I read this forum and dioxide's a lot, mainly to learn more about the game when I'm not playing. I often see content and discussion around topics of interest to experienced players. However, I don't often see newer players contributing their thoughts to the regular discussion. Figured I would provide my own opinion.

As for labeling myself a "newer" player, my most successful character so far has been Paek. I've played a few other characters to learn more about the game. I've heroed once. That character was short lived and auto-deleted due to lack of play time. I haven't spent any meaningful time in a cabal and participated in maybe a handful of cabal item retrievals.

Leveling

Leveling is hard. It seems like to level efficiently a player needs to know a few things: where to find mobs, how to use your skills effectively, how to gear, and class limitations. I level slowly, mainly because I don't know how to level fast. In general, I level by myself because there are few groups or I'm playing a class that is not liked by groups.

I use the DIKU wiki on Dioxides as my main source of information. I find that the information on the DIKU wiki is actually more useful than the in game resources. For example, using the area command will give me an area with a really wide range of levels (10-20 for ex) making it hard to know if it's safe to travel into an area. I enjoy exploring but a large XP loss is tough to deal with.

To give a specific example, while leveling as a level 15 necromancer in Balator, I ran into a mob called Thyrm near the city fountain. The mob instantly attacked me and I died before I could respond. Exciting, but really unexpected and it set me back about 2 hours of leveling.

The con command is really confusing because it doesn't consider the class or gear. I find as a mage, I can barely fight equal difficulty mobs. But as a warrior or bard, I can fight equal difficulty mobs easily.

Gear

At around level 20, I have no idea where or how to get gear. I run into a problem where I don't know which mobs to kill for better gear (because I don't know the gear exists) or I am incapable of killing the mob.

Usually I'll be wearing some combination of fine leathers, DIKU gear, and the gear from the Bazaar. It would be really helpful if there were more item lists and monster difficulty lists for newer players to look through.

I see many players with interesting gear and I will try to RP to find out where the gear came from. If I do find out where the gear is, I tend to find that the mob is much higher level. I'm not sure how experienced players manage acquiring gear that is much higher than their level.

What sometimes happens is that I'll get a handout from a higher level character (thanks!). On one hand this is really helpful, because I'll be able to handle stronger mobs. But on the other hand, I find that I'll end up getting killed for my gear and then I'll be net negative (I'll lose any gold I have on hand and have a missing item slot). This leads to me refusing handouts at times.

Getting Around

Without the maps on DIKU, I would be lost. I now know a few of the major routes (main cities), but it is hard to map the game in general. It would be great to have a few more maps with items and mob descriptions.

Gold

Keeping enough gold on hand for preps that everyone is talking about seems very difficult. I struggle to afford more than a few return potions. I know a few gold gathering spots, but the effort to gather the gold and hold on to it is a challenge.

This is one of the things I dislike most about CF. There is already a large gap between a newer player's ability to compete against an experienced player (mechanically, tactically, knowledge-wise, etc). The gold gap that translates into many more preps/heals make it hard for a newer player.

For example, I've run into many PKs where I couldn't do a thing because the player had so much gold on hand they could attack, run to a healer, heal, and then come back. Even if I could "win" the fight, I would end up dieing. That feels frustrating as a new player.

Death

For me, I enjoy PK death. It gives me a chance to learn, experience PK first hand, and try out a new tactic or idea. I don't often win, but it's ok. I'm learning something.

I hate XP death. I feel like it is a huge setback each time. Not only do I have to spend time going back to where I died, but now I have to spend another 1-2 hours getting that XP back. XP deaths cause me to stop playing and logout.

PK

I really enjoy the PK aspect of this game. It is complex and fun.

I wish there was a way for a newer player to compete in PK in phases. The way it feels now is that in order to compete well, you need to be good at all aspects of the game: gearing, map knowledge, mechanics, class knowledge, etc. If there was some way for a newer player to compete in one aspect and be competitive, that would make the experience more fun.

