Couple of noob questions [Archive] - Official Neocron Forum

olgeezer

02-05-07, 21:07

Just downloaded today and did the tutorial. Strange game! I like it though. I'm personally sick of all the fantasy games. And while browsing for something different found Neocron. However what really sparked my interest is that someone mentioned Deus Ex when talking about the game. My personal favorite game ever, even today. And when I rode the lift thingy at the end of the tutorial, man oh man, it was System Shock 2 almost to a tee. Good stuff!

Anyway, couple of questions. Is the PvE really so bad in the game? I'm not against PvP really, just that I played some GW and after the PvE portion of the game started doing some PvP, and TBH, couldn't take all the "Fkin noob! you suck! I pwned you!" comments. No offense to anyone just not my style. I did do some PvP in an early version of MOA, which was fun because we actually used strategy rather than just running around like chickens with our heads cut off. However since then stayed away from it.

So are there any PvE guilds, or is the game basically PvP? And could the PvE keep me busy for a least a couple of months if I decide to buy the game? Because the game does have that Cyberpunk feeling which is freaking great. Even the Deus Ex type graphics lol, which I actually think fit the game.

Oh and one more thing. I came across a weapons locker near the end of the tutorial as well, and couldn't figure out how to open it. Is it possible? I figured maybe I could hack it but guess not.

Thanks for any replies.

ridec

02-05-07, 21:11

I wouldn't say there is a lot of PvE, but therefore there is a lot of PvP and Roleplaying in the game ... If that can tempt :-).

Vryce

02-05-07, 22:38

Just downloaded today and did the tutorial. Strange game! I like it though...............

Anyway, couple of questions. Is the PvE really so bad in the game? I'm not against PvP really .................

So are there any PvE guilds, or is the game basically PvP? And could the PvE keep me busy for a least a couple of months if I decide to buy the game?

Oh and one more thing. I came across a weapons locker near the end of the tutorial as well, and couldn't figure out how to open it. Is it possible? I figured maybe I could hack it but guess not.

Thanks for any replies.

Hey geezer, Welcome to Neocron!

There've been some changes to PvE (and PvP) since 2.2, but, as far as keeping your interest, all I can say is I've been here almost 4 years, doing mostly PvE (of course, I may just be nuts, too :p). Most people agree, tho, that the main point of NC is PvP, but I personally can't address those issues (my ping is over 800, on a good day :( ).

As far as Guilds, in NC they are Clans, and yes, they are as varied in their interests as their members, tho most will be PvP oriented.

Weapons/ammo/other boxes need to be hacked; most can be done with a minimum of 20 in your "hack" skill, using a basic tl30 tool. The tutorial is just that, something to whet your appetite for NC.

Napalm82

02-05-07, 23:11

PvE aint so bad as people say it is, as a new face to NeoCron you cannot judge it against how it used to be (Which was very easy)

I often help new players with weapons and questions and whatnot and the ones i have talked to have not complained about the PvE aspect of the game (There have been some complaints about a few bugs tho)

And yes, it really gives a Deus Ex / System Shock feel which i cannot find in any other game, especially when you feel you have done what you should do in the city and decide to venture out into the wastelands, when thoose great gates of NeoCron city opens up you really believe you are going somewhere with this :D

Since you are not confused about the tutorial i have to ask if you were playing the right one (Or if your just a bit smarter than the average new-commer who cannot understand the ending) so, did you play the tutorial within NeoCron 2.2 or the offline version (The offline version was for the old old NeoCron 1 and does in no way resemble how NC is today

When you do join leave a charecter name here so some of us can get in contact with you, i'll gladly supply you with weaponry if you become a proud pro-city Runner (A char who starts in NeoCron oposed to "Dome of York" or "Military Base")

- Napalm

D31C1D3

03-05-07, 00:37

/derail

I played system shock 2 AFTER I had played Neocron for about a year. When I first booted up SS2 and I saw an NC-like targeting box and grav lift, I fell in love. SS2 is damn awesome, and also abandonware!

http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?gameid=3924

/derail

Napalm82

03-05-07, 00:50

Aye, and great fun in multiplayer

- Napalm

olgeezer

03-05-07, 03:04

Thanks for the replies.

