Latest revision as of 16:38, 5 April 2010

Welcome to the complete FallenSword Tutorial! Here you’ll find explanations for all the tiny details that make FallenSword such a fun and challenging gaming experience. This tutorial is divided into sections based on the layout of the game screen. You’ll learn to use all the options on the left-hand toolbar, you’ll read in-depth descriptions of everything in the upper information bar, and you’ll find information about contributing to FallenSword to make your character and your gameplay the best it can be. Just click below on any topic in the index to answer a specific question, or read through the entire tutorial to gain a full understanding of the FallenSword universe.

Top Information Bar

The bar that runs across the top of the screen is where you can find quick information about all your stats, equipment, level, experience, and gold. We will work from left to right.

First, you’ll see the name you chose for your character when you first registered for FallenSword. To the left of your name is a little head icon. If you hover over that with your cursor, you’ll find the Character Summary which lists all of your stats. You’ll notice the information is arrayed like this:

Name: 
Level:
Attack:
Defense:
HP:
Armor:
Damage:

Next to each of these categories is a number, except for the first one of course. These numbers are important because they tell you the combined value of the stat modifiers of all your equipment and the total of the level points you have applied to your character. In battle with a creature or another player these stats determine who wins and who loses. When you equip an item, the stats of that item are immediately applied to your character. If you ever need to know the specific stats of an item, just hover over it and a pop-up window will appear that details everything about that item. You can go to the section titled Character for a full description of the item modifiers. If you click on the head icon, you will be taken directly to your character's Profile.

The next item in the information bar is your currently available stamina. There is an icon next to this number as well. Hover over it and you’ll see your current and maximum stamina, along with your current Gain per Hour and the next time you will gain stamina. Starting out you’ll have a maximum of 500 stamina points available to you, and you’ll regain stamina at the rate of 50 points per hour. Some equipment will add to either your maximum stamina or the rate at which you gain it back. When the number here goes below 20, you won’t be able to attack creatures until your stamina increases again. Once it reaches 0 you won’t be able to move around the game map. By clicking on the stamina icon you can go to the Upgrades page where you can purchase increases to your stamina with FallenSword Points. There are several stamina upgrades you can purchase here:

• +25 Current Stamina – This simply adds 25 more stamina to your total once per purchase.
• +10 Maximum Stamina – This allows you to accumulate more than 500 stamina points.
• +1 Stamina Gain (per hour) – This will allow you to increase the rate at which you gain stamina points.

Next you will find a Recruiting link. Click on it and you’ll be taken to a page that describes how to refer people to FallenSword using your unique player ID. This way you can gain free FallenSword Points to use towards character upgrades. You’ll gain 3 free FallenSword Points for each person you refer to the game. However, you must be careful recruiting people in certain circumstances. If many people are accessing the internet from a shared internet connection, for example at a college or office, you won’t get credit for your referrals if more than one person signs up. FallenSword tracks the internet address of all people who sign up through referral links and will only allow a single successful recruitment per internet address.

The next item you’ll see is your Level Progress meter. If you hover over the icon next to the meter you’ll see a pop-up box that gives you specific information on your current level, the experience points required to reach the next level, and how much experience you’ll gain per hour. The information is laid out like this:

• Current Level – The level you’ve currently earned.
• Progress – Shows how far you’ve earned towards the next level.
• Current XP – How much experience you’ve earned so far from killing creatures in the game.
• Next XP – How much experience is required to reach your next level.
• Remaining – The ‘Current XP’ subtracted from the ‘Next XP’.
• Gain Per Hour – How fast you gain XP automatically. It can be increased by certain pieces of equipment.
• Next Gain – When you’ll get your next automatic XP gain.

The next section of the info bar shows how many FallenSword Points you currently have. See the section titled Support FallenSword to see how you can gain these points. If you click on the icon next to the number you’ll be taken to the Upgrades page so you can spend your points.

Finally, you’ll see your Wealth Summary, which shows how much gold you are currently carrying. This number will not reflect any gold in your personal Bank. If you click on the icon you’ll be taken to the Bank so you can make deposits or withdraw money you’ve previously deposited. By default you only get one deposit per day, but this can be increased in the Upgrades page. Keep in mind that if you belong to a Guild you may choose to either deposit gold into your personal Bank or into the Guild bank. To do both (on the same day) you’d have to Upgrade your character.

Main Page

This section will provide details the information that is available in the main frame of the game Home Page. Separate sections below deal with the left-hand and right-hand toolbars. The game Home Page is used to communicate important in game news and is worth checking fairly regularly.