I tend to play classes I know have more built in abilities since I don't know how to gear (or gain the knowledge to gear). Necromancers, bards, healers, etc.

Improvements

Here's what I would like to see from CF.

A PK academy. Players would learn how to use a specific class in PK. It's really hard trying to learn PK since you only have a few rounds to do anything before you die.

A XP academy. Players would learn how to use a specific class in leveling solo. XP death is pretty harsh and not a great learning environment. I like how the low level academy "teaches" you to flee and consider enemies. But as you get higher level, some of that no longer applies.

A IMM / Cabal for newer players. I like being part of a group, but I don't feel comfortable playing alongside experienced players at all times. Sometimes I'm an obvious drag to the group. It would be good to have a place for newer players to group and accomplish things together. A guiding IMM would be great for interactions.

More specific information around mob difficulty, basic gear, maps. It doesn't need to break any secrets but the general information that everyone else already knows. I literally don't know what a 30+ mage or warrior should be wearing or how to acquire the gear by myself. I don't see how I can solve that problem in game either.

More Cabal actions for lower level characters. I know that level 25-30s can kill an outer guardian, but it would be fun for 10-25s to do something as well.

An "easier" way to get to hero. This is just personal, but I think it's pretty hard to get to hero for non support classes. I see a lot of discussion around it already being too easy to level. Just wanted to say that from my perspective, it isn't easy. Perhaps non support classes could group with friendly mobs and take on large mobs for the same group xp.

A IMM / Cabal for newer players. I like being part of a group, but I don't feel comfortable playing alongside experienced players at all times. Sometimes I'm an obvious drag to the group. It would be good to have a place for newer players to group and accomplish things together. A guiding IMM would be great for interactions.

What would you think of a (New Player) cabal that did not participate in the cabal wars? Thinking aloud, it could be interesting to have something like the Tir-Talath Militia, which would be outside of the purview of Tribunal (which would matter IC), but would also provide a very broad platform which could incorporate characters of just about any background. A bit rag-tag, they could take chaotics and evils just for the sake of protecting their outpost home (the ill-protected can't be too choosy). They could still have a cabal channel to communicate with each other, form groups, etc. They could even have a <MILITIA> tag for easy identification of members. Do you think something of that nature would fill a gap for new players, or do you think they would need to be actively participating in the cabal wars in some way?

Why couldn't they be like Herald in re: Cabal Wars?

I really think this could be a boon. You could maybe even allow certain Hero-Imm's with long-range area projects (that they choose, so-to-speak) the chance to be the Immortal Leader of said Militia (Maybe as the new King/Duke/Whatever) and double-dip on the helpfulness.

Heralds have almost no cabal wars involvement.
Heralds have a cabal channel.
Heralds have powers, but not ones that are game breaking.
Heralds have a few veteran players in the cabal that newbies could learn from, ask questions of. Also, herald players are largely not the speed around powering through ranking and stuff types that newer players might not want to be grouping with. They are joining herald usually for the express purpose of having fun/being helpful, not power gaming.
Heralds aren't associated with protecting a civilized area that would make them Outlander fodder, which most of us know outlander players would hunt even if they know they are newbies.
Maran are still killing evil members of the militia and Tir Talath won't keep the safe from that, but the inn & bouncers will.

Why not just make people able to be inducted into herald at level 1, and direct newbies to seek out the eternal star and make the healer's space a hometown for newbies until rank 20 or something. Veteran herald members could send them on quests (Or Olin assigns them random quests up to rank 40 to help them learn, so they walk in and he notices they got a little stronger, and sends them on an errand). Bring me Flontinot's Last Cookie is still my favorite task ever to send people on.

You could even expand herald into fledgling and herald, like squires and maran. So you start off as a fledgling, and once you are comfortable you move up to true herald, and lose whatever perks/restrictions fledgling status bestowed.

Just allow evils to join herald easier than they can now.

Just ideas, I just think anything designed to help newbies needs some veterans involved. Imms aren't always around to watch over them, and CF is easier to learn from people who know instead of two people trying to figure things out from scratch.

