Saturday shells please read

A

Alobont

Airship Passenger
Adventurer
Joined
Mar 12, 2006
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168
As it stands Saturdays are at maximum Capacity. While it would be lovely if every shell used the calendar there are 2-3 rogue shells that are running on saturdays not useing the calendar. My ls has already had to encounters with one of them ArmyofEwoks.

My personal opinion is that the scheduling is only going to get worse in the coming months to the level cap increase and as of right now, no word if dynamis will remained capped or instanced. As much as it is a Linkshell eat Linkshell world, and I know no one wants to, we should maybe look into doing joint runs for some of the more popular zones. I realise that doing this messes with everyones lotting and such but things are on the brink from collapse for saturdays.

I originally thought some shells would fold but and things would go back to some sense of normal but its not happening. Something needs to be done be it group runs, or linkshell merges. I realise no one probably wants to do the latter but if your shells like mine then your attendance is probably starting to drop off.

Its something to think about because as it stands now, Saturdays are about to get really ugly. If anyone is interested, I am open to doing joint runs for glacier or xarc. Anyone else have any thoughts on the matter?
 
Thats the problem with having a big server now.. and I could clearly see it coming when Midgardsormr merged. ArmyOfEwoks is a former ls of Midgardsormr... but I didn't recall them being rogues. Sadly, I do not want to let my linkshell go. I've had this ls for a very long time now ( 3 years ) and its one of the last thing I have remaing for my former server. Although, I will talk to my officers, and see if we would be open to another linkshell merging with us. We are hurting a bit for people, but I also blame that on summer and important holidays.
 
I run on Sunday Wednesdays, and Sunday nights are looking pretty bad as well. Zones at capacity for those that choose to schedule, and a few other shells that run that night choosing not to schedule. I have offered joint runs at almost every conflict or crossing because I can see it looming, like an oncoming train. Shells with 6-14 people are going to continue to pop up and disregard the Schedule. Scheduling shells are going to have to do without the zones they want or disregard the schedule themselves to get the gear they are after or face loosing membership because of the lack of needed zones. It will just devolve into a morass of fail.

You DONT have to merge shells, just share the zone for the night. It is not that big a deal, its just one run. You might enjoy it. I have made several offers but no one even wants to try... everyone just thinks that over-scheduling zones is going to help ... its not the scheduling shells that are taking your zones. It is very likely that other scheduling shells are having the same problems. Maybe the problem will get better when they introduce all the new content ... maybe it wont.

Sharing a zone for a night is a good stop gap. You don't have to merge, you don't have to sacrifice that much of your shell's identity. There are so many different ways it can be done. Certainly some way that meets both shells' needs can be agreed upon.
 
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Im not saying you have to merge, I understand no one really wants that. Something needs to be done though be it merges or more joint runs between shells.
 
zones

Yeah I know what your are saying Alobont. I have just talked to several people about sharing a zone and they all just get the Deer-In-Headlights look. Like if they share a run they are admitting to the world that they cant do it by themselves or are forfeiting their individuality or some such silliness that I can't understand.

The invitation to share a run is not to be understood: "You will be assimilated." It is a way for shells to come together as equals to both get what they want from Dynamis. If someone can help me understand what the problem is please, educate me.
 
THe main reason I can see why people wont share a run is because of the lots. People join a shell and use that point system which guarantees them a lot once the circumstances are met. Sometimes that means they are the only one lotting and sometimes that means they are allowed to lot with others. EIther way people want to compete for drops with the less amount of people. On top of that theres a large trust issue and the money issue involved.

Regardless, I am willing to do a joint runs, I think it would be fun to roll in a dynamis zone with 50+ people. While I realise my shell runs late, I can move the time up slightly if an earlier shell would meet me halfway on entry times.
 
OK, so I took the liberty of creating a spreadsheet for the Saturday runs. I originally did it for my old shell to help "put into pictures" what Saturdays looked like. Here it is:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=tFrlmiS3KCZwvGDMRX6QVBQ

As you can see, while there's a decent number of shells there, there's also a lot of white blocks. I think the biggest thing that would help is if existing shells could possibly adjust the timing of their runs into specific blocks.

