Best Of

As a recent consumer of the 'Aetolian Newbie Experience(tm)' I have to chime in with my agreement here.

Starmourn and Achaea provide something akin to a short single-player campaign customized to guild/equivalent org and city/equivalent org out of the gate, with the Achaean tutorial continuing until you're finally handed off pretty seamlessly to your city/house n00b wranglers. The tasks are streamlined into it really, really well and they even slipstream their version of milestones, renown, into it while you're still clueless that system even exists.

The Academies in Aetolia feel like placeholders, and from skimming this thread it seems like that's likely because at the time of their creation they were - embedding more of the history and lore of the tethers and the cities bound to them, as well as the organizations loyal to those cities was probably a plan that just never saw fruition and is something that should be looked at anew. Also, with the presence of classes not tied to guilds, tasks like 'attain entry into your guildhouse' really should be obsoleted to remove pressure to join a random guild and quit while novicehood allows it just for the sake of completion.

Otherwise, as someone returning after... Christ, a lot of years? I'm honestly amazed at and appreciative of all the things that are just honestly BETTER than they were when I quit. The newbie experience... isn't really one of them. That said, seeing what huge changes HAVE been made? Gives me the idea that someday, we'll see that change for the better, too.

I've had to explain to a few new players what the tethers and the Albedi Gods were, and while I'm happy to help new players understand the lore, basic game elements like tethers are so fundamental to the setting that new players should have a good understanding of them before they make their character, and that's really the minimum. Ideally, the cities should be pitched to new players on their strength.

You should want to join Bloodloch because you want to be part of the evil empire. You should want to join Spinesreach because you're into Call of Cthulhu. You should want to join Duiran because you think Dia'ruis and its spirits are cool. You should want to join Enorian because you want to be the last light standing in the darkness until the sun rises.

City and guild selection should probably be part of the character introduction, not character creation. I don't think it's possible to make an informed choice about city and guild based only on what the Help files say, especially not with the way the game is currently shifting.

Put new players in a setting with a Syssin, a Shaman, a Carnifex, and a Templar so they can see what the cities are like while they learn the basic game mechanics. The second part of the tutorial or the Academy can focus more on the guilds.