There are a lot of pros as well as some quibbles that can add up that I'll post about later, but for now here's my biggest issue so far with engagement as a sort-of newbie. This game engrossed me in high school ages ago, and I've returned now, which has sparked a lot of memories about my very first time joining.
For my first few charries and this time around, my biggest trouble was seriousand abrupt disorientation after Newton.
Losing a familar place to lvl up and quest after you get kicked out of Newton, losing PORTALS, and losing Grace are all fine and reasonable features, but it caused big player engagement problems for me as a beginner in Lusternia when all of them happened at once, instead of successively
Consequently not knowing how to move around, where to hunt after Newton and how to tell if a mob is safe to hunt abruptly got me both lost and killed constantly after having been basically immune to both for dozens of levels
Not knowing how to use shops and store things made me lose money and left me feeling completely impotent once I ran out of the resources I got during creation or if I ran out of resources while lost
Newton feels sharply alienated from the lore and from city/guild bonding. I felt like I could bash in Newton and rp in my guild, but NOT rp in Newton or bash in my guild. Since I had no idea I could lvl up, earn gold/credits or gain friends from city and guild tasks, Newton made me think Lusternia was all about bashing. Then when Newton was gone I didn't have the social investments to stick around. It took forever to occur to me that I could get the best of both worlds – go bashing/exploring with a group of friends from my guild or use quests outside my city as a roleplay opportunity
Keep in mind, all these issues could just be me being a dolt.
Ideas for improvement:
Imho, WHATNOW or similar beginner help files could really use
recommendations for relatively easy areas/quests to explore during or post-Newton so you're not getting lost or killed all the time once you get kicked out
intro to using roads, milestones, and mapview to navigate, info on transitioning to teleport and advancedteleport once PORTALS runs out, plus a link to the map on the website
info on shopping commands, item decay, using the Aetherplex, replenishing basic supplies, and rift storage; add a HELP SHOPPING file, and maybe HELP SUPPLIES
basic universal intro to guild/class/city/commune tasks that can reward you with gold and social bonding such as power quests, vermin hunting, culture contributions, and group rp opportunities vs just saying "talk to your guild"
a specific help file on how to transition after getting kicked out of Newton that summarizes all of the above
a specific help file on common newbie mistakes and how to avoid them
This is in addition to the lamp, which covers a variety of these points but is not as intuitive or accessible as help files.
Finally, I wish Newton tied into the lore a lot more. Maybe there could be some extra quests that do that or some slight cosmetic tweaking to help beginners learn just a little about the Taint and the Seals and the Gods and so on as they go thru quests. Maybe Collegium quests could also be slightly tweaked to relate back to Newton. Frankly, right now Newton makes the Lusternia experience look like WoW with crappier graphics and smarter quests. That causes beginners to miss out on one of the main things that makes Lusternia immersive, fun,and better than other games, imo, which is rping, bashing, questing, socializing, politicking, PK, exploring, and crafting all in one in any combo you want!
Verbose desc of issues:
Newton is A++, but I got very little clarity about what to do after and outside of it. I spent lots of levels investing in learning directions and quests, and then it all went poof after lvl 30, and my IQ about hunting/questing elsewhere was zero. However, around the very same time, PORTALS expired; I used it up bc I didn't know how to get between my city and Newton / the Aetherplex. Because I didn't know about teleporting, PATH TRACK, SURVEY, or the website map, simply moving around was a huge pain and I was getting lost 24/7. This was limiting
*At the same time* my Grace expired, so I was constantly getting killed because I didn't know how to evaluate the safety of mobs via PROBE, didn't know where to hunt safely at my lvl, and didn't know which curatives to use and stock. I also got P-killed in villages several times during raids or for attacking an NPC, without having any idea why. This strongly discouraged me from exploration and many of my beginner charries weren't bashing anything other than vermin after Newton, which just made me want to quit and replay Newton without making post-Newton progress
It took me a long time to figure out how to use the Aetherplex, rifts, and liquidrifts. I also had no idea I could go shopping IN my city. A lot of my belongings, esp curatives, were decaying quickly and when I had no idea how to replenish them, or when I knew I had to go to the Aetherplex to refill them but had no idea how to get there, that made me want to restart with a new character or, worse, quit the game altogether. Various commands for shopping and refilling, esp using the ID of an item to make sure you don't buy the wrong thing, were not intuitive to me and not easily available in the help files, making me lose a lot of money by only buying from Bob and buying the wrong items or items that were just about to decay
Newton feels sharply alienated from the lore and from city/guild bonding – esp bc I never encountered finks or gnomes or their rivalry again. This left me with zero info on history or politics, esp bc while in Newton I'd been avoiding my city bc vermin hunting wasn't fun relative to Newton. I first encountered the Taint once I left Newton and was very confused about what was going on. I had no idea why Serenwilde hated Glomdoring or why Glomdoring hated Magnagora. I felt like I could bash in Newton and rp in my guild, but NOT rp in Newton or bash in my guild. Meaning, I felt like I had to choose btwn rping in my guild or bashing/exploring. That made it much harder to learn how to overlap rping and leveling/earning gold after I had kept them in separate places for 20-30 lvls. As a result, when Newton was gone I didn't have the social investments to stick around. Since I had no idea I could lvl up, earn gold/credits or gain friends from city and guild tasks, Newton made me think Lusternia was all about bashing. It took forever to occur to me that I could go bashing/exploring with a group of friends from my guild or use quests outside my city as a roleplay opportunity
Thank you so much Moi. One of the biggest things that's kept me coming back to Lusternia is the investment by admins and players to make an incredible place even better.
