Okay, not for mortals really, but this does involve all of us in one way or another. You builders, and you know who you are, are lacking motivation I can see - This is understandable, it does get hard sometimes. What would motivate you more? MPPs? A level to one of your mortals? A stat point?

Also, for those approved to build tasks - What do you want to see as a reward to you for tasks built? How many tasks for what kind of reward?

If you're not a builder - What would make you want to build, besides the incredibly cool feeling of seeing people enjoy exploring an area YOU built?

Let us know your ideas please - We really want EVERYONE involved in building Distant Lands into an even greater, funner place to play.

I'd say an MPP for every 50 quaility rooms
or items or mobs/npcs is a fair reward. Then
again I don't build so that number could be
adjusted. And then, for people who do finish
their zone which doesn't have million typoes
and mismatched rooms could get something better,
like 1 con or level.

Motivation is key for me and my builder. I can be on DL, slaying it up with my guild, or even rp now. Or I can sit alone and bored on a builder that no one seems to ever be on. So further my mortal character, or sit on builder. Since I'm only here on the weekends, I tend to choose DL. Although, with the lack of players on when I'm on. I have been tweaking items, talking to others for ideas, and getting on my excel and adding items/mobs to it.

I have my zone linked, and all room descriptions done. I'm now adding in mobs, then making items and giving them to the mob. I still have to add doors, keys, chests, hidden items. I think I did all my hidden exits. Since I haven't seen a staff member lately, I don't know how to make the mob load that item. I also will have ?'s about load rates etc, but that can wait until I see a staffer on there who has time to help me out. Babysit me basically while I figure it out.

What would get me building faster. Well, the 2 week waiting period for me to enter the zone would help, only because I could actually have first stabs at eq that I want other than players who hardly ever play getting on, rushing it all, and then I never see any of it. That would help, but not likely to happen.

I think mpp should be distributed a bit more freely. Say 1 mpp to your mortal character for every 25 rooms you have "confirmed" by a staffer for typo's etc. This however could be difficult for those still building their zones room by room. Me. I made a map on excel, room names and numbers, linked all those, then got on dl and made every room, linked with exits. Then I walked room to room and entered in the room desc, light/dark, magic, blah blah. I still have more to do to some of the rooms. Walked into one today that didn't make much sense until I remember what I wanted to do with it.

For those who build and get a zone entered into the game, that's pretty big if it's not all bugged out and it'll be part of DL for a long long time. As a thanks. Maybe 30 mpp, 5 levels, and 3 con to split amongst mortal character(s) (Unless they're at a quest level, then take those 5 levels and give that person the promotion to next ranking, like Bojie did with the flyer contest). That's a pretty good thank you for spending countless hours on building something that's intangible and will be here long after you're gone and no longer playing DL.

They still have to wait the 2 weeks before they enter it of course, but that reward is pretty decent. Maybe even make it higher. To me, this is a pretty good incentive. Exa, I finish my zone, automatically get promoted without having to quest, and get my con up to 8 from the 3 con points. and I have 30 more mpp to do something with, why not buy 2 more con, Hello 10 con again, woohoo. That's a fat pot for work on a builder. Oh, what's that? I can't go into the zone I made for 2 weeks? Who cares! I just got 5 more con to ensure my safety from permi death. If I wasn't stupid and permi'd my level 122 cleric, I'd probably be waiting on 175 now.

I haven't heard of any previous "thank you" for builders on DL. If anything is enstated, I think some mortal characters might get getting some overdue thanks. Oh, and what's this deal with staffers having mortal characters and them not getting the benefits of their hard work as staff? I think ya'll should be allowed a special item or something for your mortals. Who knows, just a brown nosing thought.

