Shattered Kingdoms

I've now put about 15 in-game hours into SK, and at least 5 hours browsing the forums. I'm not new to MUDs at all, having played WoTMUD for a couple years, CarrionFields for many years and a few other MUDs (like some Iron Realms MUDs) for shorter periods. So let's go over my thoughts on Pros/Cons:

Pros or Things I Like:
--Pyrathia! The world itself feels and looks great. The crazy use of color was something that struck me as a bit garish at first, but now I'm used to it and appreciate it. The kingdoms and cities I've been to have been large, sprawling and interesting. I haven't been to many areas outside of newbie areas yet, but I have high hopes.

--Mobs! NPC interaction and dialogue is top notch. This is amplified by the greet system which doesn't immediately tell me whether I'm talking to a NPC or not. I found it funny that I carried out a conversation with someone for a while before I realized it wasn't a PC. They said something like: "Welcome to the city! Are you new here?" and I responded with a full barrage of chatting. But... half the time when I talk to NPCs they DO respond! Far more interactive than my past long-time MUDs.

--Quests! In line with the last item... There seem to be a lot of quests and--here's a nice touch--they keywords are made obvious. Good use of color and speech emphasis goes a loooooong way here.

--The adjective/greeting system makes far more sense from an RP standpoint than global WHO lists. In CF, you can know who someone is, what race/class they are, what they stand for and whether you should kill them or not without ever having met them. I've yet to be PK'ed but I'm hoping the SK system makes for greater roleplay as a whole and less "kill first ask questions later" stuff.

--The varied starting Kingdoms. I think the various Academies are quite a lot of fun, and I've visited 5/6 so far. There are some Cons, which I'll mention below.

--The world map (wilderness view) is very nice! I've played a lot of roguelikes (Nethack/ADOM/DCSS/etc) and I feel right at home. I also like the portal stones and mounts to let you go farther without being exhausted.

--Helpfulness of players IN the MUD. I've had at least half a dozen players in the MUD go out of their way to help me around once they realized I'm new. As I understand it, the mentor system really helps here. In CF, there is no good way for high-level players to help/interact with newbies, and there is no option for an emergency ooc prefix. Quite a shame, really.

--Helpfulness of most players on the forums. There are a few players that have been helpful via either PMs or forum replies, but the amount of "we can't talk about it" is frustrating. More on that below.

Cons or Things I've Found Frustrating:
--Helpfiles! The helpfiles are not actually as helpful as I would hope. They seem rather sparse with both their information and their scope. For example, I like that in CarrionFields every area has a helpfile that gives a basic description and (sometimes) location. So I can look at the areas list and then get the gist of where I might need to go to get there. I also feel that the helpfiles strongly need to allow fuzzy searches, i.e. searching for "new" should bring up "new," "newbie," "news," "brand new items" etc. to choose from. It's irritating to try to find a helpfile and then realize I'm not finding it because the word is slightly off. And why can't I find a helpfile called "PK" or "player" or "players" or "player-killing"?

--Quite a lot of information in the game is obscured and hush-hush on the forums. I completely understand keeping game secrets such as quests, but the very basic starting information should be there... perhaps in the aforementioned helpfiles? For example, if I have a class in mind, I would really like to know if some races are a better choice than others and what the general layout of racial stats is. I don't want to make a half-elven sorcerer (in CF Helf Wizards get 24 Int) and find out that 1) I will get no more than 21 Int and 2) 21 Int is a joke. Posting and asking "Does Human Sorcerer sound OK?" on the forums and getting a lot of blank stares was frustrating. Can anyone tell me what races have a decent xxx stat? "Sorry, we can't talk about it." And why don't the helpfiles list 1) Which races can play which classes and 2) Which classes can be which races?

--Some newbie schools need more information. The first character I rolled for this game ended up in the Northern Wastes (I picked it at random). Not very helpful if I was new to MUDs, though I did chop off a few arms and eat them. (EDIT: I revisited the Wastes and found it better than I remembered. I think I skipped the "words" hall the first time). Turns out that some of the newbie schools are MUCH better at helping a truly-new-to-MUDs-player than others. I know area-building is an involved process, but I'd suggest at the least the game should recommend certain starting kingdoms for new players. I haven't yet visited Teron, but of the others, I think that The Collegium in Taslamar has the best instructions on how to use commands (better than the helpfiles!) and the most logical trainers layout. I can't tell you how long I wandered with my other characters in other schools just trying to find someone who could teach me magic missile. Walked all through Nerina for about 2 RL hours. Once I realized that any random NPC might be able to train you (versus a "trainer" or "guildmaster" like other MUDs), it got much easier. Anyway, in Taslamar it's quite obvious that there is a trainer for each class and I doubt the same thing would have happened had I started there.

--Shops. Why is there a forum thread 5+ pages long debating whether shops should give a little more information about the items they sell? OF COURSE they should! A shopkeeper wants people to buy his stuff and should advertise it appropriately. I'm not buying Edoras' argument that a new player should rack up 100 obsidian and try everything themselves. I haven't managed to make one obsidian and I'm well past Amateur status. And even if I did buy the stuff, how would it help me? I put on some random piece of jewelry that cost 7 platinum (a fortune for a newbie) and find that... well... I have no idea what it does or if it is useful. Frustrating. Some other MUDs I've played have had a "browse" command for shops so that if you want to "browse" an item that shopkeeper may/may not tell you a bit about it.