Regarding your comment about the Newton "disconnection" from the game: you are right about that feeling! However, there actually are other quests in the game that give information about how Newton came to be inhabited the way it is (including even the shroomies there). I think the only ones that don't have a tie by now are the ants.
These quests all explain why the various associated groupings in Newton seem so disconnected from their larger groupings providing backstory... but the problem is that you can't find out about that until much later, and possibly never if you don't pursue those quests.
It might be worth examining that so new players can see at least some of how these things connect to the broader lore of the game itself somehow, but I am not entirely sure how that could best be done without rewriting the lore of Newton itself as well as the associated explanatory quests (and I am not sure that is on the table).
But a quick hint: There are hyfae (mushroom fae) in a colony in the Undervault, finks living on Mucklemarsh, a couple of known gnome colonies and references to many more, plus a bunch of gnomes who live in aetherships and travel all the time. They really are part of the game!
Edit: Actually, isn't there a hidden library room in the gnome part of Newton with a book that provides some hints of this, too?
I didn't get that from Devora's comments on disconnection. I read it as less story and more... mechanically? You are pretty much taken by the hand through the first 20 levels or so and then.... released. You get a short intro to your city/commune before Newton, then you spend a lot of time in Newton, then you're dropped back in your city/commune thinking, what was this place again? While I do NOT want a WoW-esque, on-rails experience, some sort of nudge toward "You're done with Newton, go start reading your city help files or pester the Mayor" or something would go a long ways. It has been a while since I stayed in Newton so long I levelled out of it, but I do not recall that happening.
so new players can see at least some of how these things connect to the broader lore of the game itself somehow, but I am not entirely sure how that could best be done without rewriting the lore of Newton itself as well as the associated explanatory quests
Good point, I remember LOSING MY DAMN MIND when my 8th character found out about aetherhunting and reconnected with the gnomes. Super cool. Still, I'm very curious to know how difficult it would be to link Newton to the absolute basics of lore in general, like what the Taint is. I've seen many beginners get penalized for "madness" while trying to bond with their city, which seems unfair given the complete lack of info in Newton on IC rp. Would be good to know exactly how ignorant I'm being about how much work that entails.
You get a short intro to your city/commune before Newton, then you spend a lot of time in Newton, then you're dropped back in your city/commune thinking, what was this place again?
Exactly, I could've made my post a lot shorter by just saying that. I love how Lusternia, outside of Newton, is a textured and smart game that refuses to coddle you and occasionally does flat-out "unfair" things, bc that's life. But it seems the interest in new player retention has led to making things a lot easier for the first 30 lvls, which isn't actually doing beginners a favor when there's no added scaffolding to help noobs transition into the long game. It just makes the transition to real world Lusternia that much more jarring. Noobs need extra preparation for the post-Newton world, not less.
I imagine there’s nothing that can be done about this, but doing CWHO or GWHO and realizing I’m the only person on my plane feels extremely lonely as a new player. Maybe it made more sense when the game was larger, but completely cutting off communication or even being able to see names and maybe which plane they are on might make new players feel less alone. I understand I will have more access to communication as I get stronger, but it feels like a dead world to a new player.
My second biggest concern is out of date scrolls. However, I took the initiative to contact someone in my city about them and I noticed he posted saying he is working on it. That was really cool to see. Not every new player is going to feel comfortable pointing it out and also the way dates are done here, most new players won’t register scrolls are old.
This is my favorite lore of IR games though so I’m going to stick it out for a bit!
I imagine there’s nothing that can be done about this, but doing CWHO or GWHO and realizing I’m the only person on my plane feels extremely lonely as a new player. Maybe it made more sense when the game was larger, but completely cutting off communication or even being able to see names and maybe which plane they are on might make new players feel less alone. I understand I will have more access to communication as I get stronger, but it feels like a dead world to a new player.
This actually was changed, I'm not sure if it is tied to planar but everyone shows up unless they are in a manse. The last column showing if they are on a different plane than you.
