Academy

[Master]

Well...I noticed that in the academy some noobs keep killing the monsters there. The problem is that they keep killing the quest mobs and you have to wait ages for them to come back! I was wondering if Dav could make them instant repop like the slime monster. At least in the academy...

[Mr. Forgotten]

And then you get all these people just killing them over and over again, not needing to go to any of the other newbie areas to lvl up. Idk, if you don't want to wait, just group up, and if you can't do that, then I guess you're screwed.

[wudst]

Forgotten, did you read his post? Jesus christ some of you are just fucking douchebags.

I agree that something should be done if it actually is an issue. Perhaps a sign directing them to the 4 mobs, suggesting they are really the best ranking mobs until 3 or so. Again, assuming that this is actually an issue with noobs killing things and waiting for ages.

[Davairus]

slime monster no longer give exp

[Mr. Forgotten]

I remember one of the Imms actually saying that if you don't want to wait on the repop you should group up to get rid of that problem yourself. Instead of whining like a little flamer about having to wait for your newbie char to lvl up two or three times, and if you're a good aligned character and there is an evil killing things, why not just rush in and kill what they are killing and vice versa. Neutrals do not have group limit because they don't care-good or evil- they will see it as an opportunity for themselves...

[Tiqa]

[Mr. Forgotten]

[Tiqa]

Yes?!. Fantastic! Thanks Mr. Forgotten.

General information should be transparent and not just a secret for experienced players only to know and splut it up when people encounter problems. I know everyone here believes in that philosophy or there wouldn’t be the extremely well written help files and players providing information in the forums (eg. Stiehl’s Top 10 List of Helpful Information), and all the different aspects of different types of information provided by the player/s that run and maintain the community ‘Invokation” website

On hindsight, having a sign in the academy informing of grouping may seem OOC, boring and static. Maybe one of the three Academy Imm mobs, or another mob, could give a little speech about the benefits of grouping when the mobs are slow to re-pop and also the benefits of grouping in general.

Also, it seems clear from recent posts and comments that even though AR has great help files, the concept of “rares” which seems unique to this MUD and the ability of how to keep rares is not getting across. I learned about rares from reading about a frustrated player’s experience when he posted in the wrong forum. It’s easy for Imms and players to say “check the help files” (which are excellent), but if you have no idea when you enter the academy what rares are and don’t know how to appraise, you are not going to search ‘rares’ on any help file.

It might also be nice to put a small quest in the academy where a mob asks you to find a rare and then asks you to give it to him and appraises it and tells you a little about how to appraise items (I had no idea such a feature existed when I first started), and say that some classes can ‘lore’ equipment sets, and what equipment sets are, etc.

The imms and builders at AR have done a very good job on the academy. Personally, I think efforts spent on providing new players with a fun and informative academy is worthwhile in the long run, and is almost as equally important as providing mid-game and end-game content.

Davarius has a ton of stuff he is working on and doing the big picture stuff. What I was thinking was I remember reading a post from a player that I think used to be involved in creating areas and came back and was wanting to help out, but at the time Davarius said he didn’t need help expanding or redeveloping areas. If this player is still around, or another trusted player with an interest in new players and the academy, then maybe Davarius might accept some help from them concentrating on the academy and making some scripts for the academy mobs.

Aghhh I can’t believe I’ve been so yappy with all my posts today when normally I am fairly quiet. I was planning on spending this stat holiday Monday playing all day long, but I got caught up in reading all the posts. You guys/gals sure have a lot of ideas and so much to say. It’s hard to keep up.

Hope everyone is cooling off from the heat wave.

[Tiqa]

Just a quick PS since we can't edit our posts, even if no one has replied.

Abandoned Realms has such a steep learning curve with the decisions on weapon type and combat style. It's overwhelming. I love the Mahn-Tor area because many of the mobs are different and you get to practice how to try weapon or combat style advantage. It's a great place for learning, and also the cool stuff.

If Davarious trusts someone (Imm or builder who has a passion for specializing in improving the already good academy), then a suggestion is to somehow include an area where new players begin to learn about weapon or style advantage. This could probably easily be accomplished by tweeking the mobs in the basement of the Academy and adding a script or two.

Ok, over and out. That's all from me tonight.

And I offer my suggestions in the most respectful way. This is a fantastic game and the Imms are around and doing stuff. I love the game as it is now and I am happy with it as it is now. Just everyone is suggesting stuff and some suggestions seem to get implemented fairly quickly and I want to speak up even though I don't understand a lot of whats going on.

[Stiehl26]

Tiqa, that is a great idea. The weapon advantages and such are very very difficult to pick up for new players. There should also, perhaps, be some type of tutorial about prompts, where it is shown how to tell if you are in combat advantage or disadvantage. Perhaps even get rid of the current default prompt and replace it with the prompt that has the weapon and combat styles in them.

[Mr. Forgotten]

Just a suggestion on the prompt for players:

%h/%Hhp %m%Mm %v/%vmv ($%g %Xxp) %s %t %W %B %n %T


it shows current/maximum health, mana and movment as well as (gold xp tnl) sector e.g. forest/city/road etc. opponent combat style/weapon type
adrenaline and %tank health

the weapon type is represented by symbols: / =blade | =shaft ; = segment
and the combat style will tell you whether you are in superior, inferior, same
combat style or even if you are tanking a mob that does not have weapons,
also if you are in suprerior weapon/combat the words and symbols will be green, if you are in inferior weapon/combat they will be red and if you are
in the same weapon/combat they will be gray.

Two basic non-client aliases I use: jj =scan all and kk =murder $$/target

[Davairus]

I looked in the helpfile indices and #2 had prompt command, #3 mentioned rares, so you didn't read those carefully enough.

The academy is basically a quickie "how to play" guide and after that helpfiles should do. I already tried to make it with the goal of presenting that information to the user in the best and most interesting way possible. People need to figure some things out for themselves. Let me take a certain pinnacled berserkerl for instance. I've watched this dude take blindness multiple times in the same fight, why doesn't he ever read help blindness, which says that save vs maledictive is good way to guard against that? Guys like that is why the shackles in mudschool are needed... sorta like burning your fingers for the first time. There is a big guide on the webpage somewhere which has combat style stuff in it.

[Ceridwel]