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Jun '08
18
412 views Posted by: 8 Toes in: general at: 12:22PM
The next update to the site will be to the Raids section. It is a large update, basically rewriting most of the Raids section along with all of our calculation scripts, so we would love to receive any feedback from you guys first to see if you have any suggestions or concerns.

Raid Pools
Our old "Raid Sets" feature is being changed to "Raid Pools" and being enhanced.

How Raid Pools will work is, if you run multiple dungeons and want to keep the DKP separate from them (so that members cannot earn DKP in one dungeon, and then spend it in another), you can assign raids to different Raid Pools. A Raid Pool will then be filterable throughout the Raids section so you can only view content from that Raid Pool.

Attendance, DKP points, raids and items can then be filtered so you only view the content from a specific Raid Pool; if you are a large guild or raiding multiple dungeons and wish to keep track of DKP separately, this will make it much easier.

Our Raid Set feature currently does this also, but is quite limited, especially in the UI, so it is not as useful as the Raid Pools will be.

Raiders Separated from Characters
Currently, the DKP system depends on Characters tied to Members on the site. This has posed quite a few problems:
Members needing to add chars to their account to receive DKP
Members deleting chars from their account and having the DKP lost
Members adding chars that are not raiders, which then takes up space in the DKP section
Guilds attempting to run raids with players from other guilds, who then have no characters

To solve this, we will be separating the Raiders from the Characters. In the Raids section, there will be an "Edit Raiders" section, where you can add/edit/delete raiders. You will also be able to flag raiders as inactive and specify if a raider belongs to another guild then your own.

This will mean it will be entirely up to the Admins to populate the raiders, but should be a much more manageable solution.

When we do this update, we will run a script which loops through every character on your site, and creates a raider for you named after the character that has all their dkp. (ie no dkp will be lost or anything from this update)

Character Pools
Similar to Raid Pools, a Character Pool will allow you to pool together the DKP you earn from several characters and treat it as one.

The purpose of this is, if you have go on a raid with your main character, but then have to sub in with your alt to fill a healing role or so, and you want the dkp earned on your alt to count as your main character, you can then create a Character Pool and put all your characters in it; then DKP earned from any of them works towards the same pool.

After discussing the first three options, here is a concept screenshot of the new Standings page, which includes Character Pools and members from other guilds.



If you have no character pools, and no members from other guilds, then the Standings page would look very similar to how it does now.

Attendance
The Raids section will be getting an attendance page, very similar to the standings page, that will show the attendance of all members. Like the standings page, you will be able to filter the Attendance by Raid Pool (so you can see who is attending what dungeons), and you will be able to filter it for specific periods of time (so you can see only the attendance for the past month or two if you want).



Raid Details Page
Viewing a Raid will receive many UI enhancements to show more information and be better organized. We will also be allowing you to add a "Notes" section for the raid to include any information about it, and we will be enabling Comments on a raid, so you can have discussions specific to it.

Raid Adjustments
Currently how a Raid Adjustment works is you select a Member, enter a reason "was late", and then an amount -5 dkp. This way is difficult to enter many raid adjustments, especially if you are handing out the same one to multiple members.

Raid Adjustments will be changing so instead you pick a name for the adjustment, "was late", and an amount, -5 dkp, and then you can mass add/remove members to it, similar to how you can mass add/remove members to raid hours, raid events and raid items. This should make it easier to work with adjustments that are assigned to many raiders.

Raid Items Get Their Own Page
Raid Items will be getting their own details page. The details page will embed the popup tooltip of the item, showing game-specific information about it if it is available. It will also have a history for the item, showing what raids it has dropped in and who has bought it. Comments will also be enabled on this page.



Feedback Request
Some of these are pretty big changes to how the Raids section currently works, so if you have any feedback or suggestions we would love to hear them. You can post a comment here or send an email to staff@mmoguildsites.com
Jun '08
11
181 views Posted by: 8 Toes in: features at: 09:58PM
The Awards update is now live, allowing you to create your own Awards with their own icons!



