If people knew, they wouldn't bother the person. Hence having to ask to be left alone; I didn't have a problem with this starting out. I think I was too shy to ask for help, actually. Can't remember.

Generally speaking no its not. Most newbies do need the help. Its just not great when its mandatory.

I would consider myself somewhat of a rather accomplished Iron Realms Novice. This being my fourth, maybe fifth attempt to get into Lusternia alone, not to mention the number of times I've tried to get comfortable in Achaea and Aetolia, I feel I have a pretty good grasp on the workings of Novicehood. Unfortunately, though, my experience ends there.

In each of the earlier attempts, I found myself daunted, overwhelmed by the Guild system, and very structured and time consuming requirements for advancement. Getting over this fear took, at the very least, three tries. These tries, mind, span years. Eventually, though, I found myself more comfortable with the idea of working my way through the ranks or, rather, easing myself into the gameplay. I made real effort to get beyond Novicehood, to move beyond. Lusternia was my Iron Realms MuD of choice.

And therein arose the next few failed attempts; Newton's damned Honours Quests. I tend to be somewhat of a completist; I am -compelled- to do all I can. And, unfortunately, Newton presented somewhat of a problem. I spent countless hours, days even, trying to do the Honours Quest, spread among my few attempts. Nevermind that the Gnome side is composed of very poor, if existent, clues, or that the success of both Quests relies very heavily on luck and time invested. The Fink Quest, thankfully, is a little easier to follow, though the work _{(read: repeated hours attempting to roll the dice right)} is still a nigh insurmountable task.

This time, though, I wanted to make a real attempt. I crave a game where I can be influential. I have dreams of being a God, dreams of dominance, mayhap. I entertain visions of being important, and well known. I like the idea of being involved in massive storylines, maybe even a central player. I want to raise Hallifax, Ascend, expand the story and world of Lusternia. All the good stuff. So I went into the game a little more open minded, spending days researching, reading, before even creating. I know the histories. In game, I read all of the helpfiles I could, absorbing information like nobody's business. I have an advantage as a Novice, being experienced as I am, so everything came easily.

I left Newton quickly, with more than ten hours left in my Novicehood. I took the time to level, growing familiar with Scholars and the Water Plane. I completed the tasks, dropping a potential fifteen "days" off my Novicehood _{(though only ten was necessary)}. Everything I did, I could do because of the helpful HELP files, and a few questions asked over GNT. I took an active interest in the world, Celest, the Aquamancers... I want to be helpful, and involved.

I have, as of right now, reached the 38th Circle, I think. I approach the 40th quickly, and herein lies my problem. This is where I'm beginning to lose interest. I'm reaching a plateau of sorts. My levels are quickly outpacing my skills, leaving me somewhat lacking as I require stronger foes for progression. Lessons earned through leveling alone, even with the free Credits, are far too few to accommodate the necessary skills. For hunting alone, I need to get my Staff in Aquamancy, for which I'm sure I'm lacking more than a couple hundred Lessons. I need Planar, too, for Conglutinate, or even just to go to other hunting grounds, eventually.

Take into account, now, other Skills I need to compete in other realms; for PvP, yes, I could just rely on Aquamancy; I don't want to. I want Dreamweaving, but I can't even think of putting Lessons into Dreamweaving until I've got my Staff, get Planar up there, maybe some Discernment, Discipline maybe; so much to do before I can play how I want to. And a "system of reflexes", which is a whole other issue on its own. Then there's Influencing; I need Influencing to be able to get involved in, well, Influencing. And if I want to be productive in Aetherspace? Regardless of the cost of an Aethership, I need to invest Lessons into Aethercraft. Yeah, I've got the basics. But, as it is for most things in Lusternia, the basics don't count for much. And do I want to Craft...? Of course, but that needs to be the lowest of priorities, because already my lack of expendable Lessons has me strapped just trying to be productive.

This, of course, wouldn't be an issue if Lessons earned meant anything beyond the first 20 Circles. This plateau, this bottleneck, seems a thinly veiled HINT to buy Credits. I understand this is a business and all; I don't fault Iron Realms for making money. This game may be worth paying money for; but how do I know? I've only made it past the 25th Circle once. Yes, I know there are other options, other means of getting Credits. In game gold, at roughly 4000-5000 a pop _{(a large sum for my level (see above for reasons I can't just get stronger))}, the Bardic contests _{(I consider myself a pretty good author, true, but that doesn't mean I'll win)}, volunteering as a Guide _{(which I'd imagine has some sort of time alive requirement?)} are all other means, yes. But they all require a ridiculous amount of time. Am I supposed to make enough money for purchasing power on rats, Supplicants, Scholars...? _{(I'm not the only one using those methods, of course, so they may not all be available)} What am I to do the month I spend waiting to see if I win a Bardic contest? And can I actually sign up to be a Guide yet?

I want to make it through; I want to be a DemiGod, I want to be involved in major events, I want to play an influential role, and be otherwise a figure in the Basin. Unfortunately, I don't have expendable income to push past this obstacle. And if I'm forced to waste time, it'll only expedite my waning interest. Is there no hope of a natural resolution to this issue...?

Maybe this issue isn't a major factor in Novice loss. It's awesome that Iron Realms has built some of the deepest, most complex MuDs out there, with so much to do. But, maybe, given the overwhelming amount of things needing to be done as a Novice, some new players can do the math, and decide that the game requires a little more investment than they feel is worth it.

This is the case in all IRE games, unfortunately. It's the core of their business model and is probably unlikely to change.

