Help Newbie Update

... A place to ask for help on any topic whether it be starting out to player killing to IT issues.
Post Reply
Kenria
Posts: 60
Joined: Fri Feb 21, 2020 8:45 am

Help Newbie Update

Post by Kenria » Wed Sep 15, 2021 12:17 pm

We are looking for input to update the help newbie command! The current help newbie command hasn't been updated since Sayuja updated it in November of 2001. Mortals who contribute will be awarded QPs for their assistance!

If you have any ideas for revising current sections or believe there are new sections that should be added please send me a mail or post here.

Kenria

Current help newbie is below
help newbie
NEWBIE "NEWBIE FAQ" BEGINNER


This covers the basic knowledge that you need to get started
on mudding. Topics covered include:

o What's a mud? o Grouping
o Starting out o Classes
o Rules of the Game o Narrate
o Online help o Getting around
o First commands o Buffering
o Levels, practices o Soloing
o Considering mobs o Eating
o The Bad guys o Aliases
o The Good guys o Starting areas
o Daytime and nighttime o Socials
o Killing o Sleep
o Fleeing o Sleep
o Moods o Money
o Losing a fight o Buying and selling
o Winning a fight o Rent

o What's a mud?
A mud, which stands for multi-user dungeon, is an
interactive game played over the internet in which you move
about and perform actions, and which anyone with telnet is
able to access. Telnet is simply a different way to use the
internet, and there are plenty of places on the net to
download the necessary software. Muds first started in 1978,
and at the last count there were over 1,000 muds out there,
all of which work in a different way. One thing that they
all have in common is that other than the connection to the
internet, muds are absolutely free, and are sustained by
the amount of time and energy that all the players, and
immortals (builders, coders and implementors) put into it.

All muds are different, and this faq concentrates on the
Wheel of Time mud, at www.wotmud.org 2222.

o Starting out
Starting out on a mud is quite confusing, especially as a
beginner (newbie). When you first connect, you are prompted
for a name, race, sex, class, and as a learner you
should really choose a human warrior. Why? because you'll
die less, but more of that later. Choose different if you
will, but this guide is predicated upon choosing a human
warrior. The name that you choose is entirely up to you, but
something in character will stand you in good stead. By this
I mean a name like those in the books, although the really
special names are barred, as they are used in the game
itself already. Also, we don't want 50 Rands running around.

o Rules of the game
Like any game, there are rules, and you should have a look
at these before you start, to prevent later
misunderstandings. In the game, 'help rules' shows you what
they are, although a copy of them can be found at the
homepage at http://www.wotmud.org. In fact, if you're not
familiar with the Wheel of Time novels, then the homepage is
well worth a look, as it gives more information about the game.
Even better, read the books.

o Online help
Inside the game itself there are a lot of help files, and
entering the command 'help' shows you the basic list of help
files you need to start out. To see a complete list of help
file subjects, type 'help subjects'. To access a particular
help file, you type 'help <topic>', where topic stands
for the headings as seen on the help command. It is
difficult to overemphasize the importance of these. If you
decide that you like mudding, spend an hour or so early on
sometime and run them through systematically, and you'll
save yourself immense grief later.

o First commands
After creating the character, you'll find yourself in a room
called the "Circle of Light". There is a board in that
room, which is worth having a look at as it is there that
immortals make comments about the game. To read it, enter
'look board' and 'read xx', where 'xx' is the number of the
message you wish to view. From here, you can go to various
places in the world, and going down will take you to
Caemlyn, for example. Those of you that know the books will
realize that Caemlyn is the biggest city in the world, and
it is where you should go as a human warrior to start out.
Before you do, remember to 'tell guardian kit', which gets
you a newbie kit, a gift from the immortals to help you on
your way. The command 'inventory' will show you our gift.
Then, 'wear all' will put the clothes on your body, so you
don't wander around in splendid nudity. The command to hold
the weapon is 'wield', so 'wield sword' makes you ready for
combat. Then type 'prompt all', which shows you your status
and 'autoexit', which always shows you the exits from all
the rooms that you visit. You may want to turn on the
global communications channels by typing 'listen chat' and
'listen narrate'.

