Traf Rellik
Old Alpha
- Joined
- Dec 5, 2005
- Posts
- 779
- Location
- Minnopolis, or Dallas Texas when Mino is crowded..
- Society
- Freelancer
- Avatar Name
- Traf Rellik
This is a very basic guide that covers what *not* to do, rather than trying to tell you how to go about doing any one particular thing. The reason is simply because as a new player, you are undoubtably trying to explore all the game's opportunities without the benefit of knowing why or how.
1) Don't buy a gun and ammo until you've spent several hours in the game (sweating, socializing, collecting TP's, whatever).
2) Don't EVER buy settler armor.
3) Don't start a soc when you start the game (you won't be able to do some things as a result, and your soc won't take off).
4) Don't latch on to the nearest uber-looking person as a mentor.
5) Don't do any private trading until you've thoroughly read the scam guide.
Some of these are elaborated in other "regular" guides, but nobody is going to read all the guides on day one, and these "common mistakes" catch many people off guard.
Now for the explanations.
1) A gun and ammo is a typical newcomer error. They sell a couple thousand sweat that took them many boring hours to collect, arm themselves, and go hunting for the excitement. Five minutes later when they run out of ammo they are back wondering how exciting it can be to spend so much time in the mindless aspects of a game only to go broke in so short a time.
Several factors contribute to this. First off, your stats suck. Sorry, but it's true. You should sweat until you have earned a few skill increases, collected a few TP's, and made a few friends. Secondly, you won't have enough ammo to do anything except get discouraged. Thirdly, you will die a lot, and while that will help build your stats, it will also depress you, especially when you finally get a kill and it has no loot.
2) Settler armor is MA's way of making the other armor look good. This is very likely to be the best thing that can be said about it. Pixie armor is not much more in cost, and much better for small mobs. Instead of buying armor in the first place, I'd recommend a Chikara InvestaFoe ES100, to build stats and be able to see what tools/armor/weapons other people are using (being able to compare makes a big difference to the perception of value).
Addendum: AFTER you've played for several months, Settler armor can become useful again, but this is another story for another guide. The "don't EVER" part therefore applies while you are getting started.
3) Starting a soc when you enter seems to be one of those "why not" things... the problem is you limit yourselves by doing it, and if your new soc is to have any chance of success at all, you should be well on your way to being uber before you start it. I don't have much more to say on this except that it will definitely prevent you from becoming a disciple, even if you successfully disband your soc.
Addendum: Okay, so a couple people were lucky enough to start a soc on day one and say it worked out great... I believe these to be the rare cases, and think that for those dynamos that manage it, they could have likely done an existing soc as much or more good than going it alone, but I give them style points nonetheless. Here is an example of the advice being more than the statement itself -- the person that makes this mistake usually does it out of boredom in the game, experimenting and feeling the game's limits out rather than doing anything in a deterministic manner. My advice stands to warn them that the consequences are limiting and that they should think before they "soc up."
4) You are likely to run into quite a few uber-looking characters fairly early. Some of them are very helpful, some only appear that way, and others are less than helpful altogether (refer to #5 below). A good mentor will offer to help with no strings attached, and offer to take you on as a disciple only after spending time with you on your terms. Many mentors like to quiz their "prospective" disciples to ensure they are commited (to identify those abusive disciples that are just trying to scam perspective mentors), so a commitment is necessary on both sides of this equation, but they are the ones that tend to make the larger commitment. Make certain they know what you want to accomplish first, and also that they have the appropriate skills (don't take on a hunter mentor when you plan on mining!). There is much more material on this topic, written up in detail on this forum. Read first, commit later, and only when you are comfortable -- don't feel rushed to adopt a mentor.
5) Private trades are risky. MA's policy is that there is absolutely nothing wrong with you transferring your life savings over to a scammer in a transaction that gives you nothing back. You committed to the transaction, so it's on your head. While most of us think this is a bad policy on MA's part, we agree that it's far better to protect yourself than rely on others to protect you. The basics are: double check everything (especially if they remove and replace things in the trade); never EVER, EVER give someone something to "improve", "repair", "color", or otherwise hold on to without getting the full market value in return; and recheck everything before hitting the confirm button.
