AR through the eyes of an oldy
Jerold
Posts: 15
11/20/2024, 4:49:30 PM
Hello, I recently began playing AR again after a multi-decade break. I thought I would relay the experiences of someone who used to be good at this game but is now the newbiest of newbies.
1) The world has changed so much, this may as well be a MUD I have never played. Whatever memories I have in each and every area are obsolete. Just walking around is a challenge. Maps are nice! Maps do not help during a pk situation. Maps help me find my corpse! Maps do not help in areas newbies can easily find themselves in where scanning is limited.
2) Ranking is fast. I guess it has to be when the population is so low. I went from zero to hero in 3 days. That means no time for exploration, acquiring items, or making all the many aliases and triggers I need to be competent. But I thought having a level 50 would be better than not having one. lol
3) Exploring the world at level 50 might not happen. I had thought this would make getting geared and learning this game easy but I guess I exist to pad everyones pk stats now. The gulf between the "have" and "have not" characters is real. I have been murdered every time I have tried to go out and get gear and I am already thinking that I will have to start over with a new character and come up much slower to avoid the gangbangs. I wouldn't rob the level 50s of their fun, smackin' newbs is why most people MUD. I also chose poorly at character creation. I could make a separate post on Avian DKs. I have the buyers regret.
4) The codex is nice, but I have not found it useful. What would be useful is a list of items that are meta and exactly where I can find them. All I see are a list of random items and I have no clue what is good or not. While I might have a hint of what area they are in, I usually don't so it isn't much help. I still find scrolls of identify much more useful as I now have a mental note where I found that item. It is a good idea, we all made index cards at one point, just need more info per item.
5) Way too many locked doors. There, I said it. Nearly every area has a locked door or desk and I can't pick locks. Nothing impeded my exploration more than that. I have yet to to get to Darkhaven. Really. The maps are only so-so. If you don't have a mental map, you don't know jack.
6) Sort of wished the old areas like the Shire and New Thalos were still here. Older players would have areas they would know and can orientate to very fast. If a MUD is nothing but new and original areas, I wouldn't (couldn't) play it. You need familiar territory. Maybe take it easy on the renovations? Love the elemental canyon and emerald forest for this. If I am in a newer area, I usually turn around. I was in a pk situation yesterday and was told 'Your corpse is in Timarin." I have never heard of Timarin. Where is that?
7) Potions of recall should never expire and there should only be one type. A quick kick in the nuts to whoever thought that would be funny.
8) The native mud client was nice. I especially liked being able to increase the font size as my eyes are bad and I have to play with glasses on. But it can not do what I need it to do to keep up. It was very nice while in MUD school. It lacks the ability to make the triggers and colors that make newb life easier. But the font on CMUD on a large screen monitor is comically small. If I could make CMUD fonts bigger, I wouldn't miss half the text flying across my screen.
9) I thought I would make a top 10 list but I am running out of comments and you are running out of patience. It was fun to see this place again. Even more fun to see an adept of a former character of mine as the first NPC to greet you in MUD school. I got a chuckle out of that. I see I still have the invoker guildmaster in Seringale too. Nice. Lots of good memories there.
10) Oh wait! That "purity" thing when a Knight kills you is fine but it should expire before my items are returned to the pit. I don't know my way around so I must wait at the pit every damn time I am killed and then I grab my items, get zapped, and drop them for anyone to pick up. A kick in the nuts to whoever thought that would be funny.
Those are my brain farts, thanks for taking the time to smell them.
Jerold/Sedgwick/Orcrist/Elnino/Renzel/Morissa/Illyasha and so many others...
1) The world has changed so much, this may as well be a MUD I have never played. Whatever memories I have in each and every area are obsolete. Just walking around is a challenge. Maps are nice! Maps do not help during a pk situation. Maps help me find my corpse! Maps do not help in areas newbies can easily find themselves in where scanning is limited.
2) Ranking is fast. I guess it has to be when the population is so low. I went from zero to hero in 3 days. That means no time for exploration, acquiring items, or making all the many aliases and triggers I need to be competent. But I thought having a level 50 would be better than not having one. lol
3) Exploring the world at level 50 might not happen. I had thought this would make getting geared and learning this game easy but I guess I exist to pad everyones pk stats now. The gulf between the "have" and "have not" characters is real. I have been murdered every time I have tried to go out and get gear and I am already thinking that I will have to start over with a new character and come up much slower to avoid the gangbangs. I wouldn't rob the level 50s of their fun, smackin' newbs is why most people MUD. I also chose poorly at character creation. I could make a separate post on Avian DKs. I have the buyers regret.
