Thoughts, questions, suggestions from a professional noob

[Tamalak]

I’ve seen a few topics complaining about a low player base right now, so as a noob, I’m going to offer my story on how I found this MUD, why I’m trying it, and why I’m dissatisfied at the moment.  I hope it’s more helpful than it is long.  I understand you all are more concerned with the quality of the players than the quantity of them, but SOME basic steps should be taken to attract qualified players.

I am a picky bastard.  I decided to start MUDding again, and set my jaw to finding a MUD that met these three demanding requirements:

#1 - That the MUD does NOT have a pussy-wussy-nanny PK policy where everyone's shielded from doing harm to one another.  Nothing pisses me off more than a perfectly beautiful, creative, well-coded MUD ruined by a sheltering PK policy that prevents any player from engaging in meaningful interaction with another player.  Prancing around a world slaughtering computer-controlled MOBs who sit around placidly waiting for you to kill and loot them is not my idea of a good time.

#2 - That the MUD be free.

#3 - That the MUD have at least moderately good RP.. that is, people don't run around with l33t speak and refer to items in the game by their statistics or abbreviations rather than their names.

So I go to topmudsites.com, and decide to go down the list of top 100 MUDs 'till I found one that I liked and that met the above three requirements.

#1 - Achaea - Wussy PK policy at its worst.  I got in serious trouble for bopping someone on the nose who richly deserved it.
#2 - Materia Magicka - Even stricter PK policy.  Didn't bother to log in.
#3 - Threshhold RPG - Strict but acceptable PK policy.  Mandatory roleplaying.  Beautiful and extensive worlds/quests.  Commence drooling.  Then.. 50 DOLLARS to register?  Move on.
#4 - Ancient Anguish - Wussy PK policy, fairly lackluster MUD all around.  Start feeling hopeless about the ordeal.
#5 - Feudal Realms - Optional PK+/PK- status.  Borderline, but it seemed that only half were PK+, so move on.
#6 - Armageddon..

Mandatory RP? Free? Nasty brutal world? PERMADEATH? Could this be the RP-intensive MUDding equivalent of Nethack? So I go through the documentation as best I can.  I find no mention of a fee for playing, but you know how those things can be deviously hidden.

SUGGESTION: Stress the point that Armageddon is free, somewhere that a prospective player is likely to look (the intro text to armageddon.org?).  Not for promotional purposes so much as informational.

It was frustrating not being able to log in and pose even a few short questions to a real person before I went through the lengthy process of getting an account (that word right there makes it sound like pay-to-play) and then a character.

SUGGESTION: Allow anyone to log in as a temporary ‘guest’ character that is able to at least log in to an empty, exitless room and talk through telepathy to the players and/or Immortals, as well as read the online help files.  It is very off-putting to have to go through an extensive character creation before you’re even able to log on to the MUD and look around.  That’s NOT laziness, it’s simply the effort:reward ratio – I can put far less effort into investigating a MUD that seems just as promising as Armageddon.  Armageddon can’t survive on its reputation alone, nor on word of mouth.  It’s a very unique MUD and having newbies able to have someone live to talk to and answer questions would be, in my opinion, a significant feature.

So my character application gets accepted, and gets sent back to me with his description revised.  I look at it and am pleased – the administrator showed that he both cares about the quality of the RP here, and took the time to read the description _I_ wrote to get the sense of that character, and not lose any of it in the change.  I appreciate that.

So I take a deep breath and log in with my first character.  In the hall of kings, I consider the choices for my city.  Somewhere I heard that the south areas are much nastier than the north areas, so my simplistic noob survival instincts kick in and I select Northlands.

Almost immediately I find myself in a crowded tavern.  Who were NPCs and who were PCs? I couldn’t tell!

QUESTION: Is there any technical way of distinguishing between NPCs and PCs, aside from trying to strike up a conversation with one and having a 50/50 chance of embarrassing yourself to heck?  I notice that some peoples’ short descriptions start with ‘a’/’an’ and others’ start with ‘the’.  Is that the key?

So I sit at the bar and order some pie.  I notice an elf and a dwarf moving around a bit, walking towards the bar, sitting at the bar, putting their hands on the bar, pushing away from the bar, etc, but their actions were so slow and mundane that I still mistook them for NPCs!  That is until one of them telepathed me offering a suggestion to my rp.  I tried to telepath her back, but apparently the ‘tell’ command isn’t the correct one for that.  Oh.. drat.. well good thing my character is ICly suffering from sun sickness to explain my noobish mistakes.

Figuring these two are bored, and not having the confidence yet to strike up any sort of RP (and in fact worrying because of their behavior that nothing ever goes on), I load up on a bit of food and water and leave to explore.  I find a city that is completely deserted.. huge streets, same-y descriptions, and LAG.  Lots and lots of LAG.  I understand there is supposed to be a movement delay but I found that the delay was variable at times, and that running didn’t diminish the delay much.. and even things that should not have a delay attached to them, encountered lag.

