A Beginner's Guide On How Not To Die In Salem

[Claeyt]

I've seen too many posts about new players getting killed or asking me questions in-game about what they should have done, so I decided to build a guide to help them.

CLAEYT'S GUIDE TO NOT DYING IN SALEM

1. Never trust anybody until you get to know them, especially out in the wilderness. If someone runs towards you in the woods log off. Especially if they're dressed in battle gear.

Always log off if they get within range of you. Proper rules for meeting people in the woods is to keep your distance and open a chat line so they can hear you're there. If they don't do that then log off or close your client. Don't just run up on someone to make friends. Use natural barriers and walls to separate yourself from them but remember that people can shoot through cliffs and trees.

2. Use other downloadable clients to see people coming.

Ender's and Latikai's client's include several safety options that you should use. You can download them from the Artifacts and Arcana section of this forum. Use the larger mini-maps to see farther and also see other players at a distance. Use Ender's (and now the regular Game Client) optional free cam at long range to see people coming. One of the reasons so many people use Ender's Client and Kand's Client are for these reasons. Ender's makes the map resizable so that you can expand the mini-map to almost twice the size and add other players to it, while Kand's provides movement arrows that can be seen of animals and other players including long distance movement arrows that give you a little warning. When I leave my walls I keep one eye on my enlarged mini-map and one eye on the screen.

Game Client Mini-Map Real Size:

Game Mini-Map.jpg (17.45 KiB) Viewed 9275 times

Ender's Mini-Map Enlarged Real Size: (Notice all the Red Dot's it adds for other players)

Ender's Mini-map.jpg (65.11 KiB) Viewed 9275 times

3. Never invest everything into one character and always remember this is Perma-Death.

A wise old player named 'The Mysterious Stranger' once told me, "You're a noob until you've been raided. You're a beginner until you lose a character. Only after you've lost a character have you really started to play Salem." What this means is always be ready to die with any character you have, it's part of the game. The 'Trolls' and 'Griefers' don't care about the game. They want to either see it burn or drive everybody else from it so they get to play with it all by themselves. Protect yourself by leveling up and fully skilling multiple characters. It gets much, much easier to do that as you learn the game mechanics. I've leveled up 4 fully skilled characters and got them up to 70-120 and have many more highly skilled guys in the 30-60 range. I'm not a raider so I don't go for titans but I probably could have one or two 200+ guys if I wanted that sort of thing instead. I chose a different path and I know I wouldn't rage quit if one of my bases or towns was destroyed or one of my characters was killed.

4. ...But always remember that your character is the most important thing you own, and that you can alt vault the rest.

Your character can take you months to build. Your base is much easier to rebuild, including your tiered fields so always abandon your base and start over with your guy. Don't try and defend it. Log off.

Use Alts to "Vault" all your really nice stuff and leave them in town. This way if you are attacked or killed you still have your nicest things left over for your next character to use.

5. Base Defense is everything, especially against Humour Montsters. Aim for defense always. Never be satisfied with how much you have.

A simple split rail fence on a claimed area with the doors closed will give you those precious seconds to log off. Nobody tears through a stone wall or a plank wall in a second. They'll give you more precious time to log off or run away. Tree walls will slow them down even more. Remember that Raiders can still KO you by using stomp through a wall. Stay out of range if talking to a person on the other side of the wall. People often ask me when they should start building braziers and how many they should build. I tell them that 1-30 braziers will stop minor thieves from entering your claim or breaking simple fences. 30-100 will give top players pause and make them wonder if it's worth the Critical Hit chance for whatever's inside. 100-200 will make even the highest characters stop and have to plan their attack and generally unless you've pissed them off politically or personally they'll leave you alone if they have no scents. 200-500 will stop anybody in their tracks and is pretty much invincible if you're actively defending it with Flint, Dry Boards and Coal.

Brazier mechanics have changed on Providence. Here are the new mechanics explained. Brazier spamming is still powerful but no longer ideal. Placement is more important.

I'm putting this here to better help new players. Feel free to clip any other spots where I posted this please mods, or leave it. It seems it's pretty helpful from all the PM's I'm getting.

This guide is so people better understand the 1/N base damage for defensive structure groups.

Edit: The Tribe's Wiki has been updated if your looking for a basic description of braziers.

http://www.salem-wiki.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Blazing_Brazier

Okay, I've had a nice long chat with Jorb. here's how this works.

