How not to get caught/or notice.

From what I understand, the Byn basically consists of people who log in, spar, and then log off. You're probably fine.

They don't notice shit as long as you don't go balls to the walls. You'd be amazed at what you can get away with. As far as I've been able to glean, there's no system that alerts staff if someone has raised skill x by 15 points in one day, or killed the same NPC five times in a row. People get away with week-long twinking sessions, and I once set up a script to train barrier and left it on for over 24 hours without anybody seemingly noticing. Once in a while one might get unlucky and have an admin randomly drop in to see what you're doing, but as long as you're not doing anything that triggers any alerts and messages on their end, they won't take an interest. They usually have better things to do than monitor some guy who has just been sitting around for the last six hours. 95% of your time is spent simply waiting for skill timers, so it's actually kind of hard to catch a twink in the act if they're careful, and you'll mostly just look AFK to an admin who takes a quick look.

Mostly it's just about not leaving a bunch of evidence behind (corpses, unlocked doors, skinned garbage), not clearing an area of animals/NPCs, and not attacking things very often. Rule #1 is to try not to have to attack mobs. Go for things that will attack you as it's a lot less noticeable and a lot easier to explain why you were fighting in case somebody asks. Also, don't involve anybody or roleplay too much while you do it. Basically don't use think/feel during your twinking sessions, don't stand out, don't leave anything behind for people to notice, and don't give anybody a reason to care about your presence.  To be honest, I've never actually heard of anybody getting busted for hunting animals even if done systematically every RL hour, so that would be your safest bet if you're worried. I find it more effective to train in the rinth or Red Storm, though, unless it's a ranger in which case the grasslands are best.

The goal is for nobody to know you even exist while you're working on your skills and then drop into the game once you're ready. Usually you're best served not actually killing shit, just fighting until they're poor condition and then fleeing. This is a lot less noticeable, and it ensures that you won't run out of targets to fight. NPCs will recover even from 1 HP while standing up, and you don't want to show up on the radar attacking/killing things every 30 minutes. I don't believe in logging in and out while twinking as I think I would notice and investigate if I saw someone logging on and off every hour, and especially if I statted a player and his skills had raised several levels but he only had a few hours played. Just stay online and don't ping the radar in any way.

I'm undecided on whether it's best to do it when there's least or most players online as both could be good or bad. When there's only 5 other players online, there's a good chance that no admin is on but also a higher chance that you'll be watched if there is one on. When there's 50 players online, there's probably a few admins on but also a lot of stuff going on and they're unlikely to care about some guy who always shows up sitting alone in an abandoned building.

Tuluk: just fight verrin hawks in the grasshlands, and stilt lizards if you have sneak. Stilts are actually one of the best things you can fight, and a target for highly skilled fighters due to their insane agility. If you're a warrior and want to train bash/kick, head south of the grasslands to fight tandu and gurth, or head into the scrublands west of the city for gortok etc. Could even head into the Tablelands for the easy animals there. Stay out of the forest and the east end of the grasslands, and don't go into any caves because it's mageville due to the absurd regeneration bonuses of the northlands areas. Watch out for tembo, bahamet and carru.

Tablelands: just kill yompar, durrit and other weak shit for a while. When your skills have gone up a bit, go for gith, especially if you're a warrior and need to fight armed shit for disarm gains. Watch out for holes and carru, and don't head into the rocky canyons or past the desert-elf outpost unless you have the map (ask around). If you're a desert-elf, I wouldn't recommend twinking too much as you'll have a clan admin who will likely drop in now and then to have a look. It's not an issue as d-elves can basically do it as part of their lifestyle and just run around killing animals "for the tribe" but try not to go completely nuts as people will start shit about overhunting.

Luirs: raptors in the red desert will take you pretty far, but you might be better off trying to get to the Tablelands. Watch out for holes. Not a very good base to twink from.

Allanak desert: it's kinda shitty to twink out here, but scrab are alright for beginners. You can also go for jozhal, they're very agile so good for sparring. Watch out for beetles when your skills are low and don't fall into holes as a few are potentially fatal and the weather is probably shit so you'll have a hard time climbing out of anything, and don't let your mount get exhausted away from the city. There's also a tribe of elves living in a camp east of the city and a bit north of the salt road, and they make for good training once you're a decent fighter. If you feel brave, head out west and fight tarantulas. You can also go into the Canyons of Waste to the far west where you can fight jakhals, but there's not much else there.

Labyrinth: first off, don't kill shit. Fight thugs until they're poor condition and then run away. Secondly, make sure your gear is rinth-safe and then keep a ring or something that isn't so you can always regulate whether or not thugs will attack you. Find out what will trigger the individual thugs and not the scripted "bah, nuthin worth takin" crews (you don't want to fight these, they sap and block exits and shit). Keep the item in your pocket and put it on when it's time to spar. The twitchy guy is a badass so avoid him for a while. There's a couple of dudes up along the northern border of the alleys that will attack you but not backstab or otherwise rape you too badly. Avoid fighting elves until you know your shit, they tend to have hidden buddies.

