Shattered Kingdoms

I was helping a friend, trying to get him interested in the game today, and I figured, I'll have him start in Nerina, since that works well with the concept he has in mind, and is a killer newb area for leveling.

He got to level 6, with some trouble I might add, because he didn't have enough money on his person to start with to buy a set of leather armor, so once in a while NPCs would slaughter him in like four rounds where he of course didn't hit because he has a sucky wooden dagger and (very good) (increasing starting skill to VG was a great move btw, not complaining here) skill with it.

When he dinged level six, I wanted to teach him a few rogue skills, apparently not too easy to come by in Nerina. But no worries I thought to myself, the new newb school in Exile will be awesome for this purpose, it has cheap trainers for most classes and should certainly accomodate his every need.

Alas, I had to tell him, with a tear running down my cheek I might add, that my suggestion would not work, because that area was closed off for people because someone found out that it was a nice place to level easily. He looked at me, after having spent well over an hour leveling to level 6, and asked me sincerely, "Why in the world would a change be made to make it _harder_ for people to level, it's not like that's the fun part of this obviously. Do they not want new people to play this game?".

I then persuaded him to walk from Nerina to Teron to learn the skills instead, and because he didn't have enough money to buy a horse yet, he had to rest three times getting there, and was assaulted (on the road I might add) and killed just south of Terons south-gate by a spider...this is when his SK experience ended.

All in all, I think I am trying to say that the "Thou must not enter here" change should be reverted in the Exile newb area, and instead the trainer NPCs there should be made into level 54 barbarian NPCs with scripted e-drain, final strike and level-curse and a big sign around their necks saying touch me and you're [REDACTED]. And also implore anyone who considers making a change to this game to consider "Might this in any way or form make it harder for anyone, new or old players alike to level and get to a point where this game is actually as immensely enjoyable as all us oldies must find it?" and if you are even remotely in doubt if the answer to that question might be yes, then don't make the change!

[\rant]

There's other rogue trainers in Exile, IIRC. You should have told him to look around some before leaving.

Not to play devil's advocate, but a brand new player is going to have some serious issues navigating through cities in search of the alternative trainers you mention. The fact that low level characters have no real access to money and that their PE is dreadful at that stage, doesn't help either.

JvJ does stress a rather important point: why are hard coded changes implemented to solve IC situations? There was no reason to close down the noob school. No reason whatsoever. People killed trainers to level? What's wrong with that? Now if the repop of the area were one that lasted 20 + minutes, I'd understand it. That particular area has a repop of less than 5 minutes, however.

That being said, I noticed a few very pleasant additions to get rid of the grinding in a bunch of heavy trafficed leveling areas. Those are the kind of touches that really contribute to the game and give people a more positive outlook on the boring, time-consuming leveling business.

Bravo.

I agree that the taslamar area should be opened up again. Keep the amateur restriction just to the area where the NPCs are.

Supposedly though, you should be able to access your 1 platinum once you get to level 6 to buy a horse.

I think the problem we sometimes run into when trying to introduce people to SK is to make them learn too much at once, or to try to make their character too perfect. Most people who start the game on their own don't spend 1 hour hardcore leveling to novice or go from city to city to train skills. We probably just hang out and feel little sense of accomplishment with each discovery.

It's hard to get someone into the game. I think it takes a certain type of person.

There are most certainly rogue trainers in Nerina. They are not right out in the open, but fairly accessible. I'll make sure they have all the appropriate skills available.

The newb area is kinda [REDACTED], I advanced there and got teleported out. Come on!

I forgot to buy all my newb gear!

Yeah, that sounds lame too. You aren't allowed to access your 1 plat from your bank until you turn novice, but you can't get back to the stores by that time. The trainers and libraries and shops should all be open.

For all of the years that I have been playing SK, I don't know where those thief trainers would be. So, for a newb, they are quite unaccessible.

My guess would be a certain tavern that has a bard trainer in it too? Note that nobody ever goes to this tavern, and if I hadn't played like 4 Talons I'd probably have no idea it existed.

It is seriously a pain in the [REDACTED] to learn your skills as a lowbie. IMO the xp required to learn things needs to be reduced. When it takes me like 2 ticks(at low levels) per language with like 16+ int, there is no way in hell I'm learning languages till I hit like Expert or higher.

You train them as early as expert?