*********************[ THE FREE COLLECTIVE OF SERENWILDE ]**********************<br>Commune Member Class Rank Position CT OffP<br>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>Lisuarte Spiritsinger Forest Warden On Yes<br>Sondayga Spiritsinger Forest Warden Commune Aide On No<br>Fayette Moondancer Forest Warden On Yes<br>Elarin Hartstone Forest Warden Minister of Cultu On Yes<br>Lyod Spiritsinger Forest Custodian Commune Aide On Yes<br>********************************************************************************<br>Currently, there are 5 Commune Members on visible Planes and 1 on other Planes.
Yes, I see that too. But the reality is that i often see only myself on the visible plane and the rest “on other planes.” (At least in city and guild) What it feels like, is that I’m alone. I think tonight I logged on to see QWHO and it said 5 on this plane and 20 something on “other planes.” This might make a new player feel like there are only 5 people in the entire game that they can interact with.
I imagine there’s nothing that can be done about this, but doing CWHO or GWHO and realizing I’m the only person on my plane feels extremely lonely as a new player. Maybe it made more sense when the game was larger, but completely cutting off communication or even being able to see names and maybe which plane they are on might make new players feel less alone. I understand I will have more access to communication as I get stronger, but it feels like a dead world to a new player.
This actually was changed, I'm not sure if it is tied to planar but everyone shows up unless they are in a manse. The last column showing if they are on a different plane than you.
*********************[ THE FREE COLLECTIVE OF SERENWILDE ]**********************<br>Commune Member Class Rank Position CT OffP<br>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>Lisuarte Spiritsinger Forest Warden On Yes<br>Sondayga Spiritsinger Forest Warden Commune Aide On No<br>Fayette Moondancer Forest Warden On Yes<br>Elarin Hartstone Forest Warden Minister of Cultu On Yes<br>Lyod Spiritsinger Forest Custodian Commune Aide On Yes<br>********************************************************************************<br>Currently, there are 5 Commune Members on visible Planes and 1 on other Planes.
You only see them if they have enough planar to hear you speak.
As another example, when I have Omniscience on now people can see me on cwho / I can see them even when I am on an aetherbubble because we are both able to communicate with the other.
But a new player with only a little planar may only see people 1 / 2 planes away.
Creation is fast and snappy, tho I do miss the part about fighting my own shadow, and also the waaaaay old part about exploring Shallach
I love how the finks and gnomes in Newton are textured (raiders as well as children and civilians) and regularly interacting with each other
The alternate influence mechanic is fantastic
The help files are perfect – blessedly short but very informative
Room descriptions are so detailed and interesting to read. It's flat out fun to pause and read the scenery
Creatures consistently behave in fascinating ways. Rocs will grab you, you'll get pulled into pits, cows bump into you, guardians will turn their heads to watch you, animals periodically make noises, etc. Hugely immersive mob behaviors
Consistently, quests (and honours quests basically always) require you to do WAY more than just bashing. I love figuring out quests, using my mind, pulling out a pen and pencil. I love that there are no walkthroughs, so achievements feel very earned
In general, demonstrating game mechanics by making players DO them rather than telling them what to do is a billion times more effective. Lots of text games lose me in lectures and essentially movie montages where I barely have agency. Lusternia is really good at keeping you both mentally engaged and frantically typing as the burden is on you to act so that your story and your world's story can progress
The NUANCE in creation and rp is epic. The sheer variety and customization of races and places is BADASS. I hate how other games will gender-lock races/stats, or offer only very stereotypical and pretty racist Tolkien races, binary alignments… Right from the start I was obsessed with the way Lusternia made me feel anything was possible, and made me want to try out all the different races and cities/communes
Guild communities are so welcoming and immersive
Cons
I did not understand how to tell the difference btw class skills usable for PK and NOT for mobs, usable for mobs and NOT for PK, or usable for both. This is crucial info in choosing the right class for your gaming style, so it should be provided during creation imo
Took me a long time torealize influence was an option for ALL mobs outside of the specific influence quest for my Collegium. Also, it’s very rare to have influence as a quest component outside of Newton.Having more influence-only quests (or quest steps) in Newton, and in general, would be great. I remember there was one in Newton years ago when I first played (was it with a guy named Ben?), but it was really basic
Newbie/budget subscription idea
From what I've seen and heard, I'm positive a good chunk of beginners in MUDs are in high school or college. The No-Brainer packages are awesome, but possibly a more accessible option for monthly membership could also be a great way to hook beginners and literally give them an investment in sticking around, voting for IRE, and improving the community. A cheaper, lower rewards alternative to $300/yr, such as (brainstorming here) just one lesson per daily login costing no more than $45 a year, would be greatly appreciated.
