Shattered Kingdoms

That may be true, but there are always people that learn better from some form of interaction. I know it took me a good 5 characters to get the basics down, and that was from watching others in the computer lab. I'm one of these that learns by doing not reading. So if people are new and can benifit from this type of help, I don't see why it shouldn't be offered. I'm not saying force everyone to do it, I'm saying give them the option. If they opt not to have a guided tour, then they can have the noteboards.

First of all thank you for responding in a serious barrage of posts.
At least we got something out of it as big D addressed the isssue of the waterskin. Thats one less problem to worry about now.

I might have stumbled into two spiders in a row i cannot remember.

I know my post was the worse case scenario, and i was actually laughing my arse off as i stumbled from one bad spot to another But still, it can happen.

Moving the newb areas outside cities is bad. Taslamar's is way off and you have to pass through portal stones to get to Exile, making yourself a potential target for those stone lurkers.

I would too, like to see the auto newbie work like this.

I activate auto newb on my 44 lvl char, i am not allowed to PK lvl 5 and bellow.
Newb activates auto newbie, even if i have the flag off i cannot kill him. Perhaps only stun? Just a suggestion..

Having larger ammount of PE and slower regeneration rates sounds good, but i am not completely certain how it can be implemented within the code...

I am open to any kind of suggestions Thanks for replying.

Question: Why not remove or lessen the wilderness NPCs?

On the upside, less newbies would be killed and others would be less annoyed.

On the downside, nasty wilderness NPCs are part of "exploring," spiders play a distinct role in PK, and I'm not sure I dislike their existance.

Something to be debated, perhaps.

It's not slower regeneration, it's slower increase per level. For instance, if a char previously started with 1000 PE points and gained 100 a level (including 1 for simplicity's sake), I'd opt for having them start with 3000 PE and gain 60 more PE per level. There's less difference between them and a higher level char in this case.

Though I'm not sure how much of the PE difference is raw levels and how much is endurance skill+higher dex and con.

Anyone recommending that a complete newbie walk 100 leagues to train in another city is being cruel and unkind. Find out what is so bad about their *current* home training ground, before sending them on an adventure that may make them hate the game. You wouldn't send a 16yr old interstate by themselves if they were having problems at school, would you?

Any newbie not RPing when asking for help in an inn may well get ignored, because they look almost no different from a twink who is just being lazy (A male human says 'any1 got gold'). Making an effort to try and RP should get noticed at this point (opposite aura could give aid: 'Oh, poor little elf wants some spare coin. Here's a few copper: go buy some rotten bread for your family!'; give gold 6 elf; *guffaw* ).

Always refer people to HELP command, web-based help and the FAQ area.

Almost all the trouble in the original post comes from bad advice. What the fictious newbie needed was better training, armor, and weapons, all of which Nerina has in abundance. Especially with newbies, it's important to guide them so they can safely prosper, instead of taking them to high-risk, high-gain places a veteran would prefer.

I agree mentors are the best solution, but I'd also agree with ugrading newbie trainers so they teach weapons up to "good". Newbies using merely "fair" weapon skills are getting common, since they've no idea even to look for better trainers. And trying to kill things at "fair" is needlessly difficult and painful.

I noticed Sukra trained my swim up to good recently, perhaps hes been looked at already for other things?

From what I've seen, Sukra's training varies wildly with the Class, Race, and Level of the person being trained. I've never been able to get above Average with straight training in Newbie Narina, but then I've only reached Novice level. Holding off leveling I've been able to reach Fair fighting Zakami in the Proving Grounds. On the flip side, Sukra won't train you when the XP cost is higher than the advantage of more training. Therefore, I can see advantages and disadvantages to the current status quo.

Back when I was Imming, the spiders were actually level 20ish giant ticks. I changed them to spiders, dropped the AC on the scale so they were easier to kill, and I think I dropped the spider's level to about 10. Their frequency of spawning was also dropped.

While they were wimped severely, they still pose a significant threat to someone sub-initiate. I've always felt those people should be in the safety of cities anyhow, so there should be very few people getting destroyed by those NPCs in particular.

Once a newbie reaches Novice (at least in Nerina) you are banned from the Training Grounds. There is only PkP in the city, so you eventually have to leave the city to gain more XP. It is very easy for a newbie to accidentally step off the road (or run into something on the road) that will get them killed. I personally have been killed by spiders and tigers and was nearly poisoned to death by a scorpion. There is plenty of danger outside of the city and not much to do inside besides initial exploration, training, and buying equipment & supplies.