Couple of n00b qestions.

I'm an oldbie/newbie....that is I played a long time ago and recently came back. There is a steep learning curve, the best thing to do is to pour though this site a few times and the only thing you'll really lack is world knowledge and social type things. Otherwise, you'll be on par with people that have been playing for years more or less.

weapons> it's better to use weapons you have the skill for, otherwise you'll just be working with your offense with no bonus. You also get a bonus for certain types of weapons based on your starting location.

Mounts> there used to be a time where certain mounts had a "move" you could use while fighting mounted. Now unless you're a ranger or a half-elf, a mount just increases your height while you're fighting. Which is helpful, as long as you don't fall off.

one of the things I've noticed is a lot of people just kind of expect you to know things whether you're new or old. Many are reluctant to break character, but will if you will....if that makes sense. In other words, ask ooc and hope you don't get an asshole that gets pissy when you break character. I think this is because some players like to pretend they're new to take advantage of people's ooc kindness, which is kind of fucked up, but I've seen it happen.

Do not be afraid to OOC and ask more experienced players with questions regarding syntax or the code. Also use the helpers, they generally have no lives and will answer all your questions if you have them. It took me a long freaking time to learn all the minutiae of the game too. Dont sweat it. Enjoy the ride and dont fall on your neck. Unless you're a neck. Then fall on your neck.

IF you're a ranger or half elf, you only have to put up with for like a half day/day played at the most, once you've got ride high enough.

Another benefit of the mount is the noticeable lack of being bashed...except by really mean half-giants. Bash=death. If you want to train ride, my suggestion is to get in a square with something you wanna kill, etwo or dual wield, fight the animal, let it throw you, rinse and repeat once every hour. You won't be falling off forever. That aside, definitely use a weapon type that you have given to you as a skill. As your character lives longer, make sure to level all weapon types you have access to, to some degree. These are key to your defense against the weapons, as well as your offense, so keep that in mind.

There used to be a command called pull reins that would make the mount assist you in combat or something. It was removed a long long time ago but I always thought it was cool. It would make having master ride be super cool if you could use your mount in combat like that. Would probably make rangers way too powerful if that were the case though.

Sunbacks were the creature that used to have a special attack. It'd whip its tail at your opponent. Pull reins might have been the command to activate it, I don't know, my characters rode kanks back then

I don't know why the command/code was removed, but it was, many years ago. As a "mob" the sunback is a decent challenge IIRC. Not monumental but not easy either for a character who isn't buff or wearing/using special gear/magicks etc. Just the average Joe ranger with a weapon.

As a note, sometimes it won't tell you what type of weapon it is. This means you don't have the skill to use it.