Diary of a Newbie in Armageddon

[Melody]

Disclaimer: I read though some topics and such, found out that some veterans trying to guess what a newbie thinks and does. So to clarify, this is a newbie's impression of Armageddon. (i.e. many years of roleplay experience but never tried this mud before) It is by no mean a blanket statement for all newbies, or a typical one, but mine. A very dramatized record.)

Day One – Got bored. Recalled Amageddon from somewhere I heard. Log on for a look. Browse though the helpfiles on the website. Impressive! And here I thought it's a silly hot setting with rpers stealing water from each other and no plots!

Strange character creation. WTH is guild and subguild? What freaking skills does each one have anyway? Damnit, dug out half of the helpfile on the website and found no enlightenment. Throw a coin to decide. Background, yes, add a beautiful, detailed background. There. Definitely will be approved. Log off.

Day Two – No approval yet. Log off.

Day Three – Checking back,  approved! Where on earth am I?What, no newbie area or OOC lounge? Someone looked at me and made an emote! Yeah! Hey hey hey, don't leave! I'm still trying to figure out how this clumsy emote thingy works! Bah. Fine. Go. I don't need you. Log off.

Day Four –Checking scores and stats and get to know the skills and what not. Heck, I found out there was a character limit per line. Looked at biography, OMG, the first two sentences of each paragraph have converged into one paragraph. They don't make sense at all! I don't want to know what happened or how much mess I made in the editor. But the fact that some imm actually approved the jumble really astonished me. Could it be that even in such form, they recognized the magnificence of my character? Must be.

The emote system doesn't recognize keywords on its own without ~~? Mega disappointed. Obviously the thing needs an upgrade. Why wouldn't people freaking wait a few seconds before leaving so I can get a word in?

Been sitting here for the past hour. No one moved in this sleeping area. Looked everyone. No one looked back. Bored. Log off.

Day Four (later) - Got bored, so back again. Someone emoted to me. I'm so happy. She wants to show me around! Okay. What? This place has no travel command? I need to make a character sdesc list for myself on the Excel? What does this mud have beside an irrational fear of elves? Elves are pretty. They should meet Legolas.

Got the best advice ever. If anyone tried to take advantage of me, I will write to mud, or whatever. Helper list too. This player is so nice. What I will do with the helpers' list? Maybe it's a secret porn society. Don't want to get spammed. I will rather use helpfile, thank you very much.

Found out she has the wrong skin colour and no hair in description. Ups. Submit a request.

Being warned not to go into the 'rinth or the mage place. Or else. Nice player seems too nice to lie to me. No amount of treasure is worth the death of my magnificent application. Stepped two rooms outside the gate and ran back. Would be nice to have something to warn me on what to expect. Hate stupid traps exist just to trip me up. Bazaar is fun. Love the items. No money to shop. Log off.

Day Four (much later) – Really bored. Followed the nice player's advice and got food and water. Oh, the craft system is so cute. I'm in love.

It wouldn't let me bake chocolate pudding. I hate it.

It lets me make cakes. I'm in love again. Got a queer hunger for cakes irl. Log off.

Day Five – Not much going on. How do people freaking rp in this place? Don't even know where people are. Been talking to a character and emoting to every room script for the past half an hour before I found out it's a npc. No wonder the conversation was so one sided. Found a tavern. So quiet here. The people there must be npc. Emote anyway, I love emote and rp. The character limit is irritating. How dare them to restrict my beautiful, long, sweet, enticing..... emotes?

Found out they aren't npcs after all. Ups.

Day Six – Why do people keep telling me to get jobs? Politely insinuated that the character is naïve and doesn't know where to begin. No one seems to understand. Damnit, subtlety is wasted here.