My $0.02.

I'd make a Explorer branch of Heralds and give them powers like:

Knowledge Share (Level 11): Identify's an item, and puts its info and desc into a Research Paper. If you don't have a Book of Knowledge (special container that can only hold Research Papers), one is created in your inventory. The Research Paper is put into your Book of Knowledge, and every groupmate in the room is given a copy of your Research Paper. This makes it easier for everyone to see what something does. I'd love to see some shelves in the Lyceum that can save papers over FNCB too.

Second Chance (Level 25): After 1 tic it returns a character's stats/hps/mana/mv/affects/location to what it was at time of calling, even if they die. This is to encourage people to poke their noses in places a little bit, and also gives the Explorer something else that is useful for fighting monsters. Another option would be to just make a basic Resurrect power that brings someone back to life.

Portal (Level 35): Can create portal entrance or exit, and only one of each can exist at any time. Can be used to allow party members to travel quickly to places, once the portals are in place. Also lets laggers join up, or people that have to leave to defend cabals and the like. Keeps your group together, and lets you escape deathtraps. Can also be used to escape tracking mobs, and other things kind of like Phase Door. When creating it you can give it a phrase that must be used to enter.

Hutto

Herald has the same function in the cabal system as the Militia would, but I think the IC purpose and context is fundamentally different. There is an element of adventuring/scholarship to the Heralds, but I have always understood that as secondary to the focus on talent and hospitality aspects of the cabal. I think throwing new players into that context would be somewhat confusing; they're still trying to figure out how to function and survive in the world.

I would be interested to see what the Herald immortals think about this. The last thing I would want is for them to feel like they were hijacked with new players because outside forces thought they should add that to their current marching orders.

The inn always needs people to sweep up/clean the bar...

Seriously though, something akin to the Fort where inductees are part of the "Theran Adventurers guild" prior to being escalated to full Herald would give an opportunity to learn and still chat with people who are going to help the newbies with their RP and exploration skills without being dragged into the cabal wars.

I like this idea, though I'd say the Adventurers' Guild would carry no expectation to join Heralds, and would have a separate cabal channel that Heralds could also use (while the Heralds keep their own private channel.)

What I like about this, is in addition to connecting newbies to ecah other, it connects newbies to Heralds, so they aren't more isolated than veterans. It would Heralds a designated fresh audience for CF lore that might be considered common knowledge to veteran players.

Aldruk's Adventurers' Guild!

This comes from when I last played a herald which was years ago, but Iunna and Neltouda both made it clear heralds are expected to be more than servants/entertainers for others. Hell, I went to observe a tournament to chronicle the outcome and Thror said no spectators, you want to truly see something, you have to experience it. A very heraldy thing to say from a battle imm.

While having a unique talent/role to play is part of being a herald, the real role of heralds in Thera is meant to be something more.

The inn itself provides the environment for the hospitality (RP) to take place and anyone can engage in it. The whole fun of the place is that you don't need to be a herald to enjoy it. I don't need colored emotes or room echoes to tell stories or put on shows (or whatever else herald powers do, I tend to forget at this point). The inn is a haven for people to relax in relative safety, to engage with others.

The heralds themselves are meant to be out in Thera living life to the fullest, not sitting in the inn 24/7 hoping someone comes in that they can RP at with their special RP powers. Being a bartender for example isn't just serving drinks with nice made up names. It's searching the far corners of Thera to find what you can use to make the best drinks. That way when you serve the drink, there's a story behind it. The depth of a character may be little to start, but over time it should grow to be far deeper. I think Whyisdan did a nice job of giving everyone a role when they join herald, and as I have not done one don't know how he does it, but I am assuming he gives you a starting point, not an ending one, in what he gives you that he helps the char develop over time.

It's the mentality that they are entertainers/inn hosts first that is often a misconception about what heralds actually are, and what may often deter people from playing them. (That and the lack of cabal war involvement which stifles some pk opportunities.)

