Below are some suggestions how to decrease the number of new players who leave the mud after a few hours of play, unsatisfied, without getting properly addicted.

My first experience with CF was as follows. I decided to play a thief, got to level 5, found the Galadon guild, discovered that to join I have to pay 50 gold, found Udgaard, spent a lot of time looking fot a the thief guild there, decided this is crap, deleted, and checked out some other muds.

(i) Make the links to Diku clans world map visible and accessible on the carrion web page. Alternatively make the academy maps much, much more detailed so that they show things like guilds. (Yes, maybe you spend dozens of hours drawing maps yourself 10 years ago, get over it, standards have changed, even for a knowledge based game.)

(ii) You suggest a human sword warrior for a newbie. Offer a customization file for one of the free client designed for a warrior class before level 20.

Something which a newbie can download and play with immediately and which would have buttons for the common warrior actions, basic coloring, a button with which a newbie can turn on an event which makes "where pk" every 45 seconds, etc.

Another thing which is upsetting if you are a newbie is that once you reach rank 11 you get killed by anybody who happens to pass by simply because thye have better defenses, skills, and tactics. "Learn from your deaths" sounds cool, but is bloody painful, especially if you feel alone in Thera and see no hope.

(iii) Make a newbie friendly mercenary cabal as follows. First, the cabal accepts only warriors (and perhaps some other non-empowered, non-magical classes generally recommended for newbies like assasins or bards.)

The idea below is for a real cabal, but one which will work with easy RP and offer things extremely useful to new players.

First, the cabal channel will allow newbies to share their experiences and plan revange, of course, in character. A shop can give detect invis and perhaps other things at reasonable prices.

The cabal would be one of defensive mercenaries, hired to protect. The mercenary code would prohibit attacking other players unless they attacked a member of the cabal earlier, or unless the group is attacked, along the lines "We are mercenaries, when hired
we protect those who hired us, but we are not robbers or murderers attacking anybody we see." This should make the cabal less attractive for strong players.

Anybody should be able to get inducted who understands the code and that the channel is not like the newbie channel, but has to be used IC. Either other cabal memebers, say above level 20, or a NPC could induct, it should not be necessary to earn induction. The cabal should be in Galadon.

The best group for a newbie is another newbie plus somebody experienced with a class that is weak at low levels (shifter, etc). The newbie learns a little from the old guy, does not feel stupid being with another newbie with whom he can create a bond.

A mercenary cabal could encourage this by providing a mechanism for posting something like "looking for two mercenaries on 13 of fortitude, paying 1 gold'. This should be attractive for an experienced player with a young mage and great for the newbies. (Perhaps the tribunal could also hire the mercenaries when needed.)

The higher cabal powers should be relatively weak and could evolve around the mercenary idea. Perhaps haggle and some kind of military lore as the first cabal skills. Later, some kind of improved rescue or a defensive skill involving shields. (The idea is mercenaries are highered for protection, I would give weak defensive skills which are not easy to combine with high damage weapons, so as not
to create group of axe-wielding killer newbies.)

The effective non-attack clause in the cabal rule will make it lame for strong players. Giving the newbies some extra defense will make "killing newbies" more interesting for more experienced evil players.

(iv) Give the new cabal a spar room with a drillmaster. The drillmaster will declare a winner and interupt combat if health of one of the combatants drops below 40%. This can be used by newbies to experiment with various techniques without risking their life.

At the same time it can enliven roleplay with newbies drinking in the cabal bar, then challenging each other etc.

RP is usually based around PK. This will give a newbie another chance to RP even if he can not PK.

(v) If some form of a military lore skill is not given as a cabal skill an alternative would be to implement a NPC cabal character, like an old weaponsmaster, who can give information about armor and weapons, if the newbie brings the item back to the cabal and the NPC happens to be in a good mood.

Ok, I wrote too much. Now tell me how stupid my suggestions are. :-)

>(i) Make the links to Diku clans world map visible and
>accessible on the carrion web page. Alternatively make the
>academy maps much, much more detailed so that they show things
>like guilds. (Yes, maybe you spend dozens of hours drawing
>maps yourself 10 years ago, get over it, standards have
>changed, even for a knowledge based game.)