Red Storm: southwest alley has three dudes, one aggro human and two hidden elves. The elves won't attack by themselves but will assist the human. Just wander in and let yourself get jumped, then spar and run away when needed. You might want to "kite" the human NPC around until you find the room with the hidden elves so you can fight these, especially if you're a warrior and want to train disarm as the human guy will reverse your disarms for a while and this can get dangerous. In the southeast alley there's a mul and a human assassin - the mul won't move on its own so park it in one end of the alley and never go near it, it's etwoing a maul and can take you out in one blow with a headshot. The assassin is pretty hit and miss (literally) and will land backstab for like 30-60 damage about half the time. If it does get you for high damage, just run immediatley and rest up in a windmill or something. If it misses, it's a pretty easy fight. Once it has attacked you once, its AI will spaz out and it'll walk into your room and try to track, so you can pop a watch on it and be pretty safe from the backstab. Northeast alley just has a mul I think, which should be avoided, and the northwest alley is either empty or has a hidden mob that I've never seen.

Just because there's a number next to a dude's name saying how long he's been idle doesn't mean you notice. I've staffed games similar to Arm, and when you look at a list of dozens of players, you don't give a shit how long someone has been idle or where they are if they're not somewhere that matters. You can go completely unnoticed by simply being in rooms that don't look noteworthy and not doing anything that activates any staff-side alerts.

Dont worry about doing repeatative crap like forage and so on. If you want to emote, emote. If you dont, dont. You wont impress anybody, but you wont make anyone think ill of you either. As long as there are 'other' things you actually do 'besides' the repeatative crap and it doesnt look like you've set up a script and went off to work. You're fine.


The world is set up in such a way that exploring by yourself can be pretty lethal. Eventually, it will make you die. Most of the people who stay indies these days, aware of all these 'ins and outs'. Have probably at one point were in a clan with a great leader or other members, who showed them the little tricks, ins, and outs. Or they went through 50 characters just to learn the basics.

Understood.
The general vibe that is sometimes given off that playing to increase skills for any reason = bad, big no no.
Or that unless you got really good IC reasons, that skilling up is bad. Even for the sake of making your character more proficient at their chosen profession

I dunno, maybe I read too much into things. I might have a complete misconception of how things work on the IMM's side of thing.

I used to play like this, but after years and years.... just no. I've had well over 100 PCs, and I'm not going to rediscover the world with each and every one of them. I don't pretend to know detailed stuff, but if I'm a rinthi I know where the good hiding spots are, and where I can find illegal goods. If I'm an Allanaki, I know where the water cave is. If I'm a hunter, I know where to find Cenyr.  If I'm a Tuluki who's never been south of Luirs, I may pretend not to know the south well, but I get thirsty I'm damn sure going to "luck out" and find a watering hole.



This hits it on the head for me. Don't feel forced into playing the game the way someone else wants you to play. I could never play a noble because I would get bored to death of doing nothing but social RP plots after the first week and ask to be stored. And that's perfectly fine, despite what the GDB says. I'm playing a game, so I'm damn sure going to boost my skills. In the end, it's all about balance.

Some of the best most loved players in Arm are twinks at heart, but they don't grief and they do awesome things and involve other players. They know the system and how to work it behind the scenes, so that, in the light of day, they get seen pulling off feats that no other player has the balls or skill to do. And if they throw in a couple emotes while the're at it, they'll be seen as characters. The problem occurs when you twink up, but all you do with it is PK and grief. Its very imbalancing, and will get you noticed in a negative light. 

One of the biggest misconceptions among new players is that they think there's an imm sitting around watching their every move, and weighing their every command and emote against some kind of equation. Nothing is farther from the truth. You only get noticed if you're doing something really awesome, or really bad. 90% of us spend most of our time skating by in the middle, and imms could give a shit either way. 


Sidebar, on Karma: 
As long as you're not overly abusive, you'll eventually get karma. I've played for 7-8 years, and I have about as much karma. I have very few PCs that would have been remembered by anyone who didn't play directly with them. Half the time, I play an indy and just run around the desert exploring where I want to, killing what I want to, and generally not being noticed by PCs or Imms. But, I rarely PKill, so in the end it doesn't get noticed, and I really don't have any bad account notes. 

The only way you really gain karma is proactively. Get your player involved in stuff, and send off weekly or bi-weekly character reports. If you're interesting enough to catch attention, you'll net positive feedback from an imm. Also, don't be afraid to ask. I've gotten half my karma as a direct result of something akin to asking for it. I sent in a request for my 1st and 2nd points that went along the lines of "Hey, I've been playing for x-amount of time now. I"d really like to try some new roles, I was wondering if you could consider me for a karma bump." If you don't have bad account notes, or you've had recent kudos / good notes you'll probably get your request. Also, request for a role 1 point over your current karma and play it out fora while with good character reports -they'll probably let you keep the bump.

In the case of combat, is it still 1 fail -> chance -> timer? Or do you need to have / can you have multiple fails in a short period of time for the chance? I know raising weapon/combat skills is a bitch, but I'm trying to figure out what that mechanism specifically is so that I can decide whether it's more useful for me to practice my preferred style (which rarely ever gets dodged) until I've gotten 1 fail, then practice something else, OR if I should get my one fail, then switch up.