4) The codex is nice, but I have not found it useful. What would be useful is a list of items that are meta and exactly where I can find them. All I see are a list of random items and I have no clue what is good or not. While I might have a hint of what area they are in, I usually don't so it isn't much help. I still find scrolls of identify much more useful as I now have a mental note where I found that item. It is a good idea, we all made index cards at one point, just need more info per item.
5) Way too many locked doors. There, I said it. Nearly every area has a locked door or desk and I can't pick locks. Nothing impeded my exploration more than that. I have yet to to get to Darkhaven. Really. The maps are only so-so. If you don't have a mental map, you don't know jack.
6) Sort of wished the old areas like the Shire and New Thalos were still here. Older players would have areas they would know and can orientate to very fast. If a MUD is nothing but new and original areas, I wouldn't (couldn't) play it. You need familiar territory. Maybe take it easy on the renovations? Love the elemental canyon and emerald forest for this. If I am in a newer area, I usually turn around. I was in a pk situation yesterday and was told 'Your corpse is in Timarin." I have never heard of Timarin. Where is that?
7) Potions of recall should never expire and there should only be one type. A quick kick in the nuts to whoever thought that would be funny.
8) The native mud client was nice. I especially liked being able to increase the font size as my eyes are bad and I have to play with glasses on. But it can not do what I need it to do to keep up. It was very nice while in MUD school. It lacks the ability to make the triggers and colors that make newb life easier. But the font on CMUD on a large screen monitor is comically small. If I could make CMUD fonts bigger, I wouldn't miss half the text flying across my screen.
9) I thought I would make a top 10 list but I am running out of comments and you are running out of patience. It was fun to see this place again. Even more fun to see an adept of a former character of mine as the first NPC to greet you in MUD school. I got a chuckle out of that. I see I still have the invoker guildmaster in Seringale too. Nice. Lots of good memories there.
10) Oh wait! That "purity" thing when a Knight kills you is fine but it should expire before my items are returned to the pit. I don't know my way around so I must wait at the pit every damn time I am killed and then I grab my items, get zapped, and drop them for anyone to pick up. A kick in the nuts to whoever thought that would be funny.
Those are my brain farts, thanks for taking the time to smell them.
Jerold/Sedgwick/Orcrist/Elnino/Renzel/Morissa/Illyasha and so many others...
Kragn
Posts: 34
11/20/2024, 5:48:27 PM
1) Map knowledge, knowing water and secret routes and running quickly with pre-spammed dirs w/o hitting walls or escaping when blind is one of the biggest
advantages in AR as whole. I don't think anything comes even remotely close, so all the returning players who are rusty are going to have a hard time
with this. I know I do all the time, it takes a while to get used to the map again every now and then. Best bet? Play something that can cheese an escape
at least. Something like psi or illusionist or even healer until you feel confident in pathing.
2) Ranking is only fast if the stars align and you meet the right people at the right time. I have some alts sitting around 30 for a while now
because I can't find people to group and sometimes you can go 1-40 in one sitting. Again, I'd rather play some class that would not be dependent
on finding right groups at the right time and would be able to instead solo train/exp on my own pace.
3) It really depends on the hours you play. More often than not, there's no other 50s online. But if you only play during peak hours
then there's often at least someone thirsting for PK.
4) Codex is a tool and as with every tool it has it's specific use. For an example instead of getting a list of meta items, you can do that yourself
depending on the char and build you are looking for. I've spent hundreds of hours at codex, writing bis-lists for my different chars
just by going through each item slot (with appropriate filters), marking down all the possible options for my char based on align/ethos/stats etc.
I'd recommend doing that instead of waiting for someone to post a list of "good shit" because then you will remember things much better yourself.
5) cast 'summon' swirling mist or head to the Tenebria with large hobgoblins and find the 3 mist at the waterfall on 3rd level. or use Shape of Wraith evil leather set.
6) New Thalos is still there. Shire is now Mudfall. Bring back Mud Factory!
7) You can avoid potion decay within a closed container (close sack/open sack) with the new "devotion" system: help devote for reference
8 ) Probably try mudlet? It has better official support for AR plugin. I had the same issue once, I just changed the resolution of my monitor when mudding lol
9) Time to make new memories then.
10) It lasts like half an hour, which is a bit of a buzzkill indeed.
11) Welcome back
advantages in AR as whole. I don't think anything comes even remotely close, so all the returning players who are rusty are going to have a hard time
with this. I know I do all the time, it takes a while to get used to the map again every now and then. Best bet? Play something that can cheese an escape
at least. Something like psi or illusionist or even healer until you feel confident in pathing.
