Walraven/SIMud

Sigh. Started this article on April 14, ‘09; then RL kicked me in the teeth for a year and a half. None of the admins are able to contribute any meaningful dev time to the project these days but thankfully GPFault is joining the mud as an archwizard tasked with revivification, and in honor of that, I am revivificating this old draft blog post

Just for completeness sake, I am going to kick off my discussion of ideas for a new newbie experience by documenting the current system.

When a new player logs in to the mud for the first time, they are asked a handful of questions before being dropped onto the peak of Witac Island. Before a player can leave Witac, they must complete every quest on the island. If a player manages to escape the island w/o completing every quest, they will be returned to the peak when they log back in. Completion of Witac gives the player a few tools and fleshes out their physical description.

The entire process of escaping Witac island goes something like this:

escape the peak

The first thing a player has to do is figure out how to leave the first room we drop them into. We tell them to type “look” and hope they notice the instruction. This is the end of the help they receive unless a player is online to help them out.

Reading the sign produces the following:

This is Witac island, the gateway to the lands of Walraven. To escape this
peak, you will need to stand on the three pads on the ground in this order:

WEST - SOUTH - EAST

You will need to walk onto each pad. If the northern pad goes dark, it means
you made a mistake, and need to start over. If the sequence is done
correctly, you can walk onto the northern pad to leave.

Some more help can be found at help walk or help look. In the room, you are the
@ sign, while the pads are the *’s on the sides.

It is then kind of tricky to get onto the pads. The way I just managed it was via:

walk to red pad
walk w
walk to green pad
walk se
walk to blue pad
walk ne
look
walk to yellow pad
walk n

That’s just ridiculous confusing.

dehydration ftl

When the player finally escapes the mountain peak, we acknowledge that this might have taken them some time and they might be thirsty. NB: the player can actually DIE of thirst trying to figure out the first puzzle.

So in the second room, we provide a source of fresh water and a sign. If they are paying attention and read the sign, it will tell them to take a drink. If they enter the command provided - it actually TAKES TIME before they get any feedback of any sort. Since walking to the stream and taking a drink is a readiness consuming action, and since readiness display isn’t enabled by default, they have no idea why it takes them 4-5 seconds to get some feedback, after all, the explicit walk commands they typed a minute ago gave instant feedback…

Anyway. If the player successfully takes a drink, the sign tells them to take the south exit from the room.

actual instruction

The player finally receives their first quasinormal introduction to the mud. An NPC greets them, points them to a sign, and responds to a few spoken keywords. We introduce the chat and newbie channels as well as the say, tell, ignore, and introduce verbs here.

We also have a ridiculous introduction to what a mud is and a bit of basic jargon… but whatever

the blasted description quest beginneth

Leaving the chat tutor behind, you enter the main hub of Witac island.

The thief npc that then accosts you will tell you about basic inventory management and tells you how to pick and eat fruit if you’re paying attention. He then occasionally emotes nefarious things at you, which things have been known to set newbies into a panic in the past.

There is another sign in the room which you might think you should read, but it actually doesn’t tell you anything outside of basic directions around the island. You might think you’re in the real game now, but you’re not. You’re in a hell of syntax quests that we didn’t even tell you about.

Let’s suppose you try to leave the island now, noticing that the sign says the dock is to the south.

If you follow this path, you’ll eventually reach the dock, but the worker will prevent you from boarding any ship that arrives and will finally tell you everything you need to do before he will let you leave:

Hmm… it looks like you need to get a few more things before leaving: A knife would be handy. A shirt might help your nakedness. A pair of pants would go far to cover yourself. A hatchet would help for building things. Your eyes are kind of bland. Custom hair is a great way to look cool. I can set an adjective for you when you’re all set to leave.

What?! That’s a TON of stuff, and he doesn’t even suggest that he knows what to do. If you interrogate him by repeating back all of the keywords he just dropped, you will be directed thusly:

1. knife - blacksmith
2. shirt, pants - tailor
3. hatchet - lumberjack
4. eyes - mage
5. hair - barber

Yup, he just gave you five quests before he’ll let you leave for the real game. Oh, plus you need to choose a random adjective to describe yourself. He’ll do that for you now, or you can wait until you return with pants and eyes all configured.

my kitten for a pair of pants

First off. I didn’t even know I was parading around naked. Yeesh. Let’s remedy this one first. To the tailor! I hope we remembered seeing the tailor’s shop in the village.

