Shattered Kingdoms

As far as a client goes, I recommend a REAL client. Telnet is ok, but is not the best, and as you will soon see, not having the scrollback is a pain.

At the very least, go with putty. Its small (like less then half a meg) and it stands on its own. (Meaning: You can carry it around on a floppy, USB, etc,)

However, if your playing from one computer, get a client like zmud, gmud, or simplemu if you can.

sleeper

I am using zmud, as suggested. That is the person I was thanking for all the help -- direct HTML link and instructions I could understand.

Mmmm...taste the twinkness. Don't listen to own - choose your starting kingdom based on the concept you want to explore with your character.

And then jump the portal to the Zhensh newb grounds!

Yeah, make your character in whatever nation fits with the character profile you want to explore.

As long as it's Nerina.

I have thoroughly explored/mapped out Nerina and know my way around the city pretty well. (I even was thrown in jail once when I forgot to change to MODE STUN and was just trying to fend off a local thief.) My problem is that once I am as well-equipped and well-trained as I can be and venture out into the wilderness, I unfortunately keep stumbling into deathtraps. You say, why don't I get myself a mentor? Well, I was led to one of those deathtraps by what I thought was a mentor. Also, once a mentor leaves--hopefully you are still alive--if you don't already know the territory you can become hopelessly lost and die, too. That has happened to me as well. And to top it off, there just happened to be no priests available to bring me back. According to the Area command, I have four 'safe' choices: Zhenshi Caverns, The Tunnel of Aku'un, Nerina Refuge Camp, and Neo Nerina. I've been trying to locate the Nerina Refuge Camp or Neo Nerina (is that a different city or not?) so that I'm not draining my bank account buying torches right off the bat, but I still haven't been able to find any of them--I just keep dying and having to start over from scratch. (It is [i]way[/i] less boring starting over than waiting around for a priest to show up when you are dead.) However, at this point, I am totally frustrated and about to just give it all up and find another RPG website. Have any advise that will revise my opinion of Shattered Kingdoms and cause me to try again, one more time from the beginning?

Let me see if I can help.

1) Zhenshi Caverns and Aku'un aren't probably the safest of spots everywhere. They have some deathtraps for certain. Nerina Refugee camp doesn't exist "live"--that's a bug that is now remedied. Neo-nerina is the same as the "Nerina" you know.

Find another mentor or somebody that can guide you to places that work better for someone your level. I don't want to be more specific on places on these OOC forums.
2) It'd be more practical to get an amulet or some item you're wearing and ask a friendly priest or sorc to cast "continual light" on it. This way you won't have to keep buying torches.
3) Don't give up! The best way to get integrated is to ask around for help. If a person rebuffs you, ask them OOCly (that is, out of character) who you should ask for help. Most players will give be willing to guide you OOCly even if their characters wouldn't.

Since you were so kind to reply (and are a builder), I wanted to let you know about a few of the bugs I noticed while exploring Nerina.

1) The worst one I've seen is that you can enter MODE BASH and get a response that your mode has changed when it actually hasn't. (I know the command is supposed to be MODE STUN, but I'm new and sometimes forget. I guess it's good that I did, since I especially noticed the error when I got thrown in jail for attempted murder. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't have noticed the bug at all.)

2) While you are fighting on the Proving Grounds using the KILL command, the command can take awhile to complete. Every now and then other messages appear (people entering and leaving the room, for instance). Sometimes the AUTO JUNK command fails at the end. Sometimes the KILL command just stops (and the ZAKAMI has not left the room). I haven't been able to figure out the exact parameters of when this happens, but I thought you should know that it does happen occasionally and only when something else happens while the KILL command is ongoing.

3) There are a nice variety of NPCs constantly moving around Narina. However, it is very disconcerting when (2) identical NPCs are in the same room at the same time. It shouldn't be too difficult to keep that from happening.

Considering how detailed Shattered Kingdoms is, it's amazing how well everything works. That is one reason I've stuck it out this long.

These sound like coding issues and ideas rather than building issues and ideas. The best way to get these sorts of things considered for implementation is to use the "bug" command. (See Help Bug)


Incidentally, because some of the area names in Zhenshi were confusing or kinda OOC, I've renamed some of the area.
Nerina now = Argudhun (This consists of three rooms)
NeoNerina now = Nerina
Newbie Nerina = Nerina Zakami Training Grounds

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