(hi, Lusternia newb here, be gentle.)

Triggered welcome responses are really annoying no matter what (came here from Achaea, and wow, there are some outrageous ones there). It sort of gives me the impression that the person is too lazy to care, which may or may not be the case. I feel that just letting the novice know, "Hey, if you have questions, we're here to help you out; don't be afraid to ask," works, rather than spamming things or constant checking up. It's good to check on novices once in awhile to see if there are any questions they might be afraid to ask, though.

What I do love about Lusternia is that combat isn't the only way to help out an organization (influencing, power quests, etc). I definitely think there needs to be more of that so that novices can feel useful and productive in the community; maybe even a few (non-pivotal) quests that -only- novices can do that help the org in a big way. One of my biggest gripes in any IRE game is that combat has such a high cost of entry and there isn't much of a 'middle ground' for big events; it's mostly high-level combat. Having simpler things to do, like conflict-related quests (that don't involve instant PK) would boost novice retention rate, I think.

Thats a neat idea!

Newton quests that add power or abilities to the collegium that the member is a part of.

Speaking from my end of things, my ability / desire to help novices pretty much died with the advent of the Collegium. Mostly because it is an easy "catch-all," I have no idea if the new person is a member of my guild without going out of my way to check each person (previously, I was told via GNT that so-and-so had just joined us), and they're not even a part of the guild at that point. Mechanically, they're divorced. They cannot talk on GNT, they don't really know anything about the guild nor do they have any connection. They're instead more focused on learning about Commune via Collegium quests... so, uh, okay?

My own personal experience is that the Collegium has killed a lot of the personal teacher->novice interaction, not just from myself but for many others as well. There are a few brave souls who still manage to forge on, but on the whole... it's just help scrolls and a bit of help with the quests when asked for.

That said, I don't think the Collegium itself is a bad idea. It's great to have a central place to ask questions from the entire org. I just think it's too singularly focused and (mechanically) makes it difficult to really volunteer even if one was so inclined.

(Keep in mind that, way back when, I would average about 45 minutes to an hour per novice that we got, giving them the personal touch. There were times when I would take breaks from it, of course, but ever since the Collegium it's just never happened again. There just has been... no pressing need, because they have other things they are being asked to do that have nothing to do with the guild)

maybe the collegiums could be a expanded a bit more. To not only encompass what the commune/city is about and some of their lore but also have guild-related quests. Maybe like an interactive sort of tour thing. There's a NPC, for example a Lesser Crow that tells novice Blacktalons that if they'd like to learn some more about Crow and how he came to be perhaps they should ask over CGT if any Blacktalon elder is available to lead them through this tour esquse thing (dunno what it would be called >.>) or if no elder is around/they'd prefer being told by the Lesser Crow they could do that to? I don't know, just an idea. It'd be nice to see something guild related thrown in as well though.

Janalon's female...



In the Shadowdancers, we do. Credit Salary!

People like Krellan who wait for people to die to toys and then walk by and steal their kills.

That's how ours is set up.


...should probably post on a different thread.

Sadly, that thread no longer exists

I sometimes feel the same way. The most confusing part is the graduation from COL rank to GNT rank. Even when I was GA, I had no idea what to do with that one. Pretty much all learning is done while in the collegium, so those extra 10 hours at GNT are pointless.

I think the collegium system could be tweaked a bit, but I'll gather those thoughts separately.

Really?! I must join immediately! Hehe

I think we should scrap the guild novice status and add a short pre-collegium stage which introduces the player to the four orgs, and then after they select one, introduces them to all of the guilds within that org. I don't want to see an NPC dumping twenty pages of history onto every newbie, but a little bit of flavour would be very helpful, and would cut down on the number of unsatisfied novices and transfers. After they pick their guild, transfer them smoothly into the collegium, and after graduating the collegium, make them full GR1 guild members. I can understand wanting to protect the guildskills in other IRE games, but rogues lose so much in terms of access to their abilities that I don't think it would be all that risky a move.

Arguably those extra ten hours are the final chance to ditch before you lose your ability to forget your skills without losing lessons I guess. Usually more focused on guild novice tasks (Advancement tasks and preparation for guild oriented graduation rituals or etc.) Where as the college time can easily be eaten up just doing college quests! (Sometimes IS almost instantly if they fire through them fast enough) It's probably best because they don't end up thrust out of it with no time to change their mind after the collegium.

You are quite wrong on my knowledge of the situation, as I said and honestly mean, the only knowledge I have of that situation is what was on the boards. I think it was around the time I hadn't logged in for nearly a month (if I haven't logged in on Saran then I haven't played as an alt either) so I'm not exactly sure how I am supposed to know more than that. Though it probably does matter if your reaction to the situation was influenced by OOC knowledge because if so then it doesn't, but if not then it still matters because then this is how a real newb would be treated.

(this is roughly where the response to the above quote ends)

Not supporting alt abuse, My point was that low ranks may make mistakes and may really screw some things up but if they are really new then that's what they are going to do, that would likely be partially why they do not have access to all the privileges. Most of the time you won't know what you are getting but some focus should be put on retaining members even if it means coddling them. Unlike the other ires where novicehood is your time as a newbie and you really need to prove yourself to leave, here you can get to gr1 and still have no real idea what's going on.

Guild programs that encourage development through interaction with guild members comes to mind. For a small guild this might be hard, it may require that you get your entire guild into the program while larger guilds could select their best choices. With the Hartstone as an example, I wouldn't say you are really done until you hit rank 3. That's the way it was intended, train them up, get them all set and then give them a voice in the guild. This allows you to also see roughly where this newer group are and the elders could assist by teaching them and helping them prepare for their tasks. They shouldn't be impossible without such assistance, but the elders should be encouraged to assist. In a guild where you also have elders personally teaching, this allows a sense of "I can do this on my own but the guild is here to help me out"

If this means creating a group within your guild who are exempt from certain activities but are required to take lower ranked members on hunting trips, teach them history, help them with advancements, show them the ways they can contribute, lowbie credit sales or whatever else, Then awesome.

Wow I now have a small scene in my head. Someone walking away from a raid to teach a newbie, wiping blood off their weapon/face/armor and talking about what is going on right now. Does two things, makes the person feel important and re-iterates(or introduces) the concept that there is fighting going on or this massive world shattering (or humorous) event.

It also might not hurt to also double check the info about guilds that a newbie would look through (site/chargen/guildnovices) when creating a character, just to see how well it reflects the guild and see if you focus on some of the points raised early on or if something should be added/removed.




errh, you don't get the message that tells you that they joined X guild?

No, only professors do, I think. Undersecs and secretaries and the like don't. Neither do GMs or Champions.

In Seren at least, that message you see on cgt when someone joins includes what guild they joined originally it just stated that they had joined the collegium. (I remember commenting on it because I was lazy and didn't want to have to work out which guild they joined)

HONOURS SARAN

He is a Sentinel in the Ancestral Glade of the Moonharts.

^---- This is why you get guild now.

Why do Seren professors and GAs get special collegium titles beyond 'professor' and 'chancellor'? Is it because their Gods love them more?

That's just the titles. Professor = city.

Glom has professors, too.

Uhh. Professor and Chancellor are the Glom ones. Sentinel and Greywalker are the equivalents for Seren.