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Brand new here

Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2014 11:25 am
by Ertai
Hi,
I am pretty new to MUDs and have only had exposure to Aetolia, which I played with a good friend of mine for a couple months. From what I have seen so far, Geas is amazing! It's incredible how deep and thought out everything is. As someone who has not been playing MUDs for very long I have some questions. Is any one race easier to play as a beginner than others? Is any guild easier for a beginner than others? For instance, I have been reading this forum and stumbled on a thread where people didn't think thieves would be a good guild for a beginner. From what I have read on the website it seems all the cities are pretty neutral. I started out in Arborea as a human, is there any place I should stay away from? Is there any political tension between Arborea and another place? Aetolia was a world full of vampires and werewolves. Are those present here? People have been very helpful on the Newbie-line, but I always feel like I'm bugging people with the loads of questions I have. Is there any other place I can find help on? Should I, for example, find a library and read books on subjects I am wondering about?

Thank you in advance for any help and I look forward to meeting all of you in the game!

Re: Brand new here

Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2014 2:25 pm
by Delia
You guilds you can easily(a relative term)join are the Shao-Lin, Crusaders, Taniel clerics, Asral clerics and the Rangers.

Thieves are bit secretive and yes, hard to play so they can prove to be very hard to join.

There are druids but I think there are not many druid players active currently. I am not sure. These guys are mostly pacifists so if you like to beat stuff up, this is not your place.

The evil guys are the Sathonys clerics and the Order. Playing an evil character is bit hard here, so you might be better off starting you as a neutral/goodish until you get your bearings.

There is a mage guild but the requirements for joining mean you have to have an experienced character to join. You can have minor magics or miracles depending on your choices however even if you are not a guild mage.

Humans and the city of Arborea claim the most land, more or less and are affiliated with the Asrals. All three layman guilds, skalds, scribes and alchemists can be found from their lands. Often at odds with Elvandar, the city of elves, for reasons historical and philosophical alike.

Elvandar was mentioned, and is affiliated with Crusaders, Rangers and Taniel clerics. Lots of moral superiority to be found there ;)

(With affiliated I mean you are most likely to run into these guys there, and usually the guys from the big guild hold some power/influence there as well)

You should not be hasty about joining a guild. You will not miss out much and you will have more freedom of choice. You can learn lots of skills and stuff without ever joining an occupational guild. I suggest you talk to people IC.

There are vampires and werewolves in Geas but both are rather rare. Chances are it will take a long while until you run into one.

Re: Brand new here

Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2014 2:46 pm
by Ertai
Delia, Thank you so much for taking the time to write that. I really appreciate that. I just have one more question. Where is a place most people congregate? I spent some time at the marketplace in Arborea expecting people to come by, but never saw anyone.

Re: Brand new here

Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2014 2:52 pm
by Delia
Try Elvandar marketplace, then. Usually when I play someone arrives there eventually.

Re: Brand new here

Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2014 2:53 pm
by Delia
And oh, do try to read the help files. It will help you a lot. There are a lot of small details regarding stuff like combat, for example. Help files will help you there :)

Re: Brand new here

Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2014 4:48 pm
by Delia
Quick small tip for finding people...

Using and improving your tracking skill helps a ton. It will take time but you will receive passive results as well. You can also toggle on autotracking but each active use of tracking can drain your mana quickly. Not necessarily useful for a fresh newbie but should you decide to stick around it is something to keep in mind.

Hope you enjoy it here :)

Re: Brand new here

Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2014 11:40 pm
by Ertai
Is there a wiki for Geas? I have searched all over, but couldn't find anything. Is it down? Also is there a way to find a mentor of some kind or is the best way to find someone to help is to join a guild?

Re: Brand new here

Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2014 11:57 pm
by Delia
There is a wiki but it is down. It is being looked into, I hear, which is nice as the wiki contains a wealth of information.

I suggest you try the Elvandar marketplace if you have trouble finding other players. Basically the only way to join a guild is having a high ranking character to accept you.

Re: Brand new here

Posted: Fri Nov 21, 2014 2:40 am
by Eluriel
The help files and forums are good places to look for information on the game. There are also some books available in the libraries, though you'll need good enough skill to be able to read them. But other characters can provide a wealth of information as well.

Generally, you can find people in marketplaces, but it may depend upon how many people are on at the time.

The different races have different attributes, so some can be more geared toward certain paths. Tshaharks make good warriors, for instance, but I don't think they can be clerics or mages. I think they're the only race that really has limitations like that.

