I think the fact that you can group in those ranks is a double-edged sword. If you're a newbie and pick a class that can't tank and can't do damage, then you're going to be stuck below 10 for a long while, get frustrated and delete. Especially as a shapeshifter. (Or, more likely since you won't know about the delete command by this point, you'll probably just stop playing the character and roll a new one.)

In the same vein, if some mage/AP/Bard grabs you and either gives you a stash of warrior gear he's hauling around or runs you around briefly without telling you ####, or even just makes you be The Third as a replacement tank or healing dude, you're going to hit 11 in no time, be in danger and have no newbie channel and no inkling of how to get a basic set of either HP or hit/dam gear.

I think a bigger thing to address would be:

Further lowering costs of the Lore mob for items below level 10-15 or so. Newbies obviously shouldn't be able to put together a set of 200 HP, but learning to gear for 100 HP if it takes all their equipment slots with the lowbie gear on their own, is reasonable. So is 10-15 hit/dam.

Along those lines, put a few quests in the Inn that would direct lowbies to areas to collect certain pieces of decent unlimited gear and bring them back to the lore thief (skull rings, sandy browns, Troglodyte gear, Seaport gear, Tabershaw gear, Loch Grynmear gear etc., old staples and shiny new replacements along the lines of primarily +HP, +hit, +dam, +str, +int, and a tiny bit of -svs spell gear for thinking about fighting mages, skip para and breath for now, since those are what you should worry about most as a new guy, whether mage or melee.) and lore them for the lowbie free of charge before taking them. This helps them get on their feet faster after the OUTFIT command in their guild and expand their knowledge more quickly. If you have the price jump for items above 15 you also keep lore from being stupidly cheap. Items below level 15 or so should cost no more than 150 cp (as I understand it the prices are pretty low as it is but I personally believe the quests and price range could be for the guy that is about 9-12ish, mobdied and had his newbie quest 5k copper looted, and only has about 350 lying around from regearing/selling, if that. Another solution is to allow lowbies to barter an item for similar value to the one being identified for level 15 only, i.e. give the guy two or three gold broadswords and get one back, sort of like a comparison dealie.)



I know that the semi-safe haven issue with the Inn is already largely problematic. However, the fact that you can gain levels too quickly before 11 and not learn anything is still a good argument for advertising the Inn more heavily than in the 'help newbie' helpfiles. It's directions that should probably be available in the Academy, and directing the flow of new guys to here will also as a whole:

Give them an oppritunity to learn better RP quicker just from watching others converse, (assuming there is anyone to converse with)

Letting them ask for gear and advice from the people next best equipped to help them with that sort of thing, that is Heralds who generally as a whole are going to be able to have a better sense of humor about being asked these types of questions because cabal raid responsibilities aren't a chip on their shoulder. They are also neutral and their job is generic knowledge, history and record keeping. A little knowledge about gear for lowbies wouldn't hurt coming from Herald's mouths, either and keep the lowbies off of the backs of the Acolytes who, not only have their hands full already, but pretty much because of the rest of the cabal raiding aren't always nice. Heralds are generally terribly bored, giving them an excuse to hold someone's hand might even help them expand their own gear knowledge themselves because fully half of them will have access to some type of identification themselves.

Directing lowbies to the Inn increases the chances of Immteraction ICly with the Imms who chose to be there, which lumps in with the RP thing.

Also during rolling, reccommend bards more heavily to new players because of the perfected lore. Svirfnebli MIGHT be a decent reccommendation with the new inherents now + detect invis, but I doubt it, blunt vuln hurts lowbies too much when everything punches.

Anyway, those are my thoughts, and there is a snowball's chance in hell all of them would be implemented at once.

Anyone that actually wants to have these generally uncaballed lowbies dead will probably be more than capable of working out some kind of workaround for the bouncers anyway.

"I have to admit I hate pretty much all of these ideas. " - Nepenthe, on New Ranger Skills