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April · 01-24-2003, 11:18 AM

While I almost always prefer “planning” over “plopping,” a lot of it really does depend on your game and its mechanics.

a) Is your world a place where area after area is just another jumble of useless text where players go to mindlessly kill mobs and max their characters out to oblivion?

If the answer is yes, then your players are probably not paying attention to anything more than the string of directions they need to enter an area with good-exp mobs. Chances are they are not even bothering to read your room descriptions and hence, are clueless to the discrepancy in your world geography.

b) Is your world a place with an emphasis on character development and role play, where areas are not just a few room descriptions duplicated into hundreds of rooms that are best for leveling? Do they contain detailed descriptions, hidden objects, extra descriptions, progs, and things of that nature? Are they meant to be read and appreciated?

If the answer is yes, then you probably want to be working your hardest to weed out inconsistenties in your world layout. Unfortunately, in a world with multiple builders, there are always going to be differences in building style from area to area (personally I prefer a consistent world with one or two like-minded builders providing a consistent and worthwhile world; or, one in which builders are responsible for separate continents [if a world includes such] which helps to explain away differences in building styles within a single Mud --while diversity in a world is good, oftentimes a multitude of builders working on a multitude of different projects lends itself to creating the type of problem you explain) having a world where the geography is consistent, where things described in the rooms are actually there, and where cliffs and oceans don’t just drop off the face of the earth is paramount to me. As a player who actually reads room descriptions, inconsistencies can make or break a playing experience for me.

It all comes down to how you want your world to come across to your players.
While having a set world geography or world map or “list” of things that need to be built might be a turnoff for some builders who wish to implore their own ideas and fancies solely into an area… in the end you must decide what is best for your game, and your players.

01-24-2003, 11:18 AM	#2
April New Member Join Date: Nov 2002 Posts: 19	While I almost always prefer “planning” over “plopping,” a lot of it really does depend on your game and its mechanics. a) Is your world a place where area after area is just another jumble of useless text where players go to mindlessly kill mobs and max their characters out to oblivion? If the answer is yes, then your players are probably not paying attention to anything more than the string of directions they need to enter an area with good-exp mobs. Chances are they are not even bothering to read your room descriptions and hence, are clueless to the discrepancy in your world geography. b) Is your world a place with an emphasis on character development and role play, where areas are not just a few room descriptions duplicated into hundreds of rooms that are best for leveling? Do they contain detailed descriptions, hidden objects, extra descriptions, progs, and things of that nature? Are they meant to be read and appreciated? If the answer is yes, then you probably want to be working your hardest to weed out inconsistenties in your world layout. Unfortunately, in a world with multiple builders, there are always going to be differences in building style from area to area (personally I prefer a consistent world with one or two like-minded builders providing a consistent and worthwhile world; or, one in which builders are responsible for separate continents [if a world includes such] which helps to explain away differences in building styles within a single Mud --while diversity in a world is good, oftentimes a multitude of builders working on a multitude of different projects lends itself to creating the type of problem you explain) having a world where the geography is consistent, where things described in the rooms are actually there, and where cliffs and oceans don’t just drop off the face of the earth is paramount to me. As a player who actually reads room descriptions, inconsistencies can make or break a playing experience for me. It all comes down to how you want your world to come across to your players. While having a set world geography or world map or “list” of things that need to be built might be a turnoff for some builders who wish to implore their own ideas and fancies solely into an area… in the end you must decide what is best for your game, and your players.