Newcomer's perspective.

[mird]

I'm new to muds and Forsaken lands and this is my point of view.

 

This mud looks fun and well maintained, but extremely isolated and repulsive for newcomers.

 

It's not listed in mudconnector, I stumbled upon it while trying out top10 from mudconnector and searching mud related info in Google.

I liked it because it's not too crazy with races/classes, but quite rich with features like adventurer class, quests and cabals.

 

Forum handling was incomprehensible for me. After registration I was not able to find any hint in main page or Divine mandate section that I have to pray in Prayer room to get full access to forum. People in Newbie chat were sending me to forum repeatedly, but there is no single clue how to see it if you are not validated and how to get validated.

 

And last but biggest thing for me for a moment is:

"You have spent the maximum allowed time as an adventurer."

 

Description states clearly: The profession of an Adventurer is unique as its members do not belong to

any specific guild of Aabahran though they may join one AT ANY TIME.

 

It was over for me in no time, all i accomplished was:

1.Trained and figured out very basic game mechanics.

2.Quested up to chimera and several arenas. 

3.Identified every piece of equipment I can browse or lay hands on.

The only areas I visited beyond questline were Halfing's Hamlet and Everwild

 

Then boom, 80h and you are out.

 

Rant over, just wanted to share with someone.

[Trick]

All very valuable and appreciated information/feedback and I am sure the Staff will implement things to make it easier for anyone else coming along after you.

 

Thanks and I hope you decide to stick around!!

[f0xx]

Good input indeed.

I never knew there was a maximum amount of hours you can spend as adventurer. What happens after that?

[Erelei]

As a newcomer, I appreciate the feed back. We have been doing our best to make transitioning into our MUD easy and fun.

The adventurer class was intended to help that transition. It isn't meant to be just that though. After 80 hours you should be ready to move forward and pick your next class. Many classes can cater to a new player, but the thing an adventurer lacks is half of the game - PK. We had hoped after 80 hours one would be ready to immerse themselves into that part of the game.

From here forward I would suggest going with a cleric then to healer, or trying a paladin or warrior. All of these choices are generally not too hard for a newcomer and will give you plenty of PK experience. From there you can choose your cabal, which most suggest as WM. If you prefer RP over PK then Merchant may be your next best bet - helping you with equipment knowledge and locations around Aabahran.

I have some questions for you:

If 80 hours isn't long enough, how many do you suggest?

What class have you chosen?

And are you confident you'll continue to immerse yourself in the other half of our world (PK) or are you going to roll another adventurer?

As for the forums, I apologize it was so hard to get setup. Let us know how we can improve here.

That said - welcome to FL!

[mird]

Good input indeed.

I never knew there was a maximum amount of hours you can spend as adventurer. What happens after that?

 

movegain = 0

[f0xx]

That's cruel.

[Trick]

That's pretty lame.. There shouldn't be a cap on adventurer at all.

[mird]

>If 80 hours isn't long enough, how many do you suggest?
>What class have you chosen?
>And are you confident you'll continue to immerse yourself in the other half of our world (PK) or are you going to roll another adventurer?
>As for the forums, I apologize it was so hard to get setup. Let us know how we can improve here.

 

It's hard to say about hours for me, because I'm new to muds and I can't see the reason to limit it at all.

First of all, the information about class should hint somehow that days of adventurer are very limited.

Personally I feel I need at least twice of that just to explore cities and low level areas.

 

I'm not confident for PK because people around are navigating too fast inside areas and between areas and equipped much better even with lower levels.

They just know that it's possible to go and grab Bloodstone amulet for free, for example.

I like paladins and monks the most for a moment,

because paladins look like adventurer extension and monks look like the simplest class.

Bards from the other hand looks very hairy despite of what help claims, with 2 new mechanics  after adventurer - songs and crafting.

 

There is a post from Anume that you have to pray to get validated,  but It's visible only after you get validated.

http://theforsakenlands.com/community/index.php?/topic/12813-forum-account-activation/

I would be nice to make it visible before validation.

