New Character Starting Equipment

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Botef
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New Character Starting Equipment

Postby Botef » Sat Feb 17, 2007 2:06 am

I recently introduced some friends to the mud and got them to roll up a few characters and try things out. Literally moments after they started playing a couple of them asked me why they only saw red shapes and couldn't see anything. I explained the why's and how to take care of that (Good ole newbie help book!) and got to thinking about how silly that really is.

I know how against making things easier people are here, and I totally respect that to the fullest extent. None the less little I can't help but feel that tiny details like this is what causes us to the lose the largest number of new and potential long-term players. When a player runs into a problem like this after only a few minutes of gameplay they probably are not going to take the time to solve the problem and instead just give up and move on to some other form of entertainment.

Torches in general are a dated item. Virtually everyone has a illuminated item in storage, and these kinds items are available starting in the FIRST room any player starts out in (Newbie Help Book). Infact the only time I ever have seen a torch or other non-perm light item used in several years has been during CR's, using minor created torches.

If we are going to be making a perm-illuminated item available to every starting character, why not add it to what they start with in their inventory? There is plenty of time for them to learn the woes of not having a light AFTER they have played the game for a bit and really gotten hooked.
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Postby Tasan » Sat Feb 17, 2007 9:36 am

Tough to disagree. Shev has said that 2.0 would be a bit better with this I think.
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Postby Auril » Sat Feb 17, 2007 6:34 pm

There are some very good tutorial rooms, beginning one single step away from the recall room. I believe these things are covered there - I'd only looked quickly. I'll check more when I can.
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Postby Sarvis » Sat Feb 17, 2007 7:23 pm

I jumped into WoW without reading a single tutorial or line of instructions, other than what was popped up with a hard to miss alert to point out something important. Why should it take more effort for a noob to get into this game?
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Postby Arilin Nydelahar » Sat Feb 17, 2007 10:13 pm

Sarvis wrote:I jumped into WoW without reading a single tutorial or line of instructions, other than what was popped up with a hard to miss alert to point out something important. Why should it take more effort for a noob to get into this game?


The simple answer? This is a text based game, they have to like to read to get into it, and that's the catch. In WoW the big yellow ! works fine, here, you'd have to look at the mob, or read the description of the room and the like to learn it. So comparing this to WoW is really a stretch IMHO.
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Postby Sarvis » Sat Feb 17, 2007 10:20 pm

Not when we're talking about attracting and retaining new players. Also not when we're talking about something as simple as having an illuminated item in your inventory when you start.

You're right that this isn't WoW. WoW has thousands of players willing to pay money every month to keep playing.
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Postby Arilin Nydelahar » Sat Feb 17, 2007 10:35 pm

Sarvis wrote:Not when we're talking about attracting and retaining new players. Also not when we're talking about something as simple as having an illuminated item in your inventory when you start.

You're right that this isn't WoW. WoW has thousands of players willing to pay money every month to keep playing.


That's a huge difference though. Once you enter the room you roll into, there is a lit book on the floor. They have to type get book, that's not overly hard, and I don't think that's pressing the new player to make them start off by interacting. And it's a new players handbook. It's fairly easy these days, people just have to try. The main issue we see though is not lack of newbie help, it's lack of low level grouping the way it used to be. The help is still there, and leveling noobs is far easier than it used to be.

I honestly don't think noob equipment is a horrid idea, but I don't believe that's the fix for it.
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Postby Shar » Sat Feb 17, 2007 10:38 pm

Arilin Nydelahar wrote:
Sarvis wrote:Not when we're talking about attracting and retaining new players. Also not when we're talking about something as simple as having an illuminated item in your inventory when you start.

You're right that this isn't WoW. WoW has thousands of players willing to pay money every month to keep playing.


That's a huge difference though. Once you enter the room you roll into, there is a lit book on the floor. They have to type get book, that's not overly hard, and I don't think that's pressing the new player to make them start off by interacting. And it's a new players handbook. It's fairly easy these days, people just have to try. The main issue we see though is not lack of newbie help, it's lack of low level grouping the way it used to be. The help is still there, and leveling noobs is far easier than it used to be.

I honestly don't think noob equipment is a horrid idea, but I don't believe that's the fix for it.


It is not rediculous to expect a new player to type "get book", but it is also not rediculous to give them a lit item to make it that one more step easier. Both points are valid. I'll see what I can do.
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Postby Tasan » Sun Feb 18, 2007 3:50 am

Sarvis wrote:You're right that this isn't WoW. WoW has thousands of players willing to pay money every month to keep playing.


