Mithril Hall light armour

[Anvilin]

I was wondering if there could be a full set of light chain mail or medium or something added to a vender in MH. It might help young Dwarfs out quite a bit. As it is there is a mixture of random and overly expensive pieces.

[Timaeus]

I second this suggestion, as well as would like to see it expanded a little.

When a lot of newbie areas and attached towns were created and designed the armor system was much different than what we have now and combat was much less dangerous. Adding a full set of studded leather, light mail and heavy mail to places with newbie zones makes a lot of sense and makes the early life of a character much more enjoyable rather than keeping the obsolete FK tradition of _____ hometown should be harder to start out in than others. That is already accomplished by the details of some newbie zones over others and the areas surrounding the various hometown options among other things. Expanding the availability of lower level armor sets might also lead to players actually wanting to create characters in hometowns other than Waterdeep. Choices that are based more on race/roleplay rather than how hard its going to be to start out a character because they can't survive long enough to get basic equipment.

The hometown areas would need to be checked to see what armor does exist and what would need to be added. Offhand I can only think of one Hometown that has full sets of a light and medium armor type and that's Westgate. Mithril Hall, Menzo, Shadowdale, Golden Oaks, Silverymoon, Skullport, Zhentil Keep and even Waterdeep all lack armor sets which should be made available.

[Nysan]

While I support placing reasonable armor choices in hometowns, to keep towns updated with current combat systems, I am also of the mind that certain places were, and still are, designed around being an uphill fight, harder starting areas. Sort of defeats the purpose of 'advanced' starting towns if characters have the same gearing ease as Waterdeep.

There is no shame in wearing mismatch gear gathered from mobs. Even though it was years ago, I still remember a certain dwarf spending his early days in crappy beetle-shell armor he took from mobs in upper mining tunnels. Looked horrible, constantly got damaged, more than a few people laughed at him, but it worked!

So, yes to armor options, but hesitant on relying simply on vendors to fill the void in advanced areas... if that makes sense.

[Rhangalas]

The scarred dwarf in mismatched chain, half-plate, and splint with tufts of beard missing and covered in blood is much more awesome than the clean dwarf with everything matching IMO.

[Timaeus]

Then make the sets all mismatched but make sure there are pieces for all the armor locations. They do not even have to be great material types or so they damage. Being that dwarf who dies several times trying to get the mismatched sets off of mobs is just not fun or productive for the player of the dwarf.

Its rather common for dwarves to be created in Mithril Hall and as soon as the name is authorised high tail it out for Waterdeep if they even choose the Mithril Hall hometown at all. Most do not.

Mithril Hall is a difficult place to start in because of the nature of the actual newbie area and then the lethality of the surrounding areas and the very lack of player support if you do die in the Mithril Halls area. Having some lower armor types at least gives them a chance to actually stay there instead of bolting to the much easier areas around Waterdeep as soon as they find the way out.

[Anvilin]

Yes lets keep places hard because they've always been hard, I started in a hard area so everyone must bla bla bla. That is a load of BS in my opinion. Adding a set of chain will only make a place a bit more reasonable to train at instead of running off like others have stated. The only places I can think of that do not have sets of some kind of matching armour available are Mithril Hall and Shadowdale

[Nysan]

Yes lets keep places hard because they've always been hard, I started in a hard area so everyone must bla bla bla. That is a load of BS in my opinion. Adding a set of chain will only make a place a bit more reasonable to train at instead of running off like others have stated. The only places I can think of that do not have sets of some kind of matching armour available are Mithril Hall and Shadowdale

Do not be confused. I am not some bitter old dwarf, lamenting about days of old where I walked uphill, both ways, in the snow, just to gather enough copper coins to buy my first belt. I fully support updating areas to current combat/armor systems.

My only issue is turning areas specified for advanced players into Waterdeep. No fun if we water down everything to be the same bland newbie experience, just different decor. Which is why I stated I supported armor options, but disagreed with simply upping the stock of local vendors. Merely adding to a store's stockroom feels like the lazy way out, in areas that don't deserve a lazy hand.

[Hrosskell]

Just remember that there used to be a full armor set in MH that was below plate status; it was removed around the time items with mithril in the description were removed. I also don't believe that these areas were built around the idea that they should be hard; they were built, and they were hard, and that became part of the mythos around them. Personally I think adding a small suit of something in the range Anvilin suggested would be nice--the area lacks a lot of the benefits of WD's new starting area and would be something worked towards, where-as the coin from the WD adventure/OOC newbie zone basically buys a half-set of heavy mail.

[Harroghty]

One idea that I have been kicking around as I plan the new starting experience is a store as the last stage of character creation. A PC would receive an amount of gold (following the options in pen and paper), then have a Matrix like store in which to purchase their initial gear.

Thoughts?

[Rhangalas]

Yes. I know of another MUD that does this and it is pure win.

[Hrosskell]

All I have to say on the subject is: Yes please.

[Timaeus]

I echo Rhangalas and Hrosskell on the idea of moving our creation to mirror tabletop. Its a good idea.

[Nysan]

Tabletop mirror... Ensuring new characters start out with a starter set of armor and weapons they are comfortable with and trained to use. Sounds great. Full support, assuming the gear in question will last them long enough to get established. By that I mean ensure local vendors in hometowns are coded to repair it (easily overlooked in low traffic hometowns).

[Anvilin]

I really do like that idea!