Reworking the mentor system

I have seem comments from players that they have waited many months and are still not mentors.
Since the mentor system has very nice rewards it should be available to all of correct level that want to participate.
I am assuming that we are not mentors because there are more mentors then there are slots for mentees.
In order to allow the existing mentors exactly the rewards as they are currently receiving the mentor system needs to be reallocated.
The rewards need to be redistributed so the level 5 mentors receive the same rewards they are currently receiving with one mentee ... not 5.
Then their ability to recruit new mentees needs to be downgraded until they ... and all other levels of current mentor can only have one mentee.
Then there would be more mentees available.
I understand this would be less fun for the high level mentors since many people start the game and quit soon after and they wouldn't receive their mentor points they way they do now with a mix of new and soon to quit people and people that are actually staying and giving them the mentor points everyday...but they have received a lot of mentor points and a lot of benefits from being a mentor and they rest of us get no benefits since we can't even get in the program.
I will leave it to all those math wizards out there to figure out how to reallocate the current benefits so the level 5's, and all the other levels of current mentor receive exactly the same benefits and have exactly the same leveling curve but with one mentee not multiple mentees.
Lets fix this system so that all the people that are of the correct level and want to participate are allowed to

 

I think a recent newsletter said it was pretty much broken beyond repair
I gave up on chicks, as most wanted all the freebies and gave nothing in return. If I could quit the system to give others a chance I would

 

Thank you very much for your comment...The freebies are so very valuable when one is starting out and just to click a couple times to give the mentor a thank you love points is such a very small thing. sigh. Thanks again for you input...

 

love points? It's been a long time since I was a chick but I don't remember love points. Maybe they weren't given because they didn't know? I certainly didn't.

 

From September's newsletter:

I agree with Sweet_Cassiopeia that this probably has to do with newbies not knowing how to give mentors gifts.

The gift on the far right is called Lil' Box o' Love and gives 5 love points.

 

I don't recall ever seeing that panel, zerodegrees. My belated apologies to my former mentor.

 

zerodegrees, and CaliChrome,

Thank you for your comments... It certainly adds a different spin on the problem. It also agrees with what I have encountered in this game. People that play here seem very nice and helpful. The game itself is quite complicated with many different panels and places to look for information. The FAQ's are invaluable but if one doesn't know to locate the forum...
Perhaps it's a mix of things, some people don't know how, and some people don't realize how much they can help the mentor by sending love points.

Idk why the developers would say they can't fix it a little now and fix it more later... This game is very difficult to play without the mentor gifts... I would imagine many people that don't sign up for the mentor program quit the game in frustration since the egg, and angora farm are horribly expensive to build on ones' own when one is starting out.

I am also sorry that the above mentioned mentor's didn't mention the love points and let their chicks know that is how they can say thank you and how the gift system works.

Idk it's complicated. My husband allowed me to start a farm for him [so he could send me a toolbox item as a daily gift, yes that's how desperate I was before I found the strawberry drop] and he has the best mentor in the world... the person sends him crafting items, and even sent a pink jelly during the baby boom.

Mentors are so helpful to the chicks, and chicks can be so helpful to the mentors... I hope they can fix the system.

 

I won't hold my breath... they promised to make mentoring system a priority to fix a long time ago, many of us tried to become mentors right away and have never gotten to, by the same token many new players have wanted to be mentored and didn't get the chance. Appointing/laying blame on players of any level is really not helpful, the mentoring system never worked correctly from what I understand. In some ways I think perhaps the mentoring system became a crutch for some players, ( they never wanted to leave the nest) lol.

 

I agree... It felt wrong when I wrote it... I hope I have changed it to be more helpful

 

I have been very fortunate to be a mentor for quite a while. Once I reached level 5...I stopped asking my chicks for the "little box of love pair" which gives you mentor points. It made me so uncomfortable having to repeatedly ask for this gift! Many of them got it mixed up with pheromones.
I have made a few friends and even some neighbors from my chickadees. I get real pleasure from helping new players in the game.
It is a worthwhile feature of the game.....and definitely should be "worked on" by BP!!!
I still believe its the absolute best way to connect old & new players!!!

 

I agree, my initial greeting explained how they worked, but most of my chicks ignored the messages.
The current system is badly flawed and needs replacing or scrapping.
Most of my chicks couldn't even speak English or quit playing before becoming chicks - hence I gave up with the system

 

There seems to be an issue both ways with language. My mentor spoke German.

 

It's easy to miss since you have to go through the farmhouse to get to it. I only knew about it because I made it a point to read all the game FAQs when I first started playing Farmerama.

Yeah, there's a huge learning curve associated with this game. I don't want to imagine how lost I would've been if I didn't know about this forum.

I agree. I would even go as far as to say that this should be a top priority for BP if they want to encourage new players to stick with the game. I really hope it's just a matter of a lack of resources because there is really no other excuse to keep putting off the development of this feature.

So was mine, I think. They don't talk much so... Until I read this thread, I thought non-German mentors didn't exist.

 

zerodegrees, I thought the same. I even talked to a few of my neighbors about it. Their mentors were all German speaking to the best of their knowledge. I am also sure that some of the other "chicks" in my nest were computer generated just to fill out the nest. I think I got a reply or gift from one but they never leveled up, never gifted (except the one) and disappeared after I left the nest. I would have rather been the only one in the nest.

 

My mentor explained how to send love points, but being a complete newbie I had to re-read it several times over the next 4 days before I finally figured out how to send them.

 

I agree.

I think farmerama should also consider the language so that you can have a better mentor. If your language is english you should have a mentor whose language is english.

Me too... My mentor told me about the love points and it took me a few minutes to find out what he was talking about.
I think the tutorial should teach you how to send love points and gifts.

 

I experienced it several times.. But I'm lucky to get a good German woman even though it's rather difficult to communicate with her. I have to translate into German language with google, so she could understand what I talked about.
Until now, she was still my neighbor. I have no problem with this.

I agreed with you.. This feature should be developed further and not delayed as it is now..
Although I'm not an official mentor, I like to add the newbies as my neighbor and to help them with giving good advices, providing answers if they ask something, sending some useful expensive goods (CAC, ZAB, PJ, Chocolate Pancake, etc), and so forth, without asking for anything in return.
Quite embarrassing for me to ask my reward at my current level which is quite easy to get some CCs and the things I need.

Just a thought !!

 

SillyGuy, you are not alone. I too, have added new neighbors and been an unofficial mentor. I wish I were a well established enough farmer to do more.

 

My first one did, too. She also said she does not give advice when I asked a question, a much bigger issue. I got another one who was much better.

In addition to the above, I wish there were an easy way to delete my name from the mentor list. To my knowledge, no one has ever selected me, but I don't bother checking the chick house enough to know. I used to worry that someone might get assigned to me, but that I would not know it. I don't think that is an issue now since apparently new people are not being added, but still, the option to take one's name out should be part of any system.

Also, per the language, etc... I think there should be some way of indicating if a mentor is just not helpful. you can deselect a mentor, but there should be some way of indicating why (were they rude, did they just speak a different language, give bad/incorrect advice, or are you just not interested any more?)


As it is, I do try to help newbies, particularly those who post in the strategy forum, but that is a miniscule quantity (probably largely second/third+ farm oldies, in fact).

 

Newbies get added to the mentor system automatically, which I don't like. I started this baby farm recently and I was, and so was my mother when she joined about a month ago. It should be voluntary for both mentors and chickadees.