2) Ranking is only fast if the stars align and you meet the right people at the right time. I have some alts sitting around 30 for a while now
because I can't find people to group and sometimes you can go 1-40 in one sitting. Again, I'd rather play some class that would not be dependent
on finding right groups at the right time and would be able to instead solo train/exp on my own pace.
3) It really depends on the hours you play. More often than not, there's no other 50s online. But if you only play during peak hours
then there's often at least someone thirsting for PK.
4) Codex is a tool and as with every tool it has it's specific use. For an example instead of getting a list of meta items, you can do that yourself
depending on the char and build you are looking for. I've spent hundreds of hours at codex, writing bis-lists for my different chars
just by going through each item slot (with appropriate filters), marking down all the possible options for my char based on align/ethos/stats etc.
I'd recommend doing that instead of waiting for someone to post a list of "good shit" because then you will remember things much better yourself.
5) cast 'summon' swirling mist or head to the Tenebria with large hobgoblins and find the 3 mist at the waterfall on 3rd level. or use Shape of Wraith evil leather set.
6) New Thalos is still there. Shire is now Mudfall. Bring back Mud Factory!
7) You can avoid potion decay within a closed container (close sack/open sack) with the new "devotion" system: help devote for reference
8 ) Probably try mudlet? It has better official support for AR plugin. I had the same issue once, I just changed the resolution of my monitor when mudding lol
9) Time to make new memories then.
10) It lasts like half an hour, which is a bit of a buzzkill indeed.
11) Welcome back
Davairus
Posts: 10674
11/20/2024, 6:53:09 PM
this is exactly the kind of post I have been hoping for. thank you so much. we will get to work addressing these
Davairus
Posts: 10674
11/20/2024, 9:00:03 PM
Couple responses to a few of these.
---
2) Ranking is fast. I guess it has to be when the population is so low. I went from zero to hero in 3 days. That means no time for exploration, acquiring items, or making all the many aliases and triggers I need to be competent. But I thought having a level 50 would be better than not having one. lol
- What I noticed as a newbie here, most ranking experience is just emerald forest or drkshyre wood for 30+ levels, then solace/shire. So I am not sure what learning can be had by just staying in one area. But I see what you mean about ranking too quickly to learn the class you are playing. I'm just not sure what we can do about it, like you said. you kinda have to do the legwork and chase quests to learn a bit. I strive to keep everything useful near/in Seringale, and make the quests worth doing it, but admittedly that is aimed at new players not vets so much. As a vet you probably just need to vent a bit and get someone to just blab the highlights.
---
4) The codex is nice, but I have not found it useful. What would be useful is a list of items that are meta and exactly where I can find them. All I see are a list of random items and I have no clue what is good or not. While I might have a hint of what area they are in, I usually don't so it isn't much help. I still find scrolls of identify much more useful as I now have a mental note where I found that item. It is a good idea, we all made index cards at one point, just need more info per item.
- The codex search results are listed from best to worst, so if you search just damroll you'll get the strongest items at the top. They are sorted by an algorithm that scores the items on stats, not just levels. goblin eq (if it had damroll) would be at the bottom. Once you have results, if you click the popup card, it says what area it came from. Then once you have the area identified you can look up the area on the website.
https://abandonedrealms.com/realms/areas/ There is a world map there so you can scan for the area to see where it roughly is (which is also described in its helpfile), and you can click the link off the world map to drill down into the player made map and eq lists.
Here is an example me using the codex to find a damroll shield.
1) search for shield with attribute min 1 damroll
n.b. notice the result says it is in ofcol
2) visit the world map page to find the "ofcol" area mentioned on its id
3) click on the ofcol link to view map of room names
4) click on items tab to see location (room name) of objects in area
Is there something I am missing here , it seems like everything needed is there? Maybe you came across some broken links or something? Or perhaps we've had a basic conveyance issue with this stuff, e.g. could have made it so we can just click ofcol from the ID and it takes you to the area map on the other page? Is it too much work?
-- As for the meta, its been just rares mixed with forged gear. hit/dam/hp and look for secondary stats that are save vs spell/mal/mental
5) Literally, wow. I had no idea it was that bad.
6) Sort of wished the old areas like the Shire and New Thalos were still here. Older players would have areas they would know and can orientate to very fast. If a MUD is nothing but new and original areas, I wouldn't (couldn't) play it. You need familiar territory. Maybe take it easy on the renovations? Love the elemental canyon and emerald forest for this. If I am in a newer area, I usually turn around. I was in a pk situation yesterday and was told 'Your corpse is in Timarin." I have never heard of Timarin. Where is that?
