Realms Admin Policy
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Listed here are general guidelines for what CTs/DMs are and are
not allowed to do. In the past, some other muds have had many
problems with their admins cheating for and/or hindering players.
This can not be the case at Realms of Hell. We are here to
provide a good mud environment where everything is fair and
everyone on here can have a good time. That being said...
1. Do not use admin privileges to help a player in ways which exceed the
bounds of normal play for them.
In other words, do not make it so they get extra xp, do not give
them items or spells, do not tell whem where items are that can help them,
do not set ANY of their stats, etc... Basically, let them advance on their
own and MAINTAIN A DISCREET DISTANCE. Note that this includes cheating
for yourself if you have a character. That is a big no no.
2. Do not kill or cause to be killed a player at any time whatsoever.
Realms will be a very interactive environment where admins *pos
monsters sometimes and roleplay with players. Sometimes accidents may
happen that get a player killed. However, NEVER under any circumstances
is an admin to maliciously kill or cause to be killed any player. This
is punishable by immediate dismissal. Under extreme circumstances, a DM
may breech this rule, but only very very rarely.
3. Do not discuss the quests.
Quests are an important part of the game. If admins do not allow
players to figure them out on their own, then what is the point of having
quests? Do not discuss quests with players.
4. Do not EVER crash the game purposely.
Crashing the game on purpose is grounds for immediate dismissal.
5. Always give players at least a 1 minute warning before sutting down.
This is more for the players' benefit then anything else.
6. ALWAYS respond to mudmail from players.
Part of the problem with other muds, is that their admins ignore
their players. We will not be like that here. No matter how retarded
you may think a player's mail is, please respond to it still.
7. Do not tell players directly where to find things.
If a player asks you: where do i get good armor? or where is a
good weapon, or any other similar question of that nature, do not respond
directly. Give them a hint instead.
8. Please remain invisible unless you are talking one on one with a player.
Discreet distance must be maintained from the players. In order to
simplify this, please remain invisible whenever possible. Some of the
players are too dependent on DM/CT help, and they are constantly asking
questions which we should not answer of them or do for them. For instance,
we shouldn't port a player home when he is lost (unless he got ported
there somehow and the area is unfinished), we shouldn't tell players where
to get stuff (or give it to them), we shouldn't tell them information
about another player (XP, stats, etc..), etc.... If we do not maintain
discreet distance from players, then they all will become dependent on
us, at which point we will not be able to accomplish anything here without
difficulty. It also will ultimately increase the gap between players and
admins when they get mad at us when we say we can't help them for whatever
reason persuant to the policy. You do not have to respond if people flash
themselves either. In fact it is discouraged that you do, simply because
people begin to expect it. If a player asks you to identify yourself, it
is your choice as to whether or not you wish to do so. Basically, just
keep player/admin interaction to a minimum whenever possible unless a
player has a legitimate question. Mudmail is always available to them.
Several players do not use it to talk to us. This needs to start changing.
9. Under no circumstances whatsoever share your password or anyone elses
with anyone not on the staff.
This can cause bad things to happen. Not only to you, but also to the
mud. Please do not do this.
10. Do not distribute/discuss pertinent information about Realms to players
or anyone else.
Giving out information like mob/obj stats and code will ruin our
mud. Let the players and coders of other muds figure out information for
themselves. If it is found that you have done this, you are very likely to
be dismissed.
11. If a player is rude to you, try not be rude back.
Players sometimes get quite rude and annoying. Most often they
are little kids trying to get a reaction out of you to get attention.
If this is the case, don't play along. Unless they are breaking the
quidelines of player ettiquette continuously or outright doing something
illegal (such as profanity on broadcast), do not react or do anything
in response to their attitude. Reacting in a negative way forces the
idea among players that we are "power mongers" and "ego maniacs". This
widens the gap between players and admins, which is something we want
to try to avoid. Note that it is a player etiquette violation if a player
is continually rude to us, and options such as setting their outlaw flag
or casting a silence spell on them can be used.
12. Do not jail a player unless they are doing/did something illegal.
For continual breeches in player ettiquette, jailing should be
a last resort. Only for the illegal things listed on the policy should
a player be immediately jailed. The length of time, for the most part,
can be freely determined by the jailer of the player. For ettiquette
breeches, players can be *silenced, a silence spell can be cast on them,
or their outlaw flag can be set. Never under any circumstances jail a
player for only personal reasons. It is YOUR responsibility to release
people you jail at the time you set. If you cannot do this, it is your
responsibility to tell someone else to do it for you. Do not release
someone unless you are the one who jailed them or if that person told
you to do so.
13. Do not ever put anything of an obscene nature onto this mud EVER.
This means do not put obscene or sexually explicit terms into
item, monster, or room descriptions, or talk strings of monsters.
PERIOD. This can not be tolerated. We are not going to provide that
kind of environment, especially since most of our players are young.
STAFF OWNED PLAYERS
Due to problems in the past, NO ONE who is a CT/DM is allowed
to have a player on this mud anymore. Builders are sill allowed to
have their players, as most of our builders will come from the
player base, and we cannot ask them to suicide just so they can make
room descriptions. If a CT is caught with a player, the DMs will
decide what to do with them, whether it be dismissal or simply
deletion of the character. If a DM does this, then the DMs will
handle it amongst themselves.
