HELPING NEW PLAYERS
FIRST CONTACT
When a GroundHog comes into the game, she is not tuned to any channel, but she has her comm unit turned on, and can hear whatever is being talked over on the comms. Therefore, if you welcome her with a comm message she will see it. Using the comm rather than tight beams at this stage is useful because it alerts other players that there's a new player to be welcomed and helped if necessary.
Your first comm message to the newbod should say something like, "Hello Newbod, welcome to Fed2". Then wait a few seconds and see if she replies. Some people can figure out how to send messages on their own by typing HELP, but not everyone can. If the newbod doesn't respond, send another comm message explaining how to use the comms: "To talk in Fed2 you type COM followed by what you want to say, then press return - for example, com hello". If you still don't get any reply, it's definitely time to go and find the player and try to help her face to face.
