Advice to jump start friend starting out

[Chrissy]

I have a friend who is vaguely interested in playing, but is asking me how fast it would take to understand whether the game appealed to him.

So my questions about this for the hive are:
- What do you think is the absolute smallest amount of time for someone to jump into WoTmud pk, and get a feel for whether it would appeal to them?
- What setup would you do to facilitate that?

My initial thoughts are:
- Maybe 1 hr
- Let them use a 30+ character that is already geared and practiced
- Have someone log on on the other side, and pk 2v1 in just one zone (ideally one with mob support for both sides)
- Fight until someone dies

But curious to hear if anyone has successfully done this before, or any other thoughts/advice.

[Kryyg]

He’s going to get destroyed. The average player right now is insanely good/half bot.

I would stay have him preroll stat. Exp to learn commands. Timing of bash etc. how gear and mood affects stats and fleeing.

Then learn some zones on DS.

Then PK.

[Eol]

I wouldn't give them a character. I think you'd be depriving them of that feeling of wanting more. You burn up your practices, but you see all these skills and you think - how am I going to do this / I want more. You feel compelled to keep exping so you can keep increasing the practices. It also creates a sense of achievement / accomplishment.

You could scavenger hunt them with them. Back in the day when I died I'd at various times do some variation of
Kite shield and chep brass rings hill giant to thin black chain at Murandian Bandit, maybe emerald ring, to sungwood bracelet off the ogier guy, to jade signet ring northern mini chain etc. I always enjoyed those small measured accomplishments - the feeling of equipping yourself.

I think trident is the most straight forward exping weapon for a new player because of practice savings. The cheapest starting weapon used to be leatherleaf staff but they downed it a lot.

Anything that gets you beat up could get adrenaline going - exp somewhere they might have to flee. I'd only want to exp them on a multiplier day or it will be painful.

Could also make them lead you across the map.

[Rodger]

I'd focus on the roleplay / character building process. Luckily they fixed the statting aspect, so you can just jump right in. Maybe both start a new character and start in Two Rivers or Caemlyn. The pk isn't going to be compelling in an hour, but storytelling might be...and like others said you would need serious commitment to really learn pk at this end state where all the players are highly competent.

[Kiltwich]

and like others said you would need serious commitment to really learn pk at this end state where all the players are highly competent.

I would disagree with this, to an extent.

The pk is deceptively fast paced, and most of the stuff that you would need to learn (server tics -- the purpose of "spamming", mob aggro/assist, mood/auto-wimpy/fleeing, timers of skills/weaves, etc.) are things that you will not organically run into nor intuitive to learn by doing or understand what/why things are happening as they are happening.

It does take a bit of explaining, but for group pk it is easy enough to get into as an abs basher just following a (presumably) competent leader and spamming kill light/dark + bashing.

Map knowledge is important as well, learning where to fall back, and learning group dynamics (when to flee off, where to run to for regroup, etc.) helps as well, but you can explain those with a map beforehand.

Getting them an understanding of the basics, enough for them to know sort of what is going on, and then getting a taste of pk to get the heart racing and see if that helps light the fire to learn/improve pk skills would be my recommendation.

[Aira]

I would take them smobbing to show them some of the intricacies of tactics. Targeting this or that and not ending up on what you want. A competent leader will spam them around and they will have no idea where they are.

And then tell them: and now imagine all of this while fighting a player who knows where you are most likely to run and who will chase and potentally target you. It's a thrill.

If they are a thrillseeker, it might pique their interest. If they are a pvper, the smobbing might.

[Roman]

Explain basic aliases, set up a bashing alias and a kill alias, explain that he will die, then take him adventuring. Its as easy as that, but think i would prefer to do it on darkside/trolloc probably warrior.

[Eol]

I think a new player would be absolutely insane to start the game on darkside right now. I obviously can't speak for every minute of the game:

-Human numbers crush darkside numbers lately
-I'm routinely seeing 0-1 player on darkside
-Human prerolleds crush darkside prerolled. +Illian insanity.
-There are routinely human groups heralding, doing adventurer etc. There is so much more to do.
-PK starts and trolls are facing all master / all Lancer/Tower etc + every player has a rare weapon.

I don't think darkside is in a good place right now. Human clans will clan liberally. Dailies + heralds etc offers a path to advancement without a hard focus on PK and way more people to get you back in the game. I died on an alt the other day and people were just giving me stuff.

I'm not saying darkside isn't cool or darkside won't help each other out, but its just better on human at the moment.

I don't think anyone is going to agree with me, but they need to just go back and put some gear back on darkside's smobs.

I fully concede I have a problematic perspective because I sign on and then immediately have to rent because of my kids and what not, but human is popping with leaders and people who are down for PVE, PK, etc.

[Kilgore]

I'd focus on the roleplay / character building process. Luckily they fixed the statting aspect, so you can just jump right in. Maybe both start a new character and start in Two Rivers or Caemlyn. The pk isn't going to be compelling in an hour, but storytelling might be...and like others said you would need serious commitment to really learn pk at this end state where all the players are highly competent.

This is the most important aspect of having someone play this game.

Unsure if PK is good enough to deal with the large amounts of time where PK is inconsistent or non-existent.

[Salle]

I think I'm one of the newer players (2-3 years now?), I have some thoughts.

Here is a step-by-step approach based on practical experience:

Client Setup: Have them install Mudlet and then load Adael's WoTMUD Package. Tell them not to install anything else for the client initially and don't even consider another client, even if you like something else.

Character Creation: Do Prerolled human.

Physically Sit With Him, if possible. This is ideal for immediate feedback and correcting mistakes.

If you can't be physical, use voice chat and screen share. You don't need to play, just watch their screen and guide them step-by-step. Be patient. I tried to get a friend to play and she was in tears in about 30 mins because it was moving so fast and that wasn't even PK.

Starting Build: Go Dodge. This might be controversial, but as a new player, being able to kill stuff readily, even if they're a "death sponge" in PK, is fun and encouraging. Dodge is a great solo skillset, allowing them to XP pretty quickly with even a mediocre weapon.

Initial Lessons (Show, Don't Just Tell):

Food and water basics.

How to get and use a horse.

Safe and simple XP areas

The Hard Truth: Make sure he knows he will die frequently. It's part of the experience. I still get upset when I die (I'm releveling Sallaya right now because I had a little fit last time I died.

When they are following someone for smobbing, tell them to review the logs afterwards. This is critical for learning where you went and what happened, because it will all happen too fast to process in real-time.

Community Interaction: Tell them to ask questions, lots of them. People are generally very willing to help and rekit new players.

It bears repeating: You will die, a lot!