Fed II Star - March 26, 2006

ELIJAH'S PLANET DESIGN
Part 5: Locations: Less is More

So far in my series of articles on planet design, we've discussed theme and story a lot. I've waxed on about what should and shouldn't be in your location descriptions. I've even railed against an all-too-common location - the bedroom. So now, it's time that I deal with perhaps what's creating the biggest problem, with the least effect: poor location layout.

What am I talking about? I'm talking about when people decide that the locations should be laid out in a shape which is used to support their "story" or "theme." Trust me. It's not good. Don't do it. I have yet to see it done effectively. Usually, when it's done, it's done for the benefit of people who map, or have an Automap - which not all people use or have.

Occasionally, a Planet Owner will feel the need to layout locations in some sort of design. For example, a letter, or perhaps a flower, or maybe just some weird design which repeats itself on multiple layers of a planet. The result is often that players create locations with no purpose at all. These rooms don't further a story, might not fit into the theme, and while it might create something "clever" for people with FedTerm to look at, it generally is annoying. Don't do it. Keep your design in the content of your location descriptions, not in your location layout. Don't add extra rooms so that your planet is laid out like a daisy, trust me, nobody really cares, and those who do are wrong.

Perhaps my greatest annoyance is location layout is when players feel the need to express the sheer size of an area on their planet by creating a grid. Grids, where you have dozens of locations with exits in any direction, are almost impossible to navigate without FedTerm's automapper. Having a planet that is frustrating to navigate is a huge problem. Players already tend to avoid Sumatra and The Lattice because their navigation system is tricky; let me tell you, grids are more annoying than stepping onto colored disk or pressing touch pads.

If you need to have multiple locations to express the size of an area of your planet, I'd suggest that you spend more time writing a location description. It's better to have one or two well written, perhaps long, location descriptions, than to have 9 short and repetitive ones. Remember you have a limited number of locations; do you want to waste 40 of them building a giant warehouse just so people really understand how huge it is? This is a text based game, just say it.

Which brings me to another problem with grid layouts. If your exchange is one location in a grid how am I suppose to remember which location it is? I point you to Phobos, we have a tiny 2x2 grid, but I still get confused which location has the Exchange. On the other hand, I don't get confused on Earth, despite it's windy boulevards and many shops along the side of the road. Grids are hard to navigate. Planets that are hard to navigate get visited less often, and often don't have factories. (I always look for factories on Sumatra and the Lattice first because of a lack of competition - a trader tip in an article for planet owners. I deserve a bonus!)

One final complaint about grids? People often get tired of coming up with a new description for each room, and often repeat words, sentences, or sometimes paragraphs. Talk about dull for a visitor! Leaving you a hard to navigate, dully written planet - all because you didn't listen to me and insisted in using a grid.

Remember your story-telling and theme-setting should be in your descriptions, not in your planetary layout. Your layout should make sense, be used in a way that makes navigating easy, and without drawing to much attention to it.

I beg you - think outside the grid.