Houses taking too long to join.

[Trenidor]

Is is just me, or do the houses take a great deal of effort to get into. I mean I have waited a long time to find someone that I could get me initiated into that specific house.

Here are 2 ways that I propose that they fix this:
1)There should be more of the people with the power to initiate, or atleast have 1 of them online every hour, I know it would be hard, but still I think it would be a better Idea than making us go through all the hassel of waiting around in a place that THE recruiter goes to.

2)Have NPC's that offer additional assisstance to join. Have an NPC sit at a counter all day waiting for people to join, but make there be specifice commands that you have to use to get in.
example:
Inside a small Booth
The room is filled up with one table, with a few papers on it. The walls of
this booth seam to be made of a stiff fabric preventing the wind from
blowing them. The booth is made up of some log pools fitted into a
rectangular formation, and at the top, a slight tilt has been made for sand
to tumble down it.
The fat, small armed man is sitting here at a wide table made of wood.

>tell fat hello, I would like ta inquire 'bout a job with tha house.

the fat, small armed man asks you in sirihish:
"I will need to ask you a few questions before we begin."
(here is where the program looks at your record or somthing to see if you have done anything that is illegal ect.)
the fat, small armed man asks you:
"what kind of job are you looking for in the house?"

you say to the fat, small armed man in sirihish:
"Millitary" (you can have a few choices depending on the house, like merchant, millitary, ect.)
(also if there isn't an opening they will say something like "I'm sorry, we have to many or those right now, maybe try back another day.")
the fat, small armed man says:
"blablablabla"
(whatever must be asked to enter the house under that area)

Or have some other type of way like let the people monitor the NPCs and when someone asks them a question, the person monitoring that NPC will take over and do all the work, but that would be about the same as the first one, it would require someone to be at hands nearly all the time.

I wouldn't like the second Idea as much as the first one, but I still think that houses are taking WAY to long to join...I've had a char wait about 85 IC days, that doesn't seam practical to me, especially since I had talked to all the other people in the house, just not the person that would initate me.
-Trenidor

[Krath]

Trenidor, try to think of it as real life. At a corporate job there is not ANYONE that can just do the hiring there are people who have trained with the company for years and know what to look for. Also, they have hours which they can work, and depending on who is doing the hiring it may be different than yours. If you needed to get in contact with someone urgently IRL about a job you would most likely leave them a MESSAGE(PM) or arrange an appointment(PM or Email).

I vote no. But That is the best way to do it, drop an email or a pm to the recruiter

[aeshyw]

In the north, you have at least one other option (combatant) to help you gain employment while you wait for a house to give you admittance.  In the south, you have three (two combatant, one non).

Even if your eventual goal is employment with House MucketyMuck, there are other things you can do to prepare yourself to join.  A job with a house isn't a guaranteed benefit for anyone who is interested, zillions of VNPCs are after those jobs, too.  The trick is to make yourself marketable.

[crymerci]

85 IC days is less than a RL week.  I think you're expecting too much, honestly.

And if they're taking too long, get another job.

[EvilRoeSlade]

I'll hire you!

Well... maybe it isn't so appropriate for me to recruit on this board.  But I have an opening... for a... special role.  PM for details.

[mansa]

i'll hire your ass.

dance dance dance!

[Lirs]

I'd hate to see automated hiring into a house, after all, working for a house is not supposed to be something that every joe-average can do.  Like jobs in the real world your boss has got to see something they want before they hire you.

I've found that anytime I want a character to work for a house its not been much of a problem getting hired, if my character had the background and skills that were wanted.  And after all, all good things take a little time

[Carnage]

Depending on the house, it could take a while.

[Noble numbers editted out by Carnage. Sorry Myrdryn.]

Keep your eyes peeled and ask around is my best suggestion. Try to use the Way. I try to avoid contacting strangers if I can (personal pet peeve of mine that someone who's only heard a character speak one sentence can suddenly locate their mind out of hundreds of thousands and send a message), but if I were in your position would make an exception to the rule and try to contact the recruiter every now and then.

