Compared to other muds ive played (including aardwolf) Lusternia's introduction is by far the best of them.

However, im still a newbie (level 9) and havent been to any of the newbie areas in lusternia. Ive found money and exp from questing in the serenwilde and from weeviling.

No one ever told me about the newbie areas and I dont actually know where they are. Ive thus never needed/wanted to try and find them. As I doubt if they would give as much exp/gold as ive been getting so far.

It might help if GNT actually worked on the planes like it's meant to (for EVERY guild, it still doesn't work for Moondancers even if it does work for you, people ) so I could help when the novices ask questions...*hinthint*

Actually, those areas do give more gold and experience then weevils or quests. And they can be reached easily using the portals.

Ack not to mention either that or overactive. I have a friend who plays it as a newbie who said it goes something like this:

Spindle says something on Newbie about a hint or something.

He kills one mob.

Spindle says something again that's helpful

He walks 2 rooms.

Spindle says something again that's helpful again.

He teleports to Nexus

Spindle says something helpful.

He NEWBIEOFF.

That was one thing I thought could be covered somehow. None of the newbies, unless alts or from other ire games, knew about portals.

There are those that need their hands held. And those that are fairly self sufficient.

Hand holdign examples, the most recent novice I saw, Fusion.
First, had to tell him to change his name. Then I had to explain to him how to to use portals.
"How do I get to celest"
portals read sign find the one that lead to the pool of stars.
"But is says blah"
Then GO there..
"Now what"
read the sign again. *faint*

Well, first IRE game I have played. Intro helped, especially the fighting part. Other than that, I caught on rather well.

My only problem was the guild I was in. I would ask something, repeatively, and get no answer. I would ask on newbie, and would be told that is a guild question and I should ask on gnt. There would be about 10 people on, and no one would ever answer...

That depends on the guild, really. Some are very helpful, others... well, they're not.

Actually, I just realized I have some wierd input.
I've been a novice aide at some point in my life in each of the muds I've played.

I've never felt as useless as I have in the Ur'guard. It could be my RP, or it could just be me, but I find that there is little I can tell newbies once I give them the rundown of the basics and introduce them to the GHelp files. And our Ghelp files say little to almost nothing of the outside world that newbies would understand.

So I think that is a good thing, unless the people complaining about not geting questions answered are people who were in the ur'guard, in that case .... D'oh!

Heh. I always try to help newbies by giving them resources they can use to find the information for themselves so they can learn to discover things on their own.

As far as the quest hints for newbies, that's a great idea. I never spent much time in the newbie areas when I first started to play, because there was a huge swarm of..well, everyone, there constantly. But even the few times I did manage to kill some things, I had no idea there were actual quests there. But that could just be because I tend to be oblivious to things like that.

One thing I remember specifically was that in trying to rescue the Gnome explorers, I couldn't for the life of me get the syntax to have them follow me. I think some things, particularly in the newbie areas, aren't intuitive enough.

I know that was a major source of frustration for me, at least, having never played an IRE game seriously before.

I can't answer as someone who's never been in an IRE MUD, but I can answer as someone who's only ever played in one other MUD.

I positively adored the amnesia angle and the way it fits into forming families, letting you build your background gradually as you get to know the world it fits into, roleplaying it.

I also came in during the first day of open beta. Newton was impossible for a bit: not only too crowded but also too many people doing PK on the ranker newbies for experience. Also, the Guides were overstressed and themselves not quite up to speed (and I couldn't help wincing at some of the spelling and grammar) so they weren't able to be as much help as they might. All that is no doubt worked out now.

About the only thing I found difficult that may still be, is it was too easy for someone to not realize there was a whole 'nother layer out there. I was surprised how many people didn't even find Lolliprin (and not just because other people were ruining the mini-quests needed to get there), but quite a few people never found the top of Smoke Mountain and never knew there was something to find.

I'd like to know what people in newbiehood now will say to this question in a few weeks.

Yea, being a newbie as a moondancer was easy, killing everything in newton in one hit probably made it easier. If I could change one thing, make it a little more immersive. I read the story of the gnomes and finks in the book in newton and loved it. I would personally make the story come out a little bit more, be a little more apparent

The bashing is good, the gold is fast and its not tedious, overall Newton is very well done. Interesting quests too.

Oh, except the king and the queen one should be worth more for how long it takes, 300 at least.

My favorite part of being a newbie was when I finally made it all the way up to the fink/gnome battlefields. I had never before seen mobiles having an all out war like that! It was very cool, even for someone who's been playing IRE games for a couple years.

I remember the first day of lusternian open beta. The newbie area was, simply put, HORRIBLE. Almost nothing inside (bashed out), more novices then mobiles etc. You know what I mean. I remember my first PKill - on a guy with a middle-east inspired name (something like Saddim or like that), a Magnagoran who propably joined the city only because he thought that being evil (if Magnagora's evil) gives you a right to attack others. I proved him that even if he was a badass, he was a weak one.
Now, that was a long sentence. *pant*

However, my second character's encounter with Newton Caverns was slightly different. The place had a reasonable amount of novices, and there was enough creatures for everyone to level up quickly, even if you were picky and didn't kill 'good'/'evil' denizens.
Things I don't like in Newton:
-any quest apart from basic 'give me corpses' and 'I want chains/widgets' ones is rather hard to figure out, if you didn't have any IRE muds experience before
-curse/blast/cosmicfire kills almost everything in one shot - it may look cool at the first place, but after a longer while you are getting bored of the lack of challenge
-the main area is underground, which I don't like (but it's just me)

RE: newton

Ive been playing around in newton for the first time today.

It actually seems impossible to complete the quests due to the reset time for the quest mobs and objects.

I collect 3 widgets and take them to the dude. Then I collect the chains and take them to the other guy. But by this time, the widgets have been reset and I have to start again.

It seems faintly ridiculous.

Its similar in way to the bopalopia honours questin achaea, but that quest was actually possible to complete.

I've been newbieoff for awhile, so not sure if it's improved... but the old guides were horrible! I remember seeing them do smilies on newbie channel. I asked one a question in tells, and about 10 mins later got a reply saying to read HELP SUICIDE.

Ack, Aebrin saw his name, told Vesar if he could ask him to change it. Not to mention his warcry was on the lines of OMFG.

Sorry Estarra, topic hijack. I'm in a rampage against bad RP at the moment.

I'm suprised actually, by how much I've seen newbies not know about lolliprin, as has been mentioned. Newbies will ask over GNT whatthey should do, since they are tired of Newton. I'll often ask if they've been ot the battlegrounds in Lolliprin, and they have no idea what I'm talking about.

And speaking of the batlegrounds, one of the funest newbies places I've spent time in. I did almost all of my leveling up to 21 there, and gained loads of gold. Was nice, because most eople didn't seem to realise that it was there, and I could just slay people, give their corpses for gold, and soon after, they were all back, ready for just me to slay again. Very very fun!

...see, to prove the point, I'd never heard of battlegrounds in the newbie areas before. And I've been playing about 46 CONTINUOUS DAYS all told.

I think Lolliprin should be made easier to get to. The portal thing is interesting, but... it's too much of a handicap on the newbies for getting there.