Newbie Guide

[Mordent]

Seeing as there's been a significant increase in the number of newbies lately (largely in part to Azazel's efforts) I decided to spend some of my free time developing a guide that will help newbies get a feel for what VW is about by answering some of the more common questions and offering a general explanation of what they can expect in the future.

Link Removed: Finger Mordent in-game for the link.

Some of the topics include:
* Newbie Gear
* Basic Spells
* Spell and Stance Training
* Questing
* Places to Bash

Constructive criticism is welcome. If there's anything I didn't mention that anyone thinks I should add then please let me know.

~Mordent

[Mase]

Excellent guide - it offers a lot of helpful and essential information. I, for one, will be directing all newbies I encounter to your site.

A couple suggestions:

• Under basic spells, I'd add clot/mend/regenerate, maybe as just one bullet point. There are obviously plenty more spells that could be considered "most important", but I think these should make the short list.
• Methods for stance training are hotly debated, and I want to throw in my two cents. Each *attempted* attack triggers the improve stance check. You attempt the same number of attacks each round regardless of what you're fighting (more attacks if you have celerity as a discipline). This is common knowledge - admin have corroborated this on public channels. It means that attacking a mount and successfully hitting it 5 times each round has the same likelihood of improving your stance as fighting a bashing mob and missing 4 out of 5 attacks. The important thing is just spending time in combat against mobs of any size. Obviously, everyone would rather gain size at the same time, instead of sitting naked in a room hammering on mount after mount.
  
  If you feel it's truly important to mention the naked-mount-genocide foolishness, please explain the mechanics of how stance training actually works so new players can deduce the smartest way to advance stances for themselves.
• Another topic you might want to address is vw etiquette. When I first started mudding here, I trained avatar, joined a clan, tested out my cool new "readaura" skill on an avatar who belonged to another clan, and all hell promptly descended upon me with no explanation. After a 45-minute torso (this was oldschool) and subsequent feed, I decided this new mud wasn't worth my time and quit.
  
  There's no reason this should happen, and since new players are hard to come by these days, helping them avoid (previously) unwritten rules could be a good idea. Things like looking at a player, considering, reading, attempting to upcap, escape capping, etc. Not that these actions can't (or shouldn't) be done, but that the new player should be prepared to face some serious consequences from other players.

Again, overall I'm impressed, and I expect new players will find your guide very useful. Thanks for putting in the effort.

[Neeska]

As a newbie that has come back to playing here after a many year gap I have already found your guide helpful. Because of many a forgotten thing (read as everything) I have had to re-learn how to MUD so a big thumbs up from me on a whole.

Just a couple of pointers from my side of things....a couple of your directions are off (on your main diretions page), this morning I cant remember which they are sorry. Blame the fact I slept hehe.

Neeska the eternal newbie

[Mordent]

Mase:

I believe I've added everything you mentioned in your reply. As I'm not a big game mechanics person please let me know if my explanation in the stance training portion isn't quite right.

Just a couple of pointers from my side of things....a couple of your directions are off (on your main diretions page), this morning I cant remember which they are sorry. Blame the fact I slept hehe.

I figured I probably made a few mistakes in there as manually entering all those directions got a bit repetitive. I'll double check them as I can but if you happen to notice an area in particular please let me know (on here or in-game) and I'll make sure that I get them fixed.

Thanks for the input.

~Mordent

[Isaac]

Nice Mordent, I like it.

[ghnat]

if you want help populating the quest item list this sight can help start you off
http://new.vampire-wars.com/wiki/index. ... gory:Quest
one of the admin set it up a few yrs ago but then other admin complained that it was against the ethics of questing so it kinda started went strong then died quick.

[Mordent]

There's always one person that has to **** up a good thing.

Since someone decided it would be funny to attempt to submit porn links into the quest database I have removed the directions, quest item search, and quest item submit from the website. The basic newbie information is still there for any new players that may need it.

I will eventually transfer the recently removed content to another server. Active players that want to use the information (as it is intended) can feel free to contact me via the forums or in-game and I will give the new location.

However, if this **** happens again then I'll simply pull the plug on the whole damn thing.

~Mordent

[Mase]

It was probably a spider. The bots that have been registering and posting here likely scan all accessible pages for links, follow them, and target submittable forms and e-mail addresses. If you add a captcha it should fix the problem, I don't think any active member of this forum is that unnecessarily malicious.

[Hiedric]

haha no way.. mase is right. the problem is the link on this page. take it off this page...these porn bots focus on forums, because they know they get more traffic and more clicks than normal everyday websites. keep the link in your finger. and give it out in game if needed. i would ask admin to delete the link from the forums. otherwise its just going to happen again.

[Mordent]

Thanks for the suggestions. I removed the link from the forums and have implemented a captcha image when submitting items into the database. So everything should be back to normal.

Let me know if there are any errors I didn't notice.

~Mordent

[Mordent]

I've done a significant over-haul to the site, basically improving upon its standard html format for security purposes. The newbie guide is still available to the public but advanced features that deal with inserting stuff into the database requires the user to register first (registration is, of course, free). Registered users can currently access directions, search the database for quest items, and submit quest items. Additionally, I just added the feature where users can submit, view, and comment on walk-throughs for the different runs in the game.

~Mordent

[bair]

whats wrong with porn links?

[Samhein]

Ya it makes for some interesting new links on here

[Sami]

whats wrong with porn links?

Ya it makes for some interesting new links on here

I'm so glad you all get off on porn The rest of us do not need to know this and it is just too much information for my virgin ears?