As you already may have noticed, there are pretty few rules and restrictions in 4 Dimensions. However there has to be SOME rules in a Mud, or we land in total anarchy. So below are the building rules for this Mud. The reason we have them, is NOT to hem your fantasy or creativity, but only to ensure that the areas are well balanced and work properly for the players to come. We all want this to become a good Mud, so let's work on it as a team!

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1. NO profanity is allowed in the names or descs of rooms, mobs or object.
All racist, sexual or religious slurs are forbidden too.

(These are the standard Net Rules for Muds and we have to abide by them). "Implications" are allowed however, if they are within good taste. (Better discuss with the IMP or the Building Managers, if you are unsure of where the borderlines are!)

2. ALL directions in which a player can go in a room MUST have a direction desc - "look desc".

It can be fun to put a desc on a direction you can't walk in too, but this is not obligatory. Avoid one way exits unless you got a good reason for it.

3. ALL rooms MUST have a description. All descs must be formatted and in reasonably good English, i.e. correct grammar, spelling, punctuation - no typos.

Each desc must be minimum 2 lines, describing the room, NOT the exits to it. (Don’t make the descs too long either though, because it adds to spam. A length of 4-8 lines is usually preferable).

Format without indent.

Avoid repeating the same desc unless there is a purpose with it (for instance creating a maze). In "space" areas (for instance large grass fields, prairies etc. repeated descs can be used to create a feeling of "endlessness". But as a rule: try to make each room desc individual.

Don't hyphenate words in the descriptions.

Don't use expressions like "you are standing" or "You are walking" in the desc, because the player can actually be swimming, resting or sleeping.

4. Every Word In The Room Name Must Be Capitalised (like this).

5. No colouring of roomname or desc, except for important signs that can be highlighted.
No colouring of mob short or long desc.
Colouring of object short and long desc is OK. (end the colour code with {cC for mob long desc, {cy for object long desc, otherwise{cx, or it may ‘bleed’ with some mudclients).
(Exceptions CAN be admitted, but discuss it with the Head Builder first).

6. All Mobs and Objects MUST have a long and a short desc.
The long desc should be no more than one line.
The long desc should be a full sentence, beginning with a capital and ending with a period.
Examples: ‘The black wolf regards you hungrily.’ ‘ A beautifully crafted long sword lies here.’

The short desc will be put in a middle of a sentence and must NOT end with a period or a blank. Examples: ‘the wolf’, ‘a long sword’.
Examples:‘the wolf’ will come out as ‘The wolf’s bite maims you.’ or ‘You give a piece of meat to the wolf’.
‘a long sword’ will come out as ‘You get a long sword.’

All Mobs must have a look desc of more than one line's length, preferably longer.
All Objects must also have a ‘look’ desc (option E in oedit) of at least one line’s length.
Format without indent.

7. The name of a Mob/Object and the short and long desc MUST contain basically the same wording.
The reason for this is to make it possible for the player to attack the Mob or get an object, which he can't, if you for instance name a Mob "Donald", and then let the long desc say "An angry duck is standing here".
There CAN be exceptions to this rule allowed, if you got a very good reason. Like for instance wanting the name to be a "secret" for the player to guess (but discuss it with the Head Builders first in that case, and follow the general rule in 99% of the cases, please).

8. All objects SHOULD have a take flag, unless you want them just to stay in the room.

9. All areas should be mapped on a grid, preferably before you start building.
The reason for this is to ensure that the areas work properly in the game, and that all exits are correctly linked. Another reason is that it makes it easier to fit the area into the game, to get a nice overall impression.

The maps should show all directions a room is linked in, and preferably no_mob rooms too. If you send a copy of the map to the Head Builder, it helps us to control the area and fit it into the game. (We might even be able to give you some suggestions too!) :-)

10. ALL entrance or exit rooms to an area must have a no_mob flag, unless you prefer to make all mobs stay_zone.
The reason is to prevent Mobs from wandering all over the place, especially high level, aggro mobs, and Mobs with extensive mob_progs. These types of mobs should also have !charm, !summon and !push flags, to prevent them from being and dragged away.

11. DON'T create a lot of overpowered weapons and equip, because they won't be allowed in the Game Port anyhow.
With ‘overpowered’ we mean weapons or armour with damage, ac and/or addaffects exceeding the limits specified in the Equipment Guidelines and OLC Manual.

The reason for this is that "cheated" weapons and armour destroy the game in the long run, making it too easy to level.
The avg. damage of a weapon should not exceed the level of the area where the weapon is reset, and the level of the mob using the weapon should correspond to the damage (for instance a level 40 mob should be wielding an avg 40 damage weapon). The highest permitted avg. damage for a mortal weapon in this Mud is 50.
Don’t sell high effect armor and weapons in shops - these should be a bit hard to get.

Use your common sense when using addaffects, and try to balance positive affects with negative on other stats. If you want to create a "special" item, for instance as a quest price, it's OK of course, but make sure that it's hard to get then, and don't sprinkle the game with them. "Special" items should be reset with a restricted possibility of loading (%load) or be flagged "artifact", which means that only a limited number of the item will be allowed in the game.
One or two really good items should be enough in every zone, fewer the easier the zone is to play. Trying to attract players to your zone by creating tons of overpowered equipment is very bad building and quickly unbalances the game.

Guidelines for weapon and equipment are available in the 4D Equipment Guidelines file, and we expect you to follow them. Everything that exceeds the recommendations must be discussed and approved by the Head Builder.

12. The ‘listen’ and ‘smell’ descs must be set in all rooms.
But they can be similar in similar types of rooms. For objects the smell and taste descs should be set on all food objects as a minimum. These descs, plus the look behind/above/under descs in rooms are very useful for placing hints about quests, so don’t forget to use them.

13. All areas MUST be controlled and approved by a Head Builder, before they are connected to the game.
All areas must also be testplayed by two experienced players, before opened to the public.

This is to ensure that they are up to our quality standards, and also that they work properly and don't get the players into trouble. We will expect you to correct any typos we find, so control your areas before you submit them for approval, please!

The final decision WHERE an area is to be connected, is taken by the Head Builder, but we are open to suggestions, and will probably connect them where you wish, unless the reasons against are very strong.

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These are the building rules in 4D. If you are unhappy with any of them, feel free to discuss them with us, but for your own sake, please do so BEFORE you start to do a lot of work against them. We promise you, that we will listen to you at least, but we can NOT promise you that you'll get it your way, unless you have some VERY good arguments. These are very basic rules, so the chances of exception are really very small.

We are all in this together, so let's try work as a team, with the goal to create a Mud that is good for the players to be in!

Molly O’Hara
Head Builder of 4 Dimensions
Updated 2008-01-27