Advisor Guide
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Introduction

The Guild Advisor is a report which enables players to view various ways in which each player contributes to the guild. The Guild Advisor is enabled by via both a guild upgrade (costing 75 fsp) and permissions assigned to your rank.

If you have permission to read the Guild Advisor, it is important to realize that the numbers are not always what they seem. The discussions below will help you understand what you are seeing when you are examining each number.

It’s Not the Whole Story

Whenever you read a page of numbers, it’s easy to fixate on the numbers and conclude that the higher the number, the better the player. The Advisor gives several indications of contribution to the guild, but it isn’t the whole story. There are many ways to contribute to the guild which will not be visible in the Advisor (helping and mentoring others, organizing things, help notes and wiki entries, role play, participation in military actions, etc.) and these numbers only indicate a few areas.

If you feel what the Advisor shows highlights a concern about another player’s participation or an opportunity to extend kudos, be aware that only senior guild leadership should address such things with individual guild members. You’re welcome to message leadership regarding anything you observe.

Basic Features

The Guild Advisor has a number of columns. The title can be clicked to sort on that column, up or down. The Advisor also has a combo box which enables you to select either an overall total or the last few days to see recent activity.

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Generalities

There are a number of things to consider when reading the Advisor. These include:

  • What level is the player? A higher level player will earn dramatically more gold and xp when they hunt, and their xp and gold contributions will be larger.
  • How long has the player been in the guild? The numbers on the advisor only counts contributions to the guild (ie. while that player is a member of the guild.) High level players that joined the guild recently will have small numbers.
  • Is the person in leadership? The guild leaders often make contributions to the guild on behalf of many players sending their contributions in (gold and fsp). Since FSP contributions to the guild cannot be withdrawn from the guild and can only spent on guild upgrades (not gear), FSP contributions should never be made directly to the guild bank directly, but made via a leader (currently Extrastout).
  • What is the person’s playing style? If a person is an SE Hunter or Elite Farmer, they will typically have more groups created than most. Some higher levels farm elites without groups, since they can solo these critters. As well, players who buy 1% of level upgrades will not contribute XP to the guild nor gold via tax.
  • How much time do they spend in-game? If a person comes into the game to hunt, and then leaves shortly after, they aren’t about in chat so much to respond to buff requests, nor in game to join groups as they come and go.

The Numbers

We'll look at each of the columns in turn, describe what it represents, and explore why some people's numbers may be higher or lower.

Gold From Deposits

The Gold From Deposits column indicates the amount of gold that member has deposited directly into the guild bank. It does not count contributions made by the member that were sent by a leader.

Why the number might be large:

  • The person prefers to make their contribution directly to the guild bank, rather than sending it to a leader.
  • The person is a leader, making contributions on behalf of the guild.

Why the number might be small:

  • The person is sending their contributions to the guild via a leader.
  • The person hasn’t been in the guild very long.
  • Players who do not donate are regularly kicked, so anyone in the guild IS donating.

Gold From Tax

The Gold From Tax column indicates the amount of gold that member has contributed via the tax on their gold earned while hunting.

Why the number might be large:

  • The person is high level – the gold earned is higher as your level increases.
  • The person is an active hunter who levels regularly.

Why the number might be small:

  • The person may have a playing style that does not emphasize leveling. (ie. Questing, farming, SE hunting or bounty hunting).
  • The person levels using the buy 1% of level upgrade. This does not contribute gold via tax.
  • The person hasn’t been in the guild very long.
  • The person is less active than most.

Gold Total

This is simply a total of the previous two columns.

FSPs

The FSPs number indicates the amount of fsp the player has deposited directly into the guild bank.

Why the number might be large:

  • The person is a guild leader, making donations on behalf of the guild as a whole.
  • The person made the fsp contributions prior to the guild asking that fsp contributions not be made directly to the guild bank.
  • The person was unaware that fsp contributions should be made to a leader, not the guild bank.

Why the number might be small:

  • The person is not a leader, and has made such contributions as they have via a leader.
  • In line with guild policy, the person hasn’t donated fsp directly to the guild bank.

