What is a good zone? Before I get into the various types of areas, there are a number of common elements in them. First of all, everything in an area (including the area itself) needs to have a reason for being there and a reason for being in the condition that it is. If there's a guardpost at the entrance to a keep and the guards are actually intended to block or attack intruders, don't put them in an adjacent room and expect people to enter that room and meet the guards. Have them take shifts in the actual entranceway, and call out to the resting guards if attacked. Or give them some other means of performing their guard duties. Also, give them "schedules" to follow. Most guards currently spend their entire lifetime awake and alert. That's crazy: they never sleep, they never eat, they never drink. That is another need for schedules of mobs. They need a means of obtaining food. While many animals out in the wilderness can just root around for nuts or the like in the ground, a guard can't very reliably search around in his guard room for a leg of mutton -- not daily, at least. The food needs either to be brought to him, or he needs to go obtain it -- perhaps at the local bakery or restaurant.
The second common theme is tied closely to the first. We need to build a virtual ecosystem around the areas, and tie everything together. If there's a tribe of troglodytes living here, why? Where do they get their food and water? Do they have a leader? Why is he their leader? How do they react to strangers or intruders? Surely they wouldn't led somebody waltz up to their leader's chamber. If somebody picked off some of their solitary guards, then they might make some conclusions and organize a strike force against the party rather than allowing the party to wait until each of them is alone before engaging in battle (case in point, the Shiriffs in the Shire). Even a guard, if hungry enough, will drop his post and go in search of edibles. Also, mobs placed in uncomfortable temperatures will similarly need a reason for existence. Why has it not moved away from this place already? Has it found a particularly warm or sheltered room and not had the courage to risk trying to find a better place? Did it loot a warm jacket from the body of an adventurer and therefore be comfortable? Is there a stream nearby that reduces the intolerable heat?
A third common theme that would make many of the areas much better would be having more objects present. If you go into a kitchen, is it really empty other than some 2-dimensional tables and such in the description of the room? A lot of stuff should be present in the PCs (or NPCs) search around long enough. This would be important for a reason other than just adding more realism to the system. Currently, if the PCs find an object in a hard area, it is more than likely a good and useful object. This should not be the case; surely even the challenging mobs use standard items as well, if only for building fires and the like. Just because he's a hardened warrior/mage doesn't mean he uses a flint&steel that's any different than Joe Fighter's. Nor does it mean that you should attempt not to bundle him down with anything but items "suitable" to his majesty and stature. If he needed to build a fire, he'd be out of luck in that case. Right? Utilitarian items are quite useful for a number of reasons. Objects on mobs should not be limited to those that the PCs will find useful as treasure and loot.
I believe that zones come in a number of different varieties, depending on what type of atmosphere and zone you are trying to create. The first and perhaps most common type of area is the quick journey into the unknown. The usual dikumud area of Moria is a prime example of this. The area itself has only about 30 to 40 rooms, and yet, when the correct power of characters enters, they are challenged quite effectively. One of the methods of exploring this type of zone is to make short raids into it, pushing in as far as possible before the party is weakened too much. Then the party goes back and recuperates, and comes back 10 ticks later and pushes a different direction. Often, there a particular party is able to push only so far into the area (if it's designed well) and thus they will always be kept wondering what *is* in that room beyond all those warriors. This is a good way of making the best out of a small area. However, one thing that was ignored in that area is the fact that a number of different hostile mobs are present in the same room in many cases. Scuffles would undoubtedly break out, and thus the mobs themselves would add flavor to the game.
Another type of zone is much less frequent. It is the long-term trip, the adventure that requires planning and travel. The site of the adventure is often very far from any civilization as the characters know it, and they must travel through unknown and uncharted lands to arrive there. A prime example of this type of adventure is the AD&D modules D1 and D2 (Descent into the Depths of the Earth), where the party travels into the underworld in search of a drow city. When my party travelled there, we took mules and over a months worth of rations (and we ran out of that food). Further, we were cut off in part from our gods, and the unknown sights, sounds, and sensations of the underworld environment prevented us from ever fully relaxing or concentrating -- for instance, we never once got a good night's sleep, and it was virtually impossible for the magi to rememorize spells. We were so far from the outside world that even such a spell as a wish was not powerful enough to transport us back to the overworld (we researched such information before embarking). A possible example of a diku area like this would be the duergar settlement on Copper. Moria was rewritten to be much more challenging, and it had a small hidden trapdoor in its deepest levels that led to a vertical tunnel leading six or seven rooms straight down -- a fly or levitate was required to traverse these rooms, and a potion of either was difficult to get at times; the spell did not exist. Once at the bottom of the vertical shaft, a broad river spread out below, and the duergar settlement was hidden far down one of the branches of the river. This type of area requires a great deal of planning, not only for how to get there with enough supplies, but also for how to return safely (recalls won't be nearly as common). Another key point about these types of zones as compared to the above quick-zone type is that often a powerful party will amass more wealth than it is able to carry (often the wealth is in the form of objects such as rugs, furniture, etc) and they are then forced to choose what to continue to take (do we drop 4 days worth of food so we can carry these rugs?) with them. Anything they drop will be picked up by scavenging mobs or the like soon after they leave, so they are able to take only what they can easily carry (if they're forced to flee from a battle, they may even lose their mules/etc, so they must also worry about organizing who carries which). Another example of adventures like this would be the 10-hour quests that were held at Copper and presumably are held on other decent muds. Note also that travel to other planes would fit the category of this type of zone quite nicely.