Latest News

Here you’ll find any news updates from the FallenSword development team. Any time the game is updated you’ll see it here, this section is also used to announce the winners of the temple blessings, FSP draw, recruiter draw and the latest bounty champions pot. When an important game update is added to the Latest News section, you will see an alert on the left-hand side of the screen below the toolbar buttons. Click on that alert, and you’ll be taken to home page. Older messages can be accessed by clicking on the "View News Archive" link at the bottom of the Latest News box.

Featured Guild

This box provides advertising space for the many guilds in the game. It is generally used by guilds looking for new recruits. The advertisement changes each time you refresh the home page and is selected from the active bank of advertising guilds. Guilds can place advertisements from the Guild Upgrades page.

Shout Box

The Shout Box is a news bulletin system for the use of FallenSword players. The cost to post a message here is 1 FSP, and your message will be seen by anyone reading the Home page. This service is used mainly for trade offers, buff sales, super-elite advertisements and guild recruitment messages; however, you may post on anything subject to certain rules. You may not use the Shout Box to promote another game, post negative comments about the game itself, or post comments of a sexual, discriminatory, or abusive nature. Offending Shout Box messages will be removed and the posting player may be subject to disciplinary measures. You may post a Shout Box message by clicking on the ‘Post a message!’ button at the bottom of the box. If you see a post that violates Fallen Sword guidelines, please report it.

Guild Conflicts

Guilds can launch co-ordianted attacks agaisnt each other. This box shows the most recently initiated conflicts as well as the results of recently finished conflicts.

The Right-Hand Toolbar

This next section will provide details on all the options along the right-hand toolbar. This toolbar can be seen at all times while you are logged in. It contains an assortment of general game information. This part of the tutorial is divided up by major heading, working from top to bottom.

New?

This box contains links to this Fallen Sword wiki and the Fallen Sword forum, two places that are good entry points to obtain more information about the game.

FSBox

This box contains short messages and advertisements from your fellow players. The displayed message is selected randomly from the current bank of player messages and will change every time you refresh the page. The "send message" button allows you to send your own message (at the cost of 1 FSP). Messages persist in the message bank for 1 hour after submission. The rules that apply to the home page shout box (see above) also apply the the FSBox. The FSBox can be hidden via a setting in your player preference page (see below).

Game Stats

This box shows your current rank within the game, plus your change on the last update. Player ranks are determined by total experience points gained and are updated daily at 09:00 server time.

Below your rank you will find the total number of registered Fallen Sword players. The "View Online Players" link at the bottom of the box takes you to a list that shows you all the players who have logged in within the past 20 minutes. You’ll also see the total number of players who are currently online. For each player you’ll see their name, their guild affiliation if they belong to one, and their level. Plus, you can click on the familiar eye icon to check out their Profile. This is especially helpful if you are undecided about what equipment to use or if you are about to level up. Just find someone at your level or at the level you are about to reach and check out their Profile. After checking out several other players you should have a good idea about what equipment is best for your level. You aren’t limited to just looking at their gear; you can also use the links provided here to send private messages to another player. Click on their profile and then send them a message if you’d like to ask a question or just chat!

The Game Stats box also contains the official in-game time. This is important if you are participating in auctions or if you are hunting Elite creatures. Please note that the Server Time is expressed in GMT, or Greenwich Mean Time, so you’ll need to adjust for your own time zone. For example, the East coast of the United States is GMT -5 (or -4 during daylight savings). Therefore, if the official server time is 10:30, then it is actually 5:30am EST (or 6:30am EDT). Your computer’s clock should be able to tell you this adjustment by looking under ‘Time Zone’.

Super-Elite Slayers

This box contains a link that allows you to view the last 10 super-elite kills. The list shows when the kill occurred, what was killed, who killed it and where, and whether or not a drop was obtained. This allows people that sell the locations of super-elites to super-elite hunters to check and see how the hunter did.

Support FallenSword

FallenSword is free for anyone to play. However, many of the upgrades available in the game require FallenSword Points to purchase.

There are many ways to obtain FallenSword Points, one way is to support the game by recruiting new players. By clicking on the words 'recruiting your firend' you will take to the recruiting links page which provides you with several types of link that can be used for recruiting people to the game. If a new player enters the game through your link you will gain FSPs as they level up, and you become eligible to win the recruiter's draw on any day that one of your recruits reaches level 25. The active players you have recruited can be seen through a link on your character profile page, and all recruits count towards the "Recruiting Medal".

