I have played one or two MUDs in the past, notably Dark Mists years ago.

I find that the learning curve at CF is steep.

I am a level 12 healer. I have died maybe 8 times to players and around 10 times to mobs while seeking out a shrine. It wasn't until level 12 that I realized I was missing some spells I should have had, most notably, gate. I come to learn there is something called EMPOWERMENT which basically says you don't get certain spells until you choose a god and that god chooses you. So I went to the WIZlist and chose a god, and sought her shrine. Today I find out that my "sphere" (Honor) is different than the spheres represented by the Goddess I was seeking out. Only a god of your sphere can give you supplication, I was told today by an immortal.

Well that makes sense, I guess... maybe on some level.

But there is no God representing HONOR.

So while I fight mobs by myself (no point in leveling before I know the areas) earning 50-70exp per kill and a meager wage, what could be worse than being a level 12 healer waxing it in a 5-10 area waiting for the level 14 A-P to show up and gank me while I'm in the middle of the fight? umm.. nothing.

Yeah, it's cool most of my armor comes back down the tube. I get to realize over and over that it isn't likely I'll live long enough to fill up half of my armor slots.

You can tell me I shouldn't have chosen a healer class, but I will say I wanted to play a healer. I still do. But as far as allowing me to choose a sphere which will likely receive no support from the gods (no empowerment appears to equal a weak healer), carrion fields sucks for that. I was shown a list of like 50 spheres!! Do you know how much time I spent looking over that list before I finally chose one? A while. And now that I've chosen one, I can't go back, it's locked in, and I can't gate or haven and who knows what else I won't have access to down the line. I had a DESCription and a ROLE way before the "aces" who wanted me to group with them to super-level 7+ levels in like an hour. So I'm at level 12 getting owned and without the gold to pay for a stockpile of practices.

One of the cool things CF has is the different door sizes. Stacked up against this other lameness, though, it doesn't make much of a difference to me.

Anyway, this is my perspective. You CF elitists probably won't care but pretty soon you'll be reduced to playing a who's-who roleplaying game with your five nerdiest friends. Just make sure you rotate the areas around so to break your auto-walkers and introduce some effort into the mix.

I walk slowly. I do not want to use any form of auto-walking/running, even if/when I do know the areas really well. I want to play a fair game and this does not appear to be it.

"I have played one or two MUDs in the past, notably Dark Mists years ago."

Welcome!

"I find that the learning curve at CF is steep."

It absolutely is. No question.

"I am a level 12 healer. I have died maybe 8 times to players and around 10 times to mobs while seeking out a shrine.
It wasn't until level 12 that I realized I was missing some spells I should have had, most notably, gate. I come to learn
there is something called EMPOWERMENT which basically says you don't get certain spells until you choose a god
and that god chooses you."

If you're new, you should have wandered through the academy when you first arrived, and been prompted to check
numerous help files. At least 2 of these should have mentioned Empowerment. I refer you to the steep learning
curve you mentioned earlier.

"So I went to the WIZlist and chose a god, and sought her shrine. Today I find out that my "sphere" (Honor) is different
than the spheres represented by the Goddess I was seeking out. Only a god of your sphere can give you supplication,
I was told today by an immortal."

That interaction sounds like a wonderful thing you can build into your role. It's also folded into your learning curve. You'll
want to find a quiet place that represents Honor to you in some fashion, and pray for guidance/empowerment from there.
I STRONGLY recommend reading the help files on empowerment and prayer before doing this.

Also, if you looked at the wizlist, you would see which gods represent which spheres. I'm a little confused by your
statement there.

"Well that makes sense, I guess... maybe on some level.
But there is no God representing HONOR. "

Sweet! You get to define it in your own way. What better option! You don't have to subscribe to the way certain religeons have
been played for years, you can make it up to some degree. Sounds like a winner for me, especially for someone new.

