Personaly I would love to help and written a few tech manuals internal for companies, and one external Google D-Star for Dummies, look for W8KWA and you will spot one of my works. (though its Word since then i switched to Libreoffice.  I just dont know enough about the In game world to do a decent job of writing a downloadable manual.  And well I dont write wiki's.  Sorry.
[also bumping up the post may get a few more interested]

From some one from the old schol who has been righting fan fiction for... well lets just say early 90's and leave it there.
Mary sue is actual a "newer-slang" term, we used to call it "Author Insertion" stories.  Some can be very good if they keep into the context of the world, and not Brake the rules of the world. "Ie show up as a god, slay the series villian, render 50 volumes of manga mute, and 200 episodes useless.

Some good, some bad.  I like the well written ones my self.  But then thats me.  For every Good bit of fan fiction theres 50 bad ones.
A way to see it is the author puts some of them selves into it and have allowed you to peek into their fantasy if you wish, you may even share the same fantasy.  Its definitely not for everyone, and I have actually written standard Fan Fiction, Author insertion, and Cross over ones.  So i been there done that, and like its been said before Fan fiction isn't for everyone. (no i haven't written PS fan fiction... yet)

Well Bilbous, I don't under stand....  ok, separate, I was proving a point earlier.

And to answer your questions?

"Have you ever played a game where this was possible?"  Yes I have, called Werewolf, its a really good Role playing game.  You could "Max out a character" in less than 2 months.  Why cause the game was about role playing, story telling and not stat monsters.
"Whats the point in playing if you cant improve your self?"  Gee don't know, for the story? (kind of like I'll have max out my strength, whats the point of living! <jumps from the roof of a building>)  Theres an extreme sense of great distance between levels vs no distance in levels.  Yeah lets all Join fight club as pencil necked geeks and every one looks like Arnold in their prime! and we know it will take beatings of years before we can keep up!  /joke  to improve is one thing, to be superman and wonder why the newbies don't want to hang around supermen... hence the point i was making.
I can see the point of the characters that have been around for years, so least you should be willing to see PS from the perspective of someone just arriving.  Weither thats the monstrance long climb to get up there, or the the points i brought up earler.  Trying to make me out to be the some sort, 'Old timer hater' isnt flying.
I play Stats to Character, meaning if the stats aint there I don't RP it.  So since no living person can realistically have maxed all stats, i don't max all stats.  I don't think anyone should max all stats, and it should be very tough to Max 1, and two should be darn near impossible.

And as to your last question, "you want to take him out in a few weeks of lackadaisical training?" One got nothing personaly against your character, dont think mine or yours have properly met.  But let me toss you a senario, something to consider.

We all work hard on our characters, getting them to their levels.  Now we want an interesting plot line.  Someone comes up with a really good concept for a villen which in this case requires combat.  Now this person can either a completely ignore the in game rule system (bad form for many reasons) spend the next 6 months grinding away at the character to get him close to were he's going to stand up to one or two weapons fire from the group in whats sure to be an epic battle.  Or he can take the next two years to power up a new character while others are powering up theirs.

From everything i see, you seem to be wanting to pull for the final option.  Bilbous, we aren't talking about taking anything away from your character, or other characters, we are talking game mechanics here.  In PS even you I hope would admit that the Progression system is rather LONG.  and thus you have very large gaps between the New, and the Been around, that to a newbie, or new character the gap seems extraordinarily wide. 

The newbies are walking around with a lot of "Arnold's in their prime" and theres not much of a middle ground.  I can site examples of this all day filling up screen after screen of it.  So I'll leave you with one final example.  We have a Villian right now in game.  He's been randomly (seemingly) dropping "newbies/non-combat characters" left and right.  So about 12 of us got together... you know what, he was still stronger than us 12 "newbies", so end result is the villain is still out there.  Granted I the player like the Villains player and got nothing but good wishes, but theres a "Good guys to bring down the bad guy" plotline that died because of the tremendous gap.  Not everyone wants to play "Combat, max stat monsters" but when our characters get looped into certain plot-lines.... it shows it self virtually killing a plot line.
So thus I hope that answers your questions, and the thread can return back to its original intent.

Kind of comes down to that old argument else where.

No ones online you know, what to do, Quest, train, kill, repeat till maxed.... Top in swards... next magic... repeat.  So yeah the old timers are all maxing out Armor, Swords and Magic.  They got their characters and names, and starting is pain full, so why 'limit'.  if you dont limit they can keep going on and doing something waiting for others and prospective newbies to join (if evil) and go sick em. plus already have that 10+ in mining so mining for something isnt as painful as it would be with a new character.  Plus people would have to know X is their alt etc.  Easier to go with the same character.

You prevent Warriors from using magic, what are they going to do when maxed out, and they dont want to craft or mine... hava a heart Valentinaaron. (can you read the sarcasm)

But is going to boil down to the DEV and the world setters as arguments go back and forth.  AD&D, they had that argument for years.  pointed to all the same sources then came up with a solution, a "Battle Mage" with a very limited spell selection, but they allowed armor for it with out the penalties.  But they didnt allow the extra perks of a fighter.  Thats one solution.  Imagine a warrior only limited to healing magic.... and no 'offensive spells, except 'cold' and the like.

