Last night I had three different logs open from three different characters while I was navigating my way through a tricky area. Unless I go somewhere frequently I can't ever remember that you need to "open panel" or "look skull" to find the key you need, but I know if I've been through an area before I must have figured out how the hell to do it.

Also, when you find a piece of gear you like or if you see something with locate object and you don't know where it's from, you can always search your logs. This is especially true now that gear that isn't in shows up as illusionary.

The maps on Dios help tremendously for a lot of areas, but you can't always count on them because they're not all totally complete. They also don't have area explores, but I almost always have the world map open when I'm playing.

If someone's leading you somewhere and you want to learn the path, ask them where you're going. This will be especially helpful if you see them looking in all directions every time they move to a new room. Ask them what they're looking for, because that's the way to navigate some mazes. Most people will gladly slow down to help you with stuff like this.

The best advice I can give for learning how to get around Thera is still to play Battle. By being forced to walk everywhere with no other option you are thrown into a sink or swim scenario where the entire game is now no recall, no teleport. I can't think of any other factor that was a bigger aid to me in navigating the MUD than playing a ton of Battle and being forced to learn my way around on foot.

Oh, and if you play a Dwarf you get an inherent that lets you detect hidden passages, which is always nice.