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The Worst Loot System Ever Conceived — Projects — World of Warcraft last changed 19 September 2007 |
(pronounced "ass hat")
this is an amalgamation of loot systems i've used and/or discussed with other wowaholics. thanks are owed to Mixed Knuts on the Lothar server, who are (unbeknownst to 90% of them) giving me the chance to put together my ideas of an ideal loot system for us to use as we advance into Magtheridon's Lair, Serpentshrine, and The Eye. Gruul is dead, woot!
my thanks also to Legacy of the Forgotten, for exploring the strengths and weaknesses of various systems and teaching me several important lessons over two years. perfectly reasonable people can hold opposing viewpoints without either of them being wrong. also, flawlessly unreasonable people can raise valid points, and when that happens it's often best to take the idea and work out the details with a buddy who has nothing to do with any ongoing loot-related drama.
finally, i would like to thank The Bit Players, who include a broad array of colorful characters i'm happy to think of as friends. even though 90% of them have no idea who i am and probably couldn't give a rat's arse. more on arses later. in the meantime, i've borrowed a thing or two from your loot rules... i'll have them back before you even realize they're missing.
all of the ideas which will be combined here came out of somebody else's head. i'm not claiming credit for a single one. in fact, it's entirely possible that someone else has already assembled the same ideas and put them to good use with a different name. or maybe they condemned the combination as a singularly rancid plan. in either case, i think we should recognize that no system will work 100% of the time for 100% of the people. someone will take exception to whatever we decide to adopt. even if it's perfect, like Moonwine's suggestions.
the hope here is one which is (ideally) shared by all loot systems. we want to find the most equitable way to upgrade everyone's equipment while ensuring that each item benefits the progression of the guild as much as possible. this particular system tries to distribute loot to those who are spending the most time in successful raids, by modifying a random /roll, using points earned through various levels of raid participation.
however, influencing the roll is not sufficient on its own. there also needs to be a system of loot priority in place, which guarantees that (for example) rogues are not allowed to roll on paladin relics. we will accomplish this by unveiling the Ridiculously Awful Loot Priority Guidelines which i call "arse cap". it's chock–full of annoying principles like common sense.
i'd also like to invoke a principle of fair play which i picked up during my brief and pleasant stint in Molten Core alongside The Bit Players (well, as pleasant as MC can be). whenever possible, be considerate of your fellow raiders. if an item is obviously a bigger upgrade for someone else of similar spec and experience, do the honorable thing and let them roll unopposed. it really sucks to see someone vendor their old purple shoulders when you're still sporting a blue pair. we've all seen it... let's try to stop it.
more than just establishing martial law, asshat strives to be a set of guiding principles which govern when as well as how to roll.
at its core, asshat has two basic tenets. first, what comes out must go in. the number of points accumulated through boss kills and other bonuses should at least roughly approximate (and must always exceed) the number of points being spent on the loot that drops. this is a relaxed version of the zero-sum ideal. second, everybody must have a chance of winning the things they want... unless they voluntarily give up that chance by spiraling into a negative point total. nobody wants to accept a repair bill and have no hope of winning any loot in return.
many of us want to see the people who raid the most get the upgrades they want. a bidding system would be an attractive way to accomplish this, because it would ensure that whoever has the most points wins whatever they want. the problem with that delicious dictatorship is that being unable to win is a big psychological downer for the other 24 people who could potentially want something like Ashes of Al'ar. this inevitably drops raid performance over the long term. we've seen it, and (here's hoping) we've deliberately chosen to take the path less traveled.
in asshat, most drops are worth a number of points equal to their item level. note that this is often not the same as the player level required to equip/use the item. the item level is available from wowhead and other websites, and tends to be pretty consistent for all items within an instance.
i could go through every item in every raid instance and manually assign values, but i did the math and it turns out that my diet of taquitos and pizza won't allow me to live long enough. exceptions to the {points=ilevel} rule include particularly desireable items (such as Ashes of Al'ar and patterns which create BoE items) which are worth double the usual points. also, all point costs and awards from "new" bosses are doubled. bosses are considered new until we've killed them a total of five times. which means if the mount (ilevel 70) drops the first time we kill Kael'thas, it will be worth 280 points.
if a BoE epic drops in the raid, it's worth iLevel if the winner will equip it on the spot... otherwise it goes to the guild bank and the raid earns 50 points.