QUESTION: Is there usually a problem with lag on the MUD? At the time when I was first experiencing it, there were no more than 18 or so other players on.  I am on the east coast (Delaware)

The streets went on and on and on.  I never got hungry, never got thirsty.  Never found another player besides the two sluggish ones in the bar.  I had no idea what to do – I couldn’t practice my illegal arts because of the fear of getting caught, and I couldn’t learn to hunt/gather because of the lack of tutors around.  As for my cooking skill, all I found that I could use that on was a horta fruit.  I peeled it into slices! Hurrah!

SUGGESTION: Because of the current population thinness on the MUD, people are going to tend to congregate in one or two of the 6 cities.  If a newbie, EVEN A QUALIFIED ONE, happens to select one of the four or five cities that is NOT populated, he’s probably not going to stay on the MUD long.  So I recommend that when it comes time for a character to choose the town he starts in, have some kind of indicator telling you how many people are in each town at that time, and have a recommendation to a newbie to pick a populated town!

Eventually I found a pitiful-looking girl suffering from some kind of severe, horrific skin disease.  She was ragged and skeletal and huddled in a corner and probably starving to death.  The mere sight of her would melt the coldest of hearts.  My character, wanting to succinctly express his disgust at her uglification of a public area, gave her a good solid kick in the jaw.  So the girl stood up, spoke an incantation, and set me on fire.  Despite a particularly bad spurt of what seemed like lag, I was able to flee and extinguish what was left of my once-sandy hair.

Despite the fact that SHE tried to kill ME and all _I_ did was kick her, I was now wanted as a criminal.  So I read HELP WANTED, HELP NOSAVE, turned on my nosave, turned myself in, and spent the next two hours or so nibbling on cockroaches, reading HELP SKILL_KICK, and testing that command on myself.

After I got out I decided I should finally get down to business and map the area, despite roleplaying-related problems with that idea.

QUESTION: Is it ICly acceptable to draw a map, despite the fact that I could find no pen nor paper in the IC world, and I remember reading somewhere that templars won’t allow people to write?

After spending at least an hour of slowly mapping out the huge and nearly featureless city, (and STILL never getting hungry or thirsty), I decided it would be more productive to write this.  From a perception of a newbie, THIS FEELS LIKE A NOTHING MUD.  It feels like one of countless abandoned, deserted MUDs with rooms that go on and on with no direction or maps or danger or roleplay or activity or anything.  I understand that it is not the MUD’s responsibility to spoon-feed me adventure.  I understand that I am supposed to go out and seek it, and in fact create it.  But there doesn’t seem, from my experiences thus far (and the first few hours are generally the deciding factor in whether or not to join!), there doesn’t even seem to be any material for RP, no handholds for it, nothing to spark it.

I’m probably wrong in several of my points above.  There’s a good chance that I’m wrong in all of them, being a newbie and all.  But I just wanted to submit this and see if it would be at all helpful.

[mansa]

First glance:

You kicked her in the teeth?
D00d.  You rock.

Second glance:
not there yet.  I'll comment later

Okay first off Im sure everyone will want to thank you for the input.

Telepathy is IC, so the idea of a guest that can contact people is shot down. A guest room was suggested, but they decided that much OOC interactment wasnt great, or something. There is an IRC chatroom in Sorcery.net at #armageddonmud if you want to talk to people. Also this discussion board.

This isnt like other muds where you can 'strike up rp'. Typically this phrase refers to sitting down and using longer then normal emotes in a sorta person-to-person interaction. Most people in Arm are 'rping' all the time. Its always in-character, so whatever someone does is part of the role they are playing, thus role-playing.

Yes the hall of kings needs some tuning, but basically Allanak and the Northlands are the main points of play with around 20 active or so in each at peak, with the other 10-20 scattered around the world.

In comparsion to other muds the world that you will experience usually is small. It will consist of at -max- for a non worldly explorer the three main cities, Allanak Luirs and Northlands, and the roads or wastes in between.

The cities are big because they are usually the main-points of play. The wastes are hot and dangerous and few people will just sit out there. Most interaction occurs inside cities.

All characters typically have -the- in front. And are more animated then NPCs, but Armageddon doesnt want you to treat npcs like npcs, or pcs like pcs, thats why they look similar. They may not respond back, but then again they might. (the staff will sometimes animate npcs when you least expect it.)

Kicking is a hostile action. It started the fight. She retaliated.

Yes its IC to map out the places you play... but to an extent. You shouldnt be like "Well off to map the city so I can find my way around." but keeping a map or scribbling beside you is fine. Just dont have your want for a map encourage how you play your character.

