Hello.

I've been playing other IRE games, but I find Lusternia to be the most innovative and dynamic.

But, it seems that I live in the wrong part of the world (Europe), and in several RL days, I've only seen a few non novices in my guild (Blacktalon, Glomdoring), and none can be my mentor (guild requirement). Are there usually so few people around? Don't tell me to give up and join your guild, I won't:P

Basics and Newton caverns were easy enough to learn. Profit and experience in Newton caverns is miserable, so I hunted weevils. That was much better, but I got bored at level 10. Then I had to pester people to find out where I can buy empty vials. Turns out I need gems. I go to buy commodity gems. Not those gems. But luckily, I find a finished vial in a shop.

Then I learned about influence skillset, should I learn that? I have no idea what low magic offers besides the shield, planar beside rift... what's there in all those skillsets?:S
What are fetishes? I read something about power quests, it's got something to do with aspects of something. I catch this and that to get some feathers which give me nuts, so I should get to planting! But not now, since the commune is full of totems! :S

Okay, I say, so I try to read HELP POWER, HELP PLANES, HELP AETHERWAYS, feel like a complete idiot, and go back to hunting weevils.

Teaching newbies how to KICK , use PORTALS, and check their skills is nice. One thing that's missing is a guide to Lusternia that encompasses ALL Lusternian specifics, step by step, so that newbies, once they leave the Newton caves don't:

- give up and leave the game, leaving my guild (and perhaps some others) almost memberless,
- be very confused for a while until they learn stuff by themselves, it's possible and rewarding, but can be made easier
- need to be lucky enough to have someone teach them everything step by step.

I'm sorry if I missed some great newbie guide that explains it all.

Thank you, bye bye.

Shouldn't tell Shayle to ignore you then! I was trying to help!

Welcome! I agree with you there, I love Lusternia.



The Glomdoring is somewhat limited in membership. They have historically had an RP that made it difficult for them to recruit/retain members. The Divine are working with leaders even now to try to improve things there, but I'm afraid that you might just have to suffer through for awhile in the meantime. Maybe you'll become one of their new leaders and figureheads which helps improve things in the future?



Actually, profit and experience from Newton Caverns is MUCH better than weevils, you just have to find your way around. You need to reach Lolliprin, then reach the topside and the Gnome Castle from there. You can earn a great deal of both experience and gold there, it beats weevils/rats by a long shot, unless things have changed greatly since the last time I was a novice. As for finding a vial, I think you'll run into that problem often enough. It's a good idea to search shops for empty vials first, or for gemstones (i.e. 5 amethysts, 5 onyx, etc.), which can be used to make a vial. Then look for an alchemist or a keg in a shop, which can refill your vial for you.



Influence is only useful early on if you want to be primarily non-violent. You should focus on either learning influence (which allows you to overcome enemies and gain gold/experience without killing them) or fighting. Later on you will probably learn both. Lowmagic has a lot of handy skills, but don't bother learning more of it until you reach higher levels in your guild skills. Same for planar, I'd say stick with rift, or possibly learn up to Teleport (teleport to any other player on the same plane for 3 power, or teleport to nexus for no power cost) and then ignore it until you reach higher levels in your guild skills. If you want to see more information about what abilities are in what skillsets, I'd look up the Lusternia wiki...I don't remember the exact address right now, but I'll look it up.



Fetishes are used by Druids in combat. You learn to use them with the Ecology skill. Power quests vary by commune and city, but there are usually several. You'll have to ask someone in game about what you can do to raise power for the Ravenwood, I don't know them.



These are things that are usually taught by the guild and commune/city you join, but you seem to have missed a trainer. For the record, kicking your target is way too much trouble for a Blacktalon. You should learn a bit of nature, then you can use NATURE TALISMAN to get a talisman, WIELD TALISMAN, then NATURE CURSE to kill things much more easily and efficiently.

QUOTE

I'm sorry if I missed some great newbie guide that explains it all.

Thank you, bye bye.

Sorry to hear that you had a hard time getting into the basics of the game. Really there is just too much to put into the introduction, and new players are turned away if it is too long and boring. The Divine rely on guild and commune trainers to fill in these gaps, unfortunately there aren't always many people around or available. Some guilds have a much harder time keeping active teachers, which makes it more difficult for them to keep members, leading to a circular problem. I hope you decide to stick with it, it all gets much easier!

