FS Badge Pools instead of Individual Badge Pools

[BrinDarby]

Dom,
1 of the worlds I had 60+ xtra bracelet badges ....
I was on the whole last hour of the FA ....
Could I use them ... NO
Could my FS have used them ... NO

You talk about the apparent frustration of having badges that go
unused, yet your suggestion does Nothing to solve that.... Mine does...

In your suggestion, 1 person sends marching orders, telling all 24 other
FS members what to make. No other communication/coordination is
need'd... as that 1 person then places all the badges, on all 3 levels & Pit.

--- Thats even more brain-dead than the current system is ---

Soggy's right, that last hour (currently) is Fast & Furious, but its a coordinated
fast/furious.... it involves teamwork, that your plan eliminates....

 

[SoggyShorts]

Yikes, 2 posts in a row where Brin and I agree. Not a good sign for the proposal

because you still need to actually make those badges. And now with badges coming from tourney, spire, crafting, MA, barracks, (troops from AW), kp, enchantments, etc etc.. theirs always something finishing soon now.

Not really. From what I've seen in both my casual FA FS and in going for first place is that players make badges according to their normal log-in schedule.
"Twice-a-day" players make Farmers
"All-day-at-work/while watchin Netflix" players make Brews
"Dislike the FA but want to help" players make 1&2day badges
BUT
They all make a couple of extra "check-ins" just to see if their badges are needed.

Other badges like troops, tourney, and spire ones are absurdly plentiful in gold spire/10chest FS and not even worth mentioning.

 

[ajqtrz]

Dom,
1 of the worlds I had 60+ xtra bracelet badges ....
I was on the whole last hour of the FA ....
Could I use them ... NO
Could my FS have used them ... NO

--

Soggy's right, that last hour (currently) is Fast & Furious, but its a coordinated
fast/furious.... it involves teamwork, that your plan eliminates....

Here's the thing with having extra badges. If you don't want extra badges know how many you need when you start and keep a count down. Some fellowships do this with a thread for each type of badge. You make them, you subtract them and the count goes down. It seems simple enough but if people don't report...you can guess how "off" the threads can get. Other places use a spreadsheet to track things, and that works too...but only if people report. And others plan ahead and assign badges to players based upon what the players say they can do and when they will be available...but they have to report that information, don't they. Notice a pattern here? If you can't get your fs to communicate, you will have all sorts of problems. So how do you get your fs to communicate?

Beats me.

LOL

We are getting better. We have a 60-70% pre FA report rate -- we ask them about how many workshops/t1 they estimate they'll have and how many T1 boosted. That gives us some raw numbers to go on. However, with 30-40 percent not reporting...argggg.

During the FA we have them report on 5 items -- the five that take time. All they have to do is put three characters in a thread. For instance "BA 5" says that the player has started 5 bakers. Our FAO (FA Officer) then puts that into our online spreadsheet and it tracks things. But, again, we only get about 60-70% reporting. arggggg twice!

Finally we poll them as to when to have the "Pit Parties" Even less report then. Pit Party's are when we show up to a mass dump of our badges. They are fun and really do get us moving. But, again, guessing when to hold them is a challenge. People can put in badges anytime but it's just more fun to do it together.

In the long run it's about communication and that, is a difficult nut to crack. Leftover badges is probably just a symptom and one has to wonder how much that will change if you reduce the needed communication by having a Fellowship Badge Pool. No "Pit Party" needed.

So, in the end, I too, have come to the conclusion that this isn't a step in the right direction as it rewards fellowships for less communication, not more.

AJ

 

[BrinDarby]

@ajqtrz ,
Just the manor Set ( 4-5 bracelets/day ) and just
regular production, no turd towns, I was swimming in Bracelets.
Those should be able to be used, untill your FS has less than 5
of the badges need'd. Thats why my proposal fix'd that once
and for all... hehehe

But it wasn't poor planning that got me all those.....

 

[ajqtrz]

@ajqtrz ,
Just the manor Set ( 4-5 bracelets/day ) and just
regular production, no turd towns, I was swimming in Bracelets.
Those should be able to be used, untill your FS has less than 5
of the badges need'd. Thats why my proposal fix'd that once
and for all... hehehe

But it wasn't poor planning that got me all those.....

Not "poor planning" but "uninformed" planning. Why? Because if you had known ahead of time that you could produce that many bracelets you could have had others produce less and dedicate the room to the making the things you did need. Part of planning is knowing what people can do and part of it is knowing what people will do. Did anybody in your fellowship ask people how many of this or that they thought they would/could produce? If not then planning wasn't as good as have been.