The world does feel very empty at first, and this is categorized as the 'lost' that most people in any MUD will feel. You may have heard it in the typical ROM mud 'Someone says, 'Help me, Im so lost.' or "what do I do, im lost.". Yes Arm is daunting at first. It is rich in environment, confusion, and other original things. There isnt an OOC communication to fall back on, and typically the world is -very- mean. No newbie helpers, or whatever. But thats why most people like it. You arnt coddled, and tickled, and given equipment. And after the intial learning curve you -learn- where people are, figure out the places you dont need to go because you won't find anything useful there, etc.

Anyways if you like it, keep at it... maybe hire someone to show you around.

[mansa]

QUESTION: Is there any technical way of distinguishing between NPCs and PCs, aside from trying to strike up a conversation with one and having a 50/50 chance of embarrassing yourself to heck?  I notice that some peoples' short descriptions start with 'a'/'an' and others' start with 'the'.  Is that the key?

That's one of the features.  Another one is that an NPC usually says the same things over and over again, and doesn't move from the spot.  Other NPCs, like soldiers, JUST move around.

That is until one of them telepathed me offering a suggestion to my rp.  I tried to telepath her back, but apparently the 'tell' command isn't the correct one for that.  

I Suggest reading the helpfile for Psionics.   "Help Psionics"

You should set your prompt, aswell.  "Help Prompt"

Everyone's psionics abilities works off your 'stun' points...if your stun drops to 0, you fall unconcious and it could take up to 10 minutes to wake up....of course...that seems like a half-hour.

QUESTION: Is there usually a problem with lag on the MUD? At the time when I was first experiencing it, there were no more than 18 or so other players on.  I am on the east coast (Delaware)

Myself, Yesterday night I had a lot of Lag.  I don't know where it was.  Today's just fine, though.

QUESTION: Is it ICly acceptable to draw a map, despite the fact that I could find no pen nor paper in the IC world, and I remember reading somewhere that templars won't allow people to write?

That's true.  However, you could still keep symbols to mean things, for your own self....But...in a way...isn't that writing?

There's a writing skill.  Only nobles and templars get that.
I think you need to skill to write down something, on the paper items in game.

Your character, if he grew up in the city, should probably know it.  Myself, I give about 30 minutes of my starting time to be OOC time, just gathering items and making my character to be who they should be, before they start to meet others.  That's when I make my pen and paper map, OOC, aswell.

I'm probably wrong in several of my points above.  There's a good chance that I'm wrong in all of them, being a newbie and all.  But I just wanted to submit this and see if it would be at all helpful.

First thing you should do, is explore.  Maybe.  Do what your character would do.  Sit at a tavern for days upon days.  Join a clan.  Clans are wonderful, if you could find the recruiters.  They might be hard to find, or they might be that person who's talking to you now.

Read more about the world.  Realize why people won't talk to you, or why people flock to you.  If you're an elf, you're going to be shunned.

Peak times are usually 8p.m. - 1 a.m. E.S.T and and it various throughout the day.

[Fedaykin]

SUGGESTION: [...] as well as read the online help files.

The entire help files database is available directly on the web under the Help Files section of the main site at: http://www.armageddon.org/help/index_frames.html

It was frustrating not being able to log in and pose even a few short questions to a real person before I went through the lengthy process of getting an account (that word right there makes it sound like pay-to-play) and then a character.

There is a list of helpers who basically help out players both new and veteran with any problems or questions they might have, whether through the various instant messangers or email.  If you look at all the responses so far, myself, mansa and Jenred all have the Helper tag listed under our names.  The full list of helpers is available at http://www.armageddon.org/intro/helpers.html

I believe most of those people are still actively keeping up with the position, although GDB activeness tends to be one good sign of that, and thus a good place to find a Helper.  If you have problems in a particular area, you can search through the expertises listed to try and find the most suitable helper for you.  Endless roads sounds like Tuluk, heh, which is one of my departments, so if you need and help or have any questions don't hesitate to contact me or someone else and ask.

[Hoodwink]

It was frustrating not being able to log in and pose even a few short questions to a real person before I went through the lengthy process of getting an account (that word right there makes it sound like pay-to-play) and then a character.

I agree.  In regards to your suggestion (which I didn't quote here just to keep my post shorter), as others have pointed out the Way is a very IC instrument with IC consequences, consequences players wouldn't make if they weren't IC.  I don't know what a good solution is, personally, but I definately think Arm's player base is suffering due to this problem.  Perhaps posting the IRC link off the main page as a good resource for newbies to ask questions live, is a good idea -- opinions on that will vary, however.

