We need a mentoring program

[StalePopcorn]

Yeah, good ideas folks, I'll mention the forum as well next Istarian introduction I get a chance to do

[LOVWYRM]

All great ideas, I sign it all!!
Thank you Amer for bringing this up- its most important!
And yes Phillip, its easier to get a full teched t5 equippment,
than a beginner set. Shame on us

What about guilds?
Though I hate to be shanghaied, when I set my first step in game-
it has lots of advantages:
Guild mates feel more responsible, all have to care (not a single player) and guilds have resources so everything can be done without too much efforts.
Its always someone there who can be asked, even if you are shy.

I had the privilege to grow up in a wonderful helpful guild.
I was a real noob, but all I need to know I could ask in guild chat.
With Takora as my mentor, I had no chance to complain about mobs being too hard or quests too difficult. I just had to do it.
But I always had all equippment I needed- often enough I even did not had to ask for new scales and spells when I had grown out of my old ones.
Tako already had made it for me and all other members of the guild who needed.
Later I had the duty to care for the hatchies the way I`d learned it, while Tako only did the high tier stuff. Same system worked fine for the bipeds in our guild.

Chat channels are more noncommital- you read them- or not- you answer- or not. In guild chat you answer: I shall care about that in about /min/hours.
But you HAVE to do something.

With all us veterans in guilds, guildlife has changed (in my eyes).
And we often live in another Istaria than a newbie does.
Shall we start to shangai again?

[AamerKhan]

I would like to report back to you guys what I am seeing so far.

NT is the place to be to try and help folks. There were a few new players and some returning players that seemed appreciative to learn of the NPA channel.

I also see a few of the more experienced players hanging out there to help and recruit for guilds, and that was very encouraging to see.

If we all would take a bit of time EACH time we login to pop over, and offer assistance, I cannot help but believe that most will be helped and hopefully some will be helped to stay.

Keep it up folks!

[StalePopcorn]

Just to add - assistance comes in many forms. It can be a 30-second "Gift of Alacrity for everyone!" type of help, or as simple as a "good morning/afternoon/evening". You know, fly the friendly skies and all that

I tried to contact another potentially new player the other day but got no response back after 15 minutes and I had to log. Probably AFK. Or very shy

[Vahrokh]

But, What do YOU think? Do we need this or are we satisfied with the number of players that try the game and then due to frustration, move on?

That you are proposing what the ICE EU shard players were doing years ago and I repeated in the now closed other thread about new players issues.

It's a nice idea but from having done it many times (to mentor new players) it can get very frustrating past the 1000th the same questions get asked.

I've helped about a handful of new players come into the game, none of which joined the NPA channel on their own

You list some reasons, I'll add another: Barrens chat syndrome.

Every single of the many MMOs I played, newcomers would be scared off joining global chats because in woW they were flamed and berated to death by the resident WoWtards
.

This makes these potential new players scared to talk.


In EvE there's a nice initiative: the ISD. It's a group of volounteer players with certain properties (playing since a while, with a good record and so on) that are given moderator privilege on the "rookie chat" and tirelessy reharse and answer new players everything they ask.
They can also kick the ever re-birthing morons flaming the newbies and the spammers.

Maybe Istaria could borrow the idea? It's not like the volume of newcomers would kill anyone with overwork here.


Also, the idea to link the forums so that the new players could ask directly here would be a great.

[Amerelium]

U in EVE Vah..?

In EvE there's a nice initiative: the ISD. It's a group of volounteer players with certain properties (playing since a while, with a good record and so on) that are given moderator privilege on the "rookie chat" and tirelessy reharse and answer new players everything they ask.
They can also kick the ever re-birthing morons flaming the newbies and the spammers.

Maybe Istaria could borrow the idea? It's not like the volume of newcomers would kill anyone with overwork here.


Also, the idea to link the forums so that the new players could ask directly here would be a great.

[Merendi]

I am a returning player / newbie. I played during beta all those years ago and until the large merge after release.

Over the years, my hubby and I have often spoken of things Horizons did or had that other games are only just exploring (or are yet to). We have always remained amazed at how ahead of its time it was.....and we of course lament what happened.