Skills Cast

The Skills Cast column indicates the number of buffs that person has cast on guild mates.

Why the number might be large:

  • The person is in guild chat a great deal and responds to buff requests from guild mates.
  • The person may habitually over-buff other people’s buffs.
  • The person may cast un-requested buffs on guild mates to burn stamina.

Why the number might be small:

  • The person is not in-game a great deal, and responds to buff requests when they are.
  • The person tends to buy most of their own buffs, rather than get buffs from guild mates, and so chooses not to give buffs since they are not receiving them.
  • The person has not been in the guild a long time.
  • The person is low level, and they don’t have many buffs.
  • The person is un-responsive to requests from guild mates to buff them.

Groups Created

The Groups Created column indicates how many groups have been formed by the person.

Why the number might be large:

  • The person’s playing style lends itself to group creation (i.e. SE hunting, farming and relic capture).
  • The person regularly creates groups they don’t use.

Why the number might be small:

  • The person’s playing style emphasizes activities that don’t require groups (ie. leveling and questing).
  • The person is high level, and solos the creatures they farm.
  • The person hasn’t been in the guild very long.

Groups Joined

The Groups Joined column indicates the number of groups the person has joined to support the efforts of guild mates.

Why the number might be large:

  • The person is often in-game and watches the ‘new group’ notification to immediately join groups.
  • The person uses the ‘join all groups’ button.
  • The person is high-level and able to join a greater number of groups with join restrictions.

Why the number might be small:

  • The person is not in-game often and are not around to join groups as they come and go.
  • The person is low level, and can’t join many groups with higher level join restrictions.
  • The person hasn’t been in the guild very long.
  • The person doesn’t regularly join groups when they are available.

Relics Captured

The Relics Captured number indicates the number of relics the person has successfully captured.

Why the number might be large:

  • The person’s style of play includes a focus on relic capture.
  • The person regularly attempts to take a relic if there is one in the area.

Why the number might be small:

  • The person is unsure of how or why to take a relic.
  • The person hasn’t been in the guild very long.

XP Contrib

The XP Contrib number indicates the amount of xp the person has contributed to the guild’s xp, which determines the guild’s level and standing in the Top Guilds list.
One thing to note about this number – it’s total is not the same as the total XP on the guild management page. This is because a guild xp lock is in effect, so that when people leave the guild, not all the xp from that player drops completely (though it does negatively affect the guild’s ability to gain xp for awhile).
Thus, players who have left and returned have contributed xp to the guild locked value and their xp gain contribution from all times they have been a member appears in the Advisor.

Why the number might be large:

  • The person is high level – higher level players get more xp when they hunt.
  • The person has been in the guild a long time.
  • The person has a style of play that focuses on rapid leveling and xp gain.

Why the number might be small:

  • The person is low level.
  • The person has not been in the guild for very long.
  • The person has a style of play (e.g. SE hunting, questing, relic capturing) that does not focus on rapid xp gain.
  • The person levels using the buy 1% of level upgrade. This does not contribute xp to the guild.
  • Hourly xp gain does contribute to the guild’s xp, but is not shown in the advisor.

Conclusion

So what about me?

When looking at your own numbers it is easy to compare yourself to others, especially players of a similar level who joined the guild at a similar time to you. As we have repeatedly stated above, all sorts of factors may impact the numbers.

If you would like to see yourself higher up the list of xp contributors, buffers or relic capturers, then make that an in-game goal for yourself. You could ask guild members doing well how they are able to capture so many relics, for example. You could monitor chat and decide to try and respond more often to buff requests, even if you think that your buffs are too low-level. You may only have AL and TH, but a lot of the higher-level players have given up those buffs to get new ones, and so your sharing your buffs is vital for their own game play.

Celebrating Contribution

It is often too easy in this game to focus merely on the achievements of leveling and personal growth. The Guild Advisor opens up a record of more areas in which people make important contributions to the guild. We hope that opening it up will encourage recognition of the different styles of play that we have in Dark Siege, and inspire guild members to continue to share their skills, stamina, care and abilities with us all.

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