Forums » Suggestions
Mentor System tweaks
Reposting two replies I made in Faille's "Whinge" thread on the General forum, refining and editing as I go:
First step: ADD a few commands to the /mentor syntax, and appropriate server tracking:
/mentor offer "student name" = allows a teacher to invite a student. [as per TRS's reply]
/mentor needed = registers you as currently seeking a mentor, lists all characters online who have
registered as available. notifies you when mentors register or log out.
/mentor available = registers you as available and ready to mentor. lists all characters online who have /mentor needed and notifies you when students register or log out.
All registrations would be cleared when the character logs out, so all this is only for ready and willing students and mentors during their current session.
Second step: ADD a Mentor "Info Only" mission to the training sector
Something along the lines of the combat 3 "Where do I go from here?" mission you see when you hit level 3, explaining how mentorship works. As has been discussed a lot, new players have very little chance to learn of the mentor system before they are no longer able to invite a mentor.
Third step: Increase the level cap on /mentor invite.
New players often get to lic 3 in trade or mining or light weapons before they learn about the mentor system. What if, for a first mentorship they could invite until one license gets to 5, then they rate after a certain number of license *dings*, perhaps 3?
Forth step: Allow all three mentor points of the account to be used by the same character.
Fort the real padawan/master experience, all 3 can be given to the same mentor, or for the university experience, invite 3 differrent mentors. This would require further increases in license limits, but these approaches would take a lot more xp ammassed as levels got higher. You might even consider making a minimum license required for a second or third mentor even across characters on the same account. this would nullify a lot of abuse.
Fifth step: ADD a matchmaking mission to group mentors with students, available everywhere.
Think of it as speed dating for mentors. The mission could review the /mentor commands, and perhaps even filter students and mentors by operating systems, topics of interest (combat, trading, mining, piracy, or general). You could put an asterisk by active mentor group missions like you do for Border Skirmishes: A mentor logs in, registers with /mentor available, then they see a mission to create a "class" and starts a mentorship group, specifying the location, OS, and topic. Registered students then see the mission as active, so they don't have to wait around trying to find a group. These missions can either directly lead to a /mentor rate prompt for the student or just offer an environment to get /mentor invites a-flowin'
finally, if you wanted to be fair to teachers and avoid trolls givng out /mentor rate bad reviews just to be mean, you could also let the mentor rate the student :)
All food for thought, but if the registry described in step 1 wasn't too horrific a back-end project, that alone would get newbs and vets together without constant student-recruitment on 100, which is self-sabotaging for any new player that doesn't yet trust the player base.
First step: ADD a few commands to the /mentor syntax, and appropriate server tracking:
/mentor offer "student name" = allows a teacher to invite a student. [as per TRS's reply]
/mentor needed = registers you as currently seeking a mentor, lists all characters online who have
registered as available. notifies you when mentors register or log out.
/mentor available = registers you as available and ready to mentor. lists all characters online who have /mentor needed and notifies you when students register or log out.
All registrations would be cleared when the character logs out, so all this is only for ready and willing students and mentors during their current session.
Second step: ADD a Mentor "Info Only" mission to the training sector
Something along the lines of the combat 3 "Where do I go from here?" mission you see when you hit level 3, explaining how mentorship works. As has been discussed a lot, new players have very little chance to learn of the mentor system before they are no longer able to invite a mentor.
Third step: Increase the level cap on /mentor invite.
New players often get to lic 3 in trade or mining or light weapons before they learn about the mentor system. What if, for a first mentorship they could invite until one license gets to 5, then they rate after a certain number of license *dings*, perhaps 3?
Forth step: Allow all three mentor points of the account to be used by the same character.
Fort the real padawan/master experience, all 3 can be given to the same mentor, or for the university experience, invite 3 differrent mentors. This would require further increases in license limits, but these approaches would take a lot more xp ammassed as levels got higher. You might even consider making a minimum license required for a second or third mentor even across characters on the same account. this would nullify a lot of abuse.
Fifth step: ADD a matchmaking mission to group mentors with students, available everywhere.
Think of it as speed dating for mentors. The mission could review the /mentor commands, and perhaps even filter students and mentors by operating systems, topics of interest (combat, trading, mining, piracy, or general). You could put an asterisk by active mentor group missions like you do for Border Skirmishes: A mentor logs in, registers with /mentor available, then they see a mission to create a "class" and starts a mentorship group, specifying the location, OS, and topic. Registered students then see the mission as active, so they don't have to wait around trying to find a group. These missions can either directly lead to a /mentor rate prompt for the student or just offer an environment to get /mentor invites a-flowin'
finally, if you wanted to be fair to teachers and avoid trolls givng out /mentor rate bad reviews just to be mean, you could also let the mentor rate the student :)
All food for thought, but if the registry described in step 1 wasn't too horrific a back-end project, that alone would get newbs and vets together without constant student-recruitment on 100, which is self-sabotaging for any new player that doesn't yet trust the player base.
seems like a lot of stuff, why not just change the person who invites to the mentor, rather than the mentee so all that the mentee has to do is accept one command and then be mentored.
+1 to anything that improves the mentor system
+1.....
why not just change the person who invites to the mentor, rather than the mentee so all that the mentee has to do is accept one command and then be mentored.
That too :) [Added to OP]
But I don't think they should take away the student's ability to initiate the request. The concept to date has been based on students choosing to whom their precious good review points are awarded.
The biggest problem has been the information: The only place the game mentions mentorship is one of the random tips during sector loading, which go by too fast to read most of the time. The game should educate them early so they don't think they are being lured by veterans in trench coats into unsavory activities when they try to coax an invite, or if your suggestion were added, an acceptance of theirs. I was just trying to put together something that removed the need for vets to "trawl" for students. The game can put the people who want to teach together with the ones who want a personal trainer.
That too :) [Added to OP]
But I don't think they should take away the student's ability to initiate the request. The concept to date has been based on students choosing to whom their precious good review points are awarded.
The biggest problem has been the information: The only place the game mentions mentorship is one of the random tips during sector loading, which go by too fast to read most of the time. The game should educate them early so they don't think they are being lured by veterans in trench coats into unsavory activities when they try to coax an invite, or if your suggestion were added, an acceptance of theirs. I was just trying to put together something that removed the need for vets to "trawl" for students. The game can put the people who want to teach together with the ones who want a personal trainer.
+1 to all CD's suggestions, but especially:
The biggest problem has been the information:
This was my main gripe. There is simply bugger all info on mentoring.
Faille.
The biggest problem has been the information:
This was my main gripe. There is simply bugger all info on mentoring.
Faille.
+1