Shattered Kingdoms

The bard in Nerina is updated from time to time with news. Holds nothing for information about honing your skills.

Would be nice if every time you trained a level the trainer would give you the name of an area suitable for one of the average aura of the area and your status to go train in. (Teron would have grays Nerina half grays half light Sith exile light Empire north dark etc)
"Congratulations you have advanced! Have you ever been to the orc hive northwest of Exile ?" Quite a bit of work but could pay off for a city with it on its trainers.

Remember you dont learn how to level with one char, takes time and experimentation. But if you get a dont know or have to give a dont know remember there are people out there who do know. I dont know but XXX might. One "I dont know" isnt the end of all your asking about training.

I find it helps to join a cabal and religion and ask the upper levels there. They're more likely to help you train if you're going to be their ally from then on out.

But I agree it is very hard to play this game as a newbie. If I didn't have Gremlin there to answer my millions upon millions of questions, I would have quit long ago.

I'm still stuck in perma-newbdom, but I learn more with every character.

This is sooooooooooooooo true. I help out newbies when I can with telling them areas/giving coins/where shops are and such. But I usually make up an excuse to not go heal/tank for them if they aren't in the same cabal/trib/religion as me(unless I need the training too) because helping people level is waaaay more boring than actually leveling yourself.

You almost had me there. At first glance, this looked like a serious post. Nice one!

Peace,
Bux

I don't think I follow you. The area that is there now is utterly crap compared to the Undead Caverns that used to be there. There were a lot more atmosphere at the time.

Another thing I miss is the sewers just beneath Exile (i know it has just moved a few leagues) but still it added something to the city. Everything has been totally seperated now a days.

The thing I used to like about the Caverns of the Dead were that they were laid out as the perfect progressively graded levelling area for a new character (or especially, new player) to cut their teeth on.

Thematically and descriptively they were appalling, but gameplay wise they were unsurpassed for the purpose that they served. I think it was the gameplay / explorative side of things that supplied the undeniable atmosphere. It certainly wasn't the quality of the awful descriptions.

With respect to whoever it was that rebuilt them as the Ayamoan Outpost, I despise the place. The descriptions are worlds better than the old Caverns, but thematically it's terrible (the penning up of sentient creatures for butchery and "training" at the leisure of their captors is something more worthy of the depravity of the Empire or Krychire - it's morally abhorant that the Ayamoan nation would sanction it). Complete aside, I have the same thematic objection to the Ayamoan newbie school as well. Maybe it's just me?

And as far as gameplay is concerned, the Outpost is terribly dull and repetative. The only thing it is good for is getting a quick five levels under your belt before moving on. And in that respect, it is exquisitely tuned.

Although I really believed at the time that the Caverns of the Dead needed a descriptive and thematic overhaul, on balance (and with 20/20 hindsight) I'd take them back over the Ayamoan Outpost if it were ever a choice of one over tuther (which of course it's not - the Caverns are Dead and gone, no pun intended)



You're out of touch. There's an entrance to the sewers right back bang in the centre square again now (sorry, The Cross!). You can smell the reek of them from the taproom of the Hart and Rose. Lots of other entrances throughout the city also.

Interesting, however, that you have such luxurious sewers beneath a city with open gutters; they'd have been better themed as catacombs and underground river to my mind. Then again, I had my chance to have my say and effectively dropped the ball, so damned if I'm going to critisize the guy that picked the ball up in my place and continued the run.

Besides, Fecal Demons rock. I'm even quite fond of the lurkers down there these days. As for mire ghouls? Work of genius, wish I'd thought of them

That bites. I believed the answers I have given to your character was quite thorough. I am not sure how to go beyond: "Where have you been so far, and here's the exact directions how to get to the next spot." Unless of course, you were expecting to be taken there.


Coincidentally, and I do hope this makes you feel slightly better, this is the norm on most if not all online games. Sadly at some point in our lives perhaps only the exceptional few would not think: "It is just another newbie." As for answers, don't give up, there are those who will give you better.


Ah, those were the days! This has been removed for many years now. It was not a change in the previous year or two.

Right, your character was one of those that comprised the "little" as opposed to the lack of anything. So, no worries, I haven't forgotten/ignored/disliked the help you gave, but mine was a general statement. There are some other characters who've helped as well, but again, in general, there is little available by way of answers.

Yes, it was the days. But it actually proves my point rather well I think as the mud has degenerated over the years from being something really nice with a lot of freedom to a mud where you are forced to do all kind of things.

Getting to the wastelands cannot be easy.
You have to explore, lets introduce familarity.
You are not allowed to level fast.
and so on... people are indirectly forced to do things they don't want to do.

Not just you. I've never really understood why newbies kill locked up, hurt animals (such as the wounded bird) in Ayamao, of all places.