Area Building checklist for MUDs

Confirm that every standard exit has a corresponding return exit (e.g., North leads to South) unless the room is explicitly designed as a one-way drop or trap.

Verify that all rooms, mobs, and objects fall within the assigned VNUM block and do not overlap with existing zones in the area file.

Check that sector types (Forest, Water, Mountain, Inside) match the room descriptions to ensure correct movement point costs and skill modifiers.

Test all secret doors by using 'look' on the specific keyword mentioned in the room description to ensure the exit is discoverable.

Ensure no room is a 'trap' room without a teleport, exit, or 'word of recall' capability unless it is a designated death room.

Cross-reference mob levels against the zone's intended level bracket to prevent accidental 'power-leveling' or impossible encounters.

Ensure no mobs with the 'AGGRESSIVE' flag are placed in the immediate entry room of the zone or adjacent to 'SAFE' rooms.

Dry-run all MobProgs or scripts to ensure 'on_greet' or 'on_fight' triggers do not create infinite loops that crash the process.

Verify that mobs intended to drop loot are actually wearing or carrying those items in the reset table.

Test shopkeepers to ensure they accept the correct currency and that buy/sell markups do not allow for infinite gold exploits.

Verify that all armor and weapons adhere to the codebase's maximum allowable bonuses for the zone's tier.

Check that all items have the correct wear-flags (e.g., a helmet must have 'WEAR_HEAD') to prevent players from equipping items in wrong slots.

Ensure every object has at least three logical keywords (e.g., 'longsword', 'sword', 'blade') so players can interact with them easily.

Check that item weights are realistic relative to their type to prevent players from carrying excessive 'junk' loot.

Confirm that any object mentioned in a room's description has a corresponding 'extra description' or is a takeable object.

Ensure items required for quests are flagged as 'noshrop' or 'nodrop' if they are essential for progression and hard to re-obtain.

Check that all quest text correctly parses variables like $n (player name) and $m/$f (gender pronouns) without breaking strings.

Compare quest XP and gold rewards against the time required to complete the quest to ensure it is worth the player's effort.

Test that players cannot bypass quest stages by jumping directly to the final NPC trigger.

Verify that quest-critical mobs or objects reset frequently enough to allow multiple players to progress without long waits.

Run all room and mob descriptions through an external spellchecker to maintain professional quality.

Ensure no line of text exceeds 80 characters to prevent wrapping issues on standard telnet clients.

Verify that descriptions include non-visual cues (smells, sounds, textures) to enhance immersion in the text-only medium.

Check that nouns used in the room description are actually interactable via 'extra descriptions' or 'look' commands.

Ensure indoor or underground rooms are flagged as 'DARK' requiring a light source, while outdoor rooms follow the sun cycle.

Run the codebase's internal area-check command to identify missing tildes (~), unclosed brackets, or malformed VNUM headers.

Reload the area on a test port while monitoring server RAM to ensure no scripts are leaking memory on reset.

Attempt to walk out of the zone in every direction to ensure it connects correctly to the rest of the world map.

Verify that the number of mobs and objects per room does not exceed engine limits, which can cause lag during a zone reset.

Ensure the final .are file is committed to the development repository with a clear changelog of all VNUMs used.