A herald may be a lost soul that finds his way to the inn, and discovers his own talents through being among them, but all heralds are meant to have a thirst for all that Thera has to offer, a desire to experience all they can, and from that learn about thera and themselves.

That's exactly what we should want our newer players to experience and engage in as well from my POV.

That's why I saw herald as a good fit for new players. For all the learning CF benefits, plus, it never hurts to introduce players to the concept of deeper RP.

Exactly. I hate when people put Herald into the cookie cutter hospitality zone! I wouldn't mind seeing an adventurer sect put in for newbies, it would be good, the Heralds haven't really been shaken up in a while.

Not being able to roll evil is one of the biggest drawbacks of herald in my opinion. I'm not sure why are they even disallowed, especially now that you say hospitality isn't the first thing about Heralds.

Easily 60% of my rangers have a background in the Tir-Talath militia. Don't pretend like you aren't stealing my ideas Scarabutt.

It is a fun idea. My question is, based of what you posted, is it a newbie only cabal, or can anyone join?

Also, I think there should be fun powers associated with it. Make it something new people will find useful. It doesn't have to be powergamie for that. Maybe higher mvs, or something along those lines. Things that will help new people, but not give a big bonus in pk.

Thanks for taking the time to make the game more fun.

Give them a power that will let them know something might kill (death room), or that there is a much higher level Aggressive NPC in direction X (one room away).

n/t

I think it is a great idea. Like I said, I think most new players want to "belong" to something, but the existing cabals are hard to break into for a new player. So a cabal where we could all get together and form groups would be really helpful.

I do think something that transitions into the cabal wars would be fun, but my bigger issue was finding a group of people who were like-minded, which your proposed cabal would serve well.

when played with others. newbies are exactly the sort of people that need the HELP plus the CAMARADERIE to get them going


man i had trouble spelling that word.

Great Idea. I'd would certainly join a cabal like this.

And it would mark people as "newbies", which would make it easy to figure out whom to help by showing stuff etc.

Always shoot first and then call whatever you hit the target.

I like your idea a lot. And, was thinking that maybe something along
the lines of home town Militia would fit great. Workable for the
larger hometowns in Thera, not just Tir-Talath. There could be one
group but they could represent something like Udgaard, Hillcrest,
Darsylon, Evermoon, Akan, etc as well. Not just a settlement but big
enough to be a real city. Good, Evil, Neutral all welcome but each
one is responsible for their town and their responsibility stemming
from their pride as a <whatever hometown> person. They could help
one another or fight one another like outlander can. Nothing would
stop them from participation in Cabal Wars but they shouldn't have
that as their objective, similar to how Orcs can choose to
participate or not. Maybe they could hear when their town is
attacked and if need be, band together to defend it. Although, I'm
not sure how hard that would be to code. A few minor perks like
boosting the home town discount on heals, or goods, giving higher
regeneration rates when not bloody, etc, could be nice along with CB
chat.

I think thats a great idea for the game. There should be a newbie cabal, complete with an immortal. The Adventurers circle or something. You should not even be eligible to join unless you select yes when it asks if you are a new player on char creation. Since those characters can't even turn brief off until level 30, most vets wouldn't bother joining. Maybe make the powers things useful to newbies, like improved outfitting or food scavenging and identifying skills, maybe use the recall skill past level 10 once an hour or something.

There would have to be a way to keep vets from rolling up in it to get pimped out gears and stuff. Maybe make them not be able to get edges or something.

It would do a good job of teaching people cabal politics and how to be in a cabal, and most people generally wouldn't mess with the members too much. (rest assured people would mess with you though)

Maybe members of this cabal are members from creation to deletion, and they get 5 deaths a con instead of 3 so they can die more and still rank and learn. Perhaps they have an item, so it could be taken, but dont make it related to any powers. That way they could learn to defend and retrieve, but there would be no consequences if they just got hemmed up by the vets trying, and it would return to them eventually.

