Draygo
Sergeant
In order to help in multiplayer retention in the long run and assist newbies in understanding the mechanics of the game I am going to start doing something about it.
Open up a mentor program. To do it though I need help, I need more people to step up and spend some of their time to teach people the mechanics of the game and provide them with the insight nessisary to be able to understand everything that happens in a multiplayer game.
The goals are simple.
The mentee should understand all the basic functions of the game. How to navigate the map, what flags mean, what the victory conditions are for the various game types, how server settings affect gameplay experience and how you can check them before you join a server. They should also understand the basic jargon and abbreviations that they will encounter in multiplayer servers. (Note: You are absolutely forbidden to be biased in relating to weapons and server settings, stick to facts not your opinion, what people enjoy differs from person to person so if you like medium, your mentee might enjoy fastest better, so let him play fastest. you can explain how the game mechanically changes between the modes but keep personal bias out of it. If your mentee wants to run around naked with a club all the time, let him/her it's a game if they find that fun it's fun.)
Mentor guide spoilered so it doesnt take up that much space in this here op:
This game is complicated, and having someone help and demonstrate to a mentee what things are in the game and at least allow them a basic fundimental understanding of the game should help reduce frustration from new players that dont understand how or why they died. The mentor is also supposed to keep in contact with his mentee and assist them with understanding things after the mentor has gone through the above with the mentee.
How to apply.
Post in this thread
Applying for: Mentor, mentee
Time played: time in gmt you are usually on, plus days of the week, put in GMT or list the timezone you are in example 8pm to 12 pm cst
Experience: Briefly state your experience level with the game.
examples: Expert/Advanced/Good/Average/Newbie to warband but not first person/Newbie to fps's/Complete Newbie
Region: Your country, subsection of a country if your country is big
Example
North Central United states, East Canada, Germany, Japan, Korea
If you are a mentee put the following in your post: Mentored by: Forum name of mentor, or if you dont have one yet, type none. When you get a mentor update it.
Mentors list your mentees as well, as well as how many in total you are willing to take.
Copy and paste the templates below if you want to save on typeing:
Mentor:
Mentee:
Mentors, you do not need to wait for me to pick up a mentee who posts in this thread, PM the mentee on the forum (dont reply to them in this thread, lets keep it as clean as possible) and ask to become their mentor. If they accept have them update their post and update your own accordingly. If you have a mentee you picked up ingame just add their ingame name to your post and encourage them to post a mentee post in this thread with you listed as their mentor. Mentors check earlier posts to make sure all previous mentee's got picked up before picking up a mentee that posted later.
I would actively encourage mentors to look for mentee's in game. Usually newbies arn't hard to spot.
Mentors should arrange time with their mentee's through pms in this forum or through an alternative communication method (email, steam, xfire, voice services etc)
Remember, this is about the community stepping up and helping new players, the very new players that the steam sale brought in to help retain a healthy population in warband in the long term.
This topic is only for the mentor program as outlined above, posts that go off topic will be reported for deletion. This thread is not for discussing what is overpowered/underpowered/dumb/unfair etc, keep it to the other threads. If mentors want to recruit mentees into their clans I have no problem in them doing so, however don't post recruitment messages in this thread, talk to the mentee privately. Prioritize joining lower ping servers in relation to them, even if your ping ends up being 20-30ms higher. Use duel servers or empty servers so you can cover the basics without much interruption.
Suggestions as to important things to make sure all mentors cover are welcome. Note you dont have to be an expert at this game to teach a newbie the mechanics of this game. As long as you have a solid grasp of the mechanics you can mentor.
Open up a mentor program. To do it though I need help, I need more people to step up and spend some of their time to teach people the mechanics of the game and provide them with the insight nessisary to be able to understand everything that happens in a multiplayer game.
The goals are simple.
