OOC:Wise Building

Here are some useful tidbits on what to do and not do. news building contains further useful information.

All players on the MUSH start with 20 @quota. You are free to use this quota to build personal items and areas as you like. 20 @quota is quite a bit, realistically speaking, and certainly enough for a modest home or business. There exist other methods to gain more quota; most notably, substantial and helpful wiki edits have been known to be rewarded. Participation has its perks.

If you wish to have your area linked to the village, you should build it first, following the guidelines outlined below, and then speak to a staff member about having it linked. Note that being linked isn't a right, and staff reserve the right not to link if it's not felt that your area has sufficient value to add to the village. Of course, "sufficient value" depends to a large degree on what sort of area you're building.

Additional quota may be granted upon request to players building high quality areas that are useful to the MUSH as a whole, though as noted above, there are quite a few ways to add quota. Typically, it would be expected to have demonstrated strong building skills or really interesting or original ideas beforehand.

In order to preserve the quality and consistency of the MUSH, all publicly linked areas must follow these guidelines:

• Every room should have a @DESC set. Well fleshed out and written room descriptions are obviously better than thin or vague ones. Descs should follow grid format (paragraphs begin with a %t, a single %r between paragraphs, no leading or trailing %r at the beginning/end of the desc.)
• Every exit should have @SUCCESS, @OSUCCESS and @ODROP set. Locked exits should have @FAILURE and @OFAILURE set. On directional exits, @OSUCCESS and @OFAILURE should indicate the direction.
• Use compass directions (north, east, up, down, etc.) for exits unless you have a good reason not to (e.g. the numbered suites in the inn) or it's a small area that's easy to get around.
• Include the full name of a direction (e.g. N;North instead of just N).
• All exits leading back toward the village center should have an Out;O alias. When this is properly done, a player can stand at the farthest point of the area and get back to the village center simply by typing O or Out repeatedly.
• Use good spelling and grammar on all messages, descriptions, puppets, etc.
• It is strongly preferred that areas larger than one room use a ZMO for clarity on who/where and ease of integration with the MUSH's +map code.
• You do not need to build an exit out to the grid; admin will do this for you when your area is gridded.
• It is encouraged, but not required, that you look at our list of available link locations to get an idea where you would want your home/business to be placed before you ask for your area to be inspected.
• Depending on the degree of compliance, areas may be approved, denied, delayed until specific issues are fixed, or gridded on the condition that named minor issues are corrected in a timely manner.

The area must also be deemed to be useful to the MUSH as a whole. This is somewhat subjective; what makes a house useful differs from what makes a restaurant useful. Typically, unless they are strongly deficient in desc quality or have special requirements we can't meet, homes will be linked so long as they have one full time available 'public' room, such as a yard, living room, pathway, etc. If you are absent for three months and your area isn't very useful without you, your area may be unlinked.

Shoujo-Ai MUSH attempts to keep a low room-to-player ratio. This is deliberate, as having too large a number of rooms can make it harder for players to interact. This is particularly carefully considered for gridded businesses and social areas. When a request is received to have an area linked to the village, the following criteria are considered:

• The area should be of high quality, arranged in a logical fashion, with good grammar and spelling. See the above guidelines.
• The area should not be redundant. This is important for businesses, as multiple instances of the same tend to be ignored by the playerbase as a whole (plus we really don't need that many inns or bars). There are lots of restaurants, but very few places to buy shoes. Consider the island's empty niches, and if you need help, it's wholly acceptable to ask what needs are most in need of filling.
• Your area should fit with the theme (see news theme). For example, a space ship would be out of place here. The more electrical or other modern technological devices your area has, the less likely linkage approval will be granted.
• If the unique status of a business is clear, there may be a delay in decision to link while the staff team determines if they feel it is redundant or not.
• Businesses that have questionably useful purposes may be asked to demonstrate via opening as a portal or other means that there is a genuine demand for this type of area.

By getting your area linked to the MUSH, you grant us the non-exclusive, irrevocable right to use your area.

Drastic changes to a publicly accessible part of your area after it has been linked may make you subject to unlinking. If you are unsure, ask an admin.

Finally, even if your area isn't gridded, the various portals are not subject to the above restrictions. While there is plenty of room on the grid for new areas, keep in mind that it's neither a requirement nor obligation, and if you're spending an inordinate amount of time trying to shoehorn your area into the above guidelines, reconsider the possibility of linking to a portal instead.