New Higher Output Chain Starting!!!

Oof · Post by **Oof** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 2:01 am

We will be forming a new, higher output chain for the people who want to participate. It will act like our other chains have for a long time, except that quota will be much higher, and the reporting window will be tighter than the other chains have been. Also, the quota will be dynamic, meaning that we will adjust it as we continue to learn what works.

This chain should not be for the faint of heart.

Quota will start at 100 million added xp per week passed up to your patron. Based on the game-advertised minimum passup of 25% that means you will need to hunt for 400 million raw xp each week. 25% is not realistic for most of our higher leveled characters. It seems that 50% will actually be less than what we will pass up, but for reference' sake, at 50% pass up you will need to hunt for 200 million raw xp each week.

The quota reporting period will be two weeks, not three weeks. That means people will not be able to hunt once for massive amounts of xp every two weeks; they will need to hunt some every week. Using a reporting period of two weeks allows someone to skip one weekend IF THEY HAVE A BIG ENOUGH BUFFER BUILT UP.

Most things about the new chain will be adjustabe as time goes by. There will be no promotions (the whole idea of promotions and being "higher in the chain" don't work anymore). The key to generating more xp will lie in raising loyalty and leadership and in building the loyalty bonuses as much as possible.

We will publish a minimum required loyalty you must have but aren't sure what that number should be yet. We're still figuring out the the loyalty vs. xp curve.

There are several things we would normally prefer to have ironed out before offering a new chain to the clan (like loyalty reqs); however, time is wasting and it may be a long time before anyone figures out all of the dynamics of the new allegiance system.

If you are okay with joining a chain whose operating rules will change, if you want more xp than you have been receiving, and IF YOU CAN HANDLE 100M+ QUOTA EVERY WEEK, post in the separate sign up thread saying you would like to join.

The initial signup for the new chain will run through Saturday night at midnight March 20, 2004. We will start the removal and reswearing orders on Sunday March 21, 2004.

Right now I am planning on splitting the applicants into two different groups, the Crazy-High group made up of those characters whose XP production over the past three months have been far above the norm, and the Rest-Of-Us who sign up to make the 100 million quota. Within each of those groups we'll do a random draw to determine placement. The Crazy-High group will be placed at the top of the new chain (no particular reason since that won't matter anymore) and the others below them.

Post whatever questions you have, and I/we will try to answer them quickly. I suspect there will be many.

Kazsam · Post by **Kazsam** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 8:28 am

The key to generating more xp will lie is raising loyalty and leadership and in building the loyalty bonuses as much as possible.

Does this mean our chars will NEED to take leadership

Oof · Post by **Oof** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 11:31 am

Since we are basing the quota on a 25% passup, no, leadership won't be required. With that being said, people may still choose to lose a tinkering skill, or unspec something, or whatever, in order to get leadership. Turbine says with zero leader for the patron and zero loyalty for the vassal, that 25% will be passed up. My understanding of the way it works is the vassal with zero loyalty will pass up 50%. The patron with zero leaderhip with take 50% of that amount, which results in the 25% passup rate.

So, even though loyalty won't be required, if vassal start hunting for a few hundred million a week of raw xp, by not training leadership the patron is probably literally going to cost themselves hundreds of millions of xp every month.

vermillion ace · Post by **vermillion ace** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 12:47 pm

I'm interested.

Wimp Lo · Post by **Wimp Lo** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 1:12 pm

In the example I gave on the other thread I passed up about 84% of what I earned in xp to my patron. Now Kaz actually received less than this based on her leadership.

Is my 100 million passed up based on the 84% of xp I earned? Or does my patron have to receive 100 million per week from me after his/her leadership is taken into account?

If it is based on the patron receiving 100 million a week, regardless of their leadership skill, then some vassals will have to hunt much more than others to reach the goal, through no fault of their own.

If it is based on what you pass up (ie. the 84% example above) then that would appear to be more fair to me because each of us is able to control how high our loyalty is, and affect the pass up rate in this fashion.