I'm not sure if I played the online tutorial or not. It told me it would be advisible to do it, so I did. Didn't seem that hard to me, however now that I've left that area, and into the actual game, I believe it is going to be quite hard for me to get the hang of it. Didn't realize the skill system would be so complex. ( I love it!). So I probably will be asking a lot of questions in-game haha.

I just got into the very first area and was told about my "profession" being a spy. I then started reading from the comp on the wall area, (forgot what they call it). Anyway some people hate reading text in a game, but I personally love it and at least right now, there's plenty of it. I don't know how much story there will be later, but it does seem like they give you a fairly extensive backstory on the game which is great. Of course then my wife came in and started yappin at me so had to get off.

Anyway, hope to see you guys in the game.

BTW; I just played SS2 for only the second time since the game came out a couple of months ago, and it's pretty close to Deus Ex as far as gameplay and story. Damn good game, and freaking scary to boot!

Dribble Joy

03-05-07, 03:13

Excellent :).

I would advise you leave the beginning area, either follow signs to the GeneReplicator or hit F9, select Necron Services, then genereplicator then hit start. An arrow will appear, just follow it. As long as you have 100nc you can then port to your appartment. Then hit the low level sewers.

SorkZmok

03-05-07, 09:34

To find your way around, here's some maps. It's in german and some maps are a bit old but they should still help you out.

http://mib.r-appert.ch/downloads/maps.html

The sewers DJ is talking about are spread over the various Plaza and Via Rosso zones. I suggest you start in Plaza 3, near the zoneline to Plaza 1 there's a sewer entrance where you can start leveling.

Matanius

03-05-07, 09:37

Anyway some people hate reading text in a game, but I personally love it and at least right now, there's plenty of it. I don't know how much story there will be later, but it does seem like they give you a fairly extensive backstory on the game which is great.

If you like reading back story, check out the official Neocron History if you haven't already: http://ng.neocron.com/index.php?id=34#157 Very long! I copied and pasted it into a word document once, 26 pages :P

Anyway, hope u enjoy the game, like Napalm said post your name on here so we can try and help you out ;)

William Antrim

03-05-07, 14:39

Welcome aboard new guy, Guild wars is a game that had so much potential in terms of PvE but the pvp element is sadly lacking. The people who play it do so because they suck at fps games im afraid. I played nightfall for 3 months and got 3/4 of the way through the quests and got bored and came back to nc.

olgeezer

03-05-07, 17:19

Well I can tell you guys this. I may have not had problems with the tutorial but am pretty confused right now.

Right after the tutorial I went and talked to the people milling about in that area, and was told to get some chips for the security guy. My problem is I have no idea where to go. So I walked around for a bit and figured I'd get back to it later. I then looked in my email and saw something about one of my first tasks as a spy was to go to Biotech, so I turned on the Navray thing.

So... I activate that thing and I see the arrow and it's pointing outside so I go outside. As soon as I get out, the arrow is pointing back in! So I go in. Then out. In. Out. In. Like Clockwork Orange. The ol in-out lol.

So I go back out, wander around for a bit and find the replicator figuring I could use that to get to Biotech. However when I try and use it, I'm told it's appears to not be working! So I wander around some more and find what I think is the place for the chips. But as soon as I get in there, I get attacked by these funky looking guys! They are doing some serious dmg, so I hightailed it out of there pretty quick.

So I go wander again and come across another player. He attacks me! Of course I have my chip in there so he can't hurt me haha. Anyway, we start talking and he gives me some advice and explains some stuff to me which is good at this point I can tell ya. I ask him how to get to Biotech and he says I don't need to go there right now. We then go into some cave and there are all these spiders and weird creatures in there. He's lobbing grenades at em and I'm slashing them with my trusty knife, which is all I have right now.