1. Spammed off claim braziers and torchposts are known to them and are hopefully fixed by the time you read this.
2. Empty and damaged braziers are now included in the damage group but they are thinking of changing that.
3. Brazier range is 23 hexes approx. (250 pixels exactly, confirmed by the Dev's, 11 pixels per hex) and torchpost range is 19.
4. Base damage is 40k bb for a group of brazier/s, less for torchposts. A single brazier will do 40 bb, 10 braziers all within range of the attacker will do 40/10 damage each so 4 per brazier. The base brazier attack of 40k bb is not a fixed number. Jorb has confirmed that it is 40k but it is a randomized number based on several factors. It's possible that 40k bb is the average attack amount while using only braziers.
5. Torchposts and Braziers are part of the same group damage calculation so nearby torchposts will actually lower the max base damage of the group.
6. Damage is determined individually per brazier/torchpost at the time of firing. The damage each brazier/torchpost creates is determined individually and reduced by each brazier/torchpost within range to the firing brazier/torchpost.

7. Example one:

In this example the square is the attacker and the circles are braziers. The first brazier fires for 40/2 = 20bb against the attacker as it individually calculates only the second brazier within it's range. The second brazier fires for 40/3 = 13.333 bb as it's within it's own range of 23 of the first and third brazier. The third brazier is not in range of the attacker and does not help the group base attack, it only hurts it. The attacker takes 33.3333 damage instead of the 40 if only the first brazier existed.



8. Example two:

In this example a line of 35 braziers is attacked by the attacker represented by the squares. If the attacker was the red square and he attacked the brazier in front of them the right most 30 braziers would be in range and fire. The right most brazier would fire for 40/23 = 1.739, the second right most brazier would fire for 40/24 = 1.666, the third brazier from the right would fire for 40/25 = 1.6 and so on along the line. Each individual brazier to the left would have more braziers figured into it's damage base up to the middle one which would fire for 40/35 = 1.142.

If instead the attacker attacked at the yellow square then the 23 braziers on the left side of the line would be in range and attack him. The first brazier, the one in front of him would calculate at 40/23 = 1.739 bb, the second brazier to the right would calculate at 40/24 = 1.666 and so on. The point of this being that the attacker should attack in range of the least amount of braziers or in range of the least amount of braziers who themselves are within range of the most amount of braziers.

If instead the red square was the initiating first attacker while the yellow square was secondary attacker after the red attacker had already come under fire then the red attacker would come under fire from the rightmost 30 braziers and the yellow attacker would come under the fire of the left most 5 braziers.



9. Example 3:

In this example the red square is the attacker and he is attacking between two braizer groups that are both in range. Each brazier is far enough away (23 hexes) from each other that they both constitute an individual group. The left brazier would fire at 40/1 = 40 bb and the right one would also fire at 40/1 = 40 bb. The attacker would take 80 pts of bb damage if he attacked at that exact middle spot.



I hope this helped a little. I'll take any questions in PM if you have them.

Base design is mighty changed from last world. I'm seeing that you'll have to balance coverage versus detrimental braziers to the point of attack.

Edit: Jorb has mostly confirmed these calculations. He did correct me in saying that the 40k was not a fixed number but rather is randomized. We don't know if that means 40k is the average or that if it means that it depends on other factors. Here's the quote:

Apologies. The base damage is 40k, but I realize that this number doesn't mean much to you as damage is then randomized and combobulated in more ways than one to arrive at the final number.

Edit: Jorb used the number 11.5 for some reason for base damage determination I thought. The radius of the brazier (23 hexes) is the determining factor apparently.

6. Braziers are nice but always remember that a Townbell and a stick fence are in some ways better than 400 braziers.

Aim for a Townbell and fencing along with braziers. It gives you a 24 hour warning that you're going to be attacked and even then it gives you solid chance to destroy the waste claim after they've started hitting your base and trying to kill you. Remember that you still always need to keep your gates closed.

7. Close the Damn Doors!!! Always close at least one locked door behind you after you walk through a gate or series of gates.

Open Doors!!!.jpg (75.93 KiB) Viewed 8687 times

There's a reason all the veteran players in your town keep telling you to close the doors. An open door is an invitation for a murderer to come on in. There's nothing stopping a player from killing you on a Personal Claim or Town Claim. It will leave a scent but your character or your townmate's character will be dead.

8. Never leave a criminal scent and you'll decrease your chance of death by 90%.

Almost everybody that dies in Salem has summonable evidence used on them. If you never commit a crime you should be fine. Don't piss anybody off by raiding them and you'll be golden. Top Players will mostly leave you alone if you have no evidence against you.