You're right, and WoW also spent millions on advertising and has a paid staff. Pull yer head out of yer ass when you argue.
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Postby Sarvis » Sun Feb 18, 2007 4:30 am

Advertising doesn't retain players.
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Postby Tasan » Sun Feb 18, 2007 5:57 am

There you go ignoring 97% again.
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Postby Kegor » Sun Feb 18, 2007 9:22 am

Really good topic here.

I don't know about anyone else, but I very rarely feel I need to read instruction manuals for anything. What a boring way to start doing something if you know the general idea of what you are doing.

I fully agree things should be made more simple for starting players. Upgrade newbie gear a bit so that people can function at level 1. It's ridiculous that you pretty much have to have a decent alt here to start leveling a character with any great efficiency by yourself (on a normal persons free time schedule). Especially when a fair percentage of the people here have played this game for years with no pwipe. Eq standards are through the roof and new players notice this before too long. Maybe this fact deters the lames that will afk in zones or not ever level fully enough to zone anyways, but the mud should try to start everyone off feeling like they are not practically helpless and can level themselves efficiently to catch up to the rest of the who list and get into the game. This could also even branch off into the exp table category.

Fact is that new players notice lots of things, and this is definately a much tougher mud to start playing now than when we started playing it. Should fix it up mightily.
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Postby Ambar » Sun Feb 18, 2007 2:02 pm

Maybe a more thorough newbie school? One that when you complete it you get a cool item that will be still of use to you at a higher level? Maybe class related? A !burn, 150 page book for mages, a !burn bag .. something smallish that the older players wont bitch about, but something enticing for new folks ..

Our noob area is WONDERFUL for the older players but I can see newer folks having some trouble .. Maybe FORCE them to read/go into the rooms by adding messages .. ie: Read this sign or you cannot progress .. stuff like that .. O and once you go thru it a flag is set so you cant go thru it again! Also give the option for the fogeys rolling alts to not have to go thru it if they chose not to .. or make the prize character dependent so it cant be farmed our or handed off ..

Edit: Good Lord I need to proofread sometimes!
Last edited by Ambar on Sun Feb 18, 2007 5:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby Sarvis » Sun Feb 18, 2007 2:10 pm

Tasan wrote:There you go ignoring 97% again.


Frankly, 97% of what you write just isn't worth responding to.
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Postby Sarvis » Sun Feb 18, 2007 3:02 pm

You know, i was just playing Rygar and I'm completely lost as to how it works. I mean, waht is Tone and Last? Is Power Up permanent?

Anyway, somehow this made me start thinking... it's kind of hard for any of us to put ourselves in a noobs shoes, someone trying this MUD for the first time or even _any_ MUD for the first time.

I mean, look at Botef pointing out a difficulty his friends had with the MUD and then a few people are saying things are fine as is?

Maybe some imms/players can get some friends who have never MUDded before to try the game, and sit with them documenting their initial experience? Not even helping them out or explaining things like Botef did, just sitting there and observing so that we can improve the game for people who are truly new to the game/genre.

Well, just a thought.
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Postby Gurns » Tue Feb 20, 2007 10:24 pm

Sarvis wrote:I jumped into WoW without reading a single tutorial or line of instructions...Why should it take more effort for a noob to get into this game?

Because this is, and I think should be, a harder game than WoW. At least with 2.0, I would hope that everyone is required to think regularly. So there's nothing like rogues where sneak/hide is perfect invisibility everywhere, no invoker class where it's nothing but cast damage, and no bard class where people are content if all you do is sing heal during fights and recovery during ressing.

The question, of course, is when do you make them start thinking? I don't know.

I can see making it even easier for newbies by giving them a light. After all, when we were newbies, most of us had mudded before, and so had a feel for it. If you've only had experience with MMORPGs, they are quite different (and easier).

And I can see not making it easier for newbies. If they can't deal with the challenge of finding a light, if they won't ask for help with that, then they probably aren't going to last, anyway.

So the question is, should we make it simpler, keeping more clueless newbies for longer? I think I'd say "yes", and I'm not generally one to come down on that side of the argument. Nor do I have any desire for the game to be populated by clueless level 50s. But yes, load the character with a Newbie Book in inventory. The reason for it is, if we are able to keep the clueless newbies for a while longer, than the newbies who have a clue will have someone to group with. And that's crucial to keeping players.

