4. Don't compete. The most common mistake of beginning mission designers is to think that they're competing with their players. You are not trying to beat the player! No one likes a mission that hammers them with every negative event that you can script. Balance is important. Time to recover can be critical. It's easy to create an unwinnable mission, and no one will respect you for doing so. Think of your mission as a story that you're telling to thousands of strangers all around the world. Thrill them, surprise them, guide them, reward them. Don't try to kill them.

5. No dead-ends. If you're scripting events, use paper and pencil to diagram their flow. There should be no end points on your flowchart except those you've defined as desirable outcomes, for good or for ill. "Event chains" can grow very long and complex - this is one of Pharaoh's great strengths, as it allows for sophisticated storytelling and good replayability. But, like any chain, your events are only as strong as their weak link. If one trigger fails to go off, or leads to the wrong result, your mission can be unwinnable.

If you script the possibility of a trade route closing, make sure that players have repeated opportunities to reopen the route. Script events in a loop, so that players can't escape your event chain without reopening that route. If you want it to close permanently, make sure that players don't need its resources, or give them an opportunity to get crucial resources elsewhere. The more complicated your event chains and loops become, the less you can predict how your mission will unfold. You need to allow for every possible outcome.

6. Explain yourself. As mentioned above, write a brief .txt file for distribution with your .map file (distribute them together in a .zip file, or in a self-extracting .exe, if you know how to make one). Don't give away the whole mission, but do tell players the background leading up to your mission and whatever ultimate goals they need to achieve. Your txt file should not be much larger than this paragraph, and should let players know what type of mission they're about to start and how difficult it's going to be.

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