Finally got through to someone. Being pulled away for a lengthy discourse on boring things. My newbieness must be showing. Like, avoid templar and nobles because they are evil. I've found that out already, thank you very much. Player so nice here though

Enough researching. Why do they keep telling me to join the Byn clan or something? Newbie friendly? Bah. Pull the other leg. It plays Robbie William. If there is a newbie friendly clan on a roleplay mud, then it isn't a rp mud I want to play in. People make up the most sorry excuses to teach others. I may be ignorant, but I'm not stupid.

Finally got noticed by some important people. The next thing I know, I'm in a clan and got a sponsor! And not that silly, newbie clan either! I knew my character is magnificent. On a high note. Log off.

Day Seven – No response on request yet. Locked up in the clan place. Bored. Log off.

Day Eight – No response on request still. Wished up. Cute command. Start practising skills and emotes. This way of improving skills is so boring. Bored. Log off.

Day Nine – No response on request. Still the most magnificent. No one to admire me. Log off.

Day Ten – No response on request. Is there any imm alive? Still magnificent even with my old description. Nobles seem fun. I want to play noble. WTH is karma? Research more. Log off.

Day Eleven - Not liking what I've found. Too many players for imm to notice me. My dream of playing a Machiavellian noble is gone. Played nobles too often else where. You get lonely at the top anyway. Emote. Practise. Log off.

Day Twelve – No response on request. Still magnificent. Log off.

Day Thirteen – Finally something happened. Begin to hate the clan. Logged off after the interesting event.

Day Fourteen – Still no response on request. Resigned to forever having the old description. Still most magnificent. Clan got much more lively. Addicted.

[One of Us]

LoL


As the character that helped your character let me just guide you here:

http://www.zalanthas.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=19109




I'm reminded of that last scene in "Freaks" where all the freaks start:

(chanting) We accept her--one of us--gooble, gobble--we accept her--one of us--gooble, gobble...


We gotcha muahhahaha!

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

Welcome to the rest of your life.

BTW, we Helpers are not a secret porn society. Most of us won't treat you like an idiot. I have veteran players who message me and ask about things. It's a helpful program, the Helper Program is.

[clan leader]

I feel sort of bad now, even though I am kind of giggling at the same time.

[Nao]

newbie... cute!

That post made me laugh ;-)

[ale six]

Addicted.

Ginka claims somebody else... Welcome to Armageddon!

Just to be helpful, if you didn't submit your request via the request tool on the website (maybe you emailed the mud instead?), you could use that. The spiffy new tool seems to make staff responses a lot faster. On the other hand for things like a desc change, I believe only certain staffers (Highlord and up) can make the change and need to catch you online to do it, so it could be you've just had bad luck. You could also change your objective (help objective) to indicate you're waiting on a desc change.

For future reference when writing things in the editor like biography entries: the .i command will format the entry with indented paragraphs. You can also just write things in notepad and paste them in manually and not need to use formatting command.

The Byn isn't exactly a "newbie" clan as much as it is a good clan for lots of characters to start out in. I'd take people's advice to you as just that, and not feel pressured to go any one way. Lots of new players get by without ever joining the Byn. Especially if you're not wanting to play a combat role, it makes no sense to join up.

The emote code does take some getting used to. Keywords don't autotarget onto people because it would probably result in a lot of emotes mistargetting people accidentally. It seems like you already tried this, but a good thing to do is to find an npc to practice emotes on with solo rp. It can feel goofy at first, but you can try things like "emote looks over %npc clothing with a forlorn sigh, gazing jealously at ^npc silk cloak." That way you can be at least be sure the emotes read right.

The character limit is (I think) in place to encourage multiple shorter emotes that come out quicker, versus the paragraph-long writings you might find in a MUSH environment. This may seem limited and spitfire if you're used to that, but it does move the pace of RP significantly faster here than on some places where it can literally take 10 minutes per post (and that's outside of mudsex! ). Hopefully again, once you get used to things it's not that bad.

