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[Your View] How can we improve Monk Guidance?


puffables
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3 hours ago, Punkinator919 said:

Have you ever had a negative experience with the monks?

Yupper-do I sure did. I watched a Monk bring a Snow Elf to HELENA before Fenn even though players were in Fenn. Though I heard that that got taken care of it was still alarming As someone who is helping run a nation that is really reliant on the new Snow Elves that come in I feel that a monk should check the person’s application really quick to ensure they are being guided to the right place. If they say that they are from such and such nation they should be brought there and even be able to ring the rally bell if necessary. There is more than likely someone who is willing to come on and help the new player rply and oocly if we are told about it. The lagpocalypse hit nations hard and trying to recover from it can be difficult for more race built nations, and you cannot expect one or two people to idle for 12-14 hours a day doing almost nothing waiting for the new players to come back if there is a notification system.

We didn’t even get an incoming-new player ping for someone into they were already in our Nation with the Monk guide that brought them. 

 

As a New Player, were you helped by a monk?

 

Yes- and it was a wonderful experience since they made sure I got to the nation I needed to get to and introduced me to a few people who could help. You specifically Muffins. 

 

Did the monk guidance give you a better understanding of how the server works?\

 

Yes it did, because they taught me everything about emotes, emote colors, chat channels, the whole works. Granted- this was almost a year ago now (I came onto the server the last week of June last year). They were kind to myself and were even willing to rp with me a little and made sure I was fully settled in and talking to other players before leaving me for my RP journey. Though I never saw that Monk again- I am still thankful for them. 

 

Do you think that monk guidance is beneficial to players who are new to the server?

 

Yes, specifically for those who need a specific destination they need to be brought to. Once again, as a race-based nation and a player who had chosen my character for that nation they should be brought to the specific place as needed to prevent people from swindling them and bringing them to the wrong place. Bandits are also a pretty big issue as well since new players know so little as it is it can be overwhelming.

 

As a new player, were you left feeling more confident after being helped by a monk?

Yes. 

 

Do you feel that the monks are necessary for assisting new players on the server?

Yes. I do. Of course certain races like Elves and Humans are free to explore and chose their new destinies- but if a person wants a specific nation they should be helped by a non-biased member to get them to that nation. And to teach them the rather complex nature of the server itself- though I do agree with the point of few that if we had a cleaner UI to the help system it would be so so much better.

 

Didn’t Fenn declare monks kill on site at some point?

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Spoiler

 

16 hours ago, Walterdog12 said:

As a totally new player that joined Monday, I think the guides and whatnot on here need a major revamp more than Monks need to change anything in-game yet. 

 

The list of mods to install is outdated and you don’t find that out till after you’ve downloaded everything. 

 

There’s really no explanation whatsoever about the economy or how it works and how it’s 100% player-ran besides voting, and that literally everything is reliant on RP and that there’s no rank system or anything like that that other RP towny/faction servers tend to have (this was the biggest hurdle since 99% of Minecraft RP servers have some sort of admin shops/ranks/towny). 

 

There’s really no explanation whatsoever about any plugins the server has, nor is there really anything about locking/lockpicking which seems like a pretty vital thing to know as a new player since unlocked chests can be stolen from.

 

 

There’s really no explanation on creating other persona’s, and how that’s handled if you have 2 or more characters. 

 

There isn’t any explanation as to what you should actually do as a new player starting off, as the new player guide is just a more in-depth review of rules and breaking down what RP is and that (IMO) does absolutely nothing on what you should expect to do as a new player when you first join.

 

Like as a new player, I have no idea wtf to do besides joining a Kingdom and then...? If the info is out there somewhere, it’s really hidden and not easy to find. 

 

I agree with Walter here, the player guides are out of date. While I haven’t read some of the race ones recently, the ones I’ve skimmed through go back to 2017. They also highlight what current players want, NOT what a new player is looking for. The issue here is that there is also ALOT of guides that may not be useful, potentially burying the guides we do need.

Nation wise, take Helena for example. It has large activity, plenty of guilds and government for players to get involved in, ESPECIALLY new players. The issue is that this is primarily shown in one of the many sub-forums that can be confusing for new players, or on discord which you need to be invited to. This gives two problems in my head: 

  1. Sub-forums: Theres a lot of them. I know that they’re put out for convenience, like we don’t want the 100s of Oren law docs in the Human RP forum. So I’m not saying we need less sub-forums, we do need a GUIDE to the forums.
  2. Discord: Again, much of what is done is via the discord and this isn’t clear on the forums. While we push for the LOTC discord, its still a potential miss.

Lastly, plugins on the server are confusing, even for me whose been here a while. Like how do grindstones work here? The UI is different to vanilla and I don’t know where the news thread for that specific thing is.

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Stop playing monks as ‘characters’.

The ones in Haense this past week or so have just been vibing, walking around and having idle conversations whilst obnoxiously using trails to sparkle. They don’t seem to be ‘helping’ anyone.

If CT monks are going to exist and be ‘wisemen’ no-one can attack that solely exist as a vehicle for OOCly guiding new players in how the server works, they shouldn’t be hanging around having casual chitchat with veteran players or (in the very specific case of my recent interaction) acting as an IRP nuisance by climbing onto the throne during a feast in the Reza palace and having to be RPly removed. 