So I take a deep breath and log in with my first character. In the hall of kings, I consider the choices for my city. Somewhere I heard that the south areas are much nastier than the north areas, so my simplistic noob survival instincts kick in and I select Northlands.

Yeah, I really think something in the Hall of Kings should either restrict new players from selecting a desolate city, or a serious note pinned up offering suggestions.  As it is now the help files will give you suggestions ... somewhere.  But as a newbie faced with near infinite documention, this can be a bit daunting, and easily overlooked.

QUESTION: Is there any technical way of distinguishing between NPCs and PCs, aside from trying to strike up a conversation with one and having a 50/50 chance of embarrassing yourself to heck? I notice that some peoples’ short descriptions start with ‘a’/’an’ and others’ start with ‘the’. Is that the key?

PCs always have a definite article in their sdesc (the), NPCs may vary.  On rare occasions a PC gets through character generation having used an indefinite article, which usually gets corrected after a few short hours of being in game.  A good way to distinguish the difference between PC from NPC, at least in a tavern, is to 'look tables' (see help tables for more info.).  You may walk in and see: "The NPC is lounging at a table here, drinking.", but they are never seated at coded tables.  Finally, an NPCs equipment list is generally far more standard and minimal than a PC's.  What's more, if you see state-flags attached to a wearer's garments (ie, stained, sweat-stained, bloodied, mud-caked, etc.), then there's a good chance they are a PC who was recently getting attacked or running around, etc.  (Except the dusty flag, which can apply to NPCs and PCs alike with equal frequency).

QUESTION: Is there usually a problem with lag on the MUD? At the time when I was first experiencing it, there were no more than 18 or so other players on. I am on the east coast (Delaware)

There are delays attached to nearly every command.  Personally, I'd like to see a bit less of this, especially OOC commands.  However, I believe the delays help to avoid typical Hack & Slash MUD mentality of spam-typing commands

QUESTION: Is it ICly acceptable to draw a map, despite the fact that I could find no pen nor paper in the IC world, and I remember reading somewhere that templars won’t allow people to write?

I highly advise drawing a map, especially in the seemingly endless, winding streets of Tuluk.

Based on your criteria of MUD specification, it sounds like Arm is the place to be.  Stick with it, I say!

[Cuusardo]

By all means, read the help files, and contact the helpers with questions you would have as a newbie to Armageddon.

I guess I got lucky, because I found the mud through a couple of more experienced players who helped me learn the ropes.

[Sandferret]

I guess I got lucky, because I found the mud through a couple of more experienced players who helped me learn the ropes.

And I, eventually, gave in to far too many asking me to give it a try. Was completely lost with my first character, then was persuaded to try again by a more experienced friend who promised to teach me to play.

Being the person I am, I ran away with a total stranger the next day. Fully expecting to be murdered on the way, I still went. And found a place for my character with people who helped me without knowing me.

Welcome to Armageddon, Tamalak. I'm not in the position to have 'meaningful interaction' with you currently, but who knows...maybe some other life. And maybe it won't have to include death, at least not initially.

[Barzalene]

Stick around, get through the learning curve, use the helpers, you will like Arm. We like Arm.  Not that we're biased.

Good luck with it. I hope you'll enjoy.

[Twilight]

Probably I will repeat what others have said but:

Guest logins - The problem with this is that the entire world is IC.  Its not like some games where there is this quasi-RP going on where you are RPing along then suddenly talking about baseball.  In normal circumstances, the only commands you will ever use that will not be IC (and thus RPing) are the OOC command and the wish command.  Note that you can easily go several real life months without using these fairly easily.  Circumstances that are not normal, such as meeting an imm face to face or an online player/staff meeting might have you doing others.  How does this relate to guest logins?  You are always in character.  There is no allowance for oh, that person is a guest.  Some find OOC contact in game to be disjarring to the whole RP experience they are trying to achieve.

NPC/PC - The best tool to use is memory.  If it always has the same long description, if it is always in the same room, probably an NPC.  Assess them.  You will notice that PCs sdesc tend to end in male,female,man,woman,dwarf, etc.  However, some things, notably soldiers, will have professions, etc.  That is generally a dead givaway it is an NPC, with the exception of templars.  PC templars will generally have a sdesc ending in templar, which is pretty much the only instance of that you will see in the game.

Tell command - Tell is not a global command like in most MUDs.  Basically, psi command (help contact, help psi) takes the place of that as a much less used, IC command.  Tell has been changed so that it acts like a say command, only you can target so people know who you are talking to, sort of like ask command in most other muds, it echos to the entire room.