Another way to support the game is to donate money to Hunted Cow Studios. Clicking on the word ‘donating’ in the box, take you to a page where you can purchase FallenSword Points. There are many ways to donate to FallenSword, including:

• Paypal
• Credit/Debit Card
• Cash/Money Order
• SMS
• Telephone

You are also free to choose how much you wish to donate to FallenSword. Of course, if you donate a higher amount you’ll get more FallenSword Points for your money, but it is entirely up to you. You can donate as little as $5 and you’ll receive 25 FSPs in return. If you’re planning to purchase rare and expensive items, or if you belong to a Guild that needs a lot of expansion room, plan on making a larger donation so you’ll have more FSPs to work with.

The Left-Hand Toolbar

Detailed Tutorial/The Left-Hand Toolbar

This is the end of the FallenSword Tutorial. Thank you for reading it and we hope it will make your gaming experience more exciting and fulfilling. Please read the articles in the 'More Information' section just below if you are interested in learning more on select topics.

The FallenSword Team

More Information Here are a number of informative articles which go into more detail about specific topics discussed in the FallenSword Tutorial. More may be added in the future.

Now that you’ve read the FallenSword Tutorial you understand the mechanics of placing bids for items and putting up items for sale. But what do you do if you want to get the most out of the Auction House? How do you get the highest price for your items while paying the least? How do you find items to sell, and which items are worth selling? This short article will try to answer those questions.

First, you must efficiently use the auction slots you have available to you. You only get two by default, and additional ones cost 10 FSPs each. When you’re first starting out and you are only looting items that will sell for a little gold, it clearly isn’t worthwhile to buy more auction slots. However, once you reach a level where you can loot more expensive items, especially ones that sell primarily for FSPs, you might want to consider buying additional slots. Some of the biggest traders on the Auction House have 15 or more auctions going at once, and you can be sure they are earning a lot of gold and FSPs to make it worth investing in the extra slots. A good rule of thumb is to ask ‘How much am I earning per sale?’ If the answer is a few gold coins per sale, don’t bother upgrading your auction slots. If you can earn one or more FSPs or over 5000 gold per item you sell, then you’ll want to have as many auction slots as you can justify by the amount of items you have to sell. Remember you’ll also have times when you don’t sell an item, and you’ll only have twelve hours to get your item out of your Item Mailbox. You may need to also upgrade your backpack slots to accommodate your stock of items, and those cost 30 FSPs each. Try to balance your available auction slots with your backpack spaces and the amount of inventory you’ll be holding at once. Of course, if you belong to a guild you might be able to impose on other guild mates to hold items temporarily or you might even be able to use the Guild Store.

Once you have enough auction slots to cover your intended sales numbers, next you have to decide what you want to sell. Clearly you won’t want to be trading in items that sell for only a few hundred gold pieces. Rather, you’ll need to concentrate on items that sell either for FSPs or for high gold prices. Typically items that are dropped by Elites or Champions will fit this category, but you’ll need to do your research on the Auction House to find out what’s hot at the moment. Once you decide what items you want to trade, then you need to know how much to pay for your items and how much to try to sell them for. Of course you’ll have competition in this because other people have had this same idea before you. A good business practice is to know the typical minimum price an item will sell for and only bid that much or below. If you get outbid, just wait for the next item.

Once you have an item to sell, you’ll need to create an effective auction to sell it for a profit. The first thing you need to do is use the auction duration effectively. If you run a 24 hour auction, it will be 23 hours and 30 minutes typically before your auction reaches the first page of auction listings for the type of item you’re selling. Therefore, only plan to run 1 hour auctions if you are online and then run longer auctions until you log back in. For example, if I’m going to bed I know I won’t be logging back in for 10 hours or more, so I might set up a series of 12 hour auctions to keep items in circulation. That way something is running at all times. Next, you’ll have to decide whether you want to sell your item for FSPs or gold. If you are willing to go the extra step of converting your gold to FSPs by trading with other players, you will often get a higher price out of a low FSP item than if you sell it for FSPs directly. Take for example an item that typically sells for 2 FSPs that you managed to obtain for 1 FSP. Now, if you run that item several times you’ll get your 2 FSPs, but you will be more likely to sell it the first time if you sell it for gold instead. Keeping in mind what FSPs sell for, if you want to get the equivalent of 2 FSPs you’ll need to sell the item for above 6,000 gold pieces. It is not uncommon to find items that normally sell for 1 or 2 FSPs selling for 8,000 gold or more on the Auction House, simply because people will often have gold when they do not have FSPs and they are willing to pay a high price to obtain an item they couldn’t buy otherwise. Once you’ve sold your item, you can make an offer to buy FSPs from others to convert the gold.

