So I created a blademaster ur'Guard a while ago, when people said Blademasters sucked. Said Ur'guard is a herbalist. Said ur'guard has received about 20? 30? credits from Morik (all OOC credits, nyeah) and has earnt the rest of them via in-game means.

Magnagora hasn't had a credit sale in a while. The Ur'guard haven't had a credit sale in a while either. I can only surmise they're either hoarding credits because they're not coming in, or they're low becuase they've sold most of their credits to citymates/guildmates.

All I can say about the experience is that its difficult. Its very, very difficult. Its difficult to try and sell herbs as there is a lot of herbalists about but the only herbs people want are really for health vials. I'm at smoking/wormwood and there don't seem to be enough players who want to buy any other herb besides said health vial herbs, at least not until sparkleberry. I've found it difficult to participate in an active economy without being transcendant. I've found it reasonably difficult to participate in influence without being a really high level. I've found it extraordinarily difficult to participate in combat without some way of buying credits at a far cheaper rate than I can currently obtain.

I personally think that this game, as it stands, really isn't casual-gamer friendly. There is too much that you need to learn, both SKILLS and skills, to actually /be/ here. There is always something going on, some counter-quest that needs to be done, some defending that needs to happen, some long influencing run of villages back to back.

So here's my question. Do others have recent newbie characters? What has it been like? What can you do, what can't you do? How far have you gone without buying OOC credits? Do you feel useful in your city?

Yeah, i wish they'd have credits sales again so i could pay you back quicker.

*chuckle* i don't mind. I've made it a specific point to not throw OOC credits at my ur'guard because I want to see what its like /not/ having them. I had much more fun without buying credits on Achaea. There's much less to learn and less pressure to do anything except achieve your own personal goals.

I think your correct, you can read my post adressed to guild and city leaders to help alleviate these issue.

I have purchased credits on my blacktalon alt and transferred them to Laneth (all ooc, don't worry), so I got around 120 bonus lessons from that to learn from. Other than that, it's all in-game for him.

I find that novicehood is much more boring than I remember. I want to do something useful for the guild/city, but there isn't really a whole lot to do that I find interesting as a player. The only thing I can do, and this is for my own fun and my alts role, is spy on people. That's cool and all but it gets a tad boring.

Telira does pretty well without, but I'm fully aware that she can't set foot in an arena. Her only afflictions are poison-induced. Oh, and ArmArtery. Fear the 5 bleeding!

That having been said, she gathers lots of power for the nexus, manages a decent income without a tradeskill, and benefits enormously from the Ebonguard's promotion policy.

Now, if only Richter'd update that project...

I found Achaea's Novicehood immensely fun, and Lusternia's immensely boring. Maybe it was because Achaea was my first IRE game ever, but right off the bat in Achaea I had someone helping me do everything (tattoos, explaining everything; I know it's not directly cause of Lusteria's game mechanics, but all the pressure do to stuff keeps people from being/having time to be newby-friendly). Perhaps another reason is that Achaea has player-based Novicehood graduation requirements/trials, and it's a lot more fun to aim at goals than to just play for 24 hours before you can get out of Novicehood...plus for more experienced players the 24 hours really is a pain in the ass.

All 3 characters I've made here have been able to graduate novicehood in 14 hours or less.

And at that point, what did you move onto?

I've never bought an OOC credit either and it can be pretty tough.. I've only got one trans and one mythical and its not nearly enough of the skills I need to be truly effective fighter. But it is possible to get high up without buying OOC credits, people like Eiru have done it.

True. I didnt bought any OOC credits too. But i'm here from long time when creadits was cheap like water, so now i have 2 Transed skills 2 Fabled.
But for novice now, it will be very hard and long way to get so much credits from market.

Just curious. Is it possible to specialize in one thing at a time and still function? For example, I put lessons in to planar and discernment just for rift and clot. Instead, could I have put all my lessons into a focus skill - say herbalism, because I want to be an herbalist. I also put just enough into Nature to get talisman and torc so I can hunt if I like.

Or if I just wanted to hunt and do some PVP, maybe put all of the lessons into a weapons and discernment?
(I hope I'm not confusing skills with other games? Hope you guys get my point though)

A lot depends on what kind of goals one have for their character. Mine is a new character as well as being new to Lusternia too. If say one of our goals is to be a top notch PvP fighter, then I must say that to reach there without buying OOC credits is going to be a long journey. Truth be told, it takes a lot of time for one to really achieve anything of note, if that's what you are aiming for. If on the other hand, you are just looking to pass time and play a bit here and there, and if what you can do makes you happy enough, then it's not hard to derive satisfaction from the game.

The first place I played in, we had to quest like minimum 2000 hours play time (with high success rate (like 96% and above) in order to be a good PvP fighter. So different realms have different requirements. Overall though, in my opinion, Lusternia is modelled more for experienced gamers and those who are familiar with IRE games too. Well I have never bought OOC credits in Achaea and also cannot afford to buy any in Lusternia now so I will see how far my character can go here hehe.

Its generally a very good idea to Hyperfocus if you don't have the means to be good in most areas.

What project?

And when I played Aetolia, on my first real character, I never bought one IC or OOC credit.

I was also a nobody, who sucked at fighting, and life in general. I was a funny kid though.

I'd just like to point out that armartery is a little more serious than 5 bleeding now.

Project 69, boy. Where's mah GR2?

Chop chop!

Hyperfocus? I'll have to take that into account and pour the meager lessons I get into one skill Thanks Dag!

Why are you speaking about me

-> Lusternia

ive bought a few ooc credits and find it very very hard to cope with fighting as it is impossible for a blademaster like me to keep up with credit whoring knights as there is to bigger gap between them