OasisOLC and Deaths Gate script reference

Building

More ideas.....

irst you visualize a story that happens in your area- lets say a princess is captured somewhere and her relatives are looking for her. Next, you drop some clues to her whereabouts by putting conversations in the 'looked at' description of mobiles. For example you can set up some mobs so that when you look at them, you get "You strike up a conversation with the shopkeeper. He tells you about the rise and fall of the price of wheat. Looking at the 
candy jar he sighs. You ask him why, and he relates a sad tale of how he hasn't seen a little girl who used to come into his store in a long time." 
Granted, this isn't as elegant as mob programs, but mob programs can be a lot of work and not everyone can write them.

The point is that you interpret the looked at description as something more than just looking, you can view it as a static conversation. You can then go around the area and throw in a few room extras leaving a trail to where the princess is. You can also put some extra descriptions on useless items lying about to indicate where one may find the princess. Once at the princess, you could have her relay a story of the location of a secret buried treasure in her looked at description, a nice reward for the rescuing hero. You can set up the buried treasure in a container with no long description with a short of 'the ground' so they get the treasure from the ground, and only know where this object is by the princess's tale. When your players stumble upon something like this, they love it.

Not all mobs have to be designed to be killed, nor does every shopkeeper have to buy or sell something--they could just be created so that they refuse to trade with any player characters.  The players will then wonder why the shopkeeper exists.  Perhaps giving him a jewel will make him more friendly.  In this way, an area can be made infinitely more exciting by writing a script. Perhaps random teleporters throughout the area, perhaps some scripts that have mobiles respond to questions from players.

All in all, the best way to make an area interesting is to use variety, intelligence, and imagination in building.  Try to imagine what it would be like for you to walk through and what you might try looking at or doing, and then try to incorporate that into your area. Show your area to others and take their advice.  By taking all of this extra effort in creating your area, you will be rewarded by leaving a lasting memory of your area in the minds of many players.

Don't let your area fall by the unfinished wayside! Work on it a little every day, even if it's only one or two rooms worth of work. Remember not to leave out details such as exit descriptions (i.e., look north, look up) in the interest of finishing faster. Likewise, don't fill space by just making more of the same mob or duplicate room descriptions unless there's a good reason for doing so. Take your time and do a thorough job, not one that's only superficially good.

When you finish, mud mail the imps, head builder, or all of the above. Let us know your area is ready to go live. We'll want to see what it's like; if you're around you will get to play tour guide. Once we've seen the place and checked to make sure there aren't any obvious problems your area will go live. It will show up on the area list listing your character's name as the author and you will also be given credit. Congratulations!

-- Rumble