I think its a dandy idea.

nt

Its not common to keep it on, at all.

I've tried brief. I can't use it, I get completely lost. The size and shape of room descriptions helps me orient myself.

I think you're making assumptions.

Unless I'm trying to talk with a group mate or something while travelling, I always have the normal descs on.

If I don't have time to get back to my corpse in time and need to save the log so I can review it later to see why I died I turn brief on, that's it.

I am 100% like this, the size and shape of room descriptions are how I navigate half the time.

Thats crazy so many people use it. I guess its all clutter to me, i got the whole mud basically memorized, i just use the exits on the bottom to see what i need in similar room situations. Brief makes pk impossible if its off for me. i only use it exploring new areas then its off again. I dont even use it in hell anymore unless im really re exploring hard or going somewhere new.

"How do you read it all so fast?" asks the non-mudder.

"I don't. I just look at the pictures."

nt

I don't consider myself fast, so if I can catch someone in a chase down say eastern road I assume its because they don't use brief.

I've noticed this before on characters I would consider prolific and it's always surprised me because I had previously been of the mindset that all vets use brief.

I don't use brief (I find it disorienting). But I'm also not the best pker.

It definitely used to be an advantage but maybe not anymore or as much with faster internet speeds. It just seems that way to me and I'm so used to it now I can't go back.

Only 44% of characters over level 5 have brief mode set.

brief is the first command I type upon creating a character, and I never turn it off.

I blame a bunch of LP muds I played prior to CF with repetitive room descs etc...I just got 'used' to having everything to do with a room displayed on one line (title/exits) and its how I learned to play all muds.

I'm surprised at the 44% statistic.

Thanks for the comments everyone - the community here really makes the game enjoyable. I've gotten a lot of advice and found it extremely helpful.

A question for all the vets. How can a newer player help make your game more enjoyable?

Like others have said, welcome to CF. It is a fun game, but there is an undeniable advantage to having played for longer periods in terms of just knowing how to get around/level/rank/pk. The best way to improve at every facet of the game is simply to play. Use the forums and such as a resource, but always remember experience will be the best teacher. The easiest way to get experience is from other players. Reading maps and item info is nice, but you'll find other players that know that stuff can point you in the right direction quicker.

For some of your suggestions here are some thigns that exist in game maybe you can use (lots of which you might already know):

PK academy - That's a tough one, since most people want pks. That said, you can usually find people (they don't have to be in pk range) and challenge them to an arena fight for training. There is no consequence for defeat there and you can probably find someone to help you with tactics, especially if you are new. A cabal can help with this too, you can have cabal mates "spar" with you and help you improve. In my more active days I did this a lot. I would sit there as a hero and let lowbies try things against me and we would talk about methods of fighting. All while in the safety of the arena, as I would break off the encounter before either person was defeated. So long as nobody is waiting to fight, and you're not doing it solely to avoid PK, I don't think anyone has a problem using the arena in this manner.

XP academy - This is more of a general experience thing. Ranking with others is nice, but it also can enable groups to take down things you would not want to solo rank on. Improved consider is nice as it will tell you the class of the thing you consider. Knowing how NPCS track can also help you avoid deaths. We'll all suffer a few NPC deaths in ranking, the aim should be to avoid the ones you can. There's rarely a reason to be fighting a mob below 50% health while you are ranking if it can lag you for example. Sometimes you just get unlucky. As to knowing where to go to find mobs, the levels of areas are pretty broad. Try to stay within your range or slightly above and you should be okay. ALso know that melee classes generally have more hp and better defense, so it makes them far easier to rank with vs. mobs that rely on passive melee for a lot of their damage. As a mage you generally want to gear for hp to make up for the poor defense, or find a decent tank person to group with and that act as just a damage boost.

Newbie Imm/cabal- If I was at all capable of being an Imm, which I'm not, I would have been the newbie patron. That said, most all the Imms are still a very useful resource as they'll field prays and answer questions on the newbie channel. An Imm probably can't get to directly involved in protecting your char just because you're a newbie though, there is an RP divide there between their Immortal char and their role as admins. Some of them will lead some fun RP encounters if you happen to be around though, and I'd suggest trying to involve yourself in those when they come up.