Wimp Lo

Post by **Panzerfaust** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 1:22 pm

The quota will be based on pass up not earned. It is virtually impossible to track raw earned since we have vassals and such that would skew the numbers and would require all other vassals to be key vassals, which can't happen, in order to track, then subtract from the total.

It would be much easier if everyone trained leader, but that isn't going to happen. I have spec'd loyalty and trained leader on Trouser specifically for the chain.

The quota is really based on 25% anyway, for now. I think you will see, even without leader trained on your patron, you will see in the 60 percentile passed up, which is not in the 80's, but it's much easier to attain than 25%.

It appears that the pass up sky rockets and then plateaus in the upper 60's.

Kazsam · Post by **Kazsam** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 3:48 pm

Ill prolly drop LP to take leader, then once a mnth when too many sings add up that need carving ill dropleader/take LP then drop and retake

If you collect the untrain gems staright away then you have them to drop LP again after u carve the keys , if that makes sense

Neue Regel · Post by **Neue Regel** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 4:43 pm

I am interested for Neue, I am not getting anything in the food chain.

Blue Wizard · Post by **Blue Wizard** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 9:04 pm

What is known about the dynamics of XP passup from your analysis. For exanple any idea of the weight ginve on formula for Loy and Lead skills vs swearing time (IG time as a patron-vassel relationship).

Am I correct that the only critera at the begining will be to pass up 100 millioln XP / Week to patron as shown on XP produced in the aliegence tab in game?

Wimp Lo · Post by **Wimp Lo** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 11:02 pm

I guess I am still not clear on what is meant by "Pass up".

Is that the % of xp I passed up based on my loyalty?

Or is it the % of xp my patron receives based on my loyalty and his/her leadership?

Wimp Lo

Wimp Lo · Post by **Wimp Lo** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 11:05 pm

Another question, just to clarify. Do you anticipate that there will be a lower output portion of the chain, say at 50 million passup at some point? Or some other number but something more easily achievable than the super high output portion of the chain will have?

Wimp Lo

Azma · Post by **Azma** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 11:32 pm

hello

i'm interrested too.

Wimp Lo · Post by **Wimp Lo** » Thu Mar 18, 2004 11:12 pm

Still looking for a couple of answers. Anyone?

Wimp Lo

kerosene · Post by **kerosene** » Thu Mar 18, 2004 11:27 pm

Wimp from my understanding "Pass Up" will be what you push to your patron listed under "Added xp" on the stats page.

As of lower output chains I believe that we will be revapming the OH and FC "qouta" in due time. So that we will have a Low, mid, and high output chains.

Oof · Post by **Oof** » Fri Mar 19, 2004 1:53 am

The following is a copy of something I just posted into the Casual Chain forum.

The Casual Chain will be a rank-only chain.

The Food Chain (6 million a week pass up quota, or roughly 15 million a week hunted, depending on loyalty/leader) will basically take the place of the old Casual Chain.

The Order of Hyssop quota will be raised to 20 million a week pass up quota, or roughly 50 million hunted (the same level of effort as was needed before the allegiance changes).

The new chain will have a 100 million a week pass up quota, or roughly 250 million a week hunted.

If it turns out that we need to add another chain or two to fill any gaps in the quota range we can do so.

Yes, Kerosene is right (of course

). Passup will be the added xp column. Passup will be affected by your patron's leadership skill; however, we based the passup on the absolute worst case scenario provided by Turbine, 25%. A 25% passup is supposedly what will be passed up if the vassal has no loyalty skill and the patron has no leadership skill. So, a higher patron leadership will help your patron get more xp from you, but it won't affect your ability to make quota.

Note that I listed new quotas for the OH and the new chain. Those new quotas HAVE NOT been implemented yet. The new quotas for the chains will go into effect when the new chain is startd, early next week. Also, please note that the new quota for the OH is really requires roughly the same amount of work as before. During our recent XP testing, it seems that a 40% passup is actually on the low side, so the new, higher, OH quota really isn't a change at all. More accurately, it is an adjustment of the quota to reflect the new xp changes.