My Linkshell Management System

[Reshasha]

When I played Final Fantasy XI a lot more than I do now, I decided to start building a system run via PHP and MySQL for helping linkshell leaders manage their linkshells. For most linkshells I've seen, this would help organize their linkshell to ensure everything's not only done correctly, but keep records of every action made. Gil, items, events, schedules, member info, guides, ToDs, applications, etc..

It is my goal to make a system that any linkshell can use if they want; made it available to any linkshell. The link below takes you to the main directory. You may use the following information to login.

http://xinnyburt.com/lsms/index.php
User: Testuser
Pass: qwerty

This account does not have administration access anymore as I'm working on the site again. Feel free to continue using that account or create your own. Hopefully it's worthwhile. =P

Let me know what you guys think though.

Note: This site was built for Firefox and does not really look too appealing on Internet Explorer. Stupid browser doesn't understand how to work with css. Never got around to making it work for both. =D

[Mysterio]

interesting, but point systems are notorious for:




http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...ujata/FAIL.jpg

[Reshasha]

Not necessarily. They're just very particular to the way they're ran. The way my linkshell does it is nearly perfect. In the several months I've been with them, I've never once heard a complaint about someone not liking how the system works.

However, I'm curious as to how your linkshells are run. I'm so used to point systems that I don't know any alternatives. I would find it completely unfair to just give stuff to whoever you think deserves it. I know of a linkshell that randoms every single drop, jobs permitting. Even that's not fair as it's never going to guarantee someone who's never missed one event a drop.

I'll always prefer a point system.

[Mysterio]

Not necessarily. They're just very particular to the way they're ran. The way my linkshell does it is nearly perfect. In the several months I've been with them, I've never once heard a complaint about someone not liking how the system works.

However, I'm curious as to how your linkshells are run. I'm so used to point systems that I don't know any alternatives. I would find it completely unfair to just give stuff to whoever you think deserves it. I know of a linkshell that randoms every single drop, jobs permitting. Even that's not fair as it's never going to guarantee someone who's never missed one event a drop.

I'll always prefer a point system.

fromt he looks of it your system points it in the right direction, we just here so much of corruption, and not enough about successes that it seems entirely unbalanced.

And Drama sells magazines, success stories not so much, lol

or in our case, Drama produces more entertaining threads, successes not so much so lol

[Reshasha]

Haha. Our point system just seems really average, I guess. You get points for attending certain events; bonus points for gathering early, etc..

This doesn't reflect my linkshell's point system, but how I'd like it.

For Dynamis, you should get 1 point for attending 75% or more of a run. You should get .05 points on top of that if you gathered early to organize, and as long as you attended the entire run. If you attended between 50% and 75%, you would receive .5 points. When you want an item, you would then spend these points as per the situation. If you are the only person who needs the drop, you would forfeit half your points. If you had the most points, and there were people under you who need the item, you would forfeit all points. Blah blah: more can be played off that.

For HNMs, you would use an hour-based system. As we all know, it's hard to claim HNMs all of the time. It's hard to actually get ahold of some items. That in mind, you would require that a member have so many hours into the linkshell before they're able to get certain items. For every hour you spend at a linkshell event, you would receive one point. Let's say an mbody abj was worth 200 points. You would need to attend 200 hours worth of linkshell hours in order to obtain this item. Anyone who needs this item and has the most hours would have priority. The point system comes into play here as if they're getting other drops, their points would be used up and they'd need to require more linkshell hours.

Blah blah blah. My linkshell has been around since day one of Final Fantasy XI. We've got members who have actually attended well over 2000 hours worth of linkshell events. We can use a system like this because the linkshell has been around so long.

This is how my linkshell sort of does it, and it's how I feel I'd push a point system. I'm done writing though. =D

[Credos]

Not necessarily. They're just very particular to the way they're ran. The way my linkshell does it is nearly perfect. In the several months I've been with them, I've never once heard a complaint about someone not liking how the system works.

However, I'm curious as to how your linkshells are run. I'm so used to point systems that I don't know any alternatives. I would find it completely unfair to just give stuff to whoever you think deserves it. I know of a linkshell that randoms every single drop, jobs permitting. Even that's not fair as it's never going to guarantee someone who's never missed one event a drop.

I'll always prefer a point system.

The thing that a lot of people don't take into consideration with points systems is that whoever has the most points is more often than not the person who deserves the item. I've ran a LS for two years now with a points system, and I've yet to come across a situation where there was an issue with giving an item to the person who had the most points. Of course its more involved than just whoever has the most points gets the item, but it works well.

[Reshasha]

The thing that a lot of people don't take into consideration with points systems is that whoever has the most points is more often than not the person who deserves the item. I've ran a LS for two years now with a points system, and I've yet to come across a situation where there was an issue with giving an item to the person who had the most points. Of course its more involved than just whoever has the most points gets the item, but it works well.