The mentee should understand all the basic functions of the game. How to navigate the map, what flags mean, what the victory conditions are for the various game types, how server settings affect gameplay experience and how you can check them before you join a server. They should also understand the basic jargon and abbreviations that they will encounter in multiplayer servers. (Note: You are absolutely forbidden to be biased in relating to weapons and server settings, stick to facts not your opinion, what people enjoy differs from person to person so if you like medium, your mentee might enjoy fastest better, so let him play fastest. you can explain how the game mechanically changes between the modes but keep personal bias out of it. If your mentee wants to run around naked with a club all the time, let him/her it's a game if they find that fun it's fun.)
Mentor guide spoilered so it doesnt take up that much space in this here op:
The mentee then should be taught a basic understanding of fighting including the following:
Attack directions, how to do them what they look like with various weapons (1h sword, 2h sword, polearm, 2h axe (2h mode), 1h spear, 2h spear, pike)
Block directions, how to do them - have them practice on you where you chamber attacks and release them when they get the correct block. As they start getting the hang of it, it will move faster.
Explain to them that muscle memory is very important, starting out they will have a hard time reading an attack and putting out a correct block and this is normal. Manual blocking is all about training the eye to tell the hand what to do without thinking about it.
Next most important is to cover fienting. What it is, how it looks, and how to get the wiff sound every time you feint. Repeat the block training above with you throwing a shallow fient each time. Make sure you dont actually release the attack until they have the right block. Have them practice feinting against the air, unless your really good at your manual blocking skills. Explain to the mentee that shallow fients are a good way to attack shield users behind their shield.
Next is footwork and positioning. Go over positioning and how it relates to the optimum attack direction to choose. How to wrap opponents and get behind them for a free hit. Cover methods in group combat to avoid hitting allies with side attacks and getting a good thrust or chop in.
Cover kicking, although kicking is real weak in 1.131 they should understand what it is and how to avoid it (super easy now as one single sidestep makes kicks miss easy)
Cover chamber blocking, and what it is, demonstrate it by having them equip a spear and shield and you chamberblock their thrust (you should have a shield too so they hear the distinctive tink) follow though on the chamberblock to hit them. Explain how block stun works and how the chamber block allows you to sometimes get under it for a hit behind a shield.
That should cover combat mechanics, now cover an advanced control most people dont even know about when they start.
'view outfit' (free look as i like to call it) is a very important key. Show them how to look around using it while moving with a shield up so they can see enemy cavarly approaching them from the back.
After they get infantry combat mechanics down expand it to archery and cav.
For archers teach them how to prioritize targets so they actively scan the field for unshielded infantry, enemy archers, and cav. Go over getting them in the habit of using free look to look around themselves between shots to make sure they dont get suprised by a cavarly or infantry approaching from the back. Go over dancing a bit to avoid getting shot by enemy archers while trying to shoot back.
As cav teach them how to avoid tunnel vision, look around themselves often and how to assist in infantry fights by bumping and lancing enemies from the enemies back (not your allies back). Go over bump slashing, how to couch the lance, how the horse getting hit in the front with a thrust stops it.
Attack directions, how to do them what they look like with various weapons (1h sword, 2h sword, polearm, 2h axe (2h mode), 1h spear, 2h spear, pike)
Block directions, how to do them - have them practice on you where you chamber attacks and release them when they get the correct block. As they start getting the hang of it, it will move faster.
Explain to them that muscle memory is very important, starting out they will have a hard time reading an attack and putting out a correct block and this is normal. Manual blocking is all about training the eye to tell the hand what to do without thinking about it.
Next most important is to cover fienting. What it is, how it looks, and how to get the wiff sound every time you feint. Repeat the block training above with you throwing a shallow fient each time. Make sure you dont actually release the attack until they have the right block. Have them practice feinting against the air, unless your really good at your manual blocking skills. Explain to the mentee that shallow fients are a good way to attack shield users behind their shield.
Next is footwork and positioning. Go over positioning and how it relates to the optimum attack direction to choose. How to wrap opponents and get behind them for a free hit. Cover methods in group combat to avoid hitting allies with side attacks and getting a good thrust or chop in.