I have been back a few days and so far am enjoying myself immensely. I have a couple of naked toons rank 50 and 60 who i cannot play yet (I gave away all my worldly possessions prior to leaving), so i decided to start a new toon and relearn the game from the bottom up and to try and build some gear / money for my older gals.

Hence the reason for me posting in this thread.

The newbie experience on Spirit Isle really, really needs to be looked at. I died over and over and over due to there being not a single level one mob to kill. The level two (only one of those too) i killed by luck. A level one mob does spawn (again only one) but its respawn rate is ridiculously slow. Now, I eventually made it through there after many deaths but someone who has never played this game is likely to log off and never come back.

Now, i am not saying the game needs to be dumbed down. But i am saying that killing newbies in their first five minutes is not going to win any hearts.

The simple solution (for that problem) in my opinion is to get rid of the level three mobs and replace them with level ones and an occasional level two.


Once you get through that initial quest everything else goes smoothly (in comparison) and the elder players who hang out in New Trismus are a welcome sight. Throwing a few buffs out here and there makes for happy newbies, and the mentoring ideas i think are great. But please, fix that initial quest on Spirit Isle.

I also went through the dragon newbie quests and did not have a single issue due to there being tons of level one pigs to kill =)


~Furlicity Whisperpaw - awake and naked.

[Scornflower]

I am a returning player myself and was searching for something to kill on newbie island just yesterday. I wouldnt have the patience to search for new mobs if I didnt know the game already.
But the client causes me more headache. Now my biped character works, but the dragon causes it to crash. I have it set to full scan, and every try takes 15 minutes and ends with my computer freezing up. 45 minutes has passed now and my patience is spent. Maybe it is my computer? I wouldnt bother with such a cumbersome interface if I didnt know the game....

[StalePopcorn]

I am a returning player myself and was searching for something to kill on newbie island just yesterday. I wouldnt have the patience to search for new mobs if I didnt know the game already.
But the client causes me more headache. Now my biped character works, but the dragon causes it to crash. I have it set to full scan, and every try takes 15 minutes and ends with my computer freezing up. 45 minutes has passed now and my patience is spent. Maybe it is my computer? I wouldnt bother with such a cumbersome interface if I didnt know the game....

(OT sorry) nothing more frustrating than your game crashing! There is some troubleshooting information on the wiki that might help.

[StalePopcorn]

I am a returning player / newbie. I played during beta all those years ago and until the large merge after release.

*snip*

The newbie experience on Spirit Isle really, really needs to be looked at. I died over and over and over due to there being not a single level one mob to kill. The level two (only one of those too) i killed by luck. A level one mob does spawn (again only one) but its respawn rate is ridiculously slow. Now, I eventually made it through there after many deaths but someone who has never played this game is likely to log off and never come back.

Now, i am not saying the game needs to be dumbed down. But i am saying that killing newbies in their first five minutes is not going to win any hearts.

The simple solution (for that problem) in my opinion is to get rid of the level three mobs and replace them with level ones and an occasional level two.


Once you get through that initial quest everything else goes smoothly (in comparison) and the elder players who hang out in New Trismus are a welcome sight. Throwing a few buffs out here and there makes for happy newbies, and the mentoring ideas i think are great. But please, fix that initial quest on Spirit Isle.

I also went through the dragon newbie quests and did not have a single issue due to there being tons of level one pigs to kill =)


~Furlicity Whisperpaw - awake and naked.

Definitely a good idea. The experience gain is still OK killing level 1 mobs if you are up to about level 3. I would be quite happy if the mob spawns were adjusted to only level 1 mobs close to where players appear, then level 2/3 mobs further away. With large signs warning players if need be!

[Scornflower]

(OT sorry) nothing more frustrating than your game crashing! There is some troubleshooting information on the wiki that might help.

Lol yes, I am about to explode.

Maybe when this game was made the constant loading of resources was a good idea. But if I could download a torrent with 10GB of data with the entire game I would much prefer that. Just leave the computer on for a few days.
Will try to manually remove world cache now.

