Death waits for me outside

[BeyondCreation]

I've been trying to get to know Arm here and there over time but ive gotten back into it recently and never lasted a week with one character because I chose to explore. Should I just not leave the city? But how do I get trained in combat if everything can kill me no problem?

[BadSkeelz]

Join clans. The T'Zai Byn Mercenary company is a good start for first timers, but the Greater Merchant Houses also hire hunters and guards. You'll get a safe introduction to the combat code, some survival tips, and allies to watch your back while you're out on the sands.

Welcome to Armageddon!

[Riev]

It depends on where you start, and which gate you leave by. Joining a clan is always an option because it helps people find an in-game mentor to show them the ropes, tell them what they should and shouldn't do, and explains the finer points of flossing a mekillots teeth.

Exploration is supreme in Arm, but you're right, a lot of baddies can kill you. Find someone, clanned or not, that seems to know about hunting, and ask them. Pay them for their knowledge, buy them a drink or a whore at the local Kuraci Pleasure Center. Let them know you value their opinion, then absorb the knowledge. It will NOT be a quick 2-3 week process and suddenly you're trained enough to explore, but it'll give you a solid base.

[FantasyWriter]

I assume you are not wanting to join a clan and train with others in an "indoor" setting?
That is perfectly fine, but it can be a bit difficulty until you get a good lay of the land.

One suggestion. Try to find another independent hunter/explorer to train under.
You can find these in either of the two cities, or the two smaller starting locals (Red Storm/Luir's).
You will likely have better luck with the cities in this case. Hang around a bar, ask around.
I'm sure someone will be willing to take you on after a patient wait.



If you want to play it out on your own....
Allanak or Tuluk for your base of operations.
-Red Storm has giant bugs that can show you the mantis head in two or three bites.
-Luir's has gith raiders and tracking raptors.
There are also many other factors that lead to new players being steered toward the cities.

Take your time. Going more than ten rooms from either city will must likely end your character until you get a good idea of the wild life.
Check the helpfiles on all the beasts and plants that you encounter.
Stay close to the roads. This won't keep you alive, but it will help you keep from getting lost or stuck outside the gates for a lengthy period.
Greb (what we call the act of foraging for a living).
Within just a few rooms of either city or village, you can make a decent living doing this.

Protips for your first 3-5 days of indie play:
Buy a mount when you start the game, or soon after with your grebbing money.
Never go farther from the city than your PC can RUN back (this uses more stamina than walking).
Never let your stamina get lower than 50%. That number should go up the farther you are from "home."
Never get below 2/3 of your health without fleeing.
As mentioned in a recent thread, you don't have to "kill" for XP here, you learn from failure.
-You miss an attack, and you just had a change to raise one of your offense skills.
-You get hit, you just had a change to raise one of your defense skills.
Armageddon is structured in a way that you do not benefit from "spamming" skills (RP comes first).
-Fighting for IC hours on end does not help you become better at combat.
-Using the same skills over and over again without taking the time to RP them out does not help you advance them faster.

[icewindsong]

And if you go outside the cities, and something is posed to the room that you don't immediately understand, do what I do..  think something like 'what the fek?' and run.    I have no problem imagining some great sandworm ala Dune coming up to swallow me whole.. so I don't wait to see what it was.  I figure I can't let "once bitten, twice shy" be my method of exploration - the first bite might take my head off.

[FantasyWriter]

And if you go outside the cities, and something is posed to the room that you don't immediately understand, do what I do..  think something like 'what the fek?' and run.    I have no problem imagining some great sandworm ala Dune coming up to swallow me whole.. so I don't wait to see what it was.  I figure I can't let "once bitten, twice shy" be my method of exploration - the first bite might take my head off.

We have those, too.

Salt Worm
(Animal Life)
These great behemoths are known to reside in the unlikely locale of the Salt Flats, causing rumbling tremors underfoot as their great mass burrows in and out of the unforgiving ground. What they survive upon is unknown, though a few theorize they may live off of the constituents of the soil itself, such as it is. They are presumed to be the primary natural food of the truly gargantuan mekillots which roam similar areas.

