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plamzi · 01-22-2012, 03:02 PM

I have some comments related to content creation as mentioned in #2, 5, and 6.

In a nutshell, I think the OP severely underestimates the importance and ease-of-creation of quality game content. For example, importing areas from TBAMud sounds great on paper, but an area is much more than some imported text, and a world is much more than a bunch of areas.

Also, areas from a certain codebase bring with them the individual sets of properties that their entities have. If you go with TBAMud imports and try to build a from-scratch codebase that uses these properties, many months later you may find yourself looking at a Perl port of TBAMud instead of something original.

User-contributed content is also great on paper (especially when the paper is in the hands of a dev who by his/her own admission doesn't care much about world creation). In reality, a new MUD with unoriginal or non-existent content is going to have a very hard time attracting players who can go next door for something ready to consume. If a sandbox is empty, it doesn't matter how great the tools are that you've scattered in it.

I think that excitement is absolutely mandatory in a "write from scratch" project, and I realize that underestimating certain challenges helps to get the ball rolling. That said, it's important to set the parameters of a project in realistic terms. Assume that everything is hard, especially if you haven't done it, or don't care to pour thousands of hours into it. Realize that there are no shortcuts to a deep and original world. And if you go with random dungeons instead, realize there are many tradeoffs, compensating for which will require a lot of creative coding on your part.

01-22-2012, 03:02 PM	#7
plamzi Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2009 Home MUD: bedlam.mudportal.com:9000 Home MUD: www.mudportal.com Posts: 292	Re: Longtime mudder with ADD puts on his mad scientist hat I have some comments related to content creation as mentioned in #2, 5, and 6. In a nutshell, I think the OP severely underestimates the importance and ease-of-creation of quality game content. For example, importing areas from TBAMud sounds great on paper, but an area is much more than some imported text, and a world is much more than a bunch of areas. Also, areas from a certain codebase bring with them the individual sets of properties that their entities have. If you go with TBAMud imports and try to build a from-scratch codebase that uses these properties, many months later you may find yourself looking at a Perl port of TBAMud instead of something original. User-contributed content is also great on paper (especially when the paper is in the hands of a dev who by his/her own admission doesn't care much about world creation). In reality, a new MUD with unoriginal or non-existent content is going to have a very hard time attracting players who can go next door for something ready to consume. If a sandbox is empty, it doesn't matter how great the tools are that you've scattered in it. I think that excitement is absolutely mandatory in a "write from scratch" project, and I realize that underestimating certain challenges helps to get the ball rolling. That said, it's important to set the parameters of a project in realistic terms. Assume that everything is hard, especially if you haven't done it, or don't care to pour thousands of hours into it. Realize that there are no shortcuts to a deep and original world. And if you go with random dungeons instead, realize there are many tradeoffs, compensating for which will require a lot of creative coding on your part.