Hi and thanks for the welcome.
I've returned with many questions! Most of this is about the game mechanics I haven't been able to understand completely from help files or by trial and error etc. Appreciate any advice or tips you may have on these.
RP/OOC question:
What's the general protocol for using @say for OOC comms in Geas?
I've had people realise my newbieness and offer me a few syntax/command tips with @say after making a suggestion IC. Like:
IC: "There are a group of goblins ahead. Israfel, be prepared to take a defensive stance and retreat if things go poorly."
@say: "Try using 'mood wimpy' and wear your shield before the fight starts. Check out help 'mood' too."
I've also seen people use it to indicate when they need to quickly 'AFK'.
I've really tried not to use @say at all because it kind of breaks to immersion a bit and I don't want to ruins things for others.
Being evil
I did browse a thread of the forums about this. It looks like a difficult road for a new player. Is that still the way of it? I ask because the IC (in an RP sense) opportunity to follow a more evil path did come up for me recently in a couple of ways and having read that thread I OOCly steered away from taking up the opportunity knowing that it would probably make learning the game a whole lot harder.
Training
I've had a couple of attempts at training with an NPC. The first attempt, I paid some money to a trainer who then went through a lesson. At the end of this I got a message that said it really wasn't very useful and I didn't learn anything. Is this normal? (also can I get a refund??
)
Second time: went through a little quest for an NPC to teach me some language skills. The lesson equaled the addition of 1 point in the theory of that skill. I was expecting much more. Is training always in single point increments?
Books
Books look really interesting but I'm finding them very hard to access (playing as a human). There's a book called 'How to read a book' but the text is obfuscated because of my low 'common font' skill. That, or I'm doing it wrong
.
I also found a learnbook on common font but my skill in common font is too low to read that one also... *scratching my head here* Am I going about this all wrong?
Coins
I am carrying around a ton of loose coinage. Are there money pouches or something I can store them in?
Inventory
Is there a way to view the inventory as a list (eg dot points/numbered) rather than a paragraph? (just for ease of reading it)
Carrying things
I bought a backpack but I found carrying just a few 'essentials' around in the backpack was weighing me down quite a bit.
This 'was' my initial take on essentials to carry around:
- lamp and oil
- tinderbox
- coins
- maps
- weapons/shield
- waterskin
- food
- whetstone
- compass
I've since abandoned the food and waterskin because they seem to weigh me down a lot and I never seem to be too far from water or food at the moment. I've even stopped using the backpack and opted for stuffing things (like maps/whetstone) in my pockets instead.
So my question is, what are the options for players who want to be 'light on their feet' but still be able to grab their other belongs for certain situations (eg long journey, going into a cave, into the swamp etc)? Can I just hide my backpack somewhere to go and retrieve it later? Or do I need to buy and use a locker for this type of stuff?
Mercenaries
The preamble here is a bit of a newbie tale of woe...
So I was playing around with mercenaries yesterday. I had weighed up for a while whether it was worth hiring one and hadn't been able to figure out how long they'd stay with me etc. Anyway, I figured the best way to find out would be just to try it, so I decided to hire one to assist me with the nibbler attic fight. This went great and so I then figured I'd keep things rolling and go and complete a few more of the trickier quests while I was at it.
So with the powerhouse of Arborea, Borric, by my side I thought I could 'maybe' finally fulfill my dream of conquering the swamp nearby Arborea for a quest I'd wanted to do for a while. This was a bad idea. Upon entering the swamp, I got eaten to within an inch of my life by leeches. Then a lizard or some other swamp-creature bit Borric on the hand causing him to drop his war hammer into a swamp-hole - which promptly ate it, never to be seen again.
As it turns out, Borric is a bit of a weapon snob and won't wield anything but his favorite warhammer. He wouldn't wield any of the pitiful weapons I offered him. Completely lost, it was then that it occurred to me that Borric was not going to be much help to me fully clad in plate armour, wading through a swamp, trying to bash lizards over the head with his fists.
Long story short, I managed to navigate my way out of there and lived to tell the tale. Borric too made it out alive. But I never was able to get his hammer back.
So a few question I still haven't figured out with merc is:
- Is Borric now 'broken' (weaponless) for anyone who wants to hire him in the future?
- How long with the merc stay with me (eg one IC day?) and will they just stop following me or demand more cash at that point?
- I logged out and when I logged back in my merc was still in the room but had left my service. They didn't return back to their merc hall. Should they do that on their own or do I need to rehire them to walk them home again?
- Can I 'spar' with a merc I hired as a way of practicing? eg, hire merc, tell him to use stunmode, then tell him to attack me? (seems like an easy way to get knocked out)
Israfel