New player on combat and survival

[crawly]

I just died with my first character after a total of 10 hours gametime. The reason I died was that I finally dared to venture outside the town and swiftly got cut down by a crazy halfling. Since im totally new I didn't even have time to draw my weapons before it was to late.

Thinking of the secondary profession "forester" and "hunter" is it realistic to assume that a new player could dare to go out there at all or was I just having some really bad luck?

Also, is there any way to avoid these pesky halflings, like scanning ahead?

[flurry]

You can look north, look south, etc.

Which is a very good idea outdoors.

If you don't know about flee, that could help next time you're in a similar situation.

[mansa]

You can look around, by typing:

>look north
>look south
>look up


Or, you can shorten it

>l e
>l w

That how you can look around.
And it's always good practice, once you step outside the city gates, to take hold of your weapons.

[Rindan]

The outside world is brutually harsh.  One tip would be to always have at least one weapon drawn when outside of the city.  It only takes one hand to ride a kank, that other hand should always have a weapon in it outside of the city.

For long term survivability, I would stay the hell away from forest.  Hell, I would stay away from that road in general.  It is no IC secret that it is full of nasty creatures.  If you try and log consistantly and stay to the edge of the forest you have a chance, but truth be told you are rolling the dice each time you try.  Last time I checked the plains to the east of Tuluk are a little bit safer if you want to be a hunter.

In general, the thing that can help your survivabilty outside the most is knowing what places are full of bad things and avoiding this places.  If you have to go through a place full of bad things, then go in a group.  On your own you are easy pickings, but with a few other armed men you stand a much better chance.

[gfair]

Going outside town is a huge issue for unskilled characters.

The best thing to do is get your feet wet - go a few leagues, two or three, tops.

Flee when anything enters the room, and get back to town.  Until you have some significant combat training, there are beasts in the wild that will handle you nicely.  Being eaten alive is not fun.

Look at the land, there can be very subtle, or broad changes in a short distance as one geography blends into another.  So, too, can there be very different territories for hunting and protecting for beasts.

Always be armed when you set foot outside the gate.  There are many threats in the wilderness, many are beyond even seasoned fighters, and some will hunt together, or work together, for fresh meat.  Humans can be very tasty, and your scent travels on the wind.

[Ueda]

I personaly don't think Rindan hit how dangerous it is outside the city. I think its like trying to roll a 4 or higher every time on a dice, and how many time do you get above a 3 when you roll a dice? I don't know maybe its alot less harsh up in tuluk.

fear the Highlords power for Tek could kill you with his thought.

[Delirium]

I don't know maybe its alot less harsh up in tuluk

You know what...

I give up. I just give up. This is me, tossing in the towel and letting people say whatever the heck they're going to say about Tuluk, and when they die because they underestimated the dangers, resisting the severe urge to say 'I told you so!'.

[CindyLou]

I'll say it for you Delirium. In fact, I'll say it twice. Once for you, once for me. No, wait - three times! The third for every newbie corpse I've come across in the past two weeks.

Tuluk not as harsh...

<snickers>

Have fun kids. Just keep your newbie sids on you so I have something to loot, k thx bye

[slipshod]

crawly sed

Since im totally new I didn't even have time to draw my weapons before it was to late.  

Here's a tip for you, crawly.  Even if you aren't running the game on a client, the mud has a built in alias feature.  'Help Alias' will show you more, but here is all you'd really need to do to get your blades out in a hurry:

alias ds draw sword

now it's set.  when you type 'ds' and hit return, your sword will be out and you'll be eating halfling stew for dinner
:wink:
maybe

[crawly]

Wow, thanks for all the quick answers.

Good to know about the look n, e, s, w. I tried "peer" and "scan".

I actually had a bow ready but wasnt prepared for the crazy charge of the halfling. I guess my quick death is partly due to me freezing up behind the keyboard when the text started to scroll on the screen. Looking back at the log I could only chuckle about how the halfling slashed me in the head, neatly dodged me while i tried to stab(!) him with an arrow I was holding (clever) and then simply slapped the arrow out of my hand. After that it went downhill real quick.

Why I asked about the forester and hunting proffessions was simply because reading the decriptions it says you can make a living by gathering wood from the forest. I guess Ill go look for wood elsewhere or stay real close to the walls next time.

[Callisto]

The third for every newbie corpse I've come across in the past two weeks.

How do you know a newbie characters corpse from a non-newbie characters corpse?

[CindyLou]

Even when they're dead, they have this bewildered look in their eyes. You can almost hear them utter the phrase when they take their last breath:

"D'oh!"

