Questions about editing monsters

[cuckoorules]

So I have long been in the works of trying to add a very high level area/quest to my mud and I am finally at the point where I'm ready to start playing with getting all the monsters in. I have copied a few and made some minor bosses so I am relatively comfortable with that but before I start I would like to have a better understanding of what options I have to work with. If anyone knows the answers to any of the following questions it would be much appreciated, otherwise if anyone has worked a good amount creating new monsters and or has a document outlining the possible attributes and what they do that would be wonderful.

1. What is the maximum amount of health/HP tick that you can give a monster?
2. What do the Types REALLY do? (Solo, Follower, Leader, Stationary)
3. What exactly is the relationship between a monster's accuracy on hits and your AC?
4. How does MRES get calculated in (i.e. if I use 300 rather than 400 on one mob, what kind of difference in damage are we looking at)
5. AntiMagic (and other Abilities) -- What EXACTLY does this mean? One ability I've seen that's in use and so I imagine may be working is the "Damage" attribute. I am assuming this is like having a maxdmg and a mindmg on the same item so it raises your total damage for both but information on things like this would be useful for designing new items.
6. Do the group/index settings have any importance in monster follow behavior or any tips on modeling different types of monster behaviors
7. What causes certain monsters to swing seemingly randomly and not be tankable (i.e. Dark Monstrosity, Black Lich from mudrev edits)
8. With monsters that exceed more than 1000 energy per round, are there any caveats to using this other than MME will not display the proper amount of swing information for them?
9. Any information on dodge vs AC is also appreciated.
10. Any tips on adding spells to monsters (i.e. can you use a player spell on a monster and will most attributes still apply?)

Anything that you believe will be helpful/information to me that is not included in this list I more than encourage you to post, as all information may come in handy at some point. I would just like to have an idea as to "what" I can do and where my ultimate ceiling point is so that I know that things cannot get harder than a certain point and work my way backwards. Thanks to anyone who replies.

[EpicMUD]

1. What is the maximum amount of health/HP tick that you can give a monster?

I believe the max is ~32000 for hps. I assume the max tick is the same.

2. What do the Types REALLY do? (Solo, Follower, Leader, Stationary)

I believe they are what determines the random attacking you asked about in question 7. There are probably other differences beteen them as well.

3. What exactly is the relationship between a monster's accuracy on hits and your AC?

It gets very hard for monsters to hit players that have ac similar to their accuracy.

4. How does MRES get calculated in (i.e. if I use 300 rather than 400 on one mob, what kind of difference in damage are we looking at)

I believe magic resistance over 160 or so is useless. The max amount of damage reduction happens around then.

5. AntiMagic (and other Abilities) -- What EXACTLY does this mean? One ability I've seen that's in use and so I imagine may be working is the "Damage" attribute. I am assuming this is like having a maxdmg and a mindmg on the same item so it raises your total damage for both but information on things like this would be useful for designing new items.

Antimagic when attached to a race or class will not allow that race or class to use magic weapon or armor. That means any item with the 'Magical' attribute is not available to them. It also has in it extra damage reduction from spells that use the 'Damage(-MR)' attribute. The 'Damage' attribute is used to deal damage that does not account for magic resistance, like traps and such. The 'Max Damage' attribute is for adding damage to a players combat.

6. Do the group/index settings have any importance in monster follow behavior or any tips on modeling different types of monster behaviors

This is just used for assigning which monsters regen in which rooms.

7. What causes certain monsters to swing seemingly randomly and not be tankable (i.e. Dark Monstrosity, Black Lich from mudrev edits)

Another way to get this to happen is to give a monster more than 1000 energy.

8. With monsters that exceed more than 1000 energy per round, are there any caveats to using this other than MME will not display the proper amount of swing information for them?

Nothing as far as I know except for what I already mentioned.

9. Any information on dodge vs AC is also appreciated.

It functions a lot like ac vs accy.

10. Any tips on adding spells to monsters (i.e. can you use a player spell on a monster and will most attributes still apply?)

Yeah any spell that is in the game can be used by a monster.

Anything that you believe will be helpful/information to me that is not included in this list I more than encourage you to post, as all information may come in handy at some point. I would just like to have an idea as to "what" I can do and where my ultimate ceiling point is so that I know that things cannot get harder than a certain point and work my way backwards. Thanks to anyone who replies.

There is a lot to consider when it comes to editing the game but you can always try stuff out and get creative. It is painfully slow to do that so I understand asking these and other questions is more desirable. As far as editing in general goes here are some things that have bugged me on the edited muds I have played and I have played most of them (MudRev, Lunar Dynamics, BoinkMachine, Hated Reality, and countless others)

Make more than two races viable. Most muds have two races; a caster race and a melee race.

Make use of the stock realm. Too many muds make a new edited area and items that make the rest of the stock realm completely useless.

Make new edited areas that do not interfere with Megamud. Do not add new exits to known/boss rooms or at least use the hidden exit that is passable if you do. There are literally tens of thousands of rooms though so make use of ones Megamud doesn't know.