Hi everyone. Here's a down and dirty list of things that all new players should be looking at to ensure a smooth settling in to the MUD environment.
Please note for players using a screen reader, you may be looking for different guidance which I am unfortunately unable to provide.
1. Set settings.
Check your 'set show' and make sure you're playing to optimise your quality of life. There are some settings that almost everyone will agree are non negotiable, such as:
- channel timestamp
- allow offline tells, though remember you can't send your own until a certain level
- tell alts
- coords on short, extremely important to orient yourself and when giving/receiving locations (also, get familiar with the 'whereami' and 'time' commands)
- inform explore, set it on as early as possible
- auto open chests, which is vital once you have a room and some chests to store stuff
Then, check your battle settings (help battle) based on what information you want. Most players using Batclient do not filter information out into multiple windows, preferring to keep the eyeline on a main window. Having battle, room descs and actual movement in all separate windows (per the default Batclient settings) can actually lead to a more exhausting experience.
Regardless of whether you do this or not, having combat output nicely organised is vital to keeping collected in big fights; check battle rounds, round flags, round actions such as party status, enemy condition, and so on.
Bonus battle tip: buy a stethoscope for 2gp and read 'help leading'!
2. Set commands.
You should quickly set up commands for all your most common interactions, as well as any run commands you might use often. Learn your way around the very simple variables and formats, eg. command b use 'bladed fury' $* which allows both targeted and untargeted use. Beware of setting offensive skills/spells to simple commands as you can easily typo these and aggro huge mobs that will turn you into a fine red mist before you can wonder what happened. While we're here, learn the target command to ensure you're all whacking the right bunny when in a room with 3 bunnies.
Remember that if you do set up travel commands, you shouldn't stack them (ie. do travel w;travel w;travel w instead of 3 travel w) as they won't work when you're very low level, for instance when freshly reinced. Also note if you have any skills that allow you to travel on trails that you mightn't have when in another build.
3. Be a student of history
There is an inbuilt note function (note) to record things, a board of current events at all capitals and Esiris, and you should always check channel history (last <channel> <num of lines>). Check regularly for missed tells and especially party channel, in case you missed any directions from your leader!
Be sure to check tunes channel as well, and use 'inform last' for mud-wide informs that didn't make it into news posts. Speaking of news:
4. Watch the news
Become familiar with the 'news' function and set your subscriptions, nominally the main ones (inform, general, updates), all guild groups so you know what's going on in the mud in general, and then sales, bs and such if you like the look of articles in there. Subscriptions carry over to bat.org, so you can also read the news there at leisure. Sometimes, if you are curious about a specific feature or mechanic, you might be able to search in news history to see official wiz comms (or even player discussions) about that topic, and glean some useful information.
5. Set colours.
This one is straightforward. help style, help ansi, help lite (both channels and chantags), and customise to your heart's content
There will be default colours already defined, depending on which builtin set you selected at creation. Just be sure that you have enough difference between regmons (normal mobs) vs woundedregmons (normal mobs that are injured, usually due to another player already having started that fight), and aggromons (aggressive mobs) and woundedaggromons. You do not want to have accidentally stolen a kill due to lack of colouring!
Note that some players will not be coloured normally as player due to eq, for instance horny amulets or int prisms. In these cases, hopefully you are paying attention!
That's it for this guide. As always, send feedback and I can incorporate, or save for future posts.
Bonus tip: I mentioned above that people don't generally use all the Batclient windows; this has been confirmed in my own chats with friends and occasional screenshots that they might send. You should set this up to your liking, but mind not to spam yourself with information overload by having ALL THE WINDOWS.
If you would like to see an interesting setup (a highbie eq party), you can visit the video of Glaurung's stream - note the Batmapper which he developed is on nice display here, but importantly the output has been tuned to provide essential info and one main eyeline, personal preferences notwithstanding of course. For instance, newbies will find the realm map window invaluable but this may not be necessary for experienced players.