I fully support having a mentoring system in-game but feel it's underutilized by incoming players. Making it easier for new players to find a mentor would not only help ease them into the game but would also make those first few hours feel less solitary. Here are a few suggestions to make the mentor system more visible in order of increasing complexity.

1. Add a mention of the availability of mentors to one of the Tutorial missions (probably the last mission or as part of the text for completion of the Test mission).

2. Have a way for people who want to be mentors to "register" and be listed by someone looking for a mentor (/mentor list). You would need to be online and in-game to be so listed. Room for a short personal blurb by the mentor would be welcome. Maybe sort the list according to who has the fewest mentor ratings to ensure everyone gets a fair shot at being chosen. A mentor-only command that lists new players might be helpful as well (/mentor newplayers).

3. New players could initially be members of a kind of newbie guild (possibly faction-based given the starting stations for newbies - a kind of player academy). Mentors would be the Instructors at these Academies. Mentors could periodically take newbies on simple group missions of almost any type for training as well as being available to answer questions. Other activities could be arranged just for newbies to help them build some initial capital. Much of this could be done (and sometime is done currently) on an ad hoc individual basis but starting players out in a pseudo-guild of their peers would give them a more comfortable environment to ask questions and experiment as well make them feel a part of a community right from the beginning. Good place for nation-specific RP since the Tutorials, by necessity, are rather generic. This would also ease the burden on channel 100 as each Academy would have their own channel (channel 1 should remain the universal help channel though).

None of these choices are mutually exclusive. Number 3 will probably require a larger player-base to work, though. Choosing a mentor should always be voluntary - not all players want or need the individual attention but those who do would probably welcome a quick and easy way to find a mentor.

P.S. Most questions are answered in the Manual's FAQ but no one seems to ever read the Manual. Making the FAQ available and searchable in-game would be a wonderful addition for new players. (I would suggest a search box in the F1 Help window.)

I think these are good ideas.

I will happily mentor new players.
Unfortunately, I feel like they never completely trust me...

well...you do have a slightly evil reputation. that aside the ideas are quite sound.

I think these are good idea.

sounds good, Ill mentor some noobies if they will take me.

I think the best thing that can be done for the mentor system is getting rid of the rewards for mentoring people.

I think maybe different rewards...or advertise it better,

I agree with genka. Tie the UC to a new 1000 PVP badge and just let people mentor for the sake of mentoring.

Hell no.

That would be nothing short of a slap to the face of those of us who went and earned the 40+ mentor points legitimately.

It's like telling someone who just worked up their licenses so that they could use a particular ship or weapon that you just doubled the license requirements and that now any of the stuff that they bought to use can't be used until they meet that requirement again, which could be several months from then.

It would also apply to any newly-generated alts, Miha. I'm for changing the rewards of mentorship.

Edit: I'm for doing away with rewards for mentorship entirely.

It would also apply to any newly-generated alts, Miha.

How does that have *anything* to do with what I said?

It's like telling someone who just worked up their licenses so that they could use a particular ship or weapon that you just doubled the license requirements and that now any of the stuff that they bought to use can't be used until they meet that requirement again, which could be several months from then.

That's the issue; it's another grind to get the best PvP equipment.

"legitimately", like the last person in TGFT to get it where everyone that still had mentor ratings available, gave them to said person? I think I was "mentored" for level 15 trading or some such like that :-)

I'd be willing to be that you can count the number of 100% legit 40+ mentor point holders on one hand....

I personally hung around in capitol systems helping new players. I didn't do any of that mentor-point grinding you speak of.

I can believe that maybe one person has a claim of "legitimacy" to her mentor points, and that person is not you, that's for damn sure.

You go ahead and think what you want, genka. You are entitled to your own (stupid as it may be on most occasions) opinion.

I try to help out new players...(as long as they have done the tutorials...really irks me when people flood chat with questions the tutorials will answer)...I didnt do it for points though, I just did it to help new players.

anyways, I think that even with out the mentor system in place there will always be people willing to lend a hand.

While I'm all for rewards, MSK, having your UC doesn't mean anything. I've got hundreds of them. And guess what! I've only got 13 mentor points.

Under the current rules, reaching Level 2 Combat makes the pilot no longer eligible to be mentored. SO, a new player must discover the command, find a trust worthy player & commit their trust to them before completing their 1st Basic Combat mission = possibly as little as 2 hours into the trial period.

While I accept that the developers may intend to prevent abuse by established players who wish to collect spurious mentor points, this policy is entirely too effective to allow genuine new players to get help before they loose eligibility for it.