@Devora Both of your cons were something I experienced as well. Very frustrating to realize the abilities you were really excited about were worthless for PvE after you already worked and/or paid to acquire them.
I have to agree that a cheaper subscription option (with proportionally less credits/lessons/etc) would make me more inclined to keep a subscription going longer-term instead of cancelling it.
Ok, I had my friend who hasn't played MUDs before try out Lusternia.
Question: I still have no clue how hard her ideas would be to code. Is there a resource players can use to adjust their suggestions and expectations to the sorts of things that are easy and difficult to implement mechanically?
Ideally, players would contribute to a lot of these suggested resources. Admin and volunteers can't do everything. I've applied to join the wiki and submitted some helpbugs
Brief:
Newbie Guide
The Newbie Guide is misleading and badly out of date.
Let us players rally and make a good novice guide!! (unless there's a great one out there already that I don't know about)
Using the Interface
Would be great to have a part of the website that explains the absolute basics of where you should type and how to use the dialogue box to the right, etc
Hints
In the current hint mode, a hint pops up the first time you encounter something and then never again. She really wanted a second mode where hints come up on which syntax to use every time you encounter a number of basic things, esp. communication and interaction
Starting Location
Right now when the intro ends newbies are left standing … nowhere. Maybe a sign with instructions on how to move could help?
OUT of the Portal, there's no one there to greet newbs. Maybe an NPC could help?
Clutter in Important Locations
There's gotta be a way to keep at least two rooms in the Realms, the Portal and the room just outside of it on Solitude, empty except for what's useful and actually lore-related. I appreciate that Lusternia has the Whimsicality, but I think it's confusing and unappealing for players who are serious about rp when that's the first and only thing they see. It comes off very OOC and WOW
Learning
I think players should have absolute basic class skills available, with HINTS when they attack things that they should use their class-specific weapon, so it's easier for them to start exploring and fighting immediately
If learning skills is something players should do from the start, it should be a much more interactive process. Rn learning is a very passive experience that doesn't show off the great features of Lusternia! That shouldn't be a newbie's introduction to our world
Verbose:
Using the Interface
Would be great to have a part of the website/wiki that explains where you should type (to a true newbie the typing box may be unnecessarily subtle), how to use the dialogue box to the right, what the map on the upper left is all about, etc
Newbie Guide
The Newbie Guide is misleading and badly out of date. Fewer typos and more snappy bullet points would be great
Let us players rally and make a good novice guide!! (unless there's a great one out there already that I don't know about)
Players need another screen outside of the game that they can have useful info on bc it takes a good while to adjust to keeping track of information live in-game, despite everything that's going on
Hints
In the current hint mode, a hint pops up the first time you encounter something and then never again. She really wanted a second mode where hints come up on which syntax to use every time you encounter a number of basic things, esp. communication and interaction
For example: She got a hint to TELL back the first time someone sent her a tell, but was busy figuring out movement commands. Then when she wanted to reply she didn't know about using the dialogue box to the right and she had no idea how to answer or ask for help
Just typing HELP leads to something of an infodump. With helpbug I've suggested the first page of the help files should probably be basic commands for newbies: SAY, how to move, PORTALS, NEWBIE, etc, with the TOC on the second page
Starting Location
Right now when the intro ends newbies are left standing … nowhere. She missed the "go out" hint bc she was still reading different guild files to choose a guild, then she freaked out, thought it was a bug, and wanted to quit. Would be excellent if this room could be mapped or could contain a sign (so when they LOOK they see "READ SIGN!") with a number of basic commands like going OUT and using PORTALS and CGT, etc.
OUT of the Portal, there's no one there to greet newbs, which is a big issue. Having an NPC saying things like, "Naturally you must be disoriented after stepping through the Portal. Do you know how to get home?" with hints about responding to SAY always popping on for this particular NPC would probably be an ordeal to code but I really, really think it would be a big help
Clutter in Important Locations
Right now I have problems with what newbs are greeted with when they go OUT of the Portal. There's like 50 parakeets and fennec foxes and whatever? Wut?? Then there's these long lists of animals whose owners have perma-AFK'd who just sit there, and my friend actually read about everyone in the room bc she thought it was Important and got weirded out when she couldn't interact with them in any way
I appreciate that Lusternia has the Whimsicality, but I think it's a turnoff for players who are serious about rp when that's the first and only thing they see. It comes off very OOC and WOW. There's gotta be a way to keep at least two rooms in the Realms, the Portal and the room just outside of it on Solitude, empty except for what's useful and actually lore-related
I have similar issues with randomly dropped waste and people's random pets cluttering the Aetherplex and nexuses. Why aren't there clean-up mechanisms? This can be a significant source of confusion and immersion breaking for newbies. But I understand if that is hard to fix
Learning
Players are told they can go wherever they want to start out, but Newton Caverns is a lot tougher without basic skills. Instead of forcing new players to first figure out the process of going to their city/commune and LEARNing a big list of stuff from Miakoda or whoever, players should have absolute basic skills available with HINTS when they attack things that they should use their class-specific weapon
If learning skills is something players should do from the start, it should be a much more interactive process instead of sitting around doing nothing for half an hour and entering repetitive commands before you can actually go do things. That doesn't show off the great features of Lusternia! Learning is one of the only things in Lusty that is rote and passive. That incredibly unusual lack of engagement shouldn't be the first thing newbies experience
doing CWHO or GWHO and realizing I’m the only person on my plane feels extremely lonely as a new player. I understand I will have more access to communication as I get stronger, but it feels like a dead world to a new player.