To go back to the other thread present in this post, the fourth theme common to all zones, but in particular this type, is the use of the party: a group of adventurers joining up on the principle of safety in numbers. Having a well-rounded party is essential for the larger and more distant zones, and often useful even in day-to-day activities. Also, being in a party while wandering the wilderness might be crucial in a number of situations. A ranger, for instance, could safely navigate a party through a particular confusing and befuddling copse of trees. Or, if you are unfortunate enough to lose your link, one of the party members could guard you until you return (something we need to seriously consider is what to do with linkdead peoples. My first impulse is the most ruthless: leave them there. If a mob comes along, it can attack just like normal. They're a standard character, except they have no actions. Alternatively, we can make them into an NPC at that point and have them controlled that way (attempting to preserve their own life) until the player returns). One method of promoting the use of parties would be to keep NPC followers/etc in the game. Thus, familiars can be created, and henchmen and other types of followers can be utilized without losing them when the player leaves the game. Also, the use of defense formations among parties can also promote their use; for instance, a mage would join up with a powerful warrior for their mutual benefit: each would provide a different method of attack. In larger parties, the warriors would form a ring around the weaker members during marching formation, thus protecting them from many dangers. If we can make the characters separate enough individuals that no character is capable of perfectly performing more than a few types of actions, then the players will find a use in parties. If, however, each character has the abilities of just about all the others, then a primary reason for grouping is lost.
A fifth common theme between most zones, touched on briefly in the troglodyte discussion above, is the fact that nearly all adventuring zones need to have a sense of uncertainty about them. In moria, there are bazillions of orcs and kobolds roaming around. Often, they coincidentally cluster in a specific area, creating quite a challenge (an often unexpected one) for somebody just waltzing through from room to room. One of the primary examples of what *not* to do for this is either Midgaard or, even better, the Shire. In the shire there are shiriffs, who are intended to be guarding the city. All they do is wander around or sit in their guard posts: they guard nothing. Meanwhile, people sitting around killing the things in the town, one by one, with no (organized or other) resistance other than the single mob in melee at the time. It can be reasonably argued that the shire is thought to be a place where violence does not occur, and thus the shiriffs have never had any need to actually protect their town. However, after their *entire* town gets wiped out once or twice, I'd think they'd lose their innocence in a hurry, and probably even become a virtual police state if such acts continued, blocking off all entrance to or from the town. It is unrealistic to ask that such calculations and drastic changes be made on the fly. Therefore, the creator of the zone should consider the treatment that each mob in his zone will receive (am i just making them all pincushions? why?) and then decide whether or not the mob would still be around at this point (the point at which the players enter the area). If not, change the situation to correct the problem. In areas that are not frequently traversed (such as the duergar settlement), this uncertainty can be created by the room descriptions themselves. In uncharted territory, just about anything can be used to keep the players paranoid (can and should, in many cases). The need for uncertainty that was mentioned above with regards to the shire is based on areas that will be used rather frequently, as a place very close to "home" for the players and thus a frequent hang_out/slaughterhouse. One other means of keeping uncertainty in the game has been proposed a few times already, namely that we have wandering mobs running around. This probably should be done, but in many cases a wandering mob will not provide much uncertainty after a while, especially in zones that are travelled frequently enough that the player knows the zone like the back of his hand (such as the "wandering" zork adventurer). Interestingly enough, moria still provides a great deal of uncertainty even when the players knows all the rooms by heart. Yet another possible method of introducing uncertainty in a frequently travelled zone is to use variable mob stats. For instance, Joe Farmer has 5d5 hp. Therefore, sometimes he'll be tough and sometimes weak; this might confuse some of the stupid players for a while (which is good).
The third type of zone has mostly been discussed (disgust?) in the above sidetrack: it is the well-travelled town that is nearby or in the home of the players. If the people there are so innocent as to go out at night or walk alone on the streets with all these bloodthirsty players running around with axes, that's insane. Many hometowns or nearby cities would turn into complete police states when faced with such circumstances. One method of combatting this is to give citizens of the city a "citizen" flag (visible or otherwise) meaning that if attacked, they'll yell for the guards who will promptly race to their rescue. Anyways, we need to come up with some good methods for keeping the inhabitants of the more frequented towns from dying often.
