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Mentorship Systems - Designs, Ideas And Suggestions


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#221 Lunatic_Asylum

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Posted 22 November 2015 - 11:13 PM

Then the mentorship itself is in joining the right unit. Social interaction, practice runs, etc., will contribute to one's mastering being a good pilot.

#222 Raubwurst

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Posted 23 November 2015 - 02:31 AM

Hey there, great, that you guys try to help us out on this.
I've been doing some mentoring for maybe half a year now, thus I have some feedback/ideas for you.

First of all a short summary of what I am doing, it may help understand the situation better.
Right now there is a therad in the german section, where new german-speaking players who have a hard time getting into the game, or those who doesn't get on with the learning curve, can ask for help.
Our help is, that we match this player to one, or more, of our helpers. These are experienced players of different units, playstiles, opinions. Some are competitive, some are casual. Some play and now the meta, others like builds, which are adapted to their own playstile.
These helpers/mentors and the new players will add themself ingame as friends (*).
When ever both sides are online (and would like to participate in a "trainingssession", it is a voluntary project, thus you don't have to participate, if you would like to play alone/with your friends this evening), they will meet on the comstar teamspeak server (which is a neutral and unit-independent) and will make some drops in a group of 2. Thus, the mentor can concentrate on his pupil and the pupil don't have to be ashamed for not doing good, which is different, if you have more people in your group.
I would say it is a quite successfull setup, all the feedback so far has been positive and you can see how much the new players can take profit by this!

1.
Now, here are some things, which stay in our way:
First of all, it is very diffcult for ous, to organize us. There is no such way as making a "secret" topic, where you can discuss things, which shouldn't be read by others. E.g if we mentors try to see which of us matches best against the pupil, we have to state his strengthness and weaknesses. Weaknesses or what part of the game he/she needs to improve a lot is a thing, whichs you don't discuss in a forum, where everyone can read it! (It would give the one spoken of a very bad feeling...). The problem is, that you cannot make it via conversation either, because we are more than 6 mentors and you can only invite 5 other people to a pm... (and it would be too much overhead, to make more than one conversation about the same topic with different people, where they cannot read, what the other half is saying...)
Some would say that we could go to another board/service for this organisation, but that is not what we want for this project. It should be a community project, which is as little of work for everyone, as possible.

TL;DR: For us, it would be helpfull to allow more people in conversations.


2.
Next. New players are often overwhelmed by the game. They cannot see and register everything that is going on for the first months.
If you drop with a new player and try to stick together, he/she often has a problem of tracking you. Thus it would be good, if there could be a kind of indicator for a special player (instead of blue or green triangle maybe a golden one) (*2)
Thus he/she could spot you more easily, even if things got messy out there.

3.
Sometimes, we take our pupils into a privat lobby to show them basic tactics, or explain aiming an hitboxes. There are a lot of things, which cannot be shown properly, while in a live game, where time is running out and enemies moving.
The main problem is, that you need premiumtime to start a round. Most new players don't have premium time, thus we need to find a third player to sponser us his free time, just to show such basics. That isn't that great for the third person...
Maybe consider to let a group of 2 start a private lobby without full teams (*3)


----------
A suggestion what could be imlpemented:
What you can do, to increase the effectivness of mentorship, and thus to increase the amount of people who are willing to participate:
Embedd the idea of mentoring into the game.
We have a system which let's us add friends, this could be reused to make something similar with mentors/pupils. You can invite someone, or click in the summary screen on his/her name, to be your pupil. He/she will be added to this list(For point *). (optional: ) Then you can create a trainingsgroup for people of your pupilslist (optional: and of your friendlist, for adding more than one mentor).
These players will then be highlighted ingame via a e.g. golden triangle over their heads. (Optional: Maybe a kind of indication for the groupleader/mainmentor) (for point *2).
This group could be allowed to start a private game with out full teams, if you are only two (maybe if you are less than five) players (for point *3).

----------
Suggestion for a design for a mentoring via the forum.
As I have mentioned we have been spending some time mentoring via our system, if you want to take a look into it:
http://mwomercs.com/...e-arme-greifen/

The whole thread is on german, if you are interested into reading this, pm me and I will translate it for you (won't do this work, if you are not interested ;) ).

