Doesn't mean I have to like it. And at least the Guides stick to the Portals most of the time, and I can newbieoff. Besides, just because we have one roleplayly dubious but necessary thing in the game, doesn't mean we can justify many more roleplayly dubious and slightly less necessary things.

Why is this even worth adding when we have teleport?

Or the mentor tell/talk anywhere thing when you can just use messages?

Show me a novice under level 21 that can teleport and I'll show you a novice that wasted it's lessons.

Teleport is a standard requirement for Aquamancers.

They run out of portals, you know.

Learning teleport before level 21 is -not- a waste of lessons. (It's not in the Moondancer list of things to learn, which is fair enough, but I suggest people get it right after their other things.)

Teleport is just a time saver. I find glasswork in arts, some points into low or highmagic, or guild skills more useful.

HIJACK!

Teleport is definitely a good skill for novices, especially with the addition of the dross power. If you dont wait it, you can just FORGET PLANAR right before graduating in order to save the 90 lessons - thats if your a real novice.

What is overpowered about this, and how is it different than Teleport/summon besides the lack of needing lessons and power?

It just seems pointless, guides and portals are there for newbies anyway, if your not a newbie then theres no need to use a skill like this to take you to a mentor. So I'm not saying theres anything wrong with it it just seems redundant.

Amen.

One thing I should point out is that guides aren't always around, and any newbie after level 11 has the chance of running out of portals before they know what they're doing in terms of navigating the realms. Teleport, as it has been said earlier in this topic, is a skill that many novices do not learn simply because it takes a lot of lessons to get to, lessons that the novice is generally advised to either save or put in guild skills when gained. The idea of this is that mentors are generally around when the novice is around (otherwise, how would they have met in the first place?) and as such is more likely to be able to provide help for the novice. I do agree with some of the suggested changes though- the novice has to type AGREE, for example, and perhaps it would also give the mentor a two-second stun upon arrival so they can't jump in and engage in a battle. Another way to work this would be to bring the novice to the mentor instead as a way to get the novice out of trouble, and have it cost the mentor perhaps 5p to retrieve the student from elsewhere.

That could be nifty indeed. But if it's going to cost more to use this ability than to use summoning, there'd better be some reason to: being able to retrieve a protege from someplace you couldn't normally would qualify, like if they managed to get dragged off to some other plane or something. I would imagine it's safe to assume that most mentors have summon/teleport.

Yeah, but I'm pretty sure you can't summon someone with the grace of innocence.

That would qualify as being a good reason to have it, I suppose. Maybe not have it cost more than summon, though, if it's basically just the same as summon except for that.

Cacophony novices learn it from our 'suggestions' for learning at the start. Nor do they miss out on anything important by doing so.

There is a much higher change of guides being around than mentors you know. You seem to be basing your idea off the fact that a mentor is more likely to be around to help than a guide and thats not true, I've never actually seen any time in the game where there wasn't a guide on avaliable if needed but perhaps not visable. On the other hand mentors are just one player remember who may not log in every day or even at the same time of the newbie. I'm just not seeing the advantage of this at all, your basically giving god/guide based powers to players, we have guides/gods for this anyway.

I would personally say that teleport is one of the best things a newbie could learn comming out of the portals its not a lot of lessons and gives them the ability to travel/survive on different planes allowing them to go to earth/water for good bashing.

To a newbie, 90 lessons is a lot. They only get 150 coming out, and it'll be a long time before they get a good deal more. It's a great thing to learn, but saying "it's not a lot of lessons" is ridiculous.

Compared to what though? Putting the lessons in teleport will help them a lot more than putting them into any other skill, they get their basic bashing item/skills, they get survival on planes and transport and still have enough to get diagnose.

I think the basic question we're arguing over here is just what hte purpose of a Mentor should be.

- Should a mentor be limited to giving advice and a little help now and then? If so, how do they differ from any other older player that wants to help? What is the purpose of having a mentor, other than the free credits for the mentor?

- Should a mentor have some greater bond and special abilities to help them help their protege? If so, how do you limit those abilities so they can be used ONLY to help needy proteges? Also, are these abilities really needed with guides around?

I would go with #2, and say that yes, mentors should have more abilities to help them help their proteges. If they exist only for advice-giving, then the mentor program really isn't needed at all - novices have a whole guild to give them advice. And, I have seen instances where there are no guides around when they were needed. And to Ferlas, I don't believe guides can actually be hidden in the same way divine can - it would kind of defeat the purpose of a guide if nobody could tell they were around. I might be mistaken, but my understanding is that if you don't see any guides on WHO, then there aren't any around.