Couple of noobie questions

Hopefully these aren't asked daily, I've used the Search function and not got the answers....

My mates and I are all buying Prophecies for some online fun. None of us have really played this kind of game before, I've tinkered with NWN back in the day, but we're all very much novices. So any really dumb questions I ask, apologies in advance

Firstly, a question on Professions. From what I under, in Prophecies we all start on the same "island", and in the other games (Factions and Night Fall) you start on other islands. At some point your characters can "migrate". Say someone in our group wanted to play as an Assassin from the start in Prophecies, is this possible, assuming he has bought both Propheices and Factions? Obviously he'd need to start on the same island as the rest of us....

Which takes me to the second question, when we start the game, are we all more or less together or do we have to meet up? I ask as a few of my mates have zero patience and we'll want to get right in to the game, not spending an hour trying to find each other.

Can you form a Guild at the start to make meeting easier?

They'll be 5 of us playing. What kind of Professions should we be looking at to have a balanced party?

Thanks, they'll probably be more questions soon

Matt
www.chainsawfilms.com

Prophecies, Factions, and Nightfall all consist of separate continents. Upon character creation, you choose your "homeland", and that's where you begin. However, Factions and Nightfall have a few of their own specified classes that can only begin in those lands--Factions has Assassins and Ritualists, and Nightfall has Dervishes and Paragons.

So no, if one of your friends wanted to make an Assassin, he would begin in Factions, and have to work through his own starting island to meet with the rest of you.

Assuming you all start in the same campaign, you will start literally right next to one another.

Yes, this can be done in the very first town of each campaign.

Honestly, make whatever you like. You should have at least one monk, but the classes are varied enough that there aren't any other real required classes to have.

Mesmer fans will hate me for saying this, but if you're starting with Prophecies, have each of you make a different class, leaving out a Mesmer. They're very useful, no doubt, but moreso in PvP rather than PvE.

Great, thanks for the prompt answers to my questions

Matt
www.chainsawfilms.com

Yes and now. In the upper left corner of the screen is a drop-down menue with the so called "district list". Make sure all of you are in the exact same district (you can change districts simply by selecting them). Then you will be literally right next to each other. Even if you log in at the same place at the same time, you may end up in different districts.

Can you create guilds in pre-searing? It's so long ago, I forgot.

You also have a "friends list" that serves this purpose. You see when your pals are online and can directly message them.

Note that in the starting area of the game, party size is limited to 2 players and after that to 4 players. It takes a little till you reach areas with 6 or 8 players party size.

Welcome to the game.

Oh wow, I can't believe I forgot about that. I feel dumb.

Yeah, make sure you're all in the same district.


Yes, you can.

This is also something to keep in mind that I had forgotten. Factions and Nightfall start with a 4 party size and quickly graduate to 8.

OK so with these party limitations, is there any workaround we can do? Am I correct in saying once we leave the city, we'll be in our 2 man parties then?

Oh and how long does it take to get to 4 and 6 man parties?

4 man play begins after you leave the training area known as Presearing for prophecies. You will need to get your beginning skill training (3-4 quests each counting the one right outside the first city) select a secondary class and get their skill quests (2-3 each) level up a bit to be able to survive (I recommend 5-7) and do the academy quest with sir tydus (something you will want everyone there for to attempt to get in at the same time for the little PVP fight between each other and some bragging rights). Then you will have 4 man team areas.

6 man starts in the shiverpeaks i think which can be quickly reached but if you play hrough the missions, it will be about 4 into the game before you reach it.

There is no workaround for the party size issue in Pre-Searing, but you can start forming 4 man groups as soon as you enter the Academy and arrive in Post-Searing. The party size increases to 6 one you reach Yaks bend in the Shiverpeake Mountains.

Later in game you can work around party limitations in certain towns by forming your groups in later towns that allow for more members and then having the entire party travel (by foot) to the previous area. This is especially helpful with the Titans quests. This will not work for missions as you can not enter a town and keep your party size.

