Getting Started and Learning the Ropes

This section will answer the following questions and also provide you detailed information and help you to get on your way once you have logged on to the MUD.

Getting Started

Once your character is created you will find yourself in the login courtyard, the gateway to the city of Loriah.

Click on thumbnail to see full view. Image will open in a new browser window. Loriah Courtyard

Entering Commands

Commands are entered into the mud just by typing them. There are many 'predefined' commands which work almost anywhere in the mud, such as 'look or 'get'. There are also many other commands which are only available to you in special rooms and these commands can only be found by careful adventuring. One example is the command 'place red gem in snake eye socket'.You enter commands at the prompt. When you first start off, your prompt is just a single greater-than sign > (You can change the appearance of your prompt later if you wish). You will see it appear after every command you enter, implying you can then enter a new command.

Looking Around

On the mud you will always be in a 'room', although a room may be a section of a street or forest or dungeon. A room has a description, maybe some items and monsters, and some obvious exits. You can see the details using the command 'look'. If no object or direction is specified, this command makes you look around the room. If an object is specified it lets you examine the object more closely. The command 'examine' can also be used in replace of 'look at'. Note that you can also look in specific directions, for example look east would make you look into the room that is one east of you.

Seeing who else is logged on

You will often want to chat with other adventurers, or ask them for help. To get a list of others who are also logged on, use the command 'who'. This shows you the names and titles of the people on line, as well as their level, title and busy status.

Click on thumbnail to see full view. Image will open in a new browser window. Who Display Screen

Communication

Being able to communicate with other people in a virtual fantasy environment is a large part of what makes mudding so enjoyable. There are several ways to communicate with others who are logged on.

You use the 'say' command. E.g.:
say hello world.
You say: hello world.
To talk to a specific person who is not in your room:
You use the 'tell' command. E.g.:
tell nemesis Hi, how are you today?
You tell nemesis: Hi, how are you today?
To talk to all the people on the mud, regardless of their location:
You use the 'gossip' command. E.g.:
gossip Hello everyone!
[gossip] Newbie: Hello everyone!
If you need help, you can ask questions on the newbie channel by
using the 'newbie' command. E.g.:
newbie Greetings, can someone help me?
[newbie] Newbie: Greetings, can someone help me?
Click on thumbnail to see full view. Image will open in a new browser window. Say and Tell Commands

There are many other ways to communicate and interact with other people, but this will help you get started. If you are interested in learning more, type 'help' by itself when logged on to the MUD and check out the list of other available commands.

Moving Around

If you type 'look' in the room you are in, it will show you all of the obvious exits that you can travel through. There may also be some hidden exits that will not show up that you will have do discover alternatively before you can go in those directions. It is very simple to move around the mud, you just need to type in the word or abbreviation of the direction you wish to travel.

north, south, east, west, northeast, northwest, southeast, southwest, up, down, enter, in, out, leave, etc.

Of course typing out the entire word of each direction can get tiresome so many of the above commands can be logically abbreviated. These commands would be as such: n, s, e, w, ne, nw, se, sw, u, and d. enter, in, out and leave do not have abbreviations.

Viewing your character's stats and information

You will find that there are many commands available to you as a player on AoD. One that you will use frequently is 'score'. The score command shows basic information and statistics on your character.

Click on thumbnail to see full view. Image will open in a new browser window. Score Command Display

Your starting experience

Every player is given an initial 2000 experience points to spend on the raising of levels and abilities (skills, spells or prayers). It is suggested that you spend your experience by advancing a few levels, you should be able to advance to level 5, but if you want to advance to a lower level and spend more of the free experience on training abilities that is up to you.

Newbie education and the LNPA

Some MUDS have some type of newbie school, tour guide and or place where new players are educated about the mud. At the present time AoD does not have a newbie school, but you will receive a new adventurer handbook that provides information on getting started. In addition to the handbook, if you go one room east you will find yourself at the entrance of the LNPA (Loriah new players association). Inside the LNPA new players can find many things to help them get started in the world. You can buy affordable heals, use the portal room to travel back and forth to your class hall, borrow free equipment and much more. The manager of the LNPA reserves the association's services for players levels 15 and under only.

Getting help once you are logged on

If you need help or additional information once you are logged on to Ages of Despair you should take the time to check out and read through the help files as well as your handbook. We have a very large amount of up to date help files that provide detailed information that can help you as you start your journey through the world of AoD. If you type 'help' without an argument it will give you a list of topics that you can read up on. Then just type 'help <topic>' for information on that subject. Players are usually more inclined to help players that have taken the time to try and help themselves.

Always be courteous when asking for help. Of course, it will usually be in your best interest to be nice to others, but especially so now, when you have neither the power nor the allies to afford making enemies. If you are truly new to the game and need help, we do have some very friendly players that will be happy to give you general help if you ask politely. There have been many cases of higher level players being very generous to polite newbies. If you need the help of a wizard just type 'who wiz' to see which wizards are logged on. Keep in mind that the Archs and Wizards who code on AoD do it as a hobby, they do not get paid for it. Sometimes wizards are idle because they are coding a mud related project in another window, or perhaps they are just busy and you might need to wait until they have time to reply to you. So be respectful and patient when asking questions, you will get helped as soon as someone can get to it.

Rules apply to newbies too!

Make sure you read the rules (law related help files) as soon as you get a chance. It is your responsibility as a player to know what they are and to follow them. Ignorance to the law is not an excuse for breaking it. New player or not you are still a player once you log on and will be expected to follow the rules like everyone else. Some law files that you should read are: help advertising, bug abuse, cheating, conduct, cursing, guests, harassment, multiplaying, offensive names, player attacking, player killing, quest cheating, robots and spamming.

Harassment is an excellent way to get a one-way ticket off of Ages of Despair. Do not harass other players in any way, shape or form. If you do and they tell you to stop and you don't, you will be dealt with by law and site banned if necessary.

It is also pertinent to note that if we find your presence on Ages of Despair to be detrimental to other players, and by that we mean that you constantly "drive" other players away by any aspect of your conduct, we will remove you and you will not be allowed back on.


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