Welcome to Planeshift

[Illysia]

Since the number of new players seems to have grown lately, I figure a new welcome is in order....

Welcome. 

A few things you might want to know before getting going here:

• The bugs are normal, you'll get used to them and learn to live with them eventually.
• If you are interested in killing things, you'll be killing rats for awhile but you'll eventually get to the bigger stuff. I promise.
• If you skipped the tutorial, asking other players for help getting a weapon is not a bad idea. Neither is asking for a rock pick if you have training in mining.
• Training involves a number, a yellow bar, a thin blue bar and a green bar. Number is current training level, yellow is training left undone, thin blue is how many progression points(pp) you have to spend on that level in relation to how much training you still have to buy,and green is how much training you have compared to how much how much "practice" you have left to do.

There are a lot of other things that you'll need to know and learn but you can ask around in game and learn that stuff but I trust you will find the help you need. If you'll just be patient, accept that more than likely you wont have the features you want any time soon, and go to your fellow players for help and to have fun I think you'll  find yourself having fun playing the game.

Enjoy


As a note to the not new players reading this, say hi to the newbies and make them feel welcome. It is in everyone's best interests for them to hang around. Feel free to give a shout out to any new players you meet in game even.

[Candy]

And some more tips:

• Getting a mount is worthwhile if you plan to quest or travel a lot. Frustrating, but worthwhile. You'll save thousands on pterosaur flight.
• You might want to hold off on joining a guild until you get to know the community. I recommend asking around and checking out guild threads if you decide you want to be in one.
• Not every character will be nice, but the players of mean characters are often nice people.
• Use /leave 1 to exit gossip. You're welcome.

[Korumak]

Just three more tips:

• If your unconformable with asking "how" check the guide section here, to see if there is a guide about the subject your interested in.  Theres a lot of great information there, thats a bit more easily accessible, because most people in the game tend to ignore the areas that aren't that interesting to them.
• Also if you see someone from a guild you want to know about "OOC'ly" ask them "OOC'ly" not all guilds keep an active thread here in the forums.  Most are quite friendly and will fill you in.
• Don't be afraid of the forums, or to talk to other characters/players in game we don't bite... ok a few might but, well usually not on the new folks, if all else fails explain you're new to the game, and it clears up a lot of fluff so to speak. Just remember Out Of Character speech is encapsulated like [this] explain your new to the game and you need help, most will stop what their doing to help you out.  It is one of this game/group's strong points.

[Caraick]

And some more tips:

• Not every character will be nice, but the players of mean characters are often nice people.

[/li]
[/list]

How very true, Candy >_>


As for an actual contribution to this nice thread (Good idea, Illy)
- Head to options -> interface -> chat -> tabs, then un-click "use basic chat window.  Don't forget to click "save" before you exit the options window, then re-log.  I probably see this issue half a dozen times a month in the advisor channel. 

[Rigwyn]

I'll add one thing... well maybe a few...

• If you see people doing cool shit and you want to join in, speak up! (we can't read your mind)
• Don't get caught up in all the arguments and B.S. on the forums.
• If you cant find people doing cool shit, ask around on the forums.
• Don't feel feed the trolls.

This message has been brought to you by The Outlaws....

[Illysia]

• Don't get caught up in all the arguments and B.S. on the forums.
• Don't feel feed the trolls.

These... They should be the first two commandments around here.

[Mekora]

I was gonna add something to feel special, but I've (re)learn't more than what I can add... I really needa get back on this game

[Illysia]

Well Mekora, there is no hard set rule that only newbies can learn from this thread.

I'd add more but I'm so far from a new player that I'm not entirely sure what to tell someone that isn't already used to PS's idiosyncrasies.

[bbPandass]

All I know is to take notes on quests.
Taking a 6-8 month 'sabbatical' and then coming back to, not only a new version, but vague quest descriptions, and no details... Well its just a bit confusing.. But it does serve as an excuse to... do pointless things until you get something right...

[Gilrond]

As for an actual contribution to this nice thread (Good idea, Illy)
- Head to options -> interface -> chat -> tabs, then un-click "use basic chat window.  Don't forget to click "save" before you exit the options window, then re-log.  I probably see this issue half a dozen times a month in the advisor channel.

I wonder why isn't it a default in the first place?

Some more advice for new players:

• If you are lost in the middle of nowhere in the fog - be careful, falling off high cliffs isn't pleasant.
• Ask for directions if you need, many players will be happy to show you the way. And Explorers guild for example even makes different tours by request.
• Don't trust too much creatures estimations in description window, which compare them to you character's strength and etc. This can be pretty misleading.
• Take a look at the list of console commands in the help window. Many of them are quite handy and it's useful to learn about them. Commands can be bound to keyboard shortcuts to access them quickly.