Other worlds have magic coming from other sorces that allow magic and armor together as one, as part of an all around concept of a fighter.  Others its black and white one with out the other.
If your going to go Magic user=no phyical armor, than they need magic Item/spell to make it capable to the warrior side.  After all you get bum rushed by a warrior in full plate, a robe and a wind aint going to do squat.  If there is the equivlent, I havent seen it yet.

So I think its up to the Dev/world setters to define thoes lines.  Me personaly I always like the seprate issue.  Mages cant wear armor. rule.  Why, mages spend so much time money and effort, getting the items, spells etc, also have to contend with people who have a lot more time to play than we do, and can power up in both and have the best of both.

My character who originally started out as "Just a bard" now has come to the fact, hes going to need some kind of defense, or some kind of combat ability to defend him self from (evil characters).  So now not only do I have to beef up the musical instruments, but now magic, and armor, and armor training, plus ways to make even more tria, and moe PP to pay for it, even then I'm still short in weapons, and don't stand a chance against seasoned characters, and characters that have been on the server for years.  So my opinion is biased.

So in short i think its going to boil down to the world setters, and their opinions and a decision their of.
Just my Two Tria for what its worth.

It looks like its kind of teasing on the following Arguments

Should Planeshift work as a stand alone game, a game playable with out intereacting?
Or
Should Planeshift force new people to interact with others in order to speed up Character Stat/Skill/Gameplay?
Both sides have folks with hardened in trenched people ready to go down to the mat to argue both sides.

I can see the orgional posters point.  I can agree to it to a point.  When you go through the tutoral, you end up with a rock pick, a gliff, two maps, and a leter from a friend and some Tria.  Its enough to get you started out for a first character.  If you say 'Create a throwaway character, just to see what the game was about' then start a more serious character, like many including my self do.  The starting character starts with 0 Tria, 0 Items, like he was robbed coming off the boat.  Now I got to remember which quests didnt 'cost' Tria (cause i don't have any to spend) and which where quick quests, to earn enough for the aforementioned pick, to go get some ore to start getting money so i can go back to thoes other quests I had to skip cause I had no money at the time.

A solution might be Equiping all new characters with a rock pick, and or Tria say 1,000  Enough to cover some of the early quest covers, and handle if a character wants to head off to the mines, plus a choice of weapons.

Now I believe a game should encourage role playing, AND be able to work stand alone.  I'm a minority here, I know.  The one big gripe I got right now with 'starting characters' other than that I just mentioned is the simple fact some items have "Minum Reqirements" that you don't find out until after you buy said item and try to equip them.

Let me give you an example RL for the above to illustrate my points.
I recently got my son on to the game.  He's been playing Wizzard 101, and kept hitting their 'cap' the point where they started asking for money.  So here I was with Planeshift, and i went over to his box and got him started.  There where some adjustment issues, explaing actual role playing as apposed to 'trash talking' others on the server.  Then walking him through the tutorial, and with the help of a fellow guild menber, who donated an Axe, shield and some Tria, we turned him loose.  Granted he wanted to kill everything but rats, and was getting chased by everything but rats.  But thats beside the point.  He's used to calling me dad, and yep Forum name= character name, and right in front of Herihi Dwarf calles and Enki, Dad.  So we had to have the in character out of character discussions.
So I figured, why not make a dwarf 'Dad' so when he comes on line, a fathery dwarf to go play with.  Poof there i was with 0.  Ok from playing Koru, i knew the peta handler had an easy run a round quest, then theres Harns apples, still not enough to buy pick axe. find another quest.  yess. now run back grab axe, head out to the mine for load one (2 hours later) back with load one, no metelergy skill but enough to buy an axe.  ok, make a secound run. 1.75 hours later) back to harns... then run all the way out to Oja for axe.  Got it and got some chainmail armor!... bank fund depleated.
[Sorry you dont have enough STR to equip this item]
-.-
So for an ALT just to play with my kid, to at least equip him with a chosen weapon.  4 hours play time.  Plus frustration on something I have griped about.  The please show what you can wear vs what you cant wear, so we know what we need before buying the armor/weapon/what ever.

So yes, Starting out with rock pic, Tria, and mabey a Axe/Sword/Gliff depending on "Kit" or something along those lines might be a good way to help start characters.

I'm not sure if its a Just me, or a glitch or a full on bug.  I dont see it referenced anywhere.
My charcter is equiped with chainmail armor.  Its on him when I exit.

When I re-login, either from quiting or to just PS launch and log back in to the same character, the following occures.
At the Select Character screen, the armor gets painted on him, looks fine.  I login.
Now his armor apears for less than a secound then vanishes from view.  In the invitory he is still wearing the armor.  But all of the view points he isnt.  I have to take the armor off, drop it back in invatory, and re apply it, and its back.

Am I the only one that this happens to?
Is there a way to fix it so it doesnt?
Is this a Full blown bug?
And if so is there any known work arounds.  Thanks

Current Version of Planeshift x64
Ubuntu 11.10 64 bit (does the same in gnome or unity)

Well speaking from a bard experience, I think a good step would be at least to spin in place.  Theres been plenty of time when I have had characters approach mine from the side when i was playing a long song.  So being able to turn left and right, might help matters some. I understand about the movement and the sound bit.  But is simply turning out of reach at this point?