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ajqtrz
Chef - loquacious Old Dog
Discussion
1) KP Swap threads are probably one of the most popular methods as the overhead in administration is nearly none, and the flexibility of size is infinite. In these you simply start a message thread with something like 10 KP Swap Thread, and then put the name of the AW you wish to have the KP applied to as the message. The idea is that somebody in your fs will then put the 10KP on that AW, and add their AW to the thread as the next entry. Somebody else, or even you, then puts the 10 KP on their listed AW and adds the name of their AW to the thread. This continues until the thread dies because is scrolls off the msg system out of disuse. In other words, it’s pretty perpetual and there is almost no overhead.
Upside: No overhead and nearly always balanced between players.
Downside: Whoever begins the thread has the potential of receiving the initial contribution and never having to repay it. This is extremely rare but if the thread dies that person will always be ahead.
Second, while you can have everybody participate, since it’s not required, it may be that the participation rate is low, lowering the benefit to the fellowship. My experience is that you get about 30 to 40 percent of players using these consistently and they can, and sometimes do, die out.
2) Shout Outs. In these the emphasis is on capturing the chests. When an AW gets close to being ready to upgrade the owner puts the name of the AW into either a thread for Shout Outs, or in chat. This tells others there are chests available and that the AW is about to be upgraded. The others then visit the AW, and claim a chest. Sometimes there are efforts to “bump” any “claim jumpers” and sometimes not.
Here’s how it works. You have an AW within so many KP from being completed. It varies as to how close you have to be to the next upgrade. Some fellowships require you to be within 50KP, others 100KP and still others don’t care. However much it is, it is usually expected that it will be a short period of no more than a day or two before you finish it off. The shout out is issued, in chat, for instance. We use the formula “SO: [Name of AW] [KP still needed]/[Number of unclaimed chests]. So it would be, for instance: “SO: Mountain Hall 60/4” meaning my Mountain Hall is within 60KP of reaching the next upgrade and there are 4 unclaimed chests. What would then happen is that 4 players would “pile on” and each take a chest. Usually the amount is less than the chest gives back, but doesn’t have to be. To notify the fs that there are “claim jumpers” (usually giving 1-5 KP in hopes of reaping some profit), you could add “+2” to the notice. It would then read: “SO:Mountain Hall 60/4+2” The “+2” would tell your fs that it’s okay to bump the two players as either their contribution is obviously just for the profit (which the fs wants for itself, naturally) or for some other reason.
In addition, some (including my own) fellowships do a sort of count-down. So, in the above example, after the initial “SO:Mountain Hall 60/4+2 The next person to contribute might put in chat: “50/3+2” The assumption is that this refers to the last SO listed above. If more than one goes on at one time you might say “MH 50/3+2” to distinguish it from the other. In any case, the “countdown” goes on and eventuallly it may be “40/2+2” then “30/1+1” and finally “20/0+0”. And if the AW gets completed it is common to simply say, “MH done”
Upside. Little to no administrative overhead. If done right it moves quickly. Since nobody has to give it’s up to the players to determine how much profit or loss they wish to make. Most of the time the highest chest have some profit while the lower ones some loss but if everybody is participating it all seems to work out. The participation rates can be at 80% or more.
Downside. Since you aren’t tracking things you can have some players putting little in consistently and thus profiting above others. This is not a method for anyone who is very concerned with insuring fairness, but a great method for any fs that has a sense of trust among themselves.
3) Fast Shout Out+1. These are close to Shout Outs but intended to do two things a Shout Out doesn’t. First, the maximize profit to the contributors (and minimize it to the AW owner). Second, they, by necessity, are designed to go FAST! For that reason they are not too common.
How the work. Like the Shout Out they are done in either the msg system or chat. The rules are: The AW owner must have enough KP instants on hand to build the entire upgrade all at once; the AW owner must keep the AW at zero or nearly zero until right before the upgrade is ready; the AW owner must then issue the FSO and be ready as soon as the chests are claimed, to apply the KP instants. All within as short a time as possible.
So I have a AW needing 1010KP for the next upgrade. It has 7 chests and is at 0. I issue a FSO in the form of “FSO
rosperity Tower 7 +1” This means, obviously, the target is my Prosperity Tower; there are 7 chests ready to be claimed; and that the sought price of each chest is 1KP (any value can be designated but it’s usually 1KP). The first 7 people jump in with the 1KP contribution in the same manner of the Shout out, putting the countdown in chat (or the msg system, but that’s too slow in reality). So its’ 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1-ready!. Once it’s ready the AW owner jumps in and puts the KP instance on it to finish it. He/she has to do so because if they don’t somebody might jump in and claim chests for 2KP and that’s just maximizing profit to the claim jumper.
Upside: This maximizes profit for the contributors and for the fellowship. If all AW’s were done this way the reduction in AW costs would be nearly the entire return from the chests. There is no other method as profitable to the fellowship.
Downside. Almost no players want to save up the KP for their AW’s, and if your fs is not fully active a lot of time can go by between the issuing of the FSO and the applying of the KP required – time in which claim jumpers can easily capture a lot of profit. In other words, this works well in a very active FS and not so much in a slower paced one.