Since it is, after all, just that...a business.

Credits aren't 100% necessary, just harder to get them with gold than it used to be.

Reading through this thread reminds me only of one thing:

You can't please all of the people all of the time.

I agree. Though there is always the option, if you want to work on your own, of saying 'I'd like to work on my own please'.

Just be nice about it and people will listen. If no one is listening, you can check GW and ask an older member if it's okay. They should say yes.

(I like independant novices)

On day one of the Spiritsingers I set up guild policy that novices are allowed to get as much help as they want (up to a two-hour step-through of initial training -- just did one of those yesterday), or as little as they want (down to just learning from Miakoda and heading to Newton in less than five minutes). I've gotten plenty of compliments and good words about this, and as yet never a complaint that anyone had too much or not enough help. The only thing we require is the invite to the guild clan.

I really don't know why any guild enforces training as a requirement, not a service to offer. The threat someone will blow all their lessons in Riding? Lusternia offers novices plenty of ways to recover from mistakes like that with little or no loss. The idea that it will foster a sense of involvement? Maybe, but I think forcing it will alienate more people than it'll involve. It's better to let them choose.

Odd... Ebonguard don't have a policy one way or another... where is Hazar?

Generally, my policy has been to emphasize retainment. We generally end up running novices through a basic course, but it varies on the teacher.

Being a knight novice and playing lusternia for the first time is incredibly difficult. The amount of aggressive enemies that kill you in one/two hits on your way to try and find something your level is frustrating.

It looks like I'm going to have to stick to rats until level 40 or so. :/

this is very very true. I have played Imperian for a year now and still do not understand the SW area of Aetherius. I can get anywhere else in the world my memory alone, but not the SW area of the desert. In fact I loathe that part of the world.

On topic then! I joined Lusternia for a completely different experience than Imperian. I heard about Influence and skill branching so I thought I'd give it another try. Being new to Lusternia there were two things I really don't like, those being:

1. I'll spend the cash on 1000 credits and learn skills. Thats why I play these games. In Imperian as a novice you can see a list of what skills you will have available to you using AB SKILL FULL. I am so not tempted to spend hard earned cash on guildskillswithout knowing what I will be getting. Right now I'm on the fence with my guild skills and really wish there was a way to find out what I will get with Music and Acrobatics. Note to admin: want my cash? let me see the skill list. I tell you what if I transcend my guild skills and don't like the skills they offer I won't be going around a second time to try and figure out a better guild for me. I'm going on faith that I will enjoy Music, Necroscream, and Acrobatics.

2. I'm finding it hard to figure out what it is that the orgs stand for. Which is I suppose because I've done just about all there is to do in Imperian which is fueled by conflict and politics. The classes are clearly defined as anti-magick, magick, and demonic. The rp is established and ready made for you to expand upon. So far when asked what it is that the Cacophony does, what we stand for the response has been "we are scholars, entertainers, and what not." That is what a bard does, yes, but what is our RP and how does it differ from other orgs? Not sure if my point is getting across and I may just not have enough time invested yet, but I am used to knowing ok your from the desert and that means I don't like you and here is the reason why.


My two cents.

You may find this useful.



Magnagora promotes the taint. Celest fights the taint and promotes the light. Serenwilde promotes nature and the natural order, and to some extent anti-civilization though no one really pays attention to that. Glomdoring promotes its own expansion.

The guilds are basically extentions of the cities/communes, except with their own twists on the values (Celestines are the priests of the Light, Paladins are the guardians of Celest, Aquamancers promote the Light through purification of the world via water, etc).

WYYYYYYYYYYYRRRRRRRRD!!!

I'm a recent newcomer to Lusternia and was curious to see some of the changes implemented from a few months ago, some which I recall seeing and some I missed. This is my first game of this type, though I have played Diku/lpmuds on and off for nearly 15 years.

Until I read this thread, I never knew there could be "hidden" items that don't appear in 'ih' or 'ql'; thanks for that tip! That seems a problem!

I do get the feeling at times I'm missing some vital pieces of information, just like a joke that everyone smiling knowingly about but you're just going... huh? I know there is some pretty fundamental game-mechanic stuff I just don't get.

From the quests I have seen, they do look interesting but unfortunately appear to me to be completed by someone already and I have returned to some of the towns several times. I don't know what the "reset times" are for these but it seems strange that even on my offpeak times they look complete.

Perhaps it is the time I am on, unfortunately I know from my experience of all muds I come on when everyone else is asleep, but it can get quite lonely at times. It is a bit hard to learn something when the only other member of your guild online is about one RL week "ahead" of you. I doubt there is anything the administrators can do about that, online life's lonely in UTC+10

Newton caves was fun, reading this thread I think I missed about 25% of what you were supposed to do. I'm more of a work out the puzzle type person that go around killing stuff so the changes there (e.g. influence) were a nice surprise.

And that's really a shame because there are some very clever puzzles in this game, with plenty more I'm sure that I have yet to see. It is like this missing lead part really lets down the puzzle building part, if that makes sense.

there's about a million quests to do. literally one for every area I believe. the only only exception would be the main road (alabaster, great southern highway) and the mountains (razine and southern) all villages, hunting areas all have quests for honors lines if not two. Actually I think balach swamp is an exception as well as the blasted wastelands. But still! and just try undervault sometime when you get level 60ish. massive.

The swamp has the pythons (I think) and the wasteland has those curious Viscanti kids. So oodles of quests and welcome.

Better check Balach again!

Ballach still has the Mugwumps from the plauge.