Delete the Mentor system or rework it.

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Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

If it was not exclusive it would have thousands of people in it, which would make it more chaotic than it already can be. Novices used to be invited automatically, but it invited bots so it was changed to require mentors to invite them. Mentors are not placed in it automatically and sprouts are prompted and can decline the invite.

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It's not like trade mentor is hard to get, nothing is stopping people from joining the "exclusive" club. And keep in mind that players are "novices" for 300+ hours of gameplay now. Most of the playerbase is already eligible. The reason it's not completely overrun isn't the exclusivity of the status, but the cap on participants that already exists.

Mentors join automatically on login if they've toggled /novicenetwork join, even if they don't care to participate, and still count against the cap.

Novices join automatically with the same option, once they've been invited, and it sets the channel to their default channel which is a pain.

My suggestion is to remove the invite system and mentor/novice requirements, but make it toggle OFF automatically and have players manually sign into it each time they login. That way only players who want to participate will join, so you don't have the current situation where it's hard capped at 100 mentors who joined automatically and aren't chatting, and 100+ novices who joined automatically but forgot the channel even exists and whose only interaction with it is to send mistells and macro spam.

I also suggested a reasonable player cap (not unlike what we have now) so it doesn't get chaotic.

And they should make a server-wide general chat too, so people stop using the network for exactly that. Give players an alternative, and novice network can refocus to its intended purpose of helping sprouts.

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Originally Posted by Scaramouche

Most interaction aren't goods, they are neutral.

I remember the two mentors in that dungeon with kuribo or something (Andapor maybe?) and they were amazing and really helpful but its the only thing I can remember about mentor because none of them actually leave any impressions.

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Both positive and negative experiences are remembered better than neutral ones. Negative ones are remembered the best. So in your experience you haven't had a negative experience but had a couple positive experiences, and remember those over the dozens of neutral ones.

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Originally Posted by Scaramouche

When the game allows someone who did ifrit 1000 times, got 1500 commendations because they were healers/had cute glamour and paid for Job boosts to get the exact same statue

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Most people don't do that though and if they do, they are probably past the point where they are a lost sprout that doesn't know what they are doing. It's not the sort of thing most people do when the game is still confusing to them. The commendations act as a way to make it harder than just doing 1,000 of the easiest content.

I had about...4 bad experiences with mentors? 3 were a crafting mentors
Today on my server had a fight tho, 2 mentors being extremely proud, not accepting that a sprout knew something that they didn't, kept being ironic and even asked for the sprout to leave the NN. The reason? The mentors thought you only received EXP by killing open world mobs as BLU, they didn't enjoyed being corrected by a sprout

I think mentors can be really helpful, i got tons of helps during my sprout period with my main and alts. The problem is that anybody can be a mentor, no matter how toxic the person really is. And the Novice Network is a mess, tons of people get the crafting mentor just to join to use as a global chat

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Originally Posted by YukiB

It's not like trade mentor is hard to get, nothing is stopping people from joining the "exclusive" club. And keep in mind that players are "novices" for 300+ hours of gameplay now. Most of the playerbase is already eligible. The reason it's not completely overrun isn't the exclusivity of the status, but the cap on participants that already exists.

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The cap is part of what makes it exclusive but so is the fact that some people won't bother to qualify for trade mentor.

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Mentors join automatically on login if they've toggled /novicenetwork join, even if they don't care to participate, and still count against the cap.

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My point was that they need to toggle that first so there are probably a lot of mentors that have never joined it at all and if they didn't have to toggle it, then the mentor cap would probably be reached a lot more often than it currently is. Making them have to toggle it on every single time they login is a fair suggestion, although I am happy that I don't have to bother with that.

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Originally Posted by Amorzinho

I think mentors can be really helpful, i got tons of helps during my sprout period with my main and alts. The problem is that anybody can be a mentor, no matter how toxic the person really is. And the Novice Network is a mess, tons of people get the crafting mentor just to join to use as a global chat

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Crafting mentor is a problem. I'm not saying battle mentor couldn't be harder to get, but it is successful at preventing a lot of people from being one and crafting mentors should have to go through something similar which takes them 1 year because a lot of the poor behaviour in the novice network comes from them. If they were just getting a chatroom quickly they probably won't bother anymore and if they do go through with the requirements they will have time in that year to learn what is and isn't accepted behaviour.

Woah epic mentor bashing thread take my fortnite upvote
when are we getting the sprout bashing thread tho

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Originally Posted by Scaramouche

Most interaction aren't goods, they are neutral.

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That's literally the point. Most interactions are neutral but all we hear about are these "terrible mentors" that someone only remembers because they have an emotional attachment to that memory.

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Originally Posted by Packetdancer

But the ones who are like that -- who snap at sprouts or basically use "I'm a mentor" to try to boss them around -- tend to be very loud and difficult to ignore when they do show up. (And as noted, I have indeed seen them before, albeit not so often.) And even if they are a relatively small number, their loud and in-your-face nature tends to mean they are what gets noticed, what gets remembered, and thus what gets associated with the crown.
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And that is the basis of stereotyping and generalizing and logical people know that is a bad thought process (yes, I know your post is largely in agreeance with my previous).

I know mentors who actively wear the crown to push back against the stereotype to prove that mentors can and should be better. But everyone has bad days and those are the ones that will always be remembered and judged instead of admitting that everyone should get a bit of leeway because everyone indeed has bad days.

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Originally Posted by YukiB

They better add a server-wide chat channel if they get rid of the system, because Novice Network is the only reason I care about mentorship.

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So helping others isn't the reason?

A mentor system is inherently flawed from the inception of the idea. To incentivise people to become a mentor, you need adequate rewards locked behind it — but herein lies the issue in that people use it as a means to an end to achieve the reward as opposed to having the noble intention of helping people. Making the reward primary and the helping people as secondary.

In the same vein, without reward you don’t give much incentive for people, those who wish to help will do so regardless of whether the system exists in the game or not. Just have one major roulette that draws from trials, raids, dungeons etc. and have it available to players regardless of status.

The developers would do themselves and the community in general a better service to create a hall of the intermediate and/or advanced which teaches more complex mechanics and proper arena awareness, as opposed to trying to continue to develop a system that ultimates results in just a status symbol.

I have personally come across more good mentors than bad; and as mentioned, the bad ones are just very *very* vocal and loud and stand out more. When there is a question being asked in NN, I more often than not see that question being answered by more than one mentor.

Sure, there may be that one annoying condescending mentor - best thing to do is report them if they are doing something reportable and move on; despite a bad experience, that doesn't mean every single mentor is out to get the sprouts like some VIP exclusive army with a goal in mind to be rude.

I wear my crown because I genuinely enjoy helping other players, and maybe they will remember that there was at least 'that one mentor' that wasn't rude and was genuinely helpful. Not wearing the crown to where only the bad ones wears them just adds to the pot that sprouts think that only rude people become mentors when that's just not the case. I understand the reputation the crown has, I just don't care because I know that's not me, and anyone that interacts with me in game will know this, too.

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Originally Posted by DixieBellOCE

90% of mentors you meet are stuck up individuals that will strike out at you for no reason because their ego has gone to their heads.

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Yep. When I started none of them with a crown would even talk to me, not even to cuss me out. XD Ya I don't think that system works. Isnt helping answer a question kinda what that system is for?