The PQ Raid Signup System
Because each player in the guild has up to three CSCs, PQ's raid system is absolutely unique.
Consider the raid system as a blackbox system that attempts to be equally fair toward every player. It does not matter if you have one CSC or three, the amount of raid time that player receives should be the same.
The players are chosen by hand, but the amount of raid time their CSCs have accrued is displayed. Players and characters are excluded based on the achievements of a character and a mail is sent to the registered address of that player.
Fundamental Differences
| Other raids | PQ raids |
|---|---|
| A potential raid is put onto the calendar and players are invited to sign up for it. The composition of the raid is decided at invite time. Players are not informed at all, and must find out themselves who may be going. | The characters who will eventually take part in the raid are decided at the time of raid creation (when it's put up on the calendar). Players are then immediately informed by e-mail. |
| Most raid systems require you to declare that you wish to take part in a raid. | PQ's raiding system allows you to specify ahead of time (as far ahead as you wish) particular nights when you will not be available. You will never be assigned to a raid on one of these nights. |
Quirks
- Because not all CSCs will be equally geared and attuned, the system needs to know which ones to exclude when determining potential raid groups. For this reason, each CSC has an associated set of achievements which are matched against the raid's requirements.
- For example, a level 71 Death Knight still being levelled up would be entirely unsuitable for a level 80 raid. The system knows this because it knows each character's level.
- A level 80 CSC not attuned to Ulduar would automatically be discounted for an Ulduar raid because the system is aware of that character's attunements.
- A CSC who hasn't killed certain bosses in a previous raid might be discounted for a later raid. The system knows how far through the content each CSC is.
- As described here, these achievements take the form of Levels, Attunements and Boss Kills.
Caveats
- Failing to maintain up-to-date information on your unavailability and a current email address will cause you to lose out on raids and cause extra hassle for everyone else.
Using PQ Raid
PQ Raid is the name given to the group of tools (in the form of a dokuwiki plugin) that's used here. More detailed information about the plugin itself may be found on http://www.pesartain.com/projects/pqraid.
There are two primary views for a player, and a further two for a raid organiser.
Calendar View
- A week number, with the epoch (week 0) being the release of Wrath - 13th November 2008
- The date
- A posted raid
- Add new raid (admin only)
- Availability bar
- Your availability (ticked for available, this is default)
The availability bar has 10 slots, which fill according to the availability information provided. These 10 slots are per-player, not per CSC, and do not guarantee a balanced raid.
If less than 10 people are available: the available slots are displayed as green, while the remaining slots are displayed as unavailable (red) where applicable, or show nothing if there are less than 10 players with valid CSCs.
CSC Editor View
- Character name
- The role of this character
- Status bar
The status bar is something of a common feature in PQ Raid and is used as a visual aid while saving information. There are (currently) no “Save” buttons because data is saved when the countdown (look at the status bar) is finished.