Friday with Means - March 6th, 2009

[FrankLambert]

I have a suggestion not for means but for someone in the community. If you all care so much about not being able to find teams in tl3, tl4, etc simply band together and form a system. We all know 1/2 the population doesnt use lft, its simply hey guys lets do this, that, etc.

My resolution is this: 1 generous city owner from each side create an org named TL5(3,4,5,6) OMNI(clan) and recruit everyone into it.

Imagine seeing 30+ people online at any given time in your level range and side in the same bot....if you cant grab a team in that situation you need to work on your social skills. If it is universaly adopted you will have a better chance at teaming and meeting new people all the way from ely through 220.

I really dont see a downside to this system if the owner still uses his/her city to farm still while helping everyone out.

[wormx]

if u tried all new content on test now you would find it same as live, the pf X boss was easily soloable before the designer of the PF made it non possible to solo, we helped them test it to make sure it was NOT soloable. i soloed pf X before the changes were made.

Mac is Macque, 220 keeper born on testlive

Thankyou for proving my point

[Solsssss]

20m for a full perk reset

[gergiskoo]

I still think it should be more than 20m. To any hardcore twinking endgame toon that's very cheap for such a massive benefit.

[TheCatlady]

About the "org invites" - we don't pick up people from the street or from OOC. Never.
We have a forum with a "Joining US" section which is named in our history/org info, to make sure people know how we handle things and have at least seen our org rules.

If they decide they wanna give it a try with us, there's an interview and then an application time of at least a week.

Why? Simple - we want to make sure that they fit to us and we fit to them. Stops them trouble and us too.

About the noob thing: 95% of lowbies that start to talk to me are barely able to type "credz plx" and open a trade window right away. I can't tell how many times I explained the use of a mish term and handed them a few bucks to roll some, and I'm the last one that doesn't help with assembling stuff when I'm able to do it on the toon I'm on.

I don't charge for buffs or wrangles, I accept tips on the Trader though.
I don't mind helping someone out when I got the time, what I hate though is someone who wants everything doen w/o even trying himself.

I remember very well how I started, using imps that dropped in missions, rolled for my armor or other parts of my equipment.

If you come to me and expect me to hand you some millions, you're at the wrong place. If you started something and can't solve it on your own, I'll most likely help when I am not stuck into something. I also got help from my org, but I wasn't handed everything "just so". Working for your stuff teaches you the "value" of it.

Just my 2 cents.

[Ayria]

I still think it should be more than 20m. To any hardcore twinking endgame toon that's very cheap for such a massive benefit.

You are welcome to send some money my way if you feel you want to burn more then 20m each time you fPR.

[Lheann]

I really try to help lowbies out if I can. Once they prove they can carry a conversation and manage to get recruited into the org they really start getting help. I dont hand them credits by any means. But I have been farming Jack Leg Chopper lately on my main and you know those plac eholders drop 4 to 6k credits a piece. For a 213 toon that is nothing. But I let the lowbies in the org tag along teamed (no xp for them) and loot everythng I kill that is not jack. Hey a level 40 toon in VW is easy pickings for some of the mobs out there. They are taking the risk of dying to loot my kills and I dont mind that. I was just letting rot anyway.

As for noobs off the street. "Credits Please" is old at this point any noobs starting with that or "can I have some xxxx item" get ignored. Now the ones that go "excuse me I have a question about pulling missions" or "could you tell me were to make some cash on my own" I give plenty of help.

Playing nice with noobs starts with them being polite about asking questions.

[Trebie]

Just feel like adding to this topic that I've recently started up again, im a total newb atm, just about to hit lvl 20 soon.

So far, I've encountered about 6 diffrent people on rubi-ka 2 that I've attempted to speak with, and all of them have helped me.
No, I didn't run up to them begging for credits (eventhough im hurtin for em bad, and have crap for.. well, everything, lol.), but I did ask them for advice on certain things. I also asked one to make an implant for me since it took 39 NP and I only had 20 at the time, and she was nice enough to do it for me. Then when i still came up short on skill, she made me a lvl 20 one to use for nothing, just outta nowhere. I was very happy about this! lol

Then someone named doc let me into his org, so I now have people to converse with, and am being shown all the nifty new 3rd party tools for AO. Map addons, clicksaver, etc etc.

So, yeah! So far, my newb experience on RK2 has been awesome. I think the devs just had bad luck. Although extreamly humerous bad luck (you didn't fall, you were pushed. almost died laughing), bad luck none the less.

[styles999]

About the "org invites" - we don't pick up people from the street or from OOC. Never.
We have a forum with a "Joining US" section which is named in our history/org info, to make sure people know how we handle things and have at least seen our org rules.

