My thoughts so far

[WithSprinkles]

Great game!

I've enjoyed playing to the point of exclusivity so far. Played lot of text based games over the years and decided to give this one a go. I have no less than five text documents opened with notes based around the game regarding "who" and "what" and "wtf" along with keeping the website open at all times so I can search it when someone references a term I don't recognize.

That may be one thing I wish were a bit different. Coming into this completely new I have no background at all for the slang, though I found something on the forums once that was woefully incomplete because it got derailed. Yes, yes, I know what kanking is and grebbing is like foraging, I guess, but more useful terms would be appreciated. On another note, being told to read the documentation is well and good, but when one IS reading it.. yeah. It could be someone's eyes are swirling in their head or they got tired of studying and wanted to play or didn't know what they needed to read exactly. There is a lot to retain.

Aaand then there are the things a person encounters out there.

A wild noble appears!

Various people nod/bow

You think, "Aw crap. Must get.. the feck.. out of here.. Shit they're looking at me."

Options:
Bow
Nod
Plank <--

(a wild noble noses you as you imitate a piece of lifeless wood and goes off to devour more interesting prey)

Seriously, I don't know who is who yet! Let alone the proper degree to align my head based on the position of the stars that shine their light on the noble's blessed brow at that particular hour. Have mercy!

[spicemustflow]

Seriously, I don't know who is who yet! Let alone the proper degree to align my head based on the position of the stars that shine their light on the noble's blessed brow at that particular hour. Have mercy!

lol

relax, play a nobody, commoners shouldn't really differentiate anyways. if everyone bows, so do you. It comes naturally and over time you'll even learn how to troll the upper classes with no (well, close to no) consequences.

[Barzalene]

Welcome! Most Templar/nobles will try to hint and give you a chance to get it right.

[Marauder Moe]

Dear lord, more newbies...

Welcome!   


We probably should document Zalanthan slang better.  It's one of the most fascinating parts of the world.  A few people have tried to organize such a dictionary on the GDB, though those discussions often get mired down with slang people wish was used in the game rather than slang that actually is used.

Also, though all players, new and old, should strive towards interacting, it's OK if you find yourself in an unfamiliar scene and don't know what to do besides observe.  That's one way of learning how things work. 

Lastly, players of nobles and templars will usually be forgiving if an obviously new player messes up on protocol.

[rpgguy2000]

A wild noble appears!

Various people nod/bow

You think, "Aw crap. Must get.. the feck.. out of here.. Shit they're looking at me."

Options:
Bow
Nod
Plank <--

(a wild noble noses you as you imitate a piece of lifeless wood and goes off to devour more interesting prey)

Seriously, I don't know who is who yet! Let alone the proper degree to align my head based on the position of the stars that shine their light on the noble's blessed brow at that particular hour. Have mercy!

I know what you mean man I just recently started too and this was difficult too. The only reason it's been somewhat easier for me is because I have a Pen & Paper background where I've played a lot of DS (And read a few of the novels) So it's easier for me to figure out what kind of 'class" of person I'm dealing with and what level of respect they expect from strangers because of some of the parallels between the two universes.

Maybe they could add a new section to each City section of "What You Know"
I.E In Allanak:

How the average commoner acts towards fellow citizens:
- This is how they address, act around, move around, and speak to a Noble
- This is how they address, act around, move around, and speak to a member of the Arm

IMPORTANT EDIT:

I just wanted to add that after checking out the "What You Know" Allanak section for the umpteenth time the "Society" section actually does a decent job of this already. Sure it doesn't tell you whether you should call someone Sir or Lord, or whether you should nod, bow or just get the hell out of the way, but it still describes the different classes well.


Also most if not all clans / organizations have emblems that they generally wear in plain-sight on a piece of clothing. Short of that the way someone is dressed can also help in determining what kind of person they are.

That may be one thing I wish were a bit different. Coming into this completely new I have no background at all for the slang, though I found something on the forums once that was woefully incomplete because it got derailed. Yes, yes, I know what kanking is and grebbing is like foraging, I guess, but more useful terms would be appreciated. On another note, being told to read the documentation is well and good, but when one IS reading it.. yeah. It could be someone's eyes are swirling in their head or they got tired of studying and wanted to play or didn't know what they needed to read exactly. There is a lot to retain.

I had a similar problem, first of all try Help Curses

I've been doing two things. 1) I listen closely to the slang other people use and 2) I come up with my own theme appropriate slang.

I have a HUGE list of slang I made up but I don't want to share it because first of all I want to use them and second of all if I post some unique slang here and start using it, it could identify me and people will know "Oh this character is RpgGuy2000!" which is very very bad.

Here's a few though that anyone would make up just playing the game (and the ones in my signature)

squinters = eyes
thumper = a thug who generally uses clubs
salter = a salt grebber
silter = a spice grebber or a silt skimmer rider
wagon-feeder = raiders / ambushers who attack caravans and wagons (The likelyhood of me getting in a situation where I can use this one is so low that I just said screw it, it's off the list)

But yeah try and come up with your own and listen closely to how other characters talk.

[Adhira]

Derail:   If enterprising players want to start a thread for slang, and not derail it, and then make a concise list.  Someone (me) might consider making it into a helpfile.

On track:  Welcome to the game! Don't forget your helpers.  Having the chat screen up can help.  They can offer information on things like slang etc and save you a lot of screen scrolling

[hyzhenhok]

I remember my very first character, I ran into some scary PCs in a tavern in the 'rinth and they asked me for protection. Three small. After staring silently at them for about a minute, I tossed over 3 coins.

