Community Support for Documentation and Configuration files

[Falkor]

I have been going nuts the past couple weeks figuring out how to setup a DKP system for our guild. I have no help and am trying to learn from the different forums regarding the matter. As I look on these forums trying to learn how to setup DKPLP I am having a hard time finding simple definitions of fields or basic walk through for the setup and configuration.

Now I understand that this is both put together by the good graces of someones spare time and then supported by the community of people using it.

What I would like to see is more description of specific fields and how they work. And another thing that may be even more helpful is for people to post their configuration files and then list the loot rules that they support. If we were to have a selection of pre-fabricated configuration files and a set of rules that they support then noobs like me would just give in and grab one that best suits.

I would be willing to help... just keep in mind that I am a complete noob at this point so not sure what help I could be.

And please don't flame... this is intended to be constructive... and I do sincerely appreciate the hard work put forth which is why I labeled the thread Community Support...

[Lokorin]

[Falkor]

Good deal... I will start with my situation and as we get to know each other I will compose a list of questions as well as some kind of framework or other suggestions... let's see if we can work together to produce something a tad better than what we got... I am about as new as it gets

[Falkor]

yeah... sometimes I just get started on stuff... here's some jibber jabber I put together real quick off the top of my head... if it makes any sense let's put our heads together and see how we can refine it to something productive for the general population.

First I would like to talk briefly about my journey in learning about the different DKP systems and how to simply compose a fully operational set of rules and the mechanics to track and enforce those rules. From doing some simple google searches for DKP I was able to read up on several different DKP Models, this was rather easy. I then ran some searches for DKP systems to try and find an application that would do a few different things for us.

Stability – any system as important as this absolutely has to be stable
Availability – we are a team of many individuals and everyone will want to have the ability to keep tabs on their DKP standing and to help double check for accuracy
Automation – by utilizing the available tools we hope to help automate some of the tedious elements involved with maintaining a DKP system
Simplicity – once setup and a routine established instruction on what to do and how to do it should be relatively easy

Now to comment on each of these areas and why I have chosen to go the way I have to this point.

Stability – eqDKP is a system that has been around for a long time and is still under going active development and support. eqDKP support and hosting options are many… support for the product in a stand alone environment is available… if wanted eqDKP can be a paid for service from several different hosting companies (that alone should say something about its stability)Other systems I have found fail in one or more of these areas.
Availability – by hosting this system on a web site you have the ability to grant access to others to see on their own time what their DKP standing is
Automation – through the use of ctRaidTracker to track the activity of our raids during the raid (who’s there, what loot who got, and how long did things go)… then combine that with a DKP Log Parser to help shape up this data before uploading to eqDKP and we’ve just rounded out some nice automation… back that up with DKP Matrix and we now even have the ability to view DKP standings while in game, and share those with the raid group to boot…
Simplicity – comes from the proper and complete implementation of all these element.

Now I will talk about my journey with each element as I tried to tie them all together.

eqDKP
Installation of eqDKP on the web server was extremely easy and straight forward.
Configuration has proven challenging for me as I did not find any simple walkthrough that has lead me to an end result. Now some of this is due to the fact that I plan on implementing several applications to support this solution and I am still learning the other applications. I have found some walkthrough documentation to add members, events, raids and the like however I am thinking that much of this can be done with the logs that I will upload… that has yet to be seen though.


ctRaidTracker
This is a WoW addon and is installed just as any other addon. This addon can be pulled up by using a slash command /rt and the options for it by /rt o which will give you what you need. I have found that it is necessary to set the Export format to EQdkp Unknown in order for the log to parse in Lokorin’s DKP Log Parser. Other than that I have left everything else alone.


Lokorin’s DKP Log Parser
Now for me this is where the rubber meets the road… this is what makes the tracking of DKP simple… however I am having challenges understanding just how everything works so I will list some outstanding questions that would help.

Clearly define default supported DKP systems. While after reading on your forums as well as a few others I have learned a great deal it would help to have a more descriptive document up front. From what I see it looks that there are only a couple systems directly supported. Then for the more knowledgeable there can be some customizations done to suit many needs beyond that (I like that…  )

Configuration was really overwhelming to me. Simply understanding each field and how it impacts the DKP I have still not found any documentation for.

As a suggestion that may help others… produce a set of DKP rules along with the configuration files for import… people could check out the package as a whole and download it… import it and apply it… this can be further supported by other users posting their complete DKP packages… a write up of DKP rules and the configuration files to support them…


DKP Matrix
This application has been very easy to setup and point to my eqDKP installation I think it was done and tested within 5 minutes. This gives the entire raid the ability to sync DKP data with the DKP leader while in game. Just a really nice touch to a completed system.

[Lokorin]

[Falkor]

I for one will put together a package once I get it up and running to help contribute. Maybe we'll have others follow suit and help contribute.

Thanks again and we really appreciate all the help