The tour isn't just bland, it's incredibly lacking in many things. I finished the whole thing within less than 3 minutes doing everything the intro asked of me (of course I was running it at the max speed). Sad to say, it isn't comparable to the Achaea or Imperian intro that teaches you more of the basic and allow you to get up to level 5 before exiting the tour. I particularly like Imperian's system where they give novices a free health and mana vial (lasting only 2 game months) and teach them how to use it early on. I didn't think there was such a problem with the intro until I tried it myself. Besides the player base needing to take a new approach towards novice training, the Intro also needs to be revamped as well.

Wow, it must really suck when someone shows up in the off times..you guys really need more people. Sad cause Gloms such a great place too.

Its 6 to 2 by the way for undersecs.

By the way, this is a reply to Xavius, Im just slow.

I don't mean any offense to you, Estarra, but I really do think the newbie tour should be looked at and improved. Not that it's terrible or anything, just... lacking. Both Imperian and Achaea have some really cool things in their newbie intro, like the jaunt into Azdun where you run away after seeing a goblin in Achaea, and the orc invasion where you can get the choice of running for your life or fighting an orc in Imperian, both of which I thought were just fun There's nothing like that in Lusternia.

The Imperian tour quests were also really cool, where you go around and learn something from each of several denizens, finding them yourself, greeting them, learning to config your prompt, buy and wear clothing, buy and use health/mana vials, and some history of the gameworld, with one of Whyte's maps (or what looks like one of Whyte's maps) available for you to read to find your way around to each of the denizens you need to talk to.

Lusternia just sort of throws everything at you at once, and that's it. Or at least, that's what it felt like in comparison.

They've changed the intro in Achaea. It now features people important in history, and makes you do a few tasks which teach you about a health vial, how to attack things, and you get this really cute robe that lasts for 28 months. Not grey!

I literally just made a news post for the Serenguard about this . I certainly don't expect everyone to go through formally training a novice. That's what Keepers are for, and it's completely volunteer. But everyone -does- have to at least give them a push in the right direction if no one around can/wants to train them (though Keepers of course should almost always be ready to train a novice, provided they are not engaged in something very pressing.). Answering questions and giving a bit of guidance is something everyone can and should do.

We all know that its game and most of people is here to have fun.
Some of us enjoy teaching and mentorin novices and thats very good.
I love to help novices but i dont have much time for that, but im helping when i can. And i belive most people would do same.

I liked idea with changging newbie intro to show some Lusternias unique world.

And mentor/protege system isnt working imho.
Newbie have almoust no reason to take mentor.
And mentors have only one reason to take proteges, credits that is. I feel greedy wen asking for proteges so i stopped mentoring.

There should be more benefits for newbies to take mentors. But i have no idea what it could be.
Maybe something that newbies get exp bonus when with mentor in room, mentors should be able to diagnose and check score and skills of proteges.

And lesson gain from teaching should be increased, i know that there is danger of abusing it, but people could try to abuse everything. Maybe just deal harsh with catched peoples who abuse this?

I belive that rewarding somehow people for their time used to helping newbies is must.

Not many people would like to help novices and sacrifice their time that they have for a bit of fun.

And maybe some huge list of people active and able to take proteges, with short info about that one player. that could help novices to pick right mentor.
Last thing could be implemented in guilds itself without admins help.

I loved having a mentor -- someone I could bug about things at any time without feeling like I was being a pain or asking a dumb question that would get laughed at. (Even if nobody would have laughed if I'd asked publicly, I sometimes am afraid people will.)

I love having proteges, because I like that there are people who are willing to turn to me for help and/or advice.

I think too many people focus on the mentor/protege relationship as a “just for when you start out” relationship, when in truth it can be a life-long bond.

When I want to go hunting in an area that is slightly too hard for me to take alone, I ask my mentor to go with me. We talk about lots of things and just hang out.

I’m always willing to just sit and chat with my proteges when they want to.

However, the game dynamics force the focus on only the beginning of the relationship and not the whole of it.

I’ve never understood why people can’t take a mentor after they’ve bought credits. I have had multiple people ask me to mentor them, but unfortunately they got all excited about the game and bought credits before they asked.

Also, I’ve had one person ask me to be her mentor, but she’d played 26 hours. So, I became her “unofficial” mentor.

I don’t have a problem with not getting credits off people who have passed the 25 hour mark, but why can’t they officially claim a special bond with an older character after that point?

Rhosyn

I love mentoring, when I find the right protege. Tatine, one of mine, has come to be one of the most entertaining characters I ever had the priveledge of playing alongside. It's a lovely bond, and works wonders for helping people get started, giving them a friendly face to pester when they want to know something, and helping make the world seem a smaller face, and they can really brighten up your day as a mentor. I mean, the creddies are nice, but in the end I've had more fun with those who haven't bought any, and would regret their loss more than those who did.