If they decide they wanna give it a try with us, there's an interview and then an application time of at least a week.

Why? Simple - we want to make sure that they fit to us and we fit to them. Stops them trouble and us too.

About the noob thing: 95% of lowbies that start to talk to me are barely able to type "credz plx" and open a trade window right away. I can't tell how many times I explained the use of a mish term and handed them a few bucks to roll some, and I'm the last one that doesn't help with assembling stuff when I'm able to do it on the toon I'm on.

I don't charge for buffs or wrangles, I accept tips on the Trader though.
I don't mind helping someone out when I got the time, what I hate though is someone who wants everything doen w/o even trying himself.

I remember very well how I started, using imps that dropped in missions, rolled for my armor or other parts of my equipment.

If you come to me and expect me to hand you some millions, you're at the wrong place. If you started something and can't solve it on your own, I'll most likely help when I am not stuck into something. I also got help from my org, but I wasn't handed everything "just so". Working for your stuff teaches you the "value" of it.

Just my 2 cents.

^^EXACTLY, there have been times i have been offered help and ive kinda refused. i like to try and stay independant as possible(but sometimes u just cant)

[Kaylinne]

I have a suggestion not for means but for someone in the community. If you all care so much about not being able to find teams in tl3, tl4, etc simply band together and form a system. We all know 1/2 the population doesnt use lft, its simply hey guys lets do this, that, etc.

My resolution is this: 1 generous city owner from each side create an org named TL5(3,4,5,6) OMNI(clan) and recruit everyone into it.

Imagine seeing 30+ people online at any given time in your level range and side in the same bot....if you cant grab a team in that situation you need to work on your social skills. If it is universaly adopted you will have a better chance at teaming and meeting new people all the way from ely through 220.

I really dont see a downside to this system if the owner still uses his/her city to farm still while helping everyone out.

It may work for orgless people but some of us have orgs and friends that may not be of same level to team so easily. My org average level is 190+ and there are hardly enough alts online to team with on my lvl 150 for example.

[FrankLambert]

Kaylinne this solution works for everyone. Does your orgbot not have a guest channel that you can join in? If everyone joined an org called "tl5 omni" from lets say 150-185 leveled up then move on to the next org (tl6 omni) or back to an old org.

A massive title level org would be a good base to get teams and learn about professions. I have a 203 advy, if i joined "tl6 omni" i would still join viralbots in guest channel to see whats happening.

[Kaylinne]

Kaylinne this solution works for everyone. Does your orgbot not have a guest channel that you can join in? If everyone joined an org called "tl5 omni" from lets say 150-185 leveled up then move on to the next org (tl6 omni) or back to an old org.

A massive title level org would be a good base to get teams and learn about professions. I have a 203 advy, if i joined "tl6 omni" i would still join viralbots in guest channel to see whats happening.

You should bear in mind that some people have actual benefits from their present org, like city benefits and towers.
Hopping orgs is not so easy as it may seem.

But then why wouldnt someone simply instead of inviting to completely new org invite all those people to guest channel of the "massive TLX" org?

[Alternity]

Xxxx666: can i have esence pls
Darkempire: NO!
Xxxx666: ok ty u are veri kind


Doing my best!!!

[Kaylinne]

Xxxx666: can i have esence pls
Darkempire: NO!
Xxxx666: ok ty u are veri kind


Doing my best!!!

Try harder

[Tiralee]

You should bear in mind that some people have actual benefits from their present org, like city benefits and towers.
Hopping orgs is not so easy as it may seem.

But then why wouldnt someone simply instead of inviting to completely new org invite all those people to guest channel of the "massive TLX" org?

Also, although the original post suggests an org with a city for the purpose of TLs banding together to form a system and find teams, a TLX org wouldn't need an org with a city. Anyone could start such an org even if they didn't have a city, and those TLs could join the org guest chat (as suggested by Kaylinne). That way people could stay in their own orgs if they have one, and people not in an org might even find an org that they want to join.

There are -- or at least used to be -- profession-specific bots. Another idea would be to start something like that for Title Levels.

[styles999]

^^ THATS A AWESOME IDEA

if anyone is doing this give me a /tell on any of my alts ill deff do that

[Kaylinne]

^^ THATS A AWESOME IDEA

if anyone is doing this give me a /tell on any of my alts ill deff do that

I like the idea.... a channel without credit spammers with people that actually want to do something (or maybe just chat and see who they deal with before starting anything). Lft is very lacking.
But then the thought of organizing something alike by TLs gives me a headache.

You would sure need some kind of bot with minimal moderation, no points and no sides restrictions ofc

[harkness]

My husband and I were sitting around discussing this at dinner and came up with the following list of things that made OUR intro experience a bit rocky.