Now if you end up producing a lot more of something than you can use, no pool will help that. It's the balance of ALL the badges that counts, especially if you are doing the PIT. They all take 5 per round and thus, in the long run, you have to plan for that balance.

Finally, the problem may not even have anything to do with what you are producing. You might have a perfectly balanced output but not perfectly balanced delivery system. The people with the X badges may not be online. Your suggestion would solve that problem. But again, maybe planning when people are going to be online is also part of it? We have "pit parties" to encourage that but I have to admit, they aren't always effective.

So, yes, your suggestion would solve the absence of the ones with the badges, and maybe there is no way to coordinate the delivery system very well, but who knows, that, too might get solved with some planning.

AJ

 

[BrinDarby]

Not "poor planning" but "uninformed" planning.

Wrong AJ , Bracelets are earned just by collecting your T1 and the buildup.
Coins, Elvarian, Bracelets and a few others are earned just by collecting
things that noone "plans" for ....

Pit Parties don't help, once you're "stuck" on 1 badge, ur done ... My system
fixes that problem using a 100% fair , weighted system...

 

[ajqtrz]

Wrong AJ , Bracelets are earned just by collecting your T1 and the buildup.
Coins, Elvarian, Bracelets and a few others are earned just by collecting
things that noone "plans" for ....

Pit Parties don't help, once you're "stuck" on 1 badge, ur done ... My system
fixes that problem using a 100% fair , weighted system...

Bracelets are earned "just" by collecting your T1? That's true, but if I was in a fs and everybody had just 1 T1 mfr I think I'd suggest somebody put in more for the FA. I have 15, 11 currently in storage. When the FA comes around I take some of them out and replace my T3 and T2 mfrs for the week. If I know my fs doesn't have the room to create enough bracelets I put out more. If they have a lot of bracelet output, I put out less. So, yes, bracelets are earned by collecting your T1 but you can adjust your fs's output and in doing so increase their output of other things. I have a nice armory in storage. If I need to create more guard badges I take it out....again, depending on what my fs is doing and how many they can produce.

Finally, you are quite right that there might be some badges that are limited. Coins isn't one of them, none of the workshop or T1 based ones are limited. Perhaps the Wonder Society badges could be limited but most of us have enough KP instants in storage to make hundreds so that' probably not one. Come to think of it, I'm not sure there are any that you can't increase or decrease production as needed.

So, again, as the examples show, with planning you probably can balance things out well on the production side. The delivery side though, you are right that we need to figure that out. Maybe knowing a person's schedule and having each member say when they will be around and then distributing the badge creation so that it all arrives as it's needed? That sounds like a very hard way to go but would, no doubt work.

AJ

 

[BrinDarby]

then answer me this @ajqtrz ,
why for the last 5 FAs, no matter if we were going for top 20, or just finishing
1 path per stage........ did members continually ask, "why cant I use up my badges?"

Coins, are you saying that a city that needs 6 residences, should sell off 4 because
otherwise tht city will make too many Coins Badges ???

Blacksmiths (#2) and Residue (#1) are the 2 badges that most FSs get stuck on
in the pit. All my suggestion does is weight the badges... now mine goes 1step further
and allows the person who places the last badge on a Pit WP, to choose the next 3
badges ask'd for .... but if you choose coins, coins, coins ... then it might take 45-60
coins badges versus blacks, blacks, blacks which would require 15 bs badges.

in 1 of your Pit Parties, it would be fun wouldn't it to rotate ppl call'n out the
next 3 badges so that rotationally ppl could empty out ALL thier badges..... ??

I can say this AJ, every...... yes every FA I end up with 100+ unused badges.
Its 1 reason I dont wanna play them anymore..... you got a better solution
other than pppppp ( proper planning prevents piss poor performance ) ????

 

[Fimbul Fambi]

I have mixed feelings about the badge pool, but I support you 100% on your reasons for proposing it. My fellowship has mixed feelings about FAs - several people dread the day when FAs are announced. These are the ones who don't connect at the "right time", the ones who only connect a few minutes each day - and the ones who end up volunteering to coordinate. It is highly stressful and the rewards don't nearly compensate for the stress. Don't get me wrong - I'm not whining for better rewards. But I would absolutely support a system that makes people happy they are participating.

Edit: and the reason perhaps ppl also could care less about FAs is
due to having to tear down 1/4th of ur city every 7 weeks to put up
turd towns for a week, totally screw'n your normal productions....
OR ..... outlay of time =/= swag earned doing so.

And, yes, you are right about that.