Clues for the clueless, anyone?

[The Buttery Lobster]

Ok, no offense to all you hardcore developers and gamers out there, but I'm new to MS:C and am only a MILD gamer, at best. AND my time is limited. But in the spirit of supporting the developers community, I decided to give this game a whirl. First impressions: seems like a solid mod, with a lot of thought put into it, even if I don't have a clan/group to be a part of and play in. Sad to see that I'm going to have to wait for the game to finish up on source.

HOWEVER!

Additional first impression: I'm totally F*CKING clueless as to this game. The wiki is SOME help, but not alot. I would like some guidance as to where to go, and what to do. As far as I can tell, the only way for me to get money is by selling boar hides, and the only places that I can go and NOT get raped up the ass by monsters/orcs is Helena, the thornlands (whose cavedwellers killed me many times) and edena. AND I can't seem to get into the mayor's mansion to pose as that courier. Not to mention that I can't even find any other quests anywhere. The only cash I can get if from looting dead corpses of orcs killed by bears. And for some reason, I have no sheath for my sword... even though I bought one, and it said I couldn't carry it, and it disapeared, along with my gold.

I know what you're thinking-- how dare this punk ask for a quick fix, an easy answer?! Well, let me tell you, as a big fan of mods that have no fanbase (cough cough Empires cough cough) you guys should accept all players, whether they be hardcore or mildly interested. I'm sure if I had some guidance I could enjoy this game very much.

 

[The Valorous]

I was actually thinking a similar thing one night after playing MS:C. I thought "What if some joe schmuck who's never played this game tries to figure it out by himself?" Answer: He can't. Even I stumbled with quests for a little bit, but because of my veterancy, I had the IQ enough to use the Search button to find my answer.

Now I don't know if there's really a FAQ on this game right now since all the questions seem to stem from the same basis and the answers are scattered (meaning none of them point to a specific FAQ that answers all the questions, though most are answered correctly, you smart forum users you).

 

[PBarnum]

The only way I learned how to play was actually by playing it. I think I have only completed one quest in the whole game. All I do is loot around and level... Oh yea and make stuff for the game.

 

[Jelly]

Firstly create your char in Edana. You'll start in a temple like area (which is infact a temple). When you exit that area you should find some rats. Kill them until you've leveled a bit. When they die there's a chance that they drop a pelt. Pelts can be sold at the armourer in the town. When you enter the town you go right to reach the armourer and left to get to the market place.

You can also go to Thornlands. It got lots of boars to train on and some hidden chests.

 

[Thothie]

Waaay back when I started, I was confuzored to hell (although I got hit by the "empty-full hands" bug first thing - there were more game stopping bugs back then). Only way to learn to play the game, for the most part, is to ask the other players, which is what I had to do.

Still, it is intuitive in that it follows the general genre of all other MMORPG's: Find monsters, kill monsters, get more powerful as you kill monsters, buy/loot better stuff, find meaner monsters, repeat.

General hint is you wanna level on Rats and Boars on Edana until you're level 5 in at least three of your weapon stats (or have around 40hp). So you want to go back and forth from those training areas and buy rusty weapons for a bit, selling hides in the process. (Ike will buy Rat Skins as well, but not for as much.) Remember training in heavier weapons raises HP faster - while training in magic, doesn't raise any at all.

After that you can move into Thornlands, and hang around there and the immediately adjacent maps until about level 15 (200hp) or so, training as many separate stats as possible. After that you can venture out further at your own risk.

Ya don't want to buy armor or anything too heavy until you have close to 100hp. (Yeah, there's still that bug where if you purchase something too heavy or remove said from a cheset, it gets sent to oblivion instead of your hands. Odd that it happened with a sheath though - they only weigh 1lb ea.)

With the exception of the MS_QUEST series (crap maps), yer going to want to be at least level 20 before you go to any of the custom maps alone. (You CAN go sooner, it's just hella frustrating.) There are high level monsters on the standard maps too, but you can avoid them, for the most part.

Of course, all those level/hp recommendations change, if you have friends to back you up.

Yer primary gold sources are going to be chests - which usually appear after you kill a certain number of monsters in certain areas (or after you kill a big, bad boss monster - the first of which will likely be the Giant Spider in the Thornland's caves.) There are also a few, hidden chests (several in Thornlands). Most monsters drop a small amount of gold too, as you've noticed, and all that pocket change adds up as well. Final method for gaining cash comes later, and it involves traveling and trading quests - ie. the trial and error process of finding who buys and sells what, and for how much.

The best weapons / equipment can't be purchased - you have to find them. All your basic supplies, however, are available at stores in Edana, Helena, Deralia, and Gatecity. The further away the store from Edana, the more exotic stuff it tends to have.

It is useful to know that each time you visit a store, it may have different items - this rule also applies to chests.

If ya want quests, talk to all the NPC's - either by saying "Hail" - or checking the "F11" interaction menu. If they have an immediate job for you, you should see "Ask about Jobs" on the F11 menu. Some NPC's will require you chit chat with them or their friends before they'll give you job info though. You must use local chat when chatting with NPCs ("U" is the default key)

I'd love to put a starting item into new players inventory with all this info, but I can't think of a way to do it, at the moment, without making it take up several model slots. (Maybe I can spawn a client side sprite with panels, or something.) Back in the day, I put up "help" panels all over Edana - but I think some peeps found that annoying.

