Starting the Game

=Starting the Game=

Welcome to the realm of Shimlar! Once you create your character on the main page, you will be able to log in. Once you log in, you will see this screen.

I. Your Character Window
This area will show one of three pieces of information: Stats, Items, Training Log, Trade, House, and Zone Map.

Stats
This part of the screen starts off by automatically showing you your stats, level, rank, gold on hand, gold in the bank, free experience, and your experience to level.

The stats that are relevant in this game is Strength (STR), Dexterity (DEX), Intelligence (NTL), Wisdom (WIS), and Vitality (VIT). Your stats vary by what race you are. Certain races are dominant in Strength, whereas others may excel in Intelligence. When you see "Please select a stat to raise" it means that you have gained enough experience to gain a level. The stat you select will raise by 50 in addition to what it would normally raise by. If you select "ALL", it will multiply the normal raise by 2.
 * Strength (STR)- Determines the amount of damage you do with melee weapons. It is also a requirement for melee weapons, as well as Shields.
 * Dexterity (DEX)- Determines your chance to hit enemies with melee weapons, as well as your chance to evade (miss) melee attacks. This is NOT needed if you are a mage.
 * Intelligence (NTL)- Determines the amount you can cast for with spells. It is also a requirement for spells.
 * Wisdom (WIS)- Determines your chance to cast a spell effectively, and your ability to deflect enemy spells. This is NOT needed if you are a fighter.
 * Vitality (VIT)- Determines your maximum number of hitpoints your character can have. It is also a requirement for armour.

Every time you kill a creature, you get gold and experience. Your gold goes straight into your hand, displayed below your Vitality. You would want to Bank the gold often, for if a creature kills you, you lose ALL the gold you have on hand.

The experience you get is added to your current Free experience (Experience points unused towards your next level). If you are killed, you will lose 20% of your experience needed to level. For example, if you need 1,000 to next level, you will lose 200 free experience. Free Experience cannot go below 0. The Next Level At is the amount of free experience you need to gain a level. This number slowly climbs with each level.

Items
If you click on the green "Items" link in the window below, it will show you your current equipment, your items, and your trades.

To equip/de-equip an item, just select it in the drop down menu, and click on the "Equip" button. If you have troubles doing so, just re-login again. You can see the shorthand and grade of the gems that are enchanted into the item. For example, Faerie Fire[j1].

Training Log
The training log keeps track of some stats while you remain logged in to the game. The stats it keeps track of are: These stats reset when you log back in to the game.
 * Kills
 * Deaths
 * Rounds
 * Percentage of kills done in one round
 * Gems found
 * Mined gems
 * Shadow items found
 * Gold drops
 * Spell mastery increases
 * Weapon mastery increases
 * Armour mastery increases
 * Doublehit mastery increases

Trades
If you want to Trade, or just plain send an item to someone, click on the "Trade" link to bring up the above screen. Just select the item from the drop down menu, type in the player's name correctly, and the amount of gold, if any, to sell it for. Click on the "OK" button to send. The "Examine" button tells you what the item is, its gem enchanted, or its unused gem slots, if applicable, and its smash/sell-back price to the shop. If the person accepts the trade, it will appear in orange text in your chat window.

If someone sends you a trade, it will appear in green in your chat window. To view it, click on "Items", "Trade On/Off", and "Check Items" to view the Trade. Check the trade in the drop down menu, then click on "OK" to accept the trade. If you do not wish to take the trade, you must leave it there. At 20 past the hour, all uncompleted trades are cancelled.

If someone sends you an item or gold, it will appear in gold text in your chat window. You can receive these notifications even when you are offline.

House
If you do not own a house, a blurb will tell you about Estates Hill and how land is available for a cheap price. If you own a house, you will see the items in your inventory and in your stash. You can swap items in and out easily. Currently, this feature does not appear to work.

Map
This is a zone map... specifically the one for Palaor (Human Starting Zone). All the Starting Zones are identical. The letters represent Points of Interest, as well as the exit out of the zone. Almost every zone has a zone map. If you come across a zone that does not have a zone map, check the "Outworld Map" link at the bottom of the chat screen. The highlighted square is the square you are currently on.
 * E- Entrance/Exit: This is where you have entered the zone. This is also an exit to the zone.
 * B- Bank: This is where you put your gold on hand, or withdraw some gold from your Bank so you can buy items. You can also give gold to other players here.
 * M- Magic Shop: This is where you buy fire, cold, air, and arcane spells, or locate a player for a fee of 20,000 gold
 * R- Shrine: If you have died, you can resurrect here. You can also teleport to other zones, for a fee of 20,000 gold on hand.
 * S- Equipment Shop: This is where you buy Swords, Axes, Staves, Maces, Armour, and Shields. You may also sell your items there for "Smash Price":
 * Half of the original value of regular equipment
 * 50,000 gold for the first numeral for Mystic Items and 250,000 gold per roman numeral thereafter
 * 5,000,000 gold for Accessories.
 * For smash prices for gems and shadows, please check out the Equipment List.

