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ajqtrz
Chef - loquacious Old Dog
I just finished a list of things I do as AM. I think it's useful for those who are not AM's to have an idea of what an AM might be doing in the background. Some do more, not doubt, and some do less. Here's what I do.
1) Weekly Notes. From the elvenstats.com I collect the statistics, put them into a spreadsheet and massage them to create a weekly report. Takes about 30 minutes on Monday
2) Wonder Wednesday Each Wednesday we focus our kp giving on one player's AW. The list is randomly generated every 6 months and on Tuesdays I post the target for Wonder Wednesday. I then look at the persons' AW's to be sure they Have an AW (I actually look before I post), send them a msg if they have more than one so they can put the "target' in their city name, and then afterward --usually on Friday or Saturday since some players don't actually donate on Wednesday but on Thursday or Friday, I check to see how it went. This takes maybe 15 minutes a week
3) Event list. When there's an event I generate a list of the quest requirements. Until recently this meant copying from gemsofknowledge and then editing it for the msg system -- stripping out uneeded info, cleaning it up, etc. Now it's easy as they've added a copy button and formatted it for us! Yay! So I post that and then try to give some idea to new players how to move through the event quickly -- like start thh 24 hour things so they finish just after the previous quest is completed.
4) Fellowship Adventures. I haven't really done much after the first 2-3 as our fs either doesn't participate or, if we do, are a bit less organized than we could be -- actually a LOT less organized than we could be...LOL. I think it's a mater of style with us -- we are just more independent than that. Anyway, if an AM does lead the FA it's INTENSE for the six days, even with a good spreadsheet. As a side note, if your AM -- or whoever is leading the FA -- asks you to post what you are building or what you can build or what you have in stock -- do respond ASAP. He or she is NOT just trying to make your life more stressful. There is an old saying in business: "you cannot manage what you cannot measure" and your communication is the only way for your FA leader to measure what's going on and manage it! 'nuff said.
5) Tournaments. Most FS's don't do 10 chests every week. But they do some. Our's averages 5.2 or so a week, up from 4 a year ago -- sweet. But every so often we "hit" one hard and try for the 10. Usually about every 6-9 weeks. During tournaments I send msgs to the fs to remind them to at least participate -- I track the level of participation, but not who is actually participating (others may do both). Our goal is 100% of course but we usually get 20-21. After the tournaments is over, as part of the weekly notes, we report our 4 week average, mention those who did an unusual job, etc... On weeks we "hit hard" I announce each time we pass another chest and do more to encourage sharing resources where they can be used to achieve better points per goods spent. We call these "matches" where we match a lower player with a larger player and pass goods to the lower to do provinces.
6) Progress notifications I daily watch a person's score and when somebody passes a particular milestone: 100k, 200k etc Or when they achieve something note worthy, I send out a public congratulations. This is pretty easy if you visit daily, as I do, but, I have to admit, recently I have been having to do it more often...Yay!
7) Statistical Analysis. I have a spreadsheet that compares the various categories of usage in a city with the top 5 players in our fs. From this I look to see where a city might be better built -- often the person has 15% roads when the average is 11% -- indicating weak layout. I pass this information on to the player when requested. This takes about 20 minutes per player.
8) City layout reworking. This I've done 4-5 times for player, especially if the stats show they are wasting a lot of room. It takes 2-4 hours for me to do it because I'm a perfectionist. I think, though, it shoudl be done for everybody as I have yet to see a city that couldn't be significantly improved, and I've done this for top ranked players as well as those lower down. Now that you can export your city to Elven Architect via elvenstats.com AND Elven Architect is so much improved, it's actually a fun thing (for me anyway) to do.
9) Recruiting. This is the hardest thing I do. Fortunately, and perhaps by necessity, I don't do it alone. I have several people in my fs constantly feeding me names of possible players. Almost every fs has openings even if they don't have vacancies. "Flatliners" and "near flatliners" exist and if we don't remove them immediately it's sometimes because doing so without a replacement of the same size would drop our standing a bit more than we like, and sometimes we are just hoping the absence is temporary. Each AM does his or her own thing here, but they do have to do it. We usually have, as we do now, 2 openings, even if we have no vacancies. So we recruit and open as necessary. This also means I post in the forums our need for members, hoping people will contact us.
10) Visitations. This is a great thing in our fs as we've been moving up. I track the number of visits I get daily (I set a good example and do visit 20 out of 21 days on average). I just count the number of people who didn't visit me (since I get a bonus when they have) in the last 24 hours and subtract it from the number of players we have 24-25. I then cross check it by counting the visitation notifications I get and counting the last 24 hours. They are usually in agreement +-1 (I think the discrepancy may have to do with the 23 hour cycle, but it accurate enough for my needs).
These are my weekly tasks. In addition, of course, I have to deal with drama -- fortunately in a year or so I've been AM we had only on incident and that ended very quickly. And I have to just communicate -- be a friend/mentor/coach to our players. I have to admit I'm not as good at these things as I'd like, but I'm working on it.
And, oh yeah, I also build on my city! (Almost forgot, LOL!)
All this is sometimes hard work, but mostly it's a labor of love since I really do love my fs.
