Questions from a new player

[Cypher]

Hi there,
I'm a new player, and was wondering a few things.
1. How do current players decide where they wish to purchase a plot? What are some of the things you would consider before choosing to buy in a particular area? I see plots everyhwhere, but wouldn't know what to consider when I'm ready to buy one. What is the largest plot size in the RCI range? Also, I see a list of guild lots listed under community lots. Are these only purchasable by players in that guild, or is it for everyone? If I purchase a plot, is that the final price, or are their maintenance(or rent) costs involved?
2.My adventure character is a mage. In terms of armor, I can only assume that I would wear light armor. But which line of armor specifically should I focus on?
3.I see 'Blight' stuff for sale on the connies. Can someone direct me to some info. on where I can get these, so that I can also make blight stuff.
4.When I traded my blue ornaments in, I received 3 gifts. A couple of them were items where I could add 500 crafting xp. How do I use these? And if I use it, is it once only, or repeatable?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. So far, I'm thoroughly enjoying the game, and have met some really nice players. One of my fave aspects is being able to multi-skill. I think one of my least fave is the huge gap between how much silver I have, to how much plots cost, lol. Anyway, I'll get there, and owning a plot is something I'll look forward to.
Cheers

[Tigris]

1. How do current players decide where they wish to purchase a plot? What are some of the things you would consider before choosing to buy in a particular area? I see plots everyhwhere, but wouldn't know what to consider when I'm ready to buy one. What is the largest plot size in the RCI range? Also, I see a list of guild lots listed under community lots. Are these only purchasable by players in that guild, or is it for everyone? If I purchase a plot, is that the final price, or are their maintenance(or rent) costs involved?

Personal preferences. Some plots are part of guilds and group together. Others just pick a location they like. Personally I look for size per unit cost.

2.My adventure character is a mage. In terms of armor, I can only assume that I would wear light armor. But which line of armor specifically should I focus on?

Mages are limited to the cloth line.

01: Flax
11: Padded Flax
21: Kenaf
31: Padded Kenaf
41: cotton
51: Padded Cotton
61: Silk
71: Padded Silk
81: Ironsilk
91: Padded Ironsilk
100: Steelsilk

That's the line of armor you'd focus on.

3.I see 'Blight' stuff for sale on the connies. Can someone direct me to some info. on where I can get these, so that I can also make blight stuff.

Most Blighted Equipment comes from loot drops and the effects on them tends to be quite random and have limited charges.

4.When I traded my blue ornaments in, I received 3 gifts. A couple of them were items where I could add 500 crafting xp. How do I use these? And if I use it, is it once only, or repeatable?

If they are crystals, they have 2 uses. 1. slotting into a socketed tool for enhancing that tool, or 2. a one time use, consuming the crystal, giving you crafting XP and a buff for a time.

[Varangaard]

Bit more on blighted stuff: sometimes you can loot formulae for these blighted items, enabling you to craft them yourself - if you have the requisite craft skills. Besides the usual resources necessary to build an unbligthed version, blighted things require blight cores, which you can get either by deconstructing existing blighted items (right click -> deconstruct; again you need enough skill to decon) or by looting blighted essence from undead and using a blight core formula to shape that into blight cores (once again, some skill is needed). Blighted items cannot be teched. Instead, they acquire random properties that can have a positive or negative effect - or both. These follow the usual technique pattern. Tiers 1-2 items take on one effect, tiers 3-4 two effects and tier 5 three effects. Because some effects have combined negative and positive effect, sometimes it may look as if the item has more than that.

Crystal craft and/or adventure exp bonus is awarded when you consume the crystal (right click -> use). You can repeat this when you find another such crystal.

[Cypher]

Thanks alot for all your help.
Cheers

[C`gan]

Hi there,
I'm a new player, and was wondering a few things.
1. How do current players decide where they wish to purchase a plot? What are some of the things you would consider before choosing to buy in a particular area? I see plots everyhwhere, but wouldn't know what to consider when I'm ready to buy one. What is the largest plot size in the RCI range? Also, I see a list of guild lots listed under community lots. Are these only purchasable by players in that guild, or is it for everyone? If I purchase a plot, is that the final price, or are their maintenance(or rent) costs involved?

Where to purchase can be a matter of things: does your guild have members in that area? is that area plentiful with resources you think you'll use often (for a mage, stone for spell shards or wisps for essence, for instance)? what do you think you want to put there (there is an Excel spreadsheet set uphttp://community.istaria.com/Web/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2459 that allows you to roughly plan a plot of whatever size)? is it a high-traffic area for selling products (racial towns, Bristugo, Harro)? is it pretty (yes, some people buy plots based on surroundings)? are there both portal and pad nearby? what is the size of plot you're after (in case you want to expand services there)?

Some of those questions may be strong motivators for certain plots. For instance, my plot in Acul is 60x60. I got it because my guild is there. I wanted a plot where I could have all 6 construction halls, a house, and a place to meet clients. I also wanted a nice wall set up that I've always managed to have since my first plot design, and maybe some nice archway and hedges. I was able to do all that plus add a pawnbroker and consigner, tier 2. Once I have the buildings finished, I'll be adding my second phase touches: trees, walkways, other niceties besides my archway and hedges already there.