Yes we did curb that and we put a bunch back as it was. There are no plans to remove any more "original" areas. We were aware we went too far with that one. Right now we're just trying to refrain from any further changes. Shire = mudfall, new thalos = timaran . I decided ultimately to not revert those as new thalos was just a speedbump for me, but shire I get that. if you have run into any other issues like these, please let me know. Shire was an area I liked a lot too (lots of fond memories of ganks there for sure). I'm not sure mudfall has ever been the same for me. It seems like just a big circle and not the village I remember. I feel that hard myself. But I am not sure of to what extent this is really a problem.
Maybe we could write an "old timer re-insertion" guide?
8) The native mud client was nice. I especially liked being able to increase the font size as my eyes are bad and I have to play with glasses on. But it can not do what I need it to do to keep up. It was very nice while in MUD school. It lacks the ability to make the triggers and colors that make newb life easier. But the font on CMUD on a large screen monitor is comically small. If I could make CMUD fonts bigger, I wouldn't miss half the text flying across my screen.
Well I'll be happy to tell you that actually it does have triggers.. the command is #trigger . It works like zmud used to work back in the day too. Highlights, hmm, I will have to think about how to do that, but in the meantime could try the color command and see if I added what you are looking for?
Tab command result from browser client.
"area list" command (help with orientation)
I do not know the answer to the cmud question.
9) I thought I would make a top 10 list but I am running out of comments and you are running out of patience. It was fun to see this place again. Even more fun to see an adept of a former character of mine as the first NPC to greet you in MUD school. I got a chuckle out of that. I see I still have the invoker guildmaster in Seringale too. Nice. Lots of good memories there.
Yup you are remembered and respected that much here. I will not be able to sit satisfied knowing the game does not satisfy my #1 customer
If I did not answer its in a to-do list
---
2) Ranking is fast. I guess it has to be when the population is so low. I went from zero to hero in 3 days. That means no time for exploration, acquiring items, or making all the many aliases and triggers I need to be competent. But I thought having a level 50 would be better than not having one. lol
- What I noticed as a newbie here, most ranking experience is just emerald forest or drkshyre wood for 30+ levels, then solace/shire. So I am not sure what learning can be had by just staying in one area. But I see what you mean about ranking too quickly to learn the class you are playing. I'm just not sure what we can do about it, like you said. you kinda have to do the legwork and chase quests to learn a bit. I strive to keep everything useful near/in Seringale, and make the quests worth doing it, but admittedly that is aimed at new players not vets so much. As a vet you probably just need to vent a bit and get someone to just blab the highlights.
---
4) The codex is nice, but I have not found it useful. What would be useful is a list of items that are meta and exactly where I can find them. All I see are a list of random items and I have no clue what is good or not. While I might have a hint of what area they are in, I usually don't so it isn't much help. I still find scrolls of identify much more useful as I now have a mental note where I found that item. It is a good idea, we all made index cards at one point, just need more info per item.
- The codex search results are listed from best to worst, so if you search just damroll you'll get the strongest items at the top. They are sorted by an algorithm that scores the items on stats, not just levels. goblin eq (if it had damroll) would be at the bottom. Once you have results, if you click the popup card, it says what area it came from. Then once you have the area identified you can look up the area on the website.
https://abandonedrealms.com/realms/areas/ There is a world map there so you can scan for the area to see where it roughly is (which is also described in its helpfile), and you can click the link off the world map to drill down into the player made map and eq lists.
Here is an example me using the codex to find a damroll shield.
1) search for shield with attribute min 1 damroll
n.b. notice the result says it is in ofcol
2) visit the world map page to find the "ofcol" area mentioned on its id
3) click on the ofcol link to view map of room names
4) click on items tab to see location (room name) of objects in area
Is there something I am missing here , it seems like everything needed is there? Maybe you came across some broken links or something? Or perhaps we've had a basic conveyance issue with this stuff, e.g. could have made it so we can just click ofcol from the ID and it takes you to the area map on the other page? Is it too much work?
-- As for the meta, its been just rares mixed with forged gear. hit/dam/hp and look for secondary stats that are save vs spell/mal/mental
5) Literally, wow. I had no idea it was that bad.
