The mentor system sucks, and here's how I would fix it.

[cicatriz313]

Which is? So far as I can tell they are a person using their limited free time to enjoy a game they pay for. I expect that they won't break the rules and harass anyone..... and that's it.

Any further expectations are unrealistic.

There's literally no reason to have a mentor system, then... Like you can have a roulette that fills in any content without it being a "mentor roulette" and get rid of the idea of mentors and the novice network. I.E. what I said.

[linay]

There's literally no reason to have a mentor system, then... Like you can have a roulette that fills in any content without it being a "mentor roulette" and get rid of the idea of mentors and the novice network. I.E. what I said.

Well, as I stated above, there is still reason for the mentor system, even if it's just the bare passive benefits of bonus experience points.

As for the any-content roulette, the requirement to be a mentor (at least combat version) still means it is more likely for a mentor to be able to fill in all roles for the roulette and the roulette also tries to separate mentors into separate parties (not having an all-mentor party) unless a party in progress really needs them. So it's not just about the roulette, but also the people that participate in that roulette.

[cicatriz313]

Well, as I stated above, there is still reason for the mentor system, even if it's just the bare passive benefits of bonus experience points.

As for the any-content roulette, the requirement to be a mentor (at least combat version) still means it is more likely for a mentor to be able to fill in all roles for the roulette and the roulette also tries to separate mentors into separate parties (not having an all-mentor party) unless a party in progress really needs them. So it's not just about the roulette, but also the people that participate in that roulette.

Yeah, the roulette as it works now helps fill parties with mentors. The problem is that mentor as they are in game atm, is a pointless title that people get for reasons that don't coincide with helping newer players with anything. That's why it's better to just not have them, mentors literally join roulettes and leave if they get something not "worth their time" and from what I've seen, most novice networks are just used as a global chat for people who need someone to talk to.

[linay]

Yeah, the roulette as it works now helps fill parties with mentors. The problem is that mentor as they are in game atm, is a pointless title that people get for reasons that don't coincide with helping newer players with anything. That's why it's better to just not have them, mentors literally join roulettes and leave if they get something not "worth their time" and from what I've seen, most novice networks are just used as a global chat for people who need someone to talk to.

Like I said earlier, it depends on each individual mentors. There are mentors who are happy to help (and no, I'm not saying mentors have to help every time, but some do help when they can, and that's really what it's about). Just because there are bad mentors doesn't make the whole system pointless.

[Yshal]

The mentor system really helped me out when I was returning to the game. The people in the channel were extremely helpful and the mentors I see in the roulettes I've joined have all been friendly and have explained fights when I've asked for a refresher on them.

Seems to ME that the system is working just fine.

If a mentor isn't acting appropriately, I'd just report them like any other person. But when I see someone with the crown, I know they have hundreds of hours of play time and at least know the basics of the game and the content I'm doing with them. Knowing this, I feel confident about asking for advice from them.

If you remove the mentor system from the game, I'll have no idea if the person offering me advice has even a week of game experience.

Seems to me the system is just fine.

[Selova]

Yeah, the roulette as it works now helps fill parties with mentors. The problem is that mentor as they are in game atm, is a pointless title that people get for reasons that don't coincide with helping newer players with anything. That's why it's better to just not have them, mentors literally join roulettes and leave if they get something not "worth their time" and from what I've seen, most novice networks are just used as a global chat for people who need someone to talk to.

There is no reason to punish the many for the sake of the few. These topics always spiral into a massive flame war with people who have these vendetta's against Mentors due to personal anecdotal experiences and then want to paint every single mentor with the same brush. No one is denying that there are selfish mentors who only wear the crown for the personal buffs and the mentor mount, but not all of us are like that. I believe changes should indeed be made to the current system, but abolishing it completely because you had a personal bad experience with a mentor isn't the way to go about it.

[WaterShield]

There's literally no reason to have a mentor system, then... Like you can have a roulette that fills in any content without it being a "mentor roulette" and get rid of the idea of mentors and the novice network. I.E. what I said.

Ok... and who would want to do it? There is a reason I gave up being a mentor. I signed up to help new people a bit... not to be a walking encyclopedia of every class and all content to be abused so people can clear things they didn't feel the need to put effort into.

Currently people are incentivized by a shiny crown and mentor roulette rewards. For many people that is not enough to put up with pure suffering and poor treatment from other players for "failing to live up to their expectations"

[cicatriz313]

Ok... and who would want to do it? There is a reason I gave up being a mentor. I signed up to help people a bit... not to be a walking encyclopedia of every class and all content to be abused so people can clear things they didn't feel the need to put effort into.

Currently people are incentivized by a shiny crown and mentor roulette rewards. For many people that is not enough to put up with pure suffering and poor treatment from other for "failing to live up to their expectations"

The same people who want to do it now? The people who want Astrope. Like that's why anyone is doing mentor roulette in the first place. Not sure why you're strawmanning me saying that I'm asking for mentors to be anything, I literally said the system shouldn't be a thing because hardly anyone cares about it. The only people who want it to exist are people who want their crown pixels and a global chat.

[Feidam]

The same people who want to do it now? The people who want Astrope. Like that's why anyone is doing mentor roulette in the first place. Not sure why you're strawmanning me saying that I'm asking for mentors to be anything, I literally said the system shouldn't be a thing because hardly anyone cares about it. The only people who want it to exist are people who want their crown pixels and a global chat.

I wouldn’t generalize here. There are lots of folks that are mentors that are not just in it for the mount. The mount is a nice added bonus don’t get me wrong but I didn’t agree to be a mentor just so i could grind out one mount. I actually like helping people.

[cicatriz313]

I wouldn’t generalize here. There are lots of folks that are mentors that are not just in it for the mount. The mount is a nice added bonus don’t get me wrong but I didn’t agree to be a mentor just so i could grind out one mount. I actually like helping people.

It's pretty easy to generalize based on experience, but I'm glad to know you exist. Also, if you like helping people you don't need a system to do it, right? So you could do away with the system still np.

Ok it seems the point was missed. I'll condense.

IF the current rewards are already struggling to draw people in for the queue (given the massive wait time on some peoples queue's for say old EX trials) what other rewards would you suggest be added?

I've never talked about the queue being long or anything? If the system currently isn't working, why would we leave it alone as you said to do? I'm saying the system isn't working, so what is the point of the system. We can keep the roulette for anyone who wants to continue progressing towards astrope without a silly crown or global chat. I personally don't have any desires in making old ex trials relevant in df again.

Eh, not everyone cares about the mount, though I’m sure quite a few do—I’m not saying you’re wrong there, but some of us don’t care about it.

I started doing Mentor Roulette because I was bored and it was fun going through some of the older content it gives sometimes (not the Guildhests, but I actually find it fun to get EX primals in there sometimes). I couldn’t care less about Astrope or any of the other titles/rewards. I already have my desired title anyways lol.

Mentor Roulette basically serves to fill waiting queues—it’s not just something that matches you with new players. I can get stuff in there with no new player bonuses at all. Most I wait for a queue to pop is 5~10 mins if I go DPS. But on healer my queues are almost always instant, and I imagine that tanks are the same.

I get that I over-generalized there, but it was in responding to someone else about who would run the roulette if the "mentor" part were removed. The answer was just saying that if the roulette existed without having mentorship attached to it, people would still run it even if the mentor system went away.