If you have any more questions, feel free to post more, or send me a PM. You could contact Derian in the game if you see him too (he's an enemy of Glomdoring, but he doesn't bite and won't kill you unless you give him a really good reason to!)

Oi...and yes, let Shayle help! She's a little scary, but not all that bad!

Sadly, your guild is currently one of the least active. I'm not saying to leave or anything, far from it! Blacktalon needs more intrigued people Heck, two of your guildleaders just retired from the game, so... yeah But to answer a few of your questions:

One of the best/easiest ways to get some quick gold/experience at the very low levels is to lead pilgrims found on the roads to Avechna's Peak. Just tell them that you will lead them there, and then when you have a bunch following you, climb up to the summit. Collecting scholars from the mountains and taking them to your Great Library is similar, but slightly more annoying since the wind can drown your voice when you try to get them to follow you, and you don't even notice why they didn't respond

LowMagic offers a bunch of things you have no need for for quite a while. To speak in terms of other IRE games you sound like you are more familiar with, the inept skill is unlimited shield tattoos, and 16 lessons gets you unlimited hammer tattoos. Don't spend beyond that unless you have a lot of credits to blow.

Influence offers an alternative to bashing. Rather than killing a denizen, you convince them of something or other. The inept skill is BEG, which you can use to try to get gold or some items from a denizen. Just INFLUENCE (target) WITH BEGGING over and over until you succeed, or run out of ego. If you run out of ego, you lose experience as if you died. Bromide vials restore ego.

If you are curious about what various skills do, I recommend checking out the Lusternia wiki, located at www.avaerin.com/scryingpool/ - skill lists for every skill are there, as well as some details.

Noone should ever be using KICK or PUNCH in this game - everyone has a better alternative right from the start. You should have TALISMAN in NATURE - just use NATURE TALISMAN to summon it, and NATURE CURSE to attack with it.


Many of us players believe that the intro could use a lot of work, but the admins appear to disagree, so eh, it is what it is for now.

What I recommend, if you are only finding new players around in your guild, is talking to and working with the other new players to learn the game together. It could be really fun

Hello! Derian had a lot of good advice. My main bit of advice is this: if your guild is quiet, do not be afraid to ask Ambassador aides or Ambassadors, or other older members of the Glomdoring you see about! We try to be helpful to everybody. Sometimes the guilds have low membership, so everybody else does what they can to make the novice learning experience more pleasant. Shayle especially is a very good teacher-- though you may learn a few things about the ways of Mother Night while you're talking to hear, learning that isn't a bad thing for a member of the Glomdoring, and you don't have to leave your guild.

As to power things, I believe our scroll is CHELP POWERQUESTS, which details how to catch shadows! You can do this even when the Commune is fully planted with totems, and it will increase the power of the Ravenwood... you just need to remember to put the nut back into the Nexus (we don't have a way of selling it to an NPC, unfortunately, though that would be nice!)

Also, don't be afraid to use MESSAGEs, or ask for more advice on the forums, though both these ways will likely take a little longer to receive an answer than asking directly in-character.

If you're still kicking, though, PLEASE take Derian's advice. You'll be amazed at just how much better nature curse is than kicking. As to vials-- I usually suggest buying your first vials from Trader Bob instead of seeking empty ones. He sells health and mana vials for 400 gold apiece. Consider the base cost of the vial to be 250 gold, and he's charging you 150 gold for 30 sips (instead of the 200ish gold for 50 sips most alchemists charge). Thus, he's not the *best* deal, but it's not a bad deal at all, and it gets you a lovely vial that lasts 153 days and can be refilled with whatever you'd like from then on, at the normal potion rate (200 gold for 50 sips of health, etc). You save in time, you save in frustration, and kegs make refilling them so much easier!

Wow, lots of replies, I just scanned them, l read them thoroughly now. Just to say that I don't use KICK, I was just using an example of teaching basic commands.

But I do use PUNCH on middle size weevils (nature curse + punch is enough, balance is quick (faeling monsterling), and saves mana! And two punches on smallest ones.

Edit: Thanks for replies!

As a quick note, we currently have rings enchanted with Perfection available in the Glomdoring novice shop-- they have 10 charges apiece on them. This will allow you to use as much mana as you like without worrying about running out, though you still will have willpower draining, unfortunately.

