A newbie's point of view

[SMuz]

My second character's just reaching his 7th day over 3 RL months, so I guess I'll be leaving the 'clueless newbie' circle not too long from now. So, to celebrate this occasion, I think I'll list what I found so hard about being a newbie.

Starting out
I had a great, great start to the game. First day into the game - I do some really stupid things, get yelled at or laughed at, but it was fun. Someone tried to pick my pocket, some random blonde offered to sleep with my PC (thought it was a NPC, but now that I think of it, I'm sure it wasn't), and a nice breed patiently showed me around town. And to top it off, an imm told me that (s)he enjoyed watching my character and mentioned about thinks, feels, and emoting. That was what really locked me onto this game, feeling as if someone cared about my character.

Then again, I've seen how others start. A few clueless newbies joined my clan during a RPT - they didn't have much guidance at all, because the boss couldn't simply split from a RPT to teach a guy to play the game. I know there's a lot of new guys out there going link dead everywhere.

My sister started the game, bored for 3 RL hours, because she logged in off-peak (and stuck in a sandstorm). Characters who she tried to talk to would "OOC: afk", probably to not handle the newbie introduction at 4 AM. If I didn't tell her to keep playing, she would've quit then and there.

Documentation and description
You are expected to spend about 10 minutes reading the docs and another 10 minutes writing up a description and background for your character. And then there's the 12 hours or so waiting period for approval: plus 12 more hours if it's rejected.

IMHO, 98% of MUDs suck. On all the major MUD sites, Arm's description doesn't stick out. I'm not going to spend 10 minutes trying to understand why elves are dirty thieves in this particular MUD before I play it. I thought elves were supposed to be happy, kinky tree huggers! I can't even imagine them being hated by everyone, without being in the game first.

It's perfectly understandable. But if someone didn't personally recommend Arm, I wouldn't bother. Heck, I did make a character 5 years ago, stopped playing because it looked like every other MUD, but with much more effort.

Emoting
I know at least 3 people who quit because they can't get used to the emoting syntax - and they thought everyone was crazy for emoting so much. I loved it, even if I still don't have the hang of it. It's very tough and intimidating, though, so offer an encouraging smile to anyone who's trying to get used to it

Crafting
The crafting system is sad. Some people love crafting as much as others love fighting in a MUD. You're losing a lot of dedicated crafters from this game.

In Armageddon, you get no recipes. You don't know how high your skill is. You easily ruin half the materials. You sell it back to the merchants at a loss. If it's been a while after a reboot, the merchants won't even buy it. Ok, there's the "analyze" command. I buy a thing that looks cool, and to my great disappointment, it's not even craftable!

Some time after you go broke, you'll realize that there are tools that help! A skinning knife is not the same as a 'knife', even though I could skin with both. What tools do I need to craft a ring or a dagger?

Ask around on the GDB, and you get the dreaded "Find Out IC". There are barely any recipes. And with the zealousness that they are guarded, the experienced players probably have a huge list of recipes and make a fortune with a 15-year old, while your character, a 50-year-old weaponsmith, doesn't even know how to make a simple knife. Hmm.. maybe I should buy a knife and analyze it.. oh wait.. it's not craftable!

Crafting is very sad and frustrating I've thought about making a tailor or something mundane like that, but I decide that it'll be a long-term liability, because nobody's going to teach an assassin how to sew clothes IC.

Helpers
I've tried to contact 4 helpers on the list and none of them replied. That includes all the helpers who've listed themselves as specializing on crafting. I bothered to stalk their profiles on the GDB and turns out that all of them haven't been in the GDB in a while.

Thanks to those on the GDB who did reply to my questions, though. I love you guys


IC harshness
Someone who doesn't even know their way around WILL get lost in a sandstorm. A wannabe warrior used to MUDs will buy a huge axe, run outside the city, find a "beetle" 4 rooms from the gate, and fight it. Chances are that he'll get pwned and lose the character that took him 12 hours to get approved and 2 hours to equip and get used to. Very disappointing, but it's his fault

PC harshness is not too good, though. In most games, the characters are played by jerks. In here, the players are quite nice, but the characters are jerks. It's impossible to tell the difference. Newbies need to see that all that meanness is IC. Yelling at them IC, but tossing a single, friendly OOC comment helps. I remember my first Byn Sergeant threatening to whip me to death if he ever caught me in the 'rinth, but the OOC 'Welcome to the Tzai Byn ;-)' really helped.

OOC harshness
Overall, OOC harshness seems to be low; just that there's a hostile feel when discussing code or anything to do with increasing skills. Otherwise, kudos, because IMHO, Armageddon has one of the most interesting forums related to a MUD


Anyway, all that is just my own personal point of view. Just thought I'd say it before I forget what it was like trying to pick up this game. It is a very hardcore MUD and personally, I'd be happier to see more newbies survive the learning curve

[Riev]

I remember my first Byn Sergeant threatening to whip me to death if he ever caught me in the 'rinth, but the OOC 'Welcome to the Tzai Byn ;-)' really helped.

