Also Mag's hag Angkrag since the begining of time They've got literally thousands of the types of metals needed for those cheap designs stored up in the City.

I'm embittered - I don't have enough mental capacity to be annoyed for longer than a few hours. And perhaps that wasn't for you, at all, but to the original poster? I'm trying to cut *down* on my rantings and responding to trolls, or at least economize them by combining with other posts.

I hate novices... hate them...

I actually cringe when I see one pass through, but I always seem to end up with the ones who have never played a MUD before.... so spending 1 hour explaining to them how to use skillchoice select just wears on me and makes me dread when I have to explain how to learn lessons..... But then again I have had some great novices come my way and training them was a pleasure and easy enough to do. But if you want a real good RP novice training have Zalana train you....

I tried out the Paladins too... didn't care for it too much but they were in depth on the starting off by your self scroll which I followed.... and I always like just being able to do things myself and not have to bother someone by being trained by them, so that might be why I didn't mind not getting any official training. I haven't played him in awhile now so for now he bides his time in the bowels of New Celest waiting to spark a rebellion that will leave him Overlord of Celest and rule with an iron fist! Then the forests will be bathed in blood as all will bow or suffer unto him! (Oops sorry started getting carried off there)

I was never Mag, buts its a nice city...
The city is not angry and harsh, some of the people are...

reading the rest of this thread now that its been bumped.. to answer your question, Dag, the Serenguard don't give out "free" equipment.

The Shortswords cost 250 each. The leather armor 50 a piece. Its expected of the trainers to buy it for the novices, or for the novices themselves to buy it as soon as they're able to.

So their cost at least partially repays the money put into them. That's how the Serenguard afford it.

Makes more sense... thank you.

They used to, and had no trouble affording it.

They did indeed use to, and we can indeed afford it. But people complained that we shouldn't be giving stuff for free since it costs the guard gold and gold isn't hard to get, so they were crafted and put in the guild shop for sale. Which I never agreed with

It was changed when one day we discovered that someone took all the weapons and armour from the weapons rack for the novices. Since then, Serenguard have (as it was said before) their stuff in the shop for sale. Many teachers provide their novices with free equipment anyway, but... let's face it. If a newbie cannot reach the guild shop (even though there are directions in the guild's help file), or cannot afford 50 gold to buy a basic club (they have 50 gold when they leave the Portals after all), then something's wrong.

25 gold when you leave the portals, actually, except when you hit a bug and end up with another persons pfile, so you start with some gold in your inventory, extra messages, and I even had a Harmony Blessing once

The "something" that was wrong is that punching and kicking finks is a dumb and often frustrating way to get started, and not particularly appropriate for would-be warriors anyway. Pretty disappointing that one petty thief ruined all that was done... including the measures that were planned for preventing thieves from doing that, which must have also been forgotten. Talk about throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

And I still agree with this wholeheartedly. I hate seeing novices punching and kicking things. I remember how difficult it was to get started that way.

Of course, weapons at that time weren't all that much better as a novice anyways... it's a heck of a lot less frustrating now, if you're properly outfitted.

It's called locking the weapon rack.

I think you all misunderstood me.
Most of people that train Serenguard novices provide them with weapons anyway. I dare to say that more of them are supplied with clubs or shortswords than they would be if we had a locked weapons rack, to which very few people would have access. Also, if the braves ask, they get a club or two. For free. The only way to provide more novices with weapons would be to have an open, unlocked rack - but it leads to thievery like that, and it probably was not a good idea.

But sure, it's easier to criticise without even knowing the whole situation.

I made a Mag alt the other day. Everyone was helpful. And everyone keeps asking if you're doing OK over the guild novice channel. It happens at least once everytime I log on on average. When I was a novice in the Aquamancers. It only happened once.

The inital teaching I got as an Aquamancer novice was very poor. I can't recall the guy who taught me, except he seemed to really rush it. In Mag, it was better. Very helpful, but I had to remember the lessons needed myself. I like that attitude. Makes it quicker. And I was given a free health and mana vial.

It's ironic.

Fun, too.

I accually think it's hard to judge a guild for novice programs, or even a person. I did a fair bit of novice training and it's sometimes really hard to know if you have to speed up for a particular novice, or speed down, if they need gentle reminders of what syntaxes to use, if you just need to tell them learn that that that and do AB or if you have to spell out the important skills. Some want you to be entirely IC, others need you to be OOC. I know I have personally given novice intro's going from 5 minutes (for alts) to 1.5 to 2 hours on novices that never ever played a mud. And I have gotten very mixed responses from praise to you are to slow or you are to fast.(I often ask people how they found my intro once they graduate)

I usually don't train people, but when I do, I go over everything I can possibly think of. which is why I try to train multiple novices at once, otherwise my carpal tunnel kicks in from all the typing.

I agree. Since I set up the program in the first place, and you know as little as what it was as I know about what it is now, I'd say we're exactly even on that.

In any case, it's not a criticism; it's an observation of logic; generally speaking, anything that has been done is, ipso facto, not impossible. No need to get defensive about that. If "most of the time" is good enough for you and everyone, give yourselves a cookie already.