I would never even have rolled my actual first char (Fungor) without Dikuclan maps.

>(ii) You suggest a human sword warrior for a newbie. Offer a
>customization file for one of the free client designed for a
>warrior class before level 20.
>
>Something which a newbie can download and play with
>immediately and which would have buttons for the common
>warrior actions, basic coloring, a button with which a newbie
>can turn on an event which makes "where pk" every 45 seconds,
>etc.

I don't second this motion. How are people going to learn if everything is done automatically for them? Let them pick their own characters. The character creation process is part of the fun, after all.

>Another thing which is upsetting if you are a newbie is that
>once you reach rank 11 you get killed by anybody who happens
>to pass by simply because thye have better defenses, skills,
>and tactics. "Learn from your deaths" sounds cool, but is
>bloody painful, especially if you feel alone in Thera and see
>no hope.

It wasn't so bad for me as Fungor, since my fellow arial, a bard called Olofo, was there to share the same experience. I didn't know how to use where by then, so I thought that the duergar, a warrior called Yxiou, wouldn't find me from five rooms away, to where I ran after Olofo was killed. We were all level 11 at that time. ;D

>(iii) Make a newbie friendly mercenary cabal as follows.
>First, the cabal accepts only warriors (and perhaps some other
>non-empowered, non-magical classes generally recommended for
>newbies like assasins or bards.)

I think it is a bad idea to make such artificial limits, since not everyone starts their first chars with these classes. Also, I think making a cabal solely for newbies as a bad idea, since where are their experienced cabalmates then? From whom they learn to RP better? Other noobs?

>Perhaps the tribunal could also hire the mercenaries when needed.)

I think the cities should start to pay Tribunal deputies for the services they do to the city. When the deputy goes off duty, he would gain a payment for his services with a pecho, in addition to the your deputization has ended pecho, like: 100 copper coins has been deposited to your account for your service to the city of Galadon.

>Ok, I wrote too much. Now tell me how stupid my suggestions
>are.

You asked for it...


>Below are some suggestions how to decrease the number of new
>players who leave the mud after a few hours of play,
>unsatisfied, without getting properly addicted.

First of all, this is a worthy goal.


>My first experience with CF was as follows. I decided to play
>a thief, got to level 5, found the Galadon guild, discovered
>that to join I have to pay 50 gold, found Udgaard, spent a lot
>of time looking fot a the thief guild there, decided this is
>crap, deleted, and checked out some other muds.

Note that not all guilds require membership to let you practice, and that thieves aren't typically considered a newbie-friendly class. As for Udgaard, it makes sense that a thieve's guild wouldn't be on the map for the city since it's a secret hideout sort of deal.


>(i) Make the links to Diku clans world map visible and
>accessible on the carrion web page. Alternatively make the
>academy maps much, much more detailed so that they show things
>like guilds.

Bad idea to link to external content from the main site. One big reason- it's not under the staff's control. Probably a good idea to have detailed academy maps, but that still doesn't mean they're going to show where every thieves' guild is.


>(ii) You suggest a human sword warrior for a newbie. Offer a
>customization file for one of the free client designed for a
>warrior class before level 20.

The standard line is "you don't have to use a client to play this game." I'm not sure I buy that, but neither do I think it's a good idea to provide pre-created scripts. Aliases aren't rocket science. One valuable thing for a newbie to learn is how to do basic things using a client. Being handed a pre-written script isn't going to accomplish that. Now, I could see at least mentioning that clients -exist- and what some of the more popular ones are, but stock scripts are a bad idea.

On a related note I'm not totally sold on "human sword warrior" being the best choice for a newbie, but that's another discussion.


>Another thing which is upsetting if you are a newbie is that
>once you reach rank 11 you get killed by anybody who happens
>to pass by simply because thye have better defenses, skills,
>and tactics. "Learn from your deaths" sounds cool, but is
>bloody painful, especially if you feel alone in Thera and see
>no hope.