My second biggest concern is out of date scrolls. Not every new player is going to feel comfortable pointing it out and also the way dates are done here, most new players won’t register scrolls are old.
Also, seconding these two points. Luckily, players could help improve these things! For the first point, it would help if even more players than those who already do this kept an eye on the logs to see when new players join their city/commune and reached out to them with TELLs.
I understand since the guild/class overhaul there's been a lot of chaos, but I still get thrown off / confused by how may links don't work and saying guild when it's referring to class and I've been playing for months now. Regularly scheduled tests and updates of basic CHELP, CGHELP, and GHELP files would be awesome.
Maybe admin could support these efforts with rewards of some kind (eg bound credits or favours) for updating player-run files? I know experienced players in my commune are dedicating a huge amount of time and effort, out of the literal goodness of their hearts, and more players who stick around means more revenue for IRE. Is it fair to rely on players to run a parallel help system without incentives?
Hello Lhayne! I am not sure what org you are in (do not have access to the game right now) but one of the best things to do is peruse CGHELP WELCOME (I think that is the file name, CGHELP INDEX gives the full list of collegium files). The collegium stuff is meant for new players and helps condense things down to more what you might need sooner. There are too many files to review without some help!
Some orgs have OOC clans for asking your "what the heck is going on" questions; if one is available, take advantage of it. It is important to learn about the IC/OOC divide though, your character should have its own way of doing things (Lhayne knows nothing about laptops, for example). Just getting used to keeping that in your mind will help you build up your RP by having some separation between you and your character.
If you do not have a "who is Lhayne" in mind yet, do not worry. There is plenty of time to work on that in the future, and you can try some things / change them if they simply do not work for you. Best thing to do is just dive in and see where it takes you. Ask for help when you need it, lots of us are interested in seeing new people enjoy the game with us.
Hm. Additional thought. We now have two different pinned threads for newbies (this one which is kind of crowded and in many ways outdated), and the Midkemian one. @Estarra can we maybe get these ones unpinned and a new one started as a go-to resource for newbies?
I could maybe put something together using some of @Eliron 's stuff if you are amenable to that, just think it would be a good idea to get something that is a bit fresher at this point.
Thanks! This kind of games seems a little bit complex for a newbie, but i think that with some patience I can adjust myself to it, im happy to find it.
Now i see that the forum and the game itself are full of information. And so much information, I will need to take my time! This will help to improve my english level so all the effort is worth, sure
I did see you were in Glomdoring. Ask Veyils (aka Deichtine) for an invite to Shadow Kindred if she's around. Yendor and I usually play later in the day and we also induct. That is our clan for asking questions, because sometimes help files just don't do it and you need some actual conversation.
The Newbie channel can be useful too, so don't be afraid to use that.
As a person that has tried several times to play Lusternia (currently working on a new character) one of the things that I find frustrating is the amount of stuff thrown at you. Things tend to be needlessly wordy in Lusternia. Something as simple as a title for a guild can be twelve words long. This is just one example. If you would take the time to simplify and streamline things, clean up and make help files and scrolls to the point, then I think it would make it a lot more appealing to people that are coming in. As a writer of sorts, there is a difference between being descriptive, and being overly "wordy". When you are dealing with a text-based experience, you need a balance between descriptive and brevity. Otherwise, it is just a wall of text.
Second to this would be formatting. Several of the other IRE (Aetolia for example) have taken the time to work out ways to better format the display of information. They have a very nice layout for things like HELPs and SCORE and STATUS. Which believe it or not helps with the ability to make ones experience in a text-based game easier.
I want to like Lusternia for many reasons, however, it often feels very bulky and tiresome to me.
@Vlaiel Do you think the official in game help files are too wordy? They usually seem brief to me, could you give an example?
I agree with you on some of the scrolls.
Could you clarify what about Aetolia's SCORE and STATUS layouts are better than Lusternia's? To me SCORE seems mostly the same (see Aetolia's here and Lusty's here), the big difference being Aetolia uses labels. I agree that adding labels to Lusty's would make it much easier to get the hang of.
