Adopt-a-Sidewinder Program Idea

[CMDR_Stebel]

I had a thought: Since E:D in general has a rather steep learning curve to start off with, what do you guys think of having some sort of dedicated opt-in service where experienced Commanders can volunteer their time to show newcomers the ropes? The Frontier forums have their own dedicated newcomers forum, but we could make an effort to have something more...accessible. Since Mobius is [i]THE[i] "Friendly Open Play", Mobius is in a position to have a readily available/well-advertised service of this type.

[robfm81]

I like it

[Nethaufer]

I rather like the idea too, but the only thing I really see a problem for, at least for myself, is that a lot of the things in game are rather hard to show. It's easier to tell. I support this idea though.

[CMDR_Stebel]

Like, we could have a standing list somewhere that follows a simple format for listing people's "ads", for example, mine would be:

CMDR Name: Stebel
Timezone: Pacific/UTC -8
Language(s): English
Preferred Contact Type(TXT/VOX): VOX
Preferred Contact Method: PM/Add in game for wing voice or skype add. (Don't post your info on these for obvious reasons)
Trader/Fighter/Explorer: Fighter
Home Port: Jenkinson Terminal, Scirth
Willing To Travel: Yes
Basic Ship Info: PVE optimized Fer-De-Lance
Willing To Teach Flight Basics: Yes
ANY OTHER INFO,TRY TO KEEP IT SHORT HERE:

[FCB1891]

Good idea - I think a lot starts with more senior players being "accessible" to newcomers. Lower the threshold enough so that said newcomer feels comfortable in starting a chat with other cmdrs, winging up, voice comms, ...

The ingame friends list is a good place to start, an open mind and a minimum of social skills should do the rest.

oh yeah: my specialty is how not to approach a station's mail slot. Always willing to show people how not to do it

[CMDR_Stebel]

Definitely, the accessibility is just as important as the publicity. We need to somehow find a way to make it more approachable. There's the EliteSchool subreddit, and the Frontier page for newcomers, but those rely on potential newcomers actually 1, finding the page to begin with, and 2, going out on a limb, so to speak, and posting there. It'd be nice to have a standing topic here, because its already a more friendly place to begin with. The difficult part is getting the word out to other places that people would see easily.

[Black Rose]

The extension of this idea is to have a "flight school" and a "combat school"

Set days, at a set time. Separate channel on the voice coms. Set a date and time and a system to meet in. That sort of thing

The game's name should actually be called "Elite: Docking" as that is what we do 75% of the time lol Be it at a station, an outpost or on a planet

I for one was petrified of the notion and the very 1st thing I bought was a docking computer. My game partner allowed me to use it for 2 weeks, then he told me that after that each time he saw me dock with it, he'd shoot me down next time we played.

Things that come to mind that would affect a new player:

1. Docking
2. Combat with fixed weapons
3. Making some money early on
4. How to use the map
5. How to pick missions

Oh and how to live and still smile with a 4 million credit bounty which I am happy to say is almost completely timed out. I mean I am a Baroness now so I can't act all rowdy like the common folk anymore

[uvelius]

What about setting up an open IRC channel like the FuelRats have, and invite newbies to join in? Then we could see who needs what and who is in the vicinity to train. If most have this channel open while online, we would have a good pool of players available I think.

BTW, this could go well along with the folks from Archangel wing.

[CMDR_Stebel]

These are all excellent ideas. My concern is that expecting people to use IRC and other applications like that -as the entry point- would hurt the amount of people we'd be trying to help with the idea. It works for groups like the Fuel Rats because, like Mobius, they have publicity. But if you're stranded out there with no fuel, you pretty much HAVE to join their IRC to talk to them or lose your ship. What I mean to say is, IRC and dedicated VOX channels are a good idea, but the hard part is the initial introduction.

[Black Rose]

These are all excellent ideas. My concern is that expecting people to use IRC and other applications like that -as the entry point- would hurt the amount of people we'd be trying to help with the idea. It works for groups like the Fuel Rats because, like Mobius, they have publicity. But if you're stranded out there with no fuel, you pretty much HAVE to join their IRC to talk to them or lose your ship. What I mean to say is, IRC and dedicated VOX channels are a good idea, but the hard part is the initial introduction.

I have to agree on this point. I'd say to keep it simple. Baby Steps more or less. Restrict the idea to members of Mobius for start up and see how it works out, then expand on the idea by posting it on Steam or even the FD forums and invite people to join Mobius so they can take advantage of the training.

Obviously requiring they join Mobius would allow some control over the very riff raff we all want to avoid, which was the main focus of Mobius in the first place.