Newbie to not newbie

[Coriander]

How about some suggestions to de-nerf newbie characters that require (hopefully) little implementation effort:

1) Start new characters with 20,000 LP or even 50,000 LP. This allows for skill procurement without hours of tedious grinding. (Keep the grieving arts above this initial LP amount.)
2) Allow new characters three or four slider movement points at the beginning along the nature/industry bar. (No one wants a newbie farmer to touch their crops due to the harvest penalty)
3) Create a newbie "day one" page on the wiki explaining the mess at the RoB and offering tips on locating help.

Please add your ideas to the list.

Edit - this post came after reading the thread "a Game for Newbies"

[sabinati]

it would be better if there were more things a newbie could do to get LP instead of just giving them a bunch at once.

[Peter]

I think that "Will to Power", "Hunting", "Farming", and quite possibly a few other skills should be completely removed and/or given for free. Seriously? I have to grind for an hour before I can even PICK UP A CHICKEN?

[loftar]

I have to grind for an hour before I can even PICK UP A CHICKEN?

Chickens can be bloodthirsty li'l creatures; don't underestimate them. :)

I think the real solution lies in 1) implementing a quest system at long last, with interesting new-character-quests and 2) replace the LP system with something more interesting.

[kobnach]

Hmm, I've had newbies useful in very short order. They were alts, but my theory is 200 LP --> pottery or fishing. Pottery is good LP source, great on good clay. Fishing is useful. I grow them up to yeomanry and beyond with little or no grinding - just doing useful work. Meanwhile I'm feeding them better than most newbies get, and having them plow etc. to increase their hunger. One alt built 6 kilns, and some inordinate number of bricks. All very useful. A bit boring if the alt were a player's sole character - but if it were, he'd be doing all the chores to set up his own camp - possibly having paid for tools and starter seed with brick making, or possibly having simply found wild plants and made basic tools. And if he found that boring, he's playing the wrong game.

[Krantarin]

I think the problem really lies in the ease with which people gain levels in pretty much everything. You should be able to boost your attributes and skills by the first fifteen points in a couple of hours. Then the next fifteen in a day or two. Now you are a functional member of society, can make some OK quality stuff, and can trade for what you need. After that it should be a lot harder.

Another suggestion is getting rid of pathfinding again and making swimming possible for even the weaker characters. What do you think Loftar?

[theTrav]

I'm not online as often as I like, but I try to help out new characters wherever I see them by:
1 - Getting them to take pottery as their first skill, teach them to make tree pots, gift them with a water skin and teach them to plant trees
2 - By this stage they generally have enough LP to get farming, from here I try to get them to harvest + replant a heap of flax and gather the fibers
3 - After the farming they have enough for clothmaking, so I get them to make cloths and start paying them in coins for the cloth that they make. I also explain to them the other things I'll pay for, and from then on they're pretty much ready to play.

So basicaly we need more people it TCoB doing steps 1 to 3 with new players