What is a good way to start 4D?

[Hadmar]

(There doesn't seem to be a subforum for general questions about the MUD, so I'll post that here.)

Starting out just a few days ago, I made it more or less successfully through the newbie school/zones and entered the worlds of 4D with a level 15 Gringo Hunter. I have some troubles continuing from there, and maybe some old-timers will find my newbie experience entertaining or even as helpful feedback:

Not sure where to go from there I looked up zones appropriate for my level and found one labeled 10-20. So after stocking up in Old Yorke I made my way to Ali Baba's cave. The single person in the desert didn't respond to any of my tries in communication and none of my investigations at the oasis lead to a cave entrance. Trying to map the desert I learned that it doesn't seem to conform to euclidean geometrics and constantly lead me back to the oasis and arab. This transported the atmosphere of being heat-struck and lost in a desert quite well, but realizing that I am missing something obvious that may come with experience at questing I abandoned that place and returned to Recall.

So I went to a different place, the Aegean sea. Exploring the village there the mellow mood was quite enjoyable. Being up for more adventure I left by boat towards the north, since it was said that there are higher level zones to the south-east. Landing at Athens I explored the countryside and was warned to venture to the areas in the north-west. Being surrounded by danger Hadmar returned to Recall for a different approach.

The quest-card machine suggested some easy quests, most in places unknown to me. But helping a serf woman with a baby sounds simple enough, and her village is right next to the tournament square which is right next to Old Yorke! There shouldn't be any troubles finding it. So Hadmar made his way from Old Yorke by the eastern gate and followed the path by the river to be bitten to death by a jellyfish that happened to pass by.

No, Hadmar the mighty hunter won't be stopped by a single freak jellyfish with teeth! After being reborn he returned to Old Yorke, picked up a lantern someone dropped there and made his way back to the river, all to the laughter of the peasants. Having his trousers back again Hadmar travelled three or four steps further south where he was bitten to death by a jellyfish that happened to pass by.

Unable to reach the corpse because Hadmar didn't have a lamp and not finding the bank where are apparently enough funds to buy one I was happy to learn that "automeld" happens within minutes, not hours as I supposed.

Aside of some enjoyable exploring I got nowhere at all in 4D, so I want to ask more experience players if there is a better way to approach the game. Should Hadmar go back to the newbie zone and kill bunnies until he is Level 50? Are there beginner-friendly zones I have missed? Should I simply accept that completing easy quests involves repeated deaths before even starting them?

[Kvetch]

I did enjoy your adventures with Hadmar and hope you won't find our freakish jellyfish to be offputting.

If you go to the Seeker clan hall (use the feather that you got when you created - or if you lost it, go south of recall to Bart and tell him "I am new here" and he should give you a new one) and look at the board.  That board lists quite a few different newbie areas to try, though you'll have to use the Map room (3 or 4 south of recall) to actually get directions to any of them.

Usually the areas right outside the Time Guardian portals (when you go up from recall and say pre, med, old, future) are the most newbish of areas - but they are also the beginning of each area so it's easy to accidentally find yourself in a higher level than you wanted to be.

Actually, as I wrote this I decided to go visit the clan hall and just copy the information of areas from there to here.

First 10 levels:
Mudschool and newbie zones (look around the Venture Way)

After 10 levels:
Prehistoric:
Old Carthage (has some tough mobs) and Carthage Bay

Medieval:
Sanctuary Haze, Tournament Place

Old West:
Buffalo Bill's Circus

Future:
The Spaceship Titanic, Golf Course, The planet Endor, The planet Dagobah
And if the above zones become to easy:

Prehistoric:
Greek Archipelago, Ali Baba's Cave

Medieval:
Archers in Old Yorke, Ice Palace (will be a bit tough)

Old west:
The Range, Dirt Farm, Legend

Future:
The Gamegrid, The planet Tattooine, New Goznemia, Necromunda II, Planet Reptilia
And when those become to easy hopefully you'll have found other areas
to your likings already.

I remember when I started 4D, I did most of my leveling in Sancutary Haze after doing the mud school (I actually didn't find the other newbie zones until later - silly me - I believe when I asked to become a helper).

Always feel free to ask around as well.

[Hadmar]

Thank you, that proved helpful so far. I think I got lost on my way to Carthage Bay, but after fending off a horde of goats and sheep Hadmar is now level 20.

[Calypso]

Just to let you know, Kvetch, Newbies are not given feathers anymore. Xerxes and I worked together to create a seekers crest that acts as the feather and then some. Xerxes' scripting is amazing. He did a bit of coding as well so every newbie loads with the tabard (crest). Helpers can check on the progress of a newbie with their whistle. As if yet, I don't know how to get a new one nor do I know if the progress follows the player when tabards are replaced.

[Hadmar]

I actually tried that to see if I get a feather - "I am new here" provides me with a completely new tabard emblazoned with a fiery red feather.

[Molly]

Heh, good story, you can tell it to your grandchildren, if you stay on long enough to have any in 4D.

My condolences - you seem to have had more than your fair share of bad luck.

I'm particularly shocked by your encounter with an aggressive biting jellyfish. Not so much by the biting, since 4D is known to have snakes with arms and legs, but by the fact that is showed up in a low level zone like the Serf Village.

It had no business being on dry land at all, let alone being in the Medieval Dimension, since it belongs to the oceans in Prehistoric...
The only explanation I can think of is that one of our oldbies must have been fishing in the river Maine, caught the jellyfish by mistake, and failed to follow the general rule of fishing; "Kill what you catch".

I take it you never got to poor Hanna, which might have been just as well, The Serf Village may be a newbie zone, but helping her with her baby is not a newbie task, since it involves finding the father of her illegitimate child, who is one of King Arthur's gallant knights, and resides in Camelot, in the other end of the Medieval realms. And there are many dangers along the road to Camelot...

This is one of the drawbacks of having a seamless world - there is no obvious warning when you leave the newbie area to enter something more perilous.

A tip is to stay on the roads, they are relatively safe as long as you don't attack anything. Venture off the roads and you might land in all kinds of trouble.

Another tip is to consider everything  before attacking, that should give you a clue about your chances to survive the battle.

A third tip is of course to set your wimpy pretty high.  "He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day".

A fourth tip is the command WHERE, which will give you the name of the zone you are in. Combined with the command HELP <DIMENSION>, this can give you the levels of that zone, without having to run back to the Map Room all south of Recall.

Apart from that, the Map Room is one of the best tips I can give, because it not only gives the size and levels of the zones, but also a short background story, and usually some directions about how to get there.

Hopefully you haven't got too discouraged by your adventures.