Short Lifespan

[HFactor]

You know, it's a real pain in the arse to be unable to get a character to live more than three days, most of my deaths have been by PCs. The last one annoyed me the most, three people came into a locked room and attacked me straight out. Rooms are supposed to be fairly safe, not have random people barging in and killing you for no reason.

[Synthesis]

In before lock.

[Riev]

Been there. Done that.

Three is pretty sweet though. Someone must've REALLY hated you.

[titansfan]

Idk man, I have been in some high conflict, high consequence roles lately with some nasty people and still managed to live up to like 10 days PT.....most of my other characters that die quickly are because of stupid risks I take.

[HFactor]

In before lock.

I don't think they were in before the lock. As they closed the door from the other side and I locked it as it closed. Now they may have their own set of keys to the house, as every tenant seems to. But they shouldn't be able to access 'MY' apartment.

[Synthesis]

I meant the thread, noobcakes. 

[a strange shadow]

Not to seem like a smart-ass, but check out 'help pick'.

Few places in Zalanthas are ever truly 'safe'.

[5 day lifespan]

:directs HFactor to my forum name:

[SMuz]

Lol, I sort of envy you. Nobody's ever tried to PK me.

Haha, what Synthesis meant is that this thread is going to killed for IC info.

[HTX]

Wow, might want to take a look at what you're doing wrong then.

In my experience, your average (commoner) character won't usually try to PK you unless you REALLY piss them off, or they see some sort of gain in doing so, or you attempted/plotted to kill them first and they're killing you for survival.

If you pissed off someone important, that's, well, kind of asking for trouble. So at least you learned about the strict hierarchy which tends to be predominant in Zalanthas societies. Begging, sobbing and bribing, though, tends be extremely effective survival tactics if you get in these situations, from my experience.

Oh, and another lesson you learned: locked rooms = easy to get killed, even if it's your own room. In open, lawful areas, soldiers patrol the area, and will come to your aid if someone attacks you. This is all common knowledge. Play smart (trust no-one, be wary of locked rooms/enclosed areas, stay in lawful areas unless you have a lot of justification for not doing so, meet only in public, open areas, etc. etc. are all the common survival techniques most Zalanthians probably would be adhering to)... you'll be surprised how long your character can live if you take some precautions.

Review all your deaths, and try to figure out why you die so much. I used to have the problem of dying too much, then I realised why: pissing off templars and not begging/bribing enough, and sometimes trying to kill people, which like I said earlier, has a tendency to result in your enemy in turn going after you with lethal force. Not all conflict has to be fatal, or at least, at the start; in fact, you could argue that some of the funnest conflict comes from conflict where there isn't bodies constantly piling up (because once a character is dead, it's over, end of the story, and no-one likes the end of a good story).

And above all: throw away your Western mentality, and acknowledge that people on higher rungs of the social ladder are, well, not only more capable of having your character killed/put in a very bad situation, but honestly considered BETTER than you, sometimes for no other reason than been born in the right family. Life is cheap, and sometimes, you mess with the wrong person or simply are unlucky and end up dead in some back alleyway.

You'll be able to have characters living up to a year or more in no time once you get the hangs of things, assuming you're a newbie.

[jcljules]

Lol, I sort of envy you. Nobody's ever tried to PK me.

I always hate it when people complain about being PK'd. I hate being killed by mobs so much that the few times I've been PK'd have made me enjoy the game a whole lot more.

[Vessol]

Didn't they change it anyways so that apartment keys are changed often? To get rid of those lifetime burglers who had the key to every apartment in the game?

[Sokotra]

Rooms are supposed to be fairly safe, not have random people barging in and killing you for no reason.

Welcome to Armageddon.

[Jenred]

Didn't they change it anyways so that apartment keys are changed often? To get rid of those lifetime burglers who had the key to every apartment in the game?

The newer apartments don't even let you take the key out of the complex. Its automatically given back to the clerk on your way out.

[vandamme]

Rooms are supposed to be fairly safe, not have random people barging in and killing you for no reason.

Welcome to Armageddon.

This one says it best.  Just try to have fun with it.  for me 70% of the fun is these intense moments when you're gripping your keyboard and gritting your teeth.  True, my girlfriend thinks I'm crazy. 

