[MUD-Dev] Re: BUILDERS: Ferries

[Sauron]

> My first mortal mud, Silicon Realms, had twelve "ferry" rooms to  various
> parts of the mud (there were only 2-2.5k rooms in the world) but no way to
> access them via land.  That was an easy out for the imps and made player's
> lives easier but at the same time made the world seem less real.  When I
> think of my own world, which I don't even know as well as I knew the SR
> world, I can envision it as a  connected planet (the map on my wall
> doesn't hurt).  I found out after months of playing SR that I had the
> world completely turned upside down and inside out and didn't know it well
> at all--although I know the sequence of directions to get in and out of
> the various areas I really had no concept of the world as a whole.  That
> was a disappointing discovery.

In order to avoid this exact scenario in my mud I have started with a
map of the world, creating continents, oceans, major landmarks and other
places of interest which will be the majority of the programmed rooms on
the mud when I and my co-God Locke are done. One of the challenges I
have found both interesting and enjoying about working with an entirely
original theme is that of creating a believable world with an enthraling
history which draws people in. As of this moment I am working on
refining that very history. The map of the world (known as Nighton) is
completed and Locke is "enlarging" my basic sketches. All in all, I
think that the world should not develop around the rooms, but the rooms
around the world allowing for expandablitly and for a dynamic and
changing world. For example, you have an initial 12,000 rooms that cover
the central cities on each of the major continents. You can then at your
leisure expand upon these major centers further out into your continents
thereby expanding your playable world without redesigning the entire
world. Many muds run into the problem of players "wearing out" areas and
becoming bored with what they have. This provides a fairly easy solution
for one who does not want to program the entire world beforehand (which
I intend to do).

Concerning the matter of IC travel across long distances such as oceans
or "blank area" between important areas, I think it should take some
time for a player, however, they shouldn't have to sit at their terminal
for two hours waiting to finish crossing an ocean. I believe if you
follow the general rule: "keep it realistic (as applying to RL) only if
it does not interfere with the overall enjoyment of the players" works
effectively in this situation.

-Sauron