[sacac]

A client I think is the best for us newbies is the client you download from http://www.thresholdrpg.com/downloads.html
D/l and give it a look about.
It has enough You can alias everything with it.
use macros. bunch of stuff.. makes this game tons of more fun.

[FiveDisgruntledMonkeysWit]

CindyLou wrote:

Tuluk not as harsh...

<snickers>

It isn't. It just plain isn't. It's not supposed to be.

Trust me, I know. I've played hunter characters in both the North and South. My average hunter character lasts 2 hours max down south, while my average hunter up north lasts about a day. Pretty pathetic, I know, heh. Just never been a good hunter, I suppose...

The scrub surrounding Tuluk is not as harsh. It just isn't. You can make a nice living foraging roots or picking pretty flowers or killing gurth. That said, it has plently of big and nasties as well, and halflings are just the tip of the iceberg. Yes, people do underestimate Tuluk and get their asses handed to them. But where heading outside alone in the Northlands is a roll of the dice, heading outside in the Southlands is basically suicide. Tuluk is -NOT- the land of milk, honey, and bunny-hugging as some make it out to be. The Northlands are harsh! They're brutal! They're hard and deadly and littered with the corpses of foolish or careless hunters! But a corpse in the sands is a rare sight down South, because most know better, and those that don't are quickly gobbled up by a sand raptor.

Just my opinion, but what can I say? It's what I've experienced.

[Anonymous]

But a corpse in the sands is a rare sight down South

I'd have to agree.  When I first started playing there were people playing solo hunters as a viable path for a new pc.  It doesn't seem like that's something that happens anymore.

It was brought up during the player-staff meeting, but I couldn't tell if the staff particularly agreed or not.  But I guess it wasn't a debate so much as a forum for speaking your mind and passing the torch.

I've expressed my frustration over the suicidal state of affairs outside the gates of Allanak plenty.  I feel like I'm not in the minority either...

But seriously, there is just no comparing the scrub/grasslands outside of Tuluk to the desert around Allanak or Red Storm.  I'm not saying life outside of Tuluk is a cakewalk, but you can at least survive.

[drunkendwarf]

Join a clan. Don't be independent until you know what you're doing.
I'll have to (reluctantly) agree the Northlands seem to be a bit easier than the south as far as hunting...tho, that seems to be slowly changing. Still plenty of bad nasties up North, as you experienced.

Definately -always- have a blade out when out of the gates...just emote laying it in your lap etc when you rest, but code wise...keep that sucker equipped AT ALL TIMES.

NEVER go afk out of the gates, unless absolutely necessary. Did that earlier today myself for a total of a minute or so...came back to find four arrows had been plunked into me by another PC. Yeah, you know who you are  :?. Good times. Course, this isn't really a mud you want to go afk a lot anywhere.

When you leave, make sure you have plenty of food and water...or ways to get them.

Carry a spare weapon...you never know....

ALWAYS look in EVERY direction before moving.

I would agree with whoever said start small. Only go a few rooms from the gates at first, and bolt at the first sign of trouble. When you feel more confident, slowly branch your territory out. As a brand new character...a fookin' tregil could probably kill you. Keep that in mind.

Learn to ride. You'll need to, if you're not an elf.

Become Muk Utep's bitch....couldn't hurt, right?
Well...maybe it could.

[Rindan]

The fact that it is hard outside was brought up during the player staff meeting.  I brought it up in fact and offered that the dangers should be more about the desert and not the uber NPCs.  My impression was that they agreed, but that there were two problems with this.  

First, making the desert itself was simply hard.  Spawning a bunch of uber-gith was easy while making the desert come alive was simply hard.  To that point I would completely agree.  I just started making an NPC that would take minimal extra code to implement (no fancy scripts), pose little danger through combat, but make the desert harsher.  The idea was to make something I could submit that would be mostly just cut and paste to put in.  It has been a lesson in tediousness.  I can fully appreciate what we have now realizing how much effort it takes to make new things.

The second point was that uber NPCs are hard to avoid through OOC information.  I could probably get from one side of the world to the other through my own OOC knowledge of what NPCs are where.  However, it would be a gamble and in some areas I would still be rolling the dice.  If OOC knowledge can be used to easily overcome something, people will die once or twice then stop doing it.  Case in point, new thirst rates are only going to kill someone so many times before people realize that you really need water before entering the desert.  The world is harder because of it, but a little OOC knowledge can go a long ways to make it easier.  It doesn't matter what you know with gith though, if a group jump you, you better be ready to fight because unless you are a magiker that is the only way out.

That said, I believe that they said that making the desert harsher through things like higher thirst rates is something they were committed to doing and to expect more such changes like the thirst rate change in the future.