Shattered Kingdoms

Something I've noticed is a lot of first time players end up placing their stats very wrongly, or picking very difficult class/race combinations (dwarf bard etc) to start out with.

If perhaps in the help race file, for the specific help race, a thing could be added stating

Racial maximums for the xxx race are:
Str: Titanic
Con: Hardened
Dex: Limber
Int: Brilliant
Wis: Wise
Cha: Influential

And then under classes, have it state the primary and secondary attribute point for the class that should be focused on:

Help barbarian, for example, would be:

Primary attribute: Constitution
Secondary attribute: Strength

Whereas a sorceror would be:
Primary attribute: Intelligence
Second attribute: Wisdom

Bard:
Primarily attribute: Charisma
Secondary attribute: Dexterity

I think this would go a long ways in helping brand new players, because most who roll a few characters get this anyways, but I am willing to bet we lose some players due to them not being able to level/advance in the game easily because they have chosen a difficult race/class combination or a poor allocation of their attribute points early on, and thus find the game too difficult and quit.

I think by keeping it ambiguous and not giving out 'hard' numbers, but still giving an idea, we will lessen this affect upon new players.

Comments, suggestions?

Do the work yourself and I bet the imms will consider making the additions, though perhaps in an abridged manner.

I dunno. The only case in which I think a bad stat allocation is common are classes such as bards and priests, in which slightly counter-intuitive stats are necessary for the class's survival. Priests technically want max int/wis, but having it maxed off the bat does diddly-squat for them, so maxing con and either finding str mods or training a little str is worth the trouble, to make the first 25 levels more bearable. So, unless you want to write a whole guide, I don't see this as being helpful.

On the whole, people know what stats to train. It's not hard to figure out. The cases in which people train incorrectly (on purpose) are probably pretty low.

As for adding the stat maxes for each race to the race files, I think that's a good idea.

It was just a suggestion to see if people thought this would be useful to new players.

I'm not above doing the work, but I'm always looking for ways to improve upon what currently exists. That's all.

On an unrelated note, Barbarian's primary stat isn't con, it's str.

The help files give enough hints about stats, strengths and weaknesses. Perhaps some of them could benefit from a little rewriting, but the essential info is already there.

This utter lack of stat tables in race and class help is actually one of the things I like about SK. It immediately sets the mood that reading comprehension is a requirement for this game. New players are great, yes, but do we really want to accommodate the type who can't be bothered to read text properly?

hey, we already accomodate those who can't write it correctly.

New players will always do not-so-optimal things, and that's why they are new.

They'll learn from their mistakes sooner or later. That is, if they are even making these so-called stat allocation errors.

I really, really, really like this idea and I think newbies would too. *thumbs up*

I've never played another game that didn't have such common help. And I can assure you people are getting confused. It looks like maybe it's a gap between older, more experienced gamers and younger people who have never played or maybe even heard of a MUD before.
Anyway, it's pretty common practice to have help like this for new players. And while it is something unique about SK, I think it's just another disadvantage for noobs because the veterans of the game know these things well.

How about having trainers tell you how close you are to your max if you ask them? They will tell you when you reach the max, but you don't know if you're one away or five away until you spend the point, and then you can't get it back.