TorilMUD Forums

We need to change some things in terms of how the game deals with newbies.

First, the transient newbie equipment should be upgraded such that the newbies receive a piece of equipment for every slot. It just sucks having 6 lame pieces of crap eq, at least having one for every slot would make them fully equipped instead of pretty much naked. It's a step in the right direction.

Two, please make all Scarsdale mobs load normally. This may just be a skewed perception, but it seems to me not all the mobs load at the same time and some seem pretty delayed. Also make the equipment load every time the mob does, so that if there are 5 newbies, the strongest one doesn't go grab all the eq and sell it while the people who need it get screwed. Maybe change the value of the items so most of them can't be sold or something. Add more equipment to the point where they will be able to acquire a piece for every slot. This will give everyone a leg up and make the realization that a lot of their time will be spent fetching new eq a less largely overwhelming one. Basically it helps them get the basics they will need (WITHOUT HAVING TO BEG WHICH IS SUCH A TURNOFF FOR ALL INVOLVED) when they hit 20 and have to XP in the real world. Maybe they'll find that to be easier and stick around.

Three, it has been said before on this forum but make a fairly straightforward quest for Scarsdale that involves, say, gathering some ore, some leather, and some magical item and have a blacksmith mob take them with, say, 5p, and forge a weapon (which is different depending on class, mace for cleric, dagger for rogue etc) that procs, say, level 6 magic missile randomly in combat. This would be sweet and also improve morale insofar as they can begin perceiving they are 'getting somewhere' or 'moving up' which may make them want to stick around.

Last and best, open up NHC to everyone. Give the Helpers the power to temporarily cut off access by certain people in the case of gross misuse. The idea here is that if a newbie asks a question and gets like five people answering, they will feel more important, like their presence is valued, and perhaps they will stick around.

Disagree on the full equipment slots and upgraded equipment. You don't NEED great equipment to level and explore, it just makes it easier, which isn't necessarily better.

If you want to write the quests I'll make you a magic missile proc and implement it.

Agree on NHC, but I'm pretty sure non-helpers can just toggle the channel on..

I support the idea of making Scardale equipment repop. It's not a balance issue, it's a playability issue... shouldn't make newbies suffer on a long boot.

Well if Ragorn thinks it's a good idea, it's a good idea. What items are we talking about here, I could see a rare load repop like 1 in 5 type thing. I like the idea of things popping up eventually instead of every single time. How about someone makes a quick list of the items they think should repop and makes a toril trac ticket for it.

http://www.torilmud.org/trac/

Dugmaren wrote:Well if Ragorn thinks it's a good idea, it's a good idea.

Rags,

quick suggest that paladins get dragons as mounts that can actually fight for them!
that is all.

Pril

Dugmaren wrote:Well if Ragorn thinks it's a good idea, it's a good idea. What items are we talking about here, I could see a rare load repop like 1 in 5 type thing. I like the idea of things popping up eventually instead of every single time. How about someone makes a quick list of the items they think should repop and makes a toril trac ticket for it.

http://www.torilmud.org/trac/

It's been forever since I ran a newbie through Scardale, so I'll have to leave it to someone else to come up with a list of items. I do remember that there was a quest to find alchemy components in the woods that always frustrated me... unless you were the first newbie to log in at boot, you didn't get to do this highly obvious and visible quest (I never finished it).

I like the idea of Scardale having a selection of "slot filler" items that are 100% load... AC items with no stats, or very minor +hit or +hp items. Equipment of value, such as the missile proc sword that Iledor suggested, would benefit from a more occasional load rate. I think this would help newbies feel good about filling up their slots, while still asking for some effort for the top-shelf stuff.

Dugmaren wrote:Agree on NHC, but I'm pretty sure non-helpers can just toggle the channel on..

Yes, anyone can toggle NHC on at an level. Though last i checked, it logs you out everytime you rent. Me, i just set a trig to log into NHC when i enter the game. I assume though, that only Helpers are supposed to answer questions on NHC.

There's a glut of newbie eq that loads throughout scardale, the (anti)paladins, rangers, etc all have stuff that could be like 25% load and be better than once per boot. A day into boot and Scardale is a barren wasteland of gear. Far too much to list off.