This time, we are looking to recruit a small handful of Builders - two or three, probably, although how many really depends on the quality of the applications.
"But wait", I hear you cry, "Didn't you just remove a bunch of zones? And surely we don't need any more zones! What will happen to my precious, precious fifteen years of ingrained twitch muscle memory if zones are added/changed/cocked with/delete as appropriate." To which I say, do not worry, Northie McLeetPKSkillzer, adding rooms to the MUD is not the only thing Builders do.
Builders are -content creators-.
- Builders do build rooms, yes.
- Builders design mobs and smobs.
- Builders design objects that are thematically appropriate for the place they will be, er... placed.
- Builders write stories into the fabric of the MUD via in-zone quests and quest chains
- Builders design sidetrades.
- Builders design games, and puzzles and all that good stuff
- Builders create the atmospheric code in zones, eg the Dragkhar being shot down over Tar Valon, or that really annoying log everyone hates. That could be YOUR really annoying log.
- Zone reviews for typoes and tuning up of existing room descriptions.
Please send the following to the Staff group, if you are interested.
BACKGROUND
1) Name, contact information (email at least, Skype optional)
2) Provide a complete list of the characters you currently own. Give us a brief background on your favorite character, but please, don’t flood us with text.
3) What aspects of the game do you most enjoy that you want to work on creating content for as an immortal?
4) Have you broken any of our game rules in the past year, whether or not you've been caught? If so, explain.
EXPERIENCE
1) What are your strengths and weaknesses as a WoTMUDder? What are your strengths as a person? In what areas would you like to grow?
2) Tell us about your favorite area, either city or vast, sprawling wilderness in the game, so far. What background designs facilitated the enjoyment of that moment? Specificity is useful. What would you add, or remove. Do not say Far Madding.
BUILDING
You will be trained on the stylistic standards of WoTMUD. For now, try and follow these simple guidelines when writing:
- Don’t say ‘you’, ‘is here’, ‘can be seen’, 'is visible' or similar.
- No need to add weather, since the game handles it.
- Steer clear of adding wildlife - we have mobs!
- Show what is there, rather than telling us what we can see.
- Try not to include things that the player couldn’t have known.
- Don’t worry too much if the guidelines above aren’t clear - just do your best.
- The Aryth Ocean
- The Haddon Mirk
- A back alley in the Rahad
- Deep inside the Blight
- A storeroom inside an Aiel Hold
- A foundry
- A Tinker camp
- An inn in Kirendad
- The interior of a brothel
- The pit of Dhoom
- The Collam Daan
- A Ghealdanin tavern
Write three keywords that you can ‘look’ at with each room. Be sure to include room names, which should not match the descriptions given - if you are writing an inn in Kirendad, do not call it 'An Inn in Kirendad'.
4) Pick 2 rooms from the list that currently exist in-game. Rewrite them to be better, preserving any physical references (eg. if a tree is visible in the distance to the northwest).
- Caemlyn Central Square
- Tar Valon Central Square
- Pillared Platform Atop the Fortress of Night
- The Well (RK)
- The Blacksmith's Workshop (RK)
- Waterfront Square (Falme)
- A member of the morat'corlm recently afflicted with an embarassing illness
- A corlm recently afflicted with an embarassing illness
- An Ogier who cannot stop dancing
- A trolloc of a stock previously unknown
- A Myrddraal of stunted proportions who is nevertheless lethal
- A Grey Man from Baerlon
- A Kandori merchant who has fallen on hard times
- A woman of the Two Rivers, freshly married
- An Aiel blacksmith
- An Illianer Hunter of the Horn
- A Seanchan Listener
- A Domani woman who is tired of being judged on her looks
- A man of the Two Rivers who thinks all this braid tugging is actually kind of annoying
- A woman of the Two Rivers whose skirt has never been anything but smooth
7) Pick a mob, or smob that you don't think belongs in the Wheel of Time universe. Bearing in mind that we cannot just pull this mob, for Reasons, describe what you would rework it into. For instance, the troglodyte cave dwellers might be changed to be a kind of subterranean shadowspawn. You cannot now choose troglodytes.
8) Same thing, with an item. For instance, you might think that everyone having crystal lightsticks, which are definitely ter'angreal, and the Tower ignoring that are both ridiculous. You cannot use crystal lightsticks as your example. Sorry I'm stealing the good ones for examples.
MOBOL:
1) Briefly explain any coding experience. This is not a prerequisite to be a Builder - it just might make MOBOL easier. Or harder. One of those two.
2) Here's an quick example, in which the mob will say "Hi there!" if someone greets it:
The main functions used by mobol are: HEAR, GET, VIEW, SEE, HEAR:
IF HEAR 100% ( hello )
THEN
say Hi there!
END
Consider this, and knowing what you know about mobol from in-game experience, and that mobol can use commands listed on any standard players command (type command) list, how would you have a mob respond to something that happened in game that would bring immersion? Since you won’t know the exact keys you can separate the conditional statements to explain.
For example:
If person is fade then don’t do anything
if player is critical then continue
If player is healthy then don’t do anything
If player is a member of CoL then continue
If player has inky cloak worn then don’t do anything
If player is a red eagle then do this specific thing, but nothing else
3) Please write a short bit of atmospheric mobol to be placed in Kandor that provides a sense of immersion and doesn't mention merchants(!). Don't worry if you don't know the write syntax, just write a brief line that describes what you want 'eg check for gender'.
Advice:
Check the WoT concordance on TSOS mud. Googling will get you there. Also WoTWikia is an excellent source, and the Tar Valon.net site - although take the information there with a grain of salt.