Introduction

The next Plagueis competition is just around the corner, with Ascending Confederacy kicking off on Monday (so, Sunday night at site reset for most folks). Additionally, a new XP rewards system has launched and a literal firehose of awards and promos have issued forth. Read on for details.

Plagueis Event: Ascending Confederacy

As mentioned above, Ascending Confederacy will open this Monday, February 6th. It will be a two week event featuring 17 competitions, 8 competitions in Week One and another 8 in Week Two along with a single, event long Fiction competition. In cooperation from our fiction lord Xen we are trying something new with the co-op fiction competition for this event, and I encourage everyone to go check that one out specifically once it goes live. Each week will run Monday-Sunday, with week one ending at site reset on the 12th and week two ending at site reset on the 19th.

Additionally, this competition will be pitting House Tyranus and House Ventress against one another to curry the favor of the Dread Throne. This marks our first competitive House Feud in quite some time, so make sure y'all are out there doing everything you can to secure bragging rights for your respective houses.

The scoring system for this event will, to anyone who has Pro Bowled or been involved in any other team vs team event in Plagueis going back many years, look familiar:

SCORING

Each individual will earn five points per event they participate in. Participation is defined as a valid submission for an event. Simply signing up for an event or uploading an unqualified submission will not count. You have to put in the effort in order to receive the reward. Participation will earn 5 points.

In addition to participation points, the top three individuals in each competition will earn placement modifier points. First place will earn 4 points, second place will earn 3 points, and third place will earn 2 points, and all other entries will earn 1 point. Events themselves will have placement point modifiers based on their perceived difficulty/level of effort required. For example: the modifier for fiction will be a factor of 3, the modifier for gaming/graphics/poetry will be a factor of 2, and the modifier for puzzle/trivia/flash events will be a factor of 1.

Grading formula: (Placement Score * Event Modifier) + Participation = Event Score

At the end of the competition, the individual scores for all three weeks will be added up, and the top three individuals will earn crescents for the overall competition. Ties on individual placement will be broken on total number of placements, followed by total firsts, total seconds, total thirds, and then total entries. Total scores for both teams will determine the victorious team.

XP and You: Would you like to know more?

The launch of the XP system has probably been the most significant change that the Brotherhood has seen in decades, probably going back to the exodus Both medals and promotional advancement will be working hand in hand with the XP numbers moving forward, so the sometimes Byzantine and always murky system will offer clarity not seen outside of Society ranks at any time before. There is a new auto-graded leadership course on Recognizing Members that goes over how rewards work under the new XP system which I, and the Headmaster, recommend that everyone sit down and have a go at simply because it's probably one of the best tools to see how the system works. Even if you're not the one filling out the recommendations, you all are the ones who get them. Learning how this new reality works is a huge help I think for everyone.

There are, however, a few points that I can highlight here on the new system. First and foremost is that medals and promotions have now fully been decoupled from one another. Getting promoted does not "reset" your progress towards earning your next medal, as the two tracks of recognition operate independently. You will always get medals for your work, so huzzah for that! This is what was responsible for the slew of medals that went out this week, members that had "unawarded" activity in the past that could be awarded a medal. Most of these are likely the result of folks falling victim to the "promotional reset" so to speak, as any XP from the period between your last promotion or medal that predated a following promotion was never awarded under the old system. The example being a member that was an EQ1 that completed 50 competitions and then was awarded a Grand Cross, but then they completed 50 more competitions and were promoted to EQ2. But, now everyone has been given those awards (and the credits that go with them!) so that they're going to have the same medal awarding credit as folks moving forward under the XP system. Those 50 competitions from the example above that never generated a medal award have now been awarded, in essence.

Additionally, medals are in effect "purchased" by activity you do as a member, with the summit doing the shopping. That activity is your tracked XP, so if you have earned 500 XP since your last medal, you have 500 XP for us to "spend" on your next medal. However, we can also "spend" XP you have not earned on the site yet in the form of your work doing leadership tasks, project work, and anything else the site cannot automatically "see" and quantify. That XP will be awarded to you along with the medal, serving as the mechanism by which a member is rewarded XP for their non-trackable work. In short, some of your medals might award a bit of extra XP to your lifetime total to cover that other work you've been doing, while others will not since they're being given to you based on activity you've already gotten XP for doing.

The last question I've seen popping up since all of this started is wondering about if "spending" XP on medals impacts your XP towards promotions. IE does spending 500 XP on an award make it so you're 500 XP farther away from your next promotion. The answer there is very much no. The easiest way to conceptualize the difference between your XP earned towards promotion and your Medal XP account used by the summit to purchase medals is to liken it to your credit spending account that can be displayed via the site admin. Let's use mine as an example:

The line graph on the right, "Incoming Credits Over Time", corresponds to the XP that is tracked for your promotion. In essence, the total that is used to determine your rank and promotions is your "Incoming XP Over Time". That number is just keeping track of every credit/XP point that you have earned. The graph on the left, "Spending Credit Balance Over Time" is your Medal XP that is available to "spend" on medals. In our credit system, spending credits on possessions out of the graph on the left doesn't reduce the credit number on the graph on the left. The XP system works much the same: spending XP on medals does not change the total number of XP you've earned in the Brotherhood, it just changes how much is available to be spent.

Hope that helps, and once again I recommend the new Recognizing Members course that just went live.

Brotherhood News

Here is the news

• Justicar Report #2: 2023 Term Applications - The one where Atra needs you!
• HM #4.1: Recognizing Members and Combat Writing - The one with courses we all need.
• XP Medals - The one with Dacien explaining the fire hose.
  
• HM #4: Essentials, Year in Review - The one with all the data.
• Regent Report #18 - The one where Zxyl has wares if your clan has coin.
  
• Combat Master Report #4 - New Guide Who Dis? - The one where Idris is your new ACC Sherpa.
  
• PulseFeed News Aggregator: Clan Updates #13 - The one where everybody talks about the accords.
  
• XP Driven Promotions: Medals in XP - The one with Evant explaining the numbers.

In Closing

Seismic changes to award mechanisms aside, Plagueis still finds itself carrying on as it always has. Competitions on the horizon, a new year stretching out before us, we've been here before. Even Nora who's just about to hit her one year anniversary! Everyone now can have a far better idea about what goes into advancement, and how attainable that advancement is for them. Now that we all know what's what, l challenge all of you to go out there and make the summit and I drown over notifications that folks are eligible for their next promotion or medal!

Adapt, Ascend, Avail, everyone!