1) KP Swap threads are probably one of the most popular methods as the overhead in administration is nearly none, and the flexibility of size is infinite. In these you simply start a message thread with something like 10 KP Swap Thread, and then put the name of the AW you wish to have the KP applied to as the message. The idea is that somebody in your fs will then put the 10KP on that AW, and add their AW to the thread as the next entry. Somebody else, or even you, then puts the 10 KP on their listed AW and adds the name of their AW to the thread. This continues until the thread dies because is scrolls off the msg system out of disuse. In other words, it’s pretty perpetual and there is almost no overhead.
Upside: No overhead and nearly always balanced between players.
Downside: Whoever begins the thread has the potential of receiving the initial contribution and never having to repay it. This is extremely rare but if the thread dies that person will always be ahead.
Second, while you can have everybody participate, since it’s not required, it may be that the participation rate is low, lowering the benefit to the fellowship. My experience is that you get about 30 to 40 percent of players using these consistently and they can, and sometimes do, die out.
2) Shout Outs. In these the emphasis is on capturing the chests. When an AW gets close to being ready to upgrade the owner puts the name of the AW into either a thread for Shout Outs, or in chat. This tells others there are chests available and that the AW is about to be upgraded. The others then visit the AW, and claim a chest. Sometimes there are efforts to “bump” any “claim jumpers” and sometimes not.
Here’s how it works. You have an AW within so many KP from being completed. It varies as to how close you have to be to the next upgrade. Some fellowships require you to be within 50KP, others 100KP and still others don’t care. However much it is, it is usually expected that it will be a short period of no more than a day or two before you finish it off. The shout out is issued, in chat, for instance. We use the formula “SO: [Name of AW] [KP still needed]/[Number of unclaimed chests]. So it would be, for instance: “SO: Mountain Hall 60/4” meaning my Mountain Hall is within 60KP of reaching the next upgrade and there are 4 unclaimed chests. What would then happen is that 4 players would “pile on” and each take a chest. Usually the amount is less than the chest gives back, but doesn’t have to be. To notify the fs that there are “claim jumpers” (usually giving 1-5 KP in hopes of reaping some profit), you could add “+2” to the notice. It would then read: “SO:Mountain Hall 60/4+2” The “+2” would tell your fs that it’s okay to bump the two players as either their contribution is obviously just for the profit (which the fs wants for itself, naturally) or for some other reason.
In addition, some (including my own) fellowships do a sort of count-down. So, in the above example, after the initial “SO:Mountain Hall 60/4+2 The next person to contribute might put in chat: “50/3+2” The assumption is that this refers to the last SO listed above. If more than one goes on at one time you might say “MH 50/3+2” to distinguish it from the other. In any case, the “countdown” goes on and eventuallly it may be “40/2+2” then “30/1+1” and finally “20/0+0”. And if the AW gets completed it is common to simply say, “MH done”
Upside. Little to no administrative overhead. If done right it moves quickly. Since nobody has to give it’s up to the players to determine how much profit or loss they wish to make. Most of the time the highest chest have some profit while the lower ones some loss but if everybody is participating it all seems to work out. The participation rates can be at 80% or more.
Downside. Since you aren’t tracking things you can have some players putting little in consistently and thus profiting above others. This is not a method for anyone who is very concerned with insuring fairness, but a great method for any fs that has a sense of trust among themselves.
3) Fast Shout Out+1. These are close to Shout Outs but intended to do two things a Shout Out doesn’t. First, the maximize profit to the contributors (and minimize it to the AW owner). Second, they, by necessity, are designed to go FAST! For that reason they are not too common.
How the work. Like the Shout Out they are done in either the msg system or chat. The rules are: The AW owner must have enough KP instants on hand to build the entire upgrade all at once; the AW owner must keep the AW at zero or nearly zero until right before the upgrade is ready; the AW owner must then issue the FSO and be ready as soon as the chests are claimed, to apply the KP instants. All within as short a time as possible.
So I have a AW needing 1010KP for the next upgrade. It has 7 chests and is at 0. I issue a FSO in the form of “FSO
rosperity Tower 7 +1” This means, obviously, the target is my Prosperity Tower; there are 7 chests ready to be claimed; and that the sought price of each chest is 1KP (any value can be designated but it’s usually 1KP). The first 7 people jump in with the 1KP contribution in the same manner of the Shout out, putting the countdown in chat (or the msg system, but that’s too slow in reality). So its’ 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1-ready!. Once it’s ready the AW owner jumps in and puts the KP instance on it to finish it. He/she has to do so because if they don’t somebody might jump in and claim chests for 2KP and that’s just maximizing profit to the claim jumper.Upside: This maximizes profit for the contributors and for the fellowship. If all AW’s were done this way the reduction in AW costs would be nearly the entire return from the chests. There is no other method as profitable to the fellowship.
Downside. Almost no players want to save up the KP for their AW’s, and if your fs is not fully active a lot of time can go by between the issuing of the FSO and the applying of the KP required – time in which claim jumpers can easily capture a lot of profit. In other words, this works well in a very active FS and not so much in a slower paced one.