As for a newbie cabal. Fort acolyte should put you in a pretty friendly group of people. And of course, the real best bet is play a neutral neutral non-mage herald, and you'll have no real enemies (though evils will still pk anyone they want). Heralds love helping people and going all over Thera, and joining the troupe is pretty easy.

Basic gear- Play a race that gets 100% lore or play a bard. Lore everything you come across and keep little mental tabs on it. Honestly, pre 25 I wear mostly bramblefield merchants because it's decent gear for the level and other stuff is too tough/time consuming to gather. Knowing what to gear for is probably more important than knowing all the gear in Thera. If you make it to hero and get the legendary awareness skill, keep it up all the time. Seeing something that is rarer might be worth acquiring to lore. Even if your current char can't use it, a future char might. Look at what other chars are wearing, ask where it comes from. As it's IC, you'll find out things like quests in addition to learning where to get some gear people generally wear.

Heroing: It's just a matter of the right group for most players. Fostering IC relationships is pretty useful. Having a hero friend to help out when they are bored for example. There are mercs, but they incur a penalty (unless the merc lands the KB on the guy, which for some reason seems to make the penalty not as bad) I also don't know of many really useful mercs past level 25. A PVE only based merc would be a neat idea.

I know, none of this is probably very helpful, but wanted to try. I remember my CF newbie days. My first char was a half elf c/e assassin (what could go wrong!). Here are some highlights:

I got pk'd because I hid on the balator road when I saw someone coming, and didn't know the hide skill could fail (or that it had an echo if it didn't work). An arial walks up and two rounds me.

I died at least three times in the sewers trying to get the silver rapier, which was by far the best weapon I ever got.

I went ranking with orcs, got betrayed and PK'd because I was slowing them down. They apologized (in an OOC fashion) once I told them I had no idea how to get back to my corpse

I took the oath because I wanted to stop being killed by imperials.

I got anath'd for not retrieving the codex because I had no idea how to get to the fort cabal. (I got pk'd by imperials even worse after that.)

I con died at level 32, I think in well under 100 hours.

That's all I remember. My second char was infinitely better. And that one might still be one of the worst chars to have a pbf published.

None of which is to suggest I didn't have fun or learn with either of them.

So if you're having fun, that's really the best asset you have in CF. The rest comes in time

Thanks - your comments are helpful. I'm definitely having fun. I totally understand the reason for difficulty (and it does make the game feel unique).

One thing that I'm struggling with is taking knowledge from one class and applying it to another. It seems to be a common piece of advice - play a class that can group and learn, then play a class that can use the knowledge.

I happen to really like Necromancers, I know they are a non-recommended class, but they have so many cool spells and style. Props to whoever created them. I played a bard to learn more of the game and from a ranking perspective, it was really easy. People took me around and I could find groups really easily. I found gear that I thought might be useful for a future necromancer.

When I went back to start a necromancer, I tried to get the gear that my bard was able to get at the same level. It was extremely hard to acquire at the same level as a necromancer.

How do you transition from a hardy tanky class to a more squishy one?

Necromancers are probably my best class. You don't need a single stitch of gear to beat ass on them so don't think that way. I was strongly considering wielding a stick from Aldevari as part of my role once I lost my jagged longsword.

Master the c sleep. It is an artform. By this I mean not get 100%, but learn how to use it best. But you won't get kills most of the time unless you also have bodyparts to reanimate. Master the use of this skill as well, and you will find you can kill anyone at all.

Artifical's post is correct, bards are somewhat unique. The value in a bard is they are great for learning areas/items. That's the main take with from playing one, is the information you can gather. Their playstyle is more like a paladin/shaman than a mage.

