Ambassador Aide Notifications

Zuko

Hey Everyone! So this is something I have thought for awhile, but never gotten around to suggesting. Within a House, it is easy to see when a newcomer joins the House because of the announcement seen on HNT. This results in novices being much more likely to stay within Achaea because members see it, and immediately jump into helping the novice get started.

Well in a city, especially Targossas without Houses, it can be very easy to lose novices because we have to see the Ambassador Log to see when a novice joins the city. This can result in novices often qq'ing before anybody can come to their aide and make them feel welcome. Losing novices this easily doesn't just hurt Targossas, it hurts Achaea. Because it happens in every city. 

So with this topic, I am proposing a notification for Ambassador and Ambassador Aides that we would see everytime a novice joins the city either through denizens such as Epicurus or General Cazin, or the Trial of Rebirth. I do not ask it would be a CT message such as it is in Houses, just a little announcement for Ambassador Aides. I think it should look something like this:

For this example, let's pretend the novice was named Johndoe and joined Targossas:

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Ambassador Ministry Announcement:  Johndoe has just been inducted into Targossas via the Trial of Rebirth.  

--------------------------------------------------                                                                                                                                      

Orrrrr

--------------------------------------------------                                                                                                                                  

Ambassador Ministry Announcement:  Johndoe has just been inducted into Targossas via General Cazin.     

--------------------------------------------------                                                                                                                                  

This would allow us aides to immediately see the new novice, and contact them. Thoughts or opinions? I dont really care how it looks, as long as it is big enough to pop out and colorful.

@Sarapis, @Tecton, this is just another way that we could help Achaea as a whole grow

Sorry the way the announcement looks got screwed up, different from how it looked in the editor. The redlines should stop after "Announcement". The black is supposted to represent your Achaea screen :P

Kyrra

I thought the city tutors made announcements when novices joined through them already?

Wouldn't this just be for those that join through the Trial?

Zuko

Sure, but i dont see why we cant just have it for both. 

Carmell

They do announce when they join through Cazin.  The ones that get away from us are the ones that are joining through the Trial.  A lot of times it's 10 minutes or so after they've joined before I notice them and by then they've already left.   The amount of novices that are getting messages from me that never respond just keeps get bigger.

Eld

Kyrra said:

I thought the city tutors made announcements when novices joined through them already? Wouldn't this just be for those that join through the Trial?

Yes. And it's Listed (item 28 on The List - Part II).

Zuko

Agreed! Yeah its the trial that is the main issue. I think we could have kept a lot more interested with this. Instant reaction and gratification is what they need. Interacting with us will help "true novices" stick around. 

Halos

Man, before Targ had autocitizen we had maybe a handful of new people every year. You -knew- who they were and they were probably going to stick around because the citizen process was work. We could go and say hello, interview them, indoctrinate them. 

Now it's just this constant flood of alty mcaltersons joining through the trial and we're never notified in a timely manner. We're scrambling. I'm sure there are true newbies in there somewhere, and I agree, Ambassador aides getting a real time notification (not just a lognote) would be wonderful. This is coming from someone who actually tracks citizens and checks the ambassador logs several times a day.

Carmell said:

They do announce when they join through Cazin.  The ones that get away from us are the ones that are joining through the Trial.  A lot of times it's 10 minutes or so after they've joined before I notice them and by then they've already left.   The amount of novices that are getting messages from me that never respond just keeps get bigger.

+1

In the first year it was alright because it was about half of the new citizens joining through the city tutor, half through Trial so at least we got some notifications. This year it's been 90% joining through trial. About 60% of the trial kids we notice swarming in the Ambassador logs but never see them physically. I just imagine them silently lurking/flailing/bashing city guards/checking on Houses/sucking our good oxygen, then qq'ing forever in frustration/boredom.

They're like mayflies. Or baby ghosts. 

Wynedere

I'd go as far as saying that a city-wide announce would work much better in case there are no Ambassador Aides present. We want new people to stay in Targossas. The city is struggling. The more new blood we get, the better. Maybe they'll grow into mini Jhuis or something.