[Reiloth]

And if you go outside the cities, and something is posed to the room that you don't immediately understand, do what I do..  think something like 'what the fek?' and run.    I have no problem imagining some great sandworm ala Dune coming up to swallow me whole.. so I don't wait to see what it was.  I figure I can't let "once bitten, twice shy" be my method of exploration - the first bite might take my head off.

I think almost everyone who started playing Armageddon had this mentality. In a few years, you will seek out the salt worm. I mean to say -- A disconnect begins to form between you the player, and you the PC, especially after you lose some characters you truly loved. I think you can enjoy the game on a deeper level when you become the omniscient narrator to your PC's tale, in a world full of omniscient narrators.

In this way, you can do what is realistic for your PC, rather than what meta-makes sense to you as a player. Sure -- We as players may know that the Salt Sea is somewhat dangerous and has Mekillots and other nasties roaming its depths. But does our PC know that? Maybe they're Amos the Escaped Mul, and they think those tales are myths, and they need to travel through the salt flats to evade their potential capture. Perhaps it is Malik the Foolhardy Explorer, and while he knows the risks, he just can't resist seeing the other side of the Sea for himself.

Putting yourself in your character's shoes when it comes to potentially stupid mistakes is part of what makes this game great -- Making those mistakes on purpose because it is what your PC would do is what makes this game par excellence.

[Gimfalisette]

Putting yourself in your character's shoes when it comes to potentially stupid mistakes is part of what makes this game great -- Making those mistakes on purpose because it is what your PC would do is what makes this game par excellence.

I agree, but I also think that being very, very afraid of stuff is also totally IC for many PCs. I think most of my PCs have struggled with a lot of fear about Zalanthan phenomena, both outside the walls and within.

[Harmless]

if you are hoping to be successful in combat, knowing what kinds of characters do that helps. The most common choice is a warrior near their prime age; humans are strongest in their mid twenties. Humans and dwarves are stronger and tougher than other races. Having some direction sense helps tremendously when in sandstorms. There are lots of ways to be successful though and training is the difference between life and death for all players.

I hope you find a mentor in game to help you learn these basics ICly but really, everything I say here is described in the documentation. Good luck and welcome.

[Cale_Knight]

From an in-character, Average Amos standpoint, people who wander out into the desert on their lonesome are insane people who will CERTAINLY die horrifying, gruesome deaths that end in the belly of a predator.

From a coded standpoint, it's totally doable if you have a certain intimate knowledge of the combat code, the game layout, etc etc. But that comes with time and experience. So yeah, I think "death waits for me outside" is the perfect attitude for 99% of all city-dwellers, and there's no reason your guy shouldn't feel that way.

Good advice already posted about joining a clan for experience.

[Reiloth]

Putting yourself in your character's shoes when it comes to potentially stupid mistakes is part of what makes this game great -- Making those mistakes on purpose because it is what your PC would do is what makes this game par excellence.

I agree, but I also think that being very, very afraid of stuff is also totally IC for many PCs. I think most of my PCs have struggled with a lot of fear about Zalanthan phenomena, both outside the walls and within.

Totally! I just noticed that icewindsong's tone/choice of words implied that perhaps they as the player were making decisions based on their OOC inclinations. It's much more fun to have your PC be a coward IG also, rather than spam-flee at the first sign of trouble without the RP behind it.

[LauraMars]

Can't top any of this advice, but I wanted to say that the line "Death waits for me outside" just evokes the newbie experience for me so hard.

[Gimfalisette]

Can't top any of this advice, but I wanted to say that the line "Death waits for me outside" just evokes the newbie experience for me so hard.

+1!

I also spent the first...at least 6 months playing believing quite fervently that my PCs could die at any moment. Well, actually, I still believe that. Which is probably why I love this game.

[FantasyWriter]

Well, actually, I still believe that. Which is probably why I love this game.

To back up what Gimf said... You are never safe in this game. It doesn't matter if you are out in the wilderness or a nobled locked up in his room with ten PC guards around you.
One of the ways that this game is balances is that even if you are the most powerful/maxxed sorcerer, warrior, ranger, assassin, elementalist, there is ALWAYS at least one or two ways to get you.