...or... if they are not feeling as helpful...



Final Suggestions:
--Please relax a bit on "sharing OOC information" for the benefit of newbies ("Think of the noobs!"). If I hadn't been a MUDder already, seen the potential of this MUD, and had a few people help me out even though they "shouldn't have", I wouldn't have stuck around. Things like "how should I best use these attribute points I have?" shouldn't be top-secret.
--Consider improving the helpfiles, both in information, scope and search abilities.
--Consider making it easier for newbies to identify basic items. Shopkeepers should give some descriptions and it would be helpful if not all numbers were so obscured in game. Why not add a NPC that will identify items for a small fee? Compare command is a start, but falls short I think.

Overall: Despite my frustrations I've been enjoying SK! Thanks!

I think that the core ideal behind how all the shopkeepers don't tell you everything about their items is that you are supposed to be encouraged to interact with other players to find those things out. For armor and weaponry the material and subtype should be all that you need to know (barring high-level shops), so the only store-bought EQ that you absolutely need to know the enchantments on are jewelry: And you're probably better off just deciding what you -need- in terms of enchantments and asking around for help on that, rather than buying some random jewelry and hoping it does what you need.

It would, certainly, take a lot of money and some time to catalog absolutely every piece of storebought jewelry in SK, if you were doing such a thing solo. On the other hand, it really doesn't take all -that- long unless you're very new or low level, at which point you are better off either asking another PC what something does first, or just deciding that a 7 platinum piece of jewelry isn't worth buying if you don't know what it's for.

That said, there are a handful of shops that detail through the use of IC signs or shopkeeper scripts that tell you what jewelry does what. However, it's still more beneficial to a player to ask others what something does, rather than spend a bunch of money and time researching things without any help, and I don't think that's a bad thing. It also immediately sacrifices the look and feel of the item itself in the store in favor of emphasizing the stats on it. Sure, when I look at a heart necklace, I think "+2 fortitude," but that's only because I've been playing this game all too long. I recall enjoying as a new player the fact that jewelry shops sold jewelry that looked like jewelry, not "+2 fort necklace" lists.


Ultimately, I've found that with SK, it's better to understand that you are, by no means, going to ever 100% understand the game: And a lot of the fun with the game comes with learning new things. Once you learn everything about every area ever, the game becomes stale. It might take you three or four characters until you bother going through and cataloging everything in "Magicks and Metals" but honestly, once you do, the game won't be any more fun for it. SK gives you the chance to immerse yourself in a huge world, and it's meant to be enjoyed in that way.

I would be willing to add some sort of free identification command for items that the shopkeeper stocks. I agree that the shopkeeper would normally want to tell you the benefits of those items that they normally sell. (Of course there are exceptions, such as when the builder of the area makes a dishonest shopkeeper who is trying to unload bad items on you. Making a new feature like this would make such a shopkeeper impossible, but that is a relatively minor downside.)

When it comes to items that the shopkeeper bought second-hand though, I would not support any identification, unless there is going to be a steep money cost associated with it.

Edoras, I certainly believe that it IS fun to figure things out. I'm just thinking it would be helpful to have a little more information especially in basic things such as standard shopkeeper inventory. As for asking other players... what is the best way to meet such players? And why should they care about me? As far as in-character goes, should I stand at a shop and yell, "Help, I don't know what anything here does and the shopkeeper can't tell me!" I realize, of course, that there is a mentor system, but I'm thinking that it doesn't feel as in-character for a random voice to pop in my mind and say, "I noticed you are new here. Can I help?" So if I wander through a city and don't bump shoulders with anyone naturally, I'm out of luck.

Dulrik, identifying only stock inventory makes plenty of sense. Thanks for responding, whatever you decide.

This is why I like Cameroon's shop. I personally think all stores should be like that. It gives you enough information about the item, but not so much where you get to know the full stats on the item.

I just found that shop yesterday and was thrilled when I did! I also spent a TON of exp struggling to learn some of the basics of the identify spell.

How about instead of a rote "identify," the identify output could be parsed into a sales pitch! You know, instead of ...

moderate enhancement to dexterity (or something like that)

the shopkeeper could say

"It will help you stay fleet of foot!" etc.

All of the different items qualities could be similarly advertised. And, of course, the item value would be inflated as the shopkeeper wants you to know that it's REALLY worth 6 platinum and he's cutting you a deal at 3 platinum 6 gold.

I just want to mention that I was too quick to judge the Northern Wastes newbie zone. I just went there again with a new character and realized that my first short experience there didn't do it justice. The hall of 'words' and 'test' were very helpful and the overall atmosphere was great (in a dark, sickening way).

The Northern wastes newbie area makes me want my mommy

I think that Taslamar's probably the most newb-friendly as far as layout and ease of finding trainers/equipment. Plus, it's generally a good spot for finding decent mentors. However, Ayamao has the ONLY newb area that lets you easily hop around the entire realm and explore the newbie areas . . . not that you'd be able to navigate to them as a new player, but as a vet, it's the only place I really want to roll a character these days.

Ayamao has some of the best starting gear, as well, which you don't even have to pay for.