>...and getting hammered into
>the ground in two seconds flat by that person who appeared out
>of nowhere.

I'm not sure if this is the right way to go about it, but I learned how to "not die very often" before I learned to actually kill people. Consequently I'm still not all that great at the latter. But, it makes the game a little more enjoyable when you're not a ghost every time. One of the cardinal rules to follow in order to not die very often is, "If someone surprises you, get the hell out." Two corollaries to that being, "Don't let yourself be surprised," and, "Don't do anything that would prevent you from getting the hell out if/when you get surprised, such as stacking commands."

Oh, also, there are some edges that help with regen if your CON gets low. Basically they base your regen off something other than CON.

>Another thing that's still driving me slightly nuts is the
>whole finding gear issue.

This used to bug the hell out of me too, when I started playing. Not so much that I didn't have the gear, but that I didn't even know what gear I should want to have. My suggestions are these:

1. Play a character with identify object. Failing that, perfect lore. Identify everything you can and log it all.

2. Make a point of looking at other characters. Especially heros, or people who seem competant. If they have something you don't recognize, and if it makes sense from a role-play perspective, ask to see the items you don't recognize. Identify them and log it. Then ask the person where they come from. Note: this is easier to pull off if you're a good-aligned character, since people are more likely to trust you not to run off w/ their gear.

4. Familiarize yourself with the items in the Dio's list, but bear in mind that lots of them no longer exist and some of the existing ones are now inaccurate. Most of the inaccuracies have to do with weight.

>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

Welcome to CF. Don't let the constant dying get to you. Trust me, everybody dies a lot when they first start. Everybody.