Hello there.

I want to share my experience on one project. We have almost doubled retention of newbies when implemented mentors system. It was simple: mentors were offering a deal to a newbie, and were receiving special scores when their newbies were growing through levels. For those scores, they were able to buy special, unique good.

I do not suggest to create something similar here or reward them that way, but I suggest to create a cabal for newbies. Cabal that would be led by experienced players, and newbies who would gain some benefits, like a bonus to XP, calling mob that would level up with them and be their groupmate (like mercenaries from Galadon), etc. Those benefits would be working, say, until level 30.

But even if they wouldn't have any cabal powers, they would be in a team. And being in a team would (I believe) greatly increase their desire to play and to return.

From the coding perspective, I do not think it will require a lot of it. There are tons of functionality that can be reused, such as nightwalkers could be their groupmates, but would leave immediately if it's a PK fight. So, I suggest something that would accumulate those newbies, teach them, help them, socialize and keep in the game, with a minimum new code and maximum of reuse.

I think that there are a lot of players who would like to be elders of such cabal, even if they wouldn't gain any special powers themselves.

That's it.

But I don't get how they could implement it.

Perhaps optional non-PK till 30s would be beneficial? Like if you're newbie, you are opted to get your PK enabled starting 31, not 11.

Might make it better and have time to prepare for the slaughter?

..if we actually had a huge influx of newbies, I don't think we do though. Usually they are pretty easy to locate on QHCF and you can just connect with them there and mentor OOC. This helps a lot more because you can talk to them OOC about mechanics, gear, and the cool stuff that you can't actually discuss IC that keeps the game intriguing.

Firstly, the casual newb will not likely discover QHCF for awhile. Secondly, even when they do find it how long before they get approval as a member? I recently came back to CF (I've always been a noob, never actually dedicated the time to get decent at the game, and only now am I actually starting to make progress in that direction) around or just over a month ago. Because I was introduced by a friend that was a vet, I already knew about QHCF, and applied for membership within the first couple days of coming back. After about two weeks I sent an email to Gabe asking about it, at Jhyrbian's suggestion. That was about three weeks ago maybe, and I've tried to re-apply in the last week. I still haven't been approved as a member, so implying that QHCF is a good way to notice and assist newbs is just plain wrong, at least in my experience.

Edit*- Despite not being able to communicate on QHCF I have picked up a few things just perusing the message boards. So it has helped to an extent, but I wanted to point out that your suggestion was anything but reliable. Or at the least, not worthy as an official solution.

I'm just saying that a lot of people go out of their way to help newbies on QHCF. Look at Elystan. He established an AP cheat ring in like his first 3 weeks here.

>I'm just saying that a lot of people go out of their way to
>help newbies on QHCF.

Which is awesome. I look forward to being able to participate on there at some point in time as well. I'm sure someone will eventually get around to approval, I can be patient.

I just feel it's worth pointing out that it's not a reliable alternative to an in game kind of solution to keeping new players, or easing their(our) transition somewhat.

I'm not sure a dedicated newbie cabal would be a good idea either, though. I would rather be eligible for whatever cabal I take an interest in. Personally I am most interested with the roleplay aspect of the game. I like PK, it's exciting and challenging, but without some immersive roleplay I couldn't justify devoting so much time to a MUD. That's me, however, I won't argue that I'm representative of the average newb because I've been on and off following CF for a long time.

Rather than segregate newbs, I think it's better to integrate them(us). I like the idea of someone in the cabal that helps new players out, like an alternate leader position. Instead though, they make sure that applicants that are new to the game understand what kind of things will be expected of them, some of the nuances of cabal wars and a little bit about the other cabals ie. general tactics based on powers etc. Then once the caballed player feels they are ready they can enter the fold.
As an alternative to an appointed position, perhaps make it so that when a new player pledges those within the cabal see a special pledge flag that lets them know that they are new. Then to get an induct they need a recommendation from one of the existing members. That will allow anyone in the cabal that wants to help them out do so, because as I've found there are lots of people willing to help new players out once they realize the situation, of all alignments. I'm sure that there will be some ooc communications about who is new with this flag, but I wouldn't worry too much about new players being targetted because in my experience you are a target to someone almost no matter what you do. This way at least it would be a localized piece of knowledge and there would be no in game way to tell if that trib is new or not.

I think it's rough that we can't somehow tell people that Qhcf is an option, or at the very least the wiki there. I've had years of playing this game, but I still utilize the wiki to some extent at least every other log-in.

The maps on this official web site aren't complete, or half as thorough as the ones on qhcf-wiki, and i think having these maps + the item list would benefit newbies far more than anything. I die a little bit inside whenever i see a newbie having to buy maps.

Especially for new players. I have utilized the maps extensively and it's really helped my area knowledge. The item lists are good too, but some are out of date. Not unexpected of course, as all of that information was put up by people volunteering their time.

There is a link to qhcf here on the official website, so it's not as if the staff shuns the site. I just don't think they put an emphasis on sending people there when some of the things you find there aren't current. The wiki on the officials isn't much different in that regard, though.

especially after the PM fiasco, where some moderators were caught
being scumbags whilst presenting themselves as bastions of fair play.
Also, posts get censored all the time at QHCF.

You'll get better advice, faster at the other forums.

Use QHCF to read PK logs and for the WIKI. Don't need an account for these.

QHCF is one of the worst things ever happened to CF. Spoiled, aggressive, hypocritical and full of trolls who are competing with each other, hijacking EVERY single thread. No thanks, don't send newbies to QHCF unless you want them to leave CF asap.

As jhyrbian pointed out elsewhere, people would target members of the newbie cabal as easy kills. Better to integrate newbies into the existing cabal structure. The mortal leader (or the immortals) could appoint a mentor from within the cabal to train up that person.

This would be tough role-play wise for evil cabals.

I don't think it's a danger. First, how would they know those are newbies? Second, I think you underestimate the 99% of players, who wouldn't do that and, instead, would help those players.

Also, members of the newbie cabal could be PK-protected until level 30. With the restriction that they won't be able to join any other cabal. So such restriction wouldn't be abused by vets.

And please don't think that you're d'Artagnan and the rest of the playerbase are scumbags.