Life is easier as a bard than a necro without a doubt. A necro is more of a finesse class by far. For one, stay invis at all times, just because it might prevent a few people from attacking you. Necros have a lot of inherent enemies. Every goodie, rager app, outlander, is pretty much going to attack you on sight. So keep an eye on the where pk, and try to avoid getting caught by them in vulnerable situations. As the necro, you want to control engagements and keep them on your terms. If a giant runs up and bashes you, fleeing is probably your first command. Experience helps vets size up enemies pretty quickly. A guy that is hitting for CAPS damage in the teen ranks is probably nor a fight you want as a lowbie mage. Don't feel the need to fight people on their terms in the low ranges, try to mostly fight on yours. As you get up in rank, you'll be better able to handle the random encounters and dictate the flow of a battle. But in low ranges, this is going to favor the melee chars more.

I would advise any mage newbie learn how to get a hp set of gear. You should be able to get about 10-20 hp a slot pretty easily with very minimal effort. Also as a lowbie know which areas are frequented by ranking people and just check them for gear on the ground. You can usually find two sandy cloaks just sitting on the ground in the Araile for example. Things like hit and dam are pretty negligible, you rely on spells for most of your dam output, so focus on hp gearing and save spell.

Against mobs, level matters. If something is too tough at level 15, at level 20 it might become noticeably easier. Never play as if you have to get the best things you can the earliest you can. You can just as easily spend two hours ranking to gain 4 or 5 ranks and killing what would be a difficult mob in 5 minutes as opposed to spending an hour trying to kill that same mob at a lower level.

Don't let gear be your only focus though. Some vets will have very nice gear at low ranges, either through gifts/pk or just because they spent the effort to get it. But the majority of chars are not running around with hero sets in the teens. Never forego a good ranking opportunity because you want to spend time trying to improve your gear. The higher you go, the easier it is to gear. By the high 20's you might consider doing a gear upgrade, and then in the 40's you start gathering your hero set. A possible way to gain gear knowledge is asking your ranking mates. It's pretty rare for three newbies to be grouped together. Usually there is a guy who has a bit of experience, so engage with them.

Ask group mates and such for suggestions on things you could replace your gear with. This is two fold. One, while ranking, it gives you things to talk about and discuss in the downtime of recovery. Ranking can be very tedious and boring, so adding in some conversation is generally a nice way to break up the monotony. Second, you get the benefit of the information, and they may also end up helping you get the gear. If I tell you to just visit the dark elf and get the tiny iron dagger, that info isn't going to be of any use to you if you have no idea where they are.

While not all vets are overtly helpful, you'll surely encounter a few that would enjoy leading you on an expedition to a new place. It's an RP opportunity for them as much as you, and that can be more fun for everybody than killing elf number 563281 in the vale.

Really, bravo for toughing this out - this game can be absolutely brutal even for veterans... but its why we love the game. For new players it should definitely improve I agree.

So kudos for posting this and thanks!

I genuinely appreciate this feedback as a new(ish) player. What has it been? Six-ish months now? Anyway the feedback is a great way to gauge where my immediate priorities lie in the future.

For what it's worth, some of these points have been discussed, others are actually near the top of my to do list.

I won't go into specifics right now, but I am looking at some of the key items you have listed already.

A few other suggestions have been debated over, at least informally. Keep watching these boards and I will try to get an email to you at some point in the near future. I'd genuinely like to include you in what I have in mind, and (if you'd be willing) I'd like to bounce some ideas off you as a newer player and try to better understand exactly what it is that could help you out.

I've been playing CF for almost 15 years now, being a new player is now a thoroughly alien concept to me.

Thanks. A big part of my enjoyment in the game is knowing that there are staff members looking out for us (you).

Would love to contribute back to the game so feel free to hit me up.

I quit smoking cold turkey successfully after 20 years of smoking, but I can't quit CF.

Good luck sucker

Seriously though, welcome to CF and hope you have fun. It's a great game.

