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Old 09-05-2004, 11:44 AM   #5
Vilgan
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Join Date: Sep 2004
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I liked the thread, but in general it seemed to be a long discussion on writing descriptions rather than actual building. I (personally) never gave a hoot about descrips as a player and see it as a necessary evil for building. There was a really good (imo) post by erdos and it was unfortunate there wasn't more of that type. It focuses on coding/olc tricks rather than debating description quality.

Few tricks I've started doing myself:

There is always a hidden room players can't get to. This is a great place to run background stuff that players cannot ever mess with or interfere with.

All important fight progs now work outside pulse violence. Keeping it outside makes it a lot more "real" feeling, as well as making the actual pulse a lot less spammy. The system erdos described seemed a bit complex, I just utilize mob echo, trigger via act off that echo (in the hidden room) and then have a short delay before it heads over to do the fight prog. Obviously you need a few checks (like if players == 0, break in the room).

The entry idea was pretty nifty. My key mobs have predefined paths via mprog so I include the mob echos there. But for ones who just wander randomly, sneaking + entry mob echo seems like a really good idea and one that I'll utiilize more in the future.

Less on coding, but imo the most important part: know your niche you plan to fill going in. Why will people go to your area? What does it offer? Is it a leveling area? Is it an endgame area? Is it a quest style area? Is it a combination? What is "special" about this particular area? If you write the most immersive area on the planet but it fills no niche, then your average player won't even bother to go there.

Vilgan
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