Shattered Kingdoms

This is NOT a problem for true newbies in newbie zones. They don't need a skill trainer; they need someone to spend a good chunk of time helping them with mechanics, area knowledge, and roleplay. Skill training comes in useful later, at Novice+.

The only thing you gain from mixing newbie zones is a higher population density of newbies. I grant there's some merit to this, especially since an experienced player at level 1 can help just as well as a mentor. I just don't think it's worth the demerits of:

* Seperating newbies from the cities they'll soon have to navigate. All the area knowledge you've obtained becomes useless at Novice! A fine graduation present indeed, just as the game becomes far more difficult.

* Seperating newbies from country-based roleplay. SK is in large part an RP mud, and this is the first introduction to some kind of story. Newbies are deciding whether SK is worth their time. We should be putting our best foot forward. Kytar makes a strong impression, while still being simple. Could a multiple-country area be so vivid?

* Breaking character for the six playable nations to agree not only on a common academy, but a common method of teaching and common educational goals. And should you seperate this area into several zones, you lose the higher population density that was the only advantage in the first place.

There still can be a central gathering point for all Newbies to interact. Go back and read SOULTOAST's post.

It is better to have a more diverse MENTOR population available for Newbies. I needed SKILL training from someone of my CLASS, however, I needed knowledge of the use of various items found outside cities from those outside of my CLASS. Also, several kindly strangers kept giving me things with no explanation of what they were for or how to use them. (I can only assume now that many of them were Rogues getting rid of stolen loot.) It would have been nice if there had been someone to identify the purpose of half the items I was carrying around with me.

Excuse me here a moment.... I dont want to appear cruel or anything, but let me give out a couple of pointers.

We are discussing about making the newbie's life more comfortable, and perhaps helping them find a mentor more easily and so on.

How did we end up from that, to asking an almost perfect area, with skill trainers, mentors, people to identify for you, possibly healers.. What next? A free resurrection NPC ? :O

I mean there ARE things one should learn further on in game, as he advances. I dont expect nor wish the newbie area to become a place with red carpets paved, where new characters can do ALL they want easily. Having a hard time to get or know something if often the fun part.

If i had skills train, identifies, healing, mentors, food, water, women(?) all in one place, what the hell, i would just try to get Novice and get the hell out of there to be able to play a bit. Or on the other hand if were lazy, i would stay there forever?

Now dont get me wrong, i am all into helping new and newbie characters, it just does not feel right to give it all away to them from scratch, or they will take it wrong, and DEMAND things after that as well. This could easily lead them to frustration...

Picture this: I make a new char, go to that joined arena for newbies. I lvl, people give me items, identify for me, train my skills, do me favours. All for the sake of newbie friendliness and all. I grow up i become Novice or smthing, and leave towards Uxmaln, Taslamar, anywhee. I find a new trinket someplace so i go in the inn and say "Hey, who will identify this for me?" The people there look at me and ignore me. I get angry since i am used to better behaviour and go again "Cmon I asked WHO will identify this fo me?" People ignore me and or show me off.... I get frustrated. Picture the same in Aghelia or Uxmaln or Empire, but with the guy ending up dead...

See my point? Help the newbies yes, pave a red carpet for them? No.

Ok, then picture a Newbie being handed everything in the world with no understanding of what they are getting and having to drop all of their old equipment due to lack of strength/dexterity and then all of the new equipment is stolen by thieves the moment they logoff. When they log back on, they have no equipment and no help to replace any of it.

There needs to be balance between the two extremes that are in place now. Gifts should come with explanations, otherwise they can end up costing the Newbie dearly.

I partialy agree. When i am often handed something with my newbie, i compare it to my own. I check it's description and examine it very very closely. Then i decide wether or not i will use it for now, keeping my old item, drop my old item, or drop the new item.

When someone comes in real life and gives you a suitcase full of money you take it and say nothing, or you dont take it. You dont ask the (Death would welcome you) Mafia guy if this is dirty money, and it will be confiscated by the police, or if it's legit money and he just feels generous

Be carefull of what you accept, and more importandly what of your old stuff you drop.

I was a true Newbie among many with a single mentor and was talked into trading my old equipment for equipment far superior to what I had. I didn't know any better and ended up having to reequip myself from scratch. I was scared to death to ask for help again after that fiasco for quite some time--once burned, twice shy syndrome.

If PM is the only way that you wanted feedback, it would have been nice if you had mentioned that (especially since you came back to this same thread to post your response to that sole PM). I went to a lot of time to give serious, thoughtful feedback on the area here. I would assume as a moderator that you ARE reading all the threads in the public forums.




Thematically, if you say so- especially if/when Taslamar develops more population outside Exile. Making the portal more evident would be the best way to address this. I didn't know it existed until it was mentioned in this thread.




If that was me, baldy, I apologize. With my character Timmil (my first character playing again since the mentor system was implemented) I found myself trying to help an overhelming number of people, and a few times even too many. But even a mentor might not know if certain equipment is going to be taken by thieves- especially if that same character never lost comparable equipment at comparable levels. It would be very curious to ever have an ENTIRE outfit of armor stolen at the same time- unless you were given an entire suit of very high level armor... Also, if someone tried to help you the first time, and the second time you are "scared to death" to ask for help again.... What sense does that make? If you could find help once- even if it didn't work perfectly- why would you think you couldn't find help again? After the first encounter, you at least found yourself fully equipped, so wouldn't you think that you could find yourself fully equipped again the second time? Maybe the second time you could actually draw from your own experiences and ask questions, play an active role on your end of the mentoring process, and try to prevent the "burn" from happening again. Whoever it was who went to this cost and time and effort to help you out is the one who should be "twice shy"... after getting that kind of critical response to what was probably a sincere effort to help someone when obviously nobody else had.... yeesh.




That is a very, very good point. But I remind you that the newbie is just as responsible for asking questions. Newbies should not be given the world on a silver platter- just as they need be responsible for reading the help files, they are also responsible for asking questions of the mentors who have taken time out of their own character's playtime to help you. You personally seem curiously vocal as a new player, so I'd assume that you would have done so. I just want to warn against the trend of those who seem to want a newbie to be free of any challenges.

That's why I started asking questions in the forums. It is very hard to follow (at least for me at the beginning) when there are too many people in the same room carrying on too many different conversations. Think of a modern schoolroom with thirty students all trying to get the teacher's attention at once. It isn't good for the teacher or the student. At the time, I didn't even know what the mentor command was and just wanted to find the next place after the Newbie school that I should go to to gain more experience. I also didn't know to ask about the Continual Light spell so that I wouldn't have to buy torches. Basically, I didn't ask the right questions because I didn't know the right questions to ask. Therefore, when I did ask a question, I often got an answer in game that I didn't understand.