Hungry/Thirsty - Mostly DIKU muds work on a 24/24 fill.  Generally this means that every tic (in those muds that have them) you loose one point of thirst/hunger and when you reach zero you are hungry/thirsty.  I don't know how Armageddon's works specifically, but it is definately different.  First, where you are and spend your time affects the ratio at which you get thirsty/hungry.  Being outside makes you thirsty faster than being inside, for instance.  In addition, whereas from complete fill to zero takes generally about 30 minutes on most muds, here it could take anywhere from an hour to two hours (it does happen though) depending on a variety of factors.  Also, the imms seem to be very nice to characters who are starting out in terms of hunger/thirst.  Especially if you stay in town, I would not expect these messages for maybe 3-4 hours after you start, if not longer.

Kick - On most muds I've seen there is a kick skill.  To use it (assuming you have it) is just like typing kill.  Same here.  Only, you can kick even if you don't have the skill on your list.  So, kick is not an emote, it is a skill, and it is an aggressive skill.  Given that, as you are the one who attacked, you are the one who got crim flagged.  Given what you've said though, and where you started, it seems to me this experience has left you with a -GREAT- RP starting opportunity for your character that you could use to start conversations with essentially any PC you met.  Read over the docs for the northlands (I assume that is where you are) a bit more to figure out what it is.

The world is huge in part to give people room to do things.  Lots of people come here thinking that RP is when you get together with other players and speak/do stuff.  RP is different here.  RP is all the time, whether other PCs are on or not.  The big world gives you something to do, if you are on alone and can't find other PCs.  As for adventure, that is not necessarily what you will find other PCs looking for.  Lots of PCs never leave a city to explore, etc. but spend their time on other activities, like politics.

But there doesn't seem, from my experiences thus far (and the first few hours are generally the deciding factor in whether or not to join!), there doesn't even seem to be any material for RP, no handholds for it, nothing to spark it

I would say you already have one, if what you posted about your experiences is true, a darn good one.  Lots of great interaction can come of just speaking of your experiences to others (generally the best place to find others is in a bar/tavern, help tables to get the most out of such an experience).  Trust me, you definately have the spark.

[Pungee]

One of the things about this MUD that I love to no end even though it makes me feel like a moron from time to time, is how god damned mysterious it is. The things you know show up on your skills list, but you don't know how well you do anything until you try it. I love that, its fantastic. The first time I played, actually someone helped me out quite a bit as I recall. Then I decided to try and find allanak all by my self (I believe) and got eaten by something somewhere along the way. Great stuff. At first I was outraged. Then I realized ehhh it wasn't that bad. To play here I've noticed you have to be of a certain self-abusive mindset in the game. I've started to think of myself and all other players as Masochists. Staff members too... You'd have to be to put up with a bunch of players like us   . If you were to ask an Arm player what he or she thought of as the most important RP moment in his/hers characters life you'd probably get one of two answers. The first is when they die. Death is one of those things we love here in Arm and OOCly I consider it an honor to be executed by a templar, its so fun!   . The second thing is, inbetween RP. I'm not sure how many people do it because it's the thing you do when nobody PC is around. Why do you do it? It helps you define the character in your own head. At least it does for me. Took me a few characters to realize that but once I got it down I realized that sometimes I like it when there aren't other PCs around. God that sounds terrible but its somewhat true.

What that length of Player Spout up above is meant to inform you of (I know im confusing at times) is that the way things are probably has to do with the way the playerbase is and the staff is. I remember I read every bit of documentation in the website when I first started playing and I was STILL shocked to shit when I got in game. The people who don't survive that shock and the learning curve... well maybe they just aren't suited for Arm. Don't have the special 'Armness' that it takes to grit your teeth and spit blood on a templar's boots when he offers you a chance to live a bit longer if you sell out your thieving bastard of a friend. And then when you see the mantis head pop up to go "God damn that was good".

Now that I'm off my tanget, that's probably why there's no coddling. The game world doesn't allow it so it's almost pointless to let it happen OOCly beyond the basics. Think of all the help files and info as 'survival training'. It's the canteen, knife and compass we drop you into the desert with and let you find your way to the rather shining oasis that is Armageddon. Bwahaahaha, ok so I waxed poetic. Sue me. Better yet, beat me and then throw me in the arena! :twisted:

[Angela Christine]

I'll just address a couple points, since you've already gotten a good many responses.

You will get thristy much faster in the wilderness than in the city.  As long as you stay in the city, occassionally eating and drinking because you're in a tavern an that is the logical thing to do in at tavern should keep you from getting hunger pangs.  Moist foods, like fruit pie, will make you both less hunger and less thirsty.  I think the relatively light food and drink requirements was a deliberate decision.  Some people find the need to eat and drink annoying, and it some games it is REALLY annoying because you are constantly micromanaging your character's digestion.  So Armageddon's eating requirments are toned down so that everyone isn't carrying around 20 loaves of bread.  On the other hand, the point between where you start feeling thirsty and where you pass out and die of dehydration can be frighteningly short, particularily in the wilderness, so don't leave the city without a container of water and don't stay out of the city unless your water container if full.  Trust me, this is life saveing information.  

