Start location Novigrad: OPEN

[Potjeh]

Influx of new players has slowed to a trickle lately. It's universally accepted that this is because RoB is a resourceless mess. Players brought in by established players get transported to less devastated areas and stay. Players who stumble upon the game quit in frustration because they think the whole game is like RoB. I don't know about you, but I like new players and want H&H playerbase to grow as much as possible. Since nobody wanted to build a charterstone in his village, I've taken it upon myself to provide newbs with an alternative to RoB.

I've made a village west of RoB (it's on maplib) so I can build a charterstone (big thanks to Kimya and Louse for charterstone copper). The village is called Novigrad, which means Newtown in Croatian (I lack imagination, sue me). It's a village in name only, as it won't get developed and inhabited. It's there just to give newbs an alternate start location, not to recruit them. I'll give crossroads signs to Novigrad to anyone who wants one, and you are not required to give your own in return (though you can if you want to).

Novigrad charterstone will NOT be open at all times. When the local area runs out of trees, I'll close the charterstone until it's reforested. When the area is devastated beyond salvation, it will be closed for good. I placed some thin claims to make areas of unclaimable yet publicly accessible land, so there will at least always be space to plant a couple of dozens of trees for newbs. Between that and regulated immigration, I hope this starting location will last longer than RoB did.

If you would like to help the newbs that start here, consider donating or volunteering. Plenty of stuff that is trash to you is gold to newbs. So instead of destroying your old beehives/herbalist tables/whatever, bring them over to the newb charity pile in Novigrad, north of the charterstone. Donations of fishing equipment are especially welcome.

If you want to volunteer, plant trees and crops in the area. I plan to have some herbalist tables and a base stock of all crops on the village ground, where they can't be carried off by the newbs, so you'll need village membership to access those. Contact me and I'll swear in an alt of yours (or your main, but I don't see why you'd want that). Another useful volunteer work is construction of roads extending from Novigrad in cardinal directions. Finally, you can place boat construction sites outside of the village claim, so that newbs can build themselves boats without Wheelmaking and get out of the area.

Finally, I apologize to any residents of the area for bringing a horde of tree-hungry newbs to their doorstep. I just went for the area that looked least inhabited on maplib. If you had claimed your land on maplib like Cake Province did, I would've built this elsewhere. But now it's here to stay, so I'm sorry but you'll just have to deal with it.

[btaylor]

Way to take the initiative, Potjeh! Even going so far as to make an entirely new village area. I applaud your selflessness.

[Potjeh]

I even had to grind up brand new alts to yeomanry and lawspeaking. Yeah, I'm bragging, but I think I have the right to

Anyway, thanks for encouragement.

[Delamore]

Way to take the initiative, Potjeh! Even going so far as to make an entirely new village area. I applaud your selflessness.

Pah, when Potjeh makes a village that trains newbies he's selfless, when I do it I'm the devil.

[Potjeh]

I'm not training anyone, I'm just providing a publicly accessible start location with trees.

[jorb]

Way to take the initiative, Potjeh! Even going so far as to make an entirely new village area. I applaud your selflessness.

Pah, when Potjeh makes a village that trains newbies he's selfless, when I do it I'm the devil.

I think the difference might be that you do it with the explicit purpose of building up a crime organization, Delamore.

[MadAlice]

I'll try to help out with that as I can. It sounds like a good idea. PM me if you want to let me know what's needed first. How are the critters out there? We won't be setting up a terrible newbie slaughterhouse?

[Potjeh]

Well, I reckon we should plant some crops outside the village claim for newbs to get their starter seeds. That, and a couple of herbalist tables on the village claim, for trees.

Anyway, I'm spent from all the work I've done there, so I'm relaxing on a fishing trip with my main, which is on the same account as the lawspeaker alt. If you want swearing in, contact me on the IRC when you arrive in Novigrad. You can travel from Brodgar crossroads to get there, or just make a new character for volunteering.

[theTrav]

Nice one potjeh, I was wondering what that sign swap was all about.

[Jackard]

good idea, good location