Agreed. But I think your specially coded mercenary cabal is a bad idea. There are also cabals that already exist whose RP isn't supremely hard to master. Tribunal comes to mind. Empire. I'm not saying any newbie can be a superstar in one of these cabals, but if they're willing to take their licks as a cabal member they should be capable of at least being "decent".

>>Ok, I wrote too much. Now tell me how stupid my suggestions
>>are.
>
>You asked for it...
>

Hehe.

>
>Note that not all guilds require membership to let you
>practice, and that thieves aren't typically considered a
>newbie-friendly class. As for Udgaard, it makes sense that a
>thieve's guild wouldn't be on the map for the city since it's
>a secret hideout sort of deal.
>

Perhaps the thief guild is particularly secretive and should be hidden. My point is not about thief guilds, the example I gave from when I started to play was only meant to be illustrative. My point is why not make information which all minimally advanced players use easily available to newbies as well?

Indeed, in another response the player of Fungor said that he would have never rolled a character if he hadn't had those maps. Isn't this kind of confirming my point?

>
>Bad idea to link to external content from the main site. One
>big reason- it's not under the staff's control.
>

This I do not get. Sure it is not under the staffs control, most external links on any web page are not under the control of that webpage. This does not mean a map like that on Diku clan can not be very helpful and make the difference for a total newbie between playing and moving elsewhere. Obviously a remark could be added that using those map is at your own risk, bla bla.

>
>The standard line is "you don't have to use a client to play
>this game." I'm not sure I buy that, but neither do I think
>it's a good idea to provide pre-created scripts. Aliases
>aren't rocket science. One valuable thing for a newbie to
>learn is how to do basic things using a client. Being handed
>a pre-written script isn't going to accomplish that. Now, I
>could see at least mentioning that clients -exist- and what
>some of the more popular ones are, but stock scripts are a bad
>idea.
>

Clearly customizing a client can be done by anybody. But entering hilites for various damage messages, disarming, etc is not an interesting task, it is boring. Offering a customized client (or several) does not force anybody to use it. At the same time it would give those who do not wish to spend the time learning scripts and entering various hilites a more "customer friendly" console then simple telnet, which is what most newbies proabably use when they try out the game. (Those who start playing will customize and add script anyway, so, as far as your goal of educating people how to use clients is concerned, they will learn that sooner or later, hehe)

>
>>Another thing which is upsetting if you are a newbie is that
>>once you reach rank 11 you get killed by anybody who happens
>>to pass by simply because thye have better defenses, skills,
>>and tactics. "Learn from your deaths" sounds cool, but is
>>bloody painful, especially if you feel alone in Thera and
>see
>>no hope.
>
>Agreed. But I think your specially coded mercenary cabal is a
>bad idea. There are also cabals that already exist whose RP
>isn't supremely hard to master. Tribunal comes to mind.
>Empire. I'm not saying any newbie can be a superstar in one
>of these cabals, but if they're willing to take their licks as
>a cabal member they should be capable of at least being
>"decent".

The mercenary cabal was just a thought. The idea was to have a cabal which would give skills (and perhaps knowledge) crucial to a newbie like some kind of useful lore skill even if the class does not have identify or appraise and can not use (or has problems affording) identify scrolls.

I think you are not totally right if you say that current cabals like Tribunal or Empire play the supportive role I had envisioned. First they are not all that trivial to enter for a total newbie. My first caballed character was a Tribunal. He entered the cabal somewhere between levels 25 and 30. The reason is that even a cabal like tribunal which is easy to enter and in theory can be entered at level 15 asks for city knowledge (including guilds, by the way) various forms of silent attacks, etc - information which a total newbie will not have. In addition, you need to catch the provost, which also can take time... I think if you made it to 25 and are able to stand your ground you are fine, I am worried about those who do not get there. (Also, once you enter the cabal you are confronted with new challenges, being expected to defend and retrieve - which is perfectly fun, but will hardly help a newbie with knowing how to regear and how not to get killed, rather will make his life harder as he becomes the target of the opposing cabals.)