[maxid]

I've been playing this game for like a decade.  I still regularly die to stuff right outside the gates when I don't pay attention, so that's a really really good creedo for playing this game, especially as a newbie.

I may also be really bad at surviving in this game.

[BeyondCreation]

In some characters my death was because of PC stupidity due to eagerness and overconfidence. I understand the RP of the game in it's entirety because that's the reason I started getting interested in Arm over other RP muds which are actually really crappy in roleplay, every one of them. I love Afm already, I knew about the misses even raise my combat skills but it was just like "How do I even begin training combat when I'll die at the end of battle anyway. I didn't know you could flee, I just tried to leave in a direction and it told me I couldn't while I was fighting.

[icewindsong]

Totally! I just noticed that icewindsong's tone/choice of words implied that perhaps they as the player were making decisions based on their OOC inclinations. It's much more fun to have your PC be a coward IG also, rather than spam-flee at the first sign of trouble without the RP behind it.

Nah..  my character knows its dumb to poke her nose out the gate, but she's too curious to resist doing it now and then anyway.   She feels like she's being brave, and smart to stay within sight of the city walls, and then when she hears so much as a cricket chirp and she rabbits for the gate, she feels very wise and prudent.  Its good to have a double standard, and be self-delusional about one's cowardice.

I'm not so sure about death inside the walls though.  The couple of times I had the intuition I was about to be attacked by another player, I just ran and did thinks after I got to somewhere else.  I think it would be better to do thinks and hemotes and more, but it would take several minutes in RL to type out all the rp that would go into 5 seconds of IC time, and I could easily be dead by then if the other person invokes coded combat, as I had the feeling they were about to do.  I'm not sure what the answer is there, though I'm sure it'll be better when I'm practiced enough to emote things more quickly.

[valeria]

I've been playing how many years and I still feel the way that this thread is titled.  On the last character where I was like, this character can probably make it outside... BAM.  Instaganked by something terrible.

Well, actually, I still believe that. Which is probably why I love this game.

To back up what Gimf said... You are never safe in this game. It doesn't matter if you are out in the wilderness or a nobled locked up in his room with ten PC guards around you.
One of the ways that this game is balances is that even if you are the most powerful/maxxed sorcerer, warrior, ranger, assassin, elementalist, there is ALWAYS at least one or two ways to get you.

Pretty much this though.  My characters may feel safer inside the walls, but  
[/quote]

[Fujikoma]

Lesson? Don't be a turd. Also, don't play around turds. Don't play around places where they give turds guns and explosives. In other words, play in the rinth or Storm, the wilderness, or some place nobody goes, ever, and invite your friends. Of course, this usually doesn't work, but it's safer than waiting around for some turd to walk into a highly trafficked area and decide it's about time they abused their guns and explosives privileges and targets you. The scrab is the least of your worries, despite the fact it pinched your head off in three hits. Go hug a scrab today.

[MeTekillot]

I don't know what Fujikoma is talking about. Please don't listen to Fujikoma. We don't have low-quality players running around abusing newbies because we decided that giving them a bunch of privileges and power was a good idea.

[JBlack]

Lesson? Don't be a turd. Also, don't play around turds. Don't play around places where they give turds guns and explosives. In other words, play in the rinth or Storm, the wilderness, or some place nobody goes, ever, and invite your friends. Of course, this usually doesn't work, but it's safer than waiting around for some turd to walk into a highly trafficked area and decide it's about time they abused their guns and explosives privileges and targets you. The scrab is the least of your worries, despite the fact it pinched your head off in three hits. Go hug a scrab today.

what? better not be a turd. I sell turds for 2 sid each.

Outside is ridiculously dangerous, but it does not seem as bad with an awesome group or leader to show the ropes. Then the game and rp just sucks you in...

[Voular]

Didn't read all the responses. But in general I can tell you that the less you focus on just killing stuff or just exploring and more on actually inhabiting a character's life the more fun you will have. Roleplay being bored by shovelling dung, maybe that'll drive you to find mercenary work, and that'll drive you into companionship with some bad ass rider and maybe they can show you how to do x and y and then maybe you can find someone you can teach later on and then maybe die to z. So on.