Meantime, if you talk to the master-priest Semblin in the temple where you first spawn, he has all sorts of info for new comers.

 

[The Buttery Lobster]

This is all really, really, REALLY helpful. Thanks! My next question is: how do I find people to game with? Forum links, anyone?

 

[Gurluas]

There are servers up all week afaik

 

[ITS'aME'aMARIO!!!!]

Thoth... maybe, um remake the good ol floating help thingies like in your ms1.3 enhanced package... Course with more of this useful info...

 

[Netrogor]

Ok, no offense to all you hardcore developers and gamers out there, but I'm new to MS:C and am only a MILD gamer, at best. AND my time is limited. But in the spirit of supporting the developers community, I decided to give this game a whirl. First impressions: seems like a solid mod, with a lot of thought put into it, even if I don't have a clan/group to be a part of and play in. Sad to see that I'm going to have to wait for the game to finish up on source.

HOWEVER!

Additional first impression: I'm totally F*CKING clueless as to this game. The wiki is SOME help, but not alot. I would like some guidance as to where to go, and what to do. As far as I can tell, the only way for me to get money is by selling boar hides, and the only places that I can go and NOT get raped up the ass by monsters/orcs is Helena, the thornlands (whose cavedwellers killed me many times) and edena. AND I can't seem to get into the mayor's mansion to pose as that courier. Not to mention that I can't even find any other quests anywhere. The only cash I can get if from looting dead corpses of orcs killed by bears. And for some reason, I have no sheath for my sword... even though I bought one, and it said I couldn't carry it, and it disapeared, along with my gold.

I know what you're thinking-- how dare this punk ask for a quick fix, an easy answer?! Well, let me tell you, as a big fan of mods that have no fanbase (cough cough Empires cough cough) you guys should accept all players, whether they be hardcore or mildly interested. I'm sure if I had some guidance I could enjoy this game very much.

FIGHT THE FIRST MONSTERS YOU SEE ON YOUR OWN EDANA SERVER ON LAN! THEN JOIN FN WHEN YOU KNOW WHAT THE HELL YOU'RE DOING!

Hurrah for the first noob to *ever* (in my active time, not counting in-active time for myself) to post about how to play MSC

Not to be insulting; but it is easy to tell what you need to do if you know what key does what (like viewing stats) and you see what monster gives what XP & does what damage (get my drift?).

Basically, fight rats & boars on map "Edana" until you are level five-to-eight, then go to thornlands and do eight-to-ten allowing that training to stretch towards helena (some weak'ish bats in a hidden cave there) during the eight-to-ten training. Afterwards find some parties/guilds to hop in & see about leeching off fellow teammates (by party, of course) XP & kills

Also, for basic armor you may desire to have somebody buy a decent pair for you with basic weapons (axes, blunt, and swords are must-trains up until level five in the immediate starting of a character; good HP & gaining of strength to carry more weight).

 

[ITS'aME'aMARIO!!!!]

I say play the game anyway you feel like...

Just know that all the weapon skills slow down in training eventually and you gain near the same amount of hp for training a weapon skill from 1-3 as from raising a skill 20-23

Another thing to consider in raising other skills is that some enemies are resistant to certain forms of attack and more vulnerable to others.

The only thing I would worry about for the mage types is gaining mana... your parry skill seems to be tied to mana more than spell casting is... As such, I could reccommend raising some weapon skills for hp enabling you to endure some damage and give your self a chance at raising your parry abilities to gain mana

Magic users should also know how the system of tomes and scrolls work... As of now you can only memorize 8 spells from tomes. A potion that'll enable you to forget spells has been created to fix this problem, but it is not yet attainable or in a difficult to reach chest. You can however carry 32 scrolls in a spellbook for unlimited use... only downside is having to dig through a spell book for a spell whenever you want to activate one. (not much of a hassle if you play in highest resolutions.)
I would reccomend most magic users choose a weapon at start so they don't fill thier first magic slot with a spell they may not want later

To talk with npcs either press "u" (the default npc speech key) or try using the "f11" key...


play to explore, play to be powerful, or play to plain have fun...

 

[bluezerosix7]

first of all, DONT GO ONTO ANY SERVER THAT DOESN'T HAVE FN IN THEIR TITLE! not being logged onto fuznet means your char is clientside, which is poopy because it wont work on FN servers!
-the biggest tidbit of help i can give you is that you gotta play with people! people in-game are much more willing to help you get better weapons/armor/items, or at least tell you where to get them.
-know maps, nothing is worse than a newbie that is completely lost. knowing the map is a primary step in gaining XP efficiently.
-the biggest help is to play with someone with experience (say at least a level 15 until you get to around level 10, then talk to 20+ about waht to do next).
-many people are saying to raise a lot of your stats simultaneously. although this is great for hp, when you are a low-level char, frankly you dont have the weight capacity. i started with blunt weapons, and migrated into blunt+axe, so my level 27 char has never had the luxury of being light.
-i recommend finding one weapon style you like to start with (swords are good because the most powerful swords in the game are uber-light), but are vastly overrated. the highest level chars tend to be small arms or blunts, with a small amount of sword users.
-all you need for carrying anything is a heavy backpack, weapon holster, big sack, and a spellbook. that is all you will ever need, and in total its all cheap stuff too! btw, snakeskin > non-snakeskin.