I guess, what I had in mind is something which would especially help very very new players to get from rank 11-21 in a less painful way. Perhaps, this is not needed.. But then, the decreasing number of players would suggest something is needed.

Thanks to both of you for your responses.

>Perhaps the thief guild is particularly secretive and should
>be hidden. My point is not about thief guilds, the example I
>gave from when I started to play was only meant to be
>illustrative. My point is why not make information which all
>minimally advanced players use easily available to newbies as
>well?

I'm not familiar with the maps that are available in the academy, so I can't comment either way about how detailed they are. If they're "not detailed enough" then I agree they should be "more detailed". But "more detailed" doesn't necessarily mean they're going to have everything on there, thieves' guilds being one example.


>Indeed, in another response the player of Fungor said that he
>would have never rolled a character if he hadn't had those
>maps. Isn't this kind of confirming my point?

It depends. Is Fungor's player someone who contributes to the game? I don't know the guy so I have no idea. And even if he is, who -else- started playing purely because of the maps? Maybe it ends up being a net negative, in that it attracts the kind of player who's only going to play if he has everything given to him on a silver platter? I'm not saying that's necessarily the case, but it -might- be. That's why imho you can't take one example like Fungor's and conclude from it that it would be a good idea to put detailed maps online for most areas.


>This I do not get. Sure it is not under the staffs control,
>most external links on any web page are not under the control
>of that webpage. This does not mean a map like that on Diku
>clan can not be very helpful and make the difference for a
>total newbie between playing and moving elsewhere. Obviously a
>remark could be added that using those map is at your own
>risk, bla bla.

Not only is that content not under the staff's control, some of it is viewed as negative, i.e. we'd all be better off if it weren't published. Item lists come to mind.


>Clearly customizing a client can be done by anybody. But
>entering hilites for various damage messages, disarming, etc
>is not an interesting task, it is boring. Offering a
>customized client (or several) does not force anybody to use
>it. At the same time it would give those who do not wish to
>spend the time learning scripts and entering various hilites a
>more "customer friendly" console then simple telnet,

Couple of points. One, the only people who will use plain telnet are those who prefer it to mud clients or who are complete newbies to all muds in general. People coming to Carrion Fields from some other mud are most likely already familiar with clients. Two, highlights aren't really essential to something like the warrior class. And even if we admit that they're helpful, there's probably some disagreement over what should be highlighted, what color it should be, etc. If the imms wanted that stuff to be colorized by default they'd have hard-coded it into the mud. I just think a new player who is trying to learn the mud -and- a particular client program is best served by writing his own aliases and highlights. I mean, the text comes across the screen...all you need to do is log it, then take 2 minutes to add a highlight later. I do think clients should be "recommended" over plain telnet, though. For speedwalk and aliases if nothing else.


>The mercenary cabal was just a thought. The idea was to have a
>cabal which would give skills (and perhaps knowledge) crucial
>to a newbie like some kind of useful lore skill even if the
>class does not have identify or appraise and can not use (or
>has problems affording) identify scrolls.

This is one of the reasons I think warriors are a poor choice for new players. They don't get locate or identify and are dependent to a large degree on gear. So they need gear to be effective, but have the least ability to figure out what's what. A svirf warrior, at least, would get free detect invis and lore at 100%. My other recommendations would be transmuter, bard and healer, the last only if the player feels up to the challenge of empowerment. All of these get identify (or lore at 100%) and can be valuable to a group even with crappy gear. A transmuter would also give new players the ability to explore "basic" areas while duo'd, removing the likelihood of their dying while doing this exploring.


>I think you are not totally right if you say that current
>cabals like Tribunal or Empire play the supportive role I had
>envisioned. First they are not all that trivial to enter for a
>total newbie. My first caballed character was a Tribunal. He
>entered the cabal somewhere between levels 25 and 30. The
>reason is that even a cabal like tribunal which is easy to
>enter and in theory can be entered at level 15 asks for city
>knowledge (including guilds, by the way) various forms of
>silent attacks, etc - information which a total newbie will
>not have.