Now this part of the game wasn't really to my liking as it seemed kind of like any other MMO. Hack slash, hack slash. But not too bad and I did get 3 more levels in Dex. I believe. Definately a good thing, as I think I only need a couple more to use a pistol. Ah well, I suppose there has to be some grinding no matter what game you play.

I know, long boring read, but it was kind of fun rehashing it and now that it's fresh in my mind I'm going back in!

Napalm82

03-05-07, 18:12

He he, i can understand your confusion, so i'll try to be as informative as i can be.

The guy who wanted some defective robot chips is talking about the robot guards inside the Energy Cores (When you come down the ramp from the "main building" go right and you'll see a ladder up and a metal door leading into the mountain, thats one of the cores) 4 chips will get you 3000 credits, so it might be worthwhile doing that mission a couple of times to make some starting cash.

About you nav-ray problem, then yeah, its a bit buggy in MC5 and the only way to get to your faction HQ is to use the gene replicator to the city (IE: your apartment)

About your gene replicator problem: it was probably an issue because you tried to "Activate" it, since you cannot get back to MC5 once you leave you cannot activate the gene replicator, when you feel you'd like to leave use the replicator, select your apartment and select "teleport" this will cost you 1000 credits.

I do hope you'll pack up and come to the city soon, the MC5 area gives a poor impresion of the game and is mostly empty.

- Napalm

Matanius

03-05-07, 18:38

LOL, that was exactly why the GR wasn't working.

Anyway, he's in NC now. I just jumped in and helped him get out and showed him to the HQ etc. Even tried to give him some money to help him out but he said 'no' the stubborn bastard! lol, j/k.

olgeezer

03-05-07, 19:32

Haha. Very funny guys!

Ok OK. So I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer. What is there, a crime against that????

Nah, just screwin with you guys. This game is pretty cool actually and I'm finding it a lot of fun. I've done a couple of missions now and trying to decide where to put those precious skill points. I've already put a few in hack and some in weapon lore.

I'm sure I'll be asking a lot of questions on the "help" channel because now I'm not sure where to put skill points right now.

BTW thx for the help Mat.

Napalm82

03-05-07, 19:45

Sadly yet again i find that i dont have the time to indulge my NeoCrack addiction today, however you seem to be on around the evening GMT+1 time which is about the same for me, if you leave a charecter name here or in a private mesage i'll make you some weapons tomorow (Hooray for days off :lol: ) and if badly needed something to get you around the wastelands with (Or just fly you myself)

- Napalm

Matanius

03-05-07, 20:09

Don't ever except help from this guy, just look at his location, says it all :lol:

Nah, just kidding, he's helped me out a lot, many other people too, he just can't help it. BTW Jack (or whatever your real name is :p ) his name is Gisgard.

olgeezer

03-05-07, 23:00

Mmmm.. Name is Napalm huh?

I don't know. Sounds kind of suspisious to me. Are you sure you won't nuke me as soon as I see you?

Ha! Just kidding. Thanks for your offer of help. Think I'm gonna need. Well I am going to need it obviously. More to the game than I intially thought.

Anyways my plan is to become the best freaking hacker Neocron has ever seen. I doubt it will happen but that's my plan.

My in-game name is Gisgard as Mat said, so if you guys see me throw me a shout.

Napalm82

04-05-07, 20:28

Tried catching you a couple of times today but with no luck, i'll try again tomorow tho, and the day after...and the day after...you cannot escape my helping hand, even if you want to!

- Napalm

William Antrim

04-05-07, 21:04

Napalm is different to nukes, at least you get to see it coming.

"Ever seen fire in zero gravity? its beautiful. It just comes at you in waves, wave after wave it just slides all over everything....."

A cookie if you can name the film.

Matanius

04-05-07, 22:23

'Event Horizon' now where's that cookie? :p

olgeezer

04-05-07, 22:55

This game is starting to drive me crazy!