[Sounjah]

I too am recently returning from a long time ago. (starting fresh and didnt reactivate my old account)

I have made 2 biped characters that all went through Spirit Island and on to NT. I also made 2 Dragons and thier starting are was perfect!

The pigs (cant remember thier names) do need to be toned down to lvl 1 and maybe a lvl 2. From what I saw they were lvl 3 with maybe a lvl 2...never saw a lvl 1.

Both characters were scouts (trying different races) and both died repeatedly on the first pig quest. Second try I went after the beetles since there were more lvl 1's and got myself to lvl 2 and then had Power Shot and was able to kill the lvl 2 pigs.

Funny thing is, when the blue pop-up window comes up to explain the target window, it specifically says the target is lvl 1 even though I had a lvl 2 pig targeted. This to me seems like the spawn table isnt right and that there should have been lvl 1-2 pigs there.

The beetles were by the bridge like the quest said.

As for the meet and greet for new players. The blue pop-up walks you through adding the New Player chat to a new tab. So as long as new players follow the tutorial they will get it.

I felt very welcome once I got to NT. I was greeted by most of the high lvl people there. I am already familiar with the game, just a bit rusty, but it was nice to see the higher lvl Dragons about the place.

Awdz has been very active in the New Player channel and has a ton of starter items on the Consigner in NT at very affordable prices! (cargo disks for us new people!!!)

I think as far as the meet-and-greet things are ok as far as I can tell. The more elder players helping out the better. Free buffs are always welcome

The main things I see in this thread that should be done is:

- Make the New Player channel mandatory and as a tab on its own so the new player sees the name and possibly thinks "whats that, let me click that tab" incase they didnt follow the tutorial. Possibly make the game check if they leave Spirit Island it gets added if they are under lvl 5.

- Add something to the MOTD to get them here to the forums. There isnt a direct link to the word FORUMS on the front page, you have to go through Community then to the forums...See my next opinion

- So many new players are impatient due to the types of games out there these days. Make the game load as fast as possible the first time it starts. I spent a lot of time downloading/installing/patching this game and was so eager to play that it scared me that something was wrong the first time I loaded in and made my first character and it seemed to take forever. There isnt much disk actitivity to show that something is going on and new players may think the game has frozen and/or didnt load properly. simply add an hour glass of some sort or a progress bar. I saw a static image with what seemed like static text at the bottom of the screen about bounding? world? but nothing to show progress or that it is working.

[StalePopcorn]

Thanks Atomic, that's good feedback. We are trying to encourage old and new players, so a "fresh pair of eyes" (or at least eyes that haven't seen Istaria for a while!) are very welcome indeed.

[StalePopcorn]

The pigs (cant remember thier names) do need to be toned down to lvl 1 and maybe a lvl 2. From what I saw they were lvl 3 with maybe a lvl 2...never saw a lvl 1.

Both characters were scouts (trying different races) and both died repeatedly on the first pig quest. Second try I went after the beetles since there were more lvl 1's and got myself to lvl 2 and then had Power Shot and was able to kill the lvl 2 pigs.

*snip*

Looks like our requests did not go unheeded for new players. The latest patch 175 to the test server includes:

# Spawns of level 1 Tiny Grass Beetles and Skalkaar Grulets have been added to the Skalkaar Forest closer to the road. This should allow level one players to find something to fight which is more appropriate to their level.
# Spawns of level 1 Tiny Grass Beetles and Spirit Isle Grulets have been added to Spirit Isle near the roads. The level 1 grulets especially should now be the first thing that a newly Gifted adventurer now encounters as they travel down the hill.

Hopefully that will help new players not get slapped about too much when they start playing This isn't rolled out to the live shards yet, but it will be "coming soon"

[Aywren]

Looks like our requests did not go unheeded for new players. The latest patch 175 to the test server includes:



Hopefully that will help new players not get slapped about too much when they start playing This isn't rolled out to the live shards yet, but it will be "coming soon"

Fantastic! I'm so very, very happy to see this. Huge thumbs up!