Request: FL-style Guide

[Malchaeius]

Ladies and Gentleman,

As most of you should know by now, I want to make FL grow! I want to return us to the days of 50-60 at peak time. I hope that most of you are looking for the same. To make this goal happen, we have all attempted to do our parts. I have worked to fix bugs, introduce new things to keep FL interesting, promote RP plots to increase the general sense of "a living world", worked on getting new areas into the game, and have even been recently toying with the idea for a new cabal. However, FL is going to need the active aid of the entire playerbase if it is to grow. You will find that I will be asking some things of you guys from time to time - all in the effort to make this the best MUD it can and should be. I figure we all have great talents, and if we can harness them, there is no reason we can not succeed.

Intro aside, I will get to the purpose of this thread. Recently while perusing the MMArmy website and forum, I came across a thread that had the basics of MMA along with screenshots. It can be found here. I got to thinking, "Wow, that is really nice, I bet FL could benefit from something similar, but I really do not have the time to do it - and with some of the projects I have the other IMMs working on, they probably would not have the time either."

And so, I come to you today with the request that someone (or someones if you wish to collaborate) make something similar for FL. We are in the process of redoing our website, and something like this would be a perfect addition for the website, as well as an excellent sticky for the Newbie Help forum.

What I am looking for is some screenshoots of rolling a character, some screenshots of fighting a mob, some screenshots of fighting a player, some screenshots of helpful commands, and whatever else you can think of - along with some information using the similar style from the link. Make it for someone who is completely new to MUDs but with enough information that someone who is just new to FL will also benefit. I will really be thankful to whoever can help us out.

-M-

P.S. Stay glued, as you may see some more threads like this in the future where you guys can actually help make us better.

[Malchaeius]

Feel free to post entries here.

[Domhawth]

I'm considering advertising on Star Sonata. The problem there is alot of trash players will pop in with very few good ones. So, is it worth it?

[HBwillie]

Yep. The trash will eventually get weeded out.

[Mali]

Connecting

To play Aabahran the Forsaken Lands you must find a MUD client that is suitable for your computer. There are several options available such as Zmud, Gmud, and Mushclient for a Windows based machine and other programs such as Savitar, Mudwalker, and Jamochamud for Macos based computers. Similarly, a simple Telnet application will work well enough to start playing the game.

Each client will have a different option of connecting to the Forsaken Lands. To connect, simply type in the numbers 216.136.9.8:1848 into the program's connection window. Alternately, just type in Forsakenlands.org

Pictured above are several different ways of connecting using a basic MUD client. When succesful, the text of the game will appear quickly on the screen. You are ready to start your journey into Aabahran, the Forsaken Lands.

[Guest emp_newb]

I say yes, no reason in the world not to introduce players. Who knows maybe they will like this mud so much they won't be trashy

[Domhawth]

Um well I posted. On SS we have always had free reign to post on game we thought we where cool. But.......seems that they won't allow me to do it though. They have been having some serious lag issues and considering I was the leader of team, which is like a cabal that consisted of about 1/5th the playerbase, they might be fearing some big losses.

In fact, Voomy snagged up my post in seconds, bah. I'll just have to actively get online there and do it.

[Evangelion]

Here's what I've got so far. Let me know what else you'd like to see.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Greetings, and welcome to the wonderful word of Aabahran: The Forsaken Lands!

Whether a friend told you about us, or you found us on a MUD connector, we’re happy to have you here. And you’re already an integral part of the success of our world. So buckle up, because you’re in for quite a ride!

First things first. Aabahran is a roleplay (RP) enforced, player killing (PK) encouraged multi-user domain (“MUD”). We have a mid-sized base of players that make our world fun, and are always willing to help new players. Our MUD is run by a group of dedicated men and women who, outside the game are called our staff, and inside the game, are called Immortals (sometimes called IMMs for short). They introduce new areas and abilities, fix bugs and typos, keep an eye out for rule-breakers, and generally keep things running smooth. Of the “immortals”, we have our two highest staff members, Malchaeius and Chayesh, our head builder/coder, and head of staff, respectively.

Now, to play the game, you can opt for one of two methods. You can either play via Telnet, an online client that allows you to connect without downloading a program, or you can get a MUD client. Some popular clients include GMUD, ZMUD, and MUSHClient. Links for these can be find via Google, or you can ask players to help you find them through our forum (www.forum.forsakenlands.org). To connect to the game, you need our IP Address (216.136.9. and our Port (1848).

