Novice Network Feedback for SE

[Mykll]

I was finally able to get in yesterday morning. 100 mentors (of course) to about 15 sprouts. Yes was not during a busier server time, but what I saw, I really enjoyed for the most part. Questions were asked, helpful answers given, without any "No my answer is right even though we said the same things differently". Too bad my internet crapped out, got disconnected from game, so naturally no longer in the channel and full since. But I really enjoyed seeing the interaction. Yay early morning Balmung!

I did say above for the most part. Finally seeing this channel in action, here are some things I do NOT like about it. And I had to go back to the patch notes to verify some things.

Regardless of online status, mentors will always have access to the Novice Network, be eligible to register for Duty Roulette: Mentor, and receive the experience point bonus from grouping with new adventurers.

It seemed like most of the mentors in the channel were AFK. Taking up spots for those that are actively playing and willing to help. To me, it seems like if you are AFK (even if you turn off the AFK option, if you are sitting idly long enough so that you WOULD have gone AFK) then you get kicked from the channel. Maybe after 2 hours of AFK, I dunno. I forget how long the original AFK was set for. Thankfully, the few active mentors answered questions and we had some great convos and interacted with the sprouts. No spam, FC advertisements, selling, trying to over talk each other, etc. Again, it was morning and not a busier time, but I was still proud of Balmung.

* The "New Adventurer" status is applied to all players who have less than 40 hours of play time.

Mentors:
Mentors are automatically added to this channel upon logging in or changing areas.

New Adventurers:
New adventurers must be invited by a mentor.

Your standard level 15 ARC / 50 THM badly named bots flooded into the channel. If it is true that these guys must be invited, and cannot turn down an invitation, then someone keeps inviting these bots into the chat room. Lots of cleanup was done to continually kick these out. But, if all of these invites are being thrown around, it amazed me that the real sprouts playing were up to about level 25-30, and then nothing until level 50 bots.

* The display of the Novice Network chat log can be enabled or disabled via the Log Filters setting under the General tab of Log Window Settings in the Character Configuration interface.
* Beginners will automatically have their chat mode set to Novice Network when they join the channel.

I would be annoyed if I was used to my default channel in any MMO is SAY, and then suddenly that default would keep changing. But I can see it helping a new player if they are not familiar with MMO channels or this specific game's channels.

And everyone needs a better option than to hide the channel. Between all the mentors that are AFK, and just want a crown and achs and have the channel hidden, there is barely any room for active people who are willing to participate to get in. Both Mentors and Sprouts need a way to leave the channel, without removing their Mentor / New Adventure status. And if you leave, mentors have to talk to that NPC again to re-enter Novice Channel (or get invited?). No more auto-joining if you leave on your own. That way you get your crown and achs and no longer take up space.

Removing Players from the Novice Network
In cases of spamming or harassment, a mentor can kick another mentor or a new adventurer from the Novice Network channel. Kicked mentors cannot return for three hours, and kicked new adventurers for thirty minutes. Please be advised that, in doing so, your name, the name of the player being kicked, and the reason will be displayed to everyone on the channel.

This is confusing to me. New Adventurers cannot return for 30 minutes. So if we keep kicking those bots, are they auto-joining the channel again after 30 minutes? Or do they have to be re-invited all over again? Hopefully when bots are confirmed, accounts banned, SE can see who keeps inviting a large number of these bots and ban that account as well. Not one invite, but continuous history of it.


So while I like what I saw for the most part, glad to finally see it in action and used in a positive way, there are some glaring issues that seriously need to be looked at by SE.




Edit: I was able to get today and been in it all day. Lots of good convos, sprouts asking stuff, mentors answering, never saw a single bot today. Good stuff, really proud of Balmung Novice channel.