Yeah, but it's information the newbie should definitely get, and it's not like he can't do some research IC. Of course, that's vastly easier if the character is good-aligned, since that makes it easier for him to ask advice of other (presumably good-aligned) characters in-game. I'll admit that Empire isn't supremely easy to get into given the coin requirement and subsequent emphasis on donations. Maybe herald.


>defend and retrieve - which is perfectly fun, but will hardly
>help a newbie with knowing how to regear and how not to get
>killed, rather will make his life harder as he becomes the
>target of the opposing cabals.)

Which may be an argument for new players remaining un-caballed.


>I guess, what I had in mind is something which would
>especially help very very new players to get from rank 11-21
>in a less painful way. Perhaps, this is not needed.. But then,
>the decreasing number of players would suggest something is
>needed.

Newbie retention -might- be a reason for lower player counts, but then it might not. Other posters have suggested it's due to a mass exodus by vets. Others think it's final exams season, and that numbers will pick up in the summer. Etc.

I agree that newbies could probably use some help, just don't agree with all your suggestions. Detailed maps are helpful, but should be handled in-game. Clients are helpful, but imho should be customized by the player himself. I just had an idea about gear identification...will post that in a separate thread.

>It depends. Is Fungor's player someone who contributes to the
>game? I don't know the guy so I have no idea. And even if he
>is, who -else- started playing purely because of the maps?
>Maybe it ends up being a net negative, in that it attracts the
>kind of player who's only going to play if he has everything
>given to him on a silver platter? I'm not saying that's
>necessarily the case, but it -might- be. That's why imho you
>can't take one example like Fungor's and conclude from it that
>it would be a good idea to put detailed maps online for most
>areas.

Think about the very concept of playing a text-based game for a first time. You'll have no map screen that constantly shows your position from a visual map. After trying CF many years before and not figuring out what the CF world was like that time, I wanted to have some map that I could use to find my way around in Thera. My friend showed me the Dikuclan website and I agreed to play CF, as having maps was the only condition I set before agreeing to play CF, as I didn't want to get lost in the game.

After that, I rolled Fungor spent three hours in Academy(the part before the), reading every little bit of text in every room that I could find in order to learn the game. So, no, I didn't expect to have everything on silver platter. Just the map of the world and the one presented by Dikuclan is pretty good one for a newbie that needs a map. I'm not saying anything about whether or not CF site should have link to Dikuclan map, but I did say that I wouldn't have started to play CF without it, since it was the plain truth. I don't really use Dikuclan item lists, but rather rely on identify/lore instead. This has been since rolled Fungor, as the maps were the treshold question, not items.

My past characters are Fungor(Herald Arial assassin), Agantas(Trib human shifter), Murgh(orc) and Atohner(Outlander applicant h-drow transmuter), just in case you knew one of them in order to define whether or not I contribute to the game.

>Yeah, but it's information the newbie should definitely get,
>and it's not like he can't do some research IC. Of course,
>that's vastly easier if the character is good-aligned, since
>that makes it easier for him to ask advice of other
>(presumably good-aligned) characters in-game. I'll admit that
>Empire isn't supremely easy to get into given the coin
>requirement and subsequent emphasis on donations. Maybe
>herald.

I eventually spammed lore to high % and thus learned to identify my items as Fungor, but in the beginning, I just wore the stuff others gave me, as I assumed it was good. I agree with you, as I didn't know well what the good gear was, but other Heralds were helpful and helped me to regear, so I eventually ended up with good set in Hero range etc(I did learn to regear for some items, though as Fungor lived many months before age death). This being said: I agree. Herald is a good cabal for a newbie to join, as other members are mainly RP characters and have idle time in hands, due to the absence of wars in Herald, and thus tend to be helpful when younger Heralds are concerned.

I think the problems you describe are very close to those I had as a newbie and about which most newbies complain.

Again, we can not be sure what bothered those who left and therefore do not post but the assumption that they left for similar reasons seems natural.

