Good morning all!

[lily123]

Im back! Lets seeee.... Finally figured out I should improve my equipment. Seems to be a limited selection in the newbie area. Do we see lots more in the real world? How are prices set? Seems to me the game just does it? Been selling most of my stuff to the jewelry merchant. The buys there are most limited. Basically earrings. Again - does it get better on the mainland? I've upgraded boots, chest and legs but thats it. Allmost at 20 in fighting. Magic going slower although I start every fight with a blast. Seems impossible to get off that second strike once engaged. Any tips? Also discovered missions from the corporals. Fairly easy and reasonably profitable. On the action bar if I delete an action is it gone forever? Seems if youve learned something you should be able to get it back. While content seems light so far the fact they have 10 banks tends to tell me more. Being a noob is not easy! Although I cant imagine trying to manage 10 banks! Started to see lots of little explosions last night as peeps were harvesting. That was new. Starting to take on 2 gold star mobs now. Sometimes kill them easily and sometimes die quickly. Seems like a wide range of possibilites. Comments? And is the level of stars limited to gold or do we have more colors? How many stars can we see? Again apologize in advance for soooo many questions. Part of the fun for me is the learning and exploring process. I do honestly believe tho that without you kind peeps I might have given up way to early here. A lot more to learn than first apparant. Most peeps in game still very friendly and helpful. Any good guide books published? Might slow down my daily bombardment to the board with my endless queries. Every time I log in I learn a bit and come away with more questions. Can't wait to see the mainland. Can I get back once I'm there? Will I still return to one of my newbie spawn points? Enough for this post! I await your treasured responses! Althoug in 2 minutes Ill probably have 100 new questions! About that guide book....... Ooooh, one more...... Anyone have an idea on subscriber base? EQ was up over 400,000 at one point. I had honestly not even heard of this one until I saw it on the shelf. I would suspect a much lower number? And, perhaps, thats a good thing!

[xenofur]

ah, now we're in swing =) first off, forget buying so-called NPC-Items, they are really shabby. always try to find good player-made items, or go out, harvest some mats and make them yourself. you can find more informations about the stats of items by rightclicking and choosing info, or simply rightclicking in the merchant window.
i don't exactly know how varied the type of items on the newbie islands are, but i know they are restricted to ql20. be sure to use the filters in the merchant windows, as they display only a limited amount of items.
prices are determined by 2 things: base price is the quality, and for player-made items you get another amount slapped on that is determined by the player who sold it at a merchant. this is usually double the amount of the base price.
well, most people tend to level magic and fighting seperately, especially since you need magic amplifiers to cast effectively. the experience gain is split up according to the amount of damage you inflicted and iirc also on the amount of actions you performed. the beginners way of lvling magic is to pump up the hps in fight for a while, and then making fast spells and pumping them at the adversary constantly.
the corporal missions will play a bigger role later on too, as some of the missions will help to fill your encyclopedia, which is yet to be fully activated, it will act as a kind of diary for your character.
actions are completely free to create, try right-clicking an empty field and clicking new, or rightclicking an already filled one and edit. this opens a whole new world of possibilities =) i'd suggest you play around with it, read the manual again and try to understand it on your own first. if that fails or there are still questions, ask. ^^
the number of banks is so you can switch between different sets of actions, example: melee fighter double dagger, pike, range fighter pistol, harvester desert, harvester roots, etc. it is completely up to you and your imagination how you design the sets.
harvesting can be very dangerous if you do it carelessly and in a way that is damaging to the land, use gentle extractions and source care actions judiciously if you take that profession up, as it will be easier for the land to take and it will explode less and don't set free posionous clouds, also it won't aggravate the kamis as much. (and trust me, they pack quite a punch when aggravated)
mobs are also divided in several types as in real life, some are: herbivores, birds, carnivores and kitins, they have different resistances to magic and weapons, deal different kinds of damage, have different amounts of hp and armor, etc. etc. ^^ also different species have different properties, for example yubos, even though they are herbivores too, are generally easier than caprynis(tho due to the way i train i have been running from yubos for well in my 50ies oO) the con on the mobs is divided in two ranges, general danger and also physical region is shown by the colours, an the stars subdivide the colours in different difficulty ranges. at the moment 5 stars is the max as far as i know.
well, exploring and roaming is part of what pulls many people here, as well as the chance to teach intelligent, non-childish people the ropes in this game =) to illustrate my words: http://ryzom.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7204
there are no books out as of yet ^^ all the knowledge is on the net, some locations are as follows and others can be found via google, but imho it's more fun to find things out ingame:
http://ryzom.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=17
http://www.ballisticmystix.com/index.jsp
return to the newbie island is impossible once you have entered the mainland, once you have set foot into the world of the adults there is no turning back
timid estimates are set at about 10000 subscribers worldwide, divided on the four servers: germany, france, english europe, north america. this is good and bad, good in that the smaller server communities are very tight-knit in comparison to other games and bad in that, well, there are fewer people to play with :/

