Creating a character

[orpik]

This needs to be more user friendly. The first thing I would do is allow people to be on the mud while creating the character. It's nice to ask people ok I want to be a mage, should i be human or elf. Or where should I be from, or are these stats ok? and or how do I do this?.

So when people log in it asks for a name and pword if its new it then lets them connect without a body (who cannot see invis people or navigate the realm or whoz) All it allows the person to do is use question, gossip, tell etc and "who" so they know who to address. Then people can help walk them through creating a new character. If this sounds like too much, perhaps the person could just be asked would you like help creating this char, and if they say "yes" then the system alerts the playrs on the mud that a newbee would like help and anyone willing can respond to it and help them through it, rather than giving them access to gossip or whatever else. We don't want the noob to get spammed by our gossip but we do want a way for them to ask questions so they don't give up during the sign in process, and so they created characters worth playing and don't give up on the character later and leave TFC.

Another thing this will help with is it helps char separation. A person doesnt need to make one char and ask people should i make a human or mino if i want to be mage etc, they can ask it in character.

If people are worried about scouting etc, like i said the person should not be able to see invis, also give players the option to toggle off visibility to people who log on as pre-characters. Honestly people now scout with the news page so I'm not sure anything would be gained from using this as scouting; also it would not be usable except once you have begun starting a new character and gods could go after someone if they see a pattern of people pretending to create new chars and then closing and logging on a pre-existing char.

[Isolas]

So when people log in it asks for a name and pword if its new it then lets them connect without a body (who cannot see invis people or navigate the realm or whoz) All it allows the person to do is use question, gossip, tell etc and "who" so they know who to address.

Asking for a name and pword before allowing gossip is an angry person's christmas-come-early for spamming profanity and whatnot. But I see where the idea is going.

As for the "I want to be a mage; should I be elf or human?" situation, I like to think while each class may have a statistical advantage when paired with a specific race, this almost feels like making TFC cookie-cutterish on character creation. I like the risk of success and failure in each person's individual choices without an outline for success. It's one of those secrets for new people that makes TFC so intriguing.

[Belsambar]

I think in creation, to begin with, it should come to at least a SLIGHT rp aspect 'What kind of char do I want to play? How will they act, what ARE they?'

Are all questions the newbie should be considering when they make. Not 'Ok, how do I swing big damage and find pretty items the best?'

But, that could just be my personal opinion *Shrugs*

[Tynian]

I agree that the the character creation process could be improved, and you outline an interesting proposal.

From a conceptual standpoint, I am ambivalent. From a coding perspective, implementing this would be daunting.

Maybe I'm the only one that finds it ironic that we're so concerned about character separation for new players, since it can be such a difficult thing for many of our current players to remember and respect. How many of us subtly or overtly alert your friends that you've started a new character...? In any event, character generation itself is not really an "in character" thing, and I doubt that even the most rigorous role playing muds are going to jump all over a new player that logs in and asks practical questions about the game, which again isn't really an "in character" endevor.

What if we instead provided a "quick creation" option? This would be relatively simple to do, and give the newbie the ability to quickly get into the game with their questions. After all, the best way to get up to speed is to get in the game! The game is sufficiently complex that you aren't going t be able to learn everything you need at character generation, even if you can ask a few questions first...

[orpik]

My point about character separation is not about people choosing to not use character separation, it is about people not being given the choice in any reasonable sense (ie you can't build a powerful character without an fli or a friend knowing who you are to give you level eq when you start the char). But this gets us away from the point of the thread.

While it is true we want RP, we also want people to figure out how to make a new character. In the very least people creating new characters need to have access to help files while they are creating the character, but I really think they would benefit from being able to interact with people online in askign questions.

I am not sure what belsambar was referring to in his post or even which way he goes on the issue. I would not expect newbies to be asking where they can pop amulets of nydia on this channel prior to creation. think about it, why would they ask such things? they dont even know what dmg or svs are. It would be to help them pick a home town, or even just to figure out how to create a character.

For example we could help them understand some classes are more powerful fighters while others are better with magic etc... Just think back to creating a new character. Even after making many successful characters I would like the ability to talk to people as i create new characters.

[Tynian]

So would my less code intensive solution be acceptable?