Arm is filled with options to live out various fantasy lives - you just have to find the joy in not being a bad ass know it all out the gate. After a few character's you'll get the hang of it and you'll progressively start to live longer and longer.

Have fun!

[Barzalene]

Didn't read all the responses. But in general I can tell you that the less you focus on just killing stuff or just exploring and more on actually inhabiting a character's life the more fun you will have. Roleplay being bored by shovelling dung, maybe that'll drive you to find mercenary work, and that'll drive you into companionship with some bad ass rider and maybe they can show you how to do x and y and then maybe you can find someone you can teach later on and then maybe die to z. So on.

Arm is filled with options to live out various fantasy lives - you just have to find the joy in not being a bad ass know it all out the gate. After a few character's you'll get the hang of it and you'll progressively start to live longer and longer.

Have fun!

Voular is right.

[Reiloth]

Totally! I just noticed that icewindsong's tone/choice of words implied that perhaps they as the player were making decisions based on their OOC inclinations. It's much more fun to have your PC be a coward IG also, rather than spam-flee at the first sign of trouble without the RP behind it.

Nah..  my character knows its dumb to poke her nose out the gate, but she's too curious to resist doing it now and then anyway.   She feels like she's being brave, and smart to stay within sight of the city walls, and then when she hears so much as a cricket chirp and she rabbits for the gate, she feels very wise and prudent.  Its good to have a double standard, and be self-delusional about one's cowardice.

I'm not so sure about death inside the walls though.  The couple of times I had the intuition I was about to be attacked by another player, I just ran and did thinks after I got to somewhere else.  I think it would be better to do thinks and hemotes and more, but it would take several minutes in RL to type out all the rp that would go into 5 seconds of IC time, and I could easily be dead by then if the other person invokes coded combat, as I had the feeling they were about to do.  I'm not sure what the answer is there, though I'm sure it'll be better when I'm practiced enough to emote things more quickly.

Hmm. I am trying to think of how to word this properly, because it seems that my point isn't truly getting across.

There should be a separation between what you the Player would want for your character, and what your character knows/wants/desires/has goals for themselves.

In a situation like you described above:

The couple of times I had the intuition I was about to be attacked by another player, I just ran and did thinks after I got to somewhere else.

To me, this sounds like you the player are meta-pushing your PC to run elsewhere (which is a natural instinct for most people who play the game). I've found that, over time, reacting to situations like that as my PC (rather than myself) has lead to interesting, different, often times more realistic outcomes. Some of those outcomes lead to the death of my PC, while other ones lead to absurdly different outcomes. I'll recommend a log I submitted a little while ago as an example.

http://armageddon.org/original/search/reiloth

It's the first one, Mister Gerakis and Mister Mosali. Mosali, the PC I was playing at the time, was a pretty badass assassin, who had trained with some of the best of the best Warriors of that era, and responsible for a few assassinations of little note. Anyways -- She was having this private meeting with a gigantic, presumed raider Half Giant, where she totally could have been killed and she didn't really think about it that way -- She didn't think the giant had the balls, or was even stupid enough to try anything.

I as the Player full on knew that Giants can subdue you, and then engage in combat, which used to lead to almost infant fatalities. I think this may have been changed since this time, but it was definitely the case for a while. So OOCly, I knew I was potentially walking into a death trap. But ICly, my PC was too stubborn, prideful, and also naive and stupid to think she was in any danger.

[Harmless]

From my perspective, don't worry too much about the quality of your RP in dangerous situations when you're still really new. Roleplaying is a skill that everyone can fine tune over years. Separating ooc from ic motivations is a challenge at times for everyone but becomes less of an issue as you play more and more. The high tension scenes are the most difficult to stay in character... As recently as a year ago my PC was injured badly in a mini RPT but I was so caught up in the combat I forgot to roleplay my wounds appropriately until a staff member sent me a message reminding me to do it.

It's a game as well as an experience and you'll get better at all aspects of it with time.