the primary point awards will be given to the raid when loot is distributed. when an item is given to a raid member, the raid (not each individual) earns the value of that item. when an item (excluding shards and materials) is earmarked for the guild bank, the raid earns 50 points. when an item is sharded, the raid earns 5 points for each Void Crystal created as a result of disenchanting. after loot has been distributed, the total points accumulated by the raid are divided evenly amongst the players who are present. these points are not actually useable until the next raid; point gains are not "live".
additional points may be awarded to individuals for several reasons. these bonuses prevent asshat from being a true zero-sum system, but they were deemed important enough to justify deviating significantly from the zero-sum model.
an abbreviated list of useful stuff includes, and may not be limited to, the following.
points are deducted for only a few reasons. i don't anticipate these factors coming into play very often, but then again... No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!
the specific awards for donations of items and materials are left to the guild leader's discretion, but should generally be relatively small. the point is not to allow guild members to use stuff they acquire outside of raids to "buy" items which are earned in raids, but to encourage the guild as a whole to utilize all available opportunities to better itself.
at the end of the raid, each raid member's points will be added to the website. actually, you will quickly discover that there is a conspiracy to make sure that your points are never up-to-date. that's because we are secretly the Borg, and you will be assimilated. seriously, though, the Borg do the best we can. resistance is futile.
when an item drops that you want, and are qualified to roll on, you may make a random roll from 1 to your point total. this is accomplished with /roll x, where x is the number of points listed next to your name on the website.
the point totals on the website at the beginning of the raid are the ones which each member will use for that raid. we understand that if the website hasn't been updated, then it may not be entirely "fair" to everyone concerned. but the website is more reliable than the memory of most individual members, so that's what we'll rely on.
when you win an item, the cost of that item is deducted from your point total. if this causes your point total to drop below 0, you will be unable to roll on anything else until your points rise to at least 1.
every week, each individual's point total (positive or negative) will decay by 1%. this helps to curb the inflation introduced by giving out so many little bonuses. it should also encourage people to raid, even if they already have the loot they want from most of the bosses, because if they simply wait until we advance into the next instance they will find their point advantage greatly diminished.
asshat creates separate point pools for each instance. points earned in Gruul's Lair can be used only in Gruul's Lair, with one small caveat. this means that, for the most part, we'll all be starting at zero points when we begin working on Magtheridon's Lair and Serpentshrine Cavern. points will begin accruing for raid attendance and boss attempts, and the players who win the first few epics may go into negative points temporarily. everyone should be able to get back into the positives fairly quickly, once we're able to take a single boss down on a regular basis.
the caveat is that players will be allowed to convert points earned in one instance into points useable in the next instance, on a 5:1 basis. you may choose to convert none, some, or all of your points, but it's a one-way trip. there is no option for converting points earned in later instances into points useable in earlier instances.
many players have more than one qualified character that they would like to bring to raids. some of them feel that it would be most advantageous for them if their alts were allowed to use points earned by their mains. many other players have a problem with this practice, claiming that it's unfair. hogwash!
well, since asshat is designed to make things as difficult as possible for everyone, naturally the choice of whether points are tallied for each alt individually or collectively is left mostly to the player. however, there are strings attached.
you may choose to pool all points earned by all of the characters you bring to raids. you may not choose to pool points between some characters and not others. this means that all of your points can be used by whichever character you're playing in the current raid. however, by choosing to pool the points in this way, you are agreeing to bring any character requested by the raid leader for any particular raid, without a fuss. if you're unwilling to let the raid leader decide who you play, then this isn't the way for you to go.
you may prefer to have each of your characters acquire points separately. this means that each character only has access to the points earned by that character. thus, you retain the freedom to bring whichever character you choose to each raid.
players who have several raiding characters and choose to pool their points together may acquire a distinct point advantage, depending on how many characters are being geared up. this rewards them for being flexible and catering to the needs of the raid. however, they may find it difficult to fully capitalize on this advantage, because they aren't in control of which character will be present when desired items drop.
you are allowed to change your mind. you may acquire points for a while on one or more "main" characters, and then choose to pool your points between all of your characters to allow your alts to use those points. all the points earned by all your characters to date will be summed, and divided by five. that quotient will then be available to all of your characters. asshat makes a point of trying to prevent gross unfairness.