It may be, that i won't scale with such many people which are in the international forumsections, (that is one of the reasons, why I have started it in a subsection) but I am sure, that we could shape it for usage with more people. Again: just pm me or answer me here on this topic, if you are interested in working this idea into something bigger.



Last words: Please, why do so much people say, that help should be only acquired if joing a unit? Sorry, but this it totaly .... A new player should get all the help he/she need without binding him-/herself to a unit.
He/she can join a unit when ever it is wanted and you will only be able to tell which unit you will have most of fun with, if you know your own playstile and have some basic knowledge of the game... There is a need to a unit-less system, to help people...


Last last words:
I would like to nominate my most commited helpers for a little gift. They have been voluntarily joining my mentoring-project and spend a lot of time dropping with new players and explaining them how-tos. They have shown a great amount of patience, willingless to help and to spend their free time for others to get fun out of this game! (And they haven't got a thing out of this. Only the thanks of me and the pupils. They haven't got new members or other advantages by participating, totally selfless).
The main actors which I would like to nominate are:
arivio, Genwinn, Eiswolf, Pfobbel, GiDelta

Edited by Raubwurst, 23 November 2015 - 02:37 AM.


#223 Nightmare1

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Posted 23 November 2015 - 08:16 AM

View PostLunatic_Asylum, on 22 November 2015 - 11:13 PM, said:

Then the mentorship itself is in joining the right unit. Social interaction, practice runs, etc., will contribute to one's mastering being a good pilot.


That's assuming two things.

1) The pilots actually understand what a Unit is.

2) The pilots actually want to join one.

I've actually met a good number of new players who didn't know what a Unit is or understand the differences between Clans, Loyalists, and Mercs. How are they to make an intelligent choice from among those options if they don't know what the options entail? A lot of Units also require mandatory, weekly activities. That's simply not for everyone. Some players aren't able to commit to requirements like that; should they be allowed to slip through the cracks simply because they can't join a Unit?

I really don't understand your aversion to a Mentorship System. It would really help new pilots learn the ropes of this game! If you have nothing useful to add to this thread, then please stop trolling here. There are clearly enough pilots serious enough about a Mentorship System, and willing enough to volunteer their time to help new players, that developing such a system should be taken seriously.

#224 Lunatic_Asylum

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Posted 23 November 2015 - 09:07 PM

View PostNightmare1, on 23 November 2015 - 08:16 AM, said:

stop trolling here. .


I have posted more than once in this topic, and you might see the reason wherefore I would like to avoid implementing any mentorship system other than a tutorial (which needs C-Bill reward reduction). People demand rewards for being mentors or mentored, and the rewards are already insanely high at the moment. If a system without any power rewards (a cockpit item is not a power reward, XP or C-Bills are) is implemented, I am up for it.
Still, I understand what a problem is. I tried showing this game to a friend who never plays any games except for Age of Conan or Bejewelled, and we had to play with her controlling the legs and speed, and my aiming and shooting. Then, we would switch so that she could master the controls.

#225 Mister Bob Dobalina

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Posted 27 November 2015 - 11:53 AM

View PostWinter Frostfire, on 13 October 2014 - 01:04 PM, said:

Dual cockpits!!!

..
..
..
Guys..?


Since we are watching teammates play when we were killed during matchplay there is already a mechanism in play that works like "dual cockpit". Suggestion: A fourth tab in the friends menu that says "Copilot". If I need coaching I create a new group and can select between Ready, Copilot Ready, Not ready. If I select "CoPilot Ready" my name will appear in the "Copilot" list under the corresponding tab. Preferably (perhaps mandatory?) a higher Tier can select a CoPilot seeker and has to confirm he has a headset to be able to talk to the trainee. He will share the screen of the trainee and give tips as he has the exact same experience as the trainee. From a educational standpoint it is vital, that a Copilot is only watching and commenting, not actually interfering as a) thats how a trainee best learns and B) it should not interfere his stats. It's still him piloting the mech. And a personal success pushes selfesteem and knowledge. Of course the Copilots voice could only be heard by the trainee and there would be an additional slider in the Audio settings panel for the adjustement of VOIP vs Copilot VOIP.

