Originally Posted by Grieg

I've managed systems like this, and its not hard. It just takes a little bit of time. Use Excel (or OpenOffice) to track it, have a way to publish the results (export data to html) and let the players go nuts looking at their awesome point totals.

That being said, AOC may not even need a DKP system. Having a simple need-before-greed rule set, or highest random roll wins type of rules have worked exceedingly well for my WoW guild. Since there are no points to track, and participation alone ensures you'll get something for your efforts, it leaves us to focus on having fun.

Infact, here are our loot rules in their enterity:
(Seeded rolls are done to make sure that /random hacks or the slightly flawed /random system is given an extra layer of randomness.)


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I think the question is: How big is the TG guild going to get in AoC? If we're going to be under 100 members, I don't think anything beyond a basic tracker or rule-set would be needed. If we're over 100... say, into a 300 person headcount, then a robust tracking system is a must.

I'm a big proponent of need/greed over DKP. Need/Greed breeds good teamplay values if communication is good. Even moreso with need/greed though, you still need to track loot or else you cant oversee what people are doing.

The benefit with a mod and 3rd party prog. though, is it runs by itself and the human element isnt necessary. If Jo-blow isnt around to track toons/loot then you're not up shyt's creek. You just need someone watching the dkp site.

Not to mention, it'll track people's progress in other things besides raids. AoC has a pretty hefty amount of features... it's not like endgame raids are the only thing. Being able to easily track all this stuff is a great bonus IMO. (pvp, arena, brawls, sieges, crafting, loot, gear, money, pvp "Hitlists", etc.)

Later on, it's especially useful to be able to get a snapshot of comrades to effect strategy and policy. I used to browse our WoW site before any action (raids especially) to get an idea of what my teamates would bring to the table... I'd then take that info. and we'd discuss how we wanted to handle things. It was especially useful because we need/greeded much of our stuff within the class anyways, so having it sorted out ahead of time was a super bonus and a time-saver.

For a game like AoC (especially if we're PvP) where the stakes can be pretty high... it's a necessary tool for sure and could only make us more deadly.