6) Sort of wished the old areas like the Shire and New Thalos were still here. Older players would have areas they would know and can orientate to very fast. If a MUD is nothing but new and original areas, I wouldn't (couldn't) play it. You need familiar territory. Maybe take it easy on the renovations? Love the elemental canyon and emerald forest for this. If I am in a newer area, I usually turn around. I was in a pk situation yesterday and was told 'Your corpse is in Timarin." I have never heard of Timarin. Where is that?
Yes we did curb that and we put a bunch back as it was. There are no plans to remove any more "original" areas. We were aware we went too far with that one. Right now we're just trying to refrain from any further changes. Shire = mudfall, new thalos = timaran . I decided ultimately to not revert those as new thalos was just a speedbump for me, but shire I get that. if you have run into any other issues like these, please let me know. Shire was an area I liked a lot too (lots of fond memories of ganks there for sure). I'm not sure mudfall has ever been the same for me. It seems like just a big circle and not the village I remember. I feel that hard myself. But I am not sure of to what extent this is really a problem.
Maybe we could write an "old timer re-insertion" guide?
8) The native mud client was nice. I especially liked being able to increase the font size as my eyes are bad and I have to play with glasses on. But it can not do what I need it to do to keep up. It was very nice while in MUD school. It lacks the ability to make the triggers and colors that make newb life easier. But the font on CMUD on a large screen monitor is comically small. If I could make CMUD fonts bigger, I wouldn't miss half the text flying across my screen.
Well I'll be happy to tell you that actually it does have triggers.. the command is #trigger . It works like zmud used to work back in the day too. Highlights, hmm, I will have to think about how to do that, but in the meantime could try the color command and see if I added what you are looking for?
Tab command result from browser client.
"area list" command (help with orientation)
I do not know the answer to the cmud question.
9) I thought I would make a top 10 list but I am running out of comments and you are running out of patience. It was fun to see this place again. Even more fun to see an adept of a former character of mine as the first NPC to greet you in MUD school. I got a chuckle out of that. I see I still have the invoker guildmaster in Seringale too. Nice. Lots of good memories there.
Yup you are remembered and respected that much here. I will not be able to sit satisfied knowing the game does not satisfy my #1 customer
If I did not answer its in a to-do list
Davairus
Posts: 10674
11/21/2024, 12:05:05 PM
[quote="earlier on"]6) Sort of wished the old areas like the Shire and New Thalos were still here. Older players would have areas they would know and can orientate to very fast. If a MUD is nothing but new and original areas, I wouldn't (couldn't) play it. You need familiar territory. Maybe take it easy on the renovations? Love the elemental canyon and emerald forest for this. If I am in a newer area, I usually turn around. I was in a pk situation yesterday and was told 'Your corpse is in Timarin." I have never heard of Timarin. Where is that?[/quote]
I have attacked this tonight. I gave most areas a primary co-ordinate (to entrance or center of area depending what made sense) so that if you typed "where"with a corpse i t will give you a bearing. That way the game gives you a much better hint to the directions of your corpse.
I have ten areas left to assign but I'm having to walk to them and its getting kind of late, so I'll pick that up sometime tomorrow.
As for the above, I can expand this for navigation if we like. Or just share the co-ordinate list in area list/ helpfiles. Of course there is some wild inconsistencies as you might expect, but I think this could be (has been?) much worse.
Some extra info since I am posting again.
Maelstrom - thats just the harpies. we renamed it and not much else. identical map, identical location.
Shadul Dalghul - renamed shadar logoth and little else. Not a major touch up. Just more atmosphere mainly. Mashadar still roams.
Dragon tower - we put it past the void so that it would mirror the wyvern tower ruins. that bothers me from time to time but it helps that it makes sense.
mausoleum (in seringale) - that actually is the mob factory area, the layout is intentionally similar. it has fido and floyd, and the ravens/wisps are the exact same difficulty as city guard heads. Its a re-skin.
a little tangent. I remember when Tyr Unguld was touched up and I appreciated the work, but I definitely stressed about it when I went in there and I didnt find all the same shit I was used to. I worried I was going to feel alienated. But then I ran into the fire drake again and I felt more at ease. I can say the same for ogre village. I got stressed out because I forgot where it was and later realized it was (still is) in its stock location.
Going forward. I can generate content like this for areas in moments and add to a general map command, if there is interest let me know:
The issue of course with something like that is you're going to lose the "thrill" of discovering and getting to know the area and maybe that makes it harder to fall in love with it, but we could also just unlock it once you have visited 90% of the areas rooms or something. Have it display a progress bar til you have run around enough
I have attacked this tonight. I gave most areas a primary co-ordinate (to entrance or center of area depending what made sense) so that if you typed "where"with a corpse i t will give you a bearing. That way the game gives you a much better hint to the directions of your corpse.
