Novice Network limitation needs an update

[FF14Xanz]

Before commenting about how or why you personally don't like NN, that isn't the point of this post, nobody will force you into it, this is just for the purposes of improving current intended design.

Novice Network is a system designed with the intention of veteran players facilitating smooth integration into the game by new players through answering questions and providing a welcoming social environment in a shared channel accessible throughout a single world.

We've seen over time that there has been drama involving mentors of course, but overall, many players appreciate and enjoy the system and its social aspect has helped make the game feel more alive for most, and especially those not in an FC.

So the problem i'd like to address is the population cap.

Mentors - 100
Novices - 400

This is absurdly small, understandably for the purposes of making sure the chat isn't flooded at all times. However ultimately for the growth this game has seen I feel as though this is detrimental to the potential new player experience.

to put the above numbers in perspective, novice network was introduced in heavensward patch 3.2 - Source

the population at this time was roughly around 6-7 million concurrent players globally.
around 3 million on NA servers, 2 million in jp, 2 million in eu.
by world the average player count was about
170k in NA, 80k in jp, and 200k in eu.
Source

the novice/mentor limits were the same back then as they are now, and yes 8 years ago people were complaining about this pop cap too so in all honesty i don't expect very much traction.

However, the population has increased by about 4x, with 29 million concurrent players globally.
14 million on NA servers, 6 million on JP, 8 million in EU, and 300k in OCE.
by world average it becomes immediately apparent why the current novice limitations aren't sustainable:
NA - roughly 500k per world (0.1% have access to NN)
JP - roughly 170k per world (0.3%)
EU - roughly 400k per world (0.13%)
OCE - roughly 70k per world (0.7%)
Source

Solution - Create multiple channels for novice network.

With most new expansions we've seen zones be instanced into 3 for the relaxation of congestion experienced across each server, and as the population stabilized as players finished what they were interested in doing and unsubscribed for the remainder of the patch, the zone instances were removed or re-introduced as was necessary.

So just do this for novice network. Have separate channels exist during periods of high player activity, especially so during influxes of new players, retain the same mentor/novice limit per channel, and dissolve the extra channels to funnel people back into the single regular channel most people would be accustomed to during low traffic periods.

[MistakeNot]

It is very rare to see the cap for novices/returnees actually be reached.
The number of mentors in the NN often hit the cap, but not novices.
As long as the mentors in the NN can answer questions, there doesn't need to be more of them.

So, I don't see any actual problem here that needs to be solved.

[TlachtgaSi]

I never knew this even existed until now.

[Boblawblah]

It won't matter, you'll still have 10 mentors just talking about random stuff while the 400 sprouts either ask unanswered questions, or stay silent.

[MsMisato]

nah most mentors as it stands now really arent useful and just use it as their personal chat or when they feel like they are on a power trip.

[Kaurhz]

Honestly... Remove any form of moderation that mentors have over the novice network. Just have it as a global chat, with an overall player cap with multiple channels to accommodate for the player cap.

Novice Network should never have been a thing, should've been a global chat from the beginning, nothing more, nothing less.

[Valence]

The only time I've seen the NN completely oversaturated for sprouts was during the WoW exodus, where it was impossible to invite more than half of the new players at any given time.

As an active mentor in those channels, I am also strongly opposed to splitting them into multiple instances. One of the biggest boons of NN for a lot of new players is to find a social venue for them to find friends, talk with people, etc. If whenever they connect they don't have the guarantee to find their friends and the community they're having fun within, it's going to detract extremely badly from the benefits the game gains from this system and it shouldn't be underestimated (else if you want a dead channel with only a couple of questions from time to time, go visit JP worlds and see how dreadful NN is there). If one has to really increase the amounts, then go over the 10 bits limit (512) and crank it up to 1024 or something, but I don't think it's really mandatory right now.

Edit: I saw you mentioned "in times of big activity", which is less of a problem but... what would decide this? I fear it would last unnecessarily long for little reason, seeing how long the map instancing lasts itself at patch releases (until next patch usually)...

nah most mentors as it stands now really arent useful and just use it as their personal chat or when they feel like they are on a power trip.

Honestly... Remove any form of moderation that mentors have over the novice network. Just have it as a global chat, with an overall player cap with multiple channels to accommodate for the player cap.

Novice Network should never have been a thing, should've been a global chat from the beginning, nothing more, nothing less.

I'm not opposed to global chats, but no. If your NN sucks, it's sad for new players. Ours is great and works well.

[Striker44]

However, the population has increased by about 4x, with 29 million concurrent players globally.
14 million on NA servers, 6 million on JP, 8 million in EU, and 300k in OCE.
by world average it becomes immediately apparent why the current novice limitations aren't sustainable:
NA - roughly 500k per world (0.1% have access to NN)
JP - roughly 170k per world (0.3%)
EU - roughly 400k per world (0.13%)
OCE - roughly 70k per world (0.7%)

Important note - the "population" numbers are the total # of characters created over the lifetime of the game, not "concurrent" or presently active players. If you look further into the census for data that represents "active characters", you'll see it averages ~25k per world on NA and between 1.4-1.5 million total active characters across all regions.

[Kaurhz]

The only time I've seen the NN completely oversaturated for sprouts was during the WoW exodus, where it was impossible to invite more than half of the new players at any given time.

As an active mentor in those channels, I am also strongly opposed to splitting them into multiple instances. One of the biggest boons of NN for a lot of new players is to find a social venue for them to find friends, talk with people, etc. If whenever they connect they don't have the guarantee to find their friends and the community they're having fun within, it's going to detract extremely badly from the benefits the game gains from this system and it shouldn't be underestimated (else if you want a dead channel with only a couple of questions from time to time, go visit JP worlds and see how dreadful NN is there). If one has to really increase the amounts, then go over the 10 bits limit (512) and crank it up to 1024 or something, but I don't think it's really mandatory right now.

Edit: I saw you mentioned "in times of big activity", which is less of a problem but... what would decide this? I fear it would last unnecessarily long for little reason, seeing how long the map instancing lasts itself at patch releases (until next patch usually)...





I'm not opposed to global chats, but no. If your NN sucks, it's sad for new players. Ours is great and works well.

Functionally, it wouldn't matter -- All you'd be essentially doing is allowing people in regardless of whether or not they have sprout status, and whether or not they have mentor status, equally, there would be nothing stopping a global chat from functioning in a similar way to NN wherein new players and ask questions, and more veteran players answering said questions.

The only drastic change would effectively be that it would be open to all players, and it would take the moderation aspect away from mentors -- Mentors shouldn't be moderators, in no universe should they be designated moderators. The game has GMs for a reason.

[1313]

TBH just increase the amount of mentors to like 150, while removing 50 from the 412 sprouts. I've never seen more than about 320 sprouts during peak hours on a big patch day. Alternatively, just double both numbers. To assist in this whole situation, players who don't intend to participate in NN conversations could just leave the novice network, rather than simply filtering it out. Turn off auto join setting, and this will help to keep spots free for those who wish to use it for it's intended purpose.

There's a bad side to having too many mentors in novice network though, at least in NA. One sprout can ask one simple question and then 10 mentors start arguing over the small details that don't matter, or they start speaking as if the sprout should have a high end content mindset. Does the sprout ever even get their answer? Sometimes.