Basic Monster Creation

Authors are allowed a great deal of latitude when writing monsters, but there are a few general guidelines:

• Make the level of your mobs match both the level of your area and the quality of the equipment that they will wear. Avoid placing a single high level monster into the middle of a low level area for the sole purpose of putting something really nice onto him. Really good equipment should go onto high level monsters in difficult areas.
• In general, a level X Warrior should be able to kill a level X mob if he is fully healthy. Obviously, this guideline assumes that the warrior is decently equipped, but not perfectly equipped.
• Avoid creating "levelling tunnels" in your zone if at all possible. A whole row of monsters with their levels all in the mid to high 20's is just going to be a target for the first well equipped player to come alone. They make gaining experience and gold ludicrously easy and tend to be rather boring. If your zone is just a long line of easy mobs with a lot of experience and gold, then expect it to have minor modifications done to it, such as lengthened reset times.
• We have a number of "special routines" that can be added to your mobs. These include: fighter, cleric, magic-user, and thief. If you wish to use any of these procedures in your zone, make sure to write them in a clear format, include the Special flag in their list of attributes, and give us a list with both the virtual number of the monster and the routine each should have.
  • fighter - able to use some fighter skills, such as kick and bash
  • cleric - can cast sanctuary, harm, blindness, poison, etc
  • magic user - can cast fireball, ice storm, meteror swarm, etc
  • thief - can steal items/gold from players

Monster Creation Fields

#<Virtual number>

Every monster in the world of JediMUD has a unique virtual number. The rules for assigning your monsters a virtual number are the same as the ones that apply to room virtual numbers.

<Name list>~

The name list includes all of the words that can be applied to this monster by enterprising players who wish to kill it. Avoid using articles, where possible. No well-written monster should have "a" as a name.

<Short description>~

The short description is the actual name of the monster. It it used in many facets of game play.

This string will be displayed when the monster makes a visible action.

• For example, if the monster is "The beastly fido~", and the fido leaves the room to the south, then message that players in the room with it will see is, "The beastly fido leaves south."

This string is also used during combat sequences. Articles (the, a, an) tend to make combat sequences look funny, since they really should not be capitalized in the phrases being used, so if at all possible it looks cleaner if they are avoided as the first word of the short description.

• You smite The beastly fido very hard.
• The beastly fido tickles you with its hit.
• You mangle Bilbert the Black with your extremely unpleasant crush!

There is one last place where this string is seen in JediMUD. Whenever a player looks at a monster, the very last line of that monster's description is a status indicator.

• The statue os Valaria is in excellent condition.

<Long description> (hit enter) ~

This description is displayed whenever the monster is in its "default" position. Whenever the monster is not in its default position, the message, "<short description> is sleeping here." will be displayed instead.

<Description> (hit enter) ~

Whenever a player looks at your monster, they will see whatever description you place into this field. Appended to the end of your description will be a status line that uses the short description to give the current health of the monster. Be creative! The more description a monster has, the more interesting it is! Often, a great deal of the theme or story hidden in your zone can be expressed in the monster and object descriptions.

<Action flags>

There are several special flags that can be placed onto a monster in this field to give it special powers. Scan the list of action flags carefully and chose the ones that will bring your monster closest to the mental image you have drawn for yourself. Give your monster either a Sentinel or Stay-zone flag first, depending on whether it is going to walk your zone freely ot be pinned in a lair. Place all of the appropriate letters into this field with no spaces between them.

