Now lets look this problem from the view of _true_ newbie. I was just helping
out my friend, who is not familiar with muds or computer games. Few
conclusions:
1) They have hard time learning all the basic stuff in the mud, and in the
beginning you can't really expect them to know "many areas".
2) Explore is much greater exp than killing monsters, but on the other hand
even the newbies would like to see their character improve. Now it is
worthless to kill any newbie monsters (newbie mountain for example is only 50%
the exp it used to be). So basically they get bored and frustrated, since they
don't really know how to kill monsters, and they still have to explore new
areas to get exp.
3) This leads in to the situation where newbies get 30+ levels by exploring
random areas, and don't see the point to train skills nor improve their
characters otherwise. They wont remember the "random" area after exploring
unless they have decent basic knowledge of killing monsters and why they are
exploring new areas.

Maybe there could be some exp bonus for newbies who have total exp of 2m or
below or something.
These were just some basic conclusions I made after helping a friend. I found
it worthless to teach them kill monsters. We oldbies might have hard time
realizing how hard it might be to remember how to wield weapons for a newbie.
-Aldarion.

I recently updated my \"Newbie Mage Guide\" to accomodate for the
explore and exp tunes. Playing a newbie solo mage has never been easy, but
it seems the current tune means that most of the monsters that are
killable by a solo mage are now worth a lot less than they used to be.

My recommendation is the same as yours: explore for experience.
Unfortunately you are probably right in assuming that this will lead to a
bunch of players with reasonable area knowledge, but little or no
understanding of skills, spells, armour and combat.

I don\'t play enough to party all that much, but I used to log in for an
hour or so and do solo exp while exchanging a few words with friends. For
a while it was actually possible to advance in the game by playing only a
few hours per week. The current system seems too time-consuming, so I
think I\'m going to be stuck at this level unless I explore a lot for
exp or change my playing habits to include partying & longer game
sessions. (I assume most parties disllike people who play less than an
hour at a time.)

It would be interesting to hear from a new player who started playing
after the latest tunes were put in place. Does the game feel well balanced
and do you feel that the returns (in terms of character development and
game enjoyment) are worth the effort you put into playing?

I\'m not really complaining. Before these tunes, I think the
progress/time ratio was slightly on the low side, so I didn\'t play
much. With the explore tune and the first exp tune, I could progress fast
enough so that it was fun again. Progress seems too tedious again, so I
stopped playing again, which leaves me more time for other things in
life.

If I don\'t like it, I don\'t have to play. That\'s only fair.

an For a Not much of a flame. *sniff*

However, as far as parties go, I have to say that while I\'ve been in
all day parties with highbies before, they\'re flat out exhausting. I
tend to log a bit in the mornings, and then party later when I get off of
work, and most groups would be happy to have someone help for around an
hour or so with exping. Yah, 10 minutes isn\'t enough to get anything
done, but if you ask around for a party for (mage, I\'m assuming?) most
everyone would be glad to have you in for an hour or so. That gives
plenty of time to find a replacement when you have to leave, and
fortunately, while blasters are useful and always welcome in any party
I\'m in, it also doesn\'t kill the rate terribly much if we\'re
forced to function without one either.

And, since this is flame, where the fuck are all the goddamned
lowbie/midbie blasters? Everyone on here bitches about blasters not being
worthwhile at lower levels, and that\'s total fucking bullshit. We need
more newbie blasters. So for all you highbies who advise those little 20M
and 30M chars not to reinc to blaster, fuck off! Give me a blaster and a
tank for a 3man any day of the fucking week, and all the goddamned
blasters are freaking lvl 100 with much better exp rates waiting for them
with parties of their own level. All these newbies ask on newbie channel
what good guild is, blah blah, and everytime someone mentions blaster, 16
people jump on and say it\'s a bad guild for newbies. As long as you
can pay attention, make a command for your spells, and not be a total
dipshit, you\'ll be a good addition to party.

I want some goddamned blasters in this game when I need \'em, you
useless, castrated, inflated, hopeless, sons of slutty sheep. Quit
telling noobs not to go blaster.

--Sele

Yeah, a lame response to a not-so-hot flame...
This reminds me of something... If the point of changing how monsters tune
was to make partying relatively more profitable, I think changing the
amount of exp from monsters was the wrong approach. Why should the amount
of exp from a monster be constant regardless of party size? I mean you
could just as well give X% extra for each party member and in that way
promote partying?

There\'s no way any party is 100% efficient and saying that a 2 man
party is 4x more efficient than a solo player is bullshit because what
really counts it ticking HP/EP/SP. You actually get less of those if you
party because having to actually fight monsters (instead of single
skill/spell kills) seriously disturbs ticking.

I would promote partying by providing the extra leadership bonuses not
from the base experience of the monster. I would also change backrow
ticking so that it actually makes sense rather than just being dumb and
arbitrary (I\'m just trying to be flameish here and failing as usual).
I\'m in that bracket and from a spell power point of view it works OK.
Newbie blasters just can\'t afford power reagents and highbie EQ,
so they have to hold back on using SP in parties to stay in synch
(for regen) even with lowbie/midbie tank/healer HP/EP.

Let\'s have a raise of hands: how many 20M total tanks would be happy
with a solo exp rate of under 1k/minute? How many still want to reinc to
mage if that\'s what you get as a mage?