A Beginner's Guide On How Not To Die In Salem
Posted: Mon Oct 14, 2013 12:23 amI'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:
Ender's Mini-Map Enlarged Real Size: (Notice all the Red Dot's it adds for other players)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 9276 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 9276 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.
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 8688 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.
DarkNacht wrote: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.
DarkNacht wrote: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.
Binks wrote: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.
jophbot wrote: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.
