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General Guidelines for Map-making
Of course you have total creative freedom at building your maps. But if
you'd like to have your maps included in the official Daimonin distribution,
you should keep the following "golden rules" in your mind. Actually it's
more guidelines than rules. However, if you've played Daimonin for a while,
I bet you'll find them quite reasonable anyways.
Guidelines for map-layout and -concept:
- Pure hack'n'slash maps are boring. Your maps should contain a
storyline, or at least a "theme". Put NPCs (non-player-characters),
books and magic_mouths into your maps to present your stories.
- Places with high level monsters should not be easy to reach. I
know there are several maps breaking with this rule, but that doesn't
mean it's okay. If you intend to use monsters like
Jessies/Demonlords/Ancient Dragons, put them at the end of a quest, not
at the beginning.
- Put secrets into your maps. Places that can only be reached after
investigating libraries, talking to NPCs and the likes. Make your maps
non-linear. It is nice to have more than one way to solve a quest. Maybe
one obvious way with brute fighting, and one clever way that needs more
questing.
- Make sure that everything works as you intended, especially check
all your exit paths. Avoid one-way paths, trapping the player. And keep
in mind - Maps do reset! Example: When a player disconnects behind an
opened (formerly locked) door, he will be trapped when he rejoins the
game later. Eventually place "emergency exits" for such cases.
- Motivate the player to use as many skills as possible to
solve your quests. Make him fight, think, disarm traps, cast spells, fly
over pits, ... possibilities are great - make use of them.
- Treat the player in a fair way. If you surprise him with instant
death, he will hate your maps. A player should be aware of dangers, so
that he has at least the *possibility* to react. Besides, don't plunge
players into frustration. When you create puzzles, try to keep them at a
level where they are solvable by mortal beings.
(That doesn't mean all puzzles have to be short and small, just
"solvable".) Players could look at your maps via editor at any time.
Don't force them doing this. Support the "honorable" players.
- If you plan to create a big map set, include maps of all difficulty
levels. It's absolutely okay and reasonable to have areas where a
certain difficulty level dominates. Just try not to overdo it.
Guidelines for creating Artifacts:
- Don't rely on artifacts to make your maps interesting for
players.
- When you create a new artifact (weapon, armor, etc), always keep an
eye on play balance. Powerful items must NOT be reachable without
hard fighting AND questing. Look at other maps. Try to adopt the average
taste of "difficulty". Make sure the artifact is always hard to get, not
only for the first time. A hidden location, for instance, does not
suffice.
- Every good artifact should have negative attributes as well.
There should be no "perfect set of equipment".
- Don't ruin existing quests by inserting identical (or even
better) items at easier places. There is enough room for new kinds of
artifacts/treasure.