I do remember that denizen in imperian who effectively taught the members of a guild all of their basics through quests.

It doesn't have player interaction, but perhaps there could be a way for something similar to be used instead of a scroll in times when no teachers are around, Unfortunately the more I think about it the more I realise it probably wouldn't work.

However the idea of a newbie village isn't really appealing, It's hard enough being a novice in a guild but would they also be expected to seek inguilding.
Not always the worst thing, but a novice comming around in down-time could have a hard time finding someone with the privilege which could be discouraging. Especially if they find out they need to then wait a further 25 hours to fully join their guild.

The Paladins get a gold star: two people jumped to help my new alt and were very helpful. All questions that I asked recieved prompt, accurate answers.

I'm not sure if this was mentioned already or not, and I don't intend to look through all these posts either... But, I think it would be huge if there was some sort of Landmarking system. I'm still new here and have only been out of my character's city once without using portals. I walked out a few rooms then bam, dead to something underground. Achaea uses landmarking in order to get from one landmark to another. I think it has to be within 50 rooms of the landmark and the synthax is WALK TO (such and such). That alone would highly encourage exploring instead of having novices afraid to leave the places they're comfortable with. Course, this is just my opinion....and as you know, opinions are like...well, they're common!

I'm not too keen on a landmarking system, but that's me.

Oh, I thought you meant the other Landmarking system o_O

If mentoring of newbies is a KPI you want to make then I would suggest:

1. Give a guild 5 credits each time a novice graduates to full guild membership (or puts in 24 full hours if they've had their novice time advanced).
If they have spent 24 hours playing time in a guild something must be right about it.
Clearly each player could only attract the reward once so that you couldn't guild hop continuously.
The Guild would be getting the incentive, so the guild would put more pressure on its own mentoring program. As individuals aren't being paid there is less incenctive to try and rort it.
As one obvious rort would be guild members making continuous alts and training to full membership, you'd either have to monitor the IP's or simply make it one credit reward per IP address.

2. Mentoring takes time away from earning XP and gold. Introduce a specific command for a novice to follow a mentor so that time can be logged and for every hour you spend mentoring, you get a 30% XP bonus for an hour (preferrably when you active it somehow e.g. XPBONUS ON/ XPBONUS OFF).

It's way too easy to game that system to get benefits.

Reduce this to one credit, and have the xp decrease as you gain levels, and I think this could work.

Specially since nobody mentors by following a newbie around while he does everything... that's a babysitter, not a mentor.

Random thoughts:

People that need to be 'paid' to help new players, shouldn't be helping new players.

I thought the Lusternian Intro was far better than the other two IRE intro's I've experienced, namely Achea and Imperian.

Support from the player-base after entering the game has been... to put it nicely... 'poor'.
This goes for all the IRE games, but is mitigated by the fact that there just weren't that many people around at the time.

I've never had a decent mentor in any IRE game.

Lets face it, Lusternia is not newbie unfriendly, it is downright newbie hostile.
But possibly less so than other IRE games.

The fundamental problem is still being ignored. You have two distinct types of people coming through the portal, they have quite different and often conflicting expectations and requirements. They should not be treated the same.

There needs to be some type of reward for those who spend so much time on novices, only to have more than half never come back. The reward shouldn't be so huge, but it shouldn't be "just for the sake of teaching" for either, as that doesn't sound pratical.

My novices always ignore me and tell me they're fine...

QFT.

There are three actually though. 1- The true newbies who have never played a MUD, or a MUD like this before. 2- Someone coming from another IRE game, or a similar sort of game. 3- An alt of an established Lusternian.

The 1 type people are just poking around generally, seeing if they'll enjoy the game. They have vastly varried expectations, and since this is an abnormal sort of game, the chance of them enjoying it is slim. Mostly because many of them expect the game to be like a MMORPG, which it really isn't. These are the people who need the most help, and also the people who need to be given a chance to try out the game before overloading them with things. Some are drawn in by good roleplay, but many will find it boring and will itch to get out and explore the game for themselves.

The 2 type people are often quite skeptical of the game - I know I was. They need to be shown how Lusternia is unique without making it seem like a cheap ripoff of other games. The dragon from Achaea who was #1 for a long time in the experience and explorers rankings, gah I can't remember her name, but it started with an A - she tried out Lusternia, and left immediately because her first impression was "divine who shout in all caps like a twelve year old" (it was during the Kethuru incident). First impressions mean a lot. I don't really know how best to handle these people to show them what the game is really like.

The 3 type people don't need any help beyond skill related questions for things they're not familiar with. They don't need any time to see if they like the game or not. All they need is to be drawn into the guild/org with roleplay, interesting requirements, and things to do.

Just my opinions.