So I get a mission from this Jones character. He says go get the password. Very simple he told me. Just turn on your navray which I did. No problem. Follow it to the subway. (love that animation btw), and get off at Pepper Station. OK so far so good.

Now here I am in Pepper Station. Mmmm... what now? Well I do see the SS2 type lifts so I go up one and start walking around. There's 2 ways to go, so I try one way and it brings me to Pepper sec 2. Well I want Pepper sec 3. I figure, wrong way. So I turn around and hoof around the other way. Ooops. This one says Pepper sec 1. Now I'm confused!

I ask for help and get it. Very good. I had no idea that to get to Pepper sec 3, I had to go through the other sections. Anyway I thank this person and they take off. I find the guy with the password. And he says to find some data highway. It's easy.. Just turn on your navray. Well when I tried to turn it back on I was told I couldn't.

So I go back to the subway and get lost! Finally figured out how to get out of there and after much trial and error found the Small Data terminal. So I click on it. And nothing! Ah I thought to myself. I need to hack it. I mean I am a hacker. So I try to hack. I have no idea what I'm doing! So I stopped for the night.

I dunno. I REALLY want to like the game and think I would if I could figure it out, but it doesn't seem very intuitive for a newb like myself. Plus I hate to keep asking people for help. I feel like a fool lol.

Anyway, I'm going to keep plugging at it.

Matanius

04-05-07, 23:05

Well I'm glad your gonna keep going at it. This game can be hard to figure out at first and the grind at the beginning can really put some people off. But keep going, the NeoCrack will hit you soon enough! :P

Btw, did you check out that site I told you about? www.techhaven.org

And here is the guide to hacking from the same site, it's a long read but it really helps: http://www.techhaven.org/resources/neocron-info/hacking-guide.html

olgeezer

05-05-07, 03:04

I did check out that site and glad I did. Lots of good stuff in there. And I did see the menu on the right with a run down of quests and skills. I didn't want to start going through it too much as I'd rather find out stuff in-game, but I'm so confused think I'm going to have to.

Anyways, played a bit today and went into some sewer, fell into the water and now I'm stuck! I can't get out so I asked someone in the game and was told I needed to get a GM to get me out of there. I'm going to log in around 10:00 tonight and see if I can't get the hell out.

Thanks for the info.

cMz

05-05-07, 03:21

If you are stuck somewhere, you can try the command to move your char to the spawnpoint of the sector.

Type
/set reset_position 1
and wait for about 2 minutes, and you will be moved to the spawnpoint.

If you type the command, and can not move after, the timer has started counting. If you can still move, use the command again.

You can also killl yourself with a command (/set kill_self 1), but usually the reset_position command is enough to get unstuck.

olgeezer

05-05-07, 07:35

Thx for the info.. I logged back in later and one of the GM's put me back in my apt. I'll keep it in mind though.

Napalm82

05-05-07, 13:11

I just cant seem to catch you online :( whats your timezone?

- Napalm

olgeezer

05-05-07, 18:25

I"m on the East Coast in the US.

I created a new char last night (Jakson), and played from 10 till 3 in the freaking morning! Idiot that I am. I tried to complete the quests for the chips you need to get, and the parts for someone. First I went into the "strange cave" lol. And got some XP killing critters in there and made a few bucks.

I then tried to kill the droids in the security places, and was having a very hard time. So I went and saw the traders and bought a stilleto and got ripped off. I payed almost 3000. Ah well. Anyway I found a security joint, and finally killed the two droids thinking I was going to get at least one chip. But noooo!

So I went and bought some of those strength boosters and went into another security place and killed two more droids. No chips! So now, ( a broken man), I figure I'd go to my apt and went to the teleporter thingy, however I didn't have enough cash. Hoo boy. Anyway, I was only like 60 short and figured I'd go kill a critter roaming around the area. I found this snake, hit him a couple of times with my "uber" expensive stilleto and Wham!, all of a sudden I was dead. I was pissed becasue I had been so careful.