#226 Raubwurst

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Posted 27 November 2015 - 12:28 PM

@Thomster, really liking your idea. A kind of spectatormode as part of a mentorship program could be quite nice to show some aspekts. It may even help the copilot for getting used to all the information he/she sees on the screen. The copilot can just lean back and concentrate on visual information, without using all his brain power to remember leg direction, torso direction, minimap, speed,...

#227 Nightmare1

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Posted 27 November 2015 - 12:33 PM

View PostLunatic_Asylum, on 23 November 2015 - 09:07 PM, said:


I have posted more than once in this topic, and you might see the reason wherefore I would like to avoid implementing any mentorship system other than a tutorial (which needs C-Bill reward reduction). People demand rewards for being mentors or mentored, and the rewards are already insanely high at the moment. If a system without any power rewards (a cockpit item is not a power reward, XP or C-Bills are) is implemented, I am up for it.
Still, I understand what a problem is. I tried showing this game to a friend who never plays any games except for Age of Conan or Bejewelled, and we had to play with her controlling the legs and speed, and my aiming and shooting. Then, we would switch so that she could master the controls.


Frankly, I don't care if there are rewards or not. I already do this for free as best I can, and would simply appreciate better tools to continue doing what I'm doing. To me, that seems more than reasonable.

@Thom: I like that idea a lot.

#228 rolly

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Posted 27 November 2015 - 01:10 PM

View PostNightmare1, on 27 November 2015 - 12:33 PM, said:


Frankly, I don't care if there are rewards or not. I already do this for free as best I can, and would simply appreciate better tools to continue doing what I'm doing. To me, that seems more than reasonable.

@Thom: I like that idea a lot.


Same here on all your points. The sad part is the official word from Tina and PGI is that they don't/won't/don't have the time/money etc. to support our initiative. As per my direct message and response from Tina. So anything done will have to be done on our end (again) with no support or logistics from PGI.

#229 Raubwurst

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Posted 27 November 2015 - 02:57 PM

Öhm, why was this thread created, if they don't wan't/can't do something?

#230 Nightmare1

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Posted 27 November 2015 - 03:53 PM

View Postrolly, on 27 November 2015 - 01:10 PM, said:


Same here on all your points. The sad part is the official word from Tina and PGI is that they don't/won't/don't have the time/money etc. to support our initiative. As per my direct message and response from Tina. So anything done will have to be done on our end (again) with no support or logistics from PGI.


That pretty much invalidates the entire purpose for this thread's existence then.

*Sigh*

Every time I get my hopes up about a new PGI initiative, they just get dashed to pieces against the sharp rocks of reality all over again. :(

#231 Nightmare1

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Posted 27 November 2015 - 05:10 PM

View PostDoctorDetroit, on 27 November 2015 - 05:06 PM, said:

It is time to give the IS Streak 4/6 SRMs.


How does this even relate to Mentorship Systems?

#232 DoctorDetroit

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Posted 27 November 2015 - 05:22 PM

View PostNightmare1, on 27 November 2015 - 05:10 PM, said:


How does this even relate to Mentorship Systems?


Looks like I posted this on the wrong page.

Edited by DoctorDetroit, 27 November 2015 - 05:25 PM.


#233 Nightmare1

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Posted 27 November 2015 - 05:32 PM

View PostDoctorDetroit, on 27 November 2015 - 05:22 PM, said:


Looks like I posted this on the wrong page.


Been there, done that. :)

#234 rolly

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 01:14 PM

I call Bull.

Seriously. We have been here advocating for mentorship, volunteering our time to mentor people get an official response from Tina that there is NO support for volunteering to help new players. (Aside from being a forum moderator...)

BUT and I quote:

"Once we release on Steam please do what you can to help out these new players. Please assist them as best you can toward understanding nuances of MechWarrior, as no matter how many improvements we make and however many tutorials we make available, MechWarrior will always be a complex experience. We think brand new players will thrive in the resourceful and helpful community that you have all created." - Russ Bullock - December Roadmap

Sorry but do you expect players to now volunteer their time to help new players solely when your Steam Launch and profitability is on the line when we've been ready and willing to support the new players all along? I think not.