I agree with that. It's very important to reward your members who put the most time into getting your linkshell what it needs. However, effort does play a huge role in linkshells. You could have people attend every single event, and never do a damn thing that helps the linkshell. I still think these people should be rewarded, but their effort is definitely something that can't be overlooked.

[Mysterio]

FFXI is anything but a Utopia, these are all feasable plans.

And so much bookkeeping involved to keeping all of the data, no wonder peoples careers and social lives are being ruined.

fulltime job raiding/playing, fulltime job doing the bookwork in Excel or Access, lol

[Reshasha]

Heh. Yeah. Our excel spreadsheets are so umm... can't think of a word. Really big. Really advanced. Really informative. There's information in those things for every single thing we do.

We have people take time and attendance throughout an entire event. These are kept track of. Hours. We get paid in our linkshell. It's a lot to deal with really. Glad I'm not an officer.

[Credos]

FFXI is anything but a Utopia, these are all feasable plans.

And so much bookkeeping involved to keeping all of the data, no wonder peoples careers and social lives are being ruined.

fulltime job raiding/playing, fulltime job doing the bookwork in Excel or Access, lol

Just like in the corporate world, delegation is key.

The way that I have it set up in my LS is that I have officers record attendance and items gained. I copy and paste into a DKP table, and less than a minute later the database is updated.

[Jeryhn]

http://swg.stratics.com/content/lore...mages/yoda.gif

Begun, the Point System Wars have.

[Beckwin]

dkp rocks. really easy to do attendance and easily review points.

[Kooldac]

Damn that's a real shame you couldn't finish that.

[Mysterio]

http://swg.stratics.com/content/lore...mages/yoda.gif

Begun, the Point System Wars have.

thats full of Win sir.

[Reshasha]

Damn that's a real shame you couldn't finish that.

I dunno. I've got a couple people from my linkshell asking me to now. Haha. It's just a lot of work for the little time I have available. Considering that it's not too difficult to actually build, there's a lot that I'm actually putting in it. I figured I may as well go all out and put something for everything in it. =P

It's a fun project though. I guess if I do continue to work on it, it'd just take a really long time. That's kind of why I pointed out that other MMORPGs are coming out too. I know that I'm really interested in playing Vanguard. >_>

[Linliel]

Do you have any plans to release the code so others can play with/finish it? ^^ As a PHP programmer I'm quite interested in what you've done, and whether my somewhat crazy dynamis recordkeeping code could be added to it (especially since I'm not much of a CSS designer at all, heh).

Forgive me if you've posted this info and I've just missed it, it's late and I'm a bit tired ^^;

[SassiAsura]

A point system does penalize a person which may not have as much play time as another into getting items he may deserve just as much.

Some people spend almost every waking moment in the game, leveling shit... they may be able to lot/equip the item but that's mostly cause they have 8+ jobs 75 from all their play time. Whereas the dedicated Pld, who's always participating at events whenever he's on. Just can't seem to ever lot on crucial gear he deserves simply because he doesn't have as many points as the other guy. Who probably will attend events as jobs that the LS would utilize more such as a Blm, or a support class. Most LS don't opt for having a handful of tanks and melee at events cause there's almost no need for that in this game.

edit: nice project though, pretty slick.

[Lordwafik]

A point system does penalize a person which may not have as much play time as another into getting items he may deserve just as much

How does person B deserve an item equally as person A, when person B hasn't put in as much effort?

Nice guy or not, person B shouldn't get item over person A, even if person A is a haijin, because simply they put the work into it and deserved it.

That's what a point system is, work towards your points, if person B didn't put as much work in it, he doesnt deserve it.

re : OP, if you were to finish that thing off, i'd use it for my own LS dynamis.

[Norelco]

I'm in a point system LS and it's pretty hard to argue with who gets a drop unless...

There are no filters on certain pieces set up.

For example, it doesn't make sense for a level 50 Paladin who has 300 points to lot a defending ring over a 75 Paladin with maybe 200 points. Or stuff like that. That's where I can see resentment creeping in to a point system. It's also impossible for a linkshell leader to come up with rules that will cover every possible scenario, so at that point he'll have to ultimately use his discretion. However, I think the points are generally a good guideline.

I honestly don't see how you can argue against a point system in that regard. People will always want more for doing less. Being nice but not helping out most times shouldn't get you a piece of gear over a person who may be a dick but breaks his back for the LS.

[SassiAsura]

B person logs on, attends event, goes to sleep.
A person is on all the time and through this has accumulated more points via point system.

B person has dedicated all his online time helping the LS.
A person dedicates most of his online time to the LS.

B person has 1-2 jobs for argument's sake Pld and some other meaningless job.
A person has a lot of jobs too many and at this point collects the high demand items.

B person can't ever seem to get enough points to lot over A person yet A person seeks the same items for a job he rarely uses for the LS.


Point or no Point, there's always conflict. But sometimes some people respect other folks enough and act fair. ;P

edit: just to be clear I'm not saying this because it's happened in my ls in the past either.