STAT also seems the same (Aetolia's vs Lusty's). Maybe the 3rd box in Lusty's should be its own command?
Comparing Aetolia's HELP SCORE with Lusternia's, it does jump out that Aetolia's help file has 280 words (not counting the example) and Lusty's has a wall of 1k+ words. Some helpedit suggestions may be in order. Same with HELP STATUS. Most of the info in Lusty's should be broken up into their own help file pages, with HELP SC/STAT linking to them.
So I'm a level 82 newbie. I've tried a lot of characters on here and nothing I do can get me I to whatever is going on in this game and it's starting to become frustrating. I can't join the guild I want because nobody can induct me. I'm without a guild because I was originally in Serenwilde but would literally be the only player logged in over half the time, and despite going transcendant in forging (yes, I invested money despite the problems) nobody seemed to need anything forged, so that was a complete waste. I was told to study up on aethercraft but first I have to get a manse, then a ship, and so far that has been a completely unused skill. I went trans in Geomancy, but I can only use that against players, and the only PVP seems to be the timequakes or bashing, both of which I'm told not to meld, so that's a completely unused skill. Realizing I'm not supposed to use any of the skills I've invested in I started studying influence, but all I've been doing is repeating the exact same command over and over, so I have no idea how to do that properly.
It feels like this game was built for about thirty people, and those people have a blast. Any roleplaying I do is rebuffed so I don't see any point in even engaging in that. This game seems like so much fun when you're low level and a lot is happening, but I'm approaching Demi and have done nothing but bash.
So I'm a level 82 newbie. I've tried a lot of characters on here and nothing I do can get me I to whatever is going on in this game and it's starting to become frustrating. I can't join the guild I want because nobody can induct me. I'm without a guild because I was originally in Serenwilde but would literally be the only player logged in over half the time, and despite going transcendant in forging (yes, I invested money despite the problems) nobody seemed to need anything forged, so that was a complete waste. I was told to study up on aethercraft but first I have to get a manse, then a ship, and so far that has been a completely unused skill. I went trans in Geomancy, but I can only use that against players, and the only PVP seems to be the timequakes or bashing, both of which I'm told not to meld, so that's a completely unused skill. Realizing I'm not supposed to use any of the skills I've invested in I started studying influence, but all I've been doing is repeating the exact same command over and over, so I have no idea how to do that properly.
It feels like this game was built for about thirty people, and those people have a blast. Any roleplaying I do is rebuffed so I don't see any point in even engaging in that. This game seems like so much fun when you're low level and a lot is happening, but I'm approaching Demi and have done nothing but bash.
For aethercraft, depending on your org, you shouldn't need a ship cause you'll want a group to go with you and most/all orgs have some available which are also generally upgraded already.
Influence, you ultimately get 3 "attacks" per type and you just cycle around the three with extension being abilities in influence and other skills along with items that increase your ability to influence. (Your meld, for example, has an ability to help a little if you influence inside it)
The other stuff, yeah I'd normally warn off newbies from investing in trades at this point. Melders are changing which maybe will make this easier and this sorta thing is why Woodchems were made (You could potentially switch to Geochemantics with a small lesson loss to get away from melds? not sure how "good" it is though).
So I'm a level 82 newbie. I've tried a lot of characters on here and nothing I do can get me I to whatever is going on in this game and it's starting to become frustrating. I can't join the guild I want because nobody can induct me. I'm without a guild because I was originally in Serenwilde but would literally be the only player logged in over half the time, and despite going transcendant in forging (yes, I invested money despite the problems) nobody seemed to need anything forged, so that was a complete waste. I was told to study up on aethercraft but first I have to get a manse, then a ship, and so far that has been a completely unused skill. I went trans in Geomancy, but I can only use that against players, and the only PVP seems to be the timequakes or bashing, both of which I'm told not to meld, so that's a completely unused skill. Realizing I'm not supposed to use any of the skills I've invested in I started studying influence, but all I've been doing is repeating the exact same command over and over, so I have no idea how to do that properly.
It feels like this game was built for about thirty people, and those people have a blast. Any roleplaying I do is rebuffed so I don't see any point in even engaging in that. This game seems like so much fun when you're low level and a lot is happening, but I'm approaching Demi and have done nothing but bash.
I don't know enough about forging or PvP to help with that, but there are many quests in the game that are interesting and fun to do, and you can use the Influence skill you studied in some of them too (I felt the same way as you about influencing at first, but it's better once you get the hang of it).
I'm sorry that you felt rebuffed when you tried to talk to people. If you want a conversation, you can send me a tell in-game if you see me. I might not be the best at it, but I'm open to talk to and have interesting conversations with people in-game!