Players near you in New Ofcol:
<PK> Testinvoker Impy Way
(Testinvoker) A quiet bedroom in Timaran, bearing southeast
(Testinvoker) Grassy plains in Plains of the North, bearing west-southwest
(Testinvoker) Ofcol Square, north of here
I have ten areas left to assign but I'm having to walk to them and its getting kind of late, so I'll pick that up sometime tomorrow.
As for the above, I can expand this for navigation if we like. Or just share the co-ordinate list in area list/ helpfiles. Of course there is some wild inconsistencies as you might expect, but I think this could be (has been?) much worse.
Some extra info since I am posting again.
Maelstrom - thats just the harpies. we renamed it and not much else. identical map, identical location.
Shadul Dalghul - renamed shadar logoth and little else. Not a major touch up. Just more atmosphere mainly. Mashadar still roams.
Dragon tower - we put it past the void so that it would mirror the wyvern tower ruins. that bothers me from time to time but it helps that it makes sense.
mausoleum (in seringale) - that actually is the mob factory area, the layout is intentionally similar. it has fido and floyd, and the ravens/wisps are the exact same difficulty as city guard heads. Its a re-skin.
a little tangent. I remember when Tyr Unguld was touched up and I appreciated the work, but I definitely stressed about it when I went in there and I didnt find all the same shit I was used to. I worried I was going to feel alienated. But then I ran into the fire drake again and I felt more at ease. I can say the same for ogre village. I got stressed out because I forgot where it was and later realized it was (still is) in its stock location.
Going forward. I can generate content like this for areas in moments and add to a general map command, if there is interest let me know:
> map
*-*-* *-@-*
| |
*-* *-*-W * *
| | | |
*-*-* *-* *
| | | | |
*-*-*-*-*-*-* *-*-* *-*-* *
| | | | | |
*-*-* *-*-* *-*-*-S-S
| | | | | | | |
*-*-*-* *-* *
| | , | | |
*-*-* *-*-*-*-* *
| | | | | | | |
-*-*-* * *-*-*-*-*
| | | | | |
*-* * *-*-* * W
| | |
*-*-*-*-*
^ | | |
*-*-*-*-*-*
| | | |
*-* S-*-*-*-W
| | | | |
*-* * *-* *
| | |
*-*-*
exits
The Landing Point <> A Landing (zodiac island )
A Fog-Shrouded Trail <>The Trail (miden'nir)
The issue of course with something like that is you're going to lose the "thrill" of discovering and getting to know the area and maybe that makes it harder to fall in love with it, but we could also just unlock it once you have visited 90% of the areas rooms or something. Have it display a progress bar til you have run around enough
Kornhole
Posts: 399
11/21/2024, 4:18:53 PM
@Kragn. I wholeheartedly disagree with your point on ranking. Before 22, a pet and (after 5) a mercenary will carry you to 22. After 22 potions will EASILY carry you to 35. After that the potions can be a touch expensive, but any class/race combo can grind enough coins to keep themselves in flasks to keep the exp train rolling. I can solo ANY race/class to 50 in less than two weeks, playing about 2 hrs a day, or less. Do not have to rely on waiting on people to join you at all, you just like the 1k per kill, 10 seconds or less per kill you see in an optimal group.
Again, I'd rather play some class that would not be dependent
on finding right groups at the right time and would be able to instead solo train/exp on my own pace.
This is ANY class!
Again, I'd rather play some class that would not be dependent
on finding right groups at the right time and would be able to instead solo train/exp on my own pace.
This is ANY class!
Davairus
Posts: 10674
11/23/2024, 9:52:34 PM
Wasn't the point of the post that ranking progression was super fast and leaves your growth essentially stunted? I mean, if you are at level 50 with no idea of where to get gear, feeling like the only option is to start over, that's clearly a churned level 50 (as in, one level 50 less, for potentially forever). We need to do something to address that, and the time is ASAP.