I don't know where to gear either. Nearly everything my characters wear comes from handouts or PK. If I can kill the mob to get it, it sucks and I want to replace it as soon as I can. I'll gear myself up by around level 15 with 'basic' stuff, but if I get fulled at level 35 I'm likely going to end up regearing in nearly exactly the same set as I did at level 15 when I started my character.

Levelling - it's certainly hard for some classes to level, and while I did manage to solo a conjurer to level 27 recently it took a long time. It basically only happens quickly when I'm in groups. I find this okay because I'm spending all my time gathering gold and preps, using them up in PK, and spamming skills. I usually end up levelling up before I'd like to in the process of this. But if you do find a group of three you can fly up the levels. Levelling up always makes things harder. If you're not coping with the PK environment at level 25 you're not even going to know what's happening at level 40. There is one area where you can easily solo any mage class to the point where people will want to group with you

Gold. Takes some effort and ingenuity but once you have tricks it comes easy. Although I do tend to get 5x as much commerce exp as everyone else seems to (and they seem to get 5x the observation xp and I don't understand how). Basically you locate some items that are worth money, find a shopkeeper who will buy them and that you can kill, sell the items, kill the shopkeeper, get more items, repeat.

If you haven't got enough gold on you to run to a healer and heal up completely from 1hp if the need arises then getting that much gold is your first priority. It's much easier to gather a large amount quickly in the midranks than as a lowbie, and at hero some classes can get silly amounts, but it's still possibly to never have less than ten gold on you in the teen ranks. Again, it just takes a bit of effort.

Although I do think that mercs sapping xp is an outdated mechanic, and characters who just can't tank should be allowed to use them without taking an xp hit. Most mercs don't do all that much damage or have all that much hp and it certainly doesn't compare to having another player in your group. There are two mercenaries that I can think of which people use for PK but by and large the ability to buy mercenaries is a feature of the game that gets totally passed over.

Hope some of this was helpful.

1. Lets get the diku ranking areas updated and more accurate. Add one to main site?

2. Lets also get a better gearing faq up on diku. Add one to main site?

3. I hate exp loss on death too. Seems anachronistic.

4. Better tips on getting gold for a newbie.

General tips for Paek: Yes, this game focuses on overall knowledge to improve, though something like knowing how to time your skills is way more valuable than anything else. Please don't feel like you're a burden on a group, since most anyone is happy to teach a newbie. If you wanna get some easy PK, play a fire giant basher, or an orc and bash bash bash till one of you dies.

Keep at it!

As it happens, we're working on a new/better wiki official wiki system. We're relatively happy with our website but know that it's not particularly useful as more than a quick reference for the basics. The primary goal of this project is to get a resource up and running that can be easily edited and curated by the staff, but there will be consideration given to allowing contributions from trustworthy players as well.

My hope is to have something up and running within a few weeks (right now I'm toying with things like permissions and themes), but the initial build-out of content will definitely take some time. In time, this wiki may end up replacing a good portion of the website as our official resource. We'll see how it goes.

I added a lot to the Diku wiki and also had a hand in some of Zulg's current wiki.

on the new player question forum. But it is pretty outdated now since some of the areas have been revamped and the list is no longer accurate for those areas.

2. Yeah, it would be nice to have this info on this sites wiki.

3. I'd say it would be fine to still lose experience. But I feel you shouldn't go from almost leveling to -25% or whatever it is. That is pretty dang brutal. Lots of games have moved away from this sort of reverse progression punishment in favor of other drawbacks to dying. I personally feel that losing 1/3 of a con point is a pretty hefty cost already. I also feel that losing experience does not ADD anything to the game other than to make it harder for newbies. Because lets face it, they are the ones who go out and die horribly on mobs over and over. Where as a vet is more likely to die (imo) to something that is way over his level and he knows the risks vs the reward. Just my 2 cents.

4. I think tips for getting gold for newbies would be good too on a wiki.

I totally agree there should be a newbie cabal (which...Fort kinda is, but yeah).

I feel your pain about the other stuff but there is little I could suggest that would fit in keeping with CF's spirit (you will die, and you will die horribly).