Five ways to improve the starting experience

• Make Dovve's the default starting map: Changing the map is one of the harder things to do in game if you don't know what you're doing, and it's almost impossible to discover it on your own without being told. The default map is worse than useless, it's actively confusing, while Dovve's is much, much better. Rolling other maps into the default pack would be even better, or just updating Dovves. Marking level ranges on the map would also add a lot for a starting char.
  
• Make the default GUI have 2 chat windows. One for all the battle spam and one for everything else. It's sometimes hard to talk to a new player if they haven't figured out the chat system enough to make their own new chat window. No new player to a game wants to spend their first 30 minutes setting up their GUI, they want to kill a few things!
  
• Add quests to lead new folks to explore. I love the added quests in noob island and biomare, but shorter (3-4 quest steps) quests would also be great in Subway and Temple of the Three Winds. Also, give an actual quest to lead people from place to place. I know there's the "go help in the subway" pop up when you hit a certain level, but how about explicitly giving a quest from the guy who gives the teleporter codes to talk to a NPC in front of the subway who could give a quest to kill 5 fleas or something. Similarly, that same NPC could give a player a quest to talk to another NPC outside totw, etc.
  
• Just give new characters monster/human map upgrades by default. I liked the AO map/map upgrade system when I joined AO, but AO was my first MMO. Now that I've tried a bunch of other MMOs, I realize how confusing not having player/monster dots on your mini-map is. Leave the side/machine/arrow upgrades as they are (although I'd LOVE to see a "lifts" upgrade) but just automatically give all new players monster/human. I truly believe that once someone joins a team in AO, they are WAY more likely to stay with the game, so let's make that team experience good one... which sort of requires being able to see your teammates on the map!
  
• Make available quests more obvious. I've left this one for last, although I think it's one of the most important, because I also think it's the most technically difficult. Every other game I've played recently uses the WoW-style !/?/whatever mark above a NPC's head if they have a quest for the player. I think the blue names was an attempt to do that for AO, but it wasn't enough. This would make a HUGE difference for new players who are used to those mechanics. Maybe make the client display a light globe in Util 1 for any NPC with a quest or something, but anything would definitely help.
  

Thanks for reading another arri-wall-o-text post, I hope at least some of these make it into the game!

[IHaveHugeNick]

My husband and I were sitting around discussing this at dinner and came up with the following list of things that made OUR intro experience a bit rocky.

Five ways to improve the starting experience

• Make Dovve's the default starting map: Changing the map is one of the harder things to do in game if you don't know what you're doing, and it's almost impossible to discover it on your own without being told. The default map is worse than useless, it's actively confusing, while Dovve's is much, much better. Rolling other maps into the default pack would be even better, or just updating Dovves. Marking level ranges on the map would also add a lot for a starting char.
  
• Make the default GUI have 2 chat windows. One for all the battle spam and one for everything else. It's sometimes hard to talk to a new player if they haven't figured out the chat system enough to make their own new chat window. No new player to a game wants to spend their first 30 minutes setting up their GUI, they want to kill a few things!
  
• Add quests to lead new folks to explore. I love the added quests in noob island and biomare, but shorter (3-4 quest steps) quests would also be great in Subway and Temple of the Three Winds. Also, give an actual quest to lead people from place to place. I know there's the "go help in the subway" pop up when you hit a certain level, but how about explicitly giving a quest from the guy who gives the teleporter codes to talk to a NPC in front of the subway who could give a quest to kill 5 fleas or something. Similarly, that same NPC could give a player a quest to talk to another NPC outside totw, etc.
  
• Just give new characters monster/human map upgrades by default. I liked the AO map/map upgrade system when I joined AO, but AO was my first MMO. Now that I've tried a bunch of other MMOs, I realize how confusing not having player/monster dots on your mini-map is. Leave the side/machine/arrow upgrades as they are (although I'd LOVE to see a "lifts" upgrade) but just automatically give all new players monster/human. I truly believe that once someone joins a team in AO, they are WAY more likely to stay with the game, so let's make that team experience good one... which sort of requires being able to see your teammates on the map!
  
• Make available quests more obvious. I've left this one for last, although I think it's one of the most important, because I also think it's the most technically difficult. Every other game I've played recently uses the WoW-style !/?/whatever mark above a NPC's head if they have a quest for the player. I think the blue names was an attempt to do that for AO, but it wasn't enough. This would make a HUGE difference for new players who are used to those mechanics. Maybe make the client display a light globe in Util 1 for any NPC with a quest or something, but anything would definitely help.
  

Thanks for reading another arri-wall-o-text post, I hope at least some of these make it into the game!

Some good ideas.

[Alternity]

some good ideas.

qft