[Jingo]

I'd send a report to the staff just in case they don't know that there is a band busting into rooms and killing peeps.

That said, that's about the only type of apartment killing I'd like to see.

[Lizzie]

I'd send a report to the staff just in case they don't know that there is a band busting into rooms and killing peeps.

That said, that's about the only type of apartment killing I'd like to see.

If I'm in -my- apartment, and -you- burglarize yourself through the door, please don't get upset if I kill you. Especially if you don't introduce yourself and offer to pay me rent.

[5 day lifespan]

And above all: throw away your Western mentality, and acknowledge that people on higher rungs of the social ladder are, well, not only more capable of having your character killed/put in a very bad situation, but honestly considered BETTER than you, sometimes for no other reason than been born in the right family. Life is cheap, and sometimes, you mess with the wrong person or simply are unlucky and end up dead in some back alleyway.

This.  Most especially.  Learning how to avoid mobs, when and where to hunt, which nomad communities are easy pickings... that becomes easy in short order.  Putting away a life time of "Burden of proof," "Habeas Corpus," and Miranda laws aren't very easy for some people.  Impossible in fact, especially if you are a "take shit from no one" kind of person.  You can continue to write up "take shit from no one" type until you quit, or you get it into your head that, in order to survive, even half giants need to learn some manner of subtlety.  The "take no shit" types that I play usually do take that shit.  Then end up standing over a corpse a few months later.

I was once in a spot where my companion wanted to get uppity and I wanted to survive.  IRL friend or not, I would have cut him down in a second if the Noble in that scene would have given me a choice between both dying or just one.  In a second.  Because people with ideals in Zalanthas get cut down.  You stand for one ideal ever, and that is survival.

[Aruven]

Ah yes, seems like the gold old days are making  resurgence. Just avoid apartment complexes in general unless you can fucking pwn someone. Srsly, your talking to a guy that makes it a habit to only let his character live like 5 days. That said, you're probabl notgoing to get any answers about who bashed your shit in and ransacked the place.

And as far as the key thing goes *vessol* I just happened to see it fail miserably this last week and It took me forever to figure out what key I had on me. So, its easily possible for one long lived character to just go;

'Who you after? Ahhhh.. Nice fellow. He's in such-and-such apartment. Five small, here's your key.'

'Thanks.'

Pwnage begins.

[Vessol]

I wish more people dashed in and PKed me

[Aruven]

I wish more people dashed in and PKed me

Come, to TULUK.

[Jdr]

People aren't PK'd in Tuluk, they simply never existed.

[Synthesis]

The last Tuluki who charged in and tried to PK me got a nasty surprise.   

Protip: not everyone with a merchant's token is guild_merchant.

[Majikal]

The last Tuluki who charged in and tried to PK me got a nasty surprise.   

Protip: not everyone with a merchant's token is guild_merchant.

I remember making a dash and stab in an apartment with my first tuluki assasin pc when I was so newbyish, I couldn't even emote properly at that time. The guy was wearing jewelry, silk cloak, silk pants and I remember thinking 'haha, softy!'. My first round of combat was promptly dodged, only to see him draw a two handed sword from his silk.. sash? Oocly it was ridiculous but I have no doubt that that a snapshot of my face would have been priceless. I was cut down in seconds, a 10-20 day assassin, by a silk pants wearing silky cloaked warrior of doom. I should have probably posted this on the stupidest player errors ever made thread...

/derail

[FantasyWriter]

I've never been PK'ed.

[Majikal]

I've never been PK'ed.

You fail.

[SMuz]

I've never been PK'ed either. Hell, it's always their NPC companions that end up killing me. Only one so far KO'ed, but it robbed me completely and let me live. I have PK'ed a few though. Like some others mentioned, it strikes me as odd that someone could actually get PK'ed so much, lol. I expect to get some attempts on my character's life when he reaches day 40 or so, but below 5 days, it's very odd, unless you're asking for it. Or very unlucky.

[Simple]

Whenever you're PKed, it is so much more memorable.
Even though you die, they are good deaths. It's the ones in the rinth or to a raptor chasing you that make you feel stupid.