Handing a team full of players untouchable sage characters under the vague rhetoric of ‘go help people’ doesn’t seem to have any impact on player retention.

When the Application Team was handed vanish and TP way back when so that they could ‘better help new players’. At the time that was seen as more than enough and still very little tangible progress was made and it just wound up being another part of a useless pex bundle for staff to run with.

Today the Community Team (the AT’s evolution) has all of this and more, as well as an IC vehicle through which they can deliver ‘support’ and all I’m seeing it used for is slice of life rascal RP.

I suppose I’m echoing a lot of other people in this thread by saying the monks’ purpose is very underused, and an immediate solution to this would be giving the monk players clearcut guidelines on what they should and shouldn’t do and how they should be treating their characters, as well as clearly outlined rules the rest of the server can know them to follow and hold them against (which is especially relevant if we’re going down the same route as in years before where monks can insta-heal any injury on themselves or others without lore, and become immune to harm. Godlike characters should be forced to behave in a godlike fashion).

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Okay, so I will preface my opinion with a story. In late June of last year, an aspiring RPer by the name of Muffles first logged onto LOTC. A few days before, a barely-acquaintance had sent a discord DM about LOTC, and the intervening time had been spent wandering through the wiki (Oh, how foolish I had been) looking for character ideas and submitting my application to join the server. I appeared in Cloud Temple, saw several people around, and... kinda stood there. I tried out some chat, discovered how to talk in OOC and RP, and then wandered around, unsure of what to do. Eventually some orcs found me and brought me to their VC, and gave me the basic run down of how to play, and I set off following road signs to Renatus. After a couple IRL days of logging on occasionally and wandering the streets of Helena, I got picked up to do construction work for a noble.

Had it not been for that, and the ensuing rollercoaster of rp and fun, I almost certainly would have left LOTC for good within a few days.

At no point did I receive monk guidance or assistance, and as such had no chance to have a negative experience. Now, obviously it is impossible for staff members to be available 24/7 to greet new people, but my experience makes me pretty sure something needs to change.

That answers the second and third questions and renders the fourth, fifth and seventh NA. As for “Do I think Monk Guidance is necessary/beneficial?” I have to say yes. Without monks, new players are more likely to have a negative experience on first joining the server, and of being terminally confused at everything going on.

 

This brings us to the first and most important question, How can Monk Guidance be improved? First of all, I think it should be made clearer to NPs that the Monks exist and how to contact them (I didn’t learn about the monks until several months into my LOTC experience when someone mentioned them offhand). Additionally, adding self-help items would be helpful-the recent Wiki program is already doing some of this, as the Wiki I had when I joined was out of date and unreliable. Enabling players to figure out commands and basic lore without needing a staff member’s hand-holding is useful for when no staff are available.

 

I saw one of the staff members mention that new players are asked to do a /creq command (Which I am unfamiliar with but assume is similar to a modreq) on both the forums and discord, and while I can’t guarantee that I didn’t get a forum notification I definitely didn’t get a discord message-I just read through my entire PM list to verify that. And expecting people who just joined a community to constantly check the forums after they got their WL without telling them to is a very unreliable means of communication.

 

To conclude, none of my criticisms are meant to attack staff members or their competency; if I sound petulant then I apologize. Let’s all work on improving this chaotic, unique, and most importantly of all fun place for everyone together.

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How can we improve Monk Guidance for New Players?

 

For sure it is hard but I think a tutorial server would make it better. Maybe if its possible a tutorial made with npcs, if its not then as soon as the player read the accepted app notification contact a monk as a requirement to join the server, not letting them wander if they are not wandering souls. 
This of course demands more CT members so they may cover the new player demands but if you want to improve the guidance, you need hands on it. 

Also I think the guidance may be done with some role play, this will take players to embrace the use of rp channel before the ooc. A good narrated introduction to the server may be the immersive experience that a new player needs, and if you make it well you may cover the mechanics of the server AND the correct use of role play at the same time, however this could obviously take some time but I’m sure that if its well made neither the monk nor the player will feel that they are wasting time

 

Have you ever had a negative experience with the monks?

 

I’m pretty new on the server so as far as I can tell, no.

 

As a New Player, were you helped by a monk?

 

Yes, Epistile did it well 

 

Did the monk guidance give you a better understanding of how the server works?

 

Yes and no , but I think my case is particular

 

Why or why not?

 

Well I had read almost the entire wiki before being accepted on server so I made his job much easier. I knew how to use the chat and most of the commands, just needed to experience them in-game, but he has been answering a lot of personal questions that I had via Discord so he is doing his job

 

Do you think that monk guidance is beneficial to players who are new to the server?

 

Its a need to do thing, this server is complex but beautiful, all it needs is a friendly guide and patience. For sure its not a server for everyone but, if you have a good host, it may be the ideal place to enjoy the rp on minecraft

 

As a new player, were you left feeling more confident after being helped by a monk?

 

Of course, it feels so great having someone you can trust to help you with your questions, but it is the new player’s responsibility to not abuse this, Monks are persons with a personal life too and they have things to do, between them, playing quietly on the server 

 

Do you feel that the monks are necessary for assisting new players on the server?

 

Yes, just as I said, totally necessary 

Edited by Espectro_
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