@Derp said in Grid building theory?:
This might work, but it also comes with its share of problems that might have to be addressed.
First, the look of the thing. Exits in two columns with their alias directly after them managed to still look clean, but on these, you're going to have to worry about the length of the actual exit name, the length of the alias (which is usually no more than 3 or 4 letters, so not a bit deal), and -then- the length of the short-desc, or else you're going to get into very unpretty things eventually. It might be more helpful to arrange them as a table, if you're doing a top-down list.
ETA: You should be worried about exit name whether you're doing columns or something else. If I remember correctly the exit parent on fallcoast (and ones that were used elsewhere) were actually set up so you'd have 3 columns, and would move down to 2 if an exit name was too long. I disagree that the names followed by aliases in columns look "clean". Sure, it's an easy enough system to follow, but that doesn't make it clean or pleasing to me.
It's a list of names. Sometimes those names are descriptive enough for me to follow what the building is, sometimes they aren't. Hell. Then you have the exits that are "old warehouse" or "dirt road" off of grid rooms that tell me absolutely nothing about where they lead. Which gets pretty infuriating when you're looking for something.
(True fact: I had to comb through fallcoast one night to try and find the mage hide out. I couldn't find it on grid because through the 10 million other builds, and finally resorted to the wiki.)
...which leads right into my terser, original point below.
Second, the number of exits in any one location could quickly become staggering in a list format and lead to a hell of a lot of spam. For instance:
----> +Views in this location <-----------------------------------------------
Build Guide Twilight Network
----> Directions <------------------------------------------------------------
University City <W> Pigeon Hill <S>
Commercial District <N> Historical Waterfront <E>
----> Exits <-----------------------------------------------------------------
Out of Conetrol <OOC> Six Feet Under <SFU>
Medical Examiner's Office <MEO> Flow Dynamics Gym <FDG>
Von Braun Life Sciences <VBLS> Catholic Church <CC>
WFRE Building <WFRE> CHIME Museum <MU>
Waxen Wonderland <WW> Pay It Forward Pizzeria <PIF>
Atlantica Mall <ATL> Public Library <PL>
House of Spirits <HOS> Regus Tower <RT>
Sinful Temptations <ST> Lockerbie Condominiums <LC>
Lovelace Couturé <LOV> Uplifting <UL>
Presbytery <PRE> Dippin Donuts <DD>
Cavanaugh Design <CDG> Municipal Building <MB>
Cavanaugh Building <CVB>
=========================================================> IC Area - B02 <====
Derp, with all due respect, there shouldn't be that many things in one grid square. Or not all of those exits need to be public. That shit is spammy without having short-descs. This isn't a matter of "oh no too much because you added BLAH" that's a matter of "what the fuck are you people doing to your grid?"
Another grid square should have been made, or something should have been done about the exit parent long before that mess happened.