Ok.. here's a list of suggestions I have, while they are still fresh in my mind.

1. Changes to Rainbows

I'll just come out and say it.. rainbow items aren't visually appealing to me. When they drop, the only way to recognize them is by pressing ALT, and once you're wearing them, they don't look much more special than your other gear. I suggest a glow effect when on the ground, and either better looking designs or another glow effect for the actual gear.

2. In-Game Screenshots

Small suggestion; would come in handy. You press a button or series of buttons (e.g. Shift + F12 or PrintSCRN) and a screenshot of your screen will be taken and saved to a folder withink the DR folders. Programs like Fraps and X-Fire do this for you , as well as the classic "PrintSCRN and go paste in paint", but having this in-game would eliminate the extre need for another program or alt+tabbing the game.

3. A more visual training/faq via NPCs

Let's face it. In today's world of gaming and especially MMO playing, fewer and fewer people bother to look at the FAQ/tutorial/help sections of games. They just like to go right to playing and into the action. The current system for Help Menu, F1, /help, etc, is very helpful and informative, but no matter how informative it is, some people are still going to skip it and go right into the game, and eventually clog up world chat with stereotypical newplayer questions. I think putting these help hints into NPC form in places like the Dew Valley Forest will help those that don't bother to look at the help file. These NPCs are more visual ways of getting the player to click and learn. Maybe 2-3 cleverly named NPCs per level of Dew Valley Forest would do the trick. This is a more visual way of getting the player to learn the game, and answering typical new player questions that get asked in world chat by those who didn't read the help file. Here's a list of the topics I see questions for most often:

1. Resetting a Dungeon
2. Changing Difficulty (make sure they know it doesn't change EXP)
3. Membership (maybe the npc will tell you how much it is, some basic benefits, and the site to check the full info out)
4. Where the Bank is
5. How and where to PVP (a little blurb telling them how to locate the server, quick tidbit on how it works)
6. How to get new skills and upgrade current ones
7. How to group/How to form a group/How it affects things

4. Labeled Map of Townston

When you press the Tab button, a pre-explored map of Townston appears. Currently, it only shows the terrain, 2 dots for each dungeon, where you are and where you're looking, and the obelisk. The map would be much more help especially for new players if it was more user-friendly. I suggest markings for all the NPCs, labels when you hover over the dot with your mouse that tells you who it is, what the npc does, etc; Larger markings for dungeon entrances, and what ever else you can think of in Townston that could be labeled.

These are my suggestions so far! Please read and review! I'll probably add more later when I think of them.

-Goya

it seems to me that #4 and 6 are already in the game in the form of quests. (the early running around talking to people part). i think part of the problem might be the number of people who dont read the quest text beyond 'Kill 1984764 of x'.

Hmm... perhaps a mentor system? I'm not talking full blown out of proportion xp to the mentor and apprentices he takes on but something simple like a newbie channel, rather then the world. World being where most of are looking for groups. Most of us that are hardcore have free time and don't mind power leveling, let alone helping the new to start out with the basic Q&As.
Newbie channel would be ideal.