Hopefully some of the other people here can answer your questions about PvP. As for trade-skills, in my experience, it's better to find one that interests you rather than what might be more useful to others. For example, I chose cooking and it's been very fun, although there's barely any mechanical use for it. But when I played an alt and chose the more "useful" skill of jewellery, I found it dreadfully boring. Designing items is also fun, if you enjoy writing.
You are startled as a lemon meringue pie bounces harmlessly off you after being thrown at you by Mysrai.
Yeah, it looks like I'll have to change skills again. I just specifically asked my city if that was a wise choice and everyone advised me to go with what I want to play, but it seems odd to not mention it will go unused. It would just be nice to get to try something before you have to make a game-altering decision regarding it.
So if there are city aetherships how do I access them?
Comments
For my first few charries and this time around, my biggest trouble was serious and abrupt disorientation after Newton.
- Losing a familar place to lvl up and quest after you get kicked out of Newton, losing PORTALS, and losing Grace are all fine and reasonable features, but it caused big player engagement problems for me as a beginner in Lusternia when all of them happened at once, instead of successively
- Consequently not knowing how to move around, where to hunt after Newton and how to tell if a mob is safe to hunt abruptly got me both lost and killed constantly after having been basically immune to both for dozens of levels
- Not knowing how to use shops and store things made me lose money and left me feeling completely impotent once I ran out of the resources I got during creation or if I ran out of resources while lost
- Newton feels sharply alienated from the lore and from city/guild bonding. I felt like I could bash in Newton and rp in my guild, but NOT rp in Newton or bash in my guild. Since I had no idea I could lvl up, earn gold/credits or gain friends from city and guild tasks, Newton made me think Lusternia was all about bashing. Then when Newton was gone I didn't have the social investments to stick around. It took forever to occur to me that I could get the best of both worlds – go bashing/exploring with a group of friends from my guild or use quests outside my city as a roleplay opportunity
Keep in mind, all these issues could just be me being a dolt.Ideas for improvement:
Imho, WHATNOW or similar beginner help files could really use
- recommendations for relatively easy areas/quests to explore during or post-Newton so you're not getting lost or killed all the time once you get kicked out
- intro to using roads, milestones, and mapview to navigate, info on transitioning to teleport and advancedteleport once PORTALS runs out, plus a link to the map on the website
- info on shopping commands, item decay, using the Aetherplex, replenishing basic supplies, and rift storage; add a HELP SHOPPING file, and maybe HELP SUPPLIES
- basic universal intro to guild/class/city/commune tasks that can reward you with gold and social bonding such as power quests, vermin hunting, culture contributions, and group rp opportunities vs just saying "talk to your guild"
- a specific help file on how to transition after getting kicked out of Newton that summarizes all of the above
- a specific help file on common newbie mistakes and how to avoid them
This is in addition to the lamp, which covers a variety of these points but is not as intuitive or accessible as help files.Finally, I wish Newton tied into the lore a lot more. Maybe there could be some extra quests that do that or some slight cosmetic tweaking to help beginners learn just a little about the Taint and the Seals and the Gods and so on as they go thru quests. Maybe Collegium quests could also be slightly tweaked to relate back to Newton. Frankly, right now Newton makes the Lusternia experience look like WoW with crappier graphics and smarter quests. That causes beginners to miss out on one of the main things that makes Lusternia immersive, fun, and better than other games, imo, which is rping, bashing, questing, socializing, politicking, PK, exploring, and crafting all in one in any combo you want!
Verbose desc of issues:
E: HELP WHATNOW helpedit submitted!
You get a short intro to your city/commune before Newton, then you spend a lot of time in Newton, then you're dropped back in your city/commune thinking, what was this place again?
While I do NOT want a WoW-esque, on-rails experience, some sort of nudge toward "You're done with Newton, go start reading your city help files or pester the Mayor" or something would go a long ways. It has been a while since I stayed in Newton so long I levelled out of it, but I do not recall that happening.
My second biggest concern is out of date scrolls. However, I took the initiative to contact someone in my city about them and I noticed he posted saying he is working on it. That was really cool to see. Not every new player is going to feel comfortable pointing it out and also the way dates are done here, most new players won’t register scrolls are old.
This is my favorite lore of IR games though so I’m going to stick it out for a bit!
Here are some more newbie pros & cons.
Pros
Cons
Newbie/budget subscription idea
From what I've seen and heard, I'm positive a good chunk of beginners in MUDs are in high school or college. The No-Brainer packages are awesome, but possibly a more accessible option for monthly membership could also be a great way to hook beginners and literally give them an investment in sticking around, voting for IRE, and improving the community. A cheaper, lower rewards alternative to $300/yr, such as (brainstorming here) just one lesson per daily login costing no more than $45 a year, would be greatly appreciated.
Question: I still have no clue how hard her ideas would be to code. Is there a resource players can use to adjust their suggestions and expectations to the sorts of things that are easy and difficult to implement mechanically?