Once you connect, the first screen you will see looks like this:

Since you’re new to the game, you’ll enter “C”, to create a new character. You’ll be asked to enter a name, password, last name, and gender for this character, as can be seen on this screen:

Now then, there are a number of races and classes for you to choose from with any given character. For simplicity’s sake, this is an example of a character that is a human, and a member of the adventurer guild. Adventurer’s a beginner class that is exempt from player killing - however, they cannot touch rare objects, and cannot go past level 30.

After you’ve chosen your class, you’ll be brought to a screen where you will roll for your character’s physical attributes. I’ll give you a little bit of information about each attribute.

Strength (STR): This determines your character’s brute strength. The higher your strength, the harder and more often you’ll hit, and the more you’ll be able to carry around with you.

Intelligence (INT): This is a factor in how smart your character is. It will determine how much mana (mind power) you gain per level, and will also play a role in how fast you recover that power. Additionally, every level you will gain practice sessions, to learn new skills with. The higher your intelligence, the less practices it will take to learn a given skill.

Wisdom (WIS): Wisdom also plays a role in how much mana you gain per level, and will determine how many practice sessions you get per level.

Dexterity (DEX): This determines how fast your character is. It will contribute to your armor class, which prevents you from taking hits, and has a role in a number of character abilities.

Constitution (CON): Finally, constitution is the deciding factor in how much your character can endure. It plays a big part in how many health points (HP) you gain per level, and how fast you recover health. Additionally, every character starts with 61 lives. For every five times you lose a life, you lose one constitution point.

So let’s take a look at that roller:

Here’s the roller, utilizing a basic trigger with MUSHClient, so that you don’t have to sit there and manually enter the “roll” command repeatedly. There is a guide on the forums that provides you with a roll that you should aim to get with each race - the highest rolls for a race can vary by class however, so feel free to experiment to get higher rolls. The higher number you get, the less trains you have to spend maximizing your statistics.

So now that I’ve gotten the roll I wanted, I’ll add the points to my statistics.

Once I’m finished, I enter “end”, and continue with character creation.

Now I decide my alignment, or how I want my character to act toward others, and my ethos, or how I want my character to respond to the law. In Aabahran, there are a number of different factions, called Cabals, that accept characters of varying alignments. These cabals are the main political bodies, and control most of the land in Aabahran. There are law enforcement cabals, and cabals made up of criminals; cabals that fight for good, and cabals that fight for evil. Basically, any way you want to play your character, there’s a cabal to go along with it.

Now I’ll decide my religion. There are a number of religions available, based on a character’s alignment and ethos. Some skills depend on this religion. Religion also has a factor into whether a character can become a quest class. For example, the race “undead” is not available from startup. However, at level 30, a human character who follows one of the three “Death” religions may apply to be an undead. More about that later. For now, let’s take a look at the religions available to neutral characters.

At this point, you’ll also select your hometown. This is important, and also based on alignment. Good characters may select Rheydin and Val Miran. Evil characters may select Rheydin or Miruvhor. Neutral characters may select any of the three. Additionally, some races (like ogres) have their own hometowns that can be selected. However, for a new character, it is probably best to start in Rheydin, because it is literally the center of Aabahran.

After your hometown, you’ll be asked to continue with detailed creation. This creates a “bio” for your character, giving them certain physical attributes that will act as the basis for your description. Every character must have a description by level fifteen. This description must then be approved by an immortal, for the character to continue to level up. By having a bio, you’ve got a basic set of attributes to use in formulating your description. Throughout detailed creation, you’ll be asked to select body types, hair types and colors, eye color, etc.

At the end of your detailed creation, you will also be asked to select from a number of perks. These perks all have a different affect on your character’s life. For example, a character with the adventurer perk will level up much faster than a character without it, because they will gain more experience from killing monsters (or mobs). You’ll also be asked to decide how old your character is, what their dominant hand is, and their favored weapon. Their favored weapon is a weapon that they’ll start off proficient in, and they’ll receive a practice weapon of that variety.

Now that you’ve successfully created a character, it’s time to enter Aabahran for the first time!

The first room you’ll see is called the Gateway to Aabahran. This is where all characters start. Your first step will be downwards, to the entrance of the Academy, also known as the MUD School.

