Waterdeep's New Training Area

[Harroghty]

Please post comments and critiques about the new training area in Waterdeep here.

[Tarven]

Halimar beckons you over, smiling, 'Gdjlo, bmw!'.
Halimar sets his huge hands on his hips.
Halimar asks you 'So you want to be an adventurer, eh?'

Only language known is common. Not sure why I didn't catch that, correctly.

[Tarven]

.OOC: Remember that there are some feats (e.g. Poison Resist)
.must be taken before a certain level. These were offered by
.trainers in the character generation area, but they are also
.offered by Halimar and Camberdan here.
.Use the ASK command to inquire about these if you doubt your
.decision or just want some advice.


Any chance this could be posted only when you type 'train' and not every time you train a skill?
---
In the room, just east of the first 'fountain' you encounter, the room description is a bit.... loud. I could see gradating the color like


111111111111111111111111111111 but not so much like 11111111111121123333333
1111111111111111111111111 11111111111112113223333
11111111111111111111111111111 11111111111113223323333
11111111111111111112222222222222 45323411111112342333333
22222222222222222222222222222
222222222222222222222222222
3333333333333333333333333333333
3333333333333333333333333333333

If that makes any sense <.< The 'help colour in descriptions' file mentions some of the reasons why limiting colour is good, and I think they apply here.
---
Placement of map = brilliant. Well played.
---
Stoglin snarls, 'You dam't beau Thnz if wqu byn't bebt mf, mhvtle girn'.
Stoglin steps back and drops into a fighting stance.
Stoglin says to you 'You attack first.'

Seems to be some issues with the languages in the area. =/
---
All in all, it's a good little area. The spawn on the gibberlings seems a bit high. Had a couple times I tried resting, and one would spawn when I woke up. Another time, I had one dead, and the second almost dead, when another spawned on top of it. Got me pretty low on life. I also re-iterate that some of the rooms are aesthetically difficult.

Kudos, though, for working to improve the retention of new players. It's a nice change from the Font. Might work in, somewhere earlier, something like a 'magic mirror' where you look, and it says,

"What is it you see before you? What color is your hair? How about your eyes?
Do you have a narrow jaw, or a wide one? Pointed ears of an elf, or the
rounded ears of a human? Perhaps the broad nose of a gnome."
OOC: Type "Help description" "Help colour in descriptions" "Help <Race name>"
OOC: Also, you can customize the color of your speech. Look at "Help color" and
OOC: "Color List" for some ideas on how to do this.

Just an idea. =)

[Tarven]

So, I created a new character, went through the new tutorial, and waited for a name auth (for quite a while). Finally, Gwain walked through, and I mentioned not being able to go anywhere, due to not being name auth'd. He said the name wasn't on the approval/denial list. I didn't seen an emote for denial, nor approval. At Gwain's suggestion, I logged out, and back in, and I was then able to enter the rest of the game (Past the store-room). But I didn't get an emote, still, saying denied nor approved.

[Tarven]

Also, the city of the dead is rough at level 3 <.< Might make the zombies Act_sentinel so you have time to rest?

Edit* Definitely need them sentinel. I got swarmed by 6 zombies, consecutively, and had at least 2 on every exit when I tried to flee. Started with 2 in the room, figured no biggie, and they just kept coming. Was like night of the living dead.

[Tarven]

Okay... so... after dying with a new character, in the city of the dead, my corpse vanished. I also noticed that the lamps went out, so I'm assuming there was a passover from night to day? Could that have affected it? Character name is Conlain.

[Tarven]

Later found corpse. Wasn't where I died, nor where I walked past, several times, while looking, though I did kill a zombie there later. Are they set to scavenge?

[Harroghty]

Thanks for the feedback. I have made some tweaks based upon it.

• Language appears to be an issue with mobiles using the smote command to act and speak. I changed all of these instances to act and then speak (using sayto). (This is perhaps another instance of the weird language bug experienced with the shipping and caravan mobiles.)
• I raised the time between resets in the training area (so less spawning). This will also affect all training areas globally; dummies will now spawn more slowly.
• I have limited when you will see the training reminder as much as possible.
• The apply command (which forces you to apply for authorization) does appear to function correctly. Not sure about that.
• Limited zombie appearances, but did not make them SENTINEL. Let's see how this measure works and we will go from there.