Create Your Own Awards
You can now create your own Awards to hand out to members. Along with the name and description, you can choose to use one of our default award icons or upload your own.

Change Existing Awards
Along with creating your own awards you can change any of the existing awards

Awards Menu Item
The Awards section has been moved out from a tab under the members section and into its own page, still available at /awards. A menu item for "Awards" is added in the Navigation tab of your Site Admin now which you can enable.

Improved Layout
The awards list page has been modified to look more like a list of awards, and each award now has a show page, that will list all the previous winners, shown below:


May '08
31
251 views Posted by: 8 Toes in: features at: 11:43AM
An update to the Custom Pages section (The "Pages" tab in your Site Admin) is now live, and focuses on providing more flexibility to your custom pages.

BBcode or HTML - Your Choice
You now have the option to choose what your custom page will be rendered with, either BBcode or HTML. The BBcode option is the default for new pages, as for text pages it is by far the easier choice; select the HTML option when you want to embed an iframe, another web page or flash content.

*note: As we previously only had one renderer for custom pages (HTML), we enabled some BBcode tags for convenience in it; these tags were causing problems for some users attempting to use HTML on the page. Now that we have a BBcode option, BBcode tags are no longer enabled with the HTML renderer with the exception of the item tag; instead if you wish to use BBcode in your custom page you should choose the BBcode renderer. You may need to check your pages if you were using both BBcode and HTML in your pages.

Custom Page Sets
Custom Pages can now be grouped together into a Page Set, which will create a tabbed menu within them allowing you to easily navigate to the other pages within the set.

Custom Page Permissions
You can now set a Permission level on a Custom Page, restricting who may be able to view it to members with that permission level or above.

Edit From Your Guild Site
Custom Pages can now be edited from your Guild Site; so if you notice a typo or want to make a quick change to the pages content, you no longer have to pop back into the Site Admin

BBcode update - Vimeo Support
You can use [vimeo] tags with our BBcode system now to embed vimeo videos within your site; they work exactly the same as [youtube] and [gvideo] tags. Example: [vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/302284[/vimeo]

Updates to the Awards and DKP section are already underway and will be some of the next updates to go live on the site =)
May '08
19
221 views Posted by: 8 Toes in: features at: 03:30AM
Our TeamSpeak Status Block is now live =)

The TeamSpeak Status Block looks and functions exactly like our Ventrilo Status block, showing who is on your TeamSpeak server and what channels they are in. It can be added to your site in the Layout tab of your Site Admin.

May '08
10
771 views Posted by: 8 Toes in: news at: 08:04PM
Age of Conan is due out in a few short weeks, and in anticipation we have put live a few new themes. These themes are targeted towards an AoC guildsite, but can be modified with our Theme Editor and used for any game.

Haaz (Blue and Red Versions)

Theme Details: Haaz Blue, Haaz Red

Mire (Blue and Red Versions)

Theme Details: Mire Blue, Mire Red

Vareon (Blue and Brown Versions)

Theme Details: Vareon Blue, Vareon Brown

We hope you enjoy them, and plan to release more themes targeted towards other games in the near future =)
May '08
9
401 views Posted by: 8 Toes in: tips at: 06:15AM
Foolproof emailed me a great guide he made for his guild members, on how to import DKP from your guild site into DKPmon, use the addon to record DKP for your raid, and then export the recorded data back to your guild site =) It is an easy step-by-step guide for how you can have a mostly automated DKP system running for your guild:

-=FIXED COST ZERO-SUM DKP OFFICER FAQ=-
By Foolproof

INSTALLATION
Download and install the following files:

DKPmon: http://files.wowace.com/DKPmon/DKPmon.zip

DKPmon_XML: http://files.wowace.com/DKPmon_XML/DKPmon_XML.zip

DKPmon_CSV: http://files.wowace.com/DKPmon_CSV/DKPmon_CSV.zip

DKPmon_FCZS: http://files.wowace.com/DKPmon_FCZS/DKPmon_FCZS.zip
note: this one must be modified to include all of the guild's dkp costs. Hopefully mmoguildsites allows file uploading soon so it can be hosted on the guild's site. Also, when creating the values in custom.lua, only use 1 point pool since mmoguildsites supports only 1 at this time.