let's say we form a Gruul's Lair raid one day. 30 people sign up for the raid, 27 are online at 7pm, and from them we choose the best mix of 25 that we can come up with. each member of the raid gets 1 point for being ready on-time. in fact, miraculously, everybody is ready to go at showtime, so each person gets a second point because the raid actually gets to start at 7.
we one–shot Maulgar (we're getting a little too cocky about him) and he drops Hammer of the Naaru, Pauldrons of the Fallen Champion, and Pauldrons of the Fallen Hero. a happy dps paladin wins the hammer and the tokens go to a shaman and a warlock. the tier tokens are ilevel 70, and the hammer is ilevel 125. all the items were given to players, so a total of 265 points are awarded to the raid (125 for the hammer +70 x2 for the tokens). these points are then divided evenly among the 25 players present at the kill: 10.6 points per player.
if the hammer had been disenchanted, the Void Crystal would have gone to the guild bank and the raid would have earned only shard value for that item. if a token was left to rot on the body, the raid would have earned no points for that drop since it cannot be disenchanted. these reductions would have been justified because the items did not benefit the raid and thus it would make no sense to award points for them.
while we're killing trash mobs on the way to Gruul, Plans: Gauntlets of the Iron Tower drops. this pattern is ilevel 73 but it creates a BoE epic, so it's worth double the normal points. 146 points are awarded to the raid, and then distributed to each player present for that drop: 5.84 points per player. fractional values are not rounded until they are uploaded to the website.
Gruul smacks us around a couple times, but everyone pulls their weight and we earn 1 point for each player for each of two attempts. then we kill him, and there is much rejoicing.
the big ugly guy drops Aldori Legacy Defender, Dragonspine Trophy, Leggings of the Fallen Champion, and Leggings of the Fallen Defender. the tanks arm-wrestle for the shield, rogues snatch the trinket and a token, and the other token is calmly taken by a druid who is far too mature to be distracted by the wrestling warriors. the tokens are still ilevel 70, and the other epics are ilevel 125. the difference here is that Gruul is still a new boss because we haven't killed him 5 times yet, so all the point costs and awards are doubled. a total of 780 points are awarded to the raid and split among the 25 players who are present at that time: a whopping 31.2 points per player.
the raid is effectively over at that point, because there is nothing left to kill... always a nice way to end the night. each player who is present for this glorious moment receives 1 extra point.
assuming that we completed the entire raid with the exact same list of people (a rare situation indeed), each player would have received a total of 52.64 points. various players also spent points on the items they won. if there was some shuffling in and out, then the points earned for each player would vary accordingly. regardless, the raid earned a total of 1316 points for the evening, and spent 1191 points on the drops. we accumulated 125 points of inflation.
next week, everybody's point total decays by 1%. 1% of 1316 is 131.6 (greater than the total inflation), so you can see that in spite of awarding bonus points and deviating from the zero-sum ideal, runaway inflation will not be a problem. if you never contribute anything to the guild bank, your points will actually slowly deflate.
let's say i want to take the 52.64 points i earned in Gruul's Lair with my main Qxyrj last week, and i want to convert those into points i'll be able to use in Magtheridon's Lair. and let's also say that i want to take a level 70 alt, Pfnr, to Magtheridon's Lair, because there's a drop there that i want to get for Pfnr. in summary, i want to earn points with one highly geared character in Gruul's Lair, and i want to give those points to a not–so–geared alt so he can skip Gruul and move directly to Magtheridon. because i'm a slimebag.
well, asshat has a few things to say about that. first, i would total all the points i've earned in Gruul's Lair with all of my characters (52.64) and i would divide that by 5 to distribute them to all of my characters. i now have a pool of 10.528 points which is shared by all of my characters whenever they go to Gruul's Lair. then, i take my Gruul's Lair point total (10.528) and divide that by 5 to transfer them to Magtheridon's Lair. this gives me a pool of 2.1056 points which Pfnr can use to obtain his uber loots from Magtheridon. he will /roll 2 in the event that the raid manages to kill something that drops loot.
importantly, none of my characters have any points left in Gruul's Lair; in the event that i go there again, i will be unable to roll on anything until i earn at least 1 point there. and since points are not applied until the end of the raid, that means i'll have to complete one raid and attend a second before i can win anything.
also, the 2.1056 points is shared by all of my characters who go to Magtheridon's Lair. so in effect my attempt to cheat the system has screwed all of my characters. i'll be sure to have a nice day.
addressing any questions that will be raised about this system.
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