Jaznolg wrote:this is definately a much tougher mud to start playing now than when we started playing it. Should fix it up mightily.

Not in reality, but there is something to what you say, relatively.

Reality: I've rolled up various chars of various classes in the last few years, and it's a lot easier to start than after the pwipes of Soj 1, Toril 1, and Soj 2. And that's with only newbie gear, no handouts or alt gear. Yes, even mages are easy.

Relatively: It still takes a while to level, and with few folks in the low and mid-levels, and probably no one interested in leading zones for these players (I generally have LFGC off, so maybe there's more of that than I think), it seems like it takes a very long time. An important part of mudding is the social interaction, and if you're doing solo work from 1 to 46... Pretty boring, which will mean it feels like it's taking forever.

Ambar wrote:Maybe a more thorough newbie school? One that when you complete it you get a cool item that will be still of use to you at a higher level?

The first thing I'd suggest is mentioning the Up exit of the first room in the room description. NSEW and D are listed in big letters, but not U. And that's where TorilMUD's newbie instruction area is.

I could see a newbie school, more along the lines of the one that some muds used to have. Not only did those schools talk about the different commands, but they gave you the opportunity to use the commands. I'd suggest no reward for completing it. But also no requirement for going through it.

Set it up off the first room, like the current newbie school. So folks who want to jump right into the mud can. Folks who want to go to the school right at the beginning can run through it. And folks who jump in and die a lot can recall and go through the school, to see just what they're doing wrong.
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Postby Lilira » Tue Feb 20, 2007 10:59 pm

I also suggest updating the Newbie Helper list to some who are active players, and maybe due to the fact that there are fewer active players in general these days upping the max level on the NHC channel to 30th. It really sucks to have people on the who helper list that are perm AFK... also when people look to contact others of their class to talk to about it there is a similar problem. Can't do anything about the second really, but having active players on the helper list might be a little better.
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Postby Adriorn Darkcloak » Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:29 pm

I think in the end, most of this is dependent on what type of player you want to attract. Making things easier will attract one type of player, while leaving things to be discovered will attract another. I know people want numbers back in the game, but in the end what do you want those numbers to consist of?

I think I just wrote complete poop, hopefully not.
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Postby Sarvis » Wed Feb 21, 2007 12:23 am

Adriorn Darkcloak wrote:I think in the end, most of this is dependent on what type of player you want to attract. Making things easier will attract one type of player, while leaving things to be discovered will attract another. I know people want numbers back in the game, but in the end what do you want those numbers to consist of?

I think I just wrote complete poop, hopefully not.


This is really the wrong way of thinking. Things simply need to be easy at the start, so people can get a feel for the basics of the game. Things can get harder as you go along, but they don't have to start off bone crushing.

Things should get harder as you go along, forcing players to learn and gain a clue. But when you're playing for the first time and don't even know the basic commands yet, why pile on extra difficulties?
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Postby Adriorn Darkcloak » Wed Feb 21, 2007 5:21 am

Sarvis wrote:This is really the wrong way of thinking. Things simply need to be easy at the start, so people can get a feel for the basics of the game. Things can get harder as you go along, but they don't have to start off bone crushing.

Things should get harder as you go along, forcing players to learn and gain a clue. But when you're playing for the first time and don't even know the basic commands yet, why pile on extra difficulties?


This is really the wrong way of thinking. I started playing here without ever having played a mud before, knowing any kind of commands like the ones in the game, etc. I know jack poop about coding, or what a program like tintin was, yet I still managed (somehow) to do fairly well (hopefully). I died 3,203,402 times as a noob, and I killed twice that amount of players doing UM "excursions". But, I cannot imagine making things easier than how many things are now. Scardale, where you can get levels fast as poop there and learn some of the ropes. There's a NHC that noobs can use, and do use, to ask questions. There are plenty of help files available to help you move along as well. Not only in game, but also from the website directory under the Information link. These are all things that did not exist before.I do agree with what someone originally stated about giving noobs a source of continual light.

Will it be easy for everyone? No, of course not. If I asked my wife to try to play, she would not even know how to connect to the mud. Figuring out that you have to kill a monster to go up a level would most likely take 2 days. Would I want her as a player on the mud? Hell no, I'd be insane.

