I feel like this guy should make a cleric...

-Mcoy

If you are reading this thread trying to learn what is normal and expected, I want you to know that while there are plenty of business minded porters out there like the OP, there are also many community-building porters, some of whom have chimed in here.

There really isn't a norm across the board; until you've met many druids and wizards, it's luck of the draw on the personality of the porter you sent a /tell to, and what they're current disposition is. Don't get upset if they are expecting your level 4 toon to put down 10pp and you've never seen that much plat in your life. Just thank them for their time and move on. If they're bitter, just move on. You might have better luck with someone else, or taking OP's advice which is wait and find ways to build up plat. But more often than not you will get lucky with a porter who wants to help you out.

When I'm sitting around bored, I'll often offer to port folks for free (tho most folks will donate even if I didn't ask). I never worry about the time it's costing me in these situations, because I wasn't really using that time effectively anyway and it's nice to meet new folks. I know many others who feel similarly. One of the reasons we rolled classes that can port is to help folks out, often because others have helped us out in a similar manner in the past. Of course some people rolled porters for the prospect of making extra $$, and we should respect that perfectly valid reason as well.

When I'm logged in and preoccupied, usually you'll have to offer a bunch of platinum to get me to help you out. More often I'll just decline. It really depends on the situation. I'll never /ignore you or put you on some negative list just because you asked.

Find porters who work well for you and remember them. Send them extra plat when you can, and don't feel bad when you can't. If they're clearly in it for the business/cash (e.g. many members of Dial a Port), be prepared to treat it as a business transaction where you are expected to carry your own weight (then see OP's original guidelines for help)

Hope this helps.

At level 50 I get dozens and dozens of /tells a day for ports.

If you don't have a lot of money I don't care, just say you're broke before I evac to sro to pick you up. I'll just wait until i got a spare min, or wait for another repop of whatever I'm camping. Paying customers always get priority.

I do agree with OP if you're going to ask for a port tell me where you are at. Its annoying to do a /who and you're anon, and or you have a stupid name thats hard to type /who all Illillaniaill. Or you just "/tell Can i get a port", and I got to play sherlock holmes to figure it out.

Need a port? Try these.

/t NAME Got time for a port from SRO to NK? I can tip x plat and ill be at spire/rings in 2 mins.

/t NAME Got time for a port from WK to SRO? I'm naked on a corpse run to LGUK.


Don't have me waiting 10 minutes for you. Most of the time I'm bound somewhere weird and need to gate back to my camp as quickly as possible.

Careful now...you are getting dangerously close to having reasonable expectations on your time and energy while trying to enjoy yourself. Reading some of the comments in this thread, you'd believe the reason you put the time in was to taxi lazy people around all day for absolutely no gain.

It's totally your prerogative to not port lowbies if you don't want, but it doesn't change the fact that you're being a jerk for no good reason in doing so. I do think a person should have to do a boat ride at least once in their life though for the experience, but most people coming to P99 probably already have when the game was live.

I haven't played on Blue but from what I've read it sounds like the 1pp/level custom was a Blue thing and from what I've read Blue has had extreme plat inflation and so 1pp/level might not be exactly reasonable yet on Green/Teal yet. I think if it bothers you that you should just tell people how much you want for porting them.

"Time and energy while trying to enjoy yourself?" You're pressing a button to cast a spell dude. It's not that much work. Also, no one is forcing you to port anyone. Please show me where in any P99 policy it says that you have to port people.

Not quite just pressing a button, at least not in every case. If I was already at a ring/spire, and about to port someone else when a lowbie asked for a lift to the same destination I'd do it for free every time. But if I'm being asked to stop what I'm currently doing, spend the mana and time to port to their location and then their destination, and not get paid? Get out of here with that noise.

And mind you, I'm aware that you are referencing one extreme while I am looking at the other, and there's plenty of middle there where it becomes very circumstantial.

Yeah, I would not expect you to do that and would expect you to tell them you're busy - newbie or not. I was thinking of the situation where someone is already just dedicating some time to porting. I never just send tells to random people asking them for ports. I'll ask for porters in OOC or /who all dial

At least 50% of my /tells for ports is a guy going "/t Morsel can I get a port to gfay." They are anon, and they have a stupid name to type, while I'm kiting something, and they are in a different zone. When they can just /tell Morsel can I get a port from nk to gfay? Trust me, its sounds like a non issue, but it's frustrating playing sherlock holmes with some people. This is all happening while in /tell hell with 3 other people.

You don't need to type their name. Just press "r".

/r who all?