Long story short. I limped back out to the battleground and had a tough time with some critter that kept poisioning me. BTW; my avatar in the right corner was kind of "grayed out" throughout my whole body, and my health was degenerating really fast. WTF is that??? I finally did kill the poisoning critter and almost dead, made it to the teleporter. I went through and made it to my swanky apartment. Did I say swanky? The place was a God damn dump! Maybe because I joined some mafia type organization. So... go outside and there's my good friend Mr. Jones. Good ol Jonesy! Finally a friendly face haha.

So off I go now into the cruel world of Neocron, (as my advisor told me) with 10 cash in my pocket to go see my faction leader.

It was a tough 5 hrs.

Napalm82

05-05-07, 18:45

Sounds like you had your first encounter with Synaptic Impairment (A temporary state where all your skills are lowered, it comes after teleporting or getting killed)

Also, when you call your apartment a dump i asume you joined a anti faction (Starting in Dome of York)

Anyways, i'll keep trying to contact you :D

- Napalm

james_finn

05-05-07, 18:52

with regards to hacking another nice little guide is http://www.nc-wiki.com/Hacking

Neocron is one of the hardest learning curves Ive ever played, even now when I play I sometimes have to ask questions :P And Ive been playing since beta 4.

/Delphi

olgeezer

05-05-07, 20:08

Yes my apt is a dump!

I joined something called the Black something or others. As a matter of fact when I first arrived in MC5 they were all bitching at me to get the hell out of there or they were going to call security.

After my ritzy pad being part of Biotech, I was a bit let down by this abomination for living quarters, buy hey it is a place to lay my head at night. Plus maybe I can beat the snot out of shopkeepers or something whilst I "request" payment for protection.

"I'll make you an offer you can't refuse"

Nah, I know that's not going to happen, but I always play a good guy in games and wanted to be evil for a change. Muhahahaha!

Seriously though, I like the game a lot, but there certainly is a learning curve and although I don't want to be lead by the hand in any game, there doesn't seem to be a lot of people around the game world. Either that or just not a lot of people on the help channel. Tonight I'm going to see if I can find some other newbs to get together and do some stuff. I did all that stuff in MC5 last night and really should have tried to recruit a group. Would have made things much easier.

BTW; Thx for the hacking guide. I'm gettin better at it though, and I think it's because this new char is a Hacker Spy and I already have 50 in hack.

Chuck Norris

06-05-07, 05:54

If you are on Terra shoot me a DM I can help with questions, money, lvling tips, building and repairing. My names Ops feel free to ask away in help channel, don't get discouraged by all the trolls in chat, they areust angry cause they are sick of getting owned with no one to gank.

Welcome to Neocron, ultimate cyberpunk mmo, hope you have a blast.

SorkZmok

07-05-07, 08:21

Once you level up a bit you really should try to get to the Military base. Try finding someone to drive you there.

Outside in J_01 is a bunker that gives protection with launchers and other mobs all around.

It's usually crowded with newbies you can team up with and ask questions. At least a whole lot of LE'd people there usually.

CMaster

07-05-07, 12:41

SorkZmok

07-05-07, 13:14

Just an aside - don't make the silly mistake of believeing that pro-city are the "good guys" and anti the "bad guys". Its generally agreed that pretty much every faction is evil except for NeXT, and they only manage to be neutral rather than especially good.
What i never really understood is that at least to me TG always seemed to be the "good guys" but people just kept playing them as complete asshats as if they were terrorists or something. o_O

CMaster

07-05-07, 14:38

What i never really understood is that at least to me TG always seemed to be the "good guys" but people just kept playing them as complete asshats as if they were terrorists or something. o_O

Well they are. TG are a millitary/paramillitary organisation that grew out of a terrorist cell and have no major problem with using terrorist methods to acheive their aim. Supposedly that aim is democracy in Neocron, but I think very few really believe that. After all, they have a city of their own now and rule it as a millitary dicatatorship (although like all bar one of the dome factions, they'd rather be in NC).

olgeezer

07-05-07, 15:09

OK guys. I'm on my fourth char now. He's an Infiltrator Spy. I kept leaving MC5 because everyone kept telling me to. But I really wanted to figure out that mission to get the chips, so I created this guy (Melvin), and finally did. Melvins a keeper no matter what, despite the crappy name.