But like I said, it all depends on what type of player you want to attract. If it's just numbers you're interested in, by all means, make it Lenny friendly. I agree with Gurns that this should be, and is really, a harder game than WoW. Quantity does not equal quality. Besides, I think Shev said that 2.0 should take care of alot of the pesky stuff that we have to put up with now, which will probably be very helpful for noobs.
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Postby amolol » Wed Feb 21, 2007 6:19 am

id like to point out that "this is the the wrong way of thinking" is a sure way to get your post skipped basically your discounting someones opinion. you may not agree with the opinion but its an opinion, and an opinion by definition cannot be wrong
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Postby Tasan » Wed Feb 21, 2007 1:27 pm

Not using correct punctuation, or any at all, is a good way to get your post skipped too.

I dunno about you, but mud school smacks of cheese. Why not allow helpers the ability to show someone around in Scardale? Give helpers a command that only they can use(log it if you're paranoid about twinking) to go to a new player in Scardale. Helpers by default are chosen by the staff for a reason, I don't see why they shouldn't be allowed in the place where the new players hang out.

You start in a room w/ a perm lit item, I think that's enough hard-coded hand-holding.
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Postby Sarvis » Wed Feb 21, 2007 3:54 pm

Adriorn Darkcloak wrote:
Sarvis wrote:This is really the wrong way of thinking. Things simply need to be easy at the start, so people can get a feel for the basics of the game. Things can get harder as you go along, but they don't have to start off bone crushing.

Things should get harder as you go along, forcing players to learn and gain a clue. But when you're playing for the first time and don't even know the basic commands yet, why pile on extra difficulties?


This is really the wrong way of thinking. I started playing here without ever having played a mud before, knowing any kind of commands like the ones in the game, etc. I know jack poop about coding, or what a program like tintin was, yet I still managed (somehow) to do fairly well (hopefully). I died 3,203,402 times as a noob, and I killed twice that amount of players doing UM "excursions". But, I cannot imagine making things easier than how many things are now. Scardale, where you can get levels fast as poop there and learn some of the ropes. There's a NHC that noobs can use, and do use, to ask questions. There are plenty of help files available to help you move along as well. Not only in game, but also from the website directory under the Information link. These are all things that did not exist before.I do agree with what someone originally stated about giving noobs a source of continual light.

Will it be easy for everyone? No, of course not. If I asked my wife to try to play, she would not even know how to connect to the mud. Figuring out that you have to kill a monster to go up a level would most likely take 2 days. Would I want her as a player on the mud? Hell no, I'd be insane.

But like I said, it all depends on what type of player you want to attract. If it's just numbers you're interested in, by all means, make it Lenny friendly. I agree with Gurns that this should be, and is really, a harder game than WoW. Quantity does not equal quality. Besides, I think Shev said that 2.0 should take care of alot of the pesky stuff that we have to put up with now, which will probably be very helpful for noobs.


I'm not saying make the entire game easy. But why should it be punishing to start? I'm glad you enjoyed constant death and lack of progress starting off in Scardale, but most people wouldn't. More to the point, just because they don't find being slaughtered every 5 seconds fun doesn't mean they couldn't become a great player once they figured things out.

The beginning should be easy. It should be about learning the controls, not about surpassing challenges. That should come later.

The game should be hard, hell it should even weed out bad players. It just shouldn't be trying to do that at level 1.
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Postby Ragorn » Wed Feb 21, 2007 4:28 pm

There is no "wrong kind of player" for Toril. You don't have to get along with everybody, but to push for (or against) code changes because you don't want to associate with a certain type of gamer... is there a better definition for "elitist" than that?
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Postby Botef » Wed Feb 21, 2007 4:34 pm

Interesting discussions in here...

My opinion on this is simple. The most critical time in a new players experience is the first hour or so of game play. They've already spent time rolling a character and picking a class, and for most people the first thing they will want to do is kill something. How many of you honestly take the time to read a game manual before you jump in and muck around. Keep in mind this is a free game...Someone who bought WoW is going to invest a bit more time learning how to play after shelling out cash for it...Someone who finds our mud isn't going to have the same vested interest at first.

The point I was trying to make here has nothing to do with making a player think or be a better player, it has to do with assuring they have good odds of getting into the game and getting hooked.

We already have a perm-illuminated item on the ground...But for someone who is new and just spent 20 minutes rolling their character, they probably are going to jump right in. To suddenly find themselves in a dark room with an inability to see is a quick way for them to be bored, quit and move on to a game that lets them start playing right off the bat. I don't see why the difficulty for new players is so imperative for some...Who honestly wants to play a game that gets you killed or is impossible to gain xp in for the first few levels? Especially one that is in a dated format (text) in comparison to whats out there now.

