My last response was typed with my phone. Now that I'm at a computer, I can take the time to give you a more detailed explanation.
SnazzyCentaur wrote:
thanks, ive been reading alot as ive posted these lol.
Glad to hear it! We're always willing to offer advice and guidance, but a lot of our advice for the types of questions you've been asking has been to check the various help files.
SnazzyCentaur wrote:
Um... Im stuck in a room now fighting this young sorceress? Is this how combat works? She won't stop attacking me. It just going on and on...
ok it ended. How can you speed up these battles?
Like I mentioned in my previous post, Combat is semi-automatic. Your character and their opponent will constantly attack one another without any input needed from you (aside from starting the fight in the first place). The only way to speed up combat is to make your character more deadly. The first steps to this is to use the 'skill' and 'spell' commands to look at the skills and spells your character can learn (totally based on his or her class). Each individual skill and spell has a short helpfile, explaining how it works, but they can be basically broken up into four categories: Weapon Skills, Passive Skills, Activated Skills, and Spells.
Having a higher weapon skill will make your character better with weapons - definitely more accurate, and I suspect they'll hit harder and faster too (somebody can fact check that for me).
Passive Skills, such as Enhanced Damage, Meditation, and Second Attack work without you having to do anything special. They are always on, and will improve automatically as your character fights.
Activated Skills, such as kick, trip, and bash need to be used by entering in the command (you can learn what a skill's command is in that skill's helpfile) at any point during combat (or to start a combat). As your character uses them, you'll notice your character's PE, also known as Physical Energy (like stamina) will be used. If it ever hits zero, your character will become too exhausted to travel or fight properly. The fastest way to regain PE is to use the rest or sleep command, both of which can be ended with the stand command.
Spells work just like activated skills, but require the "cast" command to be used. For instance: cast 'shocking grasp'. More info on this with the help magic helpfile, if you're playing a caster. Spells use up your character's ME also known as Mental Energies (like Mana) - running out of ME will only prevent your character from speaking mind-to-mind with other player characters telepathically (using the tell command... help communication for more details). Your character can recover ME the same way as regaining PE.
You said you were playing a centaur... I think centaurs all get the kick skill for free just for being centaurs. If that is the case, you can speed up fights at this level by using the kick command during combat. type help kick for more information.
This next part is incredibly important.Your character will not learn unlearned skills automatically. Your character will not learn skills as they level up. Your character will need to seek out an NPC trainer or a Player Character "Mentor" to learn skills.
Have your character explore the academy, eventually they will enter a room with a trainer for their class - that trainer will be able to teach and improve some of your character's most basic skills. When your character finds a trainer, use the *train* command to get a list of skills that trainer knows how to teach. For instance, if you're playing a barbarian, the barbarian trainer could teach your character enhanced damage by you typing: train enhanced damage
Just typing it once wouldn't be enough. Using the "!" by itself will repeat your most recent command. Use that to speed up training, until the trainer says either you need more experience, or that you can't learn any more of that skill from them.
When you find the time, use the help mentor command to read the mentor helpfile. The mentor command will send a message to player characters of a high enough level to teach your character things, prioritizing ones in your character's home country, and prioritizing your character's class.
These are the first steps to making your character more combat ready, and is considered the bare minimum to giving them the tools to survive in Pyrathia.
SnazzyCentaur wrote:
but, is there a better way to navigate this place? Do I just keep entering rooms hoping im in the right area?
This question stumped me, because you used the term "the right area". I don't know what your gaming background is, but earlier you asked about the game saving your progress since you're clearly new to MUDs, I'll start at the beginning of what this game is. Get ready for a wall of text (grab some hot coco maybe).
Shattered Kingdoms is a MUD. MUD stands for Multi-User-Dungeon. MUDs have been around for a while - Shattered Kingdoms specifically has been around since 1996. A Multi-User-Dungeon is not a text-based adventure game with a built in storyline (like Zork, for instance). A MUD is much closer to what MMO games are today - a massive world inhabited by players and NPCs, in which there are quests, but players forge their own storyline. Shattered Kingdoms is unique because it combines the elements of a Roleplay enforced game with the ability to hack-and-slash combat anywhere, anytime... this allows the stories forged by players of Shattered Kingdoms to be much more dynamic than those I've seen made in other MUDs or MMOs (in my opinion, at least).
The Academy your character starts out at will be one of the more sensibly laid out places in the game you'll encounter. Take the time to get a feel where everything is in relation to one another. Your character will automatically be kicked out of the academy once they increase their level past Amateur (5) to Novice (1). When they are kicked out, they'll arrive at the portal stones in their own country. I strongly suggest using the "recall" command to have your character teleport to their Capital's main Inn after this happens, as losing your way in the wilderness can be deadly, even at high levels.
As I explained in my previous response, the directions your character can go are based on compass directions. To get a better feel for what directions they represent, look at your keypad on the computer... Mine is laid out like this:
7 8 9
4 5 6
1 2 3
Imagine that every time your character moves north, it's in the direction of the 8, every time they move south, it's in the direction of the 2. West is 4, East is 6, Northwest is 7, Northeast is 9, Southwest is 1, and Southeast is 3. Here is it again
nw n ne
w - e
sw s se
That should help you get a sense of where things are relative to each other. Some people keep paper and a pencil near their computer while they play, if they want to physically map out new areas.
Let me know if anything I wrote doesn't make sense.