Entry Portal: Welcome to Nightmist, young one!
If this is your first time on this game, or any style of text adventure game, press the Return button on your keyboard, or press the Look Around button with your mouse.
If, on the other hand, you already have much experience with Nightmist, press the Exit Tutorial button with your mouse, which will teleport your character to the Sleeping Fox Inn in the city of Nightmist.
(This should probably be changed to Boar's Tusk; it was set to Sleeping Fox because of Crazy Pete's, but that's no longer an issue.)
Entry Portal: When you first walk into a room or area, you will get a brief description about the environment, and information on which directions you are allowed to move. Pressing the Return key or the Look Around button, as you have just done, allows you to look around the area that you are in, giving you more detail about your surroundings.
To move around, you may type one of 6 commands: N, S, E, W, U or D, and press Return... for North, South, East, West, Up and Down respectively.
Type N now and press Return to move North.
Talking: Quite often you have to talk to other players to share information or just to have a friendly conversation. To talk to the players in the same room as yourself, simply type what you want to say in the command box and press Return. Try it now and see yourself speak (but don't get accused of talking to yourself!)
But talking is not limited to the current room. You have a "friend list" and an "enemy list" that you can add (and remove) people to with /friend or /enemy followed by the name. To talk to people on your friend an enemy lists, put a ] (for friend) or a [ (for enemy) before whatever you wish to say (don't get the two symbols mixed up!)
You can turn off friend chat and enemy chat with ]off and [off respectively, and turn them on again with, you guessed it, ]on and [on.
Look around (Return key or the Look Around button) the room for more information.
Talking: If you want to talk to an individual player privately, you can talk to them with /page... to use this command, follow /page with the player name, and then your message; for example, say you want to talk to a player Inquisitor, you would type /page Inquisitor I want to talk to you.
If a player is offline, you might wish to leave them a message for when they log on. To do this, use the /memo command; the syntax is the same as /page.
Move North to continue or go South to go back to the Entry Portal.
Actions: You won't accomplish much in Nightmist by simply talking or moving around; often, you will have to pick up objects and fight monsters.
Underneath the "Look Around" button are five icons with the following pictures... a sword, an eye, a sword blade with an arrow, a sword hilt with an arrow, and a hand grasping a bottle.
Look around for more information.
Actions: The five icons represent the following actions respectively... Attack, Look Over, Pick Up, Drop, and Use. The image with a red square surrounding it is the action that will commence if the left mouse button is clicked over an object in the "People / Objects" window (more on this in a minute), and the image with the blue square surrounding it is the action performed upon a right mouse click. To change the actions performed by left and right mouse clicking, simply click the icon with the mouse button you wish to assign to it.
Move East to continue or move South to go back to "Talking."
People / Objects: To the left of this display is the "People / Objects" window. This will display yourself (unless you are invisible), other players and any monsters and items in the room with you that you can see. Notice the Priest who wanders around here, keeping an eye for injured players to heal, and also the Town Crier, who tolls his bell and yells what is going on in the realm of Nightmist and beyond (sometimes it is worth listening to monsters to see if they say anything that might be of use to you).
It is important to note the colour of the names in the People / Objects window... Green dictates that the person is friendly, or is an inanimate object. Blue is for neutral players (may be friend or foe) and is also the colour of items lying discarded on the floor (which can be collected if you select "Pick Up" and then click on the item in the window), while Red indicates that the player or monster is enemy and will likely attack you. There are some exceptions... for example, the Priest you see here is shown in red, but actually casts heal spells on you if you are injured; you often find them in churches.
If a sysop (game staff) is in the room with you, their name may appear any colour. Look around to continue.
A Town Crier and Priest are here with you.
People / Objects: To perform actions upon people and objects, simply click upon their name or symbol, and the action assigned to that mouse click will be performed on certain them. Note that certain actions will not work on certain people or objects; for example, you cannot pick up a player or monster, but you can pick up an item, whereas you can attack a player or monster (provided you are not inside a city), but you cannot attack an item. Move Down to continue or move West to go back to "Actions."
A Town Crier and Priest are here with you.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Spells / Abilities: Some classes can learn and perform special actions - spells or abilities.
Spells are used by Clerics, Druids, Pacifists, Paladins, and Mages. All spells cost a certain amount of mana, which is another bar beneath your health bar. Spells have varying effects; some will heal other players (such as with the spell Aid) while others will inflect damage (such as with the spell Flame). Others still will have mysterious effects that are best left up to your discover (such as with Vortex Gate). All spells must be bought except for Morph which all Druids start with.
All spells can be researched by typing /library [spell name]
Look around for information on Abilities.
Spells / Abilities: Abilities are a lot like spells in that they have varying effects. However, they do not require the use of mana. They are used by Berserkers, Rangers, and Thieves. Some will attack, such as a Ranger's Rapid Fire while others will have strange and unique effects such as a Berserker's Rage. Some abilities cannot be used until your character reaches a certain level. It is best to experiment with your abilities.