See below for a re-post of a response from Tina Benoit to my direct email to volunteer: (Check out the response rate too on how important this is)

==============================
rolly
May 24, 14:09[color=#2B2E2F]

Hello,
I don't see any one else reporting it. I'm volunteering for:
1.) In-game moderation of player conduct since you have no system in place to integrate reports
2.) New player mentorship.
I am making myself available despite the lack of progress in this game in hopes that you will take up my offer and others to improve this community.
Sincerely,
Rolo[/color]



Tina Benoit (Piranha Games)
Nov 2, 17:28[color=#2B2E2F]

Hello,
Thank you for your interest in becoming a volunteer for us!
Unfortunately we do not take volunteers for in-game moderation, however we sometimes recruit Forum volunteer moderators to keep the forums from breaking any rules of the Code of Conduct.
We are not currently looking for any new volunteer moderators, however if you are interested in moderating forum threads please let me know so we can contact you when are looking for recruits!
Piranha Games[/color]

==============================

Edited by rolly, 28 November 2015 - 01:44 PM.


#235 Nightmare1

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 01:20 PM

Generally speaking, I agree with you. With the Steam Release looming, PGI should have done something to provide Mentors with the tools they need to help new players. Otherwise, it's just going to be so much trainwreck. Personally speaking, I plan to take a month off just to avoid the nonsense. Once things settle down, I'll come back and help whoever needs it. If there was a system in place to ease the launch, then I'd probably stick around for it.

As for your e-mail, in all honesty, maybe you should have separated out the moderation and mentorship volunteering into two separate messages. They kind of look like the same request; she probably just misunderstood what you were asking her.

That being said, I can't believe that PGI started this thread and then tossed it aside. They really should have developed some Mentorship System Tools prior to the Steam Release.

#236 rolly

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 01:47 PM

True. I would have thought it was clear enough. But given that it took 5 months for Tina to respond, sounds like she just chose the spam canned response to it.

I am in just pure disbelief that now he's asking for our goodwill as volunteers to mentor but only when their Steam Launch is on the line. Its disgusting.

View PostNightmare1, on 28 November 2015 - 01:20 PM, said:


That being said, I can't believe that PGI started this thread and then tossed it aside. They really should have developed some Mentorship System Tools prior to the Steam Release.


It wasn't profitable at the time. Now with the risk of a poor reception and high attrition in player retention they're making a plea.

#237 Nightmare1

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 02:20 PM

Yeah, Tina gets a flood of messages and it takes her a while to dig out from them. I've never messaged her directly, but the two times I requested moderation for something that required her attention, it took her a while to get around to me. Between her duties as a PGI employee and her fans, she probably has a full inbox. :lol:

Yeah, I feel about the same. I saw that announcement, and my first thought was, "Don't you have an old Mentorship Thread with a 'help us help you!' theme that you pretty much ignored? And now you're asking for our help again?"

I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry. I'd like to help more folks enjoy this game, but I'm pretty much restricted to helping whoever shows up at my once-a-week Training Nights I offer to my Unit. I never turn anyone away, even if they aren't in our Unit, but the lack of Mentorship Tools makes it difficult to reach out to anyone outside my Unit, simply in terms of practicality. On our website, I have Thursdays marked down as "Training Night" as a recurring Event with sign-ups and invites and everything. It's nice. I have a thread, posting topics and asking for player input. It's nice. I usually have a half-dozen to a dozen pilots show up wanting help with specific topics. Between me and one or two other veterans, we can usually get all their questions answered and then some.

Sadly, I can't easily expand it outside of my Unit simply because there aren't any easy or practical methods to do so. The forums are locked to new pilots until after they complete their probation, so I can't really set up anything in detail that could actually help them based on the forums. In-game, there aren't any tools to help with it either. I just don't understand why PGI hasn't provided at least some basic tools for a Mentorship System. Compensation is nice, but most of us who do this already do it for free because we enjoy it, and simply want better tools to make it happen.

