Hi guys – I am finally able to play on Layonara – fantastic!!
Firstly my thanks to Dezza and Leathar for their patience and the help they gave me as I continued to struggle to get into that world
It may sound as though I am over-critical but really I had a terrible struggle to find the information necessary to join your merry band. I thought if I wrote down some of the problems I met, it might be of use
Once I entered the forums I was totally overwhelmed by the amount of information that was made available to me. It was very difficult to know where to start. After looking at other player’s comments on the boards, I am not the only stupid “grunt in the village”
The new player’s main aims are
1> Create a suitable player character
2> Get that character approved by the GMs
3> Download a string of files necessary to play the game – placing them in the correct NWN directories
4> Read and understand the Rules of the Playing Environment
5> Access the Server to which they have been allocated
6> Start to play
I stumbled repeatedly at every step
My first issue came with the different usernames and passwords. I thought the original email username/password would give me access not only the forums but the server as well. I didn’t appreciate these two concepts are quite separate.
I could not readily find the info on creating a character – so I copied the style of another player. After a GM interrogated me about deities, it was obvious that my first attempt at a Paladin was too superficial. I knew I would have to spend more time studying these areas – so I chose another character - the easiest of the lot – a grunt.
I think it would be helpful for a new player if there was an online form with simple instructions to follow. Pointers could then link the player to the more obscure points.
After several false starts, I hadn’t realised I had finally received approval because I thought the GMs had deleted my thread.
The right-hand panel of
http://www.layonaraonline.com/downloads.asp is out-of-date. This meant that I installed the earlier version of some files which caused me to fail when I finally got attached to the server.
The rules for D&D Version 3 could be a University Degree course in their own right. Add to that the local rules for Layonara and a new player could spend a week trying to take it all in. Again it would be most helpful if there were a high-level “The essentials you must know”
After my character was approved I hadn’t a clue what to do next. I thought the DM probably had created the character for me and saved it on the server. But how did I connect to it?
For a newbie “The connection with the server” should be spelled out clearly. The Layonara Loader provided with the software does not work and caused a hang-up. With NWN there are so many pitfalls trying to get through their entry screens. Even when I finally saw the server, I repeatedly got told I had used an invalid password. (This was because I had pressed the option DM Client button on the first screen).
Now that I am finally on Layonara my next problem will come in using all the character functionality that remained unused on the single player game. Ideally I would have liked to stay in a practice area to familiarise myself with it before I met the other players.
I was tempted to promote my lowly Fighter to Samurai and fall on my sword “Sayonara” – but hopefully I will persevere!!
I hope this may have been of some help
