Shattered Kingdoms

I typed out a long reply and then hit submit and was promoted to login. Fml.
I’ll try again.

I think this ultra-noob tutorial would be pretty easy to do. We just need any imm to be on board to change some uxmal vnums for the Academy and change some text responses.

We should create a new thread to have a user-created questline.
Upon entry of first room, if you have the “new to Pyrathia” title you’re prompted with “if you’ve never walked in a world like Pyrathia, go east and speak to Pook.”
“Ooc: type E to go east.”
Then you’re prompted with “here you’ll learn how to move around. Go west once, yo all the way, and speak with Stella. Tell her you’re here to *help*

Next quest: go east and ask about *armor* then you get told how to wear, remove, junk, drop, etc.
Then you’re told about skills and how to train level.
Then You’ll get told where to go to kill one NPC.
Then how to contact other players with tells.
Then told about Score and worth and stacking experience before you leave.

Things like that. We could create the questline together. Need to bullet point the things to teach and then expand on who teaches them and what they say.

I know it can be frustrating waiting for updates, but you just have to wait. Based on SK's history, it takes a while for changes to be made based on how the administrators are structured. Also you need to understand that for IMMs, SK isn't their highest priority and something they contribute during their free time. I guessing SK isn't even in their top 10 of things to do in their lives in terms of prioritization because life... Personally, I stopped trying to contribute because it always felt like all my words were falling on deaf ears.

I would like to create something with you, but the truth is, you need an active relationship with an IMM to be a patron to make changes. Getting prior approval of an idea is very important because that is a signal that you can start working on that idea. Because if Dulrik shoots it down when you put in all the hard work, you've wasted your time and effort. Plus they have to like you as a person to even consider your ideas. There is somewhat of a level of favoritism and bias among IMM than I care to admit. Its just how it is.

Also the idea of creating a noob friendly questline can be complicated because you have to be able to balance the simple things while teaching complicated thing. If it becomes too many simple things, then it becomes tedious and you have adoption rate fall-off. If its too complicated with a wall of text, you have an even higher fall-off rate. Its a delicate line between complexity and simplicity while also trying to entice players to consistently play.

When I played Aello, I took the role of actively helping players even regardless of whether they are allies or enemies. I made sure they got coins/gear they need to start their characters, and also get them a gate where ever they needed to go to make their life easier in SK. SK is a hard game. I also gave free enchants to help motivate new players to GM. I did my best to nurture the players of SK to increase the numbers. With syn's help feeding me hundreds and hundreds of blacks, it made things easier because collecting coins for priest was hard. Eventually I got bored and just lost interest. My point is there are many ways for you to contribute to SK that are within your power. But I dont think you will be successful in getting a newbie quest line implemented.

There is accuracy in this. At this point, over half the immstaff (including D) are now parents, and children seem to demand a lot of time and attention. When I was single and working retail management, SK was easily in my top 5 priorities; but when I moved into my professional career and got married, just haven't had time to prioritize SK and had to go inactive. Unfortunately, SK can feel the impact of those waves of inactivity, especially when multiple active staff get hit with life at the same time. I don't know if Dulrik is actively working on code updates right now, but staff discussions and ideas are still ongoing.


There is accuracy in this too. I would qualify it differently, however. There have historically been players who take pride in their reputation of hostility toward staff and a history of rule-breaking/trolling/etc, and though we've generally been open to working with those players if/when they have good ideas to sell, I'm not ashamed to say that I won't prioritize rewarding those players. It may be perceived as bias/favoritism, but when it comes to investing additional time/work, I will prioritize players who do not have a history of OOC conflict or trolling, and I will prioritize long-term players who have exhibited a commitment to the game over time. Unfortunately, sometimes we also just fail to produce in a timely manner, and over the years I've over-committed and have allowed some player projects to fall through the cracks.


This ^^


That is definitely the best way to contribute with the most immediate return. A new newbie quest line is a commendable idea, but probably not likely to be implemented in the immediate future. Quests are a little more complicated to build. But if this is a compelling area for improvement that is likely to provide a worthwhile benefit deserving of the time/work investment, and if you/pook are interested in contributing the ideas and the tedious footwork/writing to design it, and if you're patient with my schedule, then I could be willing to return temporarily to help implement it.

Thuban has reached out and asked me to provide examples for a couple rooms, which I have provided over the weekend. I will be grateful for feedback received. While I am waiting, I can be outlining the rest of the structure. One thing that became clear with the 'interactive' part is keeping what is said at a time to a reasonable amount, so what is being guided through a player can play around with/explore. Then, as I continue to review what hints are, that they also be relevant to guiding the newbie experience, more than a too broad reference themselves.

Mostly the reason for my current investment is I DO have some friends out of state, and a partner, who have wanted to play but have been daunted by the newbie school. They've even mudded before and played table top. It's just how the information that is presented that is cumbersome, and decidedly not fun, especially when there's not a stronger active player base to support. So if we're able to get the newbie school freshened up, we also have a good group of folk to test them with completely fresh eyes.

My partner is also working with me some as I'm putting together what I am to submit, spending time in the newbie school with me, pointing out his questions and doing a lot of 'well what is important I learn here?' 'Everything' is not a great response when it's just slightly dressed up help files currently. 'What is important that I know as a new player specifically, to get started, so I can get out there, RP, and not fall on my face trying to level and interact with the game?' Ah. That's a good question. To which he also says 'I shouldn't need to have you, or players around to help answer this. The game should be teaching me the answer to this.' I couldn't agree more.

