CTBUILDING_TIPS
                                            Updated: April 20, 2000

This is a list of tips on how NOT to have your rooms and mobs denied.
Please read it carefully, more than once if necessary. It contains
some of the rules and pointers to building. The rules are listed in the
CTBUILDING_ROOMS and CTBUILDING_MOB help files, but these are more
explanatory.

Room Rules:

1. Do NOT copy rooms. It's not hard to have at least 1 item different in
    a room. Scratches on a wall, a sign, pictures, these all can be put in
    a room to give it a slightly different atmosphere.
2. Do NOT refer to any mobs in the description. Period. Descriptions
    should be what is in a room, not people/mobs that can move around.
    Those should be created as mobs, not described in the room
    description. Any rooms with mob references in them will be denied.
3. There are to be NO mazes or looping rooms. Looping rooms have exits
    that connect to another room, but you can not return by going the
    opposite way.
       Example:
       If you are on the road Highway and go east into the Post Office,
       you should be able to go west to Highway, and not another room.
    The one exception with this are exits from clanhalls.

Mob Rules:

1. Mobs should be singular.
       Right: A man is here.
       Wrong: A group of men are here.
2. Mobs should be meleeable. This means, you MUST be able to hit them
    with a weapon. No ghosts, spirits, anything shimmering in and out of
    existence, or anything similar will be allowed.
3. Do NOT make mobs that look like players, objects or that are out of
    place for the room description.
4. Make sure the mob Name is a LIST of keywords. These are words you
    will use to attack the mob. This is NOT the "name of the mob."
       Right: mage woman girl kinna
       Wrong: Kinna, the mage
2. Make sure you are describing what the mob LOOKS like in the
    description and not its thoughts, job, or meaning. Touching a LITTLE
    on what the mob means is fine, but most of the description should be
    what you see if you look at the mob from across a table or across the
    room.

Help to Begin a Description:

It is required that a description be a minimum of three sentences and/or
four lines. Do not try to get around this by using sentences that are only
a few words. Be descriptive in what you are writing about. Tell the reader
of the description what is in the room, or what the mob looks like.

Before you start building a room, know what rooms will be surrounding it.
Mentioning what is in the room, but in a particular direction may
increase a feel of the 'in between' room impression. Each room should
slightly tie into the neighboring rooms. You should try not to use words
like 'to the east' or 'in the west' very often. It may cause too many
repetitive sentences and a slight dullness to a description. Using words
like 'back', 'forward', 'ahead' and 'behind' should not be used. There is
no telling which direction the player came from. (Wrong: Going back the
other way...)

When beginning a mob or room, get a feel of what you would like the
readers to see and feel about the room. If you want them to get the sense
that there was sadness and death in the room, write about bloody objects,
shattered bones, etc; make it dark. Make the mobs in the room have tears
on their cheeks or a facial expression of pain. If you want them to get a
sense of peace, make the description lighter. Pretty pictures and
paintings, colors, and flowers can accomplish this. Use items and objects
in the room to portray how you wish for the reader to feel, but do not
tell them how to feel. What the mob is wearing, or the facial expressions
it has can tell a story on its own.

Sounds are usually a bad idea, unless it is vague and coming from a
distance or something that can be explained to be there ALL of the time.
For instance, a church can have chimes playing or there can be screeching
from an unknown source in a distance. Using a sound that only comes at
parts of the day, such as vendors shouting out or children playing, is
a bad idea.

Avoid being redundant when writing descriptions. If you use a lot of the
same words, try to think of synonyms or phrases to say things a different
way. When in doubt, use a thesaurus or the web for help.

In general, be VERY careful of your grammar usage and wording. We are
critical when we proof these rooms. If you are unsure, and you have read
CTB_GRAMMAR, e-mail realestate@medievia.com or change it to something you
are sure of.

If you find some of these errors in a ct, especially looping or mazes,
please e-mail realestate@medievia.com with the name of the town and the
name of the room. Any other information (what rooms you see if you type
'exit') would help greatly if it is a common room name, such as a street
name.

See Also: CTB_INDEX