Legends of the Jedi Forums Making LOTJ More Friendly For Newbies Thoughts and Questions After Playing First Character
This topic has 4 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 6 years, 10 months ago by khamael.
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    • Jamel Participant
      May 14, 2017 at 3:42 pm #29868

      I just played my first character (human pilot), who went by the same name (Jamel). I am new to LOTJ, although I played a different MUD several years ago (was never very good at it, but it was fun.) I thought I would post a little about my experience, as someone new to the game. Below is a brief overview of my character’s experience, followed by more general thoughts and questions.

      My character joined pretty late into Era 3. Out of the academy, Jamel joined the RU, just in time for it to be disbanded. So for the most part Jamel explored around independently. He eventually met up with and joined the Resistance, but offered little help. He was told he needed to spend more time working on his piloting skills and experience. When both sides converged on Ithor in response to the mysterious signal, Jamel was in a taxi, jumping from system to system, learning the ways of the pilot. He was listening to the comms, wishing he was more skilled. Jamel had little interaction with other players, although he was invited aboard a ship to join the fight around Dac. Having never been in ship other than a taxi, Jamel was pure dead weight. The ship’s pilot and gunner were impressive and sure made their mark on the battle, until we were on the other end of a high powered green laser blast. While that character was unremarkable, I learned a lot about the game, got better at keeping up with all the text, and am eager to get back into it with a new character.

      Below are some thoughts and questions I have from my first experience:

      * Ponder
      What impact, if any, does a character’s ability in ponder have on their actions or other abilities? I found quests that seemed much more efficient at raising my science level. By the time I had the ‘study’ skill available to me, my ponder skill was only at about 50%. If I did ‘ponder’, a message told me that I should ‘study’ instead. Why ponder?

      * Killing MOBs
      How necessary is it to go around killing stuff? Sometimes I would run into MOBs that I thought might have something on them, but I felt it wouldn’t be IC to just kill them. Why would an otherwise lawful pilot just start attacking old explorers or spiced up citizens? I was happy to find combat training centers, as I had no reservations about beating up on practice droids. Is a character missing out a lot of potential items if they don’t go around killing things? Is killing MOBs more or less overlooked for character purposes?

      * Ship Sizes
      A pilot can study small, medium, large, and heavy spacecraft. I couldn’t easily determine what kinds of ships where in each class. Are capital ships the only heavy spacecraft? Do only clans have access to certain classes? What about building ships – can anyone (of proper skill and inventory) build any sized ship? There is much about ships I would still like to learn.

      * Engineering
      It took me a while to realize I could make things! The help for each crafting skill was helpful, as it indicated what items I needed to have in my inventory. Questions I have not yet figured out:
      – How can I learn what different materials will do to my completed product?
      – Are names important to the completed product? If I give my product a special name, will it have different characteristics? The only clues I found for naming things were quest-related in the workshops, when the MOB and/or a MUD tip would tell you what to make.

      * Flashlights
      It took me even longer to realize how to turn on and off flashlights! (You ‘use’ them) I also suspected that one could (re)charge a flashlight, but I found no way of doing so. I now believe they are not rechargeable.

      * Datapads
      Seems like there is a lot one can do with datapads. I never figured any of it out (outside of the need to have one on hand to perform other actions). I read of higher vs lower level datapads, modulation, etc. But I still need to figure out what that all means.

      * Damage and Repair
      At times during combat, I would receive a message that a piece of my armor or equipment was damaged. However, if I looked at my ‘eq’, it would still say my things were ‘superb’. Does that mean they really were not damaged? Perhaps they were too low level to actually become meaningfully damaged.

      * Getting Rid of Items
      This one drove me a little nuts. Say I have 10 medpacs in my inventory. I hold one and start performing first aid. The pack runs out of supply, so I try to ‘drop’ it. However, that drops one from my inventory, not the one I am holding. I later found that I could ‘throw’ the one I am holding, but there’s got to be a better way!?

      It was a fun experience, although maybe a mixed bag in terms of timing – starting my first character just in time for the EoT events. Looking forward to getting out there with a new character and exploring the new world. Hopefully I’ll run into more of you, have more character interaction, and maybe even be useful.

    • Athrun Participant
      May 14, 2017 at 7:01 pm #29892

      Ponder: It’s a bottable skill to raise science. Questing science is faster unless you don’t have the time to sit at your computer and quest, so pondering is easier.

      Killing mobs: Most mobs are for some kind of quest and drop a quest related thing. Check the employment centers on planets for quests that involve killing those mobs. Mobs that drop anything useful tend to be higher level mobs that can own you if you know nothing about PVE.

      Ship Sizes: Info the ships and it should tell you what kind of ship it is. There is a help file somewhere that states what category each class of ship falls into, fighter, frigate, heavy, etc.

      Engineering: Experimentation, unfortunately, is all I can tell you. You’ll have to experiment with different components to see what is affected by your different products. Names do not matter, it’s just a pretty description to make it look unique.

      Damage and Repair: Yes. You can still take it off and repair it, but it probably will take another hit before changing to “good” or something lower.

      Getting rid of multiple items of the same name: No, there really is no other way and honestly if you can hold it, you’re pretty good. Try sorting through items that you can’t hold and throw on the floor!

      • This reply was modified 6 years, 10 months ago by Athrun.
    • khamael Participant
      May 15, 2017 at 1:23 am #29913

      A few inventory tricks I’ve picked up:

      1.medpac is the medpac on top of the stack
      2.medpac is the one under it
      3.medpac is the one under that, and so on

      If the keyword you use matches multiple items in your inventory that aren’t stacked, it goes for the one closest to the bottom of the list. 2.<keyword> will get the second from the bottom, and so on.

      If the keyword you use matches more than one piece of gear you’re wearing, it matches the one you picked up last (so if ‘remove holster’ returns something like ‘You must remove (holster you’re trying to remove) first’, remove both of them, drop them, pick up the bottom-layer one first, then the top-layer one.

      As far as medpacs go, I throw them when they’re empty and do ‘hold medpac’ again. As near as I can tell this is common practice, so most of the time you can expect that medpac you found on the ground to be empty.

    • Jamel Participant
      May 15, 2017 at 8:31 am #29928

      These are helpful tricks! I did not know about the #.item syntax. When picking up a new item, does it go to the top or the bottom of the stack? (Does it work like a LIFO or a FIFO?) For equipment being worn, it looks like you are saying it is a LIFO. Does inventory work the same?

    • khamael Participant
      May 16, 2017 at 12:56 am #29993

      Yes, Last In First Out.

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