Basic ailments in Newton Caverns?

Kagato

Currently the only real 'introduction' that novices have to ailments in the basin are the HELP CURELIST scroll, the healing quest and whatever scrolls the cities and communes decide to make.

I think it might be worthwhile for some of the finks and gnomes in the later areas (Top of Smoky Mountain) to have a small chance of giving afflictions - such as gnomes giving broken limbs - they DO have those hammers they are lugging around after all... and perhaps a corresponding affliction for the finks - maybe blindness?

It would give novices a basic introduction into some of the afflictions they may come up against once they leave the caverns without suddenly being thrown in the deep end.

Anyone got any further suggestions to improve on this idea, or some feedback?

Nihta

You may wish to put this in the ideas for newbies thread.

I seem to remember that the collegium also has a quest which teaches basic cures, and if you use the WHATCURES <ailment> command, you can see what cures a specific ailment. Finally, there is first aid to help with curing afflictions at a low level.

Kagato

Nihta said:

You may wish to put this in the ideas for newbies thread.

I seem to remember that the collegium also has a quest which teaches basic cures, and if you use the WHATCURES <ailment> command, you can see what cures a specific ailment. Finally, there is first aid to help with curing afflictions at a low level.

Yeah but keep in mind that NOTHING in newton caverns afflicts with anything that requires use of FIRSTAID outside of bleeding which is of such a negligible amount that you can ignore it mostly, plus the healing quest doesn't really teach you how to handle curing in a time-critical situation, instead you sit there, pick out what ailment it happens to be, WHATCURES that affliction, pull that herb or salve and give it to the denizen.

What I was thinking was something along the lines of:
A gnomish knight strikes you firmly on the left leg, breaking the bone cleanly in two
You are afflicted with brokenleftleg
[HINT] You have been afflicted with a broken limb! These can be cured by the FIRSTAID command or by APPLYing MENDING TO LEGS.

Xenthos

See, I really like Newton the way it is.  The more afflictions you throw at a newbie, the more confusing you make the introductory period.  I'm perfectly content with afflictions being in the collegium only right at the start.

They get introduced to affs really quickly once they move out of Newton and into the Tidal Flats.

Ssaliss

I kinda like the idea of afflictions in Newton, but not the ones that hinder you (i.e. the two you mentioned above). They should be able to ignore the afflictions to a certain degree, since we don't want them stuck just because they weren't properly prepared. Personally, I'm leaning more towards Asthma (which would stop them running very quickly) and slickness (to teach them that some afflictions prevent certain cures). Without anorexia, those two shouldn't be very harmful at all, and even if they did manage to get anorexia as well, they could always PORTALS to cure them all.

Rathan

Yeah, speaking from experience in Imperian, newbie areas should never afflict with anything that has a chance of leaving the newbie stranded. Over the course of my character's life there, I've probably sent over 100 vials of mending to various newbies who got stuck in the lumberjack camp after a woodsman snapped both their legs.

Another good choice is one of the phobias, as most of them will be readily evident but not very deadly by themselves. I'm really not used to saying this, but paralysis is also not terrible here because it's cured with an inept common skill.

Kagato

Ssaliss said:

I kinda like the idea of afflictions in Newton, but not the ones that hinder you (i.e. the two you mentioned above). They should be able to ignore the afflictions to a certain degree, since we don't want them stuck just because they weren't properly prepared. Personally, I'm leaning more towards Asthma (which would stop them running very quickly) and slickness (to teach them that some afflictions prevent certain cures). Without anorexia, those two shouldn't be very harmful at all, and even if they did manage to get anorexia as well, they could always PORTALS to cure them all.

This is the sort of feedback I'm looking for - there's plenty of afflictions that can be used that won't leave them buggered if they run out of salve.

Xenthos said:

See, I really like Newton the way it is.  The more afflictions you throw at a newbie, the more confusing you make the introductory period.  I'm perfectly content with afflictions being in the collegium only right at the start.

They get introduced to affs really quickly once they move out of Newton and into the Tidal Flats.

That's the thing though - Why should they have to wait until they have been booted out of the caves, when there is a perfectly valid environment DESIGNED for these kinds of things - these days novices are INVULNERABLE until 15th circle, plus they get a full HP/MP/ego/etc refresh not only every time they level, but every time they use the PORTALS command.  A controlled environment like that or something similar would be ideal

Which reminds me, I gave Achaea a try a while back now, one thing I liked is that there was a denizen you could go to within a city that would actually afflict you with the affliction (things like paralysis, fear, etc) that you stated so that you could learn how to get out of it (whether it was writhe, compose, etc)

Allyrianne

I've run into a number of people, newbie or not, who don't know about the WHATCURES command. It would be nice if a hint for it were included somewhere, perhaps instead of telling them to apply mending to legs, or whatever, they might be told to use that.