I'm currently playing my first character here (though I'm not new to mudding - am an imm on another mud of comparable age and size), so I thought I'd add my two cents.

One major thing I found really frustrating, particularly at low levels though still occasionally now, was the combination of losing con every 3 deaths (as a newbie, I need every hit point and all the regen I can get!), and getting hammered into the ground in two seconds flat by that person who appeared out of nowhere. I can live with a gradual drain of con if basic common sense can help me avoid death, it's not a bad idea in itself. I can also live with (and in fact enjoy, on my 'home' mud) seriously intense pk leading to frequent and swift death until you know what you're doing. But the combination, which means that a newbie will lose a lot of con very early on, is a tricky one and - since my death rate is still well above average for my rank and cabal! - still concerns me a bit, given that I have a role and character I am really enjoying. (I realise con death is a fairly rare phenomenon, but since I *do* enjoy the role, I have no intention of deleting the character and would really like it to go on as long as possible).

It's worth noting that while you do get random newbies who are passing through, you also will get a fair proportion of newbies from a roleplaying background who will deliberately put a lot of effort into their first character, use a role they love, etc. There's also a distinct tendency for the first character you get really involved in to have a special place in your affections. That does make it a bit discouraging for those newbies if you also then have a system that virtually guarantees your first character won't last as long in terms of hours played! (This may be especially true since not all newbies will trawl through the forums enough to know that con death is rarely an issue, so they're likely to worry more. I have characters on my other mud that I've played steadily for over five years, and that's common elsewhere - the idea of automatically losing this char to con death after a few months really wasn't that attractive!)

Please note, I'm not suggesting getting rid of the system; after more playtime and more forum-reading I actually like the idea of age and con death (also, newbies should never suggest sweeping changes before they've been playing two months ). I'm just wondering if something to soften the impact of enormously frequent death on newbie characters' con could be done. Could the con loss maybe start, or be reset, at level 25/30, or at their first PK kill, if the person says yes they're a new player? I'm not sure what would fit well with the game mechanics, and of course you'd then have to sidestep throwaway newbies and explore-without-con-loss lowbies, but anyhow, something along those lines would be nice.


Another thing that's still driving me slightly nuts is the whole finding gear issue. I currently have a character build that's not very gear-dependent and very kind friends who keep giving me things (luckily for me). I'm a bit concerned though that if or when I eventually find myself playing something else - especially as it will likely be a different race/alignment - I will have no clue where to find anything useful or even WHAT is useful. I tried the 'outfit' command once after dying and it gave me some food and a water skin, which was useful as far as it went, but equipment-wise didn't help at all. I hear rumours that it's supposed to, so perhaps I was just doing something wrong....this is not unusual for newbies (and if I don't get it, maybe others don't either)!

Granted a lot of this comes with experience and I'm totally willing to learn, but it's also not that helpful that when a newbie gets smacked in two rounds and full looted, they may well have no way at all to get back on their feet. Same actually goes for my now-high rank character when she gets smacked (frequent occurrence) and looted; I refuse to go around begging for handouts or bugging my cabal-mates to help me, but having a 40+ character wandering around in blue vests from the always-dead Galadon guards is, well, not that useful. Even if she were more of a combat class, I wouldn't have the first idea where to start looking for sensible replacements or what might be reasonable equipment to try to find.

This would be quite a project, but if it were possible to have either a helpfile or a generic mob that gave clues (note: not a list, but clues) and suggestions based roughly on level/class and alignment for where a character could look for a basic usable kit, I know I would definitely appreciate it. If my guess is right and I'm not really understanding the 'outfit' function, possibly the healers at the various altars could send tells to characters under level 10(15,20,whatever) when they appear after death (or an echo when they regain their material self?), explaining exactly how it does work? I read the helpfile and thought I followed it, but maybe not.


And now that I've complained for several long paragraphs, can I just say that you do have a very fun game here, and I'm definitely enjoying it. Please don't take this all as global criticism, because a lot more is done right than wrong

(Edited for minor error)