[Aiwendil]

Sorry Illysia....

- Head to options -> interface -> chat -> tabs, then un-click "use basic chat window.  Don't forget to click "save" before you exit the options window, then re-log.  I probably see this issue half a dozen times a month in the advisor channel.

This is a very bad suggestion...because people will end up with a chat window with no chat tabs at all. So please add that they must head straight to the options again after the relog (<o>-key) , go to "Interface->Chat-Tabs" and select all chat tabs they want to see (For new players I would suggest: System Base, Chat, NPC, Whisper, Group, Auction, System, Help) and have all chat tabs they didn't select shown in the main chat tab (Guild Auction). What makes this so bad is that they don't even get a help chat tab after the relog...so can't get any further advise on how to fix the chat window.

And yeah...the PS defaults are insane so let me add a few more that should be changed by all means:
- PS launcher application: Turn off fullscreen, it doesn't work properly. No clue who had the "bright" idea to make that one a default
- In-Game-Options: Interface->Chat-> Disable "Join default channel". This makes Candys "/leave 1" unnecessary. If you really want to be in the gossip channel then add a "/join gossip" to "Interface->Autoexec". This way you can even choose which chars of yours should join gossip.
- In-Game-Options: Confirmations->Marriage->Never accept (If you find a husband/wife after month of playing you can still enable it...until then do yourself a favor and disable it..even more if you play a female char)

PS log-files: (Nobody can survive without them)
- On linux you can find the logs at "~/.PlaneShift/logs" ("~" is your users home directory, ".PlaneShift" is a hidden directory so you might have to adjust you filemanager's settings to see it)
- On windows the easiest way to get there is typing "%AppData%" in the address bar of the windows explorer (filemanager). Then just click on the "PlaneShift" and afterwards the "logs" directory. (full directory: "%AppData%\PlaneShift\Logs")
- On MacOS the directory is "~/Library/Application Support/PlaneShift/logs". ("~" is the home directory of your user..the house icon on the left side of the finder)

And one more thing for new players: Read!. Yes, it's great to have a help channel or other players teaching your directly and if you are lucky enough to get the help you need this way make use if it by all means. But there aren't always advisors or players with enough time available. Almost everything you want to know can be found in this forum. Yes, the "search" function can be a bitc....annoying but as pointed out already the Guides and Tutorial section is a good start.

But in general I don't get this thread. I never have a problem with finding new players. Every time I login it doesn't take long until I have a new player with questions in the help channel. How about creating a thread to teach the current community to do something on it's own...and learn to work together without always having the own advantage as goal. I think this would help PS a lot more in the long term.

[Caraick]

Sorry Illysia....

- Head to options -> interface -> chat -> tabs, then un-click "use basic chat window.  Don't forget to click "save" before you exit the options window, then re-log.  I probably see this issue half a dozen times a month in the advisor channel.

This is a very bad suggestion...because people will end up with a chat window with no chat tabs at all. So please add that they must head straight to the options again after the relog (<o>-key) , go to "Interface->Chat-Tabs" and select all chat tabs they want to see (For new players I would suggest: System Base, Chat, NPC, Whisper, Group, Auction, System, Help) and have all chat tabs they didn't select shown in the main chat tab (Guild Auction). What makes this so bad is that they don't even get a help chat tab after the relog...so can't get any further advise on how to fix the chat window.

I had assumed that these chat tabs are selected by default for inclusion in the main tab (Which they are).  But yes, as you've said, as of the recent update, you also need to select which tabs you'd like visible.  Thanks for the reminder, Aiw.

[Aiwendil]

The problem is not that they aren't included in the main chat tab...the problem is that you don't have a main chat tab with the default config after turning "basic chat" off. You get a complete empty chat window with no possibility for any feed-back from the game. And while it's not hard to solve this I really think this is something no new player should ever face. I simply don't get why "basic chat" isn't removed at all. With the selectable chat tabs it's easy to simulate a similar behavior...just provide a default config with only a few chat tabs visible and having all other chat tabs redirected to "main". But even if "basic chat" has a right to exist I'm not aware of the default config should at least include the "main"  and "help" tab after turning it off. Since the introduction of "basic chat" it has caused nothing but troubles, it' really time to start seeing it as a failed experiment and just get rid of it again.

Oh..and sorry, after re-reading my post I got aware that it could be read as if I think Caraick's suggestion is a bad one because of it's intention. That's not at all what I wanted to express..and some month ago his suggestion would have been great as it is. But right now it can seriously confuse new people if they aren't explained how to make the chat tabs visible afterwards again.