To move, you’ll use directional commands. They are: Down, North, South, Up, West, and East. You can enter d, n, s, u, w, and e for short. To open a closed door, such as the one into the fields of the Academy where the creatures are, you’ll need to enter “open ” - in this case, “open s”.

One of the first things you’ll see upon logging in is whether or not you’ve got any new notes or changes. Changes detail the newest additions to the MUD, while notes usually regard in game roleplay and interaction between characters.

Now, you’ll want to head north and visit the practice room and the training room. In the practice room, you can increase your proficiency in any given skill that you have access to. Once you reach level five, you’ll be removed from the MUD school, so your character will have to find another place to practice. This can be done at your guildhall in any of the major cities. The trainer will help you improve your statistics, so that you can benefit from them even more. Every five levels, your character will gain one training session. Once you’ve mastered your statistics, you can then put those training sessions into mana or health points. There is also at least one trainer in every major city.

Now that you’ve used up your practice sessions and training sessions, it’s time to go get some more. Head out into the fields of the MUD school and start killing some beasts. Use the consider command to see if the creature will be too much for you to handle. This command will also tell you what alignment the creature is. If the creature is good aligned, and you are good aligned, you don’t want to kill it, because that will be frowned upon by the gods. However, if the creature is evil, then you will gain more experience from killing it than you would from killing a neutral creature.

The beasts in the MUD School are all neutral, so you don’t need to worry about that here. The lowest level beasts are called plasm beasts. You’ll find them to the south.

Note that even though they’re the same creature, you’ll gain different amounts of experience from killing them. This is because experience also has a slight randomizer built in.

At this point, you’ll notice your prompt bar - it contains your health points, your mana, and your movement. These are all very important. However, there are other things that you can also add to your prompt that are equally important. I like to have the time of day and the amount of experience I need to level up in my prompt.

Help prompt will give you all the details of how to set up your prompt.

Once you’ve got that all sorted out, you can keep killing creatures in the MUD school until you reach level six. At level six, you’ll automatically be kicked out, and returned to your hometown. You can return to your hometown at any time before that by entering the “recall” command.

Now is probably a good time to mention the helpfile system for our MUD. For every skill, religion, race, class, city, cabal, etc. in our MUD, there is a detailed helpfile. This will tell you all of the commands you need to know regarding your question, and all the roleplay details behind them.

An important helpfile is called “help command”. This will give you a list of important commands about the game. You can also simply enter “command”, and it will give you a list of every command in the game.

One of the most important helpfiles for new players is called “help tour”, and its subsequent files, “help tour2” and “help tour3”. These helpfiles will tell you a lot about gameplay in the lower levels, and will help link you to other important helpfiles, such as “help wimpy” and “help death”.

Now that you’ve seen some of the basics, it’s time to start interacting with other players. The “who” list will tell you what characters are logged on currently. However, only characters that are visible to you will show up. Therefore, invisible characters, or those using skills to hide or camouflage themselves, will not be shown. You should also take a look at your skills and spells, so you’ll know what you have to look forward to as you level up.

You should also check out your score sheet. This will tell you important details, such as your physical statistics, your experience, your health and mana, your armor class, and even the amount of gold you are carrying.

There’s a whole lot more to learn about Aabahran, and most of it can be done through help files and interaction with other players in game. Some of the most basic commands you’ll need to know are here, and other than that, you should be able to figure everything else out.

Essential Commands:

Score - Brings up your score sheet, which contains many details about your character.

Who - Shows the who list, telling you who is currently logged onto the MUD, and what their race/class is.

*Who Group - Shows characters you can group with.

*Who PK - Shows characters in your PK range.

Say - Allows you to speak aloud.

Tell - Allows you to speak privately with another character.

Gtell - Allows you to speak privately with your group.

Kill - Allows you to attack a creature.

[Mali]

I think collaboration is the best way to go. If everyone continues to do a little we could have alot of screens up in no time. Nice work so far Evangelion.

[Quigt]

Is there some way you can record a video of what you're doing in Windows, without actually using a camera?

[Malchaeius]

There is Hypercam

Thanks guys, you have done some good work!

[a-guitarist]

The major detractor for new players is the steep learning curve. Maybe open up some of the Taboo information so that it becomes common knowledge? I'm not talking 100% code or skills and such. But basic stuff that would take months to figure out. And I mean months for the casual player. If you can dedicate 3 hours a day at least, you're not casual.

