I suppose after two years I am not new anymore. I've also played mostly exploration driven characters and that has helped tremendously with everything except PK, which I still suck at and likely always will. But I like exploration in CF, it is often an overlooked aspect of the game, and so I've gained through doing myself, and occassionally with others help, a fair bit of information on most areas, gear and prep locations. And all that information I have is at any time available to any who ask me. My only thing is I do it IC. And since most people have no clue who my character is, they don't ask me, and I don't advertise my willingness to help IC. I think a vet does not mind helping, but they don't want to do nothing but help or else that is all they would do in a log in. With Lasentia I guided people through various quests over tell while I was out doing other things at least thirty times. I tried to be as helpful as I could to any who approached me first. I think that is the policy of most vet players. Be helpful, but only when approached. It's a game for them too afterall.

I believe that the hardest part of CF for a newbie is finding the right people to help you out. It's not that they don't exist, trust me. They exist. You just have no way to tell who they are. But me being helpful does not mean I will take your hero to an area explore or hell to help you get things. I might, but a pure OOC thing of I need X,Y, and Z to me does not seem newbish. If it's RP related or useful to an ally, then of course. But if some level 6 guy says to me I need midnight dragon armor, two ivory wakizashis and goes on to list a full set of mid or high level eq... I say at that rank why are you asking for that? If your question entails a degree of game knowledge that indicates you're not a newbie, and instead are just some level 6 looking for an edge by having hero help, my answer is almost always no.

But someone with questions or requests that make them come off as inexperienced generally gets as much information as they want from me. If you're a hero, I'll show you anything because now I have no problem with you having anything. You're a hero, that you don't have some piece of gear or prep may just be because you don't know about it, and that I'll happily correct.

And if people see my char, and they ask me where anything I have comes from, I tell them. And if they ask about where to acquire something, I tell them. Do I get it for them, well that depends. I don't buy the secret information part of CF. I don't think I've ever been told no when I've asked anyone about any piece of gear or prep. I guess the hard part is you don't know what to be asking about. So look at players you are with. Ask them why they eat that moss or drink that juice. 9 out of 10 time they'll tell you. And tell you where you can get it. It's not always easy to say IC things, but most will manage something like "auras of protection or strengthens my mind" Some preps are limited, and so maybe they are not as forthcoming. But you know what. You know what the prep is. Ask someone else. That is the one thing I never get asked surprisingly. Where can I find something to grant me <insert random prep name>? People will ask me about gear, but never preps. Which is fine, but just because when I see you I don't say "by the way, I know where five non-sleek barrier wands are, would you like to know in case you ever need one?" does not mean I'm keeping that information secret.

The real problem I see is other relatively new players tend to find one another because they are more inclined to do the hey lets group and go kill triolls or dark guards or pawns thing via tell. Which vets may not respond to. They might respond to a more RP driven request cause it sounds newbish, and newbs often equal slow and inefficient which can be fine, but not if you have limited play time which is the case for lots of players.

Almost any herald would show you any and everything they know. How useful would it be if there was a herald who had a title of expert of Theran Lore, or Master of Theran terrains? The problem might be that person would just get swamped with people asking for things. I know I got asked random things all the time with Lasentia, especially as she got older and most people knew she was a herald. I always gave people every bit of information I could in an IC manner, and that included quest information and gear locations. I took people through area explores if they wanted. I think I took one level 23 guy through Organia without him asking, because I was going anyway and a little talking company was fun, and he got to see stuiff. Probably was not a newbie, but still. I like to think that he got something out of that and maybe if he was new he had a little better opinion of the CF world.