Oops.

Derail:   If enterprising players want to start a thread for slang, and not derail it, and then make a concise list.  Someone (me) might consider making it into a helpfile.

For those who are interested: http://www.zalanthas.org/gdb/index.php/topic,45624.0.html

[LauraMars]

I remember my very first character, I ran into some scary PCs in a tavern in the 'rinth and they asked me for protection. Three small. After staring silently at them for about a minute, I tossed over 3 coins.

This made me laugh.

[Morrolan]

I remember when I was new, it was all terribly frustrating. And I was mocked for something I did IG on the GDB, which caused me to rant at length. And then I was mocked for my ranting on the board.

However, there was someone helpful in game who saved me from a raptor and directed me into the Byn.

Now I try to do the same.

[lordcooper]

Derail:   If enterprising players want to start a thread for slang, and not derail it, and then make a concise list.  Someone (me) might consider making it into a helpfile.

Just a suggestion, but might it be beneficial to also make (very short) individual helpfiles for some of the more common slang terms?

help shitcloak - A member of the T'zai Byn mercenary group.
help kank - An expletive, pretty much interchangeable with 'fuck'.
help gicker - One who can use magick.

etc etc

[Wastrel]

Derail:   If enterprising players want to start a thread for slang, and not derail it, and then make a concise list.  Someone (me) might consider making it into a helpfile.

Just a suggestion, but might it be beneficial to also make (very short) individual helpfiles for some of the more common slang terms?

help shitcloak - A member of the T'zai Byn mercenary group.
help kank - An expletive, pretty much interchangeable with 'fuck'.
help gicker - One who can use magick.

etc etc

Just redirect people who use slang terms to the appropriate helpfile. help shitcloak leads to the t'zai byn file, help kank (i actually think there is a helpfile on kanks), help gicker leads you to the magic file. Or using help <slang> would redirect to the slang file, if there was one.

[Barsook]

Derail:   If enterprising players want to start a thread for slang, and not derail it, and then make a concise list.  Someone (me) might consider making it into a helpfile.

Just a suggestion, but might it be beneficial to also make (very short) individual helpfiles for some of the more common slang terms?

help shitcloak - A member of the T'zai Byn mercenary group.
help kank - An expletive, pretty much interchangeable with 'fuck'.
help gicker - One who can use magick.

etc etc

Just redirect people who use slang terms to the appropriate helpfile. help shitcloak leads to the t'zai byn file, help kank (i actually think there is a helpfile on kanks), help gicker leads you to the magic file. Or using help <slang> would redirect to the slang file, if there was one.

+1

[lordcooper]

Derail:   If enterprising players want to start a thread for slang, and not derail it, and then make a concise list.  Someone (me) might consider making it into a helpfile.

Just a suggestion, but might it be beneficial to also make (very short) individual helpfiles for some of the more common slang terms?

help shitcloak - A member of the T'zai Byn mercenary group.
help kank - An expletive, pretty much interchangeable with 'fuck'.
help gicker - One who can use magick.

etc etc

Just redirect people who use slang terms to the appropriate helpfile. help shitcloak leads to the t'zai byn file, help kank (i actually think there is a helpfile on kanks), help gicker leads you to the magic file. Or using help <slang> would redirect to the slang file, if there was one.

That makes sense.

[Adhira]

That may happen eventually, but for now I'd rather create one helpfile than creating a multitude of small ones.

[Zoan]

HELP SLANG [INDEX]

[Lizzie]

HELP SLANG [INDEX]

They'd have to know that the word is slang. A new player might think a particular word is an actual normal formal game-specific word, even though veterans know it's just slang.

Like - sids. They'd have to know that the word "sids" is a slang term, and not the actual official name of the coin. If they don't know it's slang, they won't know to look for it in the slang index.
(EDITED TO MENTION: I just typed "help sid" in the game and it directed me to the help file for obsidian. The help file for obsidian mentions that the coins made from obsidian are commonly referred to as sid. So a redirect to the slang index wouldn't work, unless you eliminate all the existing redirects to non-slang helpfiles. But - it's still what I'd like to see, if wishes were fishes and all that.)

(EDITED AGAIN - SHEESH - the word "grebber" is the official name of an extended subguild. So does that mean it's no longer slang, and now a more - unslang, game-specific noun? With "to greb" being the verb in all its conjugations...)
What I'd like - is a cross-reference. It's what I've pushed for on all help files. Redundancy is useful, not wasteful, when you're dealing with new players who might be familiar with some terms, but not with others. Like "socials" vs. "verblist" vs. "emote" vs. "act" vs. "pose" - the function of all these things are similar, but only some of those terms are used here in Armageddon. So - have one help file - but when someone tries to type "help pose" it redirects them to "help emote." And at the top of the emote help file, is the list of all the things that redirect to it. So it'd be like:

EMOTE:
Redir: act, pose, social(s), verb(s)(list)
...
and then the actual help file info.

The same for slang, except the slang would be an index file with short definitions - and every word that gets defined, would respond when you typed help (the slang word in question), and redirect to the slang index. Maybe even redirect to the actual line in the slang index that identifies and defines that particular word.

[Adhira]

To be more clear.  Yes, there are better ways to do it.  I, right now, do not have the time or energy to pursue those. So I'm offering a stop gap till I either have the time, or someone else helps with it.