The Mechanics of the Novice Network Need to be Reworked

Beginning with the invite method. The fact that people can be invited to this without realizing it, will accept the invitation without knowing about it, and have their chat channel switched automatically to the novice network is in itself something that can confuse new players.

The next thing to address is the fact that participation is totally binary; either you're keeping your new adventurer status on and accepting the fact that you will be randomly shoved into a chat channel, or get rid of the status altogether and get rid of that useful icon that would let people know that you're new to the character. It's very simply addressed, really. Just let people exit the chat channel at will.

That suggestion would also address another problem I saw mentioned in this forum, which is that of the channel being full at times when people are looking to get in.

The network seems way too broad and sweeping in the way it operates... I hope to see the system fine-tuned in the near future.

As a player with Mentor status, the few times (three total now) I actually joined the Novice network chat (usually morning time). I typically find the newbies asking questions and the mentors responding with decent answers in a timely fashion. The Mentor's are were also carrying out a few good discussions on end game gear and mechanics.
Thus, automatic inclusion to this chat for new players seems like a good thing.

As a person who doesn't like random chats spamming my log, I'm telling you that the implementation of NN is less than ideal for some people. Witnessing the NN being helpful to some players doesn't really speak to my observation; I'm not suggesting that the NN shouldn't be there, or that even that mentors shouldn't be the ones to initiate the process. I'm not saying it doesn't help anybody either.

Presenting a choice (or at least a notification) to people who receive invites, as with a party, wouldn't really harm the dynamic of the network. Or the option to leave the group temporarily without being kicked. Considering that the network gets full at times, spamming peoples' logs with the message of the NN being full, it seems like it would help the dynamic. It seems to be a server-wide network (I'm fresh back after a couple of years, so I'm not completely clear on the specifics of a lot of what's going on), and it's likely netting in loads of players who have no real need for it.

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Originally Posted by ChameleonMS

As a player with Mentor status, the few times (three total now) I actually joined the Novice network chat (usually morning time). I typically find the newbies asking questions and the mentors responding with decent answers in a timely fashion. The Mentor's are were also carrying out a few good discussions on end game gear and mechanics.
Thus, automatic inclusion to this chat for new players seems like a good thing.

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That only makes availability of the channel a good thing. It doesn't justify locking players into it with no ability to leave. Nor does it justify changing the channel they're talking in so they have a harder time talking to anyone else. Even on servers where the mentors are helpful, that doesn't mean they're the only people a new person might want to talk to.

This is essentially like a specialty version of a linkshell, with extra rules on who's allowed to join. So make it work the same as a linkshell except for those eligibility rules. When you get invited to a linkshell, you have the option to accept the invitation and join, or refuse it and not join. If you do join, and later decide you don't want it, you have the option to leave. New players should have those same rights when it comes to the Novice Network.

I agree that the automatic selection of this chat upon joining the network needs to be a configurable switch or removed.

As OP originally stated, they can leave, disable the new player status. As for the benefit of the Green Leaf marker, that is no different than an experienced player, who has been away from the game for a patch or three, running new content to him but old to everyone else in the duty. It is solved with a simple, "Hey, first time here, any pointers?"

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Originally Posted by ChameleonMS

As for the benefit of the Green Leaf marker, that is no different than an experienced player, who has been away from the game for a patch or three, running new content to him but old to everyone else in the duty. It is solved with a simple, "Hey, first time here, any pointers?"

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So when not in a duty, how often does a new player have to keep spamming that message to make sure everyone who enters the area sees it? Not many new players are going to do that. Before the Novice Network was added, we could see who was new (or at least whose character was new) unless they chose to hide that information. Now you want them to have to keep manually broadcasting it? Even long experienced players can be new to a particular duty, and announcing at the start of the duty works fine for that. But it's quite a different matter than being new to the game as a whole.

The main use of that New Adventurer status, the use it had up until this last patch, is currently lost if the player doesn't like the Novice linkshell that this system forces on them. Why should they (and everyone around them) have to lose something in order for them to control their chat log? (Especially now that SE has confirmed that endgame spoilers are perfectly suitable for that channel, there could well be new players who don't want to be in it. It doesn't mean they don't want help and advice from other players, or don't want other players to know that they're new to the game.)

The game should support user created channels that anyone may join at any time by typing "/join #channel." Indeed the"Novice Network" appears to be an awkward step in this direction.

I was thinking that. Or as it is, work the linkshells so that it can be set to "free to join" as well as couple it with interface where people can look for free to join linkshells. For abuse that'd eventually ensue, put in a place things like, person can't join into a linkshell he was kicked from unless specifically invited. And if getting kicked from too many linkshells in span of specified time, would loose the ability to auto join linkshell. This way the server would just hold a sort of reverse blacklist for a person of which shells they can't join and if it fills up, they get limiter. This is to limit amount of data that has to be saved/player.

What I would like to see in the novice network:

For mentors:

• To make it so you opt-in to join the network instead of it being automatic, to free it from spaces taken up by mentors who happened to get in but don't actually want to use it right now.
• A queue for mentors to get in. Right now, all I can do is go into a new zone periodically and hope I get in.
• A way to leave chat without having to log out or talk to an NPC to remove mentor status altogether, so as to make room for other mentors to join.
• An afk kicker for mentors, at least until the "new shiny thing" novelty wears off and it gets less busy.

For novices:

• To allow sprouts to decline invites.
• An easier, more obvious way for sprouts to leave the novice network, so new people aren't turned off by this chat channel that on some servers is full of mentors chatting about endgame stuff.

Basically, make the Novice Network more like a chat room, I guess.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GrandmastrGrant

What I would like to see in the novice network:

For mentors:

• An afk kicker for mentors, at least until the "new shiny thing" novelty wears off and it gets less busy.

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This. OMG so much this.

Half the people are only in there because its automatic, Another quarter are AFK at any given time. Please, clean out anyone that is AFK for more than 45 minutes or so.