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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 mapset, 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.
Guidlines for creating Artifacts:
- Don't rely on artifacts to make your maps interesting for players.
- When you create a new artifact (weapon, armour, etc), always keep an eye
on playbalance. 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.