Is there really any help to mentors?

When the mentoring system was active the mentor would get a gift when a disciple graduated on one of several professions. In the early days there were some nice gifts given like uber type weapons. But as time went on most people just got an EP-17 Mentor Edition pistol. Since there were gifts to be had it also created the problem of disciple farming. Where players would add as many disciples as they could by whatever means without ever helping them just to get the gift since a disciple could not kick a mentor. There was also the mentoring skill which went up agonizingly slow and I don`t think anyone ever determined if it did anything.

The big problem I found with mentoring was disciples rarely ever graduated before quitting EU. In all my years I graduated one disciple of many and it was a real life friend. It was kind of a sad testament to player retention.

But big props go to those that help new players. It takes time, patience and a desire to contribute. I used to help players and not even bother asking to be their mentor. For me it was never about a gift. A more populace EU is a better EU for us all.

 

Marco asked the community for input on how to improve the mentoring system in late 2009. The thread is linked here - Mentors
People pointed out the old system was seriously flawed especially with the disciple farming mentioned above.

Hopefully a revised mentor system will be implement in the near future, and there is another thread today started by FPC Jan, indicating that mentoring is being worked on now.

So hopefully we will see a new system before the end of the year.

 

If there was an issue with the mentoring system due to noobie farming then there is a very very simple fix for that.

To BECOME A MENTOR
If you want to be a mentor you Must choose to become a mentor in game probably with a tab like the mission tab.
when you chose to become a mentor you must put in the times you play so you can be connected up with the proper noobie.
All noobies are distributed to a mentor that is on the same play time.
If a noobie wants to be assigned to a certain mentor they can put the mentors name in when they are filling out there play times.
Each mentor can only have 4 noobies that are referred to them from the mentor sign up.
A mentor can choose to have a random noob assigned to them by clicking the random assign check box when they sign up to be a mentor or they will only get noobies by being referred and the noob must be in their soc as well.
A mentor can only take on 1 noob per week. (this will also stop the farming)

NOOBS SEEKING MENTORS
A noob gets a pop up or does a quest tutorial during the noob tutorial.
A noob puts in the time zone they will play at and then is told that if they have questions outside that time and their mentor is not on-line that they must not hold it against them due to being outside the mentors playtime.
A noob is instructed that they rate there mentors x amount of times (up to MA but i would do it every 100 or 150 points) and they must choose between 1 - 10 how there mentor has been helping them. They are also told that their rating also effects the mentor reward their mentor gets.

Every time the mentor talks to the noob a point will be added to him automatically at least once per day showing the mentor system how often in x amounts of days the mentor was talking to the noob.

A mentor can fire a noob at any time, a noob cannot after 48 hours but can put in a disapproval check during the mentors hours that they said they would be on. X amount of disapproval hours and that noob will be asked if they wish to reassigned to a new mentor.
If the mentor gets a disapproval check they will be notified and are able to work for the noob to take of the disapproval check.



This will give people a goal In game and help motivate people to be on-line more as well because they get a reward at the end of a successful mentorship. The rewards should be something nice that makes the high ends want to help out the low ends and put effort into it.

Have up to X amount of rewards that way there is multiple per rank you earned as a mentor, the better of a mentor you are the better of a reward you get. maybe 5 rewards low end, 5 rewards for middle end mentors, 5 for good mentors and 5 for all star mentors and then allow the mentor to choose between the 5 they earned. ??


Anyway was just reading this post and saw a fix don't know if mindark reads these as well seeing that i am a noob myself.

Cheers.
Ash