After just reviewing the post in divine mandates concerning building, i noticed that there is a heavy emphasis on replacing stock areas, as opposed to implementing new ones.
Whilst I recognise the desire to make FL as stock free as possible, i think its worth looking at this from another perspective.
In our attempts to bring in, and retain new players, i think Stock areas can actually be a positive. Having done some fishing myself into a few other muds awhile back (Hey i know it sounds bad - but I came back didn't i?) one thing i quite liked was the sense of familiarity that certain areas give. Most 'new' players have at least some mud experience these days, and it can make it much easier to get up to speed quickly when they have access to something they already know.
Also it means we are only ever adding to FL - not tweaking, not changing, and not taking away.
I've also seen one interesting concept that works quite well where a mud does look to replace stock areas - usually in a RP event, like I saw a mud where Thalos was rebuilt, but they still kept Ruined Thalos in a quest type area called Limbo, which was mainly made up of stock areas, and could only be accessed through certain portals (think like the tale of avalon or gear). A lot of IMM run Rp often made use of Limbo, and it gave a real sense of history, as the principal was that it was like travelling in time, or into another dimension to see how a place used to be as a snapshot.
Anyway, just a few random ideas... I have quite a lot of time on my hands atm, so it probably won't be the last.
