I’ve just gotten onboard the alpha, and I’ve never played SS13. I’ve tried joining a couple of servers, but I’m quickly met with a tidal wave of information as well as learning that each server seems to run different content, a la gary’s mod.
Are there any good ways to get the foundational experience without too much prior knowledge? beginner friendly servers, or roles one can pick on servers that don’t demand too much, for instance?
Your best bet for a beginner server is Lizard on Wizden. It gets a bit chaotic(very chaotic) but taking a service role like jani will help familiarize you with departments, game flow, and mechanics. Plus nobody can be mad at a janitor. Make sure to read the rules twice over. Watch Liltenhead videos for good guides on lots of different game mechanics, read up on the wiki(admittedly a bit behind on information), but the guidebook in-game is also an option.
DO NOT BE AFRAID TO ASK FOR HELP.
If you need help with an OOC(out of character) thing such as controls or information about antagonists, use LOOC chat (you can use tab to switch chats or just use “(” before your message). if you need help with something IC, like where departments are or who your boss is, use local chat or your radio comms ( “;” for common channel, the green chat)
if you are completely blindsided and uncertain how to go about things and you want to try and test things out yourself with no rules or roleplay yet, try a localhost server. it’s relatively easy to setup using this guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDBqrAGZ3cA&ab_channel=Vasilis
Unpopular opinion, but asking about antagonists in character is way more fun. I once had a bartender trainee that was a beginner at the game too, and after red alert and nukies were called, i got to explain to them what they were, and they they want to blow up NT personnel. They had just enough time to type “oh, i see” and we got china laked lol
Starting Lizard, moving out of lizard when you can to one of the other LRP servers and Id start with Janitor. it helps you learn the station maps and is fairly intuative. when your comfortable with that I’d encoruge you to pick one of sci, cargo, engi or med departments. once in department find your head of department (QM, RD, CMO, CE) and tell them its your first shift as and ask for help for what to do and most command will show you the ropes. might be worth late joining to ensure a head of department exists if its at low pop times.
I’d encoruge disabling antags until you get a grasp on the base systems and turning it on when you feel comfortable.
I must add: nukies have a metashield now. So you cannot talk about them as a matter of fact. They are essentially a myth as far as crew is concerned.
The reason is that people do not think “What if we get attacked by nukies!” and use it as an excuse to arm up if anything related to them happens. But you can still talk about them as the myth they are.
Play any wizden LRP till you have the hours for mander MRP, then get whitelisted there. Less rush on everyone doing wild shenanagans/ignoring their jobs, more time to learn.
The way I learned was medical till i gained access to chem, giving me access to understand how to help myself when hurt.
Then cargo to understand crafting and how departments work together.
Then science to see why the fuck they needed all the mats.
Then Engineering to see how i can fix my fuckups in science myself.
Lastly sec so i could better understand the dos and donts around legality.
Then I went back through and learned the “advanced” roles like chem and salvage that i missed for a more complete view, followed by command.
After all that i started playing antags for the gimics.
Pick and chose how your path goes, but wizden servers have the tightest features being the “baseline” making it easier to learn. Med+cargo have the most beginner friendly “mainline” jobs, because while you may get lost with civilian job goals, cargo has a literal list of things to do, and if you dont have someone to heal in med, you can learn about chem, cryo, what to do when someone is burning, or something else.
I dont recomend rolling antags till you have a basline understanding of each deoartment+command, because it gets a little confusing.