I could stand to take something away from this, as I -do- tend to have racial hatreds of certain people, or if people do things I don't like, I just give them the cold shoulder. Now I wonder if they think I as a player am pissed at them, or if its the character. Sorry, new people!

[mansa]

Helpers
I've tried to contact 4 helpers on the list and none of them replied. That includes all the helpers who've listed themselves as specializing on crafting. I bothered to stalk their profiles on the GDB and turns out that all of them haven't been in the GDB in a while.

Thanks to those on the GDB who did reply to my questions, though. I love you guys

This should be addressed.

[Cutthroat]

It's nice when people write things like this. Thank you SMuz for your point of view, it was pretty interesting.

This got to me in particular:

Helpers
I've tried to contact 4 helpers on the list and none of them replied. That includes all the helpers who've listed themselves as specializing on crafting. I bothered to stalk their profiles on the GDB and turns out that all of them haven't been in the GDB in a while.

Thanks to those on the GDB who did reply to my questions, though. I love you guys Smiley

Anyone who digs into the Ask the Staff forum a bit will be able to glean I've been trying to become a Helper for, like, four months now. There's a lot of people on the Helpers list that don't post on the GDB or rarely do and perhaps some of them still play the game, but I'd wager they don't. It would be nice if staff could get someone to man the Helpers e-mail account, and then call for all current helpers to report in if they want to stay on the list, as well as accept new helpers. I bet there's plenty that would be interested in being a Helper, myself included.

On some of the other points -

Starting out: I think you got lucky. I think I got pretty lucky too. It is possible for a newbie to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and suddenly become discouraged and log off.

Documentation: I think it takes a lot more time to go through the documentation and write a description but I also think it's good that there's a need to be thorough. Maybe a revision of the description of the MUD is in order.

Emoting: I used to keep a notepad file open while playing that had the table in 'help emoting'. I would suggest it to any newbies having trouble.

[Synthesis]

RE: Crafting

If you don't have the haggle skill (e.g. if you're a subclass crafter), buying your materials from NPC merchants is almost always a losing bargain.  The only way to make money without haggle is to a) arrange with a PC to forage materials for you, or b) forage the materials yourself (where foraging includes hunting).  There are, however, some things that you can make a little money with...there is a place in Allanak, for instance, that sells cheap bones. (Think about what sort of place would have a steady supply of bones....)  Red Storm is notorious OOCly for being the sweatshop capital of the Known World...you can find out why relatively easily IC.  Red Storm isn't a particularly large city.

I encourage you to play a real merchant sometime (with a crafting subclass also, so you actually start with some useful crafting skills) and mess around with the crafting system.  Once you get your haggle skill up, you will be able to buy raw materials for about half of the listed price, and you'll be able to sell the finished products for nearly twice the NPC merchant's original offer.  That's extremely powerful, over time...even if you're only trading in crafts that are worth 10 'sid.

As far as the recipes go:  Arm's system is actually more transparent than any other MUD I've seen.  If you can craft with something, when you type craft 'x', it gives you a list of EVERY recipe that's possible (and not clan-specific) with that object at your skill level, no matter whether your character would have ever seen such an object or not.  Again, if you're a REAL crafter (i.e. a merchant), you can buy materials (or even finished goods) for a PITTANCE and inspect them via the 'craft' or 'analyze' commands to see if you can craft them.

A note on some syntax issues with analyze:

1. If you type 'analyze x' and it gives you a blank return, that means it is not craftable.
2. If you type 'analyze x' and it tells you 'You have no idea how this is made.' then it is craftable, but you do not possess the appropriate skill.
3. If you type 'analyze x' and it tells you 'This style is unfamiliar to you.' it means you have the appropriate skill, but it is a clan-specific item.
4. If you type 'analyze x' and it tells you 'You have an idea how this is made, but you're not sure.' then you have the appropriate skill, but you aren't good enough with it yet.
5. If you type 'analyze x' and it gives you materials, congratulations!  You can craft with it!

(I think this stuff should probably be in the help file, because the output of the analyze command is rather confusing.)

[Attana]

It's nice when people write things like this. Thank you SMuz for your point of view, it was pretty interesting.

This got to me in particular:

Helpers
I've tried to contact 4 helpers on the list and none of them replied. That includes all the helpers who've listed themselves as specializing on crafting. I bothered to stalk their profiles on the GDB and turns out that all of them haven't been in the GDB in a while.

