OOC:Vyraeth's Guide
From SWSE Wiki
Welcome to Star Wars: Shattered Equinox. Chances are that even if you are familar with SWR codebases and MUDs, you may feel a bit overwhelmed when you first enter the MUD, simply because so much of our content is original. This document has been designed to help guide you through the beginning stages of earning levels and building a bank account for your character. Please do note that this is not a comprehensive newbie guide; this was written to teach you credit-earning and leveling strategies. If you are looking for more basic help, this guide can assist: (need link here).
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1) Earning credits
The very first step that you, the enterprising newbie, may want to undertake is earning credits. In SW:SE, credits can be used to purchase items, begin training new skills, buy a playerhome and eventually even purchase your own customizable ship. Thanks to the efforts of our lead programmer, earning credits is relatively easy with the job system.
The job system that we have here at SW:SE is made to allow players to earn a decent amount of credits while exploring the galaxy. The credits earned on job runs can be supplemented later on by planetside quests, such as the ones found in Coruscant and Tatooine, as well as by the coded cargo system (help cargo in-game for more information). For the codewise explanation of the jobs system, type "help jobs" while logged into SW:SE. This will teach you the basic syntax of the jobs command, as well as give you an explanation of what it does and why.
Exploring planets while delivering packages can help you to discover the planetside quests that are built into some of the planets we have. These quests are generally quite intuitive (though they may require a bit of wandering the first time you participate in them before you learn your way around the planet) and usually are not on a specific time-limit. These quests generally also will reward you with some form of experience, and are one of the best ways to level up your classes- we'll talk about that more later. To participate in planetary quests, listen to what the NPCs (or mobs, if you prefer) have to say, and try interacting with them. If you find a quest, follow the instructions you are given- most of the time, these instructions are relatively clear. If you ever get lost or need assistance on a quest, don't hesitate to use your comlink (chat <message>), but please remember to keep your requests in-character.
Lastly, as mentioned earlier, running cargo can be an effective means of earning credits- however, running cargo is risky at best if you are flying a rented System Hopper, simply because the hopper will reset and lose its cargo in the unlikely event of a MUD crash or reboot.
2) Leveling
The most important aspect of your character besides his or her roleplay (and to a lesser extent, income) is of course gaining the levels for your classes. Leveling can be a relatively painless process, -if-, you know how to go about it. The average time it takes to avatar (that is, to reach 100 levels in a given class) is between six to eight hours of playing (sometimes less or more depending on your class, location and effiency - for instance, certain classes can be avatared in 40-60 minutes if done properly).
Remember, leveling is not purely essential to roleplaying, but it will help to determine your character's access to the various skills and his or her relative strength in combat. To help with the leveling process, I've included explanations of how to level each class (to the best of my ability):
Combat
Combat is pretty easy to level, but generally the best way to approach it is by having a full set of armor and custom blasters. Since these are engineer made, they can be a bit pricey (and as such, a potentially large hurdle as a new player)- therefore, you may want to spend some time earning credits (or finding someone to finance your training) before embarking on leveling up your combat skills.
Make sure that your racial dexterity is maximized (via training dex) and that you do not attempt to level up combat with a GX-7 storage drone or a hoversled equipped (both have dex penalties), as DEX is critical for determining your current armor value.
Also remember that every combat level you possess translates to -1 AC, therefore a level 150 combatant has a natural armor bonus of -150 (negative armor is better, it affects the chance enemies have to hit you).
Beyond armor and good weapons, having medpacs or bactaspray can assist in the process. Trantor Center on Coruscant sells bactaspray for 3k a unit, while Nar Shaddaa sells medpacs (which require the first aid skill). Both of these things can improve the downtime of leveling combat significantly. There are also usually bacta tanks or resting areas in combat training centers that can help you heal faster without requiring the expenditure of credits.
When you're ready to begin the training itself, you'll probably want to go to Sullust and practice there. Many of the early Sullust trainers can be killed without significant armor while wielding the newbie vibro-blade (provided your blade wasn't stolen at Customs; if it was, there are blades for sale at Sullust). After you've exhausted your options at Sullust and defeated every training mob so that they're only worth 1 XP per kill, you'll want to head to the Trantor Center on Coruscant and use the holograms there. Once you've reached the maximum experience possible at Trantor (i.e., the mobs only give you 1 XP per kill), you'll want to go to Nar Shaddaa where you can usually get the rest of your combat levels throughout all three levels (if neccessary, you can finish up on Melida-Daan).
Summarized: Obtain armor and weapons, bacta if you want it, then train at the planets in this order: Sullust --> Trantor Center --> Nar Shaddaa -> Melida-Daan (if needed).
