Message 1004 : A Newbies Guide to Arda - Part 2 (*Lost*) Written on Mon Jun 20 15:21:14 1994 A Newbie's Guide to Arda - Part 2 - The Basics ---------------------------------------------- I have been playing on MUME for approximately 3 months now, and have quickly learnt a lot and advanced fast. However, there are a lot of mistakes that I have made which are easily avoidable that could save any new player a lot of time and effort. This multi-part guide has been made to help in the long run. It will not give you experience or travel points, and it won't level you, but hopefully you won't die as often as you would otherwise. Hunting as a Group ------------------ Group hunting is used the most on MUME. You can have 8 or 9 people in your group if you WANT, but this is often a waste of your time. The effort to organise and to keep such a large group together is almost impossible. The experience you gain is also very, very small. the most productive group I have found is a group of 2 (cleric-warrior,mage-warrior,cleric-thief, mage-thief working very well together). The experience is respectable, parry bonuses of the mobs you are fighting are cut, and the spell caster is usually able to cast at will during the battle. Solo hunting (hunting alone) can give you more experience, but if you die, who is there to retrieve your equipment? Practicing ---------- During your first levels on MUME, you will want to start practicing some basic abilities. Go to the guilds one east, 1 south of Bree Central Square and visit your native guild. Look Board to read some of the messages that others of your class have written - you may find some useful. Here are a few notes on practices. First, you must decide what you want your general weapon type to be. Practice ONLY this type at the warrior guild. Practicing multiple weapons is a waste of practices. As you increase in levels, you will find that obtaining the weapon of your choice is relatively easy. Warrior guild: The weapons: -Slashing : The main slashing weapons are the swords - longsword, and falchion. They are very good for good to high strength players. -Piercing : The main piercing weapons are the rapier, horn, and thorn. They are good for low strength, low dex players. (most clerics, mages, and thieves seem to choose this one) They usually do relatively low damage, but with backstab and multiple attacks possible, they can become quite lethal. -Concussion : I have never used this weapon type before - it is heavily based on strength. ex. mace/club. I suggest that ALL players get their knowledge of weaponry high, and that parry is one of the first things you practice (you'll die a lot less often.) Dodge also improves your chances of surviving, so if you're a thief practice it. Clerics: Practice the weapon type of your choice, parry, and then ride, create food. As you get more practices, slooooowly practice dodge. (takes a LOT of practices but worth it in the long run). The most important spells I have found are: Armour, Create food, Create water, Blindness, Dispel Evil, Heal. Transfer and sanc have a minimum mana of 50 (without a wand) so are quite inpractical after most battles. Learn Blindness and Dispel Evil to very high %'s - I suggest 95%+ - you will be casting these A LOT. At low levels, shield is the only practical mage spell to learn. Warriors: Learn the weapon of your choice (slashing is the norm), parry, and then ride. Then you will probably want to learn dodge. After that, kick and the cleric armour spell should be on your agenda. Bash is also very useful, but apparantly it does allow mobs to flee (bug?) Thieves: The usual - weapons/dodge/parry/ride. Hide can be very useful in escaping from orcs, and sneak can be useful too. Steal is rather useless as it is only successful at high levels. Shield and armour spells should be a goal at some point in time too. Mages: weapons/dodge/parry/ride/shield/armour/create food/invisibility/ enchant/fireball (could someone please post more on mages - i have never been a succesful mage :)). Fireball will be your main spell, so NEVER EVER practice the useless ventriloquate or magic missile, or even burning hands for that matter. Until you get to a high enough level, you WILL be quite a weak player. Mages at high levels are to be feared however. [For details see a high level character of your class - these suggestions are only that - suggestions] Stats ----- When you reach level 5, you will be able to see your base statistics. Stats for characters ARE quite important, but if at level 5 you have average stats, throwing your character away is to laugh at roll-playing. Good stats: str: 18 int: 16 wis: 14 dex: 18 con: 16 Average Stats: str: 12 int: 17 wis: 17 dex: 14 con: 12 Poor Stats: str: 10 int: 12 wis: 9 dex: 14 con: 8 To play a character with the latter stats will be quite miserable, so I DO suggest that you start over in this case (I think that there should be something to make sure that really lousy stats aren't generated - but that's for another message). You will most likely have a character with average stats, and to keep roll- playing alive, play that character - see what you can do with it. When You Die ------------ You shall die quite a bit in your Arda adventures. However, take note of the following: - Unless you are pretty sure that you are in a good enough condition to retrieve your equipment, do NOT go out by yourself to get your equipment back. It rather useless to go back to the mob that just killed you and let it kill you a second time. (this has happened to me many times before). - Remember that in general, experience is harder to get than basic equipment. - If orcs are raiding Bree, do not 'pray bree' (yeah, i've done that too :)) - Ask a higher level player, or a companion of yours to retrieve your equipment. Explain your situation nicely and you might get somewhere. Offer a reward if you come upon a particularly stubborn player. - Don't narrate stuff like 'I died! I'm never coming back again! This $$%$$%& Mud! #$$%', because people really don't appreciate that. - A dead newbie often has trouble getting basic equipment - in fast it is quite easy. [Please see Petrel's posting - How to get money without killing Hobbits] Strider the Elven Cleric