Thanks to those on the GDB who did reply to my questions, though. I love you guys Smiley

Anyone who digs into the Ask the Staff forum a bit will be able to glean I've been trying to become a Helper for, like, four months now. There's a lot of people on the Helpers list that don't post on the GDB or rarely do and perhaps some of them still play the game, but I'd wager they don't. It would be nice if staff could get someone to man the Helpers e-mail account, and then call for all current helpers to report in if they want to stay on the list, as well as accept new helpers. I bet there's plenty that would be interested in being a Helper, myself included.

I'm a Helper, and I still play the game.  Everyday, for 12+ hours on end.  Though, I'm sure he hasn't tried to contact me.

Furthermore, whether or not we post 4389042389032890 times on the board, or play still has nothing to do with the fact that we're helpers.  When it gets to a point that someone contacts us and we don't respond, that's when it becomes a problem.

I'm in total agreement, if people don't wish to be Helpers, write in, get yourself removed.  But don't think that all of us Helpers are sitting by completely ignoring folks who are coming to us for help.  A lot of us, barely get anyone contacting us in the first place.  I've had one person contact me for help in the past year.

I'm more than willing to help any and all newbies who contact me, and I am one of the Helpers that rarely posts on the GDB.  And most of the time, it's not because I don't want to, it's because I think the rest of you players, who aren't Helpers, are giving great advice.

[Adhira]

I just wanted to say welcome, we're glad you stuck around, and this is a great post.

As far as the Helpers go - this is an issue we're aware of, now we have new staff in place we can get working on some of those admin tasks that need taking care of. Expect progress soon.

[Rhyden]

Helpers
I've tried to contact 4 helpers on the list and none of them replied. That includes all the helpers who've listed themselves as specializing on crafting. I bothered to stalk their profiles on the GDB and turns out that all of them haven't been in the GDB in a while.

There's a few helpers on the list who probably aren't around anymore. Since most helpers have different mediums for communication, I'd say your best bet would be to shoot a PM to a helper for help, since most helpers use the GDB.

[AJM]

These words rang very true to me. I am still in the Noob gang trying to figure out what #$%^&**( symbols do in the game.

Luckily I had a GDB helper to verbally say 'find out IC' so I had an advantage.

I think I lucked out with my first chars as well I got great leaders to show me the ropes and make sure I didn't do anything (too) stupid.

My best friend however did not get as good of an experience. His application took over 24 hours. Then when he logged on the game glitched and he died in the scar room. It took over 36 hours for res, and when he came too all his coins were gone. I have tried to convince him that was the craziest fluke ever, but he only replies maybe I will try it when arm 2 comes out.

[Attana]

These words rang very true to me. I am still in the Noob gang trying to figure out what #$%^&**( symbols do in the game.

Luckily I had a GDB helper to verbally say 'find out IC' so I had an advantage.

I think I lucked out with my first chars as well I got great leaders to show me the ropes and make sure I didn't do anything (too) stupid.

My best friend however did not get as good of an experience. His application took over 24 hours. Then when he logged on the game glitched and he died in the scar room. It took over 36 hours for res, and when he came too all his coins were gone. I have tried to convince him that was the craziest fluke ever, but he only replies maybe I will try it when arm 2 comes out.

... Someone told you to find out about the emoting symbols ICly?

And as for your friend... ouch.  That's... totally weird.

[SMuz]

Well, when I said some of the helpers I contacted haven't been around, I mean that some haven't been in the GDB since 2003 But IMHO, when I look up a helper, it's because I have a question. If I have a crafting problem, I'll look up a helper who's expertise on the list is crafting. If I wanted to make a raider, I'll look for a "raider" helper; if I wanted to know how to get into the sewers from Allanak, I'll look up someone who's an expert in Allanak. So, yeah, some of the helpers are going to be contacted a lot more than the others.

Synthesis:
Yeah, thanks for the advice. I started the game before the "analyze" echoes were documented, so I spent a good 20 minutes or so searching through the GDB for what the no response meant. But still.. a weaponcrafter I made went broke by buying about 4 bones from a certain store - only to discover that none of them could be crafted into anything he could make. So, I bought an expensive weapon and analyzed it - no echo. I'll try making a proper mechant-crafter after this char dies, though.

[Lizzie]

Hint for crafting:

Smuz, you said first you tried buying 4 bones, then one expensive weapon, and ended up broke and unable to figure it out.

Consider from a more realistic standpoint (even though you'll see me rail against realism everywhere on the GDB, sometimes it has its place):

someone who is learning to carve sculptures of italian marble, will probably try a bar of soap first. When they're looking at a finished product, they won't buy the statue of David. They'll just visit it. And maybe buy a cheap replica at the gift shop.

In Arm, the best equivalent for the above situation would be to try buying the cheapest kind of bone you can get to make your first practice attempts, and a cheap knife of the same material to study.

That way, even if neither end up being useful to you, at least you don't go broke finding out.

[SMuz]

Hmm.. good point. That was rather.. stupid But my expensive weapon doesn't have an echo. At least it's a nice one