Also, Aeshyw seems to have forgotten about the non-combatant way to make cash in the Northlands. The only hints I'll give are that there're people who do the same thing RL and have a reputation for wearing flannel.

[spawnloser]

Not to say what Carnage said, because I had a post with too much information about who is active...I will say for a fact, however, that there are at least two people that can recruit for either noble house up north.  Down south, I can't really speak for, though, as I've been north for a while.

[gfair]

I think getting into Houses is takes an acceptable period of time, except for one time a character of mine died from starvation because he couldn't locate anyone from the House, that was an exceptional situation.

On the other hand, some characters have literally been sought after by employers a single minute after they point to a location.

I think some nights ought to be better than others for getting in, Monday and Tuesday always seem to be productive days for finding people.

But no, we don't need any new systems, NPCs, or anything that special.  Getting into most houses is pretty easy, but you should still be cautious enough to have sid for food, patience to wait, and the rewards of a good bed to sleep on, hot food in the belly, and a roof overhead become that much more enjoyable.

[gfair]

I think getting into Houses takes an acceptable period of time, except for one time a character of mine died from starvation because he couldn't locate anyone from the House, that was an exceptional situation.

On the other hand, some characters have literally been sought after by employers a single minute after they point to a location.

I think some nights ought to be better than others for getting in, Monday and Tuesday always seem to be productive days for finding people.

But no, we don't need any new systems, NPCs, or anything that special.  Getting into most houses is pretty easy, but you should still be cautious enough to have sid for food, patience to wait, and the rewards of a good bed to sleep on, hot food in the belly, and a roof overhead become that much more enjoyable.

[Frog Fairy]

The first suggestion, to have a Recruiter for every House available online every hour, is like you said hard to do.
I also do not think that it would be a great idea.
Having three people log 8 hours each every day is not really doable, so it'd require a large amount of PC leaders. I think this is a bad idea for several reasons, one being that the player base cannot truly cover that amount of PC leaders in each House. It would leave too few to play followers.

As for the NPC suggestion, I don't think that it would help -that- much, considering that you still need to be approved, recruited, set up and activated by a PC leader.
The thing you would gain, I suppose, is that a PC leader would be alerted to the fact that you are looking for a job.
Personally though, I think that a better way of alerting the leaders of the House is to send an email, if you have a problem finding them in the game.
If you send it to the responsible staff member they might help you forward it so that you can set up a time for a meeting in the game.

I also agree with other replies on the concept of patience. It is frustrating to have to wait for something fun, but I do not think that a real life week should be considered particularly long.
Also, I think it is wrong to point to the IC days spent waiting and claim lack of realism. If we did that with every feature in the game, a LOT of shit would be unrealistic. So we are better off disregarding the IC discrepancies that real life constraints post on the game play.

[sarahjc]

I also don't think it is a bad idea to talk to people from that house, if you see a person from the particualr house you are trying to join, let them know, surely they can let the Noble of the house know you are looking for work. Most people of a house have a cloak or some sort of house colors on them. That is how I got into my house, hell I wasn't even looking to join and a servant talked me into it and basicly sat me with a noble.

[crymerci]

Just to add to my previous post:

:arrow: I think 85 days is also an acceptable amount of time ICly.  While in RL I have sometimes found a job the first day I went looking, at the moment I've been looking for many hundreds of days without much luck.
:arrow: If you are having this much trouble contacting the person, it may not be the right clan for you.  Do you want to have to go through this every time your character's payday rolls around?  Maybe you have incompatible playing times.  Like I said, maybe you should try for another job where the people have more compatible playing times.

[gfair]

Sarahjc brings up a good point - when you get on, talk to every single PC around, see if any of them know the current recruiters, or even contacts in that House.

I've also seen or heard of people doing the following:

- Waiting outside the House compound for someone.
- Try to contact endlessly

Do those two things, as well as save your sid, bide your time, try to do it during prime-time hours, and the chances of you meeting up with someone from the House are significant.