Lemme ask you guys something though. I don't think there is, but if there's a downloadable manual for the game it sure would help. Either that or I'm missing something in-game and I'd really appreciate it if you guys tell me.

First off, this game has a ton of stuff going for it. I mean it's by far the most intriguing MMO I've ever played. However it seems to me there's some stuff that could use some improvement.

It has so many options for your PC with all these cool upgrades and different things you can do, but seems to me, telling you how to do these things is seriously lacking and I'll give you a couple of examples.

What are all these things I'm picking up in the game? Which ones should I keep? Which ones should I sell?

I bought a recycle unit. I figure this seems like a cool thing to learn. But what do I do with this unit? How do I use it? What things can I recycle and which are valuable and which aren't? How many points in recycle do I need to be effective in it?

I got a laser pistol with this char. I look at the info on it and it tells me it uses 9MM ammo. Great, no problem. So I'm in MC5 and go see the traders. I pick up different types of ammo for it, but apparently you can only use reg 9MM ammo until you get better skilled in pistol. That's fine, but why doesn't the game tell me I need more skill? I wasted a lot of cash on that better ammo. I figure no problem. I'll just sell it. But when go to the trader he's only wants to give me 4 cash for it, and I paid 91. Yikes!

I know I want to get better with a pistol, so when I go to use my skill points, am I better off putting them into the pistol skill or should I put them in weapon lore? What's the difference between the two? And if I put 5 skill points in pistol, how much more effective will I be with it? You get the idea.

A lot of you guys have been with the game for a while, so I'm sure many of these things seem like second nature for you. But for a noob, it's confusing! And I hate asking questions all the time in-game. I feel like an idiot and maybe I am. Seems like I'm the only one this stupid.

I know long post and I apologize. But have a day off today and wanted to get this off my chest. But here's the worst part. I will continue to play this freaking moronic discharge party hat game! Shitty graphics, clumsy UI and very unintuitive, but this asswipe game has style! It has sucked me in like a Hoover and won't let me out!

Stupid game!

Napalm82

07-05-07, 15:40

The last part of your post sums up how we have it, hate the bugs and whatnot..but the game is an instant classic.

Now to the questions:

Recycling:
Basicly you can use the skill recycling for many things, however some are rather futile and the best way to use it is to clone ammo, heres how it works:
Right click your ammo and select "Show Info" it will tell you a TechLevel (TL), now, you need to make sure you have the same or higher skill in recycling.

Then place 1 (One) clip of ammo in your processor (F7) the tool next (Make sure its a recycling tool and NOT a Salvage tool) place trash in the other slots of the processor and press start, when its done you'll get X amount of clips (Where X is determined by the "Quality" of the trash used, E.I: how much YOs will buy it for)

Skill points:
As a pistol user you need the folowing skills:
Weaponlore
Pistol Combat
High-Tech Combat

In the game of NeoCron more = better, even if your using the same weapon, in the start you wont feel much of a difference because of your low skill, but when you level a bit more you'll slowly feel that each and every point helps.

I believe there is a manual somewhere, however it is so outdated that it would just confuse you even more, so i would not advice it.

Since you said you have the day off today (As do I) im asuming your playing on "Melvin" so I will try to contact him when i can get back online (Have a few errands to run) I know that asking for help can be a bother but you have to understand that we would rather help you than just leave you alone and perhaps get pissed off by the game when your doing something wrong.