Bidder: http://files.wowace.com/Bidder/Bidder.zip

Bidder_FCZS: http://files.wowace.com/Bidder_FCZS/Bidder_FCZS.zip

Once you finish downloading and installing the above, make sure they are all loaded (may need to turn out of date addons - ON)

Then, Log onto your character and right click the icon for the mod on your fubar or minimap, go to dkp system and select Fixed Cost Zero Sum. Set the Database synchronization password to whatever the guild uses for DKP officers ("Points database" > "Set broadcast password" hit enter to save it.)

That's it for the install :)

RECORDING DKP FOR A RAID
This may seem complicated and it feels like it at first, but after a raid or two or three it becomes second nature. Don't overthink things, just follow the guide and you'll do fine.

1. Download your guild's latest DKP, which is available at:

http://yoursite.mmoguildsites.net/raids/standings.addon_dkpmon_csv
*replace yoursite.mmoguildsites.net with your actual sites url

and copy it into your DKPmon_CSV folder, overwriting the old one. This will ensure that you have the most up to date dkp numbers directly from the guild website.

2. Log onto your character

3. Import the newest DKP listing from the file you downloaded in step 1 (Import modules>Points database CSV import).

4. Log in and create or enter a raid group.

5. In the addon, enter a Log Name (Logging>Log name). You need to hit enter in order for it to register the log name. Something simple like "ZA" or "Kara" will do fine as the mod automatically appends a date and time to the end of your text.

6. Remind raiders they need to have Bidder installed as well as the Bidder_FCZS addon in order to bid on any loot.

7. Tell any raiders that are sitting out/waitlisting that they need to toggle the "Raid Standby" option in Bidder so that it shows up for officers and they get credit. Maybe make a macro that announces this in /guild

8. In the addon, set the Bank (Raid Setup>Set banker) and Disenchant (Raid Setup>Set disenchanter) person(s).

9. Once the raid is ready, click "Start Logging" in the addon (Click ok in the popup)

RECORDING DROPS

1. Open the body (right click) and a new "DKPmon: Loot Distribution" window will open up showing all the loot that people can bid on.

2. Left click the "Actions" button and click "Open Bidding."

3. Raiders will bid on the items using the bidder window that pops up on their side (hopefully...) and once you are happy that they've had enough time click "Actions" > "Close Bidding." Wait for the countdown to finish.

4. Assign the winners by Clicking on the items in the Loot Distribution window and selecting the person the item will go to or Disenchant or Bank if that is the case.

5. Click "Actions" > "Announce Winners."

6. Click "Actions" > "Award Points." The "DKPmon: Points Awarding" window will open.

7. Click "Select players" > "Raid Members" and/or "Standby members" and make sure all the people in raid are selected as well as the people on standby.

8. Click "Set points to award" and you should see the mob that was just looted in the list. Click it and it will populate the window beneath the "Points to award" text.

9. Click "Award Points"

10. ...

11. Profit!

FINISHING RAID AND UPLOADING THE INFORMATION

1. In the Addon click "Stop Logging"

2. Log out and back in or reload your ui (/rl)

3. In the Addon click export > MMOGuildsites xml

4. Copy the text from the popup

5. Go to the guild website
-Click the Raids link
-Add New Raid
-Select "zero-sum" in the DKP System dropdown
-Enter a Raid Name and Raid Set (I think the raid set is supposed to be the name of the instance)
-Check the box labeled "Use XML data to populate raid"
-Paste the information you copied from step 4
-Click the "Create This Raid" button

6. Go over the info and make sure things look correct.

DKP NON-OFFICER INFO
Download and install the following files:

Bidder: http://files.wowace.com/Bidder/Bidder.zip

Bidder_FCZS: http://files.wowace.com/Bidder_FCZS/Bidder_FCZS.zip

note: Make sure they are loaded (may need to turn out of date addons ON

When you want to bid on something just click on the item that pops up when your guild loots the mob.
May '08
6
227 views Posted by: 8 Toes in: features at: 09:15AM
The translations update adds international support for French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. You can choose any of these languages, along with the default English, for your guild site to be displayed in (it is set in the Settings tab of the Site Admin panel).

update: Swedish is now also available as a language

This is our first pass at adding translations, and while we tried to add translations support everywhere, there are a few parts that are not yet translated:

The www.mmoguildsites.com website is still English only.

