The View From Down Here

Phat Purples #3: Fairer Systems

So far I’ve introduced simple loot systems, and basic DKP systems. We’ve seen that in a basic DKP system there’s nothing to stop people from hoarding their currency, and encourage people to spend their points instead, and even worse, there’s nothing to stop someone from taking a raid break during a period of difficult learning encounters and then come back and take all the loot for themselves after other people have worked out the strategies.

A basic way to do this is to introduce a decay to the system. Say every raid that each member of the guild is deducted 5% of their points. This is an intentionally low amount - enough that the raiders will see an increase in their points from raid to raid, but not so much that if someone stops turning up to raids they see a reduction. A good mantra for this is “Effort put in this week is always more valuable than effort put in last week”. Once it is clear in raiders’ minds that they aren’t being punished (deductions for, say, not turning up to raids are on the top of this decay, and reservists still get their points for being available), then most people are happy with this idea.

However, there is a problem here. And it’s this: While everyone pays the same proportion of their points in the decay, the decay is a much greater chunk of purchasing power for those people who have 1000 points than it is for those with 10. It’s necessary to balance this somehow.

Enter systems like EPGP.

EPGP, unlike most DKP systems, has two numbers. One - Effort Points - is the conventional DKP number - points are granted for downing bosses, turning up to raids, etc, etc. The other number - Gear Points - is a score based on the amount of gear that that raider has acquired in raids (nowhere else, just from boss kills, and the occasional trash epic).

Gear scores are determined by the item level of the item and its use (so a relic is much less valuable than a breastplate) and are fixed. By dividing the Effort Points a member has accrued by their Gear Points, a number, the Priority, is reached (the EPGP addon will do all this for you, in addition to assigning gear points for loot, effort points for turning up, etc). The person whose Priority is highest and who is interested in the item, is awarded it, along with the relevant number of Gear Points, which serve to reduce his priority. As he gains more effort points, his priority rises again. Think of it like Suicide Kings on steroids.

In this system, it is important to impose a decay. Both effort points and gear points are reduced by the same proportion each week. This means that purchasing power remains constant rather than being reduced. The one exception to this is to add a limit for effort points below which a player may not take loot that another player wants. This should ideally take no more than 2 or 3 raids to exceed. If a decay is not implemented, then a raider’s purchasing power declines over time. An increase in 10 Effort points is a lot more for someone starting with 100 than starting with 1000.

Of course, it could be that the item is an off spec item. Gear points should never be assigned for off spec items, and a different method of paying for them should be established. Within The Hidden Circle, a contribution toward the guild’s enchanting materials (currently this is 2 [Large Prismatic Shard]) is requested instead. These materials are then used to enchant raiding gear for any member that asks for them, free of charge. Similarly unwanted loot and green trash drops are disenchanted and added to this pile.

Of course, EPGP isn’t the only system that tries to keep distribution fair, but it’s the fairest I’ve come across yet.