>
>Think about the very concept of playing a text-based game for
>a first time. You'll have no map screen that constantly shows
>your position from a visual map. After trying CF many years
>before and not figuring out what the CF world was like that
>time, I wanted to have some map that I could use to find my
>way around in Thera. My friend showed me the Dikuclan website
>

That is my point, hehe. I think this in some sense becomes a bigger problem with time. Textbased telnet and Dos are things of the past, younger people are simply not used to textbased environments being brought up on MS Windows. If the transition to a text based system is not made easy they will not come or they will leave CF after looking at it briefly thinking that it is too much pain compared ith one of the muds who offers good text based maps.

>
>I eventually spammed lore to high % and thus learned to
>identify my items as Fungor, but in the beginning, I just wore
>the stuff others gave me, as I assumed it was good. I agree
>with you, as I didn't know well what the good gear was, but
>other Heralds were helpful and helped me to regear, so I
>

Spamming things to be able to compete is one of the things I dislike most about CF. Forcing a newbie to spam will make many newbies unhappy. Ok, you say you joined herald and found help there. Great for you. You probably had the luck of being a quite good roleplayer, playing at hours where other heralds where around, Herald seemed to be a cabal that fit your tastes, and your character fullfilled the formal requirements to easily join Herald. As a result you stayed, but maybe you would have left if you had less luck in one of those points. (Again, please do not take this as some kind of judgement about you or Fungor, I am interested in what can stop people from leaving not how much luck vs skill you and your particular character had.) That is why I thought that having a real cabal which is easy to join and can be joined early and offers some kind of IC exchange of information and a decent lore skill among other things would be helpful.

You say you did not use the Diku clan and qhcf item lists. Crucify me, but for me those lists, especially the "Diku clan good/evil newbie items list" (or whatever it was called) was a blessing. (Perhaps I am the only one who ever used those lists, but I doubt this given what peoply write on the qhcf forums and the very fact that those lists exist.) Why did I have to find stats for items OOC? Because there was no sufficiently newbie friendly way IC. Lore even at 100% is not all that great and identify scrolls while a trivial thing for me now (assuming my char can use them) where simply to expensive for me as a newbie. What I tried to suggest with the mercenary cabal was something which would reduce those problems giving a newbie sufficient IC tools so he does not have to use OOC methods like the item lists (or even more perverse methods like rolling a separate mage char just to identify things he finds with his non-mage char).

Ok. I'll be very brief this time.

>
>>Indeed, in another response the player of Fungor said that
>he
>>would have never rolled a character if he hadn't had those
>>maps. Isn't this kind of confirming my point?
>
>It depends. Is Fungor's player someone who contributes to the
>game? I don't know the guy so I have no idea.

I think the idea that we somehow select people who already when they play the mud for the first time massively contribute is silly - we do not have that luxury. (This is not about Fungor who I believe was an interesting character, but about this way of thinking.) I think we should attract anybody who does not have an adverse effect on the mud now in the hope that along the road he might really add a lot. Until then simply having another character walk the lands adds richness and adds opportunities - either to group with him or to kill him or to drink with him, or whatever.

>
>Not only is that content not under the staff's control, some
>of it is viewed as negative, i.e. we'd all be better off if it
>weren't published. Item lists come to mind.
>

How many minimally advanced players do not use item lists? My point is that now everybody uses them, except the total newbies, which are the people which in some sense need them most. (Somehow pretending nobody uses them is just hypocrysy, pardon my spelling.)

>
>Couple of points. One, the only people who will use plain
>telnet are those who prefer it to mud clients or who are
>complete newbies to all muds in general. People coming to
>Carrion Fields from some other mud are most likely already
>familiar with clients. Two, highlights aren't really
>essential to something like the warrior class. And even if we
>admit that they're helpful, there's probably some disagreement
>over what should be highlighted, what color it should be, etc.
> If the imms wanted that stuff to be colorized by default
>they'd have hard-coded it into the mud. I just think a new
>player who is trying to learn the mud -and- a particular
>client program is best served by writing his own aliases and
>highlights. I mean, the text comes across the screen...all
>you need to do is log it, then take 2 minutes to add a
>highlight later. I do think clients should be "recommended"
>over plain telnet, though. For speedwalk and aliases if
>nothing else.
>

We want more people right? Why not try to atteact also those who never plaid a mud before?

