Many (most?) of the areas brackets are related to I think mob levels or somewhat random instead of being consistently based on what level you'd go there to kill stuff at.

There's isn't a highly consistent standard for the levels listed on the 'areas' command, which is why we didn't just hard-lock the minimum levels to it. It's been the area author's discretion regarding what levels would 'use' the area, but the definition of 'use' hasn't been consistently enforced over the past two decades. If a low level area sells a couple useful potions, do we mark it "1 10" or "All"? If there's two level 30 NPC shopkeepers in the back, do we mark it "1 30" because someone might kill them? Etc.

We've brought this up for discussion before a couple of times, but I've never seen a CF-wide solution agreed on and implemented.

Also, area guidance covers the whole area, whereas a given Exploration or Observation location can be rated for that room. There are plenty of areas (Emerald Forest, etc.) where large sections are very safe, but other sections aren't. We might decide that some points in an area are fair game for anyone, but other points (that would get a low-level character killed quickly) require a higher minimum level.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com