Tuluk is something of a special case.  If you read the history page you see that the city of Tuluk was mostly destroyed around 60 IC years ago.  While you were walking around you might have seen references to the ruins.  About 20 IC years ago the rebuilding push really got underway.  The city planers first laid out the plan for the streets, then began construction and selling building lots, so the new city would be coherent.  They had to work around the hodgepodge of squatter settlements that had sprung up in the 40 years between, so some of the decisions are a little quixotic.  Rome wasn't built in a day, or even in 20 years, and niether is Tuluk.  It will probably take 100 IC years for the city to be fully filled in because of the primitive building tecniques, and in the mean time we have these long, ponderous streets.  It is worth exploring, there are little gems everywhere.  There are 5 taverns in the Tuluk area, 3 that get used regularily, so you might find the sort of people you are looking for in one of the other taverns.  (Personally, I would have prefered to have the grid tightened up a bit further, but now that the new city is in it's unlikely to change.  I'd also like the city movement delay to be less since things are sooo far apart, but you get used to it.)  The city seems huge and half-empty, but it is supposed to for IC reasons.

AC

[Bestatte]

This is more a note of encouragement than anything else.

If I hadn't lucked into a "situation" within the first 2 hours of playing for the first time, I probably would've posted a note exactly like yours. In fact, I kinda did, to a lesser extent. My initial beef was with the room descriptions themselves. I thought they were gawd-aweful, full of passive voice, typos, grammatical errors, etc. I *still* think many of them can use a bit of sprucing up and have submitted suggestions for fixes to another half dozen or so... And I bug errors as I notice them even now. But they no longer bother me as they first did.

On the application process: I posted a suggestion similar to yours, back when I first started (last August). That there be an OOC-ONLY room, where *characters* are unable to exist, yet *players* could help each other with things such as syntax and commands and moral support. I understand now why this isn't a great idea, because it could promote the idea of too many players hanging out in that room and sharing IC information. However, as others have mentioned, there is an IRC chat room and a Helper system implemented, and I highly recommend you find a Helper who understands the systems and areas you're inclined to try.

On the initial contact with other characters: When someone sitting at the bar beside you telepathed you..that was a perfect opportunity for you to strike up a conversation and get some IC help. On the other hand, I remember how intimidated I was when I first started, and how afraid to interact with anyone until I had a "feel" for the game first. So it's just one of those things where you have to hold your nose and jump in, and hope you don't drown. Trust me, angst is good for ya

On that skeletal diseased chick you kicked: someone suggested something in one of the posts above, on how you could turn that into some awesome RP even now, after it's all done and over with. Take their advice. No, really. Do it. Looking back at my own experience, I'd give my eye-teeth to have had such an opportunity as yours.

On lag: there is usually very little actual lag, but once in awhile the server gets sluggish, or player connections have to be rerouted to the server. For what it's worth, the server is in Connecticut, which uses SBC, which sucks. (I have the same ISP) There's very little chance that can change unless the game goes commercial and charges enough money to get a T-3 and its own router. I'd rather have the occasional day's worth of lag, thanks.

I do agree, however, that the coded delay can be a pain. Especially when you pause to say something to someone while you're walking down the road and can't get your "say" thing entered immediately. There should be some way for admin to code things so that talking overrides movement delays, but I guess it might just be too much of a headache to do, and there are more important things admin can be doing so you just kinda get used to it after a few days.

Tell..is the same as "sayto" in other games.

The Way..and the skills "contact" and "psi" are the telepathy you referred to in your post. They fall under the "psionics" skillset. If the players you interacted with used these skills to send you OOC messages to try and help you out, I *hope* they prefaced their message with the acronym OOC. If not, even though they were just trying to help, they gave you the wrong impression of its function, and should smack themselves for not making that clear. Generally, nothing in the game should be used for OOC communication except for the "wish all" and "OOC" commands.

Wish all is like "report" in other games, which gets a message scrolling onto the screen of every staff member logged into the game. You won't always get a response. But wishes are logged, I've learned, so eventually someone will see it.

Another way to get help, especially if you are hoping to make sure you are "playing correctly" is to turn on your review flag. Some players don't like this flag, some do. I like it because I like feedback on how I'm doing. When you have "review on," it signifies that you welcome character monitoring by staff members and at some point or another an IMM will watch your roleplay and hopefully let you know in a "comment" in your game mail the results of that monitoring. It might just be a simple "Nice job RPing with that brown-headed pig-nosed NPC" - or it could be a few lines telling you that something you did was inappropriate - and why.

Good luck, and don't be discouraged. Someone who is willing to take as much time as you did posting your initial reactions to the game, with clear explanations and suggestions, seems to be someone Armageddon would love to addict!