After playing something with colors for a while I am disgusted if I switch to something without. If somebody logs in to check out the mud, we have to compete with muds that have more sophisticate colorations. Why handicap ourselfs here? Even if this matters only to 1 in 10 why should we give up that 1? (The cost of offering a customization file based on one used by one of the current vet players is close to zero in terms of workload.)

The fact that people have different preferences is true. Still, I think most people preffer a situation where important messages are colored to one where they are not. (Even if the color scheme does not fit theit bathroom coloration choice...) Not beeing able to offer the perfect client for everybody does not mean it is better to offer nothing!

>
>>I guess, what I had in mind is something which would
>>especially help very very new players to get from rank 11-21
>>in a less painful way. Perhaps, this is not needed.. But
>then,
>>the decreasing number of players would suggest something is
>>needed.
>
>Newbie retention -might- be a reason for lower player counts,
>but then it might not. Other posters have suggested it's due
>to a mass exodus by vets. Others think it's final exams
>season, and that numbers will pick up in the summer. Etc.
>

See, again, it might be that exodus of vets is the reason the player base shrinks. Or maybe people die off, get senile, whatever. I do not think it matters so much - if we want to get more players a good way is to make people who check the mud out stay.

And yes, to make them stay we should make the initial experience more enjoyable (therefore the suggestion for maps and a colored client, etc.). If you start playing a character who spends a while in the levels 1-11 (say a thief who ranks solo to master steal before 11) and listen to the newbie channel typically there is at least one person who seems to be really enthusiastic but at the same time totally lost. This are the people I think we should put more effort on keeping. (By the way, if this means getting out a huge f'cking silver spoon and feeding them things like maps which are used by all slightly advanced players I do not see what the problem is. CF is a competitive knowledge based game, so if you feed people too much the game will loose its core. But a little feeding at the beginning just so the newbie does not spend time on idiotic tasks is far from destroying the game.)

Keep in mind that the people who check out CF, then leave for another mud which appears more user friendly after playing for a few hours will not be people posting here...

####. I misled when I said I will be short. This is again too long. It is just that I think we could increase the playerbase, thereby making the game more fun for everybody by changing some really small things (I am not talking about the cabal idea here). On the other hand, if the playerbase shrinks further the game will become less attractive, more people will leave, and decline will continue. This would seem like such a waste...

No other cabal almost REQUIRES you to be uninducted for a "first offense" type situation.

I, who have played countless law characters, have had three hero range tribbies in the past 2 years get uninducted for first time offenses, two due to an extremely bad link causing me to lag, causing a command I input out of town to go through in town, and a third time becasue I just hit the wrong button.

Sure, in empire it's easy to get anathema'd....but I'll say it's easier to get booted from tribunal for an ooc mistake like hitting the wrong button or having lag than it is to get anathema'd...especially now that you can just get demoted in empire.

I personally would say that the most "newbie friendly" cabals to date are the Village, the Empire, and acolyte...in that order.



In the village...you don't have to have *ANY* knowledge of preps, be it damage resistance or detect invis or the like, and you don't really need much in the way of eq knowledge...because with deathblow eq will come and go quickly... You will also get into alot of fights, teaching you how to deal with pks. And you don't need extra-ordinary area knowledge because most of your non-ranking life will be spent geographically between galadon and the empire and the Fortress and the village.

In empire, all you have to do is oath and donate and take orders.


And in Acolyte, you just have to be a goodie, and your fellow cabalmates, also goodies, will often be more than willing to help you learn how to be good at being a goodie.

While the BASIC roleplay of a tribby might be easy to grasp, there are far too many complexities and pitfalls a tribby must deal with on the every-day (not to mention mandatory boredom of town-watching) for me to consider it remotely newbie-friendly.