It's ridiculous how tough it is to be a new player in this mod, especially now. I've tried to get some of my buddies to play, even telling them that they'll get destroyed for a LONG time before being able to do anything, but they simply couldn't bare it. I can't even imagine being an individual just now finding out about this mod (through Youtube or something), and trying to play. You'd get dominated so hard and it would really crush any motivation to keep playing. The majority of players still remaining in this mod have been playing for quite some time now, so we're not only ahead of the game skill-wise, we have higher-level characters with loomed gear. It's not like some regular FPS game where you can pick it up pretty quick, we're talking about a rare breed medieval combat game. The learning curve is so steep. Most people don't have much or any experience at all with this type of game. We have an insane advantage over them. It's inevitably going to be overwhelming for noobs.
I think a player's first character should start out at level 20 (25?), with 20,000 gold and a display/tutorial, suggesting to try out one of a few popular builds. Maybe 21/18 2H, tell them what character statistics they should select, explain what they mean, suggest medium armor + a bastard sword.
I've thought about this a lot, there's so many things they could do to help out new players. If anything, at least have a message displayed telling them what they're getting into. I feel like some noobs just walk into this mod blindfolded expecting to be a medieval knight ready to take on the world. I've been enjoying these patches and item additions lately, but this kind of change (a change helping new players stick with the mod) is long overdue...
But what do I know, I'm just Testi.