Be sure that you drain each mob for their maximum amount of givable experience, and then after you've killed more powerful mobs, you go back to previously killed ones and repeat the process. I.E. If you've exhaused experience from all the level 5 MOBs in Trantor, and have worked up to the level 30 ones later on, go back and kill the level 5 mobs after the level 30 ones stop giving good experience and you should gain a smidgeon more experience.
Remember, if you go through the leveling process with a buddy, or if as a veteran player you need leadership - by grouping with someone and leveling combat, the leader of the group can also gain leadership. Powerleveling someone's combat is generally the -easiest- and -fastest- way to maximize leadership.
Skill trainers: Trantor Center (Coruscant), Rodokro (Nar Shadaa, underneath the hotel on the top level), Imperial Combat Trainer, Coruscant Shipyard - Military Level (Take ferry from first level of centralia)
Piloting
Piloting levels are gained every time you pilot a ship from one planet to another. In order to receive the level, you must be the one who types the "land" command upon arriving at a new planet. It is advisable that you stay in the cockpit until you receive the experience, as it is possible for experience not to be awarded if you leave the cockpit before landing. You will find that your piloting level goes up practically on its own as you pilot rented System Hoppers between planets on job runs.
Beyond piloting to destinations, you can also gain piloting experience (and therefore levels) by destroying other ships, or for the less destructive of you, by simply using a vessel's weapons. Duro has public flight simulators available which simulate starfighters, midships and capital-class craft. These all cost money (roughly 5-6k per starfighter and midship rental) and are not really as effective as flying from planet to planet, but sometimes far more enjoyable.
One really easy way to level piloting, but one that also requires abit of luck, is if both of the flight simulator capital ships are launched and near one another. If they are, you can spam ion fire for easy levels and are only capped by the recharge delay.
Remember, the progession for piloting is: starfighers (level 1) -> midships (level 30) -> capital ships (109).
Skill trainers: Duro Flight Simulation Facility (Duro) and Imperial Flight Trainers, Coruscant Shipyard, Eastern Landing Area (Avoid center, go around)
Engineering
Engineering is perhaps the easiest but most costly class to level. Initially, you will gain your early levels by using the makecontainer skill, after this is adepted, you will graduate to makecomlink (or any other skill that produces materials and therefore gives you engineering experience). Both Sullust and Nar Shaddaa are ideal locations to acquire the goods for engineering and each possess a public workshop which can be used for crafting (Sullust's is in Salub's Hardware, Nar Shaddaa's is in Warehouse Section C near the Engineer's Friend). Expect to have alot of credits for materials, and spend several hours adepting skills.
Skill trainers: Twi'lek Woman, Coruscant Shipyard's Commercial Level (take the ferry from the first level of centralia) and Commenor Shipyard's Commercial Level (Take the ferry from Commenor)
Bounty Hunting
This skill class is not available for public leveling, and therefore you need not worry about how to level it unless a member of the Bounty Hunters Guild.
Smuggling
Traditionally, smugging is normally leveled by placing weapons in containers and taking them past customs checkpoints. This method still generates experience but on SE, there are added factors in a customs check. Now customs officers have a % chance of discovering weapons in containers based around your smuggling level. If you have level 1 in smuggling, customs will see through containers 100% of the time. Therefore, before trying to level smuggling via spice or weapons in containers make sure you have atleast 2-5 levels in the class.
How do you get past the first level? There are two quests that make this rather easy, both are repeatable for additional experience if you want to level smuggling via questing rather than weapons transactions. The first quest is on Coruscant, in the Works District, talk to the northern foreman and say "twenty" for further instructions. The second quest is in Tatooine, and starts with the Hutt Crime Boss in the Hutt Palace. Both give experience and also credits, which are important later on for goods, ships, phomes, etc.
Lastly, you can also sell smuggled weapons and spice to pawn shop vendors for additional credits. Simply locate a pawnshop and offload your goods for a percentage of return.
Skill trainers: Commenor Shipyard - Commercial Level (Commenor) and Shady Fellow, Coruscant Shipyard's Commercial Level (Take ferry from first level of centralia)
Diplomacy
The only way to gain diplomacy levels is via the job system. Type help jobs to get started. Since this is a primary form of income for newbies, diplomacy levels are usually gained rather easily.
Skill trainer: Imperial Palace Library, the Moff (Coruscant)
Leadership
Leadership is gained by packages as well (again use help jobs), but can also easily be gained by grouping people and slaying MOBs. As long as you're the group leader, not only will you gain combat experience but leadership experience as well. Therefore, you may find this as incentive to find a good IC reason for helping a newbie level combat, as in return, you'll get close to a full set of leadership levels. Leveling leadership in this manner is far faster than packages and thus is strongly recommended.
Skill trainer: Imperial Palace Library, the Moff (Coruscant)