Nobles aren't a karma-required role, but they do require some experience with the game and an understanding of the game world to play. They're somewhat a different flavor than nobles in other games, but if you're interested in playing one in the future, my advice would be to try and get your PC some work as an aide or guard for a noble house. This will hopefully introduce you to the political scene and all the fun that comes with it. If you're in Allanak, a good place to start would be the Atrium. If you've already joined a clan though and are on a different route, don't worry. You'll have plenty of chances down the road.

Anyway, hope all that helps.

[Sakra]

That so sounds like a Baobob episode.
And welcome to Armageddon.

[Melody]

Incidentally, I do like clans. Free food. Free water. What's there to dislike? Well, the restriction part. As a newbie, I want to roam. To search. To look. To explore. (I even made the character concept to do just those) So being restricted in the clan zone is very boring and frustrating to me. Guess it wouldn't last forever.

And thank you for the advice. I used the request thingy on the website, no answer yet, I will try the objective thingy too. In the wrong time zone, not many about, I hope there's an immortal in the EU zone.

Read up on editor commands. Was used to some other format, so didn't notice the mistake until too late. Typical.

Don't like combat. So I gathered Byn isn't good too. Hoping the taster will be good. I do so love political intrigue. Found out cyber/mudsex/whatever is allowed here. Much surprised. I suppose some people just enjoy that kind of rp. Who am I to throw stones?

I understand why the emote code does what it does. So difficult to craft atmosphere with so short a character allowance. I suppose I will get use to it. Hopefully without spamming everyone I RP with to death at the same time. (even if it is an effective method of assassination)

I know! Aren't we newbie so cute? ^_^ I hope you continue to think that even after we showed you those vicious plot claws. I've been sharpening them and used a blood red nail lacquer too. Just for you.

Melody

PS
Need to look up on what Baobob is. Sounds like an animal. Mmm, bamboo eating Bob?

[Nusku]

Please don't post IC information such as what clan you're in. Thanks

Also, welcome to Armageddon.

[Cuusardo]

Who leaked word about our secret porn organization?!  Damnit!!!  (Just kidding   )

Hey, we're glad you stuck it out and decided to feed your addiction!  Kudos for taking the time to do the research, because knowing about the civilization and races and all is invaluable.

Being in a clan is a really cool way to start out, even if it does restrict you from going out and exploring.  This will give you the chance to explore what's inside the city: people, cultures, politics, and so forth.  If you're playing a crafter, it gives you the opportunity to explore the crafting code, and figure out what kinds of nifty stuff you can make.  You've got a certain amount of protection coming from your clan (provided you don't do anything dumb, like licking a templar) whenever someone tries to screw with you.  I know the lands beyond are enticing and fascinating, but I assure you that what goes on inside cities is as well.  Besides, you can always do more exploring with your next PC, and the next, and so on.

Again, don't be afraid to use the helpers if you have questions about anything.  The helpers are a bunch of addicts who can give you a wealth of good information about all kinds of stuff in the game.

Yes, sometimes it can take a while to get a response from the IMMs. With all the changes and mad coding that's been going on, they're working really hard, and they get around to helping out as soon as they can.  By all means, do make use of the request tool if you need to.  Wishing up might not always get you the results you need, because that is for things that require immediate attention.  (Like: I keep getting messages that I'm thirsty and dehydrating, and I can't drink any water because it says I'm full.  I think I'm bugged.)  The IMMs are a busy lot, watching people, working on code stuff, and making plans for how they will eat our brainz.

[Tribal woman]

Hehe, I guess I was one of the women helping you. I should say, you were so kind and understanding for a newbie. It was a pleasure to help you.

[Malifaxis]

Damnit, one got away that I didn't get the chance to torment?!

Damnit!

[WWYD]

Damnit, one got away that I didn't get the chance to torment?!

Damnit!

*pat*

It's alright..we can ambush them with dung..just like the good old days, huh?

Welcome to Armageddon. Make sure to log in during the HRPT if you want to expirence the most cuddly, furry bunny they have lounging around here. His fur is red with blood. I call him Halaster.