I’ve voiced my disapproval or aggravation on multiple posts. Not having the “we’re working on something” or “your idea has been heard” troubles me. As such I’ve voiced myself negatively. But I like to think that I’m fairly reputable and dedicated and committed to the improvement of the game. So that being said, I hope I’m not on the do not call list.

Things that I think should be explained in no particular order:
-train level/skill/stat.
-score/att/worth/skill/spell
-Movement/speed
-kill/stun/consider/flee/wimpy
-wear/remove/get/give/drop/junk
-sleep/rest/sit/rest ticks/area ticks
-say/sayto/tell/reply/gtell/info/who
-open/close (doors and containers and chests)

I’ll reply with additional suggestions. I’ll also edit this list to have a full list in one location.

I think your the perfect person to take point on this project.

For the interactive part, I would keep it:
- Simple - Make it player based cause-and-reaction. Player holds scroll. System outputs something descriptive to the player about scrolls.
- Short - Keep it one sentence because I think thats the limit of a player's attention span before you get diminishing returns on player engagement
- Descriptive - descriptive in a way to would trigger the player to say "wow did I do that? thats fun". Focus more on visual language so players can imagine it as they read it. "Energy from the scroll surges up your arm as you hold it giving you the urge to recite it" OR "You feel weakened and fatigued as your stomache grumbles. You should find something to eat"
- Infrequent - maybe limit 1 per room so players dont get spammed. A little of something goes a longer ways than repetitively using it.
- Color - use color as a tool to set the mood and make it more imaginative. Not too much though! Just a dash!

Simple questions you need to ask yourself (I'll answer it based on my opinion. You may have a different opinion):
- What is your objective? A clear/concise objective goal on what you want the player to have learned going through the school. This is the most important part!
- What are list of commands do I expect the player to know when they leave the training school? Make a list of commands that you think is absolutely required to survive.
- What type of players am I trying to attract? More RP dominant players to help color the game and make interaction between players more fun. emotes, pemote, say, tell
- What basic concepts am I trying to teach? Only the most basic tools to help them effectively RP. I would stay away from meta-gaming concepts/commands. Advanced commands can come later.
- What basic combat commands do I need to teach to survive in world of SK? kill, cast, stun, flee, worth, score, area
- What are essential tools for a new player? coins, armor, weapon, companion? (pet store in newbie school), map
- How fast do you want the player progress in the training school? Dont players to grind forever in the training school. Want it easy enough so that when they leave the training school, they dont get shocked on how hard it is to level outside.
- How subtle do you want hints to be? I'd say forget sublety and go straight out obvious. I would use dash to make it super clear that its a command "Energy from the scroll surges up your arm as you hold it giving you the urge to -recite- it"

I've been on plenty of projects that lacked clear concise goals where I'm already knee deep in mud and I'm unable to complete tasks involved due to the lack of direction and purpose.

Due to my time constraint with Fallout 76, I only have time to fulfill more of a supportive role. If you want me to look anything or want my advice on anything, just send me a PM/email. Most likely I would just suggest minor changes that will "attempt" to enhance the player's experience without changing any of the core content unless its glaringly an issue. And give me time because it takes time to be creative

Thanks for the assistance with the last couple of posts. I will try by the end of the weekend to have something crunched out as far as an outline goes, as well as some fine tuning of the first couple of rooms that I have mocked up. Please do update the posts you made, or add more info when you've got it and I'll use it to guide me as well. I am working on the file on my Google Drive and by the end of the weekend should have something well enough on its way we can use to collaborate. PM me an email and I can send the link. I've tried sharing it on here, and it gets a bit garbled.

I do have my fiance also helping as he's given a true newbie's viewpoint on all of this as well. He's in agreement with much of what is being said. He's liking the change to more interactiveness, breaking things down in an order. He also likes a far clearer understanding of 'hey, when I leave this room, don't tell me I need to know everything. What specific to me as a new player do I NEED to know or do?' Prime example: Actually train your first stat points.

Perfect! Your fiance is the perfect guinea pig for a use-case scenario.

Yea something like this requires a lot of planning and designing of player progression. The goal is to have a planned progression so that the player knows enough to survive in the world and make it more fun. After the player has reached that point of common knowledge, it should inspire them to look more into the game and learn more complicated commands. This is the point where the player would theoretically learn as much complex information as possible to gain an advantage in the game. Aside from the focus of RP and personal character development, it would lead to their progression into PVP.

I always thought stats points was more of an advanced topic. I remember messing up my first 10 characters because I put stat points in the wrong attribute. Stat points are not forgiving and they have to be distributed perfectly to have a competitve character.

The days of vets are pretty much over and most of them have moved on or eventually Trag will PK them into deletion . I might start playing if you and your friends start playing and enjoy the game. I'm sure I can contribute and make it more fun for you guys.

I'm just kidding Trag <3<3. With Pook's friends that play, please leave your kid gloves on =)

Your probably the last of the vets that are top tier in skill/PVP/RP/Character development in regards to SK

I still remember when you played Lydia and you had Syn(Dakken) enchant 10 weapons. A couple hours later, you had Dakken do it again because all your undeads died. The level of syn's frustration was hilarious. Syn had it rough because he was also lugging around two MR barb when they were still a thing.