"So while I fight mobs by myself (no point in leveling before I know the areas) earning 50-70exp per kill and a meager wage, "

Stop doing this right now if you're logged in, or next time you log in. You are a priest, trying to win the favor of the Gods of Honor.
Pray, emote, find the Inn of the Eternal Star and roleplay with groupmates, heal people above your level while discussing honor
with them. Killing kobolds doesn't show your god/gods that you have honor, and certainly doesn't show anyone else why your
religeon is the best! You are a priest, go build a following (or at least try to).

"what could be worse than being a level 12 healer waxing it in a 5-10 area waiting for the level 14 A-P to show up and gank me
while I'm in the middle of the fight? umm.. nothing. "

I read this as "I keep trying the same thing over and over, and it continues to fail. What should I do?". ANYTHING DIFFERENT!
See my suggestions above for a few ideas.

"Yeah, it's cool most of my armor comes back down the tube. I get to realize over and over that it isn't likely I'll live long enough
to fill up half of my armor slots. "

Stop worring about your armor so much. Once you are empowered, there's plenty of time for that.

"You can tell me I shouldn't have chosen a healer class, but I will say I wanted to play a healer. I still do."

Cool! Play a healer. When you think about doctors, do you imagine them killing rats or healing people? You're a half priest/half
doctor. GO HEAL SOME PEOPLE. Talk with them about honor while you do it. You may find yourself empowered before you
realize it.

"But as far as allowing me to choose a sphere which will likely receive no support from the gods (no empowerment appears to
equal a weak healer), carrion fields sucks for that. I was shown a list of like 50 spheres!! Do you know how much time I spent
looking over that list before I finally chose one? A while. And now that I've chosen one, I can't go back, it's locked in, and I can't
gate or haven and who knows what else I won't have access to down the line. "

No one said you will get no support from the immortals. You just won't get one specific immortal. You'll likely be empowered
by "An Immortal" or some butterflies or something. When you pray, make the imm generic or make one up for yourself and
explain who they are in your role.

"I had a DESCription and a ROLE way before the "aces" who wanted me to group with them to super-level 7+ levels in like an hour."

This is a good start on an Empowerment character.

"So I'm at level 12 getting owned and without the gold to pay for a stockpile of practices."

Two things here:
1) Stop fighting people. You are an unempowered healer. You cannot fight well yet. Work on spreading your take on your religeon
and heal some people.
2) Don't use gold to pay for practices. Barter. There's tons of things on the ground. If you can't barter with the things you find, sell
them to get a little coin. It doesn't cost that much. I'd say ask for some from people you are healing, but as sphere honor you likely
wouldn't do that.

"One of the cool things CF has is the different door sizes. Stacked up against this other lameness, though, it doesn't make much
of a difference to me."

It really sounds to me like you want a healer to be a badass fighter. They aren't designed for that, especially at low level.

"Anyway, this is my perspective. You CF elitists probably won't care but pretty soon you'll be reduced to playing a who's-who
roleplaying game with your five nerdiest friends. Just make sure you rotate the areas around so to break your auto-walkers
and introduce some effort into the mix. "

My perspective: You're coming across whiny, didn't read any helpfiles for the first 12 levels, and now want everyone else to "fix"
your character for you. Oh, and I can't speak for "elites", but I don't have any autowalkers. I've been playing this game for years
though, and can walk across the whole darned map blindfolded and be quick about it too.

"I walk slowly. I do not want to use any form of auto-walking/running, even if/when I do know the areas really well. I want to play a
fair game and this does not appear to be it."

So walk slowly. Follow others, and log where they went so next time you can walk there. Either of these will work well. As a
healer, you are in a unique position to be a HUGE boost to a group. Any groupmate worth their salt would be willing to show
you how to get to a few basic areas when you're working with them. Sitting by yourself killing kobolds waiting to be axed
by an AP won't get you that, or empowered.

-Falstaff

While I can understand your desire to play a healer, the help files for empowerment clearly state that empowerment classes are not recommended for someone new. There is a reason why this mud has lasted so long as a truly free mud. You can't buy the powers you crave here. You can't buy empowerment. You have to earn it. At character creation, this warning is stressed there again. Carrion Fields has a steep learning curve. That is one of the reasons why CF has been around so long and isn't going anywhere any time soon. If it becomes too easy or too repetitive, there is no point in playing anymore. Auto-walkers do not work in CF. Sure, there might be a few who use it to get from one specific point to another, but, all it takes is one attacker amidst that run and you will probably wind up dead. I have played this game for 13 years now and I can run from just about any starting point in any major city to an ending point in any other major city blindfolded. And I am not alone.