[Dalmeth]

As for the Byn : They aren't the noob clan because they're low quality, it's because they're neutral in regard to the great powers and therefore a member can be found just about everywhere.  It seems to me that it would be a great way to learn how the game world works.

My current character was supposed to be a Byn, but that idea got lost when my previous character was killed.  My previous two characters so far have been long lived (at least two or three months for each) loners.  It's boring to have your only social interactions be in the taverns and running away from  desert elves.  Without much knowledge of the game world, I don't know what long term goals to give my characters, and what people to associate my character with in order to achieve those goals.

The Byn are porbably the best way to learn the details without getting bogged down in local politics.

[Bogre]

Ahahah, this needs to get archived eventually.

Too cute.

And we helpers only are a sekret prOn society on saturdays. (Archaic downtime habit you know.)

[Sewer_rat?]

I have been away from this mud for like .. 2-4 years and I only came back because I wanted to read Baobob which led to me searching for it on the forum and to this thread because Sakra talked about it. I had the baobob site saved in my favourite files, but it seem to be inaccessible now.

I don't remember my nick or pass. But this is a pretty funny episode in my armageddon chapter.

I still want to read Baobob. Whoever the author/artist of it is, you still rock.

ps: No wait, it is probably the magnificence of your ill-described character that led me back. :p

[Melody]

Make sure to log in during the HRPT if you want to expirence the most cuddly, furry bunny they have lounging around here. His fur is red with blood. I call him Halaster.

I love rabbit. They are the best ever. Especially when chopped up in a stew. But for some reason, I've the feeling the rabbit you have in mind would object to being eaten. Side note, couldn't log on for HRPT, didn't even know what on earth it means until I've searched half the forum. Jargon bad.

One shouldn't welcome newbies with dung, it's hard on sandcloth. Try flowers, or better, sids. It will give moi an inventive to not walking around with everything in inventory and backpack wide open.

Still dunno what baobob is.

[Hymwen]

Edit: nevermind

[John]

Edit: nevermind

Baobob is a world-famous kank.


(OOCly famous that is)

[Jherlen]

RPT: Recommended Playing Time
HRPT: Highly Recommended Playing Time
(other tongue in cheek versions of these aconyms can be found all over the Idle OOC Chatter board)

Baobob is a great webcomic about newbies and Armageddon... unfortunately I can't find a working link to it.

[Cuusardo]

What HRPT really stands for is Halaster's Recommended Purging Time.  That's when he kills us all so that the IMMs can have a huge smorgasbord of brainz to eat.   :wink:

[Melody]

What HRPT really stands for is Halaster's Recommended Purging Time.  That's when he kills us all so that the IMMs can have a huge smorgasbord of brainz to eat.   :wink:

Oh, O...K...

I need to attend one, and then write a newbie's impression of first bloodbath, the relative psyche trauma that triggers the inner sadist if one survives, or wutnot.


Day Eighteen - Tried to attend HRPT, couldn't even log on. The server stood in awe of the magnificence of my application, couldn't bear to see her die, so it closed itself in protest. Still the most magnificent. No need to log off. (Couldn't even get on)

[Cuusardo]

Hey, don't sweat it.  I was only joking, seriously!  

HRPTs are a lot of fun, because what takes place is something so vastly huge that it almost always affects the entire world.  If you are a part of it, YOU are a part of what is almost certain to be a historical event.

[Malifaxis]

Yeah and there's nothing cooler than the last thing you see being something like:

A massive, black scaled, sharp-horned mekillot bashes down the city wall as hordes of gith leap through the breach.

80* An arrow hits you in the head.
Welcome to ArmageddonMUD!

(Note:  This example may have been modified by the original to protect the fact that I may or may not have been at another RPT.)

[Moofassa]

I'm curious to see if Melody is still enjoying Armageddon?