Ideas for a newbie friendly game...

OK, so the title is a bit broad, but what I really think needs to be adressed is the character creation routine... If we do start to get some newbies in here to give us a try, my personal opinion is that they will be stonewalled at the creation page because of something as simple as the race help pages... Sure, if they have played MUDS before they can figure it out, and if they have the address for the WIKI, they can find all they need there, but in my humble opinion, those ifs are totally unneccesary...

It used to be a simple description that laid out the race's pros and cons and then listed what class they could become... While I have read through some of the current ones, they are quite descriptive (which, in the right context is awesome), but they do not give any of the above information... To me, that would be a non-starter as a new person to the MUD...

It would be a shame to run a campaign like FB only to loose people at the front door with something so simple to fix...

I agree with you. I feel like the first help file for a race should just be a generalized pros and cons of the race. I mean... I want to know what a halfling does well and doesn't do well if that is going to be my first character. I feel like the current system is a WOT (wall of text) issue. You just see a long series of characters and are instantly compelled to just mash enter until you can get back to creation... I mean, I came to a game to play it... not cram for some kind of FL dwarf history midterm. I am not saying get rid of the well written, informative racial help files... but maybe bump help duergar to help duergar2, help duergar2 to help duergar3, etc...and make the first page a real general "Storm giants enjoy a size advantage over all most all races, but struggle with the complexity of spells designed to assault the mind" sort of thing. I would rather have my... minotaur berserker rolled up then delve into the historical, sociological, and psychological norms of the race. I doubt most brand new people are going to have elaborate RP planned out in advance, I know when I first came into the game... I rolled what I did because it sounded like the baddest boy on block.

I agree.

This might seem like a shot down, but first we have race files which do not show the pros and cons of the races.

Then we have perk help files which do not show the pros and cons of perks.

Basicly a new player collides with our elitist mentality even before he has entered the lands.

How hard is it to write it like that - fire giant - vulnerability to ice and mental spells, higher proficiency with fire made weapons, mastery in bash, enhanced damage and two handed. Giant in size.

I agree with everything, the race help files and the perk help files are not newbie friendly.I play here for several years and half of the help files of the perks I cannot decode.

You are lucky, I can't decode any of them

And EVEN if you chose one, you might still end up not realizing what it actually does.

I agree with everything' date=' the race help files and the perk help files are not newbie friendly.I play here for several years and half of the help files of the perks I cannot decode.[/quote']

Perks are actually meant as a surprise so I doubt very much there will be a helpfile saying hey this perk grants this to your character.

I would also like to add. If you think the Races helpfiles are broken then please rearrange them as you would like to see them and send them to me vie pm and I will submit them to the others and we will see what can happen with them. I see it as we are all here to help the game thrive and little things like the rearrangement of Help dwarf, help dwarf2 etc... is something small the community can work on to help.

I could see something like this:

Help Dwarf - >

(Just the basic info)

Dwarves can be Good, Neutral

Dwarves can be the following classes: ABCDEFG, etc.

Also see Dwarf History

Help Dwarf History - >

"The new helpfiles minus the info from help dwarf.

I have also always wanted to see skill and spell lists for the basic classes available through help files.

Help Warrior - >

Current help file(or updated one)

Skill list.

Then show me what you can do, take and do the entire dwarf the way you want to see it and send it to me and I will have a look. I mean these are not bad ideas however its your game also we (staff) do not always have to do everything even if it is up to us for approval. You say you would like to see something a certain way but then all you do is a general outline, so show me an entire format for dwarf the way you would do it.

Several people have come to us with this suggestion, and we feel that it might be better to put it all together in one ASCII formatted helpfile that'll list everything.

Of course, that takes time. If someone could knock that out for us, that'd be nice.

I'll jump on that.