If PGI is worried about the cost of it, then they should give every recruit who undergoes Training a free CN9-AH(S) (or something like it). It can't be purchased, so it doesn't really cost PGI anything. It can't be sold, so it would prompt the players to buy two more Mechs, dropping a few more dimes in the PGI bank. It's not a meta Mech, so it's not highly valuable or a game breaker. Suddenly, the System PGI was worried would cost money actually generates money. New players don't mind spending on two new Mechs because the free one gives them a small C-bill boost. Everyone wins.

Or PGI can just give us some Mentorship Tools, not worry about compensation or incentives, and let us increase customer satisfaction for them for free.

Edit: Shoot, speaking of expenses, I actually bought and gave away a couple Mechs during one of my Training Nights strictly to raise awareness about it in my Unit. One Mech went to a fellow Unit Pilot and one went to a guest who was visiting us that night. It's not so much about Mentors asking for hand-outs so much as it is Mentors asking if there's any way they can help for free.

Edited by Nightmare1, 28 November 2015 - 02:23 PM.


#238 TheSilken

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 03:02 PM

PGI should host 4v4 tournaments where teams must compose themselves of 1 vet and 3 new players and give out prizes for reaching certain milestones (for example: Play-Offs, Quarter-Finals, Semi-Finals) and a larger one for winning. Make the milestone prizes small ones like a mechbay, or a couple hundred MC so that they are cheap but still worth playing for. Then have the grand prize be a little larger such as a free mech with mechbay or 1,000-1,500 MC. This way it encourages new players to sign up since it offers them very relevant items, helps them learn how to play the game via tutelage by an experienced player, avoids throwing them into the deep end since they are playing against primarily other new players, helps them make some friends along the way, and encourages veteran players to help the newbies out since they also get rewarded if their team does well.

Also this idea has an added bonus of being very easy to implement. They have the twitch channel, all PGI would have to do is advertise the 4v4 tournies on the website, in game, and on Steam and get some gift codes ready for each tourny. That's it, it could be accomplished in hours instead of days, weeks, or even months. As for organizing the matches that's simple, just divide teams into regions (NA, EU, AP), assign them to sub-divisions of up to 16 teams each, create a bracket for each division, and have teams play 1 match per week on a predetermined day depending on region and position in division. That way PGI could have 4 matches played per night (about 1.5-2.0 hours worth) on their twitch channel. If more than 3 divisions get filled then they have 2 free days to spill the excess matches into and/or they could get another twitch user to help stream matches also.

Hell, us players could even do this idea. Get a couple people to run it, 1-2 streamers, and someone to beg for codes for the teams that do well. Then just advertise the sh*t out of it in the new player subforums and on Steam. Boom done.

Edited by TheSilken, 28 November 2015 - 10:04 PM.


#239 rolly

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 06:12 PM

Knowing they likely won't read this thread I've taken to twitter:

@MechWarriorF2P@]russ_bullock so NOW you want us 2 help new players 4 your Steam Launch? Not b4? #NoSupport #NoTools ow.ly/VdvAh

I doubt they'll pay attention to the irony, how long this thread has been going or that Tina sent a canned response.

I think the tools we would need are:

A special title (they give these away like cookies) - VOLUNTEER, MENTOR etc.
A forum title (Also give these away like cookies) - and ability to post in the New Player only section. (If at all possible)
This to me doesn't sound unreasonable.
I think now more than ever this thread can be leveraged to them to give us the tools and support we need to help them. They're on the hook and if they want the high attrition rate this game continues to see on Steam Launch, they can just ignore us.

Edited by rolly, 28 November 2015 - 06:14 PM.


#240 rolly

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Posted 02 December 2015 - 05:07 PM

ADDITIONAL TOOL needed:

When forming a Public Group with a New player to the game - IE. Within their 25 match cadet limit. Throw them at tier 5 and not against Premade groups larger than 6. Its really just a slaughter for them.

Also - Cadet bonus needs to be broken down for players for each weight class. New players naturally want to blow the money they earn on an Assault mech and the results are often disastrous. There has got to be a step system in place to ease into piloting an Assault mech.





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