Suggestion: Overhaul the Novice Network

Whilst this feature has amazing potential, and (I assume) functions as intended on the Japanese Servers. The same cannot be said for the Western Servers.

In the west, Mentors Crowns are known as 'Burger King' Crowns. Owing to the fact that the crown is a status symbol, and not a beneficial community role.

With 6.0, the Mentorship requirements gained no true change, only increasing the level needed to gain access to, or renew existing Mentorship.

Beyond that, there have been no meaningful or significant changes to address the myriad issues the userbase has highlighted:


1. Spam
- Mentors use the NN as a public chat channel, with conversations ranging from irrelevant topics, outright abuse, and harrassment spam.
- This floods the NN, preventing Sprouts from easily checking the chat for answer, or leaves Sprouts too anxious to interupt to ask for help.


2. Mentor 'Community' Bias
- The above abuse is extended further when new Mentors/Sprouts, using the NN as intended, are arbitarily kicked because they (rightly) removed/criticised existing users who were spamming/breaking the rules.
- Long time NN Mentors form cliques, meaning that anyone who acts against the status quo becomes a target to kick, or shut down, or mock.


3. Abuse of the Kick Feature.
- Many Mentors use the 'Give Reason' requirement to circumvent punishment for kicking players for arbitary motives. They use this as a loop hole for harrassment.

E.g:
Reason: "Not speaking English" (The EU servers have 3 primary languages: English, French, and German.)
Reason: "Criticised the Mentors." (A new player expressed concern about the NN not helping anyone.)


4. Novice Network should be 'Opt-in'. Not Auto-join.
- Sprouts invited to the NN should have the option to reject invites. This would allow them to opt-in/out as needed.
- Mentors who log in/change zone, shouldn't automatically be added to the NN. Too often the NN is full of Mentors who are AFK.
- This results in people needing the NN being unable to join, and people who don't need the NN using it a social hub.


5. Commendation Bias
- Healers and Tanks are far more likely to recieve commendations from players for their roles in protecting the party.
- DPS players are unlikely to gain commendations, and have to work even harder.
- This creates a skewed divide in how players access Mentorship.


These are the most frequent reasons I have encountered both personally, and whilst browsing the forums & reddit.

Many threads regarding the NN are lost to time, a year or more old. But these are genuine problems the Development Team needs to address to improve the user experience for both Sprouts and Mentors.

The Novice Network could be an amazing feature, but right now, it doesn't live up to what Square Enix intended it to be.

Please look into this for future updates & quality of life changes.