returning vet

@TURGENEV - Freedom Server / IRON / B.A.N.E / HORDE

Turg Fiction: Ghost in the Machine Acts III & IV coming 2012!
Turg Fiction: IX is now LIVE on Architect Entertainment!

Keyboard stuff:
My first thing I'd suggest it turn off autorun. It's either B or R. /bind [key] nop will remove that keybind. There is a massive collection of useful binds here in the guides.
Other than that Ctrl+ and Alt+ 1-9 will use the alternate trays. For UI setup ideas, take a look at some of the screenshots around here. Though some setups I can't imagine how the person can actually play with it like that.
I bind the alternate+ bar to my numpad keys. I also keep a tray at tthe top of my screen with tp powers, self destruct, and mystic fortune, etc.

Trading:
Check out the Marketing forum. Buy low, sell high.

Good -> Evil:
Once above level 20 you'll start having Tips show up. Under contacts there is a tab for Tips. Pick them and pick which direction you want to go. You can get up to 5 mishs toward your 10 to change over to the next step each day. Once you have 10 total, say Vigilante points, you get an alignment mission. Run it and you'll change from Hero to Vigilante. Then you have access to everything except the villain Ouroboros. Visiting Redside, get tips, run 10, change to villain. Same thing in reverse.

Get out of AP and start a team.

@TURGENEV - Freedom Server / IRON / B.A.N.E / HORDE

Turg Fiction: Ghost in the Machine Acts III & IV coming 2012!
Turg Fiction: IX is now LIVE on Architect Entertainment!

Get out of Atlas park.

If you're in your 20s, head to Talos Island. The train goes nearly everywhere these days, except Parigrine Island, which kind of suffers the same farmyness as Atlas, but at about 30%. And there are no broadcast spammers there.

Like Turg said, starting your own team will really help you. I know it's daunting, but after you get on some teams it'll be easy to understand that it's nothing.

To get on a team, obviously broadcast "lv 20 scrapper lft" or LF Tips if that's what you want. But you'd want to be in talos for that. And leading a team, you'd have to be in Talos.

You don't nessesarily have to make "a team." Often I'll join up with a person who just broadcast "Need a few to help with mishs."

Team Leader:
1. You may want to read the guide listed in the Guide to Guides in the guide section here. It was really valuable to me.
2. Get some missions up or tips or a radio to get mishs.
3. "Lv 20 tip team forming pst" PST means please send tel, or private message. Though generally you can pick up people who are just LFT. Also using the search to find people is good, better in fact. That way you can make sure you have an aggro holder. I like picking up controllers. "Control is better than damage."
4. Set the mishs quickly. No one likes to stand around.
5. Don't level up. Period. During the time you're a leader. Your job is to set up mishs. Once in them, you're just there. I'll often say "Jojo, you're lead tank." and that's that. You're the leader, you just delegated authority.
6. Say things like gj and always cg when someone levels. You're going to set the tone for your team. Even if you don't want to type much, a little ty or gj goes a long way.
7. "omw" or "getting more" is something people want to hear when the inevitable standing around happens.

All this is in the guide, and put forward better. It even mentions the drop/tel you do when you get a person who dcs or something when you're leaving a mish.

To play with some good players who know what they're doing, sign up for Meg/Mr.E/Luna's stuff. That's most of what I play these days. There's also the fire/radiation controllers which meet at 8pm on the dirt hill in Talos every monday and the Dual Pistol team which is on Thursday nights. A plant superteam runs at 1pm on Saturdays but their time moves around a lot. And I know that Hyperstrike and WT[something] who run the frads and plants, respectively, are really polite and will look for you once you have been with them a few times.

OK, that's a long message.

Just ask in Atlas for a SG. Usually some recruiting there. When I was new, I joined several SGs and found one that I liked.
Unfortunately, not everyone uses vent because their PCs don't even have mics. If you end up teaming, you may need to have the team chat window open so you can see the leader's instructions.
Other folks have given excellent suggestions. If you are not sure which zone to level in, go to the nearest train station (T) on the map, and the zone list shows the corresponding level range.