Thanks guys. It's sounding a bit limiting all of a sudden

If we all do the basic training to get to a 4 man party then get to Shiverpeake (where ever that is, of course I have no idea at the moment) will that work? So we just kind of run to it, without doing any missions or anything, get the 6 man party then return to the missions we missed?

You can get a run over there yes, but I'd recommend doing missions first time through (there are only a few missions before it, you reach the shiverpeaks quit soon) Its a bit limmited if you want to play with a bit larger grp at the start yes but it doesn't take long to get to the parts where you can have more players in a group.

No, the party limit for missions will be fixed at 4. You can, however, get 6 or 8 party, then run back to areas where only 4 are allowed. That's often used for doing difficult quests.


Also, if you're into PvP, you cannot form up a team for TA and HA untill you get 5 consecutive wins twice. ( once for TA unlock and once for HA unlock )

You can learn PvP basics with 8 in Isle of the Nameless though. ( And I believe Zaishen challenge is 4 )

Doesn't quite work that way, certain areas have limits on party sizes because a larger party just makes things too easy. There used to be a small bug where you could start at a later zone that allows a larger party and then work your way back, keeping the larger party as you went. Now though, when you enter an outpost (which you must do to start a mission) the game will reduce your party size to the correct number of people, kicking any extras from the party. Quests can be acquired outside of the outposts so be aware, quests and missions are two seperate things.

Nope. The party size is area specific. Meaning early missions have a 4 man party size, perminanetly. You can't just got to the Shiverpeaks and then come back with a 6 man party to do missions in Ascalon.

Honestly, you'll find this game works quite well in human groups, but at the same time, your friends should and will be able to go their own way every now and then.

You can always chat with your friends via guild chat at any time, so even if you aren't in the same mission, you can still chat with them and keep in touch.

Guys thanks so much for the quick responses. It's a very friendly forum

How many people need to make it to Shiverpeak to start a 6 man party then? Can just one player run like a lunatic to it, missing all missions and avoiding fights? Or do all players need to be there?

Chatting to my mates, we'll probably end up in 2 and 3 man parties [as soon as we hit the 4 player limit] until we can get the larger group. At least we now have a direction to head to.

Each of you will need to get to each and every town/outpost. As a low level player, you probably won't make it very far trying to run. (Not even going to mention that you won't know the way, LOL) If you stick to the Primary quests and Missions, you can all reach Yak's Bend in 4 - 5 hours after you get through the Acadamy. BTW, these places are Prophecies (original) towns.

Good plan! You can fill out your parties with henchmen if you don't wish team up with random people.

NOTE: Do NOT sell any dyes you get until you find a dye trader to see how much they're really worth!

That is what I was going to suggest to you- split up into a couple of parties to get through the first missions. You do get AI henchmen to fill the empty slots, so you should be able to still get a good mix of professions.

And yes, all of you need to get to Yak's Bend before you can group together.

I believe it costs 100 gold to start a guild, then you'll have a separate channel to use in chat, and you won't have to send private messages to each other. So even if you end up doing some quests alone, you can still chat with your friends while you play.

Guys you've been so much help I can't thank you enough

All the best. I'll be back I'm sure

A possible helpful tool (and more) for presering and beyond is voice coms, most folks in GW have either/both Vetrilo (www.ventrilo.com) or Teamspeak (www.teamspeak.org). These programs could sorta mitigate the downside of your group of 5 in a 2 per party area. Both are free to use as well as offer a free (if somewhat limited) server platform. I run a vent server on the same computer which I play on with minimal negative effect.

Yeah thanks mate, we already have a TS server we use for Unreal 2004

Another quick question if you all don't mind. The skills that were added in Factions and Nightfall, can they be used in Prophecies? So say someone starts playing Prophecies and has also bought Factions, can he choose those skills during Prophecies?

Thanks