9. Be careful right outside of the main town.

There is a lot of traffic right outside the safe zone of the main town with people travelling in and out. Be especially careful the closer you are to Roanoke, Jamestown, or Boston.

Don't build close to Boston. Its too easy for raiders to find you before you get your defenses up, so don't just walk out of Boston and plop down a claim.

10. Play with a team or town.

There is safety in numbers but do multiple background checks before letting someone into your town. A lone attacker will usually back off or be more wary if he sees several red dots on his map.

Make allies. If you have a good set of trustworthy friends they can help you out of a lot of tight spots and can help you recover from any losses.

11. If you do play with a team or town be sure that you trust the persons you're playing with and have the same ideas about what you want to do in the game. Infighting, Sabotage, and Treason are some of the most common ways to die in this MMo.

Do multiple background checks of new recruits. You can never be too careful or paranoid. If you don't feel like a player is going to be a good fit or if you have a bad feeling about a new recruit. Don't let them into your town. Some towns use a starter town to judge new recruits before they get to join a town where any scent leaving characters have their homesteads.

If one of you wants to do PvP and one of you wants to just farm and defend then you may want to talk about the endgame of that relationship. It may work out where one of you is helping feed fighter alts while the other is off mapping and hunting targets. Just talk about it before it gets there. Some players play in 'balls to the walls' attack mode and tend to break up a lot. If you're new, you may want to know who they are and avoid them, especially if you're recruiting town-members.

Also don't play with Realak, Sittingbull, Bigwilly, or Judaism. They will all get you killed.

12. Don't commit to the first place the guide drops you. Look around and wander the area to see who your neighbors are and see if the location is safe. Wandering is also the best way to level up a noob character.

Explore your immediate area within 20-30 minutes out from your little new base. Make sure that you don't have hostile neighbors before you commit to a spot.

As a beginner ... Walk. Alot. When you think you have found somewhere to rest your hat, walk more. Scout everywhere. Not only is it for your own benefit to know what's around you, you will likely save yourself time, effort and resources picking up pots, bins, urns, etc from abandoned camps that are likely in your vicinity.

13. If you're going to hermit stay far, far away from Big Towns and Special Places. Try and find a small little corner of the world that's hidden behind rivers and mountains. You'll live longer.

Examples of special places include islands, large lime pits, river crossings, high purity nodes of clay, granite or water and stuff like that. Avoid these because many people will see them on their mini map or find them and visit them continuously and check out the area around them.

14. Know the Politics of your server, who the top players are and don't piss off anybody you don't know.

You need to know who's who on the server and avoid making them mad. You need to know that the Tribe will destroy your base if you don't sign the treaty and they find you. You need to know that Darwoth or the Pirates will raid you if they are within range of you but that a good defense will usually keep them away as long as they're not personally after you. You need to know that the Candy Gang or the White Knights generally won't attack you if you have no scents or criminal evidence out there. They'll probably leave you alone as long as you stay out of their way.

My main goal is to help Salem grow and to help noobs learn the game. If you have any questions feel free to PM me.

These are some of the things I've learned to stay alive. I hope they help you guys just starting off.

If anybody else has topics, or better ideas feel free to tell me to add them and I will.

[colesie]

This belongs in Help

[colesie]

And it was so.

[DarkNacht]

If you want to make a real guide you should leave your personal politics out of it. When the CG decides to be bastards they are little better then the Tribe. Most days Roanoke is a fairly safe server, but sometimes the CG decides its noob killing time and there is nothing the noobs can do to stop them. Most days Darwoth leaves everyone alone unless they bother him, commit crimes in an area he happens to be in, or he wants to teach them a lesson about having a poor defense.

Things you also should point out:
Your character isn't everything. If you have a good base set up you can get up to 100 humours in a week without a problem. If you loose you base or your main character you will be fine as long as you don't loose both.
Make allies. If you have a good set of trustworthy friends they can help you out of a lot of tight spots and can help you recover from any losses.
Don't build close to Boston. Its too easy for raiders to find you before you get your defenses up, so don't just walk out of Boston and plop down a claim.

[Claeyt]

If you want to make a real guide you should leave your personal politics out of it. When the CG decides to be bastards they are little better then the Tribe. Most days Roanoke is a fairly safe server, but sometimes the CG decides its noob killing time and there is nothing the noobs can do to stop them. Most days Darwoth leaves everyone alone unless they bother him, commit crimes in an area he happens to be in, or he wants to teach them a lesson about having a poor defense. The Pirates are a barely organized bunch of looters and noob raiders, a good wall and a few braziers will keep them out. On Jamestown the #1 rule is build defenses, a good defense will keep anyone out.