Whichever way you decide to sell, you also have to set an appropriate price for anyone to buy your item. Here’s where the Min Bid and Buy Now prices come into play. If you know that a given item will usually sell for 1000 gold pieces, for example, you might want to start your item at or around that price. However, don’t waste your auction and make the Buy Now price the same or leave it empty. Put a price of 1500 to 2000 gold in the Buy Now slot so someone who is in a hurry can pay a premium and get their item immediately. By using the same logic, you can craft FSP-only auctions that get top bids as well. If an item usually sells for 3 or 4 FSPs, put your starting bid at 3 and a buy now price at 5. If it sells for the minimum you’ve still got a fair price, and if someone wants it right now you’ll get an extra FSP out of the deal.

Commonly you will get your stock of items from people who want to sell at any price. You, on the other hand, must be patient and willing to run your auctions multiple times to get the price you want. Sometimes you will run an item a half-dozen times before someone buys it, but when they do you know you’ve made money on the deal and you can go do it again and again.

Don’t underestimate the value of ‘farming’, or staking out certain places in the game to kill Elites or Champions who are likely to drop good items. Most of the time, however, your time is best spent in buying items other people looted for low prices and then reselling them for top bids. Remember, you are a business person, not a hunter. Let other people collect the spoils while you can profit from their efforts.

Choosing a Guild Wisely

Choosing a guild can be one of the most important decisions you will make in the game, and you’ll need to make it early to get the best benefits from your guild membership. There are many guilds that won’t accept lower-level players, but keep looking and you’ll find one that will recognize your potential and take you in.

Before that happens, you need to do your research so you know which guilds are worth joining. There are only a few things you need to look at when choosing a guild, so answer the following questions for each guild you are investigating:

How many members does this guild already have? The answer to this question is important because it will tell you how popular the guild is, and it will let you know how likely it is that it will cost you gold and/or FSPs to join the guild in question. Any guild that has more than eight members will generally charge you 20 FSPs to join because that is how much it costs them to buy an additional member space for you. Sometimes you will see guild recruitment messages on the forum or in the Shout Box which mention that membership is free to the first X number of people who join. This usually happens when the guild kicks inactive players, so take advantage of it if you can.

How many Structures does the guild have? The answer to this question will depend on both the level of the guild and how much gold they have in their bank. An active guild with a lot of members will have a big bank, a high level, and lots of structures. Now typically these guilds are hard to get into for any amount of FSPs, but if you get the opportunity to join a guild with a bunch of structures and the gold to keep them up, then do it. You will reap the benefits of other people’s efforts initially, and then you can start contributing to the guild yourself.

Are the members of the guild active? You can answer this question by looking at the average level of the players in the guild and how much experience they are contributing. A guild with a lot of level 10 or lower players might not be very active, unless it is brand new. On the other hand, if the guild has only level 40 or higher players you won’t stand much of a chance of getting in until you level up yourself.

When starting out, your options for joining a guild may be few and far between. Tilt the odds in your favor by picking out a select few guilds you’d like to belong to, and then engage their members in conversation. If you can help their members with items, gold, or advice, then do so at every opportunity. Read any information their members may have posted about the guild on the forum and visit their webpage if they have one. Learn what you can about the guild, then make key alliances with their members. You’ll be much more likely to be invited to join a guild if you are already making yourself useful, so don’t pass up any opportunity. The benefits you receive by belonging to a strong, active guild will far outweigh any cost or effort you incur early on in the game.

Leveling Up Efficiently

Every player in the game starts out with the same amount of stamina per day. Whether you level quickly or not depends entirely on how effectively you use the stamina points you are given. You can buy minor increases to your stamina with FSPs on the Upgrades page, and certain items will give tiny bonuses to your maximum stamina and the rate you earn it back. However, for the most part you’ll have to choose your maps carefully as you move up from one level to the other.

The first thing you’ll need to do is visit the forums, because there are many resources to make the task of choosing your path easier. Familiarize yourself with any maps pertaining to the area you are currently adventuring within. Those can be found in the Locations section of the forum. At the very top of that same section, however, is a list of places to go at any specific level to get the most from your stamina. The worst thing you can do is either linger in an area too long or go to an area where the creatures are too hard to kill. Both situations will just waste your stamina points and you will level very slowly if at all.