[Gwyrdain]

I would not advocate a "quick creation" option. Which choices could be "automated?" I figure that the new player still wants to select their gender, race, and class. We still want them to agree to the policies. We still want them to have the opportunity to give their email address. As I see it the only thing that could be skipped is the re-rolling and choosing a hometown.

From the newbie's perspective the biggest problem with new character creation -- I think -- is knowing whether or not they've made the "right" decision. Quite frankly, I don't think this can be resolved without "revealing" some game mechanics (e.g., explaining the effect race/class have on attributes). By the way, I do advocate this "revealing" and believe it would have a positive effect on newbie retention, but I suspect this sort of thing's not on the table. (If it is, I'll go get my soap box.)

[pitt]

One of the things about character creation I've always been annoyed about is how easy it is to make a mess of a character. Most characters I've created have quickly reached level 2, then logged in occasionally to check the pit and put together what looks like a decent levelling kit. It takes a loooong time and I still usually give up on new characters at level 5 or 10 because of a bunch of lousy hp/mana gains. It frustrates me to see level 1 characters I've never seen before immediately worship an immortal and get a perfect levelling set.

I'd love to see the randomness in level gains reduced a LOT. Equipment and stats would maybe vary hp/mana gains by a point or two per level, and the base increases would be dictated by your class/race combination.

Perhaps con/int/wis could have no affect at all on base hp/mana, i.e. human warriors get 15hp per level regardless of con, but then if you could get a temporary bonus of 1 hp per level per point of constitution you're currently wearing, plus extra resistance to the new disease Tynian is cooking up.

e.g. a lv10 human warrior has 150 base hps. If he wears a +3con item, he gets an extra 30 hps for a total of 180. If a lv30 human warrior has 450 base hps and wears 3con, he gets an extra 90hps for 540 total.

This way new characters wouldn't be abandoned so often because of time spent on levels that turn out lousy, and people might have to abandon some dmg for level eq even in later life :)

[Tynian]

I'd love to see the randomness in level gains reduced a LOT. Equipment and stats would maybe vary hp/mana gains by a point or two per level, and the base increases would be dictated by your class/race combination.

Perhaps con/int/wis could have no affect at all on base hp/mana, i.e. human warriors get 15hp per level regardless of con, but then if you could get a temporary bonus of 1 hp per level per point of constitution you're currently wearing, plus extra resistance to the new disease Tynian is cooking up.

Well... this is wasn't exactly what I had in mind for the future, but something similar.

Base HP gains would still be based on class, and would still be random, but the range would be tightened up quite a bit. CON would adjust HPs up and down, like you have outlined. I don't have any real details to use, but let's say a character can get 6 to 8 HP for a level. HP would be adjusted up or down, based on actual CON. If you remove CON (or wear -CON), your HP would go down, and vice versa. So, if you are level 10 with minimal level gains, you'd have 60 hp. You have 15 CON, which gives you +2 HP/level, which adds another 20 hp, for 80HP. If you got max gains (with same con), you'd have 100 HP (80 base + 20hp for CON). And so on.

The other leveling stats would work in a similar manner, lessening the need to start out with "the perfect leveling set."

[Tiunara]

Well... this is wasn't exactly what I had in mind for the future, but something similar.

Base HP gains would still be based on class, and would still be random, but the range would be tightened up quite a bit. CON would adjust HPs up and down, like you have outlined. I don't have any real details to use, but let's say a character can get 6 to 8 HP for a level. HP would be adjusted up or down, based on actual CON. If you remove CON (or wear -CON), your HP would go down, and vice versa. So, if you are level 10 with minimal level gains, you'd have 60 hp. You have 15 CON, which gives you +2 HP/level, which adds another 20 hp, for 80HP. If you got max gains (with same con), you'd have 100 HP (80 base + 20hp for CON). And so on.

The other leveling stats would work in a similar manner, lessening the need to start out with "the perfect leveling set."


In general, I like this idea and it would make sense. However, OMs would be even more powerful, since they could actually wear 3 more con than ANY other race in the mud. That seems quite irrational to me. I don't know what your effect of actually wearing 1 con would be, but making it just 1 hps per level would even mean 90 more hitpoints for an ordained.

If you plan to do the same for int and wis I think OMs are just about to become too powerful. Discussing the hp/mana gains is a fair thing to me. I've always (usually) experienced extremely good gains, but I know that others have been less lucky. Toning the luck of it down is a good option IMO.