Things you also should point out:
Your character isn't everything. If you have a good base set up you can get up to 100 humours in a week without a problem. If you loose you base or your main character you will be fine as long as you don't loose both.
Make allies. If you have a good set of trustworthy friends they can help you out of a lot of tight spots and can help you recover from any losses.
Don't build close to Boston. Its too easy for raiders to find you before you get your defenses up, so don't just walk out of Boston and plop down a claim.

I'll add the defense in Jamestown thing which definitely seems to be the case. As for leaving my personal politics out of it I was just trying to show how you need to be aware of the politics of your server. The Politics have changed a lot since I've been playing. When I started on Roanoke the CoD and some other minor Russian towns were kicking ass and wiping major forts off the map and Darnok was running two towns full of raiders.

You can't necessarily rebuild a 100 humour character from scratch with a character with no skills. Even if you had all the ingredients to feed them up you'd need need the character to bake and plant and rebuild the other character. I'm not saying it couldn't be done. I've gotten guys up 50 pts in a day with a couple sheds full of food, but you have to have everything prepared and a character to feed that guy up.

Allies or a good town are absolutely the most important thing to have in this game for success.

I'll add building to close too Boston, that's a pretty common Rookie mistake.

[DarkNacht]

I'll add the defense in Jamestown thing which definitely seems to be the case. As for leaving my personal politics out of it I was just trying to show how you need to be aware of the politics of your server. The Politics have changed a lot since I've been playing. When I started on Roanoke the CoD and some other minor Russian towns were kicking ass and wiping major forts off the map and Darnok was running two towns full of raiders.

You can't necessarily rebuild a 100 humour character from scratch with a character with no skills. Even if you had all the ingredients to feed them up you'd need need the character to bake and plant and rebuild the other character. I'm not saying it couldn't be done. I've gotten guys up 50 pts in a day with a couple sheds full of food, but you have to have everything prepared and a character to feed that guy up.

I get the point of putting a example of politics in it but you would be better off just explaining the importance of understanding the politics of your sever other wise its not a general guide on how not to die, but a guide on how not to die on Roa, on 13 Oct 2013, unless your going to actually learn whats going on on each server and keep it updated. And if you are going to post about specific server politics you should make sure you mention the importance of regularly checking for new laws on the servers that have that kind of thing.
I would assume most people with a good base set up will probably have at least some inspirationals laying about or growing, and even if they did not it does not take much time foraging to get up to the point that use can harvest and cook food. Even if for some reason, you have no inspirationals in your base, there still should be something that you can trade to get back up and running. Its not like I'm saying you can get your stills up to an ideal level, but if you know what you are doing you should at least be able to get up to a level where you can function and use the supplies and facilities at your base. The one assumption I am making is that you are either somewhat self sufficient or part of a community, if you do something stupid like make a hermit that produces nothing and just buys everything with silver from argo hunting and has no alts and then get him killed then yeah, you're going to have a hard time getting back up. Also most people with a good base setup will have at least one alt around, even if its just a lime, scout, or labor alt, so you shouldn't be starting from absolute 0 anyway.

[Kandarim]

Also, the minimap in ender's is resizeable. Might want to add that

[Claeyt]

Also, the minimap in ender's is resizeable. Might want to add that

that's it's largest size I thought?

It only grabs a certain amount of space without the other stuff being black if unexplored and the spawn map is smaller anyways, right?

Edit: Oh, okay I get it now what you're saying. Edited.

[Claeyt]

I get the point of putting a example of politics in it but you would be better off just explaining the importance of understanding the politics of your sever other wise its not a general guide on how not to die, but a guide on how not to die on Roa, on 13 Oct 2013, unless your going to actually learn whats going on on each server and keep it updated. And if you are going to post about specific server politics you should make sure you mention the importance of regularly checking for new laws on the servers that have that kind of thing.

Politics are pretty slow to develop usually. Mostly I'd recommend people just stay neutral if they want to live. Once you start picking sides is when you start getting guys raiding and camping your bases. They should definitely keep up with it so they know what's going on. I've seen maybe 3 or 4 noobs get killed for just being dip ***** around the wrong people and honestly if they had found out who they were talking to they would have lived. Plymouth's really the only server with official rules anymore.

[alloin]

nice guide, I hope it will help some new players !