Cover kicking, although kicking is real weak in 1.131 they should understand what it is and how to avoid it (super easy now as one single sidestep makes kicks miss easy)
Cover chamber blocking, and what it is, demonstrate it by having them equip a spear and shield and you chamberblock their thrust (you should have a shield too so they hear the distinctive tink) follow though on the chamberblock to hit them. Explain how block stun works and how the chamber block allows you to sometimes get under it for a hit behind a shield.
That should cover combat mechanics, now cover an advanced control most people dont even know about when they start.
'view outfit' (free look as i like to call it) is a very important key. Show them how to look around using it while moving with a shield up so they can see enemy cavarly approaching them from the back.
After they get infantry combat mechanics down expand it to archery and cav.
For archers teach them how to prioritize targets so they actively scan the field for unshielded infantry, enemy archers, and cav. Go over getting them in the habit of using free look to look around themselves between shots to make sure they dont get suprised by a cavarly or infantry approaching from the back. Go over dancing a bit to avoid getting shot by enemy archers while trying to shoot back.
As cav teach them how to avoid tunnel vision, look around themselves often and how to assist in infantry fights by bumping and lancing enemies from the enemies back (not your allies back). Go over bump slashing, how to couch the lance, how the horse getting hit in the front with a thrust stops it.
This game is complicated, and having someone help and demonstrate to a mentee what things are in the game and at least allow them a basic fundimental understanding of the game should help reduce frustration from new players that dont understand how or why they died. The mentor is also supposed to keep in contact with his mentee and assist them with understanding things after the mentor has gone through the above with the mentee.
How to apply.
Post in this thread
Applying for: Mentor, mentee
Time played: time in gmt you are usually on, plus days of the week, put in GMT or list the timezone you are in example 8pm to 12 pm cst
Experience: Briefly state your experience level with the game.
examples: Expert/Advanced/Good/Average/Newbie to warband but not first person/Newbie to fps's/Complete Newbie
Region: Your country, subsection of a country if your country is big
Example
North Central United states, East Canada, Germany, Japan, Korea
If you are a mentee put the following in your post: Mentored by: Forum name of mentor, or if you dont have one yet, type none. When you get a mentor update it.
Mentors list your mentees as well, as well as how many in total you are willing to take.
Copy and paste the templates below if you want to save on typeing:
Mentor:
Code:
Applying for: Mentor
Time Online:
Experience:
Region:
Mentee Slots: X
Mentee List:Mentee:
Code:
Applying for: Mentee
Time Online:
Experience:
Region:
Mentor: NoneMentors, you do not need to wait for me to pick up a mentee who posts in this thread, PM the mentee on the forum (dont reply to them in this thread, lets keep it as clean as possible) and ask to become their mentor. If they accept have them update their post and update your own accordingly. If you have a mentee you picked up ingame just add their ingame name to your post and encourage them to post a mentee post in this thread with you listed as their mentor. Mentors check earlier posts to make sure all previous mentee's got picked up before picking up a mentee that posted later.
I would actively encourage mentors to look for mentee's in game. Usually newbies arn't hard to spot.
Mentors should arrange time with their mentee's through pms in this forum or through an alternative communication method (email, steam, xfire, voice services etc)
Remember, this is about the community stepping up and helping new players, the very new players that the steam sale brought in to help retain a healthy population in warband in the long term.
This topic is only for the mentor program as outlined above, posts that go off topic will be reported for deletion. This thread is not for discussing what is overpowered/underpowered/dumb/unfair etc, keep it to the other threads. If mentors want to recruit mentees into their clans I have no problem in them doing so, however don't post recruitment messages in this thread, talk to the mentee privately. Prioritize joining lower ping servers in relation to them, even if your ping ends up being 20-30ms higher. Use duel servers or empty servers so you can cover the basics without much interruption.
Suggestions as to important things to make sure all mentors cover are welcome. Note you dont have to be an expert at this game to teach a newbie the mechanics of this game. As long as you have a solid grasp of the mechanics you can mentor.