o Levels, practices
The way a mud works is by levels, attained by killing
creatures, thus gaining 'experience'. The point of levels is
that you gain practices when you gain a level, which allows
you to improve your fighting abilities. Killing a pheasant,
for example, gets you about 99 experience points; kill ten
or so of those at level 1 and you'll get the message "you
gain a level", and thus become level 2, and so on. Each
level becomes progressively harder, as you can see by the
command 'level', but you gain more skills, so it all
balances out. After you've leveled, you'll want to use
these newly-gained practices. The guy who teaches you to
fight better in Caemlyn, the appropriately-named "Master of
the Sword of the Queen's Guards" is your man. To find him,
go north from the Central Square, and into to the eastern
part of the palace in Caemlyn's Inner City. Type 'practice'
once you've found him, and you'll see the choices of
weaponskills that you can learn. For level 1 characters, a
couple of shield parry ('prac shield parry') and a few
bladeforms ('prac medium blades') is generally considered a
good idea. After more higher levels bash, kick, or from the
ranger's guild, search, are all useful. Ask online players
for the various locations of the various guildmasters in
the game.

o Considering mobs
As a level 1, you'll have to find the right type of
creatures to kill (creatures on muds are known as mobs).
You'll appreciate that trying to kill the Dreadlord, one of
the toughest and meanest mobs, as a beginner at level 1, is
not an especially wise idea, and won't increase your life
expectancy. The way to judge what to try and kill is to
consider the mob, and act on the message. Considering a
pheasant ('con pheasant'), for example, tells you something
along the lines of "easy", so go for it. One thing to
remember is that you have to be in the same room as the mob
to con it though.

o The Bad Guys
Like any mythical world there are good guys and bad guys,
although the Wheel of Time is rather more complex. Again,
there is a better introduction at the homepage, and an even
better one in the books themselves, written by Robert
Jordan. Basically, fades, trollocs and darkfriends are
intensely evil, and will kill anything or anyone, especially
humans. Always remember that. Male channelers are considered
dodgy, especially by female channelers.

o The Good Guys
All that stands between the world and it's breaking are the
forces of good, All these are divided into various clans, each
of which have various characteristics. There is animosity
between some of these clans; the homepage will tell you
more. Wolves are considered to be among the 'good guys' and
an attack on any wolf mob will result in you being hunted by
wolves. Lion Warden, Aes Sedai, Gaiden and Borderguard are
examples of clans that are generally considered among the
good guys. Rumors of human clans that are reputed to be
among the bad guys exist, so choose your companions with
caution. Listening to the global communication channels can
help tip you off to which players you may wish to avoid.

o Daytime and nighttime
Like any real world there are daytimes and nighttimes, and it
gets dark at night. If you find yourself unable to see
anything all of a sudden, then it's worth checking the time
('time'), and holding a lantern or torch if appropriate
('hold lantern'). Beware, light sources do run out, so
remove it ('remove lantern') as soon as it becomes daytime,
otherwise you'll end up in the situation that I used to have
all the time when I first started, namely stuck in the
middle of nowhere with a dead lantern, low hps, and some
damn boar kicking my butt. This can get quite exciting.

o Killing
So you've conned a mob, and you want to fight it. After
typing 'kill xxx', The thing to watch out for is your hit
points (hps), which shows how healthy you are. If your hps
goes down faster than the mob's, then it is probably a good
idea to abandon the fight and flee.

o Fleeing
Enter flee during a fight, and you flee in a random
direction. Sometimes you fail though, so try until you
succeed. You can set the level at which you'll automatically
flee by the command 'change wimpy xx', where xx represents
the numerical hps value at which you'll flee. A good wimpy
level to set would be about 4027777463120f your maximum. To find
out your highest possible hit points, enter 'score', it is
contained in that information.