It is best to choose an area where the creatures are appropriate for your level, but can still be easily defeated. It is important to understand that as you gain levels, the same creature will give you less and less experience points. At an extreme, if you are killing creatures 10 levels below you, you might only get 1 experience point per kill. Even though it is only taking a single stamina point to defeat them, you are still only getting a 1 to 1 ratio for your stamina points and that isn’t nearly enough to level up effectively.

When you are in the appropriate locations for your level, a creature should be defeated within 5 to 10 stamina points and yield you at least 50 experience points. By planning your equipment upgrades carefully and concentrating on attack and damage, you may reduce the amount of stamina used to 1 or 2 while still maintaining the 50 experience points per kill number. A 1 or 2 stamina point to 50 experience point ratio is excellent at lower levels. Of course, the players at the highest levels would scoff at that number, as they’ve grown accustomed to getting hundreds or thousands of experience points for their stamina expenditures, but they aren’t reading this tutorial, are they?

Whenever you first enter a new area, check the profile of any new creature you encounter to judge your ability to defeat them. If you can’t tell from an immediate inspection of their stats, hit them with a 60 stamina attack and see how much stamina it takes to kill them. Of course, if you get killed then you might want to leave them alone for a while. Concentrate your attacks on those creatures you can kill with less than 5 stamina points preferably, and save harder creatures for when you level up the next time. If you have chosen your gear effectively, you might find that even creatures several levels higher than you are killable with very little stamina. It is then that you can sit back and smile, secure in the knowledge that you are growing as fast as you possibly can.

Dealing with Other Players

Since FallenSword is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, you will have lots of opportunity to interact with your fellow players. Unfortunately, not all of those interactions are going to be pleasant. People will attack you for no reason, or steal your kills, or outbid you on the auction house. This is all part of the game and you would be wise to take these situations in stride, or else you’ll start finding your name on a lot of people’s enemy lists. As long as you don’t go out of your way to annoy people, things will usually be just fine.

However, there are always the occasional loose nuts to deal with, and fortunately the FallenSword creators have given you some tools to use to make your game experience as worry-free as possible. First, you may sometimes receive harassing private messages from other players. If this happens, you can add them to your Ignore list, which is located in your Log page. Just click on Manage Ignore List, add their name, and you won’t hear from them again. Of course, they may still attack you and steal your gold, but you can put a bounty on their head to stop that sort of thing.

If someone sends you something especially distressing, such as death threats or degrading discussions of yourself or your family members, never hesitate to contact the FallenSword team at http://support.huntedcow.com/ to report the other player. You should never feel that you have to put up with hate-filled messages, as the FallenSword team will not hesitate to ban any player that stoops to such low behavior.

Using the Forum

The FallenSword Forum is a valuable resource and tool for making the most of your gaming experience, but there are some guidelines you can follow to use it most effectively.

The primary way you will be using the forum is simply by logging in and reading the postings under the various topics. You will learn a wealth of information simply by perusing the postings, as there are always new questions to be answered and other people who can answer them. Always pay attention to the stickies at the top of most of the forum topics. It is here that you will find the most-requested information on any given topic. These stickied postings are the work of many dedicated gamers like yourself, and their effort and insights are extremely useful and time-saving. If you don’t find the information you are looking for, then make yourself familiar with the Search function at the top of the forum page. Here you can search any specific topic or all of them at once, and you can use any search term you think is relevant to your question or concern.

Once you have checked out all the postings and stickies and searched for the answer to your question to no avail, then you can be safe in posting a question of your own. It is good forum etiquette to not post a question or comment that has been posted recently. Please also be sure to read the forum rules before posting. Once you’ve made an effort to find your answer and were unsuccessful it is certain that your question will be welcomed by the other forum users. You just might ask the very question that a dozen other people needed to ask but hadn’t done so yet, and you will be a hero to them all.

One specific forum topic to pay special attention to is the Trading forum. People use this forum topic as an alternative to the Auction House, and you will find postings which are offering to buy or sell virtually any item or service in the game. However, if you decide you want to post something on this forum, be sure you’ve done your homework. If you post that you want to sell something and put a price a hundred times too high, you will receive no positive responses. On the same note, if you post a message offering to buy something at a fraction of its true worth, you will get nowhere fast. Check prices on the Auction House, search the Trading forum for other people offering the same items, and then plan your posting accordingly. A well-crafted trading post with good information and relevant pricing will do wonders to your reputation, both in the forum and amongst the other players.