Daniel
(stranger)
12/13/07 11:38 PM
Newbie friendly

We want to make Darke a place where newbies can put their roots down. We do not want to drive off the fresh new blood/meat, let em stay a while.

Some thoughts have been expressed as to auto leveling up to 6/6/6.

One solution, don't auto level the newbies, simply give them more starting devs.

With the 1635 devs that you start with (depending on class) you train whatever, then you being your epic journey of going from 0 experience to 4999 and gain your first level!!!

What have we achieved? People are putting in work for their "levels" and they still have the benefit of starting off strong enough to fight goblins or elves.

What do y'all think?

What are some other newbie friendly ideas?


sabu
(journeyman)
12/14/07 12:03 PM
Newbium

I think newbium should be removed as ingots and blanks. I would propse this.

There is already a special place to buy gear from. Cannot remember the exact name of it, but you get there by climbing a rope and buying a pass from an elf south of VO.

I would like to see newbium weapons and armour sold there instead of iron. These items would sost a lot, but it would be far better then having iron degrading every 100 hits or so. Plus the cost of store boaught equipment is so outta balance it sucks. It costs almost 300 mcgrail for a backpack but only 1 mcgrail for a gauntlet or 10 mcgrail for a breast plate.

I would suggest doing this. For iron armour it would sost 250 mcgrail per piece. It doesn't matter what the piece is. The cost of the item is for the making, shipping and storage of the item in the shop. For newbium armour it would be 500 mcgrail per piece and would be on a limited basis.

I would suggest Iron weapons costing 500 mcgrail for iron and newbium costing 1000. The highest quality of these wewapons would be fine and unruneable.

These items would still disappear when getting to 12th level combat.


Charon
(enthusiast)
12/14/07 12:07 PM
Re: Newbium

The reason backpacks are so much and the iron gauntlets are not is because the gauntlets.. well they suck. Backpacks are useful for everybody, from newbie to HM.

I do agree that newbium should be more readily available and that crappy newbium equipment should be buyable at the stores. I would even suggest that the guild join room give you a newbium weapon of your chosen type when you join (say a choice of the weapon types offered of fine quality newbium).


Siani
(stranger)
12/14/07 02:27 PM
Re: Newbium

I agree that newbium is just another coddling tool for newbies but it would be nice if there were a few pieces given to newbies upon joining a guild.

I would suggest a weapon, chainmail, and boots this way the poor noob isn't starting out nekkid! These items would poof at a certain overall level...let's say 12. Or it could be set on combat level alone and then I would say level 10 should be the cut off point. By then they should be able to make money and get tinkered gear.


mathias
(newbie)
12/14/07 03:20 PM
Re: Newbium

 Originally Posted By: Siani
I agree that newbium is just another coddling tool for newbies but it would be nice if there were a few pieces given to newbies upon joining a guild.

I would suggest a weapon, chainmail, and boots this way the poor noob isn't starting out nekkid! These items would poof at a certain overall level...let's say 12. Or it could be set on combat level alone and then I would say level 10 should be the cut off point. By then they should be able to make money and get tinkered gear.


Agreed.


Azarepth
(stranger)
12/14/07 04:30 PM
Re: Newbium

Good call Siani, that might be a more reliable way of giving newbies a hand and still not overcoddling. Newbie-equipment-supplier sounds like a great job for a guild treasury guard or perhaps NPC guildmaster.

Siani
(stranger)
12/14/07 04:43 PM
Re: Newbium

I would say instead of a supplier for the equipment just have it appear on them when they join the guild. That way in case the guard is dead or there is a player GM that isn't overly active or helpful they can still get the gear right away. So what if it doesn't make total sense that gear appears on you....Call it an act of gods if it makes you sleep better at night ;\)

sabu
(journeyman)
12/14/07 04:44 PM
Re: Newbium

Same way money is given when you join a guild also.

Charon
(enthusiast)
12/14/07 08:33 PM
Re: Newbium

And 2 packs of 5 standard rations.

Siani
(stranger)
12/14/07 08:51 PM
Re: Newbium

Gods I tell you! They are mighty and giving!

I do think these are better options than the current newbium armour and weapons.

Something would have to get worked out with picking what weapon you start out with..Maybe when you join a guild it(gods..whatever) gives you a list of the available weapons for that guild and asks you to choose one.

Maybe if you worship a certain god before joining a guild they even bless/corrupt the weapon a very tiny tiny tiny amount \:\)

I don't think I was fully serious on that last part.


carmy
(member)
12/15/07 05:19 AM
Re: Newbium

I think a full set of iron that gives 'low' protection is fine with a newbium weapon. But let's be honest, with no buffers, you can get to 10 or 12 combat in a matter of minutes for some people. And, because you're gaining as much exp as you are, as quickly as you are, money won't be that plentiful at lower levels. Just something to consider if slightly better armour would be available in Loth. 500mcgrail for 10 pieces is still 5000mcgrail.

ShadowraithAdministrator
(member)
12/15/07 05:52 AM
Re: Newbium

Nod, we really have to consider the levelling rate. There are some nice low and mid range areas getting made, but if people just blow past them, then its wasted effort.

Daniel
(stranger)
12/17/07 04:54 PM
Re: Newbium

Can items of zero resale value be created? If so, have a weapon rack and armour rack in the guild treasury that has an infinite amount of equipment at "fine" or whatever quality that is unruneable unenchantable.

get helm -> You get a helm off the armour rack.
get boots - you get a pair of boots off the armour rack.

An endless supply of "useless" equipment isn't a bad thing.

And its only useless to people of higher level. Low level people, well I guess to them its sorta priceless?


CerberusAdministrator
(addict)
03/14/08 12:20 PM
Re: Newbie friendly

As of last immortal meeting we began looking into some ways to improve the newbie experience. Two of those ways are :

A) Make guild guards supply a full set of newbium equipment to each newbie (each time they need one, for instance if they die and lose corpse)

2) Make the difficulty of hitting monsters at low levels much less. In other words, instead of hitting 20% of the time a newbie should hit something of equal level 50% of the time.

Any thoughts?


carmy
(member)
03/18/08 01:13 AM
Re: Newbie friendly

Nod, I agree with the idea of hitting more, but the truth is, that once that newbium weapon the guard gives them is gone, they more than likely won't have the resources to get an 'ok' weapon made to level past that point in any way that won't make them rip their hair out (Iron? Ugh...). As it is, 'Loth is a rather useless city, there's absolutely no point in going there, let's make it a place where we can buy some elven made goods, mind you, the guards tend to kill newbies, so that might need to be looked at as well.

With the way the economy is set up right now on Darke, it's too expensive for new players to get decent stuff to level, and it's very easy for an experienced player to get anything they want because they already have the equipment they need to get stuff. Having decent equipment available in Loth, maybe something with slightly reduced WC and some crappy acc/speed runes, might give newbies a chance at leveling, all while gaining mcgrail etc so they can eventually afford better equipment.