o Moods
Moods can be controlled too, and 'change mood brave' makes
you brave (so you take a risk, possibly hit harder, but
defend less well), whilst 'change mood wimpy' makes you
defend better, but also makes it less likely that you'll
inflict juicy damage on a mob.

o Losing a fight
If, when losing the fight, you don't flee in time, you will
be killed, which loses you a lot of exp and makes you end up
back at the Circle of Light, in a bad state and nude. Try to
avoid this. It is not a pleasant experience. Besides the
loss of exp, you only have one day to get all that you own
back from your corpse.

o Winning a fight
This feels much better than losing. If you have survived to
kill the mob, you'll make some exp. 'score' tells you your
new score, and 'trophy' tells you what you've killed up to
then. Well done-keep at it :)

o Grouping
It is hard to kill things on your own, so if you can join a
group it will help you. Joining a group is actually the
secret of mudding, as it makes it all the more fun, and
levels come easier. Using the command 'who' to see who is
visible, use 'tell xxx Hi, feel like grouping?' or something
like that, where xxx is a mortal's playername. It is more
fun to group with people that are roughly your own level,
and works better when different types combine to make up the
group (i.e. a ranger, channeler, thief and warrior).

o Classes
Each class has different attributes. Warriors hit hard,
defend well and generally survive better than other classes,
ideal for beginners. Rangers track the enemy and know the
lie of the land, and thieves have great dexterity and guile.
Until the highest of levels, channelers are frail, weak, and
can barely defend themselves.

o Narrate
'Narrate' is a very useful skill in finding a group, as
everybody on your (in this case human) side of the game will
hear your message if they have their narrate channels on.
Try 'narrate I'm new here-any groups going?'. However, it is
often abused, and nothing winds up an experienced player or
immortal more than narrates such as "whine I lost a level
whine it's not fair whine life's not fair whine I hate life
whine I'm quitting forever whine". So use it sparingly, take
the rough with the smooth, and you'll soon get everybody's
respect and friendship. Feel free to ask around, see if
there is anyone helping newbies or making a group, and then
go to them.

o Getting around
To move around in a mud, you enter the direction that you
wish to go in. Channelers can travel, but this has risks of
its own. Whatever you do, avoid deathtraps at all costs.
They are rooms that will instantly kill you. There are a few
of these around; if you see the room name "A horribly dark
deep freezing cold gurgling pool that is deadly dangerous"
on 'exit' ('exit' tells you roomnames nearby) then yes,
that's probably a deathtrap. Best avoided. If you want to
avoid this room, and you're not sure that it really is a
deathtrap, then look west (if west is the direction of the
room) and the description given should give you a further
clue. Don't worry, they don't exist in the major towns, but
keep an eye out for them :). If you get lost in a maze then
you can use 'search west/up' to look for a hidden exit, but
you'll need to practice search first, a ranger skill, at
Vatrin, who lives in the a hut near the Outer Road of
Caemlyn, on the east of the town. Well worth practicing
once, just in case.

o Buffering
Once you're in the same room as the group leader, type
'follow xxx' (xxx is the group leader's name), ask them to
group you, and 'assist xxx' during a fight. Careful, as a
low level, that you don't accidentally become the buffer,
which is group member that becomes the default target any
hostile mobs, usually the last person named in the list
when you type the 'group' command with no arguements.
As a newbie, the person who levels you will often become
your mentor or best friend on the mud, so it is a good idea
to pay attention to what they say; sit when they say sit,
and so on. You should not attack any mobs, as a newbie in a
group, unless you are told to do so by your group leader.
They will thank you if you bring enough food and water, and
wear boots, before setting out on a long trip.

