I didn't even remember it was you until you posted.
So sure, you are forgiven, hehe.
About Quests - I can understand that they can be frustrating at times, so here are some suggestions:
- Check the lists of Quests in the Questor's Office, and preferably start out with some of the ones, marked EASY, until you get the knack of it.
- If you just happen to stumble on a Quest while exploring a zone, bear in mind that you don't HAVE to complete it to get along. You can always come back and do it at a later time - or leave it out completely.
4D is not like those Muds where you need to solve Quests to advance. Our Quests are meant as entertainment, to add to the depth of the zones, to offer a challenge to those looking for more than killing mobs, and although the rewards are nice, they are nothing that you absolutely need. In my opinion those who Quest solely to get the rewards, and even cheat to do so, are missing out on a lot of fun.
- Get into the habit of reading all descs in rooms that look 'special' in any way. And I mean
ALL descs: exit descs, Listen/Smell/Taste/Feel descs, mob and object decs. Then if you see any interesting items in the room, look for extra descs, using those nouns as keywords. Finally, if you still don't get any hints about what to do, start looking BEHIND, ABOVE and UNDER things.
I remember how one of our legendary players, Soulstar, once told me how all the secrets of 4D just unfolded before his eyes the day he started to actually READ the descs. He ended up a top player, a top Builder and finally the head Coder of the Mud.
You should NEVER have to resort to verb guessing in 4D, to me that is a sign the Quest being badly designed. Usually the clues as to what to do is either in what the Questmob says or in one of the decs in the same zone, usually close by. The general rule is that IF there is an undisplayed object in the room - (container or portal) there also MUST be a clue to it somewhere in the descs of the room. If you can find an example where this rule is not followed, show it to me, and I'll pay you a bronze token for the report! :-)
- Keep notes of what you are doing in a Wordpad file on your own computer. That way, if you leave a Quest half finished, you can come back at a later time and proceed, without having to do it from scratch.
If a mob asks you for a specific thing; don't think that you'll remember, because you won't. Write it down!
- I know that some players make triggers and aliases like 'look aa; l ab; etc. to brainlessly run through every room in the hope of finding a hidden container or portal by chance. Those players miss out a lot of the game. For one thing it would most likely be quicker to just read the descs instead. For another, some objects don't even load in the room, until you fulfilled certain prequisitions, so often they just waste their time. But mainly they miss out on all the extra background information, which might supply them with several ideas about how best to proceed.
- Some zones are 'Quest heavy', whereas others are mainly travelling or hunting grounds. The description of the zone suggest which type it belongs to. It would be a total waste of time looking for extra descs in large grid zones, like Outer space or the Aegean Sea, because there just won't be any. The quests will be in the planets and islands that these zones lead to, and that's where you should spend your best efforts. If there are any 'special' rooms in the grids, they will generally be clearly identified from the main room descs. And in a 'Quest heavy' zone, every room in the zone is probably 'special' in some way.
- The majority of the Quests start are carried out within the zone itself. But bear in mind that a 'zone' can sometimes technically consist of two or more different zones, so don't think that the 'look around' command will be safe to rely on. You have to get a grip of the general layout.
- Trading Quests are different from other Quests in that they don't need any brainwork at all, and that they yield TradePoints instead of Tokens and equipment. Still, trading can be very rewarding, and can be regarded as an alternative way of advancing to killing mobs, sine one thing that you can convert the TPs into is exp.
- Remember that talking to mobs is usually the best way to start a Quest. Most Quest mobs will react to the Dimensional greeting phrases or if you ask if the need some help. But you'd also get some ideas about what to say by just looking at the mob.
- Finally; don't ask other players to reveal quest secrets, and don't blab yourself. Even if you are never found out 'officially', it deprives you of the satisfaction of having solved a problem on your own. And even if cheating might give you a quick 'success', it will also lose youl all respect from the experienced players that you might want to impress. Players are usually quick to pick up on people who cheat to get along. And respect, once lost, is hard to regain.
