I return... and find it as frustrating as ever.

[Boaal]

Right, I came back and rolled up onto the New server, to see what it was like there. And then I forgot about the tutorial.
I will say this before I launch into my query suggestions:
It's gotten much better, there are no 'bugs' with it anymore. 

But there is an unrelentingly mountainous 'but' right here. The whole "guess the phrase plox!?" at the end of the tutorial.
With the help of the forums I answered the first question of "what rndom phrase do i need to hear before you can do anything?".

Then I was told to ask how to help the developers, fair enough.
"how do I help the developers?"
"Sorry I don't undrstand....yada yada yada"

How much clearer can I possibly be?

There are gargantuan problems with these 'guess the limitless phrase possibility' games. It needs fixing, end of.
I'm not doing this to attack the game, I'm impressed by the work, but things like this are, frankly, ridculous.
I suggest the tutorial needs to be taken out for fixing, because right now new players are not going to be impressed and will just leave.
That or you make it VERY plain as to what the exact phrase is.

Thank you. 

[Mordraugion]

I am sorry to hear about your continued frustration however the next release due soon(tm) will have a menu driven quest system solving the issue at a stroke

[Boaal]

I am sorry to hear about your continued frustration however the next release due soon(tm) will have a menu driven quest system solving the issue at a stroke

That's the best news I have heard concerning planeshoft for a while now.

I think planeshift did try and do somthing original in it's NPC interaction, which I respect to a great degree. It's not all that often that people try these type of things. But I suppose it's just too varied in terms of peopels to responses to be a valid system.  For all it's innovativeness it's good to see it laid to rest.

[nightwolf]

Right, I came back and rolled up onto the New server, to see what it was like there. And then I forgot about the tutorial.
I will say this before I launch into my query suggestions:
It's gotten much better, there are no 'bugs' with it anymore. 

But there is an unrelentingly mountainous 'but' right here. The whole "guess the phrase plox!?" at the end of the tutorial.
With the help of the forums I answered the first question of "what rndom phrase do i need to hear before you can do anything?".

Then I was told to ask how to help the developers, fair enough.
"how do I help the developers?"
"Sorry I don't undrstand....yada yada yada"

How much clearer can I possibly be?

There are gargantuan problems with these 'guess the limitless phrase possibility' games. It needs fixing, end of.
I'm not doing this to attack the game, I'm impressed by the work, but things like this are, frankly, ridculous.
I suggest the tutorial needs to be taken out for fixing, because right now new players are not going to be impressed and will just leave.
That or you make it VERY plain as to what the exact phrase is.

Thank you. 

Lol! I had that problem too. "Help the developer" and I a reply kinda like "you sound as if you need help". I say developers, he does not understand. That was really annoying.

[Ahanien]

I am sorry to hear about your continued frustration however the next release due soon(tm) will have a menu driven quest system solving the issue at a stroke

That's the best news I have heard concerning planeshoft for a while now.

I think planeshift did try and do somthing original in it's NPC interaction, which I respect to a great degree. It's not all that often that people try these type of things. But I suppose it's just too varied in terms of peopels to responses to be a valid system.  For all it's innovativeness it's good to see it laid to rest.

I agree. Free text conversation with a computer didn't work well back in the text adventure days and it doesn't look like it has become better. It's still a game of guess the noun/verb.

It's not like you can really roleplay with the NPC:s anyway (they aren't really acting back) so a menu driven system is probably for the best.

It would be nice if the answers weren't verbatim but rather expressed the intent. That is, "[politely refuse]" instead of "Many thanks, mylady, but..." It would help with immersion since you could then imagine for yourself exactly how your character phrases the response.

[LigH]

@ nightwolf, Boaal etc.:

Do not ask that in game - the development of the game is "out of character".

But you can try to find people like Lanarel, weltall or Xillix in IRC channels related to PlaneShift in the FreeNode network.

And always remember: Only constructive criticizm can help us developing the game better. Everyone can tell us that we did something wrong; hardly anyone could tell us how to make it better - especially so that noone else thought that it is nonsense...

[Drahlian]

I am sorry to hear about your continued frustration however the next release due soon(tm) will have a menu driven quest system solving the issue at a stroke

I'm curious if this functionality has been added yet, since you said "due soon(tm)" five months ago.

[Tuxide]

Yes it is.