>As a relatively newer player but with veteran friends, I
>think I have some valid points that could be brought up from
>this side of the table. I've grown a lot I think in my CF
>ability in every aspect but have a ways to go...well enough
>background, here goes.
>
>1) One of the biggest things I hear about is the loss of fun
>with practice. I can understand the staff doesn't want
>everyone running around with 100%s in everything and has added
>the features to make learning easier while ranking - problem
>is, most people don't want to rank without them. The learning
>curve for CF is huge and nearly exponential including all the
>preps, skills/spells, tactics, etcs that those few % can make
>a big difference - even if you say there are those that run
>around and win with low % (which I have done), when you miss
>and die because of it, you're cursing the idea that you didn't
>practice. Sure you could have missed anyways, or you might
>even have 100% and miss (which should occur less in my
>opinion), but the fact that you died and lost everything
>because of it is a huge problem for newer players - the
>downtime for that is what causes the "must...practice"
>mentality. Tactics may beat it, but people don't like running
>a lot when you don't know what to do.

Practicing is completely unnecessary with few exceptions. I think I've practiced about three skills in as many years and only for a specific reason. I'm not "deathful" but I hold my own pretty well relatively speaking.

>
>2) One of my best friends constantly says how he misses the
>White Tower - not because of the story behind it, or the
>special things in it, but the pure fact it was the newbie
>showdown place of the mud - you could guarantee that a
>majority of players were there in the ranks of 15-20 and group
>fighting was common there. In the ranks of 15-20, there are a
>lot more options but a less occurance of group on group
>fighting. Ranking, for the most part, can be done in complete
>silence if you find a non-common area or an area far away
> Akan is a great example of a neat place but horrible location
>for newbies. Too far away, too many movement early on, and too
>far if you die. I've seen newbies who die there just delete
>because of it.) - and that becomes a grind (and ranking is a
>LOT slower here compared to other muds. Yes, it builds
>character but how many times did your parents say that to you
>before you hated it?). I love the fact that groups bump into
>each other and we need more of it early on - groups in high
>levels is depressing because it's never really even. Level
>15-20, you really only have a few options but those options
>matter in fights and I think that ability to group fight and
>pk consistenly near a town makes for great training for
>newbies in playerkilling. It'd also give people the enjoyment
>they want early-on and I hear it was faster ranking then today
>- when you've played level 40+, level 1-20 becomes a huge pain
>nowadays with all the practicing required.
>

Ranking is rather fast IMHO.

>3) More people = harder for newbies. It's quite simple. When
>you ask for a group and don't know where they are, 99% of the
>time they say no since they can find a non-newbie to rank.
>That's something that needs to change somehow, but really I
>don't know how besides make learning areas easier and closer
> like in town lumberyard, graveyard, white tower, etc) for the
>earlier ranks. Balator is the closest thing I can think of and
>that's a horrible place now to learn (Centurions BLOW for
>newbies. I had a helluva time understanding what to do when
>pinned by a group and centurions, or worse, people demanding
>the oath to newbies who don't know where Galadon is! There is
>a reason people hated them being used in areas like
>Eastern/Balator/Past - restrict them to imperial lands and
>it'd make everyone happier for the most part. Only group you'd
>disappoint would be gangbanging homos who sit near them in
>Eastern - and the rp standpoint of two centurions instantly
>walking far out of imperial lands to get taxes is is horrible.
>At LEAST make them go to the Citadel to get them and pay them,
>then make them walk them out to where they want to go. Or
>better, make it so that player can't leave the area or
>invisible, or the Centurions shrug and walk back.)

Huh? Making things easy doesn't help newbies, it hinders them. Spam killing orphans imho makes ranking boring. Power ranking in and of itself is somewhat pointless, I think having time to thresh out a char is more valuable then mass rank, practice, mass rank, etc. Oddly enough the 'number churners' who tend to do that seem to not do too well.

>
>4) Information hiding is completely different from
>spoon-feeding and I think is a big deter for newbies. Like the
>comments people made about skill effects, spell effects, etc -
>yes, use them and find out, but when you're on the receiving
>end as a newbie from something the helpfile doesn't explain
>it's a lose-lose situation. Death is a great teacher but a
>horrible aspect for new players.

Taking death too serious is usually a sign of burnout or newbieness. You can only get rid of it by either taking a break if its burnout or by dying a bunch and seeing that it is really no big deal.

>
>5) The Ultimate Empowerment Solution - make partial
>empowerment an automatic QUEST given by your guild leader.
>Make it random and based maybe on sphere (something that never
>gets used much) - yes newbies shouldn't be doing empowerment,
>but us semi-newbies who decide to pick a god that we didn't
>know never shows up or whatever has something to do up to 20
>or 25. It'd also increase the number of empowerees I think
>which would be nice - healers make the game a LOT easier. When
>you see only 3-4 healers in a game, you realize why it takes
>forever to rank.

As stands I think empowerment can occassionally be too lax.

>
>I had more but I can't think of it right now, I'll probably
>reply with more later. Time for bed
>
>Night