Shattered Kingdoms

So I'm a new player here which based on many of the posts I've been reading in this forum is something you guys are seriously lacking. With that being said and reading also that your Adventurer's Academy seems to be a new addon for noobs like me, I figured I would be kind enough as to give some insight as to my experience there. (Especially since I'm a professional game developer myself, I know I would appreciate it were the situation reversed)

Positives:
I feel like the academy gave me enough knowledge about moving around, fighting, communication etc etc so that I could feel comfortable doing so. I liked being able to shut off the hints once I was comfortable what I was doing. I also liked the fact that history and lore about the world was built into the walls to be able to read, look at, etc. The game mechanics are similar to others I've played so I was able to pick it up quickly with just a little help.

Negatives:
The entire time I was there I didn't see another PC at all. There were the trainers and at first I thought one of them was real but then realized he was scripted, which was cool because it felt real enough. But if you guys consolidated the academy to be a place for noobs to run into each other, well it didn't happen for me. Also, i was REALLY shocked when all of the sudden I was transported to some place out in the middle of nowhere and had to find my way 'home'. The trainer should have warned me of that or something. Maybe reminded me how to get home once I was there or something.

Finally, this last negative isn't so much about the academy but about this forum. You guys need new players, that's an obvious fact from all the posts. Yet, I'll admit that the huge number of negative posts about the changes that have obviously occurred recently almost made me NOT play. I'm glad I did because I'm having fun thus far but if it almost happened to me, then it's probably happened to other noobs as well. Just keep that in mind when you're griping about not getting any new players in your game.

Anyway, glad to be here. Having fun and who I play IC is my own business so don't even ask

Hey Magemaker!

It stinks that you didn't encounter any other PCs while you were there. In fact, one of the primary goals behind the new adventurer's academy's creation was to consolidate all the starting characters into one single area so that interaction would be more likely even at amateur status. It used to be that each kingdom you could start in had its own training area! It might have just been true that you were unlucky, or that there just aren't as many new players rolling characters (another issue which is sadly true at the moment). The only other interaction that usually happens at the adventurer's academy is from high-level mentor PCs. There are rewards in place for mentoring new characters, so higher-level characters ought to be generally keeping an eye out for people with "New to Pyrathia" in their title, because once you progress past mentor status as a PC, you can not only teach other people skills that you know up through apprentice, but you can also enter into those mentor zones to talk to them! It might be that you created at an inopportune time, or that the high-level characters were otherwise being lazy or involved with something else at the time. Hopefully you've been able to interact with some other PCs so far!

The part that's definitely the most jarring is the way that you get kicked out once you progress past amateur status. I seem to recall there being -some- scripts which are supposed to warn you about that ahead of time, but I might be thinking about other newbie areas from before this new one. It's also easy to potentially miss them in the midst of all the other information presented there, in addition to the fact that every now and then it's possible to walk through a room and miss part of a scripted interaction sometimes. Maybe some more consistently heard reminders could be useful, I know that the Taslamaran newbie area had an NPC who always reminded you how many times you could advance in level every single time that you trained.

I hope that you enjoy SK! The world is really fun to get into, and hopefully we can work on getting some more new players in here!

If you enjoy the history and lore from the academy alone, just wait until you get out there to some of the older areas of the game, there is some really neat stuff out to learn out there! And I'm sure you've noticed the help files have some great descriptions of the Gods/religions/etc, they even have some awesome back-info on the "Old Gods" if you learn the names to look for!

Welcome to the game!

This is great input, MageMaker. I thought we fixed the abrupt forced relocation, but apparently its still an issue. Thanks for letting us know and I hope you enjoy the game!

Fresh..noob meat..

Thank you everyone for a very warm welcome. I really do appreciate it. Thus far I really am enjoying the game and have had some great experiences with other PCs. I'm looking forward to becoming a lasting part of the SK world.

Idea: just have everyone speak god in that area (PCs and NPCs), regardless. Several times the understanding code wore off and I didn't understand those nearby...

Either that or a permanent understanding affect from creation that wears off at level 6...

You mean like the (near) permanent understanding spell the first NPC you pass casts on you?

And I'm pretty sure that NPC keeps casting it on you when you walk into their room (if you've lost the affects).

If you lost it yep it sure does. The spells also last quite a while.