GAME BALANCE
Game balance is paramount to the success of Realms. If some
monsters or items are too powerful or too weak, it can disrupt the
game in the long run. The same goes for some of the classes, which
are still technically experimental since we didn't have a long
playtesting period before opening. Keep an eye on balance between
the classes. Other then that, here are some general guidelines:
1. Please make all powerful non-pointless mobs and most all perms block
players from fleeing.
Unless a monster is very weak or pointless (like a lost kitten or
a wino or beggar), please set mflag 9 (Monster blocks). Players
should have to flee from powerful monsters. If the block flag isn't
set, then then mflag 10 (monster follows), or mflag 11 (monster
flees) should be set...but in THAT order. Set the follow before the
flee flag for powerful monsters. Nearly ALL perms should block.
Otherwise, mages and liches would only die to perms in lag and they
would advance too easily. In addition, druids, when under endurance,
are able to "walk" monsters which don't block, meaning that they can
run in a room, hit the mob, and run out without being hit. This is
done by sending multiple commands to the mud with a mud client such
as Zmud. Basically, if it is 100xp or more, it should usually block.
2. When designing a specific weapon for a player, please use the custom
archtypes (numbers 100-114).
Custom weapons and equipment can be given to players for quests,
but they must always be approved by a DM. These archtypes must be used in
order to ensure game balance. This way we always know the strength of
custom weapons, and always know what a particular player is capable of.
3. Please use the Isengard list as a guideline when setting shots and
armor protection for armor and weapons.
Isengard has been around for a long time. Granted that they have
less stuff then we do it seems, their armor and weapons are pretty well
balanced. If you do not have a copy of this list, get in touch with
Rapture and he will give it to you. If you ever have a question as to
whether something is balanced or not, check with Rapture. Do not
distribute this list in any way to anyone besides the staff here. As
a general rule, keep shots for armor at 50 or less, and weapons at 65
or less. If the weapon is particularly powerful, give it less shots.
Weapons which are very powerful and have a lot of shots (galvorn blade)
should be extremely rare. If you want to make armor or weapons with more
then 50 or 65 shots, check with Rapture about it.
4. If you have areas where monsters come in droves which are 80xp or
more, make sure there is enough alignment variance.
This means make sure that a player is forced to move around and
cannot sit all day in one spot gaining xp. Make alignments in these
areas change the player to where he must leave or get too good/evil.
The distance a player changes on the alignment scale is 1/5th the
amount you set. So if a monster has al 20, the player changes 4 in
the negative direction. For areas where monsters of over 80xp come
in large numbers and at good traffic, make sure the distance a player
CHANGES is at least 7. Also, set some of the monsters up there to
where some of them are good/evil aggro. If we do not do this, then
people will sit at these areas all day long and will be level 20
before we know it.
5. DM permission is required for some flags to be set.
The confer oflags which confer spell powers, or the oflags
which alter players' stats must always be approved by a DM before
being put on an item. These flags are extremely powerful, and we
need to keep a check on their use.
More will be put here as needed.
DM JOBS/RESPONSIBILITIES and ORGANIZATION
Listed here are the general jobs each DM is in charge of.
This is done in order that wires will not be crossed. It will also
make it easier to know which DM to talk to about something. In addition
it is written here how decisions are made/disputed by the staff.
Bane: Head of coding/debugging. In charge of permanent quests in
the game. In charge of staff checks and balances. In charge
of everything having to do with mages.
Ocelot: In charge of game balance. Final word on policy enforcement.
Final say regarding the mud world. In charge of hiring CTs
and builders. In charge of backing up the mud.
Finn: Head of the building process and all builders. In charge of
interactive trivia. ROH staff Listserve moderator. Chief player
liason. In charge of keeping help files up to date.
1. Anything that isn't liked by one DM that another DM does can
be put to a DM vote. Majority wins out. If there are an even number
of DMs, then a general vote of all the CTs will break the tie. If that
is a tie, then Bane's vote counts twice. If the person is Bane and
there are an even number of DMs, or one abstains and makes it so only
an even number of DMs are involved, then the CTs votes count 2x.
2. A DM vote must be taken to fire someone. If this someone is a DM,
then that DM does not vote, and CTs vote in his place. Again, in the
case of a tie, Bane's vote counts two times. If the subject of the
problem is Bane, then the CTs votes count twice instead. Although it
isnt like Bane can be fired, this is just here for completion.
3. Only one DM can hire new builders or CTs (Rapture).
4. Any DM can dust any player, but they may be asked why and to account
for it to the other DMs. A majority vote against it can get that player
restored.
5. Promotion of any CT to DM must be agreed upon unanimously by all
current DMs.
6. Only one DM can hire coders (Bane).
PLAYER/ADMIN INTERACTION in QUESTS
On some occasions, DMs or CTs may wish to *pos a monster to
roleplay with players, have a trivia contest to give players gold,
mess with their minds, or a host of other interaction related things.
This is all ok in moderation. If we do it too much then players will
quickly become sick of it due to us interrupting their play of the game.
The same goes in the opposite direction, meaning if we do it too much,
they will come to expect it and they will not play the game right.
With this in mind, if you are interacting with a player in this manner
and it is clear that they are annoyed with it or expecting it too much,
please stop. We are here for what they want so they can have a good time.
We also must maintain game balance, or the game will be ruined for some.
We can't jeopardize enjoyment or balance in any way. With no players there
is no mud.
As far as trivia or any other kind of contests go, please clear your
idea with a DM before you do one, so they can know what it is you are
doing and can make sure someone else doesn't want to do it at the same time.
We also want to be able to approve the idea.
If you have any questions about or additions to this policy, mudmail or
ask/tell a DM.