[Pungee]

There's a review flag?? When was this put in! Why wasnt I informed??? I'm going to have to use this frequently now... Must... prove... worth...to...staff... Nuuuuuhhhhhhhh dammit... Im giving in... Time to turn that on.  :wink:

[Bestatte]

One note about review: If you're going to get into a sexual situation and -not- "fade to black" (meaning, you and the other person/persons are roleplaying it out), do the staff a favor and turn the review flag OFF during that episode! Staff members do not want to watch. Well, maybe they do, secretly, but they've all denied it emphatically on the GDB. Closet perverts, I tell ya!

But seriously, don't subject your friendly neighborhood staff member to anything you aren't comfortable letting them watch, in all its gory detail.
They might monitor anyway - since they don't know what you're doing until they start watching..but at least if your review flag is off you're not sending out a message "LOOK AT THIS!".

I wouldn't recommend toggling the review flag on and off regularly - either have it on and leave it on except for those "private" things, or leave it off and if they have reason to monitor you, they'll do so on their own impetus.

[Pungee]

Aw... I can't demonstrate my godlike talents in bed via mudsex?  :lol:  In all seriousness Bestatte brings up a good point and those who use the review flag might want to take into account the whole "torture" aspect too in case they are involved in one of those scenes. Not everyone likes explicit gore either I'd imagine.

[SwanSwanHummingbird]

There is lots of activity in Armageddon, honest!  The area that you started in is the largest (in terms of land-area) city in the game, and so I suppose it could seem deserted at times even though it has a large PC base.  Keep to the taverns most of the time, and you should find plenty of people.  Most people aren't usually out wandering the streets, they're either in the taverns or going somewhere in particular.  But, to learn the layout of the city, wandering would be a good idea.

Anyway, I think I've met your character in-game, and I have a couple suggestions and comments.  First of all, you seem infinately better than most newbies already because you -emote-.  I think you'd be a perfect fit for Armageddon if you stick it out, and I think you'd enjoy the mud a lot.  Something you may not have known is that you can also place an emote in your 'talk' 'say' or 'tell' commands, too.

talk (lifting a spoonful of stew to his lips) She burned off my hair, I'm telling you!

Everyone would see this:

The sunburned guy says, in english, lifting a spoonful of stew to his lips,
"She burned off my hair, I'm telling you!"

It looks better to me than trying to put spoken words in your emote, just for future reference.

Enjoy the game, it's the best RP mud out there!

[Fedaykin]

Eventually I found a pitiful-looking girl suffering from some kind of severe, horrific skin disease.  She was ragged and skeletal and huddled in a corner and probably starving to death.  The mere sight of her would melt the coldest of hearts.  My character, wanting to succinctly express his disgust at her uglification of a public area, gave her a good solid kick in the jaw.  So the girl stood up, spoke an incantation, and set me on fire.  Despite a particularly bad spurt of what seemed like lag, I was able to flee and extinguish what was left of my once-sandy hair.

By the way, I thought I should point out that if you are in Tuluk, it is well known ammong the populace that Magick in any form is highly illegal. Magickers are regarded with a mix of hate and fear and are customarily executed.  If this girl magicked you like that, particularly in a public area, you might continue to play out the situation you started with that knowledge in mind, heh.

[flurry]

The Way..and the skills "contact" and "psi" are the telepathy you referred to in your post. They fall under the "psionics" skillset. If the players you interacted with used these skills to send you OOC messages to try and help you out, I *hope* they prefaced their message with the acronym OOC. If not, even though they were just trying to help, they gave you the wrong impression of its function, and should smack themselves for not making that clear. Generally, nothing in the game should be used for OOC communication except for the "wish all" and "OOC" commands.

It was me that did that - and the only reason I used the Way to OOC correct him is because he did something that I thought needed to be corrected OOCly, and left the room immediately after doing it.  And I did preface the message with "OOC:"



But to the guy who started this thread - welcome, and stick with it!   It sounds like you didn't have much PC interaction in your first few hours, but you still did have a few experiences that give a lot of potential for future roleplay.

I think mapping Tuluk OOCly is a very good idea - it should seem less big and confusing after you do so.  It did for me.   And there are lots of interesting things to see along the way.

[Cuusardo]

One note about review: If you're going to get into a sexual situation and -not- "fade to black" (meaning, you and the other person/persons are roleplaying it out), do the staff a favor and turn the review flag OFF during that episode! Staff members do not want to watch. Well, maybe they do, secretly, but they've all denied it emphatically on the GDB. Closet perverts, I tell ya!

Granted they could still watch the episode...but you wouldn't be forcing them to.  :wink:

[Tamalak]

Thanks to all who responded!