Cleric guilds seem to be pretty easy for newbies, but yes, like Delia said, I would wait to see where your interests lie before joining a guild.

As a newbie, there are some places you may find warning signs to stay away from (the swamp near Arborea, for instance). Also, I would avoid Arborea's sewers and the Amward Plains past the bridge west of Bandama. The only people you should have to worry about are deathpriests (Sathonys clerics), though some are perfectly civil (apart from the eating people).

Re: Brand new here

Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 12:11 pm
by louis
Just one little thing:

We provided the newbieline for exacly this purpose, to offer Newbies a way to ask questions whenever they pop up - so don't hesitate to continue to use it :)

Re: Brand new here

Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2015 2:20 pm
by Ertai
I have come up with a few more questions. Before I continue, I'd like to point out I have met quite a few people in game and everyone has been very nice and helpful and I really appreciate that. My questions are about game mechanics, but perhaps this is not the right place to ask if so please let me know. Firstly, how does experience work? I get that the more you use a skill the better it gets. So in theory if I climb a tree over and over will my climb skill and strength get better? What about quests? If you do the same quest more than once do you get more experience or just some the first time you do it? I have done one quest( where I clean the room for Grimthain) and got 2 gold coins and some exp( my strength went from far from weak to halfway to weak). The second time I did it, I got 1 gold coin and what seemed like no exp. ( str has remained halfway to weak). Also, speaking of quests, what's up with the little girl in the park of Arborea) How do I lure the cat? "Lure cat" doesn't work. I have tried looking for a treat of some kind to entice the cat, but came up with nothing. Lastly, for the quest for Ecthor, is there a way to have NPC follow you or am I thinking along wrong lines on this one. I am not looking for solutions to any quest, I am just trying to work out game mechanics, because it can be very difficult to type the right combination of words to accomplish something.

Re: Brand new here

Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2015 4:25 pm
by luminier
I can help you here, but the game gives some pretty good descriptions as well, so I am basically just going to reiterate the in game description from "help experience"

experience comes in three ways, skills, quests and exploring. Skills is weighted at 3/6 quests are 2/6 and explore is 1/6. Your stat pref has no bearing on skill weighted xp, only quest and explore - as far as i know.

typically quests can only be done once for experience value. some may be repeatable but only for gold and no experience value.

as for quest help, you can ask IC, but typically syntaxes and such are pretty intuitive and sometimes you just have to play around with it a bit. helping others with quests OOC is generally frowned upon, but IC help is just fine!

obviously if you really can't figure out the syntax or think it's broken in some way, write a report and have a wizard look at it. preferably with some sort of replacement or additional syntax that would progress the code forward.

I hope that answers your questions.

with love, poLumi

Re: Brand new here

Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2015 4:56 pm
by Ertai
Thank you Luminier. Can you please clarify how to increase skills/ how that works? Say I climb a tree, my skill in climbing increases a little bit right? What if I then jump down and try again? Does it increase a little bit more or do I have to wait a certain amount of time before I do it again? What about attributes? I mean it makes sense that when I climb I increase my strength. However I can't think of any other activity to increase it. Does hunting gremlins or just swinging a sword increase strength?

Re: Brand new here

Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2015 3:51 am
by Delia
You improve your stats with experience from quests, exploration and skills.

Skills are usually linked to two or even three stats. You improve your skills by using them consistently over time. So climbing one or two times might not do much, but climbing a bit everytime you play will definitely raise your skill.

Raising your STR comes most naturally with combat and setting your STR pref high for good boost from quests and exploration. Remember that you can always go back and changes your prefs again!

Re: Brand new here

Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2015 3:59 am
by Delia
A quick list of skills you can train by fighting stuff, affecting various stats(STR included):

Swing
Slash
Thrust
Parry
Dodge
Defence
Deflect
Protect
Aim
Shield
Two handed
Any one or two weapon skills
Light, medium and/or heavy armour
Punch
Kick
Throwing
Knee
Elbow
Headbutt
Slam
Appraise skills...

And the list goes on.
Note that some of the skills are passive while some such as special attacks require activation.

Explore your options :)

Re: Brand new here

Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2015 12:21 pm
by louis
Hmm. Combat is of course also a topic to gain xp with - just mentioning. :wink:

Re: Brand new here

Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2015 5:20 pm
by luminier
louis wrote:Hmm. Combat is of course also a topic to gain xp with - just mentioning. :wink:

oopsies. just another reason to look at "help experience" and not listen to me!