Upon arriving at the tailor’s (which entrance is actually the word tailor’s, apostrophe and all), we are informed that we need a needle and thread to make new clothes. Well, interrogation as to the nature of these mystical artifacts reveals that now we need to find a fisherman near the beach for needles and a cat lady in the woods for some string.

Reading the sign outside of the shop again, I see that the beach is to the east, so I head that way. On the way, I encounter a ‘monk’ who talks like the Governator. He gives a brief badly accented introduction to combat that does one absolutely no good, apart from suggesting that you hold a weapon that you know how to use before typing kill. He at least throws a TON of help file suggestions at you which are actually pretty useful if you take the time to absorb them all.

There is a target dummy that you can punch a few times should you desire to do so. It would be cool if we actually had these things in town…

Onward and eastward!

Upon meeting the fisherman you are presented with yet another step in the quest. He teaches you how to accept items given from other players and hands you a kitten to go with your needle. That’s right, I still don’t have pants, but I have a pet kitty now. Ok, well, needle acquired, time to get a string.

After returning to town and reading the sign again, it says that the forest is to the northwest… but there is no northwest exit. FINE, I’ll go north then go west…

Oh, the mage. He’ll color our eyes for us according to the dockman, but let’s not interleave these quests just yet, so onward to find the cat lady… Eventually, we find a house with a sign that explains that the occupant is not only certified crazy, she is also deaf and dumb. The emote command is suggested. Well, let’s go in and find out what that was all about.

Upon entering, she gestures that she needs ‘help’. If you actually ‘emote help’ back at her, she will pantomime the problem. She’s missing her kitten. Well, let’s give her the kitten. It’s a good thing I went after the needle first and it came with a free kitten. I give her the kitty, she is pleased and rewards us with the piece of string. Yay!

After returning to the tailor, it is not immediately obvious what needs to happen next. The secret sauce is that you give him the needle and thread. But if you try to give him just the needle, he rejects you and says he needs the thread… and if you try to then give him the thread, he says that he needs the needle. So… you have to realize that you can give needle and thread to tailor. He accepts and sets to work.

Shirt and pants acquired. Now to wear them. If we don’t, the dockmaster still won’t let us on the boat

intermission

I took a break to grab a sandwich. When I came back, I had been disconnected and teleported back to the peak with the blasted touch pads. Mumble, grumble. At least I still have my pants.

my eyes! my eyes!

Well, we saw the mage, let’s go talk to him next. Hmm, he says I am bland. Let us speak to him of his other keywords: color, eyes, complexion. Turns out, a bit of talking is all he required. We are now tinted green and olive respectively. Let’s see what’s next on the list…

Before then, I get a message that I am thirsty and hungry again. I’ll need to look for a fruit tree to eat from… Aha! The mage has a magic tree that I would have noticed if I looked carefully. I pick a dozen coconuts and eat two. This fills me up nicely.

if i had a hatchet

Since we’re already in the woods, let’s get the axe. A bit of wandering leads us to the lumberjack, who offers to teach us something. He gives us an axe and tells us to chop down a tree and hand it to him - and further asks us to plant “fruit” from it in order to keep the forest alive. We’re in a pine forest, this might confuse some people.

I hold the ‘hatchet’ (it doesn’t ID as ‘axe’) and chop a tree. No pinecone dropped to plant, oops. It is not going to occur to me to pick one and replant. I then am tempted to get the wood and give it to the lumberjack, and he will gladly accept it… and tell me that as a reward I can keep the axe. I was going to keep it anyway.

Being a sneaky non-newbie, I go ahead and give him one board of the 140 units of pine wood I just produced, making the lumberjack happy and leaving me with 139 wood in case I need it later…

Well, referring back to my checklist (which I am keeping on paper since I don’t have an in-game quest journal of any sort…), I note that I still need the knife and hair. Let us to the butcher, erm blacksmith.

fetch me that pitcher

So the blacksmith wants me to fill a bucket with water. This thing I can do. It would have been nice if they gave me a way of carrying water before I got thirsty -twice-, but whatever.

I walk outside and see the big pond. This strikes me as a likely source of water. I type ‘fill bucket’, the command informs me that I should in stead fill bucket from pond, which works. I take a drink from the bucket, just to top myself off and go back inside.

For once, an NPC gives me everything I need. When I returned, the smithy told me to pour bucket into tub, which thing I did, and which thing rewarded me with a dented knife.

oh say if you can see my eyes

This leaves us with only the haircut to acquire, and so I approach the barbershop.