The point here is that in order to get new players to honestly take the time to test this game out and really taking a liking to it is if that first hour of gameplay goes smoothly. Being unable to see for 12 minutes because you overlooked the perm-illuminated item on the ground in the first room seems like a pretty silly way to lose out on a new player when we could just as easily put that perm-illuminated item in there inventory...It could be as simple as giving every new player....a newbie handbook.
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Postby Glorishan » Wed Feb 21, 2007 6:36 pm

Ragorn wrote:is there a better definition for "elitist" than that?


Probably not, but elitests kick ass. 3 cheers for the elitists out there!
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Postby Ifin » Wed Feb 21, 2007 8:14 pm

For an older player re-learning the new Toril and saying it's a lot easier than before, it's because you already know what to expect and what the end-game is.

When playing the older Toril, there were tons of people running around, dying with you, and excitement in the air - you could *see* what to expect in the end-game. Shouts from WD, people in goblin caves with you, competition to xp wherever you go, and the chance to always zone. You saw it and lived vicariously through others activity while you were lvl'ing yourself.

Some of the comments I hear from new newbies is a joke. I lol'ed when after like 2 shouts in WD a new newbie was like "wow that's the busiest I've seen it since I started playing". I saw the same comment from another newbie when he saw LFG light up once - that's the sad state of the newbie game nowadays. And what do you see for end-game - a small # of players sitting around doing nothing most of the time. Comparing to what it used to be etc. is not valid.

The bottom line is older players will eventually leave, so we newer players to maintain a pbase. And surprisingly true newbies still show up, but they never make it past a certain level because of how the game is set up - even though they may be quality players, which I'm sure we have all seen. And this has been alerted for at least a year now w/multiple suggestions from a whole variety of players with no changes, so I don't see why changes would happen now.
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Postby Tasan » Thu Feb 22, 2007 6:47 am

Ifin wrote:When playing the older Toril, there were tons of people running around, dying with you, and excitement in the air - you could *see* what to expect in the end-game. Shouts from WD, people in goblin caves with you, competition to xp wherever you go, and the chance to always zone. You saw it and lived vicariously through others activity while you were lvl'ing yourself.


Obviously, you never started as a grey. Grey elves relied solely on the community for help when starting out. I can't count the number of times Xyd, Blaithe, Bailen or Liran would come back to the island, poke around looking for me and help me a bit in my quest to learn the ways of the ranger. I will stand by the fact that having someone else there to help you is a world better than hard-coded hand-holding.

Ifin wrote:The bottom line is older players will eventually leave, so we newer players to maintain a pbase. And surprisingly true newbies still show up, but they never make it past a certain level because of how the game is set up - even though they may be quality players, which I'm sure we have all seen. And this has been alerted for at least a year now w/multiple suggestions from a whole variety of players with no changes, so I don't see why changes would happen now.


Give a newbie a light, he'll see in darkness until he dies.

Teach a newbie how to use light sources and he'll rarely be bothered by darkness.

With apologies to the originator of that proverb.
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Postby Sarvis » Thu Feb 22, 2007 12:53 pm

Tasan wrote:Obviously, you never started as a grey. Grey elves relied solely on the community for help when starting out. I can't count the number of times Xyd, Blaithe, Bailen or Liran would come back to the island, poke around looking for me and help me a bit in my quest to learn the ways of the ranger. I will stand by the fact that having someone else there to help you is a world better than hard-coded hand-holding.


This works well if you're a bard. Less well if you're an invoker. :P

Give a newbie a light, he'll see in darkness until he dies.

Teach a newbie how to use light sources and he'll rarely be bothered by darkness.

With apologies to the originator of that proverb.


He can learn about lights the first time he does a CR and it's night. Hopefully by then he's hooked on the game. :P
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Postby Lilira » Thu Feb 22, 2007 1:59 pm

Tasan wrote:I will stand by the fact that having someone else there to help you is a world better than hard-coded hand-holding.


Ugh.. I hate picking just one thing out of a pretty good post to poke at, but this is a classic case of catch 22.

We're reduced to only a COUPLE OF PEOPLE that bother to help. Far too many players that ARE on are too busy soloing or there are only a couple who bother to chime in when someone asks for help. Part of this is the fact that pbase is down. Another factor is the number of AFKers. I got a tell about a week ago from someone who needed help. He'd been trying over NHC, no response. Finally he started sending tells to people. No response. Then he got to me. For once I was actually not anon.

