Arcus....dont EVER dis the pandaren again *glares*

as for weather effects, they're fine as is. Yes, the hurricanes horrible as is the heavy snow, but they're meant to be horrible. when was the last time you went strollin through a hurricane without a care in the world? ;p

I'm not obsessed with Cute things......I just like them better then everything else <3

And after that, if you do -rv you can still have a ways to walk to get back to colo, spending a good MINUTE to get there. It's far too strong, and Heavy Snow is arguable which is worse.

In short, the game is biased against new players. Of course, in a sense, that is perfectly reasonable - it is a save/load RPG, after all! But I don't just mean biased in a power disparity - biased in a knowledge disparity. To effectively learn to play the game if you're just starting out from scratch with no prior experience, you have to take the time to learn about it if you don't want to level at a rate of one level per hour. While this wouldn't be a problem, there is a fair bit to learn compared to your typical WC map, which will set off most players, who are used to easy maps like DotA. Quite a bit of info is provided, but most people are too impatient to read it, and those that do still have to deal with the frustration of skimming through the item shops around town to find the items that are actually useful/cost-efficient (as opposed to the ones that are junk). Once that's finally done, you have to find a safe place to plant your house (which will get razed by the Dark Savior if not placed behind a closed gate, another thing that isn't mentioned).

Now that I've (hopefully) made my point, some things I think might help:

A: First and foremost, redesign the town. Not necessarily anything in the way of terrain changes, but mostly cleaning up the various item shops. Leave in the items that are useful/cost-efficient, and remove or change the ones that have no place (seriously, a three-charge banner that heals 200 HP and 50 mana?).
B: Provide more early options against the weather, since there are far more negative than positive effects.
C: Increase the usefulness of houses/nations for low-leveled players, and, if possible, describe them better in the item shop.
D: Remove (or severely nerf) the Goddesses' abilities that have global range.
E: Remove the Dark Savior if anyone creates a new character, only spawning him once all players are above level X (either 50 or 100). Or, at the very least, give some warning besides a quest that the players may/may not pick up.
F: An early-game quest or two might be useful to give the players some direction.

That's all that comes to mind at the moment. Will edit/post again later if I remember anything else.

Many things in Normal World need a nerf, and after you're level 600 on a PR, it needs to be rigged. It's sad, that it has to be so opposite. Plus, he's right, there is next to nothing in Quests that's very uesful. Most of it is cut off, is version change info, doesn't give anything useful, or is "Quest not found". The thing about how to save/load is known by just about anyone, and credits to who's save system you're using? That's probably back from PoM! It needs a serious overhaul, and yeah, the town needs a redo as well. I mean, "Armor of Woa", 30 armor and "slight" hp/mana boosts? First, this is useless because it's overpriced, and Dragoon Armor is better. Second, it doesn't even say how much Hp/mana boost it is, and I have no idea, but I know that there is far better. Also, there are several things at the Armor Shop with the same bonuses, different costs, and no level requirement. On top of this, most of the shops have useless items (give a reason to use a Staff of Preservation, and I'll laugh in your face until I pass out from laughing so much. Or the dumb healing potions, NOBODY uses those, and if they do, it's a waste of cash!)

In short, it needs some serious work, not as much as Chaotic World would take to make, but it might now due to how bad it's gotten. (Seriously, I mean, I'd love to get a Horse Boost early on for many characters [some MS, mana regen, little armor] but I can't buy it. Yet, we sell Claws of Lightning, which are useless compared to the Firey Claws, which are the SAME price, and are more damage! What's the point in THAT? Oh, but wait, you can't level anyway since there's no exp gain, and a half-hidden thing in Quests about Houses, and you can't find the Houses, and when you do, you can't afford them, because you bought Firey Claws to kill the trolls, which give no exp, to loop this.)

Also, as much as I like a good discussion, I will give ONE warning to not only stay on topic, but if I see a single post flaming another persons idea or opinion, then I WILL close this thread.

I understand your argument, but it's not what I'm getting at.
(I'm assuming this was not your first time playing, thus you already knew what you were doing and how to level quickly/what to do to that end.)
I'm not talking about the game being biased against old players who are making new characters. I'm talking about completely new people - first-timers to CoT who have never made a character before (and have probably never even seen the map before). If you or I were to make a new character, it would be relatively simple because we already know what to do and where to go to get off to a running start. It's not harsh because we know what we're doing. Now imagine a first-timer playing.

....And I'd even written an awesome commentary, too, but the message text was too long for me to post it up. I suppose I can upload it to mediafire, for anyone who's curious/wants a laugh:
http://www.mediafire.com/?x8eh84po1gavie6

if you feel that im flaming you then feel free to permaban me..im sick of this already..

Then when they type -help a message pop up that give short explenation on what to do next for them to get more xp, like buy a house, and to buy nation if they want to farm more quickly and gain income for buying items and tomes etc.

And give short explenation on where to start farming, like trolls, spider etc.

And write about despawning, that new people should move away from creeps spawn so it wont dissapear. Just to give them a head start?

Think this would be the easiest for now with a quick fix, instead of reworking whole map with gods, the items in town etc etc... That will take quite some time and can maybe be later fixed if needed.