Largish report. I've broken it into two parts, the second half is coming this weekend. This report contains information on SWTOR Guild, JA, a Projects Update, and results from finished Gaming Competitions. Next report (coming this weekend) will contain details on Star Conflict, other (non-CF supported) DB Gaming Platforms and Guilds/Clans you can join in them, as well as April's Gaming Competitions.
Changing the CFs for Non-Guilded Members Policy is something that we've tossed around in the Fist Office for a while.
My understanding is that this rule was initially put in place as a way to drive recruitment from TOR. During the first few months that worked, to a degree, as the Guild was completing server firsts, and running Nightmare Mode Operations regularly. However, the Dark Jedi Brotherhood Club is a varied group of members with many different interests and over time the group has shifted to a less intense raiding mindset.
Some members desire to push forward in TOR and run the most challenging end game content, others take a more casual approach and are only interested in Story Modes, and some just want to run the occasional Flashpoint and level characters seeing the different storylines. Supporting Operations within the DJB TOR Guild is challenging, even before factoring in the different styles of Operations that people want. By relaxing the requirement to be in the Guild to earn CFs we can still reward members playing a game they enjoy, in the manner that they find the most fulfilling.
The creation of Diablo 3 and Destiny Clans focused more on facilitating members grouping together than driving recruitment to the Club, with no Clan membership requirements to earn CFs. This allowed members who wanted to go to a hardcore Clan that opportunity, while still enabling easy communication between DJB members who remained within the Club's sponsored Clan. Overall this seems more conducive to we feel how gaming should be within the Club.
So effective today, no more requirements to be in the DJB Guild to earn CFs in TOR. We will add one new requirement though:
This is the same requirement that exists for Diablo 3 (Battle.net ID) and Destiny (PSN or Xbox ID). We will continue to support Operations within the TOR Guild. I also highly recommend that you make use of the in game Brotherhood channel (which doesn't require Guild membership), Teamspeak, and IRC to communicate with other members while playing.
I can also say that for as long as I'm Fist, I have no intention of adding another platform with a rule in place requiring membership in a specific Guild or Clan to earn rewards. I hope TOR players find this change enhances their gaming experience.
A few changes to JA Servers this month and a quick note. If you are going to buy / host a JA server be sure you know how and are willing to pull server logs. This is something that the Dark Council may request at times. If, after a reasonable amount of time, logs can't be provided or we aren't getting a response to a request I will remove your server from the official list until the logs can be made available. No hard feelings, its just information we need access to.
Official Club Servers Added:
Other Member Owned Server List Changes:
The Gaming Servers Wiki page has already been updated to reflect these changes.
This past week the GM, DGM, P:Fist and I engaged some long standing members of the club who are avid JA players in discussions on Swaying and if it truly belongs as part of the ROC. The intent of those conversations was to get an initial burst of data before opening this up as a public discussion.
We've talked on the news page before about what Swaying is, if people know how to recognize it, and if its even something that could be proved. Members who are more hard core competitive JA players have insisted that swaying is a mouse movement technique and not really any different than strafing or side stepping when it comes down to gameplay.
So I'm opening a Forum Thread for this particular discussion. Something I think that everyone who comments on that thread should read, before writing their comment, is this link to JK Hub and Mouse Movement Techniques (which I stole out of a DB Gaming Log where Artorias linked it when explaining about swaying).
Please hop on over to the Forums and discuss your thoughts on this topic. While the end result will most likely not make everyone happy (when does that ever happen?) I can promise that the discussion will impact the ROC.
Check out the Discourse Thread Here
As mentioned in Ernordeth's News Post earlier this week, I've dropped the Daily Cap for Diablo 3 CFs to 20 per day from 30. If we can find a better way to even rewards I'm all for it, but this will help to keep things from getting out of hand until we do, or in case we never find it. I'm open to any ideas folks have.
The topic recently came up around a more PVE based Gorefest. I'm certainly open to this, and am leaning towards a competition strictly tied to PVE submissions with grading based on Clusters of Fire earned through that weekend. I'm inclined to drop the double CF reward from the PVE version, but leave it in place for PVP. Nothing is in stone yet.
Obviously we'll come up with a cooler name than PVE Gorefest. Pixeldestructionfest? Shooting for this to be ready to be live in May.
Coding is underway for improved Dbb0t. As all of his systems come online I have a change to the way Gaming Night PoBs will work until he is fully operational.
We have focused around clarifying and providing examples around the Unsportsmanlike Conduct section of the ROC to accomplish this project. As the CoJ's case load is atypically high this project is taking a bit of a back seat until things calm a bit. More updates to follow in the coming weeks.
Nothing new here since the last report. We will still be registering a specific channel for GJW / Vendetta Gaming and challenges. ROC updates will be made to reflect this once we have an established channel.
Total PVE Activities Reviewed and Approved by Fist Staff: 279
Total PVP Activities Reviewed and Approved by Fist Staff: 150
Reminder from my last report. As of 22Mar2015 Alien vs Predator and Path of Exile are on the Near Retirement chopping block. If there are no matches played on either of them within the next month they will be retired.
Coming in Part 2 of this report this weekend!
There are two Gorefests in April (for March and April). Dates are as follows:
Starting 22Mar2015 the Weekly PoB has been awarded for matches from Sunday to Friday. A second PoB will be awarded for Saturday matches, consider this a "Gaming Day". Time will be based on GMT just like competitions, so Friday at 7pm EST the "Gaming Day" will begin and conclude at 7pm EST Saturday. Following completion of the Gaming Nights project this may change back to a Sunday-Saturday one per week reward. The wiki has not been updated with this new schedule for that reason.
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Great report Val
Kicking myself Val... I forgot to get my screenshots for the last Galactic Defense event and it got cleared :( I might have knocked you out :P
Great report. I'm very glad to see if the CF change in TOR. I know that will help.
lol Zoron, if you had submitted you would have kicked me out. If there's more than 3 submissions then no Crescent for Val. That's just how I roll.
You don't have to be in the guild anymore to get CFs, but what about PoBs? I'm told you get a PoB for the first time an op is cleared by an all-DJB group, which hasn't happened yet for DF, DP, Ravagers, or Temple of Sacrifice. A couple weeks ago, we had an all-DJB group get to the final boss of one of the Dread ops (I still don't know which is which), but then Oberst had to leave. Oberst wasn't in the guild, though, so it sounded like it wouldn't have been valid. Does that change now, or is it still the same?
From what I discussed with Val, PoBs will follow suit simply that the Guild membership is not required. Assuming all 8/16 members are DB members (not necessarily DB Guild members), the group will recieve PoBs for completing the operation. So if DF, DP, Rav, or ToS is completed in such a manner for the first time, PoBs for all. This is to say that if that particular group had finished after this news post, all 8 members would have earned PoBs despite alternative guild affiliations.
good report
great report and i love the changes.
So am I reading that correctly that as long as a person's ToR character is listed on their dosier they no longer need to have another DB member with them to get CF's for ToR activity? Just a little bit confused hoping someone can clarify for me.
No you still have to have 2 or more DJB members listed on the activity, they just don't have to be members of the DJB TOR guild anymore. The characters you use will have to be listed on your dossier as well if you want to get credit.
^ That
Does Monty get all of the crescents for D3 nonseasonal greater rifts ladder? :P
Lol. Nope, just the highest one he qualified for. :p
Excellent report, Val.
may have to re-evaluate TOR now
Well then, let's get on them there raids! Papa needs some new PoBs!