Member Discussions

Hello
I am an experienced builder...and I'm not...let me explain.

After building on 2 MUDs and finishing all the room descriptions and layout I stumbled on the progs and, in both MUDs, left on amicable terms with the zones "unfinished".

Hence I have reached the honest conclusion that it wasn't laziness. Rather, writing room descriptions is what I am good at. Progs, in contrast, leave me cold. I am happy to set the room flags such as underwater etc. I also with some difficulty made mobs, doors and objects. But those progs - yuck!

So, I would like to find a MUD that needs a "room painter": someone who only writes the room description and sets flags. I am happy for someone else to do all the mobs, progs, objects etc. I am a good writer. The imms in the MUDs were impressed with my imagination, grammar etc. I also avoid basic errors like telling the player he or she is feeling.

I am also happy to write stories about the theme of the MUD etc if they are put on the website. But I would prefer to start off with rooms. Now, I realise that this is an unusual request. Indeed, I might not get any responses at all. I have decided to post here rather than go back to the MUDs that I worked on; I feel that my imagination needs a fresh start.

I am open to any codebase [my experience has been writing for ROM/DIKU MUDs] or theme. Oh, except anime. That drives me nuts. But science fiction, gothic, present day, Roman - they are all good.

Sorry for the spiel. Once I get writing I don't know when to stop!!! :)

My only warning is that I don't want my room descs wasted on a teenage tryhard who thinks that I can write 1000 rooms a day. I have had THAT experience before. And believe me, if your MUD turns out to be that I will leave.

On a happier note please contact me on this email if interested [it's longhand to avoid bots]:

swifteye1atmsndotcom

[sub the usual symbols for at and dot]

Thank for your time
coolpaint

Nice ad. :-)

You are obviously a good writer. I just think that it is such a waste to not put all your talent to full use. A good zone is so much more than just room descriptions. In fact, in a good zone, rooms, mobs objects and scripts/progs need to work together to form an intriguing whole.

I'm sure that there are Mud owners out there that would love to hire you. But rather than letting your talent go to waste and allowing others to take the credit for your work by leaving the most intriguing parts for others to finish - why not try to overcome the obstacle and become a full-fledged Builder?

There is a place called The Builder Academy, TBA. The dedicated Staff there will teach you all you need to know about Building on line, and they also have extensive helpfiles on their website. They will even teach you to master the pesky scripts, which are not nearly as hard as you think, once you get past the initial threshold. And scripts are extremely important, since they are primarily what makes a zone come to life. This is the place were we usually send our own Builders to learn about scripts, since we don't have the time to tutor them ourselves.

TBA works with the Circle code, which also has the best and most flexible system for scripts/progs, known as the DG_scripts. There basically is nothing that you cannot do with the DG_scripts, they are a tool that makes the Builder as powerful as the Coder.

At least try it out, I think you'll be satisfied with your own development, and reach your full potential.
The address to the website is http://www.builderacademy.net/
and to the Mud telnet://tbamud.com:9091

Molly, you know I love you dearly, but this little self-serving rant of yours is unacceptable to me.

Stripped of opinions that only apply to your MUD, what's left is:

Nice ad. :-)

You are obviously a good writer.

I'm sure that there are Mud owners out there that would love to hire you.

Why would you be so insulting to someone you don't even know? There's no need to imply his decision to specialise in what he prefers is immature. Stating he's wasting his talent, that others will take credit for his work, referring to his preference as an 'obstacle' and suggesting that he's not on a path to his full potential...

I didn't really see it as insulting at all, from my perspective the jist of her post is "you'll have a stronger resume if you have more skills", which is true. Nothing wrong with saying that most games want builders who have some technical competency in addition to being a writer, just as there's nothing wrong with a person choosing only to write. All it means is that someone with fewer skills is likely to be less useful to a game (all other things being equal), which is just common sense isn't it?

Were my MUD going anywhere, I would be happy to have this kind of writer around.

> from my perspective the jist of her post is
> "you'll have a stronger resume if you have more skills",
> which is true. Nothing wrong with saying that most games
> want builders who have some technical competency in
> addition to being a writer, just as there's nothing
> wrong with a person choosing only to write. All it
> means is that someone with fewer skills is likely
> to be less useful to a game (all other things being
> equal), which is just common sense isn't it?

Well, since Molly hasn't weighed in herself, that gives me free rein to interpret what she said...;D Molly wasn't saying that learning to script would make the builder more attractive to mud owners, she was saying that learning to script would allow the builder to reach their own potential -- because in Molly's opinion a great zone is characterized by both great descriptive, and interactive, qualities. The result is that a builder who consigns the interactive design to someone else is missing out on the full experience of designing a great zone.

I'm not saying it's out of the question for people to split the descriptive and interactive tasks...I'm just interpreting Molly :D.

For a short time, we had a rather successful duo of builders where one handled pretty much all of the descriptions in the area, while the other handled all of the programming and the rest of the details that brings the area to life, and it worked really well for them.

Myself, I often times find writing the descriptions a tedious part, looking forward to getting to the programs and the other stuff in the area. While I've never personally found any inclination to split an area with someone, I've had builders on my game that would probably jump at the opportunity to do what they feel is "the fun stuff."

