable by both your mud and the webserver (e.g., mysql), you don't even have to write functions to translate from one format to another.

Regarding Blobule's system, I especially liked the mob analysis that showed how long a mob would last against players with various buffs and levels.