Also if you look at the "Mall" event in the announcement forums it'll show you a list of items needed for the GM Auction, so if you really feel like you wish to repay someone who helped you you can try obtaining some of thoose items. (I meself hate getting free items)

- Napalm

CMaster

07-05-07, 15:46

Lemme ask you guys something though. I don't think there is, but if there's a downloadable manual for the game it sure would help. Either that or I'm missing something in-game and I'd really appreciate it if you guys tell me.

http://ng.neocron.com/index.php?id=10 may well be useful
Get the manual off this page http://ng.neocron.com/index.php?id=39 (beware though, although a useful guide, much of what it says is erm, inaccurate)
http://www.techhaven.org/resources/neocron-info/ and
http://www.techhaven.org/resources/profession-quests/
http://www.techhaven.org/resources/weapon-guides/
may all be of use to you as well.

A lot of you guys have been with the game for a while, so I'm sure many of these things seem like second nature for you. But for a noob, it's confusing! And I hate asking questions all the time in-game. I feel like an idiot and maybe I am. Seems like I'm the only one this stupid.

Nobody thinks you are dumb just for asking on help. We've all been there. Of course, there are some stupid questions, but better to ask than to never know.

Dribble Joy

07-05-07, 15:50

What are all these things I'm picking up in the game? Which ones should I keep? Which ones should I sell?
Basically all the junk you find on mobs at lower level you sell or....

I bought a recycle unit. I figure this seems like a cool thing to learn. But what do I do with this unit? How do I use it? What things can I recycle and which are valuable and which aren't? How many points in recycle do I need to be effective in it?
You can use the junk to recycle things, the most important thing being ammo.

Right click an ammo pack and select info, at the top it should tell you the Tech Level (TL) it has.

In order to recycle something you need as much or more recycle skill (under DEX) as the TL of the item you want to make.
You also need a recycle tool of equal or higher TL as the item being made.
You need some Catalytic Recycling Fluid too.

Put the recycle tool in the first slot of the Processor, and the sample item in the second. Fill up the rest of the slots with junk and hit start.

I got a laser pistol with this char. I look at the info on it and it tells me it uses 9MM ammo. Great, no problem. So I'm in MC5 and go see the traders. I pick up different types of ammo for it, but apparently you can only use reg 9MM ammo until you get better skilled in pistol. That's fine, but why doesn't the game tell me I need more skill? I wasted a lot of cash on that better ammo. I figure no problem. I'll just sell it. But when go to the trader he's only wants to give me 4 cash for it, and I paid 91. Yikes!
Secondary ammo types can only be used on a weapon if the weapon has been modded to use it.
In the info window it will say supported ammo types, an unmodded 9mm pistol will only have 9mm listed.
In order to mod a weapon, it needs a 'slot'. These are shown in the top right of the item image as white boxes. No slots, no modding.

You need 30 construction skill (no tool for modding though) to install a mod.

Ammo mods can be bought at the ammo vendors. Other mods are also availiable, such as damage, frequency, range and handling advancements, laser sights, flash-lights and silencers.
Note that a weapon may not ba moddable with all of these. Check the weapon info, it will say either Not Installed (meaning you can install one) or N/A (meaning the weapon in question can't take it).

I know I want to get better with a pistol, so when I go to use my skill points, am I better off putting them into the pistol skill or should I put them in weapon lore? What's the difference between the two? And if I put 5 skill points in pistol, how much more effective will I be with it? You get the idea.

The relative skill effects for different weapons types can be found here (http://forum.neocron.com/showthread.php?t=136817).
Basically, for pistol users, as much weapon lore as possible, and lots of pistol combat. High tech weapons need and use high tech combat.

My char DJ has 210 PC, 124 TC and about 137 WEP for example.

A lot of you guys have been with the game for a while, so I'm sure many of these things seem like second nature for you. But for a noob, it's confusing! And I hate asking questions all the time in-game. I feel like an idiot and maybe I am. Seems like I'm the only one this stupid.

All been there mush, don't worry about it.