Feature Cut: Mentors

[Peri]

It's better to have redundant answers than no answer at all. This is especially true since for such simple questions on the first few days of playing, it is nice to have an answer within minutes and not have to wait for the next day.

that's a good point I didn't think of.

[egamma]

that's a good point I didn't think of.

Also, if you see someone else post an answer, you can resist adding your own two cents...

[JPierreD]

What I would limit is In-Character messages to be sent or contacts be gathered from using the guild, for that would take away some of the value of most realm-spawning large guilds. If contact is made between two players through it at least they cannot claim it was IC.

[egamma]

What I would limit is In-Character messages to be sent or contacts be gathered from using the guild, for that would take away some of the value of most realm-spawning large guilds. If contact is made between two players through it at least they cannot claim it was IC.

hmm, what if it was ran as a secret society, so that the senders/recipients are kept anonymous?

[Penchant]

The issue with anyonomous is that you don't know who sent it, so who would you send it to. Though you could like a number system or something like that for naming. ie instead of it being your character name its 0001 for the secret society idea.

[JPierreD]

I think that limiting it to OoC messages would suffice. What is the benefit that anonymity would give?

[egamma]

I think that limiting it to OoC messages would suffice. What is the benefit that anonymity would give?

One, so that people who always have to contradict each other, don't feel the need to do so.
Two, so that people aren't discouraged from helping out newbies in enemy realms.

[vonGenf]

Two, so that people aren't discouraged from helping out newbies in enemy realms.

Maybe I'm too trusting of people in general, but I can't imagine anyone would sink that low.

[Draco Tanos]

Sadly, I could see it.  Especially if it's something related to a war between realms, etc.  It'd make people...  Hesitant.  Even if they don't meant to be so.

[GoldPanda]

I have lost all faith in humanity after playing this game for a few years. :)

I once had a new player's young noble write my noble a farewell letter from prison, because the player thought his noble was going to be executed. He thought this because the enemy realm's Judge threatened to execute the young noble unless he defected. Keep in mind that this was a new noble, less than a week old, and obviously had no bans. The young noble had some bad luck and got captured within a week of starting, and so the enemy realm's Judge's player decided to take advantage of the new player's ignorance of game mechanics.

A week later, the new player's noble was released, and I could finally explain to him how prisons, bans, and executions work.

Yes. I made a Titan complaint. The Judge's player received a warning.

Edit: I guess what I'm saying is, Tom, if you make an island-wide, maintenance free guild, expect it to be exploited. If you allow people to post ICly, expect players to prey on newbies from enemy realms.

[Tom]

Edit: I guess what I'm saying is, Tom, if you make an island-wide, maintenance free guild, expect it to be exploited. If you allow people to post ICly, expect players to prey on newbies from enemy realms.

If we know what abuses to expect, we can counter them. But I already see that it might take quite a bit of work. We would have to prevent guild messages for this guild from creating contacts and all messages have to be to "all guild members".

The more I think about it, the more it seems that an actual guild is not the right approach. A simple message channel might be better, but that still creates contact information.

[Ketchum]

The question is if we should make it an IC thing or an OOC thing.

If OOC - we could simply set up a board in the forum.

This will bring us to the next question. Do anyone care to check the forum board? I mean for those who busy with real life and so on  8)

How about if we setup a direct messaging for the newbie to all those oldest characters in that particular realm? As oldest characters, they are bound to have an in depth knowledge of BM and able to answer newbie questions. Or we can make it optional for the oldest characters to be included? Food for thought eh?  ;)

[Gustav Kuriga]

This will bring us to the next question. Do anyone care to check the forum board? I mean for those who busy with real life and so on  8)

How about if we setup a direct messaging for the newbie to all those oldest characters in that particular realm? As oldest characters, they are bound to have an in depth knowledge of BM and able to answer newbie questions. Or we can make it optional for the oldest characters to be included? Food for thought eh?  ;)

Why should it just be the oldest characters though? There are plenty of people who have younger characters that would love to help. Especially since they remember what it's like to be new more clearly than the people who have been around forever.

[Ketchum]

Why should it just be the oldest characters though? There are plenty of people who have younger characters that would love to help. Especially since they remember what it's like to be new more clearly than the people who have been around forever.

You stated a good valid point there. How about this? Make it so that those nobles too less time, let say for example, the noble been in realm for 7 days should not be able to "mentor" the newest realm member. This can help prevent abuse of the new mentor system messaging. Somemore, enemy will not be able to "smuggle in" someone to train all the newest nobles to run away from that realm they are at war with  ::)

[egamma]

If we know what abuses to expect, we can counter them. But I already see that it might take quite a bit of work. We would have to prevent guild messages for this guild from creating contacts and all messages have to be to "all guild members".

The more I think about it, the more it seems that an actual guild is not the right approach. A simple message channel might be better, but that still creates contact information.

Make it run the same way as the underground, you could use most of the same code. "an anonymous member writes" sort of thing, no contact created.

Have all new characters automatically join the 'n00b underground' , with an option to leave.
Give anyone who's played for 100 days a link to join as a mentor.

Make it clear who is asking -- "a player who joined 3 days ago asks the following question".
make it clear who is answering-- "a player who joined 1000 days ago offers this answer", and auto-quote the question.