Just trying to point out that those people out there willing to help aren't as frequent as they once were, and those who are around and might like to help may not have the "tools" to know when someone is looking.

I'm not saying we should dumb up the game, but perhaps a few changes to the helper policy/nhc channel would be of help. Heck, what would be the harm in just opening the channel up? People who want to help could turn it on, people who aren't interested can turn it off just like any other channel. Anyone who abuses it.. well like other channels, they can just be gagged or locked out.

Just my suggestion to make the game more friendly w/o tons of hardcoding...
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Postby Tasan » Thu Feb 22, 2007 6:11 pm

Lilira wrote:classic case of catch 22.

Just trying to point out that those people out there willing to help aren't as frequent as they once were, and those who are around and might like to help may not have the "tools" to know when someone is looking.


Notice my suggestion in a previous post:

Tasan wrote:Why not allow helpers the ability to show someone around in Scardale? Give helpers a command that only they can use(log it if you're paranoid about twinking) to go to a new player in Scardale. Helpers by default are chosen by the staff for a reason, I don't see why they shouldn't be allowed in the place where the new players hang out.


Frankly as much as the admins are gone nowadays, I think it's high time for some new blood upstairs. Admin can all see NHC as well as shouts...
Danahg tells you 'yeah, luckily i kept most of it in my mouth and nasal membranes, ugh'



Dlur group-says 'I have a dead horse that I'm dragging down the shaft with my 4 corpses. Anyone want to help me beat it?'



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Postby Birile » Thu Feb 22, 2007 6:47 pm

Good point, Tasan.

Of all of the people who have signed up as helpers, I only know of a few of us who attempt to answer just about any question that comes up. And it does get frustrating when you want to help somebody but you can't actually go to their physical locale to help out. I know for me, there was something that "clicked" a lot better when whoever was helping me was in the same room as I was and having the conversation with me. *shrug* And then there are just some things that can't be helped unless you're physically there with the new player. Frustrating!
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Postby Vigis » Thu Feb 22, 2007 6:56 pm

I have a low level anti-paladin rolled up to do just that Birile. If i am not engaged with one of my primary characters and a newbie needs help, I'll log on the anti and recall to Scardale.

BTW, I chose an anti because I can use him to group with anybody. The problem is, I have to keep rolling up anti paladins because they always end up leveling past 20 and can't get back into Scardale. :)
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Postby Shar » Thu Feb 22, 2007 7:02 pm

There is something in the works already that will address all of these problems. Not sure yet if it will be ready for initial 2.0 release or if it will have to be implemented with a follow up. Personally, I'm fully aware of the hardships new players may face. It is my job to be the advocate for all new players and believe me, Shevy gets an earful on this topic regularly as he is the one in charge of giving us the completed projects when asked for (nod me.)

This particular project has been something that has been "planned" for quite a few years but finally has the capability of working. Many older helpers may remember being asked to submit a list of concerns or solutions to current problems, (which only a few ended up doing but which helped me immensely) and will finally be shown the light of day... when it is ready.

When it is closer to being ready, details will be given out, just like with most new things for 2.0.
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Postby Yarash » Thu Feb 22, 2007 7:39 pm

As a new player, Toril is harder during the earlier levels and gets progressively easier. In most games, it starts out easy while you get a feel for the game, and then gets harder the further you advance.

I really have to disagree with anyone who says this is a good thing, and backs it up by saying "well, somehow I managed to figure it out."

Most of us are experienced enough where we are blind to the specific problems that could face a new player; things that may seem trivial to us could be a major problem to someone starting out. The torch issue is not something I would have thought of on my own. Anyone who points out specific examples such as this should be thanked...especially since it's so rare to get any feedback about issues that cause newbies to quit.

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Instead of sitting around waiting...

Postby Tral » Mon Feb 26, 2007 8:27 pm

Instead of sitting around with your main character, waiting for something to happen, go roll a new character, try something you haven't been before... A shaman, or a bard, or an illusionist if you've only been a warrior, or an A-P.

And go wait in Scardale. Wait for a newbie to log-in, a true newbie and then go group with them... Answer questions as they come up, teach them how to play by actually playing the game with these new people as a newbie.

Leave your proc'ing weapons and awesome eq on your main characters. Play this new character as a new player to the mud with no connections for money, or eq.

When you do go to WD, don't be afraid to shout... Shout your fool head off...

shout 'LF gauntlets, boots, and a 1h slasher! I've got 15p! What can I buy for 15 platinum coins?!?'

-tral

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