Enchantments are an interesting concept-- if you aren't aware how they work, you can buy the ring, wear it, and then RUB it once. When you rub a piece of enchanted jewellery, it will "cast" one charge of the spell. In the case of perfection, it will use one charge of the ring to give you a defence which passively regenerates mana. You just have to make sure it doesn't run out of charges-- there's an enchantment shop in the Glomdoring which sells enchantment recharges. A small bit of gold for a defence that lasts the entire time you're awake and is this useful, however, should be a very good trade.

Alternatively, during the night-time hours, you could SPIRITBOND MOON. This gives you mana regeneration during the night, though unfortunately it won't help you during the day.

I'm a newbie to Lusternia as well (played the other games and participated in the open beta here, way back when), and Glomdorian (?). I'm a Harbinger, and an Aussie, so really there's only a few people who I ever see online. Over the last week or so, half the days I've been online I've been the only person in the guild.

But, my advice is to stick with it. To learn about the things that were different to Achaea etc. I said to myself, "Today I'll do power quests and read the file on that, and any it refers to," and stuff like that. I'm taking it slow, doing some bashing to level up so that I don't die to thorn beasts and just settling in, really.

Finding empty vials is a trial, but Arkzrael I think it was told me to ask on CT, and somebody was able to make them, which was unique.

If you see me online, I'm happy to share my (rather limited) knowledge... you're probably better off asking elder commune members though.. Good luck!

Just a quick note: I think that if you're a faeling and you're in a forest, you should be regenerating your mana naturally, just for being in the forest. So, you can go ahead and use that mana on weevils!

It doesn't work that way for Glomdoring members, however. It's a Wyrden forest, and only Shadow Faelings regenerate in Wyrden Forest-- which means that our novices don't regenerate, because they can't become Shadow Faelings until after they've graduated.

It's somewhat of a nuisance, but we try to find ways around it-- ie, the rings.

There's a very real sense in which I feel your pain. I'm a Blacktalon n00b, too, and for the past two weeks, it's been rare to see any other Blacktalon on, much less a highly-experienced one to show me the ropes.

Part of that is just that we don't really have many Blacktalon, period. However, I see opportunity here. This is a time of transition, and I see it as a good time for active, interested parties to step up, get involved, and be a key part of rebuilding.

The other thing is that I would chime in what the others have said: don't feel limited to Blacktalon in terms of your interaction and asking questions. Both Shayle and Xenthos have been very helpful to my character (Xinemus, if I see you around), and I think it helps form some inter-guild relationships that are overall helpful for Glomdoring.

Anyway, I feel/felt very much as you do, but I'm going to try to stick it out for a while and see what happens, and I hope you do as well.

Really? I'm sorry. Teach me to read the race helps closer I guess!

But yay for rings!

Europe's not the wrong part of the world!

There's a fairly large European contingent in the game, though I admit that week day mornings the game is very quiet. Or at least it was.. I wouldn't know now, because on weekday mornings I'm at work. If there's no one in your guild to help, check the WHO list find someone fairly high in might and old looking, and ask your question with a pair of OOCing brackets round them. Even if your guild/commune can't help, plenty of other people will.

There are serious activity problems with Glomdoring in general and Blacktalon in particular. You'll have a hard time to find people to advance you sometimes. That said, though, Glomdoring can be a very rewarding RP environment as that's what it focuses on (though it's not the place to be if you want to be a fighter - Glomdoring is traditionally very restrictive of what its fighters can do/fight/raid).

And there's plenty of Lusternians who live in Europe, particularly in the UK.

Now it's mentioned lusternia is one of the few IRE games that dosn't have a built in method for a novice/newbie to join a guild if they missed the first selection at creation, I know I saw a few novices waiting around for hours trying to get into a guild they had picked because no one with a high enough rank could do it, It just may be something to look into, if the right people arn't on at the right time then the newbie can get a bit stuck for quite a long time.

Shayle isn't really scary.

(at least not to Gloms )

Heh, Shayle isn't scary at all, I've always liked her. Careful what other Serenwilders you talk to though, they could accuse her of any number of horrendous things. It's what we do.

Your guild should have a scroll which helps people teach novices, and serves as a 'newbie guide' helping people guide newbies. CHELP INDEX and GHELP INDEX are your friends for searching for files relating to your commune and guild.

Newton is much better then weevils, you just need to learn how to get past the iron portals to the other -3- areas in newton beyond the caverns.

A lot of what I was going to say has already been said and I needed to edit it out.

I encourage you to stick with it, who knows maybe you'll become the next GA or GM of the Blacktalon, and then you can change some of those things you don't like seeing.

Shayle isn't scary, and she has good quotes *point sig*