o Eating
Like in real life, you regenerate hps or mps by resting or
sleeping with a full belly and without thirst. Eating and
drinking are vital, as you won't regenerate hps or mps
without them. There is a lot of food lying around for you to
find, so if you see mutton, then 'get mutton' and 'eat
mutton', but you can also buy it at a grocer's shop or in a
bar.

o Drinking
To drink water from a bottle you 'drink bottle', and to fill
it at a well, or fountain, or pond, you 'fill bottle
well/fountain/pond'.

o Aliases
These two commands are excellent examples of commands to
alias, a way of lessening the demands on your typing. 'alias
db drink bottle' means that you'll only need to enter db
instead of drink bottle. Lots of commands are already
abbreviated in the game automatically, like k ('kill') You
have 20 that you can set yourself; flee and exits are a good
start.

o Socials
Socials are commands you can use to emulate social
interaction. In a mud, you can smile, glare, even hop. The
messages that other players see are quite funny, and you can
often tell the more experienced mudder from the beginner by
the amount of clever and appropriate socials they use.

o Movement points
Mps (movement points) work like hps, but they measure how
tired you are, i.e. how much further you can walk. Each time
you enter a room it costs you mps, though every minute (tic)
you regenerate them. Basically, hps and mps are both a
balancing act. A third variation on this theme is mana, the
source for channeling spells, the juggling of which makes a
channeler's life yet more difficult.

o Sleep
You'll often see a fighter sleep near a mob, to regenerate
hps for the next fight. The command 'sleep' lets you sleep,
but it has a disadvantage, namely the normal messages that
you have whilst awake get suspended, until you 'wake'. You
can be attacked whilst asleep, so choose the place
carefully. After you wake up, remember to 'stand'.

o Money
To buy things and to rent, you need money, the bane of all
our lives. There is plenty of money around, and a high-level
character will usually spare you some coppers if you ask him
or her nicely, or perform some menial task for them. As a
low-level, the way to actually make money is to sell clothes
and weapons back to the shops, so if you see a lot of dead mobs
around make sure that you 'look in corpse' to see what's inside,
'get coins corpse' to loot it for cash and 'get shirt/shield/
shoes corpse' to get things to sell. Scavenging from a group
of higher-level players is frowned upon, although if you ask
them nicely to have some of the less useful stuff from a corpse,
they usually help. A sack to carry it all will also help, as your
hands will get full quite quickly. You can even steal, a thief
skill, but whatever you do, don't get caught.

o Buying and selling
Go to the grocer, use 'list' to see what's for sale, and use
'buy sack' to buy one. In the same vein, once you've got
lots of sellable goodies, go to the armorer or weaponshop
and 'sell shirt', or whatever item you have. To find where
they are, there is a banner in Caemlyn's Central Square (l
banner, 1 down from the 'Circle of Light', which has a map
of the town on it)

o Renting
'Renting', is how you finish your session, keeping your
equipment for the next time you log on. Whatever you do
don't type quit, as you'll lose all your equipment and
money, and there is no way to get them back. In Caemlyn,
you'll need to find the Queen's Blessing, west along the
Wide Boulevard north of Central Square, with Basel the
innkeeper, and there you type 'offer', which shows you the
cost to rent, and if you can afford it, 'rent'. As a newbie,
with little equipment, it should not cost much, but you may
not have enough cash, so drop something or sell it. At
higher levels, with better equipment, the cost increases
significantly.




This, really, is the basic information that you need to start
playing. You're bound to have more questions, and other
players and immortals are there to help. Remember, the more
courtesy you show them, the better they'll respond; treat them
in the same way that you would wish to be treated. Mudding is
a great hoot, especially if you get some lab buddies (people
connecting to the mud from the same lab) and you all hunt at
the same time. If mortals spread the good word, get as many
players as possible, then we immortals will do our bit. We'll
make the best mud going.

Happy hunting :)


-:Written by Aldieb, of wot.mudservices.com 1234, 7/18/97
-:Edited by Sayuja, 11/10/01

Post Reply