Intro To Building-A Good Start

Introduction to Area Building ( Public )

Please note - Builder applications are currently closed at this time. However, Goal Converters are being accepted and is a great way to introduce you to building

Building a successful area is an artform. It requires the balance of a unique design with a well-thought plan, the knowledge of existing areas, as well as a perserverence to follow it through to the end.

Before you begin an area, try to create a storyline or adventure for the area. This should be the basis of your area. Aardwolf is a world of adventure, which is why hundreds of people visit us every day. If an area incites excitement and connects with a player, players will be much more apt to enjoy it than one where the mobs say nothing and do nothing except die by the sword. Thus a builder, while planning an area, should desire their area to well animated, focused and developed. This means developing a story, making your monsters interactive and memorable, and sticking with your major theme or plotline.

Building an area, much like creating a piece of artwork, can take a long time. It requires a lot of effort, a lot of detailed work, and a lot of planning. It can take a scale of weeks to months to years to finish an area, if it is ever finished at all. Many, many of those who begin building areas, never see them through to completion. They fall to the wayside and are eventually deleted so that we make way for others who wish to build.

Here is some advice to help builders avoid being one of those who spend hours on your area only to have it deleted:

PLAN PLAN PLAN! This is the most overlooked piece of advice given to Aardwolf builders. They walk in with a theme and try to build it, having very little detail and focus to their thoughts. They run out of inspiration and never finish the area. Plan out everything, make a map, make a mob list, what objects the mobs will have, what progs do they want. Get it all out on paper. It is so much easier to transfer an area from paper to game than it is to build an area from scratch.

Make a plan, theme, goal and stick to it! Mobprogs are the hardest part of building. They can be frustrating, uncooperative and difficult to understand. This can be bogged down and made worse, if you are unsure what you want to accomplish. Many builders have a problem with building something, then going back and adjusting it to fit something they've decided to build, then building something else and going back and fixxing things again. Often times this leads to mixxed storylines, a break in flow of the area, and disinterest in the players who venture into the area.

Limit yourself! Along with planning, force yourself to stay within your original thought. People who build an area, tend to build one thing, then decide they want to keep adding and adding to make the area better. This leads to complexity and confusion which discourages players from liking your area. A simple design with 1 or 2 major focuses in the story/adventure and mprogs should be enough to achieve a good story with a nice flow. Too many side quests, forced quests to continue, and desired achievements in your area can prolong the building time until the builder no longer has the desire to build.

Once you believe you have designed enough of your area to apply to build, wait for builder's port to accept applications and post one on Personal Board to Imm. The following is the format to apply for a new area:

     Area Name:
     Builders:
     Level Range:
     Amount of Vnums:
     Area Completion Goal: (when you expect to have the area completed).

     Blurb:  (A description of what is posted to the mud when your area goes live.)

     Location:  (What continent, coordinates you envision your area to begin)

     Theme: (2 - 3 paragraphs describing the main storyline/adventure of your area.)

     Goal: (1 - 2 paragraphs describing the area quest players will go through (as needed))

     Any Additional Information:

PLEASE NOTE Aardwolf has grown very specific about the types of areas we are accepting to go to main port, these areas should be original, fantasy, non-technological areas. If you have any concerns regarding the topic of your area, you can check the listing found in Dead Ideas

ALSO We can not take areas created on another mud or with any offline ROM based area creator. Aardwolf does not use the standard ROM 2.4 area format and thus we can neither load nor use any area not created online with our OLC.