For example, if the 7:00, 7:30 and 8:00 shells could all adjust to start at 8:30, then they wouldn't overlap with the 5:00 shells, and they would have more options. Alternately, if the 7:00 and 7:30 shells could adjust to 8:00, and the two 5:00 shells could start at 4:30 with Howitzer, that would accomplish the same thing.

Basically, it's the overlapping of the start times that is causing some of the issues. If all the early shells started at the same time, and then the second set started 3.5 hours later, you have more full 3.5-hour "blocks" available. And it wouldn't take much adjusting to pull this off. (I'm not counting Perseverance because they start so early, and xMutinyx would only need to dodge the later-entry shells.)

That said, regarding joint runs, I was actually considering asking Erebus and Dreams if they would consider it. I've been in both shells. Both are smaller shells, and I think they would work well together, especially on zones like Xarca. We'd just need to figure out a method for relic lotting that would give both shells a fair chance, but I think I could do that if they were both interested.
 
Really the best options for lotting relic on joint run, to me, is this.


Let each shells elligible members lot the drops. If one shell gets more then 2 of the same item a run then the third would go to the other shell.

100ccs could be lottle by the shell leaders trading off for everyone that drops. Then each shell can do what they will with the 100cc as some allow it to be lotted and some keep it for relic spsonsoring.
 
Actually, Lyall detailed a very good system that he used in his joint runs in this thread:

http://www.qcdn.org/ffxi/showthread.php?t=75029

I'm sure something similar could be done in the event that Dreams and Erebus wanted to try a joint run. Perhaps other shells would be willing to give it a try too.
 
Alobont said, "Issues: Trust, Money, Drops."

Yeah I see the concerns, but to me, aside from trust, these are just problems to be solved. And they are solvable in many different ways.

Trust: I think I would be willing to share with shells that have built a solid rep over time. Like a year+ of consistent successful runs. I have met several of the leads of these shells and most I regard well and respect.

Money: It helps if the shell you are going to share with is similarly skilled and of roughly the same size. If that is the case you can just even split currency at the end and share the cost going in. If there are large differences in numbers or skill level then you can make it YourKillYourDrop. Every time something dies and drops, it says, "You Find an ZYX on the ABC" if your group killed it, then your group lots it. Same with 100cc.

Gear: to me, the easiest way to do gear would just be to let each group do their own lotting the way they always do it and play by the YourKillYourDrop rule. There is an added advantage here because for every shell there are pieces of gear that are waste. gear deemed waste to the shell that dropped it could be given to the other shell for lotting.

There are other things you can do if your ways of lotting are similar. you could have the top person from each shell lot against each other (I dont really care for this idea because it may generate feelings of resentment between the two shells' members) then give the next desired drop to the shell who lost the previous lot, this time without a competing lot, so the gear balances. (the post referenced by Divinius above is cool and gives a good example of a working model^^)

You could also try to unify the two different priority systems for gear of each shell. I suppose this is doable but to me it seems like it would be a mess and could generate large problems.



Zones like Dynamis Xarcabard and Beaucedine seem especially well suited to this because there is so much to kill and plenty of space. They are also the zones in highest demand. Shareing one of these zones could decrease the demand considerably and give each shell the gear they want.

I think I would be less interested in sharing a zone like Sandy, Bastok or Jeuno because our shell alone can nearly, or completely empty those zones of vangaurd. I however would accept an invitation to share those zones as a low-stakes way to test a system of sharing between two shells (in preparation to share a higher-stakes zone like xarcabard).

anyway those are just some musings.
 
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Calendar

Just wanted to say that that is a nice calendar you made Divinius. It makes the time changes that you recommend very clear. Props for that.

~Mosh
 
Well the key now is to get the ball rolling on this. Kumori, perfect, and Invicuts I would like to offer you all an open invitation to start trying to some joint runs. I can move my shells time up some if you can push yours back a bit.
 
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