II. The Action Screen
This is the action screen. Here, it displays your current coordinates, which zone you are in, which creatures are present in the zone, and options to move. As well, this area shows your character's name, your character's last name (if you are level 50 or over and have set one), and your clan's name (if you are a part of one).

To initiate a new fight, select the desired creature to fight, then click "New Fight". If you are a fighter, click on "use weapon"; if you are a mage, click on "cast spell". Repeat until a death occurs, whether it is the creatures, or you own. You could attempt to move, select a new fight, or change your equipment, but that will cancel the current fight.

In the drop down menu which has "Fight Creatures", if you can see "Players", then it is a Player Kill (PK) zone. All starting zones are non-PK. Read more on Player Killing and Alignment !

The coordinates in the top left hand corner of this window displays your current placement in the zone. The coordinates work just like a Cartesian plane; Moving East and West adds/takes away from the first number... moving North and South adds/takes away from the second number. The zones are wrapped, so if you reach the end of one side, you will then move to the other side of the map.

The "Refresh" button in the window is useful if you Player Kill, for it will update the screen as if you just stepped upon that square.

III. The Chat window and tabs
When you first start, you will see "Shimlar welcomes you, CharNameHere."

In the past, it was required you would need to be at least level 25 to chat. Due to potential issues encountered at level 1, the level requirement was removed. You will encounter some shorthand while reading the chat screens. Some useful sources of information would be the Chat Rules, Shorthand List, and some basic Chat Commands.

General Chat
This is the place where most chat belongs. Here you can practically talk about anything, except for certain taboo subjects... like Religion, Politics, and drugs. This IS a game, and people want to escape reality for a while. Sales-related chatter does not belong in chat; there is a chat channel dedicated for sales matters.

Roleplay Chat
The Roleplay Room is designed for SERIOUS RP ONLY! If you are found not RPing, or just annoying with "Godmodding", aka you are invincible and act out your opponents moves, deaths, etc., mods will take the appropriate actions. Former Shimlarian Vindaeria Claybourn created an RP Channel Etiquette Guide to help those understand what is acceptable or not in the Rolyplay Room. To better your RP skills, please view former Shimlarian Atlanta Celestial's RP Guide.

Sales Chat
The Sales Room is for selling your items. You are not allowed to sell your items anywhere else. In sales, you can sell your equipment, gems, accessories, and clan memberships. You CANNOT sell your character, your clan, or participate in cross-game trading. Auctioning random items are allowed. If you really hate them, do not participate. Random auctioners go away after an amount of time if ignored.

How to sell your items

 * 1) Open Auction: all bids are to be in open sales. All bids in PMs are to be ignored.
 * 2) Silent Auction: Usually started by stating a minimum price and a time limit, all bids are to be in PMs. All open sales bids are to be ignored. The Auctioner is not allowed in any way to state to anyone what the current highest bid is at.
 * 3) First PM: The first person to PM the required amount of gold for an item will get that item for that price
 * 4) PM offers: The seller can reject, accept, or negociate deals with the buyers.
 * 5) Smash: Smash is selling the item straight to a Shop.
 * 6) Smasher: A player that buys items for over smash price, who ends up smashing at Black Market smash price (50% more than regular Shop Smash).

Although most things in the game are "done at your own risk", obvious scammers will be dealt with severely.

Clan/Race Chat
This is a shared room between your clan, if you are in one, and your race.

To type to your clan, if you are in one, you can just type normally and it will be seen by all your online clanmates.

To type to your race, ie. Giants, you will have to type /r in front of all your posts, or else they will be seen by your clanmates, if you are in a clan.

IV. The Useful Links
The links below the chat screen are designed to ease your needs.
 * "FAQ" and the "Manual" are the primary sources of information you will need to understand how the game works.
 * "Outworld Map" offers a map of The Wilderness
 * "Chat Rules" shows you the list of rules established in Shimlar
 * "Top Lists" contains Lists for the 100 top players overall and for each race for gold and levels, top 100 players overall for evil and good alignment, the top 100 clans in Shimlar, most completed quests, a list of all the recent muted and jailed players, a list of all moderators online, and a list of married players. Very useful, indeed.
 * "Mods" shows the mods and arches that are currently online.
 * "Support the Game" is donating real life money to the Administrators for Administration Fees, server fees, maintenance costs, and various new twists that can be added to gameplay.
 * "Average chat", "slow chat", and "fast chat" all change the speed of the refresh of the chat window.
 * "Related sites" has a listing of various other links to items
 * Contact Shimlar Crew
 * Pictures RL/RP
 * An extensive guide towards better RP ing
 * Shimlar Playing Guide... which is now this WIKI!
 * Leveling Guide up to lvl 100
 * MOD WATCH!
 * Stats Calculator
 * Clan Tools
 * Top 100s of rounds past
 * GodofWar's old manual
 * Silent Auction Guide by Rayven
 * Shimlar related forum