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Old 07-21-2002, 02:46 PM   #2
Burr
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Join Date: Apr 2002
Posts: 123
Burr is on a distinguished road
Everything and anything that a new character would probably know about the world at the time in their life when the player takes control of them, with those things that the new player would need to know taking precedence. On top of that, everything OOC that a new mudder would need to know to start your mud. On top of that, enough to show mud vets searching for a new mud why they should pick yours. Never forget that your website is both a service and an advertisement. Getting all of this information out as IC writing (such as histories, diaries, etc.) where possible is a plus, and is especially important if the mud is an RP mud.

Miscellaneous Suggestions...

Home page. This isn't just a place to begin your navigation. This is also where you should do your sales pitch. It is also where you explain the focus of your mud (which, of course, should be a part of your sales pitch in any case.)

Provide a features page. This should be OOC and honest. List your best features first, and present them so that they can be gone over quickly. (Don't explain their benefits. You've already done your sales pitch on the home page; they came to the features page because they want details on features, not salesmanship.) Have some statistics showing the number of non-secret skills, spells, classes, races, professions, guilds, etc., on your mud.

Include a link to your Who list only if you have either a very large playerbase, or else a good playerbase for your type of mud plus high-quality names. If a player just wants to find out if their friend is on, let them come into the mud to find out. Why waste webspace encouraging them to go do something else besides playing your mud?

Provide a section of your mud telling about the geographic layout of the world, its known history and religions, governments, etc. If it is an RP mud, include anything necessary to give the player a good idea of the prevalent cultures, customs, laws, and beliefs.

List known races and classes along with descriptions of well known attributes, traits, and such. If possible, include good pictures to complement the descriptions. If you can't describe the information ICly, then put it in the mud's help topics instead. Unless you are a hack-and-slash mud and proud of it, especially don't put the race and class stats on your website; put them in the mud help topics.

Have a map of the well known areas of the city where you suggest most newbies start, with instructions on how to get to the newbie school if you have one. (Let them get directions to their guilds in the newbie school. The map is just to make sure they get to the newbie school in the first place, and so that they can find food if they've spent so long searching for the newbie school that they are about to die.)

Have a list of non-secret commands (at least the basics) and short descriptions of what they do. If you want to list skills, spells, socials, etc., this is a good place to do it. Just organize into categorical subtopics. If you want to explain the stat system, do it here by giving the "stats" or "score" command (whichever command you use in your mud) its own subtopic.

If your mud already has a sense of community, have a community section. (Don't put one in before then, as people won't value the community section much unless it comes at a time when they value the community.)

Also, just spend some time looking around at all the websites. If it looks like a neat idea and like it will fit your mud, use it.
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