Epic Puck

I have talked about the application known to BrotherHood members as PRC - Puck's Ready Check. 

It simply consumes the XML data from the WowArmory. It presents itself in an XML file as well with a bit of XSL in order to make itself slightly more pretty than XML alone

How does it work?

Every twelve hours, an automated task requests the BrotherHood guild roster from the Armory. The scheduled task then trolls the list and requests from the Armory each member's raid achievements, their armor and their spec. BrotherHood uses EPGP for its looting system. Based on the GP formula, the Ready Check application produces a GP value for the gear of each member. A Gear Score, if you will, is produced.

I personally don't think gear scores tell you much about a player but that is all we have before we raid or group with any player.

Also based on the GP formula, each raid zone in the game has a maximum GP value because of the ilvl of the drops from that zone.

Puck's Ready Check then sorts the roster and the zones to show players where their possible next drop could come from based on their gear alone.

Contact me directly if you are interested in this for your guild.

I have been looking for a long time for a way to build a better raid.  I don't mean simply more qualified people.  I mean a way to determine what zone would be best for a guild member when their gear is at a certain level.

After you get past the gameplay component, it is about the players gear.  If they are not exploring where that best drop is going to come from, the Guild's Raid Leader should take on that responsibility in my opinion.

We all know that Blizzard gives us the item levels of the items we have in inventory.  Numerous Addons provide this information eg. InventoryOnPar as well as the Armory.  How can we use the existing data to do what I wanted to do?

I have created a base application which does mostly what I want to do.  The c# applcation will consume the guild's roster.  It will iterate the roster, going through each member and producing a GP value for their gear utilizing the same calculation EP/GP uses.  GP is summed for that character and added to a resulting XML.  A base line for each level of gear and rarity is added to the XML.  The result of that is transformed into pretty html for everyone to view on a site.

I hope to make it live this weekend for the members of BrotherHood.

I have been mostly quiet, somewhat, kind of, about EPGP.  I wanted everyone to be able to form their own opinions mostly without my big mouth in the way.

After a month of officer meetings, emotion and a lot of thoughtful conversation, BHP was launched.  We have a site for it.  I wrote an addon for us to use in raids.  We have seen people signup for raids that have not raided in a long time or even, ever before.

What about 1 BoP, 1 BoE?

Dice or /roll is not random.  Not really.  Dice do not help people who effort the most or even effort at all.  You are beholden to chance.  When people effort in a game, or life, or anything, they want to know that their effort is recognized and rewarded.  Dice or /roll does not do that.  Dice also supports the idea that anyone can join the raid, get loot and never come to a raid again.  Dice does not support the guild, guild progression and effort in the guild.

Why EPGP?

EPGP was chosen over a modified DKP system for a few reasons.  Most of all, EPGP prevents point hoarding.  DKP does not.  In DKP, the people who raid the most get the most, period.  In EPGP, everyone can gain effort points, like DKP.  In EPGP, people also gain gear points.  A priority is assigned to people based on the formula  EP/GP = Priority.  What does that mean?

It means that a player does not have to raid every day to get loot.  It means that loot is distributed based on priority.  It is distributed based on your effort and how much loot you have gotten.

In a simple example, player1 and player2 each have 100 EP.  They both have zero GP.  They both have a priority of 100. An item drops.  Player1 takes that item, valued at 100.  Player1 accumulates 100 GP.  Player1's priority changes to 1.  Player2's priority is 100.  The next item drops.  Player2 automatically gets the item.  No rolling and hoping and possibly losing the item to Player1 who already got something.

The importance in EPGP is placed on the member, what they do and what they get from a raid.  They can earn effort points by contributing and of course by raiding.

During our conversations, the most important item seemed to be preventing people from taking without them giving.  Giving now is equated to points as is Taking.

No preference as in Loot Council.  No out of balance dice.  Priority based on looting history and effort.

I have heard time and time again from people their rants about DKP and how they were wronged.  EPGP is the answer to that and I am glad we did it.

pull Skull.