Okay, so I'm in the process of working on a Newbie Guide. While I've a decent grasp on what should be in there, I want to ask - what do you wish you had known when you were a novice? Share anything game-related that is unbiased. I'll be looking at all the answers and adding to what I've written from them.

Edit:
Anonymous Submissions:
-If you really want to be a rogue, make sure you already decided to trans a couple skills, and are in an order of some kind, otherwise, you'll be bored forever. Better yet, just find a nice commune/city to be part of.
-Some people are nice, and will give you free food and clothes and stuff. There are some people who will punt you off a cliff. Learn to tell the two apart.

How to read the news, especially with RN, and checking things with NSUM. This one confounded me for far too long.

How to ask a tutor how far into a skill you are.

How to use the aetherplex to search for a certain item in a shop.

I haven't been an IRE newbie for a very long time, I'm afraid. But emoting and says (with prefatory phrases) were the things that made me most gleeful, I seem to recall.

Also, a basic summary of the orgs *and a note that there's more to every org than meets the eye*.

Know how to type. Talking in net speak is sort of ok on newbie, but please don't be doing that at the nexuses. People get annoyed.

Self descriptions are awesome. Be reasonable though.

I really should try and remember better...

Which people were griefers and were going to kill me just because they could.

EDIT: Oh and to stay out of Badlands.

This is something I never use, but I have kept track of how many lessons I have in each skill since day one of playing


my own tip: As a novice so long enough, Ayisdra never talked to his guild unless needed too...so maybe knowing that not everyone is going to be all mean and yell at you if you do something wrong...

Number 1 Newbie Rule ^^

-CHELP/GHELP INDEX. Read everything you can find, especially anything labelled HUNTING, INFLUENCE, or BASHING.

-it's okay to pester the people on GUILD AIDES.

-Ask lots of questions.

o. Newton is the best gold bashing area in the game. Abuse it liberally.
o. Pilgrims/bards/scholars - not only do they help your org, they give good gold and experience, too!

You can get an incredibly huge amount of gold and experience extremely quickly by buying some sandalwood and learning Influence up to Supplication. I'm still pretty new though, so maybe I've got it all mixed up.

How to design!

It's vitally important that this be highly focused on only the things that a newbie really needs to know right now, on his first day. Nothing will dissuade someone more -- from reading the page, if not from the game itself -- than getting handed a fifty-page instruction manual at a time when they don't really even know yet if this game is more worth their time than the other ten games they could be playing instead. Resist the temptation to be inclusive. Inclusivity is not right for this page. All this page has to do is get them through day one and tell them how to find all that other stuff later, when they need it.

That there is a limit on how much of certain things you can wear (like rings) and the various layers items cover, which both means some items can't be worn together, as well as some covering others (armband under sleeves).

Waitwait. I want to change my answer.

I wish I had known that robes needed to be enchanted before they were good for anything!

^

When I was a novice, the intro was far more comprehensive

Yeah, I guess they made a decision to scrap that - I thought it was nice, though.

Would have been handy if this has been said in the OP

From my own experience though, I feel that between collegium, newbie chat and guild these basics are pretty much covered though ... and then you're just left hanging. I know this is a topic about a novice guide, but while one with access for everyone would be nice, I would really like to see more advanced guides as well. Like anything past the point where you hit level 70-80 and the leveling guides stop and you're done spending your gold on basic needs like cures, oils, clothes, vials ect.

There are a few things that stand out. The some aren't really newbie guide material, like knowing that cleave works on mobs, but of stuff that is?

Enchants.

I had no idea what they were, what they did, or how they worked for the longest time. No idea how they were related to jewelry, what a cube did or how you recharged them, all that stuff, utterly clueless, and never found a good file on the topic. Eventually I had to pin someone down and have them explain all the stupid little things about them.

Good one. I needed someone to explain the whole favour system to me. I originally thought that favours and guildranks were interchangeable. Also, POWER. Even though it doesn't play a role til after novicehood, it took me a lot of question-asking to find out how that system worked.