Ideally, players would contribute to a lot of these suggested resources. Admin and volunteers can't do everything. I've applied to join the wiki and submitted some helpbugs
Brief:
Newbie Guide
- The Newbie Guide is misleading and badly out of date.
- Let us players rally and make a good novice guide!! (unless there's a great one out there already that I don't know about)
Using the Interface- Would be great to have a part of the website that explains the absolute basics of where you should type and how to use the dialogue box to the right, etc
Hints- In the current hint mode, a hint pops up the first time you encounter something and then never again. She really wanted a second mode where hints come up on which syntax to use every time you encounter a number of basic things, esp. communication and interaction
Starting Location- Right now when the intro ends newbies are left standing … nowhere. Maybe a sign with instructions on how to move could help?
- OUT of the Portal, there's no one there to greet newbs. Maybe an NPC could help?
Clutter in Important Locations- There's gotta be a way to keep at least two rooms in the Realms, the Portal and the room just outside of it on Solitude, empty except for what's useful and actually lore-related. I appreciate that Lusternia has the Whimsicality, but I think it's confusing and unappealing for players who are serious about rp when that's the first and only thing they see. It comes off very OOC and WOW
LearningVerbose:
Using the Interface
Newbie Guide
Hints
Starting Location
Clutter in Important Locations
Learning
I understand since the guild/class overhaul there's been a lot of chaos, but I still get thrown off / confused by how may links don't work and saying guild when it's referring to class and I've been playing for months now. Regularly scheduled tests and updates of basic CHELP, CGHELP, and GHELP files would be awesome.
Maybe admin could support these efforts with rewards of some kind (eg bound credits or favours) for updating player-run files? I know experienced players in my commune are dedicating a huge amount of time and effort, out of the literal goodness of their hearts, and more players who stick around means more revenue for IRE. Is it fair to rely on players to run a parallel help system without incentives?
Second to this would be formatting. Several of the other IRE (Aetolia for example) have taken the time to work out ways to better format the display of information. They have a very nice layout for things like HELPs and SCORE and STATUS. Which believe it or not helps with the ability to make ones experience in a text-based game easier.
I want to like Lusternia for many reasons, however, it often feels very bulky and tiresome to me.
I agree with you on some of the scrolls.
Could you clarify what about Aetolia's SCORE and STATUS layouts are better than Lusternia's? To me SCORE seems mostly the same (see Aetolia's here and Lusty's here), the big difference being Aetolia uses labels. I agree that adding labels to Lusty's would make it much easier to get the hang of.
STAT also seems the same (Aetolia's vs Lusty's). Maybe the 3rd box in Lusty's should be its own command?
Comparing Aetolia's HELP SCORE with Lusternia's, it does jump out that Aetolia's help file has 280 words (not counting the example) and Lusty's has a wall of 1k+ words. Some helpedit suggestions may be in order. Same with HELP STATUS. Most of the info in Lusty's should be broken up into their own help file pages, with HELP SC/STAT linking to them.
I was told to study up on aethercraft but first I have to get a manse, then a ship, and so far that has been a completely unused skill.
I went trans in Geomancy, but I can only use that against players, and the only PVP seems to be the timequakes or bashing, both of which I'm told not to meld, so that's a completely unused skill.
Realizing I'm not supposed to use any of the skills I've invested in I started studying influence, but all I've been doing is repeating the exact same command over and over, so I have no idea how to do that properly.
It feels like this game was built for about thirty people, and those people have a blast. Any roleplaying I do is rebuffed so I don't see any point in even engaging in that. This game seems like so much fun when you're low level and a lot is happening, but I'm approaching Demi and have done nothing but bash.
Influence, you ultimately get 3 "attacks" per type and you just cycle around the three with extension being abilities in influence and other skills along with items that increase your ability to influence. (Your meld, for example, has an ability to help a little if you influence inside it)
The other stuff, yeah I'd normally warn off newbies from investing in trades at this point. Melders are changing which maybe will make this easier and this sorta thing is why Woodchems were made (You could potentially switch to Geochemantics with a small lesson loss to get away from melds? not sure how "good" it is though).
I'm sorry that you felt rebuffed when you tried to talk to people. If you want a conversation, you can send me a tell in-game if you see me. I might not be the best at it, but I'm open to talk to and have interesting conversations with people in-game!
Hopefully some of the other people here can answer your questions about PvP. As for trade-skills, in my experience, it's better to find one that interests you rather than what might be more useful to others. For example, I chose cooking and it's been very fun, although there's barely any mechanical use for it. But when I played an alt and chose the more "useful" skill of jewellery, I found it dreadfully boring. Designing items is also fun, if you enjoy writing.
So if there are city aetherships how do I access them?