,----------.-----.-----.-----.-----.-----.
| Race | STR | INT | WIS | DEX | CON |
:----------:-----:-----:-----:-----:-----:
| Human | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 |
| Elf | 18 | 25 | 20 | 23 | 16 |
| Drow | 18 | 24 | 20 | 24 | 16 |
| Dwarf | 21 | 18 | 21 | 18 | 25 |
| Duergar | 21 | 17 | 20 | 20 | 22 |
| Halfling | 17 | 17 | 21 | 25 | 20 |
| Gnome | 18 | 23 | 25 | 18 | 18 |
| Avian | 19 | 21 | 21 | 23 | 19 |
| Fire | 25 | 15 | 15 | 16 | 23 |
| Stone | 24 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 24 |
| Storm | 24 | 17 | 17 | 16 | 22 |
| Illithid | 17 | 25 | 23 | 18 | 17 |
| Minotaur | 23 | 17 | 18 | 17 | 22 |
| Slith | 20 | 17 | 17 | 22 | 21 |
| Feral | 19 | 18 | 21 | 24 | 20 |
| Beast | 21 | 19 | 19 | 21 | 20 |
| Half-elf | 19 | 21 | 20 | 22 | 18 |
| Faerie | 14 | 25 | 20 | 23 | 14 |
| Ogre | 24 | 19 | 15 | 18 | 24 |
'----------'-----'-----'-----'-----'-----'

Or

,----------.---.---.---.---.---.---.
| Race |STR|INT|WIS|DEX|CON|ALN|
:----------:---:---:---:---:---:---:
| Human | 20| 20| 20| 20| 20|GNE|
| Elf | 18| 25| 20| 23| 16|G |
| Drow | 18| 24| 20| 24| 16| E|
| Dwarf | 21| 18| 21| 18| 25|GN | 
| Duergar | 21| 17| 20| 20| 22| E|
| Halfling | 17| 17| 21| 25| 20|GN |
| Gnome | 18| 23| 25| 18| 18| N |
| Avian | 19| 21| 21| 23| 19|GNE|
| Fire | 25| 15| 15| 16| 23| E|
| Stone | 24| 16| 16| 16| 24| N |
| Storm | 24| 17| 17| 16| 22| G | 
| Illithid | 17| 25| 23| 18| 17| E|
| Minotaur | 23| 17| 18| 17| 22| N |
| Slith | 20| 17| 17| 22| 21|GNE|
| Feral | 19| 18| 21| 24| 20| NE|
| Beast | 21| 19| 19| 21| 20| N |
| Half-elf | 19| 21| 20| 22| 18|GN |
| Faerie | 14| 25| 20| 23| 14|G |
| Ogre | 24| 19| 15| 18| 24|GNE|
'----------'---'---'---'---'---'---'

They look great, but I meant race/class combinations. My bad . But I think it might also be nice to have that put in as a helpfile as well. Will run it by the bosses.

No problem. I'll make that, too.

_______________________________________________________________________
 |War|Mon|Ber|Ran|Bla|Nin|Thi|Bmg|Inv|Cle|Hea|Sha|Nec|Dkn|Dru|Pal|Bar|Adv|
 _______|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Human | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| Elf | X | | | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | | | | | X | X | X |
| Drow | X | | | | X | X | X | X | X | X | | X | X | X | | | | X | 
| Dwarf | X | | X | | X | | | | | X | X | | | | | | X | X |
| Duerg | X | | X | | X | | X | | | X | | X | | | | | | X | 
| Half | X | | | X | X | | X | | | X | X | | | | | | X | X | 
| Gnome | X | | | X | X | | X | X | X | | | | | | | | X | X | 
| Avian | X | | | | X | X | X | X | X | | | | X | X | | | X | X | 
| Fire | X | | X | | | | | | | X | | X | | | | | | X | 
| Stone | X | | X | X | | | | | | | | | | | | | | X | 
| Storm | X | | X | | | | | | | X | X | | | | | | | X | 
| Illit | | | | | | | | | | | | | X | | | | | X | 
| Mino | X | | X | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | X | 
| Slith | X | | | | X | | X | | | | | | | | | | | X | 
| Beast | | | X | X | | | | | | | | | | | X | | | X | 
| H-elf | X | X | | X | X | X | X | | | | | | | | | X | X | X | 
| Faeri | | | | | | | X | X | X | | | | | | | | X | X |
| Ogre | X | | X | X | | | | | | | | | | | | | | X | 
'-------'---'---'---'---'---'---'---'---'---'---'---'---'---'---'---'---'---'---'

Beasts can be druids and rangers but not warriors?

Heh, it was bound to have mistakes. Not sure what happened there :-/

Sorry, we only tolerate perfection here. Report immediately to the Val Miran executioner for your next assignment.

Awesome, awesome work.