Info points.

• Lamps go out after you complete the quest (to allow others to do it) and in the morning.
• Yes, the zombies -being zombies- do scavenge. We will see how that goes and if it needs to change.

[Tarven]

Well, it's a shame about the dummies, but the only place I -really- noticed them being slow was in Waterdeep, and that was only at the upper reaches of 7-10-ish, but since there are two sets, it shouldn't be a big deal. Otherwise, rock on. Thanks for listening to feedback and making adjustments. I'll give it another run through when I wake up, and see how it feels now <.<

[Harroghty]

I am making some more updates today. Just be aware that right now the respawn room on the game port is still the Font of Knowledge, but it will be somewhere else as soon as that bit of code is copied over. I apologize for that.

[Lylena]

When you ask our friend in the beginning about food and drink, when you ask about drink, the first line to food is there and doesn't run seamlessly into the ordeal about drinking. Suggest either removing the first line when you ask about drink or adjusting it to be a seamless explanation.

Edit:

also, currently it says on the second line "But water will more important!" Should probably have a 'be' inbetween will and more.

[Harroghty]

Mask kindly repaired the respawn location issue.

You will notice that the lamps, when you light them in the City of the Dead, will not provide light. It appears to be a hard code issue that I need to address with the boss. Again, apologies.

[Lylena]

I want to comment and say very well done on the parts I've seen. I thoroughly enjoyed myself running through as a new character!

[Tarven]

Yeah, I agree that the zone is fun and new. Love it =D

Found another item, though. <.<



This wand is as long as a man's forearm and thin as a willow
reed. It has a glowing gem affixed to its far end and there
is a label on its shaft that reads: "Magic missiles!"
OOC: Hold this wand to use it and type zap target.
.....e.g. zap gibberling
.....This is an offensive spell to use in battles.


it actually ended up being color spray. <.<

[Tarven]

*cough* Wand of knock doesn't work on the other side of the door.

[Tarven]

More general feedback:

So, the first objective requires you go during the evening hours, and the second daytime. Might not be untoward to make a suggestion for something to do, in the meantime, for new players. Does Express Deliveries have a minimum level? Might not hurt to have the Priest of Ao guy give directions, at least to Market Square. Perhaps have him suggest to players that they ask around for the location of ED, or the sewers, perhaps. Just ideas. Wouldn't be fun cooling your heels for an hour if you happen to arrive at just the wrong time. =/

[Harroghty]

A few updates this morning:

• - wands are back to magic missile
  - wand of knock works inside the door
  - Thelonius gives some advice during evening hours
  - duplicate "training aids" (Pugran, Stoglin, and Tiny) are cleaned up

[Tarven]

A few updates this morning:

• - wands are back to magic missile
  - wand of knock works inside the door
  - Thelonius gives some advice during evening hours
  - duplicate "training aids" (Pugran, Stoglin, and Tiny) are cleaned up

Awesome! I really appreciate you listening to the feedback openly. =D I'll have to take my new guy back down, and see if I'm offered any advice I'm up to the part after you hear the spiel about Ao, and sort of stumped. <.< Looking for a certain place, but it's a big city, hehe.

PS. The wands of color spray were awesome, lol, just didn't appear to be the intent.

[Harroghty]

Wands of magic missile did not work initially and so I had to put some other spell in there to test. I did not update every instance though after Mask fixed wands (but I imagined I had).

And I appreciate your feedback. Yours and that of others who have been very helpful (Rostina, Turi, etc.). Something like this is only successful after it is beat up a little bit by players. (I cannot anticipate everything and I have seen too much of what I want it to do, thus sometimes missing when it doesn't do something that it should.) Thanks.

[Tarven]

Right on. =)

As I've been going through, I've been very much trying to put myself in the position of someone -brand- new. Which is easy, since I'm still -pretty- new.