[Magick]

Recommend that with the Adventurer information be added the time limit, and should they need more than the 80 hours (for whatever reason) to take the adventurer perk which will remove (or extend) the time limit?

 

Edit: The adventurer perk doesn't remove that limit at current, I mean make it to where it can.

[f0xx]

There is a post from Anume that you have to pray to get validated,  but It's visible only after you get validated.

Oh that's gold

[Twinblades713]

I also didn't know about an adventurer time limit. I honestly see no reason to limit that at all. It does not harm the game in any way to have someone who permanently wishes to play an adventurer. I understand certain Herald skills may become available for avoiding PK, but I have several people who play minor amounts of FL (Roughly an hour a week) just exploring around and learning commands, and if they got kicked out of Adventurer they would stop playing. 

 

This is great input and great to see someone new. I've answered several newbie questions regarding the EDITOR. Desc edit, history edit, purpose edit. It was literally one of the most difficult things in this game to learn for me, back when it was only desc editor. I can only imagine how confusing it would be for newbies, and suggest a tutorial in some way for those who need it. Maybe an automated version of the "Mirror Room" imms may bring you to when your desc is not satisfactory, but that has an exit in addition to some Editor tips. (Like turning off parsing, possibly certain triggers, you have to type desc + outside of the editor but if you are in the editor you only need to write your line and press enter)

 

Although to be fair I haven't gone through newbie school since I believe it was updated. I could be missing out on a few points. For example maybe we could update the newbie creation settings to include: 

 

Are you familiar with MUDS? If so they go to regular newbie school to learn how our MUD works.

Are you new to MUDS (text based games) and Forsakenlands entirely? If so perhaps skip the character creation process past race/class/align/ethos (skip rolling, advanced creation). I know several people who got caught up on rolling, for instance "add con 5" instead of "add 5 con". That alone could discourage someone who is completely new, one hiccup can stop the process in this day and age where someone can just go play WoW/LoL etc.

[Vaerick]

Well, there is certainly always room for growth and this is good feedback. A couple of things to address.

 

The validation is required as part of an effort to reduce spam/bots and the like on the forums, as well as the (now) less prominent threat of hostile attacks. I'm sure we all remember the attacks that the game suffered some time back, and that is when these changes went into effect- as a means of combating the attacker from learning the new addresses until better security could be implimented (at the time, everytime the staff changed the hosting information the attacks would come at the new target). This happened on several occassions even after the main hostility ended, though the new measures kept them from being effective.

 

As for the adventurer aspect. I think, this is largely oversight. The adventurer class was made in a time when fl was a much less newbie friendly enviroment than it is now. The previous staff set it up in that fashion to prevent what they saw as potential abuse, as well as trying to force new people into "getting their feet wet" so to speak. Honestly, it would do you some good to choose a class such as a cleric to rank to 50 to get a better grasp on how everything works post 30. In the low ranks you will be hindered by rank in terms of movement and abilities, as well as various dangers that are less so dangerous once you hit peak (some mobs are hostile to pre-pinns, and even pinns).

 

Like newbie chat, you can always ask to have it expanded for the duration of your characters life. There is also the new journeyman status which will give you some buffs while you get accostomed to everything. In addition, I don't see why an expansion of time can't be given on an adventurer, but on that note, it might not be a bad idea to have a different character rank up further so you get a better idea of that enviroment as well. As always you can reach people willing to help via newbie chat and prayer ig "Pray" <message> as well as here on the forums.

 

Welcome to FL and I sincerely hope you will continue to explore, learn, and enjoy the game.