Error messages. We have a few technical issues to work out before we can support translated errors, so for now these are english only.

The Awards section. We have an update for the Awards section planned soon, which will allow you to create your own awards to hand out, and with that update the translations for the Awards section will come.

Other than the three items above, nearly all of the text on your site should be available in the six additional languages =)

One Caveat
Due to the way we cache some of the side and home blocks, if you change your language you may have to remove and re-add the block to have it show in the new language.

Improving Translations
If you are using the site in one of the translated languages and have a suggestion for a better translation for some of the text, send us an email and we can likely have the improved translation included =). To make this process a little easier, we put our translations files online, so you may view them if you like:

English
German
French
Italian
Portuguese
Spanish
Swedish
Russian
May '08
4
353 views Posted by: 8 Toes in: news at: 10:19PM
Thanks to Foolproof of Exile on Draka, the addon DKPmon can now also be used with MMO Guildsites =)

DKPmon is a popular addon for managing your DKP in-game, and supports export features through additional addons. Support for MMO Guildsites has been added to the DKPmon_XML addon.

Thanks Foolproof =)
May '08
4
351 views Posted by: 8 Toes in: news at: 09:33PM
One of our members, Phaye of Collision Force, has created an Addon for WoW to show your DKP in-game and has made it available for anyone to use =)

The addon allows you to quickly load up your DKP from your guild site, and then view and search it in-game, so when items drop you don't have to alt-tab to check your members DKP.

The addon has some nice features, allowing you to:

Search for members to find their DKP
Show a members DKP for each char, and a total for their account.
SHIFT+LEFT CLICK to link a single line to the chat output, similar to linking loot.
RIGHT CLICK any search result and have an export window pop up, allowing you to broadcast the data to a channel you choose.

Here is a few screenshots of the addon:



The addon is up at World of War here: http://wowui.worldofwar.net/?p=mod&m=6387. Instructions are included in the download's readme file.

Thanks Phaye =)
Apr '08
15
329 views Posted by: 8 Toes in: features at: 06:30AM
The groups update is now live, allowing you to add groups to your site. Groups are designed to enable discussions between groups of members within your guild easier.

Groups
A group contains a mini-forum for discussions and a members list. Groups are designed to enable discussions between groups of members within your guild easier. To view and participate in a group you must belong to it.



The groups functionality is available at http://yoursite.mmoguildsites.net/groups. There is also a Navigation Menu Item created for you that you can enable in the Navigation Tab of your Site Admin.

PM Your Group
Along with being able to private message individuals and ranks, you can now send private messages to any groups you belong to. The private message will be delivered to everyone in the group.

Group Invites
Groups can be made public or invite only. Anyone may join a public group simply by clicking "Join Group". An invite only group requires a member to invite you to join the group and for you to accept. Invites are sent out with the private messaging system on the site.

Group Permissions
Anyone in your guild may create a group. When you create a group you are the Owner for that group, and have extra permissions for it, allowing you to invite and remove members from it. You may also reassign ownership of your group to another member in the group, if you wish to step down or leave the group. Super Admins have the permission to admin and view any group.

Additional Updates:

Character Avatars
Your characters now have their own avatars, which are treated separately from your account avatar. You can edit and upload a unique avatar for each of your characters, making it easier to recognize them. Character avatars are currently only shown on the character profile and character lists page, but we may use them elsewhere on the site in the near future, such as in the dkp section.

More BBcode
We have added a few extra tags to our bbcode system, [left] and [right], which allow you to float content to the left or right; an example of usage is if you wish an image to be floated to the right and the text to flow around it, you could do:

[right][img]/path/to/image.jpg[/img][/right] This text would flow around the image, if it was long enough..