Thought on the reward right after I posted. Just give them 75 mpp and a level for getting an entire zone added in. If wanted, that's 5 con they can add to one character, and their character can get a promotion to the next ranking. Plus, once I am allowed to enter the zone, I'd rp it up and get all that exploring exp we all love so much. I'd take that. If that was confirmed, give me 2 months of weekends and my zone would probably be done. Of course, that's pending a reboot on DL because I do love loading parties with my guild and helping with Kyo, etc.

I'm sure those I help out on the weekends would understand my desire to have my zone finished. Heck, in the time it's taken me to look at all these posts, I could have cranked out 10 mobs and 10 items atleast. That's with current knowledge of building and items being on my excel sheet already. Hrm, I'm gonna go lay out some mobs already on my excel right now actually. There, that alone was incentive.

Alright, it's nice to see that some people have resonability and a sense of rational. Someone
reward bojie with an MPP, good work on thoughts.
SOMEONE take -75 mpps away from gydin, one avatar level, and one less builder.
Atleast that's my cruel heartless black sould ridden mortuary freak opinion.
Ya know, motivation to log on and share your imagination, I.Q abilities as to how a zone should be built, and then take time to teach newcomers should be a second nature skill to all us. A simply 15 minutes a day would improve the lives of many if you all just showed up. In fact if you all want MPPS or and Constituion point. why don't you get some self righteous red bull eneregy drink, grow some wings, and draw the new DL banner or make Bojie's rendition of it all.
Then take this said flyer to your local whatevers, sure you're thinking who'd be interested. Well you all were at some point, Dl was the greatest Chess game any of you ever touched. Then we let the cookie crumble and once you were all alloted your level and choice of fame, you faded. Some of us are on haitus, I'm not bothering you, nor anyone for that matter.

I'm not **** atm, but I'm more than peeved.
I'm utterly disgusted by such a thought. They upstairs do those 3 things for us atleast weekly, show some love and respect!
-Mahrah Oruchi, the fearless midget.

Well im quite versed in most things involving the build server, and im more the willing to help anyone with questions as I have been doing for quite some time. Some of you have actually phoned me for help on your zone and I continue to offer that assistance where I can. I have my entire zone laid out, im just working on descriptions and a few extra's. Also still working on some item and mob tweaks, but its hard to compare to other things in the game. I will say however that being a gamemaster rank helps emmensly in the testing of mobs, and items. The ability to create a generic mob of a specified level and equip them to "simiulate" the acutal PC's that will be running through your zone. Its great because once you created that mob, for testing you can then integrate that mob into your zone somwhere and you kill a flock of birds with one stone. But I like the incentive of rewarding the builders, Im not sure if the ways described would be best or not, thats not somthing I could think of, but ya thats my two cents.

By the warkitten way, allow me to mention this.
no means do I exist 24/7, no means have I logged on at given said times. but to my satisfacitory levels or recollection.
I have seen one, that's RIGHT, UNO! auto apple arena. It requires a minimal of 20 players to be online. I thinks given segregated levesl if we were lucky that'd be 4 people atleast in each level range if not more via alts.
and atleast 1-300 20 person force join arena bloodbath. If you want that MPP from just playing without rp flag, suggest it in idea box for that last 1-300 arena winner gets an mpp.
OOOOO, I'm going to find a snickers, why wait.

if that typo wasn't so important, . . . mmm snickers bars, nuts choclate and chewy. . alright.
I havn't seen - big correction.
and I forget the times are listed in the MOTD, as well as mmm... penuts. . . somewhers. . in this forum.
Check it out ya know, try to make the PC's do something for once.

Interesting.

Oh, and Gydin, you were provided a handbook, a board to post questions on and you can use mudmail on either the build or game server to get questions answered. You may not see staff but we're here. We can't help if we don't know there's an issue.

