Newbie School

Ah, had I known I would’ve surely done so. But as I twice encountered the problem of not being able to continue after backtracking, I didn’t take my chance of going back a third time.

Hey Flek, this isn’t about how to get through it. This is about how to make it easier on REAL newbies, like Valekor. The fact that he doesn’t know how to go back and give the syringe to the doc just proves my point. It’s not obvious, you have to fuck with it. Imma throw up some ideas tomorrow. I honestly don’t see why we can’t just put the old newbie school back, though. No one bitched about that one.

I liked the old school. HOWEVER. Something different right off the bat can serve to prove to new players who have seen SWR before that this is a wholly redone MUD. Usually, you go into a MUD and it has its stock rooms right away and you assume that the place hasn’t had any fucking changes at all.

PS, clowns freak me the fuck out. No clowns.

Room one has two exits:
west: goes to basic mud commands for people who have never played a mud before and covers basic movement and shops. do not include buyvendor, etc. just basic desc, here’s how you list/buy/buy multiple items, etc. this should also include all basic commands. how to GET something, how to PUT an ITEM in a BAG and how to take it out. How to look, etc.
east: beginning of the lotj tutorial.
if you say skip in this room, you’ll go to planet selection and a language teacher should be in this room.

In fact, I’m stopping there. I think a new thread should be started with the initial thread having the entire newbie school in it. Every reply should include a room description and pointers in an agreed upon format. Ideas for formats?

First idea, expand on this one:

[ROOM DESC]
> ROOM PROGRAM NOTES WITH ALL OPTIONS
> [SAY COMMANDS]
> [EXITS]

I gotta say…I love the new academy for one reason. You can skip it…

Aside from that…its pretty retarded and not entirely helpful. Like Coruscant…except newbies are forced to endure it if they don’t skip it.

Incidentally comments like "its retarded and not entirely helpful" are not too helpful themselves. What about the Academy is retarded and not entirely helpful? For that matter, i’m still waiting for you to explain in your Coruscant thread what is retarded and not entirely helpful.

Anyway…

I plan on laying the groundwork for the new Academy when I get home from work this afternoon. Any more suggestions? Ideas? Recommendations? Accommodations? Commendations?

I don’t think there’s any real need for the ‘flowgate’ mechanism. All it does is end up causing problems when progs fail, or a crash happens.

Perhaps it’d just be better to lag the newbie while the things are being said rather than not open the doors.

Another suggestion would be for there to be a ‘South – Go Forward to (using holsters). North – Go back to (writing descs)’ in the actual room descs. There have been times when, due to crashes etctera and their guide poofing, the newbies have no idea whether they’re coming or going.

To be entirely, one hundred percent completely honest, I think the guide mob himself is an unneccessary complication, especially considering how often he disappears in a copyover etctera. It might be better just going with entry progs to rooms.

Finally, the language room should be the first or second room available if it isnt already. I don’t know whether the newbies that complained were just over eager and missed it or whatever, but quite a few that started as a non basic race have gone into serious difficulties with the guide.

Work is progressing nicely. The ‘new to muds’ segment is mostly operational, been tearing away at the ‘LotJ’ segment.

Should start beta testing this weekend, with it going live sometime next week.

status update for 5-24-08

The first room of the academy covers the most fundamental aspects of LotJ. IC/OOC barriers, Roleplay/PK, the LotJ community, RPC. Academy is broken into two portions, one meant for people new to MUDDING and one meant for people new to LotJ. The old system of mob Guides leading you around has been replaced with a more free-form system which allows players to proceed (or repeat) segments at their own pace. Information is distributed mostly via room descriptions instead of talking mobs.

Quick run through of what has been included in the Academy-

[u:1lsxh3hx]Mudding Segment[/u:1lsxh3hx]
[list:1lsxh3hx]Movement
Basic commands (look, inventory, score, equipment, etc.)
Roleplaying (emotes, socials, etc.)
Objects (giving, buying)
Channels
Different MU* Clients[/list:u:1lsxh3hx]

[u:1lsxh3hx]LotJ Segment[/u:1lsxh3hx]
[list:1lsxh3hx]Languages (lang learn, research, lang_limit)
Descriptions and history
Textcolor and tones
Researching
Approach
Doors (keypad, voice activated, keycard)
Basic fetching quest
Turbolifts
Comlinks (talk, clan, tune, setencryption, currentcom)
Combat (hospitals, healing, PKing/restore process)
The Force
Greet System
Structures[/list:u:1lsxh3hx]

A flight simulator is feasible but is going to require a lot of prog work so it isn’t a prerequisite to the academy going live. At least for the time being, i’ll have a mob handout the ‘Piloting for Dummies’ book. Basically help pilotingfaq in a page-by-page item.

Walldo,
You might want to include a small section on holsters–from what I know, it’s an LotJ(and LotJ knockoffs)-only item type. Draw, holster, etc. Also, very basic engineering? Layers, wearlocs, etc.

Also, maybe a quick, and era-based note on what to expect when they go live. IE if it’s an Empire era, warn newbies that they might get hasseled by Imperials and have weapons confiscated and such. A lot of people seem to create characters and get in game and are completely shocked by the IC situation.

New academy is in.

Thoughts?

Yeah the gatekeeper speaks lorrdian, after a crash and no one but lorrdians can see what he says.