User:GaidinBDJ/GettingStarted

MUD Client

First and foremost, if you are using the web interface or a basic telnet client, you're going to want to switch to a MUD client pretty quickly. MUD clients offer features such as a separate line to type your commands in, aliases that you can use to simply or shorten complex commands, triggers which can react to text received from the MUD, colored text, scripting, and lots of other things to make your MUD experience easier. Some have graphical mappers which will draw a map as you go along. Different MUD clients have different features, work on different operating systems, and have their own ups and downs. This isn't an exhaustive list, just a list of the more popular clients.

• cMUD (Windows) - Probably the top MUD client out there as far as spit-and-polish goes, but it's not free. It's $29.95 but has a 30-day trial period if you want to test it out. cMUD has the best graphical mapper around.
• Portal (Windows) - Portal was written by the 3-Kingdoms staff so there's a lot of quality-of-life integrations available. Portal is free
• Mudlet (Windows, Mac, Linux) - Notable since it's one of the newer clients out there as well as the only one with native support for all major platforms. Mudlet is free.
• MUSHclient (Windows) - It doesn't have many advanced features, but can handle a lot of advanced tasks if you want to get into scripting.
• Tinyfugue (Linux, Mac, Windows-ish) - Text-based client with complex scripting support. Windows binaries and source are available for the intrepid.
• tintin++ (Linux, Max, Windows-ish) - Another text-based client originally for Linux with Windows ports

You can jump around to different clients to find one that you're happy with. To start out, grab one of the free ones for your platform for now.

Getting help

Once you're in-name you can use the "newb" chatline to ask questions. There's lots of experienced players that watch that line and most are willing to help. Feel completely free to use this line for any help or questions you have.

The "help" command is, of course, very useful. Once you join a guild, there will be a separate command (usually "ghelp" or "info") for guild-specific information.

Guilds

3-Kingdoms guilds are like classes in other online games. You start out as an Adventurer with only a basic set of abilities. The Adventurer guild is not intended as a permanent guild but as a starting point while you're learning the MUD. You'll be able to join a "full" guild at level 5.

Guilds have advancement separate from your main player level called guild levels. Several guilds have alternate names for guild levels such as circle, size, complexity, rank, and so on. While your player level will determine things like how many stats you have (which obviously help), access to guild powers is based on guild level.

You can choose to leave a guild and join a different one, if you'd like. You'll lose all progress you made in the guild and if you rejoin later, you'll start from the bottom again. You'll keep your player level, stats, gold, non-guild-specific VAFs, quest points, crafting experience, and professions even if you leave a guild; those are tied to the player and not the guild. Switching guilds may involve resetting your stats so they're more appropriately divvied up for your new guild, so you will lose some XP doing that.

Choosing a guild

There's no "best" guild and asking which is the best will not get you very informative answers. Guilds vary wildly in combat style, powers, theme, and complexity. Most of the guilds have their own help file which will give some basic information, but you'll get much better information by asking.

Some things to consider when choosing a guild:

• Theme: If you don't like the overall theme, you probably won't enjoy the guild very much.
• Complexity: Some guilds have incredibly complex powers and abilities, huge guild halls with lots of secrets, and a variety of advancement options while other guilds have a core set of powers that improve as you progress.
• Subguilds: Guilds often have different subguilds, specializations, or paths you can follow. For some guilds, it's nearly cosmetic, but for other guilds it's like an entirely different guild. Sometimes following one path can permanently block other paths (until you quit and rejoin the guild) so ask about these.
• Gear: The need for gear varies between guilds: Some absolutely require decent gear, some benefit from gear but don't require it, some barely have any use for it for the most part. Usually, if a guild requires gear, there will be information in guild help file or on boards to point you to where you can obtain some (or a higher-level player may be able to help).
• Prep time: Kind of tied in with gear, some guilds allow you to hit the ground running every time you log in. Others take time to build up power or resources before you're at the top of your game. This may be something you need to consider if your access to playing time is limited.
• Secrecy: While in most guilds you can freely find all the information you need and get all your questions answered, some guilds have secret aspects that you have to discover on your own. Notable in this category is the Breed: a *lot* of the guild is shrouded in secrecy and you'll have to figure things out on your own.