[deviant storm]

I'm like the queen of stupid deaths. Really.

I have to say being PK can suck, especially if you don't have a clue why and you'd never met the people before in your life who killed you. You learn to live with the lack of knowledge. And you log off and go deal with your frustration after your character dies. Then, when you're calmer, a new concept makes him or herself known to you in your head and you find yourself logging back onto Arm.

Sorry you died. Good luck on your next one. Trust me in that dying to some PC is in the end a little more gratifying than to some NPC critter.

[shadeoux]

Didn't they change it anyways so that apartment keys are changed often? To get rid of those lifetime burglers who had the key to every apartment in the game?

The newer apartments don't even let you take the key out of the complex. Its automatically given back to the clerk on your way out.

Not necessarily

[spawnloser]

There are ways in and out of apartment buildings that don't require the key, first off.  Granted, somewhat off-topic.

Second, HTX got it best... examine your characters and see what behaviors they had in common.  THAT's more than likely what's getting you killed.  If you're getting PKed often, it's probably because you're pissing people off.  Why are your characters pissing off people that can kill them?  Maybe make an ass-kissing sycophant for your next character instead?

Third, as others have said, cherish the PKs.  You're more likely to get interaction from a PC than you are an NPC.  It's the interaction that makes things awesome, even if you're dying.

Finally, I'm going to assume that you're something of a noob, even though you registered back in '06, due to the small postcount which suggests not much participation in the community and thus less experience with the mud as a whole.  You'll learn to keep your characters alive as you grow out of being a noob, mostly because you become familiar with the mechanics more but also because you become more understanding of the environment, and by this I mean the whole setting... the factions and the types of people, how people expect to be treated, etc.

[IAmJacksOpinion]

Yeah, I'm up around 120 PCs, I think. Longest ones have survived, regular play, for only about 1 or 1.5 years IG. (1.5 - 2 months, IRL) But 75% of them have went down within their creation week. Seriously, I still do it more than I'd like to admit. I've been playing for 3-4 years and all I can say is "I'm getting better." Haha. The bazaar thing is that I've got a decent amount of karma. *boggle*

Anyways, back to the topic: In retrospect, I've decided that the reason why all my early characters had kicked it is because they were all the same. Assassins who acted like total twat bags, based on the assumption that I could flee any concept, max out my character, and return in a couple weeks as the deadliest mofo on the planet. Or something like that.

Tips:
a) Forget about pride.[/]   When you fuck up, apologize. Also, if you've offended someone who looks like they can whoop you, bribe them with a hundred sid or so.  Templars / Guards especially will be lenient if you seem to have both learned from your mistake, and offered a repentance.  (IE; Apologize and pay. It's the only way!)

b) Join a Clan!   Clans give you training, food/water, a cloak that says "fuck with me, and my extremely rich boss will fuck back", and comrades to watch your back. If you spar regularly, you'll get stronger pretty darned quick. At least strong enough to survive until you get a chance to flee.

c) FLEE!    I was bad at this. I would fight mobs in the rinth who clearly outclassed me until I was down to like 20-30 HP, thinking "this guy only hits for like 8-10 max, I can stick it out a little longer." Wrong. The lower you get on health, the worse your fighting seems to become, and then all of a sudden you get that Viscious stab to the head, or that "PANIC! You cannot escape" message and that's all she wrote.  Learn to gauge your fight from the start, if he takes 20 HP off you, and you haven't even HIT him yet, you're gonna lose. Don't stick around to find out the hard way. Smart fleeing is done the very second you realize you ain't gonna win - such as when 3 guys walk in and start killing up on you. I've seen some pretty hard warriors die to outnumbering.

d) Take a load off, and MAKE FRIENDS!     My earlier characters made very few friends because I was always running around stabbing something, and never spent any time in the tavern, in the stool. And when someone would talk to me, I'd be a condescending prick because I was so sure that this character was gonna be a bad-ass. Friends have a lot to offer. Skills, support, and useful info/advice.

e) Don't take yourself too seriously   Not every mom or breed joke has to carry a death sentence with it. Those who go looking for blood find it, and if you're a newb and don't know how things go, it's probably gonna be your own.