[Dale]

Trial and error bro.  Learn the cities, most of them aren't dangerous.  Maps help BIG TIME.  Use the wiki to learn areas also, not gonna lie it helped me out a lot.  You have 62 deaths to explore with, your first character is going to crash and burn, a few of them are.  But after that the learning curve will set in and you will be ready to stomp it up with the big boys.  Adventurer class is no fun, I would suggest trying a ranger if you liked it though, it's very newbie friendly and you don't need a wagon full of stuff just to explore around and try out new areas.  Race:ogre

[mird]

Honestly, it would do you some good to choose a class such as a cleric to rank to 50 to get a better grasp on how everything works post 30. In the low ranks you will be hindered by rank in terms of movement and abilities, as well as various dangers that are less so dangerous once you hit peak (some mobs are hostile to pre-pinns, and even pinns). 

Like newbie chat, you can always ask to have it expanded for the duration of your characters life. There is also the new journeyman status which will give you some buffs while you get accostomed to everything. In addition, I don't see why an expansion of time can't be given on an adventurer, but on that note, it might not be a bad idea to have a different character rank up further so you get a better idea of that enviroment as well. As always you can reach people willing to help via newbie chat and prayer ig "Pray" <message> as well as here on the forums.

 

Welcome to FL and I sincerely hope you will continue to explore, learn, and enjoy the game.

 

Journeyman looks exactly what I need, I didn't notice it until now, because it mentioned only in MOTD among a lot of other advanced things.

I've never met journeyman reference in mud school book or help, help newbie, help tour, help tips.

 

I've never felt hindered by adventurer class limitations, time limit hit way too early.

I just finished leveling, and was trying to engage strong guys.

Won some arenas.

Then killed king in Falen Dara and Garmex, then engaged master of goodness south of Miruvhor and witch in Everwild and fled from them.

Didn't die once,btw.

I just had no time to walk around to bump into any limitations.

[f0xx]

You said people on NEWBIE chat directed you to the forum. Didn't any of them explain that you need to post on prayer in order to be validated?

[Anume]

I see no reason not to let you go on being an adventurer for some time if you think you need more. Post char name and what you think you'll need on prayer and we'll see about it.

[Vaerick]

What I mean is, there are places like, the desert in between Maelbrim and Miruvhor that if you step in at 30 you will die. There's dragons in some places that if you happen upon them at 30 you will die. Even places in Fallen Dara. That's where 30 has serious disadvantages. I'm not saying you have to fight other characters at 50, I'm just saying you'll have an easier time exploring when you hit there.

 

Also journeyman will help with pve, not just pvp pk.

[Fool_Hardy]

Adventurer Perk adding more time to adventurers is a good suggestion.

While our old administration tried to avoid abuse, they may have over looked the simple fact that truly new players will loose hours reading room descriptions and examining objects, reading class help files ect.

The abuse goes on and on anyway.

I see lvl 1 characters every day with level 15 and 30 charmies they gathered while "adventuring".

If we truly wish to stop abuse, the guild command should initiate nofol.

jmho

[Anume]

As long as they do not use these pets in pk, that is completely legit and not abuse.

[f0xx]

If we truly wish to stop abuse, the guild command should initiate nofol.

jmho

Your definition of abuse is wrong.

jmho

[Magick]

Also nofollow doesn't remove pets from group anymore.

http://theforsakenlands.com/community/index.php?/topic/30738-change-log-july/?hl=nofollow

[mird]

You said people on NEWBIE chat directed you to the forum. Didn't any of them explain that you need to post on prayer in order to be validated?

 

Nope, I guess this point is out of radar and way too OOC even for NEWBIE and I didn't stress it enough in game for the same reasons until yesterday.

[Anume]

Newbie chat is ooc, you can ask anything there.

[f0xx]

We need to think of a way to get more vets on newbie chat.

[Volgathras]

I was the one on newbie chat directing you (an Immortal), and I did indeed state you needed validation, directing you to the prayer room to post it. And then I approved you for forum posting.

 

We are continuously working to improve gameplay for newbies. This includes current efforts to update the newbie school, work to improve helpfiles (if you come across any you think need attention post at http://theforsakenlands.com/community/index.php?/topic/34557-imp-thread-help-less/), additions like journeyman and more. Your suggestions are helpful. Please continue to share your thoughts.