There are probably a million other things not to do, but these are what I consider to be the top 5 mistakes made by new players and worthy of a Public Service Advisory.
1) Don't buy a gun and ammo until you've spent several hours in the game (sweating, socializing, collecting TP's, whatever).
2) Don't EVER buy settler armor.
3) Don't start a soc when you start the game (you won't be able to do some things as a result, and your soc won't take off).
4) Don't latch on to the nearest uber-looking person as a mentor.
5) Don't do any private trading until you've thoroughly read the scam guide.
Some of these are elaborated in other "regular" guides, but nobody is going to read all the guides on day one, and these "common mistakes" catch many people off guard.
Now for the explanations.
1) A gun and ammo is a typical newcomer error. They sell a couple thousand sweat that took them many boring hours to collect, arm themselves, and go hunting for the excitement. Five minutes later when they run out of ammo they are back wondering how exciting it can be to spend so much time in the mindless aspects of a game only to go broke in so short a time.
Several factors contribute to this. First off, your stats suck. Sorry, but it's true. You should sweat until you have earned a few skill increases, collected a few TP's, and made a few friends. Secondly, you won't have enough ammo to do anything except get discouraged. Thirdly, you will die a lot, and while that will help build your stats, it will also depress you, especially when you finally get a kill and it has no loot.
2) Settler armor is MA's way of making the other armor look good. This is very likely to be the best thing that can be said about it. Pixie armor is not much more in cost, and much better for small mobs. Instead of buying armor in the first place, I'd recommend a Chikara InvestaFoe ES100, to build stats and be able to see what tools/armor/weapons other people are using (being able to compare makes a big difference to the perception of value).
Addendum: AFTER you've played for several months, Settler armor can become useful again, but this is another story for another guide. The "don't EVER" part therefore applies while you are getting started.
3) Starting a soc when you enter seems to be one of those "why not" things... the problem is you limit yourselves by doing it, and if your new soc is to have any chance of success at all, you should be well on your way to being uber before you start it. I don't have much more to say on this except that it will definitely prevent you from becoming a disciple, even if you successfully disband your soc.
Addendum: Okay, so a couple people were lucky enough to start a soc on day one and say it worked out great... I believe these to be the rare cases, and think that for those dynamos that manage it, they could have likely done an existing soc as much or more good than going it alone, but I give them style points nonetheless. Here is an example of the advice being more than the statement itself -- the person that makes this mistake usually does it out of boredom in the game, experimenting and feeling the game's limits out rather than doing anything in a deterministic manner. My advice stands to warn them that the consequences are limiting and that they should think before they "soc up."
4) You are likely to run into quite a few uber-looking characters fairly early. Some of them are very helpful, some only appear that way, and others are less than helpful altogether (refer to #5 below). A good mentor will offer to help with no strings attached, and offer to take you on as a disciple only after spending time with you on your terms. Many mentors like to quiz their "prospective" disciples to ensure they are commited (to identify those abusive disciples that are just trying to scam perspective mentors), so a commitment is necessary on both sides of this equation, but they are the ones that tend to make the larger commitment. Make certain they know what you want to accomplish first, and also that they have the appropriate skills (don't take on a hunter mentor when you plan on mining!). There is much more material on this topic, written up in detail on this forum. Read first, commit later, and only when you are comfortable -- don't feel rushed to adopt a mentor.
5) Private trades are risky. MA's policy is that there is absolutely nothing wrong with you transferring your life savings over to a scammer in a transaction that gives you nothing back. You committed to the transaction, so it's on your head. While most of us think this is a bad policy on MA's part, we agree that it's far better to protect yourself than rely on others to protect you. The basics are: double check everything (especially if they remove and replace things in the trade); never EVER, EVER give someone something to "improve", "repair", "color", or otherwise hold on to without getting the full market value in return; and recheck everything before hitting the confirm button.
There are probably a million other things not to do, but these are what I consider to be the top 5 mistakes made by new players and worthy of a Public Service Advisory.