10 Things for Newbies
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10 Things for Newbies | Basic Game Mechanics | Creatures | Fighting | Group Hunting | Healing | Mystics | Macros | Tactics | Index | Links
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10 Things Contents |
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Even newbies need love. Here's 10 things every newbie should know. (If you're really new you'll want to read this.)
Don't give your password out!
If you give your password out, you increase the odds of your account getting hacked. There have been several incidents where people gave out their password to come back finding their characters have been robbed and penniless, among other things.
No GM or other DT employee will ever ask for your password. Some GMs are able to reset them, but they won't ask for them. They'll just give you a new one and you should change it immediately!
Once more: Don't give out your password!
Picking a Name
Try to pick something unique in the first four letters (hard to do if you've never played). There are many people whose names start with common words like Snow or Black, and end in Wyn. Names can be quirky but should fit within the context of the game, though that depends on how you play the character. A name like HyperNinja is probably not as good as Hipernin. Remember this is the name you're stuck with and it can't be changed. So, don't name yourself something derogatory, such as "dip-shit" because you'll get tired of being called that fairly fast, and the jokes will get old quicker. Also, if your name violates the terms of service, your character can be removed from the game very fast. So, save yourself and the GMs trouble and pick something appropriate to a fantasy role playing world.
Being nice and polite: Don't suck.
Treat people how you would like to be treated. Playing an Evil Character is one thing, but running around screaming stupid things will just get you cursed and ignored. This is a cooperative multi-player game. You aren't the only one in the world, so your behavior matters the moment you meet someone else. If you plan on having any fun playing, you're going to need friends to do it. Also, remember, players come from all sorts of places and are all ages. So a little restraint and patience until you know who's who doesn't hurt.
Sharing and Falling
When you share someone, /share {name}, you generate experience for them: 10% of what you are getting. Plus you get a 1% bonus in experience for each share. Anyone you share, or who is sharing you, knows immediately when you fall. Newbie shares are worth a lot because as a newbie, you get experience easily. However, you can only share up to 5 exiles.
You should always share the members of your group. You should also share healers when they heal you, since you get healed faster if you are sharing, and the healer takes less damage.
If you are hunting alone, you should still share some other exiles. If you fall, do not immediately depart. You are raisable. Toggling is when you share and unshare (or unshare and share) a person. Toggle the people you are sharing first, or answer their questions with toggles. (For yes/no questions, toggling means yes, silence means no.) If a mystic is on, share them and they will know when you fall and can locate you.
Once you hear people yelling your name, try to include your location within the snell. "Help, I'm fallen in the southwest corner!" is more helpful to your rescuers than "Fallen here!" If you're already fallen and awaiting rescue through toggling, then you can have that yell ready when the cavalry arrives.
Many exiles consider rescuing to be great fun!
Log out in the Library
If you log out in the library, you get experience while you're offline. The first library, closest to the temple is the free library. You get somewhat more experience from a pay library. The pay libraries start in the other one you enter and get more expensive as you go west, with the most expensive pay library being in the room right next to the free library.
There are other places where you can gain experience by being offline, although their amount of experience you get while you sleep is the same as the free lib, such as the homes in the Puddleby Hollows, in the big tree in the north field or in the ship to the west.
How to fight
When you swing, you lose balance. The higher your balance, the harder you are to hit, when you begin you should swing once or twice and move away to recover balance. If you swing out on a monster and it's attacking you, move away so it doesn't get free shots while you regenerate balance. For fighters, a more in depth study can be under the Fighting section in the CLUMP.
How Training Works
You get most of your experience while playing from one of two things. Either you kill things, or other people kill things and share their experience with you. When you get enough experience, you gain what is called a rank. In character, these are called lessons. So, if you hear someone saying they've 50 lessons in Histia, that means they've gained 50 ranks worth of training in Histia. This rank is in what you are currently training. With each rank you get a little bit better at something. You will keep training with that trainer until you reach its maximum number of lessons or you switch trainers. There are few capped trainers in Clan Lord. Some abilities you improve incrementally, like the speed at which you heal (Faustus), or how reliably you can hit a monster (Atkus), while others you have to train a set number of ranks to gain the ability (e.g. baking, brewing, languages). There are no levels in Clan Lord; only tests you can pass to be in a higher circle. With each circle test you pass, you might get access to new trainers or new items. Other than that you may become eligible to train something new or for a subclass of your current class. Check out The Experience System for information about how experience works in Clan Lord.
The Definition of a Snell
A snell is a single area you can travel in without crossing the grey areas. When you yell, your yell travels throughout this entire area. In a few areas when you cross a border, you're still in the same snell, but this is rare. In some snells when you go west and then east, you end up somewhere other than the snell where you began. In a few places, the snells are "turned" and what you see as the top of your screen, north, is not really north.
Acronyms
Every game has its set of acronyms and abbreviations; Clan Lord is no different. If you want to know what "PND in TC" means, check out the Glossary here.
Saving Keystokes: Macros
Macros are small scripts that simplify an action or multiple actions into a key press or a trigger word. You start by going to the Macros folder in the same folder that the Clan Lord application resides, and open up either the Default file or the file with your character name on it in a text editor like Textedit or Notepad.exe or BBEdit. It must be a plain text document, so if you're using MS Word, save it as text and not as a Word document. You type the trigger word or keystroke you want to activate the macro, then the text you want to appear in quotes. If it's a more complex macro you separate it into multiple lines in between brackets. For instance:
'"thx" "thanks\r"'
will replace "thx" with "thanks" when you hit enter. (The "\r" is a return, to have the enter key pressed.)
Here's another example of a multi-line macro:
F5
{
if @my.right_item != "chain"
"/equip chain\r"
end if
"/use\r"
}
When you hit F5 you will equip your chain and use it to drag a fallen person. Macros can get very complex, but for now check out the Macros page, or look at delta Tao's Macro Primer. Also: Better Living Through Fast Feet's Macro Guide. URLs for non-CLUMP guides are on the Links page.
Setting up easier movement
Switch to click toggles to move and type at the same time.
Mac:
- Clan Lord>Preferences>click toggles
PC:
- Settings>Preferences>click toggles
Mac Laptops: Using Function Keys as Function Keys
- Open your System preferences (Apple Menu>System Preferences).
- Select Keyboard.
- Checkmark the box that reads Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys (see below)
Don't forget to Eat and Sleep
If this is your first online game, you'll soon find it addicting. Try not to let it take over your life. Too much.
Next Steps
The Basic Game Mechanics section covers the basics such as Money (Coining), The Sharing System, Training and The Karma System.
After becoming familiar with those, the mechanics of Healing and Fighting should be your next stop.
Other Resources
Better Living Through Fast Feet is a seminal work by Nohn and required reading for all new exiles.
Thoomcare is Puddleby's oldest running news scroll.
Winds of Dawn's New Exile Guide is a fountain of useful information for newbies.
See these additional Links for more resources
