We've been noticing that we aren't retaining as many novices as we really should be. It appears that oftentimes, there simply isn't anyone in the guild around besides novices and at other times they are simply told to read guild help files. We are thus considering consolidating all the GNT channels into one channel that is shared through the entire city or commune. In other words, there would be no more guild-only novice channel. Rather there would only be city/commune novice channels. (We don't want both city and guild novice channels as that's too confusing to novices since there already is a newbie channel.) The hope is that more novices will get the attention they need even during times when there is low activity in their guild.

Let us know what you think!

I think two other things need to change first, before this does.

One, GNT should be heard from any Plane, regardless of Planar skill. This way novices can ask questions even when they are fresh out of the Portal.

Two, the Newbie aether should be hearable from any Plane, regardless of planar skill. Currently, if I respond to a newbie question when not on Prime, they can't hear me. Same if they are on Ethereal and asking a newbie question while I'm on Prime.

We've been discussing this as well.

Seems like it'd be a little confusing, being as it's easier to welcome the novices on GNT but they all have to be directed to different files which the members of the other guilds wouldn't know.

Sounds good to me! Maybe this will encourage more communal teaching programs to pop up IG as well.

Like it. It will also help promote more interaction between the guilds. And agree with Xenthos 100% on the changes needed to the channels.

if each guild would use HELP GUILDNOVICES to show to these files then this problem would be solved

I think this is a great idea.

All right. Thanks.

Then an honest critique of this idea-- I'm not sure how beneficial it will be. Only a member of the guild with a certain status can actually induct, so will still have some problems with someone trying to join the guild if it's a small guild and out of the intro. A merging of GNT won't change that. Further, if someone is trying to ask about guild-specific issues, such as advancement paths-- nobody in the other guilds will be able to help. They'd still be told to "ask their guild," which is more of a problem now that all the GNTs are merged. Also, I cannot teach a bard. My skills don't work that way. I can lead them to a tutor and try to lead them through their lessons, but I find that less effective than actually leading them through the lessons myself.

That's the negative aspect.

The positive aspect-- there will be more people around, so more general questions can get answered-- but isn't that what the Newbie aether's for? Maybe expand it so people up to level 30 can speak there.

Edit: And as an aside, the Glomdoring does have a Communal teaching group at the moment, so if nobody's around I do have access to scrolls to try and help them. This change would require a built-in clan for each Commune to be able to put their things together, IMO, so everybody has access to certain necessary scrolls.

I don't think that CNT fixes anything. They already have CT. What's the point?

Three things that I think would be more beneficial:

1) Another degree of NPC automation. Something that will get the essentials explained in-realm, rather than the isolated and narrow-path guidance of the intro, preferably from a guild tutor.

2) Announcing new players on CT simultaneous with GNT.

3) More thorough use of the HELP GUILDNOVICES scrolls, so that newbie guides and city helpers can give better answers than "Ask your guild."

Actually, I always loved Impy's method of handling novices: Make them read a file to gather a few basic necessities, and then have them go through 3 automated quests, given by the Guild Tutor, in which they complete and can then graduate.

Anyways, when the novice comes out of the Portal, just have a big thing say: "PLEASE READ HELP GUILDNOVICES " and then, in the file, have it list the novice files.

Easy. Simple. I like.

Edit: I have a better idea. How about we make the Guild Tutors programmable to say stuff in response to someone joining the Guild. So, say NoviceA joins the ur'Guard. Over the CNT, Capt. Avarath says, "Grunt NoviceA, read and then get your weak body down to the Megalith so that you may become a warrior of the Engine."

I like the idea behind this, but between newbie, and CT, I'm not sure that it will improve anything to a great degree, if any.

I've noticed there's often very few people in my guild when novices join. Having their arrival announced citywide instead of guildwide would be positive, often a new person loses interest simply because no one responds when they join or when they say hello. Having someone respond, even if it's someone from a different guild who's not the best at teaching them their abilities (though four new CHELPs, one for each guild's novices, should enable the average citizen to put those novices through their basic training), is better than nothing.

Which is why I'm not too fond of automating the tutors. This is a multiplayer game, people try it out because they want to interact with other players.

Why not allow the guild leader/secretaries to set a message that will be displayed to a novice a few moments after they pass through the portal of fate? It seems pretty common to have a standard greeting for a novice that instructs them on what they should read and do, why not install a mechanism that gives them that greeting regardless of if someone is around? They would, at the very least, be assured of getting some basic information.

I would note, though, that there would have to be limitations on length, and the color of the message should be bright so that the novice can not miss it.

Not to get in the way of the more-automated-messages thing, but here's the problem. The personal attention is what keeps so many Lusternians here through graduation from novicehood. The more automation we get, the less incentive there is to talk to newbies. Guild leadership should tout to their novice aides and all full members the virtues of personal interaction with novices - and make it easy for even recent graduates (who are often the most eager to help) to guide novices, through good GHELP files that take them through the steps of welcoming a newbie.

I would vote for more automation when joining GNT...

For example, in the ebonguard you would join the guild and then see

(Wyrms) Bomani the guild tutor says, "Welcome to the Ebonguard please read X Y Z, blah blah blah the rest of the paragraph we write for them when they join".

On top of this, the GMs can work with Empherals to have the tutors respond to more key words with instructions on certain things.

I think this can help add quite a lot of depth and culture to a guild without really losing too much.

Personal attention would still be needed and encourgaed, especially since you won't know what key words to say without other people telling you, but the problem is when no people are around. If no people are around you can't get any personal attention no matter what. This way, there are options.

I'd only want to see a CNT channel as long as GNT is kept. CNT could allow for a specific place to ask city/commune questions and to fall back on if no other guild members are on. GNT should be kept as the main Intro and help channel

After giving it a few hours consideration I still don't understand just what this change would actually accomplish.

I took it as being that Novice's would have more then one place to ask questions and that CNT would also announce the when someone exits the portal. I don't know how this would fix the stated problem either

Well, they already have Newbie, and if Newbie's on it announces someone coming in... so that is two right there, three if they use CT.

This is already what CT is used for, and I see no problem with its function as such.

Like many others have already commented, I fail to see how this would appreciably change the situation and give novices more of the interaction that everyone seems to want to give them (myself included). They already have access to CT, which has the same listening populace as this new channel would have. So, effectively, this does nothing to fix the problem, adds nothing to our channels of communication, but does take away the only way guilds have to do things with their novices exclusively. So it actually decreases the meaningful interactions they will have with just their guild.

The Blacktalon, for example, uses GNT for all general guild discussion in order to integrate novices more fully. GT is useful for deciding who is going to teach who or discussing matters that actually are inappropriate for new members (this is where Yeralih rants and raves and where most political criticism is made by her and others); GTS is rarely used by anyone. If GNT was taken away from us, discussion could be moved to GT, obviously, but we would have no way of organizing the scavenger hunts, group trips, history discussions, quizzes, and other activities we (used to) hold specifically for our novices. In addition, there would be no way of bringing them more fully into the guild, as all of our bulk communication with them would be broadcast to the entire commune.

If you want to fix the commune's response to novices, then fix the commune's response---don't remove the guild's primary avenue of interaction. Make CT recognize new novices automatically like GNT does, make some kind of notation on CWHO, beef up Ambassador ministry roles. But please don't take away GNT.