Just thought I'd let those who might not understand all an AM can be up to (and maybe yours' is doing even more) so you know what it means to be an AM and/or want to express some appreciation for him/her.
AJ
1) Weekly Notes. From the elvenstats.com I collect the statistics, put them into a spreadsheet and massage them to create a weekly report. Takes about 30 minutes on Monday
2) Wonder Wednesday Each Wednesday we focus our kp giving on one player's AW. The list is randomly generated every 6 months and on Tuesdays I post the target for Wonder Wednesday. I then look at the persons' AW's to be sure they Have an AW (I actually look before I post), send them a msg if they have more than one so they can put the "target' in their city name, and then afterward --usually on Friday or Saturday since some players don't actually donate on Wednesday but on Thursday or Friday, I check to see how it went. This takes maybe 15 minutes a week
3) Event list. When there's an event I generate a list of the quest requirements. Until recently this meant copying from gemsofknowledge and then editing it for the msg system -- stripping out uneeded info, cleaning it up, etc. Now it's easy as they've added a copy button and formatted it for us! Yay! So I post that and then try to give some idea to new players how to move through the event quickly -- like start thh 24 hour things so they finish just after the previous quest is completed.
4) Fellowship Adventures. I haven't really done much after the first 2-3 as our fs either doesn't participate or, if we do, are a bit less organized than we could be -- actually a LOT less organized than we could be...LOL. I think it's a mater of style with us -- we are just more independent than that. Anyway, if an AM does lead the FA it's INTENSE for the six days, even with a good spreadsheet. As a side note, if your AM -- or whoever is leading the FA -- asks you to post what you are building or what you can build or what you have in stock -- do respond ASAP. He or she is NOT just trying to make your life more stressful. There is an old saying in business: "you cannot manage what you cannot measure" and your communication is the only way for your FA leader to measure what's going on and manage it! 'nuff said.
5) Tournaments. Most FS's don't do 10 chests every week. But they do some. Our's averages 5.2 or so a week, up from 4 a year ago -- sweet. But every so often we "hit" one hard and try for the 10. Usually about every 6-9 weeks. During tournaments I send msgs to the fs to remind them to at least participate -- I track the level of participation, but not who is actually participating (others may do both). Our goal is 100% of course but we usually get 20-21. After the tournaments is over, as part of the weekly notes, we report our 4 week average, mention those who did an unusual job, etc... On weeks we "hit hard" I announce each time we pass another chest and do more to encourage sharing resources where they can be used to achieve better points per goods spent. We call these "matches" where we match a lower player with a larger player and pass goods to the lower to do provinces.
6) Progress notifications I daily watch a person's score and when somebody passes a particular milestone: 100k, 200k etc Or when they achieve something note worthy, I send out a public congratulations. This is pretty easy if you visit daily, as I do, but, I have to admit, recently I have been having to do it more often...Yay!
7) Statistical Analysis. I have a spreadsheet that compares the various categories of usage in a city with the top 5 players in our fs. From this I look to see where a city might be better built -- often the person has 15% roads when the average is 11% -- indicating weak layout. I pass this information on to the player when requested. This takes about 20 minutes per player.
8) City layout reworking. This I've done 4-5 times for player, especially if the stats show they are wasting a lot of room. It takes 2-4 hours for me to do it because I'm a perfectionist. I think, though, it shoudl be done for everybody as I have yet to see a city that couldn't be significantly improved, and I've done this for top ranked players as well as those lower down. Now that you can export your city to Elven Architect via elvenstats.com AND Elven Architect is so much improved, it's actually a fun thing (for me anyway) to do.
9) Recruiting. This is the hardest thing I do. Fortunately, and perhaps by necessity, I don't do it alone. I have several people in my fs constantly feeding me names of possible players. Almost every fs has openings even if they don't have vacancies. "Flatliners" and "near flatliners" exist and if we don't remove them immediately it's sometimes because doing so without a replacement of the same size would drop our standing a bit more than we like, and sometimes we are just hoping the absence is temporary. Each AM does his or her own thing here, but they do have to do it. We usually have, as we do now, 2 openings, even if we have no vacancies. So we recruit and open as necessary. This also means I post in the forums our need for members, hoping people will contact us.
10) Visitations. This is a great thing in our fs as we've been moving up. I track the number of visits I get daily (I set a good example and do visit 20 out of 21 days on average). I just count the number of people who didn't visit me (since I get a bonus when they have) in the last 24 hours and subtract it from the number of players we have 24-25. I then cross check it by counting the visitation notifications I get and counting the last 24 hours. They are usually in agreement +-1 (I think the discrepancy may have to do with the 23 hour cycle, but it accurate enough for my needs).
These are my weekly tasks. In addition, of course, I have to deal with drama -- fortunately in a year or so I've been AM we had only on incident and that ended very quickly. And I have to just communicate -- be a friend/mentor/coach to our players. I have to admit I'm not as good at these things as I'd like, but I'm working on it.
And, oh yeah, I also build on my city! (Almost forgot, LOL!)
All this is sometimes hard work, but mostly it's a labor of love since I really do love my fs.
Just thought I'd let those who might not understand all an AM can be up to (and maybe yours' is doing even more) so you know what it means to be an AM and/or want to express some appreciation for him/her.
AJ