Needless to say, I'm interesting and will be emailing this guy to see if our MUD might be the right fit. As it stands, we are planning a MUD-wide storyline of interlinking quests that will be help move a player along a certain path, allow for interesting quests and opportunities for better equipment, exp bonuses, money bonuses, and more for completing quests, and so many of our areas are being built right now without the "main" programs and quests laid out, so End of Time would probably be a good environment for someone who doesn't want to touch the programs, as there are plenty of us who don't mind it in the least. Oh, and we give credit to everyone who works on an area, so he would be listed alongside whoever scripted the area and wouldn't be being cheated out of any credit.

I love you two, Keriwena, but you've got two things wrong.
First:

Stripped of opinions that only apply to your MUD, what's left is:

My Mud? I have nothing to do with The Builder Academy, I don't even have a Builder there. I just know it by reputation, I know and respect some of the people running it, and I regularly read their extremely informative Forum about DG_scripts. The only other thing that TBA Mud has in common with my own is the code, which is Circle.

Second:

Why would you be so insulting to someone you don't even know? There's no need to imply his decision to specialise in what he prefers is immature. Stating he's wasting his talent, that others will take credit for his work, referring to his preference as an 'obstacle' and suggesting that he's not on a path to his full potential.

I most certainly had no intention of insulting anyone. Ideliad summed it up pretty well in his response. My intention was only to be helpful, and the advice is based on my own experience as a builder.

The OP reminded me a bit of myself, when I first started building. I was so insecure about my tools that in my first three zones I had one friend do the mobs and objects for me, while another one made the scripts, while I stuck to the room descs myself. Not until my friends quit on me did I pull myself enough together enough to learn the ropes, and realized then how much more rewarding it can be to control the entire process.

I've recently been updating one of those ancient zones, and the sad truth is that it was pretty crappy and badly coordinated. Two people rarely think along the same lines, which is one reason why fiddling with a zone that someone else made is usually a lot harder than doing all the job yourself.

Anyhow, my only intention was to point an obviously very talented and promising young builder to a resource where he could get some assistance in developing his full potential. What's so insulting about that? I frequently post questions about scripts on the TBA/CWG boards myself, and always get swift and helpful responses.

Chick fight!

Could you two mebbe fight in this pool of pudding...? -shifty eyes-

I'm afraid the pudding might rust my walker.

How about some mud wrestling instead?

I'll allow it.

hey you would be more than welcome to come help us out our server is beig updated to day will be back up tonight. orderofchoas.no-ip.org port 9500. we are a moded dot based mud. contact me at msn michaelm822msn.com

Don't bother contacting this person.

After a lengthy and detailed email to this individual, followed by their reply that they will build for us and wondering what to do next, and after another lengthy and detailed email, I get another response to my original email acting like it was their first reply to me saying they are too busy with being a graphic artist to build.

So yeah, just a warning to any other Admins that might have considered contacting this person, don't waste your time.

Oh you got that reply too hey. Like i know lie gets busy, but no one is actually that busy that they do not have any time free to d the things they say they enjoy.

I work and study full time, have kids and a family, exercise regularly and have what many call a busy lifestyle, but i still find time to work on not 1 but 3 muds. Go figure huh.

I know an excuse when i hear one and i loose interest pretty quickly after that point. I think i have even been known to fire staff from my games who make excuses as to why they cant, rather than show why they can.

Here's my question, did they recently become too busy with work? Or did they take a position at several muds, choose one and not have the balls to just tell the others that.

Or did they take a position at several muds, choose one and not have the balls to just tell the others that.

Possibly the latter, not that i mind either way, tho i would have preferred not to be given an obvious excuse, like its no skin off my nose if you don't wish to work on my game, i would much prefer to see people find a game that they will enjoy working on and not take a position just because its offered.

"Oh you got that reply too hey. Like i know lie gets busy, but no one is actually that busy that they do not have any time free to d the things they say they enjoy."
Actually that was what I used to believe as well. It turns out that indeed you can get that busy. Often you could in theory have time, but if you have hard time to cope with stress it can be difficult.

Take a look at for example building. If you are stressed and have a lot of other things going on then building might not be very relaxing. The real problem here is how to provide a relaxing environment to the MUD staff that make them enjoy "working".

"I work and study full time, have kids and a family, exercise regularly and have what many call a busy lifestyle, but i still find time to work on not 1 but 3 muds. Go figure huh."
Making a high quality MUD can be more work than a full time job. Working on additional MUDs usually mean you can't put full focus on them all. Atleast not if you are developer/builder on them. Sure you could work on lots of MUDs but it probably mean you can't really focus on any of them.

How many effective hours do you put into each of those MUDs per day?

For a short time, we had a rather successful duo of builders where one handled pretty much all of the descriptions in the area, while the other handled all of the programming and the rest of the details that brings the area to life, and it worked really well for them.

I did this for a while. The builder loved doing the code and I like writing. Many of the zones he produced have my descrs for the rooms. However, he did not credit me. When it came time to have him assist me with my zone, he had problems understanding exactly what I wanted. He helped for a while but then had issues with the MUD staff. As a result I wound up learning a language that I had no intention of learning in order to get my zones in. Luckily the staff was helpful - for the most part - and the admin is a sweetheart. I am still doing stuff for them today.

So the upshot is the pairing DOES work, but it seems to work best if the builder is the instigator. That makes sense if you think about it. It is usally easier for a writer to describe how something looks, than it is for a coder to translate a client request without knowledge of the business model. I have been on BOTH sides of that in business.

BTW Hades_Kane. I wandered into your world the other day. If you want opinions let me know and I will give them. Be warned I tend to be honest.