I highly recommend a warrior, assassin or ranger to start with. They survive well, are wanted for grouping and at the lower levels, most folks just leave them alone because they really don't have to do much to kill someone.

I remember when I started with a dark-elf necromancer. How did I hated it. Of course, I tried to do 'wake up' to wake but then...I was a total newbie to Muds.

I honestly believe playing a healer as a new player is a good idea, IF (and only IF) you can get the RP thing down to at least a decent level.

You don't have to shine, just get people thinking, this is a decent healer. Nothing worse than a support character whom you constantly have to tell what to do though, so you should at least take the time to familiarize yourself with the class, and take advice people give you.

Because of this, you probably should play a goodie healer, cause then people are very much inclined (forced (by RP)?) to be helpfull and more patient. No one likes saying the same things over and over though.

Once passed first empowerment, a healer is a versatile class to get to know the game and not die in the process. By the time you need second empowerment, you should have grasped much of the gameplay/group dynamics.

"What is mind, don't matter. What is matter, nevermind!" - Homer J. Simpson.

>I have played one or two MUDs in the past, notably Dark Mists
>years ago.
>
>I find that the learning curve at CF is steep.
>
You're right it is steep. I think this has a lot to do with the amount of options you have with race/class/edges etc. etc.

>I am a level 12 healer. I have died maybe 8 times to players
>and around 10 times to mobs while seeking out a shrine. It
>wasn't until level 12 that I realized I was missing some
>spells I should have had, most notably, gate. I come to learn
>there is something called EMPOWERMENT which basically says you
>don't get certain spells until you choose a god and that god
>chooses you. So I went to the WIZlist and chose a god, and
>sought her shrine. Today I find out that my "sphere" (Honor)
>is different than the spheres represented by the Goddess I was
>seeking out. Only a god of your sphere can give you
>supplication, I was told today by an immortal.

Since you've played other MUDs you probably didn't bother to look over the healer help file. We do not try to hide empowerment from you, rather it's clearly stated in the help file. Although, Carrion Fields may at first look similar to other MUDs you've tried out, it isn't by far. I encourage you to look over our help file system for every skill/supplication/spell/race/class, you’ll find it will save you countless future frustration. If you don't have understanding from the help file, you can ask on this forum or the newbie channel (as long as you have the channel). Sure, people that answer the newbie channel or the forums aren’t going to spoon feed all of the information to you, but we’ll help you help yourself.


>
>Well that makes sense, I guess... maybe on some level.
>
>But there is no God representing HONOR.

You said you have a role, now would be the time to use it. Ok, so there isn’t an immortal that covers your sphere, it’s not the end of the world. As you have a role, it should cover why your sphere is Honor. You can work with this, and pray about your own god/religion. Of course, I would recommend that in the future you pick a sphere that is controlled by an existing immortal.

>
>So while I fight mobs by myself (no point in leveling before I
>know the areas) earning 50-70exp per kill and a meager wage,
>what could be worse than being a level 12 healer waxing it in
>a 5-10 area waiting for the level 14 A-P to show up and gank
>me while I'm in the middle of the fight? umm.. nothing.
>
>Yeah, it's cool most of my armor comes back down the tube. I
>get to realize over and over that it isn't likely I'll live
>long enough to fill up half of my armor slots.
>
>You can tell me I shouldn't have chosen a healer class, but I
>will say I wanted to play a healer. I still do. But as far as
>allowing me to choose a sphere which will likely receive no
>support from the gods (no empowerment appears to equal a weak
>healer), carrion fields sucks for that. I was shown a list of
>like 50 spheres!! Do you know how much time I spent looking
>over that list before I finally chose one? A while. And now
>that I've chosen one, I can't go back, it's locked in, and I
>can't gate or haven and who knows what else I won't have
>access to down the line. I had a DESCription and a ROLE way
>before the "aces" who wanted me to group with them to
>super-level 7+ levels in like an hour. So I'm at level 12
>getting owned and without the gold to pay for a stockpile of
>practices.
>


Yup, empowerment is pretty much required when you want to play any empowered class. Personally, I would never tell you to not play a healer. I think people just starting out should play what they believe they are going to be happiest with. This being said, the road to a happy experience is not always the easiest. When you first rolled your character, some classes were recommended to you because they do not have such a steep learning curve in the lower ranks.