[raynes]

Hhi, good to see your excited about the game. Just as a suggestion when posting a bunch of questions try to put each question on it's own line. Also try to break up large bunches of text whenever possible. More than a few lines and it becomes difficult to read. As for your questions:

1) On the action bar if I delete an action is it gone forever?
No, if you open your action progression window (hitting the a key) all your actions will be listed, then you can just drag and drop to the action bar.

2)Finally figured out I should improve my equipment. Seems to be a limited selection in the newbie area. Do we see lots more in the real world? How are prices set?
You will see a lot more on the mainland. Not sure how the game determines the sell price of items.

3) Starting to take on 2 gold star mobs now. Sometimes kill them easily and sometimes die quickly. Seems like a wide range of possibilites. Comments? And is the level of stars limited to gold or do we have more colors? How many stars can we see?
The stars are always gold, but the background color changes. The background color is based upon the area you are in, which in turn is based upon level (you can figure out the approx level of the area by looking at wht q mats can be harvested). It typically runs that there is a color for 0-50, 50-100, 100-150, 150-200, 200-250. The limit is 5 stars based on units of 10. You will find a ton more mobs on the mainland.

4) Every time I log in I learn a bit and come away with more questions. Can't wait to see the mainland. Can I get back once I'm there? Will I still return to one of my newbie spawn points?
Nope, once you leave the noob island you can't go back.

5) Ooooh, one more...... Anyone have an idea on subscriber base? EQ was up over 400,000 at one point. I had honestly not even heard of this one until I saw it on the shelf. I would suspect a much lower number?
There is no way this game has anywhere near that. On all 4 servers my guess would be somewhere between 5000-10K subscribers (probably closer to 5K). That would put it at 1200 players per server. This is just my guess though and there is no real way to find out unless you work for nevrax.

[lily123]

I hope to meet both of you in game. I thank you for your time and extremely detailed and informative responses. Someday I hope to return the favor! I do agree with the length of that post. I'm just so darn excited bout this new world that I cant help myself. Heh heh. Plus with 4 years into Eq I'm so familiar with Norath that the frustration is overwhelming me. I now what I WANT to do but cant remember HOW to do it! And, at first blush, this game seemed far less complex than EQ - As time is progressing I'm seeing the error of my ways! Thanks again! I can't wait to get home and see if any of my 128 items have sold to make room for more!!!!! Or perhaps start crafting..... Or..... Grrrrrrrr....... I REALLY am enjoying the game and, perhaps equally as much, it's population. WAY different than Norath!!!!!

[xenofur]

well, meeting me ingame would be rather difficult as i'm playing on leanon, the german server but i'm glad to hear you're enjoying yourself
another hint for starting other professions: buy your way into them with fight skill points, after skill 50 you can level several trees there simultaneously and the skill points from 5 levels won't be much noticed =)
and be careful with the items you sell, the merchs only keep them for 7 days and then they vanish

[vinnyq]

Hullo!

(wth? Message I entered is too short?!? Ahahahahhahaha!)