But no, I have to disagree with Carnage, there should be no implied correlation between not being able to find a Clan and it not being the right one for you.  If there is a lack of availability of any sort of recruiter for a sustained period of time, then that may also be a problem with the Clan's PC base and currently-filled roles, and not your effort at finding them.  However, if it is only temporary, then that isn't their fault, those PCs have players who have real live.

The last-ditch effort, when you've spent probably two weeks time (the maximum reasonable amount of time, IMO), is to email the Clan IMM and ask for any help they have time to lend.  Clan IMMs can do anything for the clan, including having an NPC leader show up just when you spend your last bit of sid on a strip of Tandu jerkey and are going to be nibbling on it for a long while.

[Sephiroto]

I find things acceptable as they are.

When I need to get into a house I don't stay logged in all day waiting.  I try to talk to as many people in the particular house that I want to join.  I try to make a good impression and hope that they will pass it on to whoever does the recruiting.  Then try to find out what times the recruiting characters log in.  Usually this is during prime-time hours.
If all else fails you can send an email to the clan immortal of the house you would like to join and see if any other IC means can be worked out.

My two sids.

[creeper386]

I personally think most the time it's too easy to get hired on to Houses. I have to make characters that do to their history wouldn't be able to get hired on into a House just so I don't get dragged into one. At least when it comes to the noble Houses, north and south, always have troubles staying OUT of them, instead of troubles getting in.


Creeper

[JollyGreenGiant]

You could always sing 'My Kank Peed On A Dwarf' at the top of your lungs next time a noble House tries to hire you.  I bet that'd throw a spoke in their wheel.

[spawnloser]

Yeah, to expound on what creeper said, I have had a couple characters that almost got coerced into getting a job with a house even when they didn't want one.

I certainly appreciate that it can sometimes feel like a long time waiting to be recruited (both ICly and code-wise) into a clan. The simple reality, from my perspective, is that the proportion of players in the playerbase suitable to serve as leaders is very small, and so we are in the situation where it is the prospective employee who must go chasing after the recruiter, and not vice versa. In some ways, this is a good thing, because it puts the responsibility for obtaining work on the employee, not the employer. (In a harsh world, competition for almost everything would be fierce, including jobs.) Of course, OOCly, clan administrators and leaders are trying to make sure that employees are inducted into the clan as quickly and smoothly as possible--for reasons of OOC courtesy at least, if not IC realism.

In a complex, simulation type of game like Armageddon MUD, automated recruitment is just not going to be feasible, in my opinion. There is far, far more to recruitment (if done properly) than just adjusting a PC's status so that he/she can get into the clan housing or checking his/her legal status. Perhaps the most important point is that the recruitment process should be an enjoyable role-playing experience in itself. Recruitment is a wonderful opportunity to truly play your character; to put yourself into the role of someone embarking on a new stage in life.

As far as actually getting recruited is concerned, there are always at least two e-mail addresses that you can contact if you are unable to contact a recruiter ICly: (1) the clan immortal's e-mail address, and (2) the MUD account. If you have tried to contact a recruiter ICly for a real-time day or two (i.e., one or two playing sessions) and have had no leads at all, I suggest e-mailing the clan immortal and setting up an appointment to be recruited (assuming that you and your PC are suitable, of course). After that, do not play the game until you have a definite appointment set (unless, of course, you are willing to wait patiently ICly, or otherwise occupy yourself with IC activities while waiting for a meeting).

Trust this helps.

Krrx

[Sephiroto]

I personally think most the time it's too easy to get hired on to Houses. I have to make characters that do to their history wouldn't be able to get hired on into a House just so I don't get dragged into one. At least when it comes to the noble Houses, north and south, always have troubles staying OUT of them, instead of troubles getting in.


Creeper

I've found that to be a problem myself as well.  Most of my characters get into a desired house within 4 hours playing time or less.  I have, in rare instances, had trouble joining a clan, but most of the time I get dragged in to something I'm not all that adamently sure about wanting to join.  Most of the time I ended up regretting joining and felt as if I was suckered in.  But like I and Krxx say:

: Email the account or the clan imms if you have trouble.
: Find peak playing times.
: Don't be afraid to log out and wait till later, though it wouldn't hurt to do a little solo'ish RP.