Draft:Your first day in Rampart
Your first day in Rampart is a chance to choose a career, obtain dependable equipment and arrange food and recovery before exploring LOCUS. You do not need to buy an expensive weapon or enter an arena fight immediately. A useful first goal is to leave town with equipment actually in use, a little food in reserve and enough money or a suitable guild membership to recover from an unsuccessful trip.
This guide covers an ordinary newly generated character in Omega 0.90.4. Restored games and reused character records can have different resources. See Your first weapon for detailed weapon choices and combat setup.
Take stock before spending
A fresh character begins neutral and without equipment. Check your actual cash: the default is 250 Au, but a randomly generated Omegan receives between 0 and 495 Au. Your starting attributes can also make a free guild package available or rule it out. You begin with food already in your stomach, so buying a meal need not be your first expense.[1]
The clock starts at 12:00. Julie's is closed for the entire noon hour, as well as from 21:00 through 06:59. Decide on a guild and locate supplies while waiting for the shop to reopen. This also avoids buying a weapon that a guild would have supplied.[2]
Use M, then ?, to see known establishments. Enter a listed name and press Return to travel there. Useful names include mercenary guild, order of paladins, arena, collegium magii, hospice, armorer and fast food. Shops occupy varying buildings between games. If a shop is missing from the list, explore the streets and read its sign; learning the sign registers it for travel. The city map helps distinguish fixed sites from these changing shop locations.[3]
City travel takes game time and processes ongoing conditions. Nearby hostile monsters can prevent it. Treat it as a convenient way around town, not an escape spell or a way to suspend poison while looking for help.[3]
Choose a starting route
The Legion, Order and Arena are mutually exclusive for a new applicant. Choose their benefits before accepting one of them. These are practical starting options, not a requirement to join every organization you can afford.
| Route | Entry requirement | Immediate benefit | First-day tradeoff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legion of Destiny | Strength at least 10, Constitution at least 12; visit during the day | Short sword, soft leather armor, 500 Au and +1 Strength and Constitution | A straightforward equipped start with cash left for supplies. It closes off Order and Arena registration. |
| Order of Paladins | Positive alignment; no Legion or Arena membership | A fully identified blessed +1 spear and a horse, already mounted | Strong starting equipment and useful return services, but you must maintain a lawful career. No armor is supplied on joining. |
| Arena registration | Strength at least 13, Agility at least 12; no Legion or Order membership | Club, large round shield, 5,000 Au of Gym credit and an extra combat maneuver | Register with r; you need not enter a fight to receive the package. Gym credit cannot buy food or equipment. |
| Collegium Magii | Intelligence at least 13; not a current Circle of Sorcerors member | Membership, +1 Intelligence and Power, and permission for one spell research attempt | Tuition is 1,000 Au unless Intelligence is at least 18, when a scholarship covers it. You still need equipment; a research opportunity is not a guaranteed combat spell. |
| Buy basic equipment first | Enough cash; no guild required | A weapon and armor chosen at Julie's | Keeps your career options open. You pay for supplies and recovery yourself until you arrange another source. |
The packages and admission conditions come from the corresponding guild menus. The Arena's extra maneuver applies to registered members, but it is not automatically inserted into an existing combat sequence.[4]
For the Order route, a neutral character with at least 1 Au can visit the hospice and donate 1 Au. That raises neutral alignment enough to join. It does not meet all later promotion requirements. Returning to the Order with nonpositive alignment can get you expelled and sent to jail, so its recovery services depend on your subsequent conduct.[5]
The Circle of Sorcerors, Thieves' Guild and religions provide other career choices. Follow their individual admission and conduct rules. In particular, you can buy identification from the Thieves' Guild without becoming a member; paying its joining fee is not a prerequisite for checking one uncertain item.[6]
Joining your chosen guild before earning experience lets subsequent gains count toward its progression. Experience earned before joining is not retroactively added to that guild. Additional active guild experience tracks divide later awards, so joining several organizations immediately can slow progress in each.[7]
Buy what the package leaves out
At Julie's, w opens weapons and a opens armor. Ordinary stock is fully identified. A plain dagger costs 10 Au, a flak jacket 10 Au, and soft leather armor 20 Au. A Legion recruit already has a sword and leather; buying another basic weapon immediately is usually a lower priority than food and recovery money. An Order recruit already has a good spear but still has an armor slot to fill.[8]
As a small budget example, a dagger, soft leather armor and two fast-food rations cost 40 Au altogether. This is a starting set, not a claim that every character should use a dagger indefinitely. A character with less cash can take an eligible guild package or start with the cheaper jacket. Compare weapon choices in Your first weapon before spending the rest of your purse on an upgrade.[8][9]
Compare body armor and shields before a larger purchase. Armor absorbs ordinary damage; a shield improves defense against hit checks. Put them in the Armor and Shield slots, and check your total burden. See Defense and protection for the details.[10]
Use i to arrange inventory and check which items are in use. A weapon in the backpack does not help your melee score: place it in Weapon hand and use it. Keep a known weapon while you investigate a dungeon find; putting a cursed weapon into use can leave it stuck. Identification tells you what you have, but does not remove its curse.[11]
Before the first fight, set an explicit attack and defense sequence with F. For a new character's two maneuvers, a c b c Return selects an attack at Center and a defense at Center. Revisit the sequence after Arena registration or changing weapon styles. The ! shortcut is faulty in 0.90.4 and can save only part of the displayed sequence. The details and tradeoffs are explained in Melee attacks.[12]
Carry food and keep a recovery option