1) I just released a PK guide which may help but it takes time to get the practice you need, and doing it by throwing yourself at level 50 Legions is clearly not the way. Another point in the OP I would say, the sentiment of being unable to leave the guidhall without ganks, he sounds like being a real sport about it but that's obviously showing our veteran level 50's are being shitty to newbies. Remember the culture is set by the PLAYERS not the imms. If the player behavior creates a toxic hostile environment then that simply cannot thrive. That is not in my control short of banning the players who gank the newbies. Trust me, I have already tried everything else. Level 50's have a responsibility to ensure new players get help with this difficult learning curve, and guide them. Don't make abandoning level 50 their only option. That absolutely sucks. Maybe you could attack them to scare them (motivates learning AR) but let them get away and just taunt them a bit?
https://abandonedrealms.com/help/playerkilling/
2) Jerold wrote that he likes the scrolls of identify and would like more info in them, but we'll obviously need to figure out what to include and then do that. This has impact on the codex (we will have to re-ID everything) so I'd like to make sure we get it into a good state -- here is what I updated to.
Example
Jerold if you are still reading the forums can you elaborate? Would item quality and originating location be sufficient?
1) I just released a PK guide which may help but it takes time to get the practice you need, and doing it by throwing yourself at level 50 Legions is clearly not the way. Another point in the OP I would say, the sentiment of being unable to leave the guidhall without ganks, he sounds like being a real sport about it but that's obviously showing our veteran level 50's are being shitty to newbies. Remember the culture is set by the PLAYERS not the imms. If the player behavior creates a toxic hostile environment then that simply cannot thrive. That is not in my control short of banning the players who gank the newbies. Trust me, I have already tried everything else. Level 50's have a responsibility to ensure new players get help with this difficult learning curve, and guide them. Don't make abandoning level 50 their only option. That absolutely sucks. Maybe you could attack them to scare them (motivates learning AR) but let them get away and just taunt them a bit?
https://abandonedrealms.com/help/playerkilling/
2) Jerold wrote that he likes the scrolls of identify and would like more info in them, but we'll obviously need to figure out what to include and then do that. This has impact on the codex (we will have to re-ID everything) so I'd like to make sure we get it into a good state -- here is what I updated to.
Example
Object 'hatchet astral axe' is type weapon, material platinum.
Extra flags: hum no_enchant.
This item originated from Faction of Steel, in The Smithies (a Metalsmith).
Made to be wielded.
Weight is 2 lbs, value is 20000, quality is 15, level is 45.
Weapon type is axe.
Inflicts 5 to 25 degrees of magic (average 15).
Enhances ability to dual parry.
Jerold if you are still reading the forums can you elaborate? Would item quality and originating location be sufficient?
Davairus
Posts: 10674
11/24/2024, 9:40:04 AM
Additions for this weekend-
1. added lockpicks which anyone can buy/use as pick lock. Available somewhere in every town either on mobs that sell maps or black market types. Thief pick lock just gets a bonus to the lockpicking level, and a better chance, so its worth practicing it to save money on lockpicks, but as the lockpicks dont break until they work, you can decide if its worth. As long as there are a few level 50 doors that should be fine since lockpicks end at level 45.
2. Buffed up identify to pull some info from the codex. I guess that will initially look a bit startling but there is nothing new in the identify spell that you couldnt already just look up on the website. It will give you a room name and then a mob or container name if available.
3. Also added a "quality" to identifies. This is a number, it will have a color coding so you can tell how decent the item is. The best items have a yellow quality number, then purple, then blue, then green, etc. This only works on stuff you didnt make/gamble because it looks at item base properties, not current, so this means you've an incentive to understand what quality means which I shall add into a helpfile.
4. Added a new bard song "Trace the trail". (You are going to probably need a pen and paper for this one.) So what this does is sets up a golden road. If you sing the song with no argument, it will give you a magic word of sorts. then if you sing the song with that word, it will reveal the path to get there. if you sing the song with a mob name while in its area, it will give you the golden road path to the mob. it will also work on players but there is a save check for that.
5. updated map command as above. use 'mm' if you want a minimap instead, otherwise use 'map'. the command will give you an ascii map of the entire area (single plane) and list all exits to/from
6. updated https://abandonedrealms.com/realms/areas/ with a refreshed map, and put some old school maps underneath the map (first age and second age maps of AR) with some comments to explain divergences. Also catalogued some useful commands on that page, and color coded the items on the various maps that can be looked at so its easier to see uniques (gold) and rares (silver).
7. added "worldmap" command which shows the current western serin / eastern serin maps and a red "@" to show location. i need to go around the game world setting markers , should finish by the end of the week. (update: most done. ran into 6 areas that need substantial work to enable this feature but 99% good)
8. added a "wayfind" command. you can use this at mobs that are guards to request directions to an area. It is a bit crude at the moment, I will be logging and reviewing failed lookups to improve it. This command leverages all the markers I set to make the world map work. I think it came out nice, but admittedly I cherry picked this example.