Oh what about a skill to "create" a temporary npc with similar charcteristics as a mortal that you can control to test various things?

ccreate warrior human 32 Dudeman

You create a level 32 human warrior named "Dudeman".

well actually i guess you can do a "medit" for that, but if there was a way for non gamemaster ranks to posess those said mobs for testing? using a mob isn't an exact science when comparing to a PC, but, I guess im glad im still a gamemaster rank on build server so i dont have that problem. Having said as much, what about a mandatory "REPO" command for mobs we make, its quite hard somtimes to figure out how much hp your mob has based upon the formula, those that dont have the GM rank somtimes resort to "charm" spells to get them to repo. Just a few simple tweaks i think to make testing, and fleshing out our zones a little easier should revive a lot of building. I know every day i discover a new train of thought and way to test, and remember somthing else I should test for, etc etc....

Just some more words from a random babble.

"ps why am i mortal status, I use to not be, and this is my gamemaster/builder name??"

Well okay, sorry I don't spend enough time on DL and sorry I don't build enough........

Thank you Myrrima for your simple reply. I'll look around for those boards on the builder. The only boards I remember, I can't read. I'm probably not looking hard enough, or care enough to bother with my questions outside of what I'm doing and figure I'll search long enough to figure it out.

How about instead of having it repo for us, just have a mini equation in the code that'll do an average hp. I don't think anybody should really be doing the charming and stuff though. I thought we were only supposed to build.

Perhaps Nezmar, we could get help files on the editors. Something that will tell us what a normal level 50 would have for resists and stops and such. A lot of the things are complicated.

Only as a means to test out your area. For example, a new builder is not going to know what level say, a "visiting sailor" is probably, but is perhaps wanting a zone with mobs who have similiar traits. But perhaps they want somthing like a vis sailor that hits twice as hard.....using "charm" if your a non gamemaster and then ordering them to attack can give you a great idea of the type of damage you can look to expect. Of course you could always attack them but as a staff member, the prompts are somtimes confusing, so its somtimes easier to sit and watch from a third person or to actually posesses said mob in testing to allocate attributes accordingly. This way we dont make a zone with mobs that are outlandishly strong or outlandishly weak.

So I was thinking, yeah I know don't struggle too hard I might get a hemorage in the brain and die, but. about the rewards for buildling.
I'd like to suggest a double-entendre trumph for builders.
And perhaps color the arena prizes to more than gold or apples.
If jelly belly can monopolize on flavors, why can't we monopolize on the jellybeans.
Say a builder who completes 1 zone may set aside 10 items that'll eventually become jellybeans. Why 10, well there are alot of guru's who scribe, make the jellybeans eddible foods that cast a variation of spells. the good uns, the bad uns, and especially the worste uns.
And thus when the arenas are held the winner gets a measly jellybean. That they don't know what it's going to do.

Elaborate it as some of you think there will be fireshield jellybeans, sanc jellybeans, and full heal jellybeans. But I encourage the makers to decieve the recipients. I mean don't make a red jellybean the fireshield, make it the dispell good bean.

While it's not a novel idea, it is some stimulus more than the Mpps, or levels. Plus it'll continue to give as we give.

hope that's fairly simple and easy.
Mahrahs. I got the sour one!! nOOO

In my humble opinion, the builders rewards shall not be towards their mortal, i mean it is the basic anti-multi-playing rules.

Things that MIGHT be interesting are :
1- During DLDS: you can build ANY item to your character (providing you have only 1 mortal during that dlds, and your builder has been transferred), the number of items will be like number of rooms you built / 100.

2- You can create your own shrine , with shrines levels (100 rooms = a small chapel , 10K rooms = a huge temple) dedicated to your builder (this won't mean people will worship you, perhaps at certain levels they can "use" the templs for praying/healing)

3- You can have your own cemetery, if it happens to some poor soul to perma dead in your area (or perhaps just dies ?) he'll have a tomb there, and the bigger your cemetery is, the mighter you are !


4- Builders rankings, i guess this already in work, starting from "newbie builder" , going up to "guru builder".

5- Team work, a higher level builder can "manage" lower builders to create a huge area , manage in terms of goal achievements, control, and reporting to the higher builder if any.

Best regards,
Akrond