>One of the cool things CF has is the different door sizes.
>Stacked up against this other lameness, though, it doesn't
>make much of a difference to me.
>

It's not a bunch of lameness, you simply were not using all of the resources available to you (help files). If you had taken just a moment to look over the healer help file you would have known about empowerment straight away.


>Anyway, this is my perspective. You CF elitists probably won't
>care but pretty soon you'll be reduced to playing a who's-who
>roleplaying game with your five nerdiest friends. Just make
>sure you rotate the areas around so to break your auto-walkers
>and introduce some effort into the mix.
>
>I walk slowly. I do not want to use any form of
>auto-walking/running, even if/when I do know the areas really
>well. I want to play a fair game and this does not appear to
>be it.

Auto-walkers? In all my years of playing, I’ve never used an auto walker. I wouldn’t even recommend that you use one, tools like this can only get you killed in the middle of putting in a series of commands. People have just played so many characters that they know the areas. Personally, my memory storage doesn’t have room to know how many steps it is to get everywhere from Market Square in Galadon, but I do know there are people that can do this with ease. I’m more of the type that knows the general geography of how areas relate to each other, and although I can’t walk as fast as other people to said areas, I’m not lost all the time either.

To me this is a fair game, and I’m not about to stop playing it.

>But there is no God representing HONOR.

Actually I think it makes empowerment quicker for a new player...
1. You dont know what imms are online while you are so choosing choosing an imm with different playtimes is quite possible

2. You dont know enough lore of the world and religions. While your chosen imm would most probably help you to iron out mistakes if he notices that you are new, choosing a sphere with no imm coverage enables you to have a shot at your own interpretation.

My first character was a sphere mercy healer without a patron god and I had no problem getting my first empowerment quick.


>had a DESCription and a ROLE way
>before the "aces" who wanted me to group with them to
>super-level 7+ levels in like an hour. So I'm at level 12
>getting owned and without the gold to pay for a stockpile of
>practices.

Ah yes, happened to me too. Will be a rough ride...


>Just make
>sure you rotate the areas around so to break your auto-walkers
>and introduce some effort into the mix.
>I walk slowly. I do not want to use any form of
>auto-walking/running, even if/when I do know the areas really
>well. I want to play a fair game and this does not appear to
>be it.

Maybe they are quicker because they know the way really well?
Some people here play for 10+ years and therefore could walk blind around certain places...

Thank you for the responses. I may have come off sounding whiny, maybe you even think I expect the gods to be hooking me up at every step of the way.

At this point I think it's fair to say I've spent half of my time in the game reading help files. After the considerable time that went into creating my character and getting through the academy (making my description and choosing a sphere) I found I was still sitting somewhere resting my feet looking through help files.

Yes, I did see "SEE ALSO EMPOWERMENT, .." mentioned. I didn't look at it because by that point I wanted to do some exploring, actual playing I'm sure. By the time I read the helpfile I had already chosen a sphere, leaving me feeling very frustrated:
" Yes, we will sometimes grant empowerment to those who follow a sphere without a god.."
" Those who wish to follow this route be warned; only ultra-elite roleplayers will be granted clerical powers."

There's just too much to look at and read. If I hadn't noticed the difference between my available spells and my available spells to be practiced, I probably wouldn't have figured it out yet. I just think it could be a lot more straightforward. If you want to label me S-L-O-W, that's fine, but I know I could have been a lot S-L-O-W-E-R .

Anyway, thank you all for the ideas and suggestions. I will take them into consideration as I explore CF areas and establish my character.