 

Attribute	Flag	Description
Aggressive	F	The monster will viciously attack anyone in reach.
Cityguard	X	The monster will sometimes assist other monsters being attacked by players.
Fido	V	The monster will devour corpses.
Janitor	W	The monster picks up objects and corpses in the room.
Memory	L	The monster will remember players that have attacked it and be aggressive toward them in the future.
Multihit 0	J	The monster gets one extra attack per round.
Multihit 1	K	The monster gets two extra attacks per round.
Nice Thief	E	The monster will not attack players who try to steal from it.
No Calm	Z	The monster is immune to the calm spell.
No Charm	U	The monster can not be charmed.
No Purge	O	The monster can not be accidentally purged by immortals.
No Suggest	N	The monster is immune to the bardic song suggestion.
Scavenger	C	The monster will pick up items on the ground, starting with the most expensive.
Sentinel	B	The monster does not walk around.
Special	A	Any monster that is going to have a coded special procedure must have this flag.
Speed Heal	Y	The monster regains hitpoints at a vastly accelerated rate.
Stay Zone	G	The monster will never walk into another zone, but will wander freely inside yours.
Wimpy	H	The monster will flee when it is running low on hitpoints. In conjunction with an Aggressive flag, the monster will attack only sleeping individuals.

<Affection flags>

The following spells can be permanently placed onto a monster via affect flags. As with action flags, run the letters together with no spaces between them if you wish to have more than one spell on a monster. If the monster is completely free of magical spells, leave a 0 (zero) in this field to act as a place holder.

Spell	Flag	Effect
Detect Invisible	D	The monster can see invisible players.
Hide	T	The monster hides.
Infravision	O	The monster can see in the dark.
Invisible	B	The monster is invisible.
Sanctuary	H	The monster takes half damage from attacks.
Sneak	S	The monster sneaks

 

<Alignment flag>

This is the monsters alignment. The table below explains how to select a value for this field.

 

Alignment	Range
Good	+1000 to +350
Neutral	+349 to -349
Evil	-350 to -1000

<Level>

The monster's level. This number only directly impacts on saving throws against spells. In general, the higher the level of the monster, the more difficult it should be to kill. See the Monster Reference Table for guidelines to use when setting the level. Monster levels range from 0 to 39.

<THAC0>

"To Hit Armour Class Zero." This number translates into the ability of the monster to hit its target in combat. Guidelines for appropriate values are listed in the Monster Reference Table. Monster THAC0 can be anywhere in the range from 20 to -10.

<AC>

This is the monster's armour class. See the Monster Reference Table for guidelines when setting the armour class. Monster armor class values fall in the range og 10 to -10.

<Hitpoints (format is xdy+z)>

This field determines the number of hitpoints a monster will have. It must be in the format of xdy+z where x is the number of hit dice the monster gets, y is the size of those dice and z is an integer value that is added to the random number generated with the dice. All of the numbers must be given a value, even if it is 0 (zero) for use as a place holder.

• For example, a monster with 3d8+10 the monster will have 10 hitpoints plus the result of rolling 3 dice with 8 sides.

<Damage (format is xdy+z)>

This is the bare handed damage a monster will cause during combat. The format is exacly like the one described for hit points. A thing to note about damage is that the number after the plus sign, is the strength bonus. This bonus will apply to any weapons used, and bare hands too. Appropriate values for monster damage can be found in the Monster Reference Table.

• For example, if this value has been listed as 2d8+3, then this monser will do between five and nineteen points of damage bare handed. If the monster picks up and wields a club which does 1d4 points of damage, then the actual damage that the monster will get during combat is 1d4+3 because it will still get the strength bonus.

<Gold>

The amout of gold carried by the monster. Appropriate values can be found in the Monster Reference Table.

<Experience>

The experience this monster is worth. Appropriate values can be found in the Monster Reference Table.

<Load position>

This field defines the monster's position when loaded into the game by a zone reset. The available positions can be found on the following table:

 

Position	Value	Explanation
Resting	5	The monster is resting.
Sitting	6	The monster is sitting.
Sleeping	4	The monster is sleeping.
Standing	8	The monster is standing.

<Default Position>

This is the position the monster will return to after a fight. This position also defines when the <long description> field will be displayed. The values for default position are:

 

Position	Value	Explanation
Resting	5	The monster is resting.
Sitting	6	The monster is sitting.
Sleeping	4	The monster is sleeping.
Standing	8	The monster is standing.

<Gender>

This is the monster's sex. Choose a gender from the list below:

 

Gender	Value
Female	2
Male	1
Neuter	0