As far as I can remember it, the intro also seemed really disconnected from the rest of the game. The portal of fate is mostly ignored post novicehood, and doesn't get much treatment (if any) in ongoing events or the story of most characters. Ditto the fates. I might roll a new character to play through the intro, it's been a while.
@Enyalida said it all for me, really, but yeah, our intro is missing a lot, and the Aetolia Academy offers other stuff that I think is good to introduce quickly, like eating and setting up defenses.
Frankly, I miss the roleplay setting the original tutorial gave us. I feel as though our current one lacks any real setting of the lore, and let's be real here- Lusternia has (okay, imo) the most interesting lore out of all of the games. For it now to be completely missing from our intro is a bit sad.
Otherwise, I thought the buying items from a shop was important, as well as eating and yes, learning how to put up skills.
Wildeflower Aramel Strongleaf says to Xiran, "My cousin's attitude to life is rather like her attitude towards cake - to have everything, and at once, and lots of it."
I found the intro here rather jarring with how much it transports you around. It was nice that it introduced you to some aspects of Newton for future use and got you started with the grassblade gloves, but it was hard to follow thematically as well as "what am I doing right now and why is this important".
Buying from shops, using directories, better working with your rift (heck, start people off with using their liquidrifts!) would all be really useful. I would also add enchantments to this (start off noobs with an acquisitio and a horn of avarice).
Personally, I'd also better cover Prestige and Warmth, and I would lift the restrictions on Newbie. You can punish people who abuse it, and while raising the limit up to 100 hours is nice, there's a LOT to learn in Lusternia, and a 200 hour gap of being able to speak on a sanctioned OOC help channel is incredibly frustrating.
I would probably (though maybe through the collegium) cover writing in letters and journals as well, that you need a desk and chair, and make sure that some basic furniture is available in the colleges to facilitate this (also where to get letters), cycling back to using that shop directory).
Having an updated HELP CURELIST is incredibly important.
Having automated IG curing is also incredibly important.
Being able to see what skills are coming up when looking at your AB is also important because it gives you a view looking forward instead of forever at your feet where you are now.
An area bashing list by appropriate level would also be incredibly useful for giving you some direction (even if it doesn't list all, it could be a selection).
Something else that I think we might look into is the installment of an AREAS command. In some other games, there's a command that you can use to show you a general list of areas close to your hunting range. For instance, someone around level 20 might see this:
AREAS Newton Caverns: 1-30 Toronada Tidal Flats: 15-35
Whereas someone around, say, level 50 might see this:
And so on. Keep in mind that these are random areas I just picked but might make sense in context.
Everiine said: The reason population is low isn't because there are too many orgs. It's because so many facets of the game are outright broken and protected by those who benefit from it being that way. An overabundance of gimmicks (including game-breaking ones), artifacts that destroy any concept of balance, blatant pay-to-win features, and an obsession with convenience that makes few things actually worthwhile all contribute to the game's sad decline.
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Otherwise, I thought the buying items from a shop was important, as well as eating and yes, learning how to put up skills.
AREAS
Newton Caverns: 1-30
Toronada Tidal Flats: 15-35
Whereas someone around, say, level 50 might see this:
AREAS:
Inner Sea: 35-55
Skarch Desert: 45-65
i'Xiia Asylum: 50-70
And so on. Keep in mind that these are random areas I just picked but might make sense in context.