The barber tells us a few more keywords and refers us to the sign. Reading the sign just gives a list of possible hair colours and styles he can produce. I guess I should repeat some keywords.

Oh. Hmm. I have no hair. Apparently I need to retrieve some scissors for the barber if I am to grow any. Lovely. She doesn’t know who has the scissors, but in stead directs me to wander around the island and ask people…

The thief doesn’t know.

The guide doesn’t know.

The mage doesn’t know.

The cat lady doesn’t even have a response coded.

The lumberjack doesn’t know. Maybe I should walk the other way?

The monk doesn’t know.

The fisherman doesn’t respond.

This is getting pointless. Time to wander a bit further. I see a sandcastle, which I believe is a red herring, so I don’t enter. Further wandering, and we encounter a beach bum shivering in the cold and wishing he had a shack. Does he have the scissors? He does, but demands we build him a house in exchange, the bum.

A bit of talking, and he gives us very rudimentary instructions on building a shack and refers us to the relevant helpfiles. Let’s see here. Typing build shack almost worked. I was too close to the edge of the room. I get to walk into the middle of the room first and try again. walk 5n … build shack … and it seems good. Now I need to read some help files real quick I guess.

help build is pretty useful, it refers me to the recipe command, which informs me that I need 400 wooden planks. Nowhere have we been introduced to the count verb, that would be handy right about now.

Counting the wood I saved from the lumberjack and the lumber someone left lying around here, I have almost half of what I need. Well, I guess I’m off to chop two more trees. I think I’ll plant some to replenish this time. Well, I would if there were any available. Yeesh. Forget that then.

Oh great. I’m not strong enough to carry 400 wood. Plus, the trees aren’t producing enough, I’ll have to cut a few more it seems…

ARGH 392. One more tree… Which of course brings my total up to 592.

And now to ferry it back to the construction site…

walk walk walk, put wood in site, walk walk walk, get all wood, walk walk walk, put wood in site

Construction has started! If I look, I can see a progress indicator on the shack, or if I look at the site directly, it will tell me its completion percentage in more obvious language.

Yeesh, this is taking a while, and I left a bunch of lumber in the other room, I should probably fetch it back here, but I don’t want to risk being absent when the house completes. Who knows what would happen then?

The shack eventually completes, the bum thanks me with the scissors I wanted, and then… SPLASH! Waves smash the shack again, setting it up for the next player

Well, I have the scissors, which is what matters. Forget hauling the lumber. It’s not going anywhere. I’m getting off this crazy rock.

I run back and give them to the barber. He tells me that I need to choose a style and length. After a bit of syntax guessing I say puffy style, say long length, and am rewarded with hair! You’d think I’m done, but I’m not. The barber offers dye jobs, if you remember. Also, looking at myself, I see:

You are a a bland person with olive skin, long, puffy, bland hair, and green
eyes. You are wearing a pair of pants and a shirt, and carrying a hatchet.

Fine, I supply what I hope is the final keyword… and am told to fetch a piece of fruit and a bucket of water for the barber to make dye with. Well, I am carrying a coconut and an empty bucket. I show him the coconut and he informs me that he can produce grey dye from it. Good enough.

One filled bucket later, I am not entirely sure what syntax to use here. Oh. Let’s try giving the coconut and the bucket - in one action, just like the needle and thread earlier. Yay! It looked give bucket and coconut to barber worked. Also, I need to remember to get my bucket, otherwise I am without a water vessel.

let my people go

I walk back to the dock, triumphant in having slogged through this nightmare… only to be told that the adjective I requested earlier didn’t take. FINE.

adjective annoyed
adjective annoyed

And it took. I can go!

Except I can’t. I have to wait for the boat…

A small ship sails into view. Crud, I don’t know how to get on a boat. Umm, umm. Oh, there’s a dock exit. Good. dock. Wait, now I’m at the dock. Oh, a sign.

Welcome, and Farewell!

Shortly, if not immediately, a boat will dock here. Once you get on it, it
will take you to Candle Hill, and the rest of your journey shall start.

That’s not what I wanted to know… don’t want to miss the boat… Oh. There is a ship exit. Right.

I board the ship and am out of here!

summation

This is involved and interesting and entirely horrible to the poor saps who have to slog through it as their first experience in the game. We need something better. Something friendlier. Something that doesn’t require another player to help you figure out the solutions.

allaryin news newbie, plans, quests, witac