Be kind to Newbies

[ddreggors]

Be kind to newbies is right...

I have been to every congregation of players from Ojevada to Hydlaa and asked more than a few questions in character and out of character (in [brackets] of course). Not only did nobody answer my questions after many tries to get an answer and waiting long amounts of time, I also got the great responses like "what is that THING doing in here" from a cat character in Ojevada. I asked what thing they where talking about and was told "you... fish elf". Well if that is kind to new players, you can have it.

Now I will say that I have had a few real nice players assist me from time to time with directions and advice. Please note that this is NOT the norm... most players either insult you if you ask or in a room of 10 or 12 lpayers (as in the taverns at Ojevada or Hydlaa) you ask a simple in character question like "where might one find <npc name>) and NOBODY answers you after 10 minutes and asking again and another 5 minutes passes by!!! Seriously, if you don't know, how about saying "I don't know". If I walk into a bar or any gathering of people in real life and ask I expect someone to answer even if only to say no. I expect this because I do it myself if I am asked or a group I am in is asked.

I hope many higher level people see this post because you should know... if you don't help new players you will eventually be playing alone and the game will lose all flavor if not shut down! BE HELPFUL!

[Jeraphon]

I asked what thing they where talking about and was told "you... fish elf".

Please note that people who act like this might think they're roleplaying well, but in fact are out of accordance with settings. People who act openly racist like that would have been arrested since it's against the law (the decree's in the library, look it up people.)

Sorry to hear your first few attempts for help were unproductive. See if you can find out in game which guilds are dedicated to helping newbies, and then look for people in said guild.

[bilbous]

heh heh fish elf that is lame. I would suggest though that using a racial epithet does not necessarily equate with racism. If one were of the disposition to hurl insults at anyone perceived to be weak and said person was not overly bright such an obvious difference as race would be a likely candidate for the taunt. The taunter may well have comrades of the same race not present with whom he trades similar barbs but whom he would also trust with his life should the occasion arise.

Perhaps the Octarchy really does have thought police. Do I risk incarceration or a fine if I refer to non-Kran as soft skin? I have done so for quite some time but it was never intended as an insult.

More to the topic though you may find that taverns are not the best place to ask questions because peole may be ignoring anything that is not from their clique due to the difficulty in following conversations when several are running concurrently. Whenever I have been trying to ask for help I usually ask once then wait 30 seconds and then move on and ask someone else. It can be frustrating at times when you are trying to do something but most of the time it will still be there to do tomorrow if no one is responding to you and there are other things that can be done in the meantime.

[ddreggors]

Honestly, if this was a one or two time situation or if I had only tried taverns, this would be not that bad but I have been playing for a month now (on Planeshift but way longer in other RPG/MMORPG's and MUD's) and I have tried at the arena, at Harnquists as it seems to be a good gathering point. I have also tried many single users when I can catch them not in full run. Problem (for lack of a better word) is that single players sitting still are usually either AFK or busy in other screens and don't often see or pay attention to the chat box at these times. As to the groups, they remind me of WoW players... "you are not our level so you don't exist".

These forums are literally littered with posts like "go in game and ask other players in character", "try asking other plyers out of character with brackets [ ]", or "this is not the place to ask that question". With these posts in mind I do just that and get "taunted" as you call it in game, or worse simply ignored by the mass of the group completely.

Don't get me wrong, I love the concept of the game and the in game play is shaping up nicely. Still, when new people have questions and the in game help chanel tells you ask in game and so does the forums and you can't get help in game... something HAS to give.

I don't expect answers to this question here in this forum but as an example, I have a quest from Toda in Ojevada to get her armor shipment. I tracked that down and get back to her with her order details and she asks:

"Thank you. I am curious, though. What took so long? It was a simple enough errand...".

HOW THE HECK DO I ANSWER THAT?? OK, so I start with all the usual suspects (telling her all people I spoke to and all places I went etc....).  NOPE, no way would that work. So can't finish the quests as you must answer that question. Given the AI of the NPC's this answer could be ANY combination of words and NPC names! MY God, I am so sick of being told "I don't understand you, can you use different words?"

With nobody answering in game for days now on even a clue of what she maybe looking for in her answer, and no other clue in the dialog, I am left bitter and simply about to drop this quest. I also feel that if things don't change this is only the first of MANY dropped quests.   

[bilbous]

Well there is one other possibility and that is nobody wants to admit they do not know. Still you should have been able to get something. Is it possible you are perceived to have a bad character name? That might be a contributing factor for being ignored. Aside from that and getting to your real problem, I have not encountered that particular quest but did you try something along the lines of "I'm sorry, it took longer than I expected."

