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Old 08-03-2007, 08:50 AM   #6
Valg
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Join Date: Apr 2002
Home MUD: Carrion Fields
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Re: What to do about old content?

These days, we rewrite old content fairly aggressively, outstripping work on 'brand-new' content. Improving the writing is part of the goal, but also our code has evolved so much since we started out that the oldest areas end up missing a lot of features. Also, some very old area projects (mostly roads) were intended as 'connectors' to set up major areas, and got written quickly.

Our world has been 'big enough' for all but the most veteran players for a very long time-- even people that have been here for a few years look down the area list and notice places they've never been to. Instead of raw expansion, we're working on:

- High density of high quality work. A lot of our oldest areas are (naturally) located at our world's center-- people began with that group of areas and tended to expand in all directions. A newer player might not have ventured far from those core areas, and really won't see our best stuff.

- Exploration rewards at all levels. For whatever reason, there used to be a strong correlation between how difficult an area's creatures were and how much was invested in custom code, tricks, quests, traps, etc. Areas aimed at new adventurers tended towards cities, towns, or wilderness areas populated with things to kill and stuff to grab, whereas the high-end areas had most of the unique stuff. We've worked a lot on developing exploration-oriented content at low levels.

- Addressing niche needs, or needs that didn't exist when the area was written. We have a lot of tools now for charting and breaking down what's in our various areas. For example, a weapon being two-handed used to be a pure drawback-- in our original code, it just meant it used both of your hands, and you're hoping the area writer made it extra-good to make up for that. Now, there are (sub)classes which actively seek out high-leverage weapons, and you need a stock of them at all levels. Old areas probably lack them, along with other niche needs.

Also:

- It's easier. Given that you can often keep a similar floorplan, general theme, and often some 'highlight' NPCs, it's generally easier than starting from a blank page.
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