View source for Talk:Beginner's guide

It's assumed that players have gone through the tutorial and have been playing long enough to have discovered the wiki.  Rather than being a guide to playing the game, I would like to see this page as a guide to using the wiki.  --[[User:Itsatrap|Itsatrap]] 23:05, 5 November 2009 (UTC)
*Started a rewrite.  I guess I see this as more a "how the game works" article than a "how to play" article, so trying to shy away from giving too much advice to the player.  --[[User:Itsatrap|Itsatrap]] 06:40, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

== Thanks. ==

I am glad some of the pros are taking a hand in rewriting and contributing.  For me, I tried using the wiki, but it was very difficult.  It took quite a while to even understand the basic concepts.  For example, when you go to Mechanics to learn about base stats, theres tons of charts how to maximize them.  But I just want the basics.
This is why I wrote this quick guide.  Yes, the formatting sucks.  But I figured its been years and years and apparently nobody else has bothered to try.  So I thought I would get the ball rolling.  I don't understand all the hate and griping though.  I am trying to contribute in a way that makes KoL more friendly to begin and all I see is negative comments in the edits (recent changes section) --[[User:SinginSally|SinginSally]] 13:42, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

== Pawn Shop ==

The article mentions a "pawn shop" but I can find none on wiki or actual game.  Do they mean the Flea Market?--[[User:Zmflavius|Zmflavius]] 02:07, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
*Yeah they do. Fixing it.--[[User:Toffile|Toffile]] 03:12, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

== Character Guide ==

Now that I am more seasoned, I took another shot at making a character guide.  /ducks

The theory is simply to let people see what a particular class is good at and how they are generally played.  If they want more detail, they can go to the class wiki entries or the various links I've provided.

I think this information is important because how would you ever know that you can Find Turtles or summon seals, or summon pasta ghosts?   
It also helps to be able to quickly identify the differences between each pair of stat-class; for example, how is a Seal Clubber different than a Turtle Tamer.

For me personally, I had to dig through a lot of forums and read a bunch of unrelated wiki information to figure much of this out.  When playing a D&D type game, you can kind of figure out what a Priest or Cleric does based on previous experience.  But how does a beginner know what a 'Pastamancer' does?!

I left it at the end under Guides,Hints section so please don't delete it this time... :-)

==Beginner's guide revamp==
I've spent some time cleaning up the information in this page, and overall I like where it's going, but I'm not really sure I like how it's structured.  I'm thinking of taking the information on this page and breaking it into a Q&A session, either to replace or augment this page.  Preliminary question list (with a ~ prefix meaning "touch briefly upon"):
* I just joined KoL.  What am I supposed to be doing? (quests, ~combat, suggestion to just click around and enjoy the jokes)
* Why do I keep getting beaten up? (combat, ~stats, safe adventuring, basic combat strategy)
* I'm out of turns!  How do I get more? (rollover, food, booze, equipment, ~spleen)
* What does all this stuff on my character sheet mean? (stats/level, hp/mp, ~meat, ~adv, ~quest, ~effects, ~familiar)
* How do I gain levels? (stats/level, used blood hint?)
* What do the effects on my equipment do? (equipment, outfits)
* How do I get new skills? (guild, skills, effects)
* How do I get new familiars? (familiars)
* How do the classes differ? (character guides)
* What do I do if I don't like the class I've picked? (multis, ~ascension)

* Why should I join a clan? (clans)
* What's with the calendar and those moons? (stat days, holidays)
* What's with that Hermit guy? (the hermit, ten-leaf clovers)
* How do I get better equipment, food and booze; also, what do I do with all of this stuff I've picked up? (buying and selling, epic weapon hint?)
* Why am I so poor, or, what do I do if I can't afford new skills/equipment/food/booze? (really basic meat farming, semi-rares, suggestion that you don't need to buy ALL of the skills, meat-related gameplay hints)
* What am I supposed to be doing II, or, what's the point? (winning/ascension)
* What else is there to do? (collectibles, chat, aftercore)
* How do I customize the interface? (notes on the options menu, alternate interfaces)
* How much does it cost? (donations, Mr. Store)
Comments and suggestions are welcome.  --[[User:Johnny Treehugger|Johnny Treehugger]] 17:31, 22 February 2012 (CET)
Added note on combat strategy, note on multis, question about donation. --[[User:Johnny Treehugger|Johnny Treehugger]] 18:15, 22 February 2012 (CET)
:Finally getting around to this.  As far as I can tell, the primary questions facing new KoLers are, "What's the difference between all these classes?", "What the dip am I supposed to be doing?", "Why do I keep getting beaten up?", and "I'm out of adventures, so, what, that's it?"  The tutorial and the big flashing arrows kind of address #2 and #4, but I figured front-loading some of the class information and converting the section on combat to "How not to be a chew-toy" would be helpful.  Next steps: add a "How to get new skills" section to Your Character section (your Guild leader pushes you over there, but probably can't hurt); touch up the Character Guides section now that a bunch of that information is at the top of the page. --[[User:Johnny Treehugger|Johnny Treehugger]] 23:27, 11 July 2012 (CEST)
Some good advice for newbies [http://forums.kingdomofloathing.com/vb/showpost.php?p=4648432&postcount=32 here], might try to integrate some advice into here. --[[User:Johnny Treehugger|Johnny Treehugger]] ([[User talk:Johnny Treehugger|talk]]) 16:17, 17 July 2014 (UTC)

==Feedback from /r/kol?==
I just noticed that there's a link to this very page in [https://www.reddit.com/r/kol Reddit] under ''Related Links''. I remember that a lot of new players came from that place. Since this means a lot of people (potentially) read this page as ''actual'' new players: Can any of you guys remember if it was helpful to you or what you felt was missing from it? --[[User:Yatsufusa|Yatsufusa]] ([[User talk:Yatsufusa|talk]]) 17:05, 7 January 2015 (UTC)
:Hey, neat! Should we ask for feedback on reddit? Probably more visible, I'm not sure how many non-editors read talk pages. --[[User:Johnny Treehugger|Johnny Treehugger]] ([[User talk:Johnny Treehugger|talk]]) 20:30, 7 January 2015 (UTC)
::I thought about it at first, but that would involve having to use and check Reddit. Personally, I don't even have time for the KoL forums so I'm not sure how many active wiki editors would find the time for Reddit as well... In the end, we have to discuss and update stuff ''here'' anyway, so since it's a wiki topic I'd like to see who responds here first. --[[User:Yatsufusa|Yatsufusa]] ([[User talk:Yatsufusa|talk]]) 23:35, 7 January 2015 (UTC)