Please note for players using a screen reader, you may be looking for different guidance which I am unfortunately unable to provide.
1. 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 (also help channels, to set the timestamp format)
- allow offline tells
- tell alts
- coords on short (while on the topic, 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
- stop on trails/trolls/etc. which you may need to consider when writing run commands
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. Whether you do this or not, having combat output nicely organised is vital; check battle rounds for yours/enemy's skills, round flags, round actions such as party status, enemy condition, and so on.
Buy a stethoscope for 2gp and read 'help leading'.
2. Commands.
Set up commands for all your most common interactions. Learn your way around the very simple variables, 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 send these by accidental typo. 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. Keep in mind potential obstructions like trails (pathfinders only), bridge trolls, heavy ep squares, water (water allergies?) etc.
3. Channel history
Make sure you check channel history (last <channel>) for any info you might find relevant. For instance, 'last bat 100' if you've been away for a bit and want to see anything that might have had everyone talking. Check tunes channel often. If you haven't recently, read last tunes 100 anyway in case you missed something.
Check the boards at capital cities/Esiris to see current events, which will be denoted by an (active) after the name. 'help event <event>' will give you the location for some active events.
Use 'inform last' for mud-wide informs that didn't make it into news posts. The 'last <channel>' syntax doesn't work for this, as it's not a normal channel.
4. 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. 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. Ensure you have differences set for regmons vs aggros, and again for wounded mobs - important that you can see if someone else is already in combat, or which mob you are targeting.
Note that some players will not be coloured normally due to eq, for instance horny amulets or int prisms. In these cases, hopefully you are paying attention!