On that skeletal diseased chick you kicked: someone suggested something in one of the posts above, on how you could turn that into some awesome RP even now, after it's all done and over with. Take their advice. No, really. Do it. Looking back at my own experience, I'd give my eye-teeth to have had such an opportunity as yours.

Thanks for the advice. Too bad I'm dead.  :wink:

Lasted all of 22 real-time hours.  

Basically I acted like an ass to a warrior-type who was fully a head and shoulders taller than me. So he lead me throughout the city, presumably to show me the way to a backpack merchant, and then when I ran out of stamina and requested a breather, he pulled out a sword for each hand and carved me up! I'm very pleased.  

Mostly I acted like a jerk to test if this MUD had an edge to it. Didn't expect to die in the process, though! What a waste of 'absolutely incredible' agility.

What DOES bug me is that I would have survived if I had figured out how to drop my obsidian coins in the 30 seconds or so I had while the guy was making filet out of me.

Why do the SAY/EMOTE/HELP commands have a delay attached to them?  That doesn’t make any sense to me.  If they didn’t have a delay, and they circumvented the command queue, that would solve a lot of things.

- People wouldn’t have to choose between good RP and winning mechanically in a fast-paced encounter like a fight.
- OOC questions would be more possible to pose in such situations (“HOW THE #&%* DO I DROP THE COINS??”)
- RP would be more flexible if emotes/says circumvented the command queue. For example, if I wanted to navigate one of Tuluk’s endless streets, I might type ‘north’ seven times all at once and wait for my character to walk the distance. But if I saw someone familiar on the way, I would be able to, say, wave to him as I walked past.
- ‘oops’ situations would be more easily avoided. ‘oops’ situations are where emotes come out in an improper order.. for example, if the following two things happened in quick sequence: “The mangy dwarf eats the last of his cake”, “The sunburnt young man snatches the last bit of the mangy dwarf’s cake”.  If emotes happened instantly, then oops situations would have a much smaller window of happening because the sunburnt young man would have more opportunity to abort his emote.
- There’s no realistic reason to put time delays on speech and emotes anyway. I can talk faster than I can type, and I can perform most actions I might be emoting faster than I can type them.

Just thoughts!

[Anonymous]

It was me!!! :twisted:

Tamalak, welcome to Armageddon!

[crymerci]

What DOES bug me is that I would have survived if I had figured out how to drop my obsidian coins in the 30 seconds or so I had while the guy was making filet out of me.

I don't understand how this would have helped you.  I doubt that the weight was enough to make a difference in unarmed combat, and if that's all you were carrying, it wouldn't have prevented you from drawing a weapon if you wanted to.

In the future, when dealing with coins, you have to specify a number: i.e. 'put 200 coins backpack' 'drop 100 coins' or 'give 100000 coins crymerci'.  :wink:

Why do the SAY/EMOTE/HELP commands have a delay attached to them?  That doesn't make any sense to me.  If they didn't have a delay, and they circumvented the command queue, that would solve a lot of things.

Those commands do not have a delay to them.  However, other things do have delay and lag associated with them that may interfere. For example, combat has a lot of lag associated with it.  Other commands, including movement have a delay associated after them, and in the case of movement, this delay can accumulate.

- RP would be more flexible if emotes/says circumvented the command queue. For example, if I wanted to navigate one of Tuluk's endless streets, I might type 'north' seven times all at once and wait for my character to walk the distance. But if I saw someone familiar on the way, I would be able to, say, wave to him as I walked past.

I agree and that's a good point.

[Dracul]

crymerci, he prolly meant that if he could have dropped the coins the guy would have let him live and taken them (or not. you never know. in the rinth...heheheh)

[Tamalak]

Way to go, tough guy. I hope that you feel good about using ooc stuff like inability to flee and complete lack of knowledge about commands to kill a character that your character probably could have whupped one-handed anyway.

1. The inability to flee was not OOC. It would work in real life too. Lead your prey around the city until he's really tired (make sure you're in better shape than he is first!), and then when he's panting and in no condition to run, chop him.

2. I didn't really enunciate the fact that I was having trouble dropping my coins very well. I was too busy dividing my time between desperately going through the help files, trying different drop commands, and squealing out my IC pleas for mercy.

3. The fact that he could probably whoop me anyhow is no reason not to be careful and thorough, and improve his chances further if he can. Real life thugs don't play fair, and I don't expect Tulukian ones to.

4. The trap was completely avoidable. I could have stopped following him at any moment and run away, preferably before we left the populated area of the city, or at least requested a breather BEFORE I completely ran out of stamina. He even took out his sabers early, which make me QUITE nervous, but I still followed him, even though I wouldn't now!

5. My character was asking for it. He was rude, gullible, weakly armed, and flaunted obsidian coins.