CLOK BBS

I've been seeing a lot of new faces around lately in-game which I think is great. But it also made me think about some possible changes to the tutor command. Don't get me wrong, I love the idea behind the command. What I don't like is how vulnerable it makes the would-be tutors trying to help out those who need it.

Some of this has been brought up before, but the thread was locked so I'm starting a new one. I also wanted to get some fresh ideas for the tutor system so please give feedback and other suggestions.

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One idea I had was to possibly make it so that tutoring - like training - allows you to choose up to three skills to mentor in at a time. Those rolls would be reduced, but all others would remain the same. The problem with tutoring how it is now is that it puts the tutor at risk by lowering ALL of their skills.

For example... Bob is an expert fighter, but also mines for a living. Let's say Bob wants to tutor Sally in Mining. As things are now, not only is the mining skill lowered, but all the others as well. So if there's a spider infestation or other mine issue, then suddenly this strong fighter who is tutoring has all of their defensive and attack abilities reduced when all they really wanted to hold back on was mining. Now something that is usually a piece of cake for Bob becomes instantly deadly.

I would also like to see a way to stop tutoring without having to disband the group and leave the room and I'm not sure if one was ever added.

Thanks for any consideration.

I sat here a bit trying to think of something I could add to this.

I think what Kiyaani suggested is pretty good.

I know for myself the fact that all my other skills drop is a pretty good reason why I don't tutor anyone while we're out in an area with hostile MOB.

why not make tutoring a constant lesson for that skill and that skill only? Instead of increasing skillgains across the board for a player, just make it so they're under a constant lesson.

Yeah, tutoring usually means you're teaching someone to fight or do a task just like you, and they're teaching you techniques they learned, not they're trying to mimic your skills and make you both suck at whatever you're teaching.

Another thing, tutor is way too inconvenient. It gives you the same boost to skillgain as simply teaching the person, with the added inconvenience that you both have to stay grouped up. Why not make tutor give triple skill gains in a single skill, rather than double? If you're learning from a more experienced person than you, and watching what they are doing as they do it, you're going to learn a lot faster than being taught out of the situation, then getting thrown in with a "Good luck!".

Fayne wrote:Yeah, tutoring usually means you're teaching someone to fight or do a task just like you, and they're teaching you techniques they learned, not they're trying to mimic your skills and make you both suck at whatever you're teaching.

Another thing, tutor is way too inconvenient. It gives you the same boost to skillgain as simply teaching the person, with the added inconvenience that you both have to stay grouped up. Why not make tutor give triple skill gains in a single skill, rather than double? If you're learning from a more experienced person than you, and watching what they are doing as they do it, you're going to learn a lot faster than being taught out of the situation, then getting thrown in with a "Good luck!".

Tutor stacks with lessons. You teach and then tutor. I don't see a good reason why it should increase learning rate even more.

Why not several tiers of possible tutoring depending on how much more skilled in the skill being tutored is? wait we can't do that because we tutor all skills at once... It would personally make more sense to me if one skill was tutored at a time, perhaps reducing all other skill gains significantly for the one being tutored while they are tutored.

Kiiyani's suggestion makes a great deal of sense to me.

Maybe even divide tutor into two or three general categories, tutor combat and tutor crafting and tutor general (the last including swimming & climbing).

I always thought reducing the tutor's skill down to exactly the pupil's was too much. Why not down to the pupil's skill plus 10?

Personally, i think your all over looking the advantage the current system has. yes your in danger but your able to gain skill where once you could not. Allowing you to guard someone with even part of your full skill while giving your apprentice completely effortless improved gains seems completely silly to me. Just my two cents.

Vinz wrote:Personally, i think your all over looking the advantage the current system has. yes your in danger but your able to gain skill where once you could not. Allowing you to guard someone with even part of your full skill while giving your apprentice completely effortless improved gains seems completely silly to me. Just my two cents.

And all things considered, the "danger" you're in is pretty darn minimal, due to the lack of permanent death on this MUD.

Vinz wrote:Personally, i think your all over looking the advantage the current system has. yes your in danger but your able to gain skill where once you could not. Allowing you to guard someone with even part of your full skill while giving your apprentice completely effortless improved gains seems completely silly to me. Just my two cents.

Personally I figured it was a bit frowned upon to take advantage of your lowered gains to improve when you shouldn't be able to. If that's an acceptable and expected part of the current system, Then I suppose I will need to start taking more advantage of that XD.

BUMP - Poking this thread for further review.

Also, would it be possible to make it so that certain skills are not affected by the tutor command? Namely - Armor Use. I tutored someone earlier and was hit with the double whammy of them using a different primary weapon and having no armor use skill. My base roll was reduced to 30 or less because of this rather than the normal base roll of 100.

It would also be fantastic if there could be reconsideration of a way to turn off tutoring other than leaving the immediate area/group.

The whole point of mentoring is to enable someone to play with their lower-skilled friends and still enjoy marginal gains. There's no shame in that. So no, I wouldn't say it's frowned upon. Though, now that we have skill acceleration, I need to double check and ensure players aren't skilling up at the accelerated rate while mentoring.

Regarding allowing certain skills to be exempt from it is an interesting concept. I'm a bit reluctant to implement such a feature, but I'll think about it for awhile.