Fighters have neither spells or abilities.
You can use spells or abilities by clicking on the button and then clicking on an object under People / Objects just as you would with other commands (such as "attack" or "look").
Continue the tutorial by going North or go Up to go back to "People / Objects."
Weapons and Armor: Whether a shining blade, glittering mail or a glowing staff, all characters will use equipment at some point in their career.
To equip an item, you will first need to have it in your inventory. You can sometimes find discarded weapons lying on the ground, though you will usually buy them from shops or other players. Click on the Buy Item button with your mouse and then buy the Staff so that it is in your inventory. Then, click on the icon with a shield and two arrows pointing towards the box labelled "Weapons and Armors" (this is the equip button) and then on the Short Sword in your inventory. Now you're holding your sword and are ready to fight! To unequip your short sword, click on the icon with a shield and two arrows (in the opposite direction) and then on your Short Sword. It will appear in your inventory. You cannot unequip if your inventory is full.
The same process is used for other areas such as your: armor, shield, helmet, amulet, gloves, boots, bracelet and ring (x4).
Look around for more information.
Weapons and Armor: Just like spells, weapons and armors can be researched by using /library [item name]. Base Damage refers to how much damage a weapon will inflict in general. Together with your strength, your damage is determined. You can't equip an item if your class name is not on the Can be used by: list. You must also meet the minimum level requirement. Magical weapons are more effective against certain monsters and Vampiric weapons will steal life from your victim. The Monster Damage Table refers to any multiplier applied to your damage against certain monster types.
Equipment is usually bought and sold from shops but it can also be purchased online from other characters. By typing /web, you can bring up the Nightmist Browser. It will show you the Nightmist home page. Under Trading Area, you can buy items from players or bid on player-run auctions.
You can sell items online by typing /websell [item]/[price]. You can also start an auction by typing /auction [item]/[base price]. You can check your auction /auction check [item] and end the auction with /auction end [item].
You can continue by going Up or move South to go back to "Spells / Abilities."
Training: Characters get stronger by gaining experience. You get obtain experience either by attacking and killing monsters, healing characters, or as a prize from special quests and events.
For now, you can practice on Pierre the Training Dummy! Or, you can heal Bonooru the Undead Doll for damage!
Look around to continue.
Training: After killing a monster, they will sometimes drop gold or even items. Gold and items can be stored inside Banks and the Nightmist City Vault respectively.
If you ever die (your health falls below 1), you will lose all your gold and even some of your items so it's best to exercise your depositing ability! If ever you are injured, it is best to find a Church so a Priest can heal you for free. Most large cities have one.
Once you gain enough experience points, your Experience Bar will turn red. You will need to find a Guild where you can train and hone your skills. Levelling will raise your hit points, mana (if applicable), your chance to hit, your damage and many other aspects of your character!
Head North to continue or back Down to "Weapons and Armor."
Exit Portal: Before you stands a whirling vortex. Hues of blue and azure congeal and merge as they swirl to a single point. There is a wooden sign with some exotic writing on it, driven into the ground (type /read). The tutorial lies back towards the South.
Exit Portal: The portal itself, though raging in a small, stationary torrent before your eyes, seems harmless enough. There is a strange sense of pride and satisfaction in the air, and you cannot help but feel like you have accomplished something. The tutorial lies back towards the South.
(/read)
You can glance over the fancy caligraphy. In flawless handwriting, you make out: Congratulations, whomever you may be. Know now that beyond this portal lies many dangers and perils but, at the same time, riches beyond your wildest fantasies. You will meet both friend and foe in this strange realm, but remain ever vigiliant. Remember, the greatest of tales start with humblest beginnings. The sign is signed by no-one.
(This area has a button that teleports you to the Boar's Tusk in, labelled "Step through the Portal". Upon using the button, the player is reminded that they can type "help" at anytime for a list of topics.)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stats for Pierre the Training Dummy and Bonooru the Undead Doll:
Pierre the Training Dummy:
HP: 10
AC: (Can we put a negative number here so he's very, very easy to hit?)
Says: "Ah, je m'appelle Pierre. Comment t'appelle tu?"
"Ca va? Ca va bien!"
"Bonne chance, eh! Bonne chance!"
Says (on death): "Sacre bleu!"
Exp: 10 per damage, 12 per damage on killing
Gold: 5
Bonooru the Undead Doll
HP: 20
AC: 200
Says: "Hey, baby! Dig that groovy tune!"
"Good golly!"
Says (on death): "Uncool, crazy cat - uncool!"
Exp: 10, 12 per damage on killing
Gold: 5
If possible, I'd like to keep these messages rather sparse.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And that does it for my suggestion. Any comments? Anything I missed?
(Before you ask, the rooms before first horizontal line of dashes were created by Crane, not myself.)
Edit: Added a map so you can visualize more easily.
Edited by Squee, 31 January 2006 - 04:06 AM.