Halos

Maybe also have it as an option to configure on and off? Sort of like when you are paying attention to the newbie channel and you get 'Peacheschrist has been reborn in the Flame!'. Something you can turn off in the middle of a raid. Then if you are an Ambassador's aide, or just an unreasonably helpful person with free time you can immediately jump them/give them further instructions on what to do.

(A slight downside to this is that people might be lazy and start triggering an automated welcome message/tell to new characters like they do in Houses now. That's sort of obnoxious but it's also a separate issue)

Zuko

Halos said:

Maybe also have it as an option to configure on and off? Sort of like when you are paying attention to the newbie channel and you get 'Peacheschrist has been reborn in the Flame!'. Something you can turn off in the middle of a raid. Then if you are an Ambassador's aide, or just an unreasonably helpful person with free time you can immediately jump them/give them further instructions on what to do.

(A slight downside to this is that people might be lazy and start triggering an automated welcome message/tell to new characters like they do in Houses now. That's sort of obnoxious but it's also a separate issue)

Yeah, well a couple of points.

1.) If it is city wide, it definitely would need tweaking. Imagine being reborn, a day later you get an announce that another novice has joined via the rebirth. Then we would get novices helping novices. It would have to be CR2 and up, or maybe All Aides within the city in every ministry. But I still think just Ambassador Aides is enough. Even if we aren't catching all of them, we are definitely catching more. 

2.) As for triggering/automated welcome tells,ct's, Etc., we can leave that up to each city. But it could be easily countered with a Ministry Law of some sorts, that all aides have to agree too. And if caught, lose aideship. That sort of thing. Idk

Zuko

@Aurora @Deucalion @Tecton @Sarapis

 Since Targossas is kinda the guinea pig for future city and house related novice functions, we could at least test it out. See if we notice an increase in novices sticking around with the notification. I don't think it would be too hard to implement. You guys

Eld

Zuko said:

Halos said:

Maybe also have it as an option to configure on and off? Sort of like when you are paying attention to the newbie channel and you get 'Peacheschrist has been reborn in the Flame!'. Something you can turn off in the middle of a raid. Then if you are an Ambassador's aide, or just an unreasonably helpful person with free time you can immediately jump them/give them further instructions on what to do.

(A slight downside to this is that people might be lazy and start triggering an automated welcome message/tell to new characters like they do in Houses now. That's sort of obnoxious but it's also a separate issue)

Yeah, well a couple of points.

1.) If it is city wide, it definitely would need tweaking. Imagine being reborn, a day later you get an announce that another novice has joined via the rebirth. Then we would get novices helping novices. It would have to be CR2 and up, or maybe All Aides within the city in every ministry. But I still think just Ambassador Aides is enough. Even if we aren't catching all of them, we are definitely catching more. 

2.) As for triggering/automated welcome tells,ct's, Etc., we can leave that up to each city. But it could be easily countered with a Ministry Law of some sorts, that all aides have to agree too. And if caught, lose aideship. That sort of thing. Idk

Heaven forfend your novices who want to be helpful are enabled to do so, get to know each other, possibly even *gasp* ... make friends! What would the world come to? Seriously, though, HNT messages go to the whole house with no restriction, and that doesn't seem to be a particular problem. Similarly, I doubt automated welcomes will be much more of a problem.

In any case, I tend to doubt that continuing with yet another thread on the topic is going to move the priority up significantly.

Tecton

This is something we'll be doing in conjunction with future changes (although, not necessarily exactly as suggested).

Carmell

Tecton said:

This is something we'll be doing in conjunction with future changes (although, not necessarily exactly as suggested).

How much longer until the system is in place.  I know were waiting on houses because of the system.

Halos

Shhh. Be patient. Just pretend it isn't happening until Christmas and then you'll be pleasantly surprised when it comes sooner.

Zuko

Hmm @Tecton, You should sample it anyway in Targ. We are missing so many good novices.. Just Ambassador Aides... It would help a lot. Then you can remove it when your new system comes out!

Antonius

Or they could not waste time coding something they'd be intending to scrap in a few months or so. I'd prefer they just forge ahead with the planned city novicehood changes. We'll get them when we get them.

Zuko

True true, I'm not very hip on how long it would take to code something like that

Cardan

As the man said: Stay Tuned!