In my years here, I still can't pk. I read all the articles, read the class essays, and just don't get when some things don't work and some things do, despite what the guides say.

I'm not really sure what things to open up. Maybe which stats hinder/help what skills? Like, if STR does something to bash, then tell that to new players. If having a large size makes you more apt to be tripped, or a low dex, let them know. But don't say "It may do this." or anything else ambiguous. Make it diffident. "Doing this will cause this." You don't have to give the new players a break down of the stats involved. Let them figure that out.

And I'm not saying open EVERYTHING up to everyone. Keep shirnes hidden, but talk more about them. I never knew shrines were around until I ran into one accidentally. If someone had said in the beginning, "Oh, by the by, you're god has got a shrine somewhere, check it out." I'd of been keeping an eye out for them.

I know a lot of Vets and long time players will go the LA route with their, "Harden up, Princess" bull. And a lot of us are apprehensive about making things that took us months, sometimes years, to figure out public knowledge. But don't give everything away, hint at it. But here's the thing. If new players are constantly told nothing, 90% of them are going to bail. If you open up a lot of information more people are going to sit back and realize that the game has more depth other than, "Murder Deykari: Get all corpse".

Something that I think that would be greatly needed on the webpage, (other than getting rid of the music or making it so if you want to hear it you have to turn it on.

I wish I could be more productive of a help right now, but I'm in a hurry to get out the door.

Please don't take what I said as offensive. I don't mean it to be. My intention was to put out what I felt would help the mud. I'll keep thinking and come up with more ideas.

a-g

[Malchaeius]

Which is why the next thing we are also going to be working on is a FAQ that will partner up with this walkthrough.

[Aulian]

Alright Malch - Its raining so Im spending an FL dedicated day at the uni

What would be easier is if you make a LIST of all the things we need to do/you would like to have included (minus whats been done by Bali ect. already obviously) and that way we can just choose things off the list and not do any double ups.

Doesnt have to be done by Malch, anyone can put the list up aka Bali, then people can just post and say - Im doing Such and Such. That way we have no double ups and we can plough right on through this.

[Evangelion]

I wish I could find my old newbie guide. Had a pretty nice walkthrough of stuff.

[Guest emp_newb]

Really some maps for the most common areas would be a great addition. I remember being a newb and not knowing how to get to city gates

[Mudder]

Sounds cool. I've almost 0 time, though spring break is coming soon... I'll dedicate a few hours to this good cause.

[Mattamue]

Re: Mali's screenschot for Savitar

Re: Mali's screenschot for Savitar Pt 1/2

Connecting to FL for the first time in MUSHclient.

MUSHclient opens with the splash screen, a message that's says something about only being displayed once per version, and a tip. Click ok on the message and close the tip. Then go to File>New World.

If you're asked if you want to preload defaults from an existing world say no. Then, the Configuration>IP Address screen opens.

The World Name is what the world is called inside the client. No one else sees it and it's there for you to keep track of what character the world is made for.

Put the IP address 216.136.9.8 into the TCP/IP Address box.

Put the port 1848 into the Port Number box.

Click okay.

Color scheme and button placement may differ since the source for these shots is a used copy. The placement for the menus and boxes and how you get there can't change - this will get you started w/ MUSHclient.

[Mattamue]

Re: Mali's screenschot for Savitar Pt 2/2

Connecting to FL for the first time in Gmud.

Gmud opens with the splash screen and a message box that talks about creating a new world list, just click okay.

From there go to File>Connect...

The Connect to a Mud Server window comes up.

Click add and you'll be prompted to enter a name for a new world. Like MUSHclient's world name it's for you to sort out the different files you have for mudding with the client.

Click okay and the name will be highlighted in the MUD Name box to the left.

Put the IP 216.136.9.8 in the Host Name box.

Put the port 1848 into the Port box.

Click Connect.

You can see the text is warped a little bit with the occasional line out of place. Fix this by going to Options>Font... and choose a font. They all work out okay and it might help to mess with the bold option you're given.

[The Wayward Knight]

I'll shell out ideas for a cabal when I have the time, if you are interested. Something based around the Crusaders would be nice, since it's difficult for them to fit into the politics of any cabal.

[Zrothum]

Wow.....I am sad I missed out on this thread.

Can you say......BIZZZZZZZUMP!

[Mindflayer]

No, but I can crown you Zrothum, Masta Troll of the Forum