The fourth type of zone is a combination of the long-journey and the civilized nearby area. It would be a city in a distant land, where a journey of weeks was required to reach it. It would, however, be a civilized and well-defended city where the players could bumble about in relative security. Of course, harsh actions might be taken if they attempted to engage in combat with anything, but until then they might be relatively safe. Of course, serious consideration would need to be taken to see whether or not such an area could be a possible player_home, because that would lose much of the "mystic" aura of the city to have players actually living there. Obviously, it would have an inn, but that inn might often run out of free rooms (if the players travelled there...lots of things could have too) or charge an exorbitant amount. Something like that to keep them thinking that it's a privilege to stay in the city.
The fifth type of zone is a natural setting, a walk through a forest or a vast desert or deep in a jungle, in natural surroundings where the players can concentrate on the imagery of the landscape around them rather than the constant hassle of hackNslash. Similarly, if such zones don't have very many mobs, the same types of questions need be asked in reverse: why aren't there mobs here? What's keeping them from moving in, or what's killing/driving_away those that do? If answers to these questions are not readily forthcoming, the standard ecosystem for that sector_type should be implemented.
A sixth theme that should be common to many zones is the idea that if there is the possibility of travelling in a direction, it should be available. Too many people make a path through a woods, but only rooms for that path. I'm sure god&grump can devise methods of mass-creating low-ram_usage rooms to buffer trails like that, or even to cover the entire forest. Too often are people "prevented from travelling in a direction because of a tall tree." Obviously, this theme is virtually meaningless in an underground setting.
Well, I shall post more as more comes to me. If you think you have a good area but none of these general descriptions fit it, please tell me about it. I'm sure I blatantly left something out, and I'd be interested to know what. I hope I didn't kill the board...
--Dillo
There were a myriad of reasons for posting this, some of which follow.
1. As Grump said, there's no such thing as too many ideas.
2. The ideas and themes mentioned in the post were in no way an attempt
to constrain or limit the areas created. Obviously, they are only
ideas&suggestions; I thought that would be clearly evident. I am not
dictating how zones should look or feel. I am giving ideas and the like
for areas that would have more substance than some other types of areas.
There are two things that need to be responded to here. The first thread
that I posted concerned common themes that should be present to some
extent in all areas. The ideas I presented here are generic enough that
they should not in any stifle or hinder the creation of anybody's idea of
a good area. Needing a reason for a mob to be somewhere, or giving a
third dimension to the ecosystem or geography or civilization of the area
is common sense, right? I was merely verbalizing what many people have
come to accept. Obviously, not all zones will or should conform to one or
more of these "themes," but in general I believe (there's that phrase
again. Gee, are these *really* only opinions?) that these ideas should be
taken into consideration during the creation of a zone.
Concerning the second thread of the post, the specific types of zones,
again this is obviously not intended as a means of restricting the types
of zones that are created. However, if you take a step back, I still
believe that nearly all zones (consciously or subconsciously) will fit
into one (or more) of these rough categories. As the end of my post
stated, I most likely blatantly left out a large category in here.
Perhaps you would agree and label it as "other." But that kind of defeats
the purpose of specifying.
3. For people who are working on their area, but haven't fully come up
with all their ideas about it, or are concerned that there isn't enough
substance in their area, or people just beginning to create an area,
there are plentiful ideas and thoughts in here. If your area *happens* to
fit one of these themes quite nicely, then there might be an idea or
suggestion in the discussion of that theme that you hadn't considered or
had considered but discounted. Better to display information than to
assume that others will come upon it on their own.
4. Another reason for posting such themes and ideas is to include a rough
summary of some of the things that we will need with our mob behaviour
functions. A great number of people may not have full knowledge of the
type of AI behaviour that we are envisioning, and therefore may have
already passed over an idea that they decided was "impossible to do."
5. Although the areas themselves will (hopefully) be unique, the various
themes and discussions could help the creator put his or her zone into
place in the grand scheme of things. These are the types of zones that
will be around his/her zone (I still hold to my opinion that nearly all
zones fit one of the general themes), and as such the creator will be
more prepared to connect the zone to the "outside" world (more ideas as
to how and where to integrate the zone, etc.).
Further, your last statement that this is going to be an unusual system and thus should have unusual areas is also off-base. None of the ideas in my post were "usual" ideas. In fact, most of them could and should be considered to be "unusual" of their own accord. Very few of the "standard" diku areas do I approve of, and as such I have here offered some alternate methods of creating a zone, methods that I believe would provide more substance than most standard areas possess.
As an addendum to the first post, I have another suggestion that might serve to improve the quality of a zone. Sometimes zones are created as "linear" sets of rooms (case in point Warg Alley), and there are no side-roads or the like. This severely weakens the substance and three-dimensionality of the area. Moria, for instance (one of the few standard zones of which I do approve) has a great number of side-passages leading off from the main passages, and even the main passages split often.
/* ************************************************************************ * Copyright (C) 1994 by Armadillo (Roger@bimcore.Emory.edu) * * All Rights Reserved * * Permission is given to distribute this document, so long as no profit * * is made in any way, and this copyright is left intact. * ************************************************************************* */