Those're some things I've eventually learned. My play style was purely criminal / PK back in the day. I was here to conquer. That just doesn't happen on Armageddon.

But, don't get down because you die every 3 days. I've had 3 PCs in a single day before. (2 deaths) It's the people that say "I've had 7 characters in 5 years. My first one lasted 1 year, etc, etc." that are the minority around here. The rest of us do stupid shit and die alot. It's part of the game.
   

[Aruven]

I've never been PK'ed.

New Focus. Do I have to say it?

[Aruven]

Yeah, I'm up around 120 PCs, I think. Longest ones have survived, regular play, for only about 1 or 1.5 years IG. (1.5 - 2 months, IRL) But 75% of them have went down within their creation week. Seriously, I still do it more than I'd like to admit. I've been playing for 3-4 years and all I can say is "I'm getting better." Haha. The bazaar thing is that I've got a decent amount of karma. *boggle*

Anyways, back to the topic: In retrospect, I've decided that the reason why all my early characters had kicked it is because they were all the same. Assassins who acted like total twat bags, based on the assumption that I could flee any concept, max out my character, and return in a couple weeks as the deadliest mofo on the planet. Or something like that.

Tips:
a) Forget about pride.[/]   When you fuck up, apologize. Also, if you've offended someone who looks like they can whoop you, bribe them with a hundred sid or so.  Templars / Guards especially will be lenient if you seem to have both learned from your mistake, and offered a repentance.  (IE; Apologize and pay. It's the only way!)

b) Join a Clan!   Clans give you training, food/water, a cloak that says "fuck with me, and my extremely rich boss will fuck back", and comrades to watch your back. If you spar regularly, you'll get stronger pretty darned quick. At least strong enough to survive until you get a chance to flee.

c) FLEE!    I was bad at this. I would fight mobs in the rinth who clearly outclassed me until I was down to like 20-30 HP, thinking "this guy only hits for like 8-10 max, I can stick it out a little longer." Wrong. The lower you get on health, the worse your fighting seems to become, and then all of a sudden you get that Viscious stab to the head, or that "PANIC! You cannot escape" message and that's all she wrote.  Learn to gauge your fight from the start, if he takes 20 HP off you, and you haven't even HIT him yet, you're gonna lose. Don't stick around to find out the hard way. Smart fleeing is done the very second you realize you ain't gonna win - such as when 3 guys walk in and start killing up on you. I've seen some pretty hard warriors die to outnumbering.

d) Take a load off, and MAKE FRIENDS!     My earlier characters made very few friends because I was always running around stabbing something, and never spent any time in the tavern, in the stool. And when someone would talk to me, I'd be a condescending prick because I was so sure that this character was gonna be a bad-ass. Friends have a lot to offer. Skills, support, and useful info/advice.

e) Don't take yourself too seriously   Not every mom or breed joke has to carry a death sentence with it. Those who go looking for blood find it, and if you're a newb and don't know how things go, it's probably gonna be your own.

Those're some things I've eventually learned. My play style was purely criminal / PK back in the day. I was here to conquer. That just doesn't happen on Armageddon.

But, don't get down because you die every 3 days. I've had 3 PCs in a single day before. (2 deaths) It's the people that say "I've had 7 characters in 5 years. My first one lasted 1 year, etc, etc." that are the minority around here. The rest of us do stupid shit and die alot. It's part of the game.
   

Dude, I will continuously defend my title holding the shortest lived characters in the known world. More than one character, die, before the hour was up. That means, four deaths, in two days.
I've had three PC's within 24 hours as well, three deaths. My longest lived character was like... oh, 30 something day warrior.

*In bruce-campbell accented sirihish: "Who Rules!?"*

[IAmJacksOpinion]

Lets see.. I've had 3 characters within 24 hours.

I've died within 1 - 2 hours as well, several times.

I guess what rockets me into the win is that I've been PK'd by a templar in 45 minutes for being found to be a follower of The Dragon, (not Tek, the one who was born that way) by virtue of the bag of goodies I had lifted off of a Kuraci guard who was being led down the street, hitched to the other end of the bag. (Classic problem of item weight). Course, that character didn't end there, but me and the templar had a good OOC laugh using The Way. Can ya beat that? Huh? Can ya!?