Shattered Kingdoms

I have to agree with the obscure thing, just died again trying to figure out a quest. It seems to give me just enough information to get me killed but not enough information on how to solve it. I hate having to ask vetrans for help all the time when I get stuck in one of these quests. Part of the problem is the way items are hidden, some containers are hidden in the decription while others acctually exsist as items in the game, I think making those type of containers easier to find would help. It would also help if critical information was not so obscure as to require a degree in cryptology to figure it out.

You have to understand not all of us have our genius intillects from when we are kids, some of us are just average. Don't need everything handed to me on a silver platter but please at least make it that I can figure it out without having to ask someone. Thanks.

I gotta say, I felt almost the same way as forge the first week i played...but thats because i'd come out of two MUDs back to back where the player base was totally cold to newbs...kind of a "if you cant figure it out then you shouldn't be playing" attitude.

As I discovered, not the case in SK. Not everyone is helpful, but many are. But you gotta ask.

And while I hate grinding skills/exp as much as the next person (Because of it, I even once began designing a skill-learning system that didn't involve grinding and yet maintained a degree of difficulty, planning, and time...never got it off the ground though), I have to agree with patrisaurus on this one. I mean, if we're going to make skilling up easy, why dont they just give it to us mastered as soon as we reach a certain level, no trainers required? Or better yet, give us our whole skillset on roll-up. Thing is, how good were YOU at YOUR job (IRL) on your first day, week, year?

By the way, though I didn't know your third char very well, I enjoyed the first two. Nyssia added a lot of flavor wherever she went. Hope you'll stick around, if only part-time.

I totally agree about the merchants. But "discovering" SK is what makes it so fun, IMO. You can play for years and not know everything about the game or an area. It would get dull and stale if you were immediately able to figure EVERYTHING out. And as others have mentioned - the more you interact with the playerbase, the more likely you are to find someone helpful who knows a lot of stuff.

This.

A good way to strike up conversation is usually something like: Hey (insert person's name), I hear you're a (insert something related to their title). I have a few questions, wondering if you can help?

I was disappointed by SK my first round too, but returned... time and time again. Hope you do too.

There's a huge difference between opaque and "handing out things on a silver platter".

But that's the kind of response I expect from people who've already figured things out.

I've said my bit and will say no more, there is no persuading those in love after all. ^_^

I hope you're not talking about Alifer here, I mud-man-banged that cute little elf so much I'd take it as a personal insult if you were disappointed in that experience.

My comment was intended to refer more to your skill-up issue, not necessarily the knowledge issue. We have certainly been willing to add more maps and guides within the game in the past based on feedback.

I was not referring to Alifer, that was my favorite char ever! He enjoyed Eihwaz (sp?... looks funny) equally.

And yeah, it was Eihwaz, I had a thing for runes back then I guess. And those were fun times, I miss that SK.

It'd be pretty convenient if there was a non-wilderness automapper for all players implemented. Certainly, other MUD codebases have done it and it's worked out just fine (EmlenMUD being the example I'm thinking of).