Shattered Kingdoms

Hi, complete newb here, I just came across this game today and have been giving it a try. It's been a lot of fun, only I ran into a bit of a snag when I was trying to set my character's description.

Basically I made a minor mistake, and trying to fix it only resulted in turning it into a horrible ugly mess. I'm kind of confused because I followed the instructions, typed .c on a blank line, then .h when it turned out that didn't work, and all that got me was a bunch of c's and h's tagged onto the end of an already screwed up description.

The character is so new I guess I could always delete it and try again, carefully this time, but I'm hoping there's something simple I'm overlooking here...

You need to turn off parsing. In most Mud programs it is the little computer icon in the lower right hand corner.

You can also put the dot commands in quotes:
".c" for example.

Welcome to SK! This is a common problem, it might be a good idea for help desc to mention it.

Got it now, thanks!

It took me a few minutes to figure out, I'm using Fire Client and there's nothing about parsing, I had to uncheck 'expand paths' instead.

Welcome and good luck!

Welcome indeed.

I hate to make new threads for trivial stuff, so I figured I'd just turn this one into a catchall for any random newbie questions/musings that come to mind.

First off, this place seems to have a great community. Thanks for all the help and welcomes, and in return I shall pester you even more!

Okay well first of all, I was wondering if there was a way to know either what skills you had enough experience to train. Sometimes the trainers will tell me to go away and get more experience for one skill but have no problem teaching me another. I like the training system here (though maybe it could be explained a bit more clearly in the help files, at first I assumed I got a certain number of trains per level like in most muds...) but the problem is I can't seem to find any numbers or other indication of what I can learn or what I can't. I just have to go down the list asking them to teach me stuff and see what they say. This is made even more confusing when one guy will tell me I don't have enough xp for dodge, but I walk to the next room and the guy there has no problem teaching me about it.

Oh yes and is there away to tell how much having something resized will cost before you actually do it?

Another thing I was curious about was alignment. I guess it doesn't matter with a newb character, but for future reference is there any way to tell whether someone is good/evil/neutral that doesn't require you to go adventuring with them and see whether or not they stab you in the back? Also is there a way to tell which kingdom they're from? (disclaimer: I'm still in the starting zone, I'm just going by what I see on the who list and the couple of other newbies I've actually seen face-to-face, disregard this question if there are characters running around with a really obvious [EVIL] tag in red letters next to their name or something that makes me sound equally [REDACTED].)

My next question was about roleplaying, sort of. I've read on the forums and in the help files that you're supposed to have a background for your character, I've come up with one but now I'm not sure if you're actually supposed to enter it in the game somehow (I've seen some with a 'background' command) or if I just keep it in Notepad for private reference on the off chance somebody asks me about my family or whatever.

Also, my character only speaks and writes sylvan, is that going to be a problem? I mean I already worked a reason for this into their background but I take it this means I may not be able to talk to other humans and that could get awkward...

If you type skill and/or spell, it will give you a list of your skills and spells, and the status level they're associated with. You can train skills and spells above your status level, but the experience cost of doing so is much greater. Inversely, training skills and spells below your status costs you less experience.

Using your worth command will give you a rough idea of how much experience you have available to train skills and spells. Using your score command will tell you your status level. I believe the class lists (found from the main page of this website) also tell you the status level of trainable skills.

Seperate from training skills and spells, you can train your attributes as well. Not all teachers teach the same stats. Typing train stat in front of a teacher will give you the list of stats that said trainer can improve, assuming you have training sessions available for that. You get a stat point every other level, and start with three stat trains.

As to alignment, there are certain mage and clerical spells that reveal someone's alignment. Know alignment, for example, will give a specific reading, and detect aura will give a light/grey/dark reading. I'm not sure whether there are easily accessible vials, scrolls, or wands of these for newbies. Other than that, it will require RP and adventuring, or someone else (who can detect such things) telling you. Some races are aura-locked. For example, all deep-elves are dark aura'd, and all elves/griffons are light aura'd.

The background for your character isn't entered into the game anywhere. I've seen a lot of MUSHes with that sort of thing as well, but in SK the onus is on you and those you interact with to draw that story out through getting to know each other.

Languages are pretty easy to train, and there are a few readily accessible npc teachers that will give you at least a working knowledge of each one. Check libraries in starting cities (Sith'a'niel, Nerina, Teron, Exile, Krychire, and Menegroth) for these teachers, as that's most often where they're found. Most characters of mentor level or higher will be able and (often) willing to teach languages as well.

Speaking of PC teachers...Using the mentor command can be very helpful, even if the only available mentors are not your class. Some skills and spells cross over between classes, and other things like languages can be taught to anyone. It's also a good way to get started ICly in your adventuring life. Type mentor in the newb area of your starting city, or in the inn of your starting city, and anyone of mentor status or higher who has mentoring turned on will get a message that you're looking for a teacher.

Good luck, and have fun.

Most of your questions were well answered. The question about resize cost was (edit)accidentally(/edit) overlooked. You will not be able to know the exact cost to resize an item, but that doesn't mean you can't get a rough estimate of the cost. If your item is damaged (less than brand new), going to the blacksmith/tailor and typing list with the item in your inventory and not worn will show the cost of repairing it. If it costs 3 platinum to get a superb item repaired, it's going to be expensive to resize it. But if it costs 2 gold to get a good item repaired, resizing will be very inexpensive.

Another option is to go to shops and 'value' the item, to see what value the shopkeeper puts on it. The more the shopkeeper offers, the more it will cost to resize. Note: Some shopkeepers are thieves and some are reasonable.

I haven't taken the time to figure out what the resizing cost will be with the available info but it's possible, given time, to get a reasonably close estimate.

Some items cannot be resized at blacksmiths or tailors. For those items, you need to find a friendly sorceror to shrink or enlarge it. If it can't be sewn, a tailor can't resize it. If it isn't metal, a blacksmith can't resize it.

I missed the resize question by accident, but as an addendum to items that can't be resized at a blacksmith or tailor, there are lots of priests out there who know of certain scrolls that will resize items too, and they can help in a pinch. Just ask around if you end up with something you need made larger/smaller, and can't get an npc to work on it due to material type.