JediMUD Builder's Guide

As of May 10th JediMUD has a new area submission policy. The policy is quite simple and can be summarized in two
parts:

You should have an immortal on JediMUD in order to build. This is a way to ensure that the people who are writing have a familiar grasp of our MUDs statistics and are relatively knowledgable about our world as it is today. We will accept morted mortals as builders, since this first requirement is to assure a minimum level of knowledge.
You must fill out the area application below before you begin. We will read each as it comes in and respond to its merits and offer suggestions. Keep in mind that a letter with suggestions is not a dismissal of your idea, it is merely to give helpful advice for possible additions to your zone concept from the person who knows more about the world than anyone else. Please send your completed form to areas@jedimud.com.

Area Writing Application for JediMUD

Real-life name:

E-mail address:

Character on the mud (please limit this to one, to lessen the confusion):

Is this an original zone or a revision of an existing zone? If a revision, is the area public?

Write a brief (100 word) description of your zone, including the theme/time period and/or setting.

How many rooms do you expect to use?

Would you define your zone as low (1-10) mid (11-15) high (16-25) or very high

Please describe five of your major mobs, five items (including stats), and send ten sample rooms.

If your concept is approved and registered, what is your estimated completion date?

When we are confident you have your idea fleshed out enough to begin building, he will assign you a zone to work
within. JediMUD does not have Online Creation, so you will have to work offline with a text editor such as vi or pico. Here are some tips for area writing:

Draw your map first. Whatever your plan is and whatever you are planning to write, having a clear, concise map to work from is a major step down the right path. Ask us for clarification of some ways to draw clear maps to work from.
Start by writing the first five rooms at the entrance to your zone, then send it in to be looked at. It is a lot easier to prevent reoccuring mistake in your area at this stage then it is to go back and correct them when the area has been completely written. Do the same with Mobiles and Objects
Follow the guidelines for Mobile gold and experience that are listed on the building docs for JediMUD. It is OK to deviate from this list for variety, but as a rule, try not to do so any more than 10 or 15% higher or lower. Obviously, if a mobile is hard for its level because of triple hit or being in a No-Magic room, then you should give it a little higher experience and gold. Alternatively, if it is easier than the norm, then cut the experience and gold on this Mobile as would be appropriate.
Try to add as much creativity and originality to your writing from a unique (i.e., something from your own imagination) theme or doing entirely new things with the statistics you assign to the Object and Mobiles in the area. We do not want D&D modules that you have scanned in. Thats copywrited materials and it just will not be added to the world. Unforunately, the same goes for any other copyrighted ideas that you may stumble upon. If you want to write Wheel of Time areas, or Star Wars areas, please go find someplace that will install them before beginning to work on them for us. We do not want legal problems with the legitamate creators of these themes down the line.
Frequently update us on your progress. We will be trying to keep you motivated and on track, since so very many of the zone ideas that get submitted die when their writer loses interest. If you get bogged down or bored writing Rooms, then try changing to Mobiles or Objects for a little while. Variety is the spice of life, and often it will also keep your project alive when boredom would seek to kill it. Frequent updates also allows for him to help you more extensively as you continue with your zone and get closer to completion every day.
Spell affects on items: These are not in the building docs and it is doubtful they will be added. If you want a spell on an item, ask us about it. If it is not going to cause a major imbalance to the game (i.e., sanct on an object, or any curing spell) then we will probably let it go in. Keep in mind that any offensive magic you want on the object will not be rejected, but it will hit the user of the object, not what they are fighting.

Building Documentation

When you write a zone for JediMUD, you will need to break it into four parts. A mob file, an obj file, a wld file and a zon file.