Commandant Sonder's, listed as fast food, sells portable rations for 5 Au each and is open around the clock. The Diner instead charges 25 Au for a meal eaten on the spot. Eating there does not put a ration in your pack. Take a small reserve for your trip rather than assuming a full stomach will last indefinitely.[9]
Recovery choices differ in what they actually fix:
| Service | Cost and availability | What it provides |
|---|---|---|
| Healers, a | 50 Au | Restores 20-39 HP, up to maximum. It does not include the separate disease treatment. |
| Healers, b | 250 Au | Clears disease; this is not the poison treatment. |
| Tavern, b | 10 Au, at night | Clears poison and disease. It does not directly restore HP. |
| Tavern, d | 25 Au, at night | Bed and breakfast: clears poison and disease, feeds you and advances the clock by 6-9 hours. It does not directly restore HP. |
| Return to the Order | No charge for an eligible member with positive alignment | Restores HP to maximum, clears poison and disease, provides a meal and replaces a missing mount. It does not remove equipment curses. |
Nighttime runs from 21:00 through 06:59. A treatment that becomes available tonight is not a reason to keep travelling with poison or severe injuries now. The tavern's overnight clock change should not be mistaken for several hours of ordinary resting and healing.[13]
If you depend on paid treatment, retaining 50 Au can be more useful than a small weapon upgrade. If you depend on the Order instead, keep its alignment requirement in mind. Reserve any known healing or escape consumables for a situation where they actually improve your chances; test uncertain finds while you can still obtain help, or pay to identify them first.
Leave with a purpose
After equipping yourself, consult the Oracle. Ring the bell with b and decline the attack prompt. Before you have spoken to the Archdruid, her advice points you toward his forest shrine. Her later directions change with your progress; they provide a reason for your next expedition, not a promise that every destination is safe at level 0.[14]
Before using M to travel to city gates, check that your weapon and armor are in use, your combat sequence includes the actions you intended, and food and emergency items are accessible. Confirm that your health and any ongoing conditions permit a trip. Use the LOCUS map to plan a destination, and return for treatment or resupply when necessary. With confirmation enabled, the gate asks before changing to the countryside.[3][15]
Earlier advice
Rick Garner Sanders's 1995 Omega FAQ recommends choosing a guild before buying equipment, carrying food, and asking the Oracle what to do next. Those priorities fit the 0.90.4 services described here. Its recommendation of the paladins also comes with a version warning: their curse-removal service belongs to older versions, and should not be assumed when planning this opening.[16]
References
- ↑ char.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 16–106 Starting inventory, alignment, cash and food; char.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 550–585 Random character generation.
- ↑ omega.c in Omega 0.90.4, line 113 Initial time; util.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 500–524 Clock and nighttime; site1.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 164–185 Armorer opening hours.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 command3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 1047–1094 City travel; aux3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 801–909 Establishment names and selection; city.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 303–435 Shop assignment; site2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 636–650 Reading shop signs.
- ↑ guild1.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 12–80 Legion admission; guild1.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 300–348 Arena registration; guild2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 671–711 Order admission; guild2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 308–355 College admission; guild2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 438–442 Research opportunity; effect3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 271–307 Research outcomes; aux3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 1168–1181 Maneuver allowance.
- ↑ site2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 1027–1054 Donations; guild2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 671–735 Alignment checks, joining and return services.
- ↑ guild2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 11–97 Nighttime and admission; guild2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 155–196 Identification for members and nonmembers.
- ↑ aux1.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 659–669 Experience distribution.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 site1.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 164–231 Purchases and identification; iinit.h in Omega 0.90.4, lines 174–180 Dagger and short sword; iinit.h in Omega 0.90.4, lines 256–260 Basic armor; aux2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 522–535 Stock valuation.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 site1.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 602–644 Takeaway rations and the Diner.
- ↑ aux1.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 281–350 Equipment, absorption and burden.
- ↑ inv.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 1345–1452 Equipment changes and curse restrictions; aux1.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 281–350 Equipped weapon contribution; effect1.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 494–549 Identification.
- ↑ command3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 597–781 Combat sequence editor; aux2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 636–725 Executing the sequence.
- ↑ site2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 164–191 Healer effects; site1.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 669–801 Tavern menu and overnight branch; guild2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 713–735 Order return services; util.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 520–524 Nighttime.
- ↑ site2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 807–895 Oracle conversation and progress checks.
- ↑ site2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 794–804 Leaving the city.
- ↑ Rick Garner Sanders, Omega FAQ, sections 2a-2c; text updated 20 April 1995, posted 3 October 1995. Executable version not established. Preserved locally as
staging/manuals/omega-0.75-faq.txt.