[Jeraphon]

I would suggest though that using a racial epithet does not necessarily equate with racism.

Tell that to Michael Richards

In answer to the "how the heck do I answer that" question - check your logs, and explain it succinctly.

[ddreggors]

Actually the name thing would have been a good solution (made more sense anyway), but sadly no. My character name is Beroth Ignoka. I really don't think that is precieved as "bad" per se.

As to the what I have said and replied... I have used every combination of Names of NPC's encountered in the quest, where I traveled to and from, and yes I tried several variants of I am sorry as well as <NPC NAME> is sorry. I even mentioned getting lost! My chat log is seriously 2 or 3 pages of things like:

(05:07:50) Beroth says: travel
(05:07:52) Toda Ombretis says: No, I do not understand what you say.  Can you say it differently?
(05:08:13) Beroth says: Harnquist had to work on it
(05:08:15) Toda Ombretis says: No, I do not understand what you say.  Can you say it differently?
(05:08:48) Beroth says: simple
(05:08:50) Toda Ombretis says: Hmm.. you are a bit confusing, Tabei.  Can you use different words?
(05:09:05) Beroth says: lost
(05:09:07) Toda Ombretis says: Hmm.. you are a bit confusing, Tabei.  Can you use different words?
(05:09:13) Beroth says: I got lost
(05:09:15) Toda Ombretis says: No, I do not understand what you say.  Can you say it differently?
(05:09:37) Beroth says: Trasok sent it to Harnquist
(05:09:39) Toda Ombretis says: No, I do not understand what you say.  Can you say it differently?

[bilbous]

As far as the logs go I believe Jeraphon was referring to what the last npc may have said or others back the chain, not what you might have tried.

[ddreggors]

Yeah as to the:

In answer to the "how the heck do I answer that" question - check your logs, and explain it succinctly

I did that and more, I would be glad to give you my 3 pages (3 pages in vi - linux editor,  only on Toda nobody else in that 3 pages) of logs to browse through to see how thorough I have been.

Actually, I even just recently had 2 seperate players give me the answer they used (and they used the same exact phrase) and still she does not complete the quest. I am thinking at this point this may be a bug/glitch.

*edit*

We seem to be WAY off topic here, I am sorry for this thread getting started here at the end of another and I would move it but I believe a moderator or admin might have to since it involves many users posts.

[Ravenguard]

Heh... I've been called out for being a Ylian a lot by Enkis who don't like Ylians (I live in Oja most of the time).  I just don't care.

If you ask people for help around a furnace or other crafting area, don't expect a quick response.  When people get into it, you've got multiple things happening at once, not to mention other people probably talking to you.  If you ask miners, they are probably not paying attention.  They're eating and every 30seconds of so, look up at the screen and press a key.  Or maybe they're reading War and Peace, who knows.

If you ask people questions while they're in the middle of roleplay (i.e. coming up to a group and asking about quest help, when just before you arrived, someone stabbed somebody else, someone is trying to profess their undying love to someone else, and someone else is trying to keep that second person from dying), they may not respond because they are fairly busy.  Or, they're annoyed that you bothered them while they were roleplaying.

Some people don't like giving out quest help.

Try and make good friends that you know know things and are willing to help you.

[LigH]

We seem to be WAY off topic here...

Indeed - Toda is an NPC. And kindness is an attribute of players (and player characters sometimes).

Not all players are online every day and every daytime. There are some extremely busy crafters and fighters who may not be too responsive about questions. Chars chatting in a little group, or standing at the border of the plaza and looking around, may be better contacts.

But beware of the guild recruiters! (Not too seriously.)

Before breaking in with a question, though, first listen a while, that you don't disturb their roleplays with a totally unrelated question.

[Lanarel]

This quest with Toda seems to have a problem, and it is reported recently to the bug tracker. Since the report contains spoilers, it is marked private (i.e., not everyone can see it). The problem is that some of the answers that should be accepted, are not. People are working on it.

[bilbous]

Excepted? do you mean accepted, expected, or are there really exceptions? I think you must mean some player responses which should trigger completion of the quest are not being understood (accepted) by the npc. Perhaps though once a response has been accepted in an early part of the quest it should no longer appear on (be excepted from) the list of valid responses from the later parts of the quest.
Aside from that it is good to get an indication that there is a definite problem.

Helping! good! Yay!

[LigH]

Surely "expected" -- in the list of recognised answers to a question.

[Lanarel]

Sometimes when typing to too vfast eye I type completely different words dead that sound duh the same. Thanks for pointing that one out. And yes it should be 'accepted'