The Life of a Newbie - Days 3 & 4

[PINKY]

Day 3:

I logged on, eager to see if my society application had been accepted. The past couple of days had been interesting, but I really did miss being able to have a chat with people. When I saw society chat filling up fast, it was a real buzz. I introduced myself and was bombarded with hellos and questions about how long I had played etc...
I went to swamp camp as usual to sweat, and set myself to the task of sweating over and over. I decided today would be a little different, to relieve some of the boredom and having read a really good guide about how to make money in Entropia (the author must be a genius! ) I decide to try economy hunting.

I still had the Jester D-1 my (still) absent mentor had given me, so ran to the outskirts of the camp with the intention of sweating a creature until it was drained of sweat, then killing it. Back when I first started playing, this was a great way to hunt for free. The sweat usually covered the cost of the ammo and any loot you got was a bonus. I soon discovered it doesn't work like this any more, as the sweat is too cheap. Once upon a time, I could get 20 sweat out of a Dakiba which was worth 40 PEC and you could easily kill a Dakiba with 40 PEC of ammo, now that same sweat is worth just 10 PEC.

Realizing economy hunting was out for now, and desperately trying to find a reason not to hunt just in case my mentor never comes back, I decide to address the mentoring issue.

I figure that I now have the resources to ask any questions I needed answering via society chat, so I try to casually mention a few things, in the hope one of them would take the hint and advise me to kick my mentor, with no luck. I soon discovered the drawback of entering a large society of 100+ members (Terra Verde has only ever had about 25 maximum): there are always three or more simultaneous conversations going on. When I ask questions about how long it takes to graduate, they think I am talking about graduating to a higher society standing for some reason.

Giving up, I make quick tally of what I currently possess in the way of cash and items. It totaled about 25 PEDs worth of equipment and sweat, which I was strangely proud of considering just how little that actually is after three days! I haven’t hated having so few peds as much as I thought I would, but I do miss not having any friends.

I decided to sell all the ammo I have after realizing it was costing me money on my economy hunting session, and to avoid the temptation to kill another creature when I get bored. It has the added bonus that as I still haven’t seen my mentor, with my skills remaining low, I will still have the option to boot him when I can get someone to tell me to!


I don’t spend too long online today as I am still finding it hard with no one to actually have a conversation with.



Day 4:
So, today something new – I still cannot deposit for a few more days, but I see on the forum that a newbie event is being organized by Simon and Emma the MA guides.

It started at 19:00, so I arrived just outside PA at 18:50 and waited. While waiting, I see Alice from Rising Potentials Society - A friend of Pinky's and Arokh, one of Pinky’s society buddies and closest friends. I couldn't resist the urge to ask him if he is Portuguese (He gets very upset about this - (See here)), which prompts Alice to start taking the micky of him.

Feeling I have at least achieved something today , Emma and Simon turn up and the event begins… we start off doing some warm up exercises which involve a quick dance lesson attaching the dance moves from the action library to the hot keys (very handy!) and then we followed the guides to the start point.

The task was to swim in a race around an island just off the coast three times… When Simon gave the word, I jumped into the water and swam for my life. I was doing well until about half way around the course, holding third place, it suddenly occurred to me that if I now won the event I would probably face a big backlash on the forum when my identity is revealed by winning a noob event, and depriving genuine new players of any prizes on offer. At least thats my excuse and I am sticking to it - as it turns out, I was too slow anyway! Eventually the event went on too long, and as I had a hot date for Valentine's Day, I thanked Simon and Emma and left.

I was very surprised with how eager I was to win this event, the prizes were not very valuable, but looking back, I realized just how important they are to new players. A basic hunting kit (which I believe was the prize) is equivalent to days and days of sweating, but it's something I (as Pinky) take for granted. I throw most goblin, pixie, shogun, etc. armor parts into the TT, never thinking about people who need them. Vowing to try harder as Pinky and at least attempt to try to sell any parts I loot for TT price in the future.

Still no mentor today... but in the next article, finally someone tells me to kick him and I finally get to make my deposit (THANK GOD!!) - the post should be up in the next couple of days..

[SnowLeopard]

Now I'll try to hold my breath until the next installment!

[kenzalhunter]

Pinky, thanks for this series, I'm enjoying reading it (+Rep).

And, due to the V-Day ref. I now have an idea of the time-frame.

Also, as I see this is giving you a bit of perspective into the current newbie life, will you be adjusting your "How to make money in Entropia" guide at all?

[Ronin]

very nice reading material this is Pinky!!!
I'm very happy about one thing, the lack of information provided by your current soc members about mentoring and noobish information in general does indicate that u did not join our soc Global Alliance Guard...
If any newcomer reads this thread, feel free to apply for our society via any soc terminal...
great articles, can't wait to read rest of your adventures... really deserves a +rep

[MindStar9]

This has fast become ... the best reporting series ever. Very well done Pinky ... I'm enjoying each episode, and look forward to more.

*I bet you get your golden star sometime soon at this rate, but it would be well deserved!*

[Immortal]

Originally Posted by PINKY

I throw most goblin, pixie, shogun, etc. armor parts into the TT, never thinking about people who need them. Vowing to try harder as Pinky and at least attempt to try to sell any parts I loot for TT price in the future.

I've tried this. I even offer to trade them for sweat. But... people don't want armor for some reaosn? (i must have sold two or three parts of 500pedtt+) I don't have the patience to stand in PA any longer trying to give them away, and i simply cannot stand the spam.

[Tidesong]

Oh yay! Starting to look forward to more of these

[Gobolino]

Another great job
Keep going this way, everyone can`t wait your next installment

[d2bishop]

A friend of mine in the town that I live in told me about EU.

He said I needed the TPs so that I could get around.

Got my new PC at end of August 2007 and downloaded EU.

Started playing on Sep 1, I was on vacation so gave it a go.

8 to 12 hrs a day took me 6 days to get most of TPs and revivals without maps. No armor no guns, just me in my then orange suit. (Both continents).

Started SW from PA and went to coast, died a few times, back to PA.

Learned that water was a friend.

Would run and avoid mobs till I was a long way from a TP or a revival, then self-destruct, back then it was easy a Daikiba did me in easy.

If I went forward to a new TP or revival then continued in that direction, if I bounced backward to TP behind me, then went between the last two points and used myself as bait again.

Big bird like thing consumed some time west side of my fist pvp zone.

I was surprised that there was not revival in the SE corner of the continent.

Also SW of Pa on my way home found out that water is not always your friend.

Worked my way around Eudoria, and then filled in the missing areas for TPs and revivals, buy going between two known points, and getting killed. (Did not know about ‘T’ on keyboard, after I found out what ‘G’ was for).

Did the same on Amethera only I was a lot smaller or it is a lot bigger, and those invisible walls fooled me for a bit, till I read the red print at bottom of screen.

After doing all this work I started reading and searching and found some neat maps that would have made the TP run a lot easier.

My records and the maps were in slight disagreement, I was short a total of 3 TPs. Picked them up easily.

Was still a N00b when I got back to PA, someone asked to be my mentor and join SOC. Joined SOC but my skills were too advanced to be a disciple.

I have be playing this game for 6 months now and am still a N00b, just like in RL, had my 65th birthday 2 days ago.

[TheMZ]

I personally like to add, my occupation in EU is just sitting around PA, helping newcomers (Except for Tuesdays, when I can't hold but asking endless of pointless, stupid questions targeted at Emma and Simon...