9. purify : did not know we still had the item thingy on this. i changed it to last 3 ticks less than remaining ghost time. it does not work on ghosts at all, however will stay over unghost. Max should be about 15 tick.
10. recall : i changed the recall potions to better convey their purposes, i.e "weak recall potion" "sigilled recall potion" "mastered recall potion". Sigilled/mastered are the same price and are level 50 recall. They currently do the same thing.... a recall spell. Meanwhile, weak recall potions are level 30 recall. Took a long time to decide what to do with that, what I settled on was "time is money" and decide if you have a cheap recall potion you'd have to wait for calm adrenaline to use it. So thats how weak recalls work. Wait for calm adrenaline. I did not make this code sophisticated enough to check it on quaff so potions get wasted atm. Will fix that in the next couple days.
todo: wait for jerold feedback
1. added lockpicks which anyone can buy/use as pick lock. Available somewhere in every town either on mobs that sell maps or black market types. Thief pick lock just gets a bonus to the lockpicking level, and a better chance, so its worth practicing it to save money on lockpicks, but as the lockpicks dont break until they work, you can decide if its worth. As long as there are a few level 50 doors that should be fine since lockpicks end at level 45.
2. Buffed up identify to pull some info from the codex. I guess that will initially look a bit startling but there is nothing new in the identify spell that you couldnt already just look up on the website. It will give you a room name and then a mob or container name if available.
3. Also added a "quality" to identifies. This is a number, it will have a color coding so you can tell how decent the item is. The best items have a yellow quality number, then purple, then blue, then green, etc. This only works on stuff you didnt make/gamble because it looks at item base properties, not current, so this means you've an incentive to understand what quality means which I shall add into a helpfile.
4. Added a new bard song "Trace the trail". (You are going to probably need a pen and paper for this one.) So what this does is sets up a golden road. If you sing the song with no argument, it will give you a magic word of sorts. then if you sing the song with that word, it will reveal the path to get there. if you sing the song with a mob name while in its area, it will give you the golden road path to the mob. it will also work on players but there is a save check for that.
5. updated map command as above. use 'mm' if you want a minimap instead, otherwise use 'map'. the command will give you an ascii map of the entire area (single plane) and list all exits to/from
6. updated https://abandonedrealms.com/realms/areas/ with a refreshed map, and put some old school maps underneath the map (first age and second age maps of AR) with some comments to explain divergences. Also catalogued some useful commands on that page, and color coded the items on the various maps that can be looked at so its easier to see uniques (gold) and rares (silver).
7. added "worldmap" command which shows the current western serin / eastern serin maps and a red "@" to show location. i need to go around the game world setting markers , should finish by the end of the week. (update: most done. ran into 6 areas that need substantial work to enable this feature but 99% good)
8. added a "wayfind" command. you can use this at mobs that are guards to request directions to an area. It is a bit crude at the moment, I will be logging and reviewing failed lookups to improve it. This command leverages all the markers I set to make the world map work. I think it came out nice, but admittedly I cherry picked this example.
Inside the East Gate
+ | You are inside the East Gate of Seringale. All around you
| | are people travelling in and out of the city. The great wall
S-* + | of Seringale soars over your head at over 30 spans tall.
| | | You see the city to the west, the east gate above you, and
+-+-@-+-+| the city walls lead to the north and south.
| | |
S + |
| |
+ |
---------+
[Exits: north east south west]
A gate guard is here guarding the gates of Seringale.
A gate guard is here guarding the gates of Seringale.
[A dwarven city guard walks in.
You are allowed to leave the realms.
<30000hp 2592m 400mv> calm
wayfind timaran
A dwarven city guard says 'Head east, and bear east. Timaran is approximately 37 furlongs from here.'
Route to West Gate of Timaran found. Marking path on minimap.
9. purify : did not know we still had the item thingy on this. i changed it to last 3 ticks less than remaining ghost time. it does not work on ghosts at all, however will stay over unghost. Max should be about 15 tick.
10. recall : i changed the recall potions to better convey their purposes, i.e "weak recall potion" "sigilled recall potion" "mastered recall potion". Sigilled/mastered are the same price and are level 50 recall. They currently do the same thing.... a recall spell. Meanwhile, weak recall potions are level 30 recall. Took a long time to decide what to do with that, what I settled on was "time is money" and decide if you have a cheap recall potion you'd have to wait for calm adrenaline to use it. So thats how weak recalls work. Wait for calm adrenaline. I did not make this code sophisticated enough to check it on quaff so potions get wasted atm. Will fix that in the next couple days.
todo: wait for jerold feedback