Shattered Kingdoms

I started playing 2-3 months ago. Glad to even see these questions and now to see how quickly I can show off my newbiedom:

1. My favorite so far is the one in Taslamar. While all of the newbie areas are good, I like the arena with the scripts and that it pays well and also has npcs who have a lot of interesting reactions that change up and they tap out rather than dying. That said, my favorite newbie area weapons are in Kytar because you can say the weapon type you want in the store and get the display to change, but this doesn't seem to be the case with all the starting areas. I really like the one in the North as well, and for much the same reasons, but the lack of newbie supplies/variety of supplies keeps it down a little.
2. Kytar. While I like it a lot overall, it and the one in the Northern Wastes are the only two I've had issues with. In Kytar it was an ooze that pops up in the pond where you can get stuck in a feedback loop as outlined in the bug thread on it. In I think it was the north, it makes you go through a portal that turned out to be so not intuitive that I just deleted because I couldn't get from the tutorial to the newbie area the first time.
3. Be intuitive for new players ie syntax, have weapons all classes can use, include a set of cloth, light, and heavy armor (this seemed an issue in Kytar, though I have not been there in a month or so, not certain).
5. Books in the rest of the newbie areas like in the one (I think in Uxmal?) where all the trainers have books and scrolls on class appropriate stuff for all the classes, ie a book on the Gods near the cleric trainer, a scroll or two near the bard trainer, and so on.

The starting area in sithaniel is basically IMHO, a huge hot spot not just for new players, but anyone making an alt. The armor you get there is tailored to your class and size, plus the inmates are good. Lacking a specific weapon to buy sucks, but its a fair trade off for free everything else. I'd like to see more of that in the other areas.

If you include the introduction to the game (appropriate for nation) like the North, weapon shop like Kytar, Starting armor like Sith, quests like Kytar/Zhensh then you will have a great starting zone.

All newbie areas are not created equal, but they should be.

1. Sith'a'niel - the portal stones allow you to quickly move to the other areas that have the things that Sith'a'niel lacks.

4. Don't include a NPC or an interactive element that can cause frustration among true newbies. Interacting in the newbie area should be an experience that draws them into SK and doesn't discourage or annoy them. People have limited attention spans so in a game like this you need to hook them early.

5. Standardize everything and theme it around the kingdom they are in. Offer the same quality of weapons and armor at each zone. Offer the same types of trainers at each zone which all train to very good. Offer one immersive quest chain that gives the same amount of XP with tasks themed around the area that the player starts in.

3. Every good newbie area should be bypassed by veterans via executing some skill necessary to play the game. Opening a hidden door revealed in a room description, reading a sign and saying a code word, and so on are all authentic performance filters that do not require self-important narratives.
4. Whatever you do, be sure to include OOC links to the online help, FAQ, and world map pages alongside sincere warnings about participating in the forums.
5. A good addition to a newbie area would be a series of questions similar to the stat-based halls of creation capable of helping a character decide on an alignment. It would produce a suggested alignment based on how a character answers questions about her beliefs and theoretical responses to various situations. The most time-consuming newbie mistake is getting alignment wrong.

I honestly haven't investigated those particular zones in a while, but I am curious how well they emphasize WHO, TELL, and MENTOR. I know that the command guide on the website does not mention those three at all, and they were the only way I got anywhere when I first started. A couple of people that I've recommended to the game talk about getting stuck somewhere and don't seem to realize they can contact other players to try and get unstuck.

edit: The /commands page does mention tell (under what to do when you die), my bad.

Let me follow up with a slightly different question...what do you know now that you wish you knew when you first started playing SK? Gameplay-wise.

I have yet to find a single in-game explanation of item materials and their various properties. There is nothing in-game to suggest that tanso steel is naturally better than iron in terms of item durability.