So just an an update, thought I might explain (or at least try to) some of the "how" that behind Frogs of War going from just getting to our first Rank A to Rank SSS in ~4 weeks.
1. We recruited more people to get us up to full numbers.
Sure, it seems simple, but this is not always easy. There's only a limited number of people in the game, and a lot are already in clans. Plus if you're really looking to optimise your battles, you need people willing to work with you and communicate, so that does mean a lot of winnowing through applicants to find people who are suitable. Most of our other requirements are around communication.
2. Communication.
We used to have a lot of double ups, particularly of low level runs. More than one person running a level at a time, particularly the lower levels. As the higher levels give the most points, you really want to get to the X level fast. However, to maximise the amount of raid points per SoB, you want to really run the lower levels of raids only once if at all possible (unless you're specifically experimenting with teams, or there's a specific reason that makes it much easier). As part of that, we set up communications on a few fronts:
a. We do general comms through Discord. We could have used other chat systems (Slack, Matrix, FB group chat, IRC, whatever) but everyone needs to be in on it to make it effective. We still don't have everyone in discord (some have dropped off) and that hasn't helped, but winnowing them out definitely helped.
b. In-game chat to co-ordinate actual battles. To avoid duplicating runs, we use in-game chat almost exclusively to announce we're going to do a specific run, when we're with the run done. This stops people who fail to finish accidentally impacting people who go in with a top tier team. We also say if we failed to finish that raid boss off (for whatever reason), so someone can clean it up, preferably with a B-level team that wouldn't otherwise get used (ie: not quite powerful enough to finish a raid level off). The in-game chat is severely limited, so it works great for this (and you don't need to switch out of the game). The only other thing we tend to use the in-game chat for is urgent messages, as the in-game chat history is really limited.
c. Docs (eg: spreadsheets/shared notes/docs/etc). We share teams that work, teams that don't work, useful toons, overall notes, general strategies, basic ways we want people to do things, etc. Having these in fixed places really helps, as chat (even with things like pinned posts in discord) is quite ephemeral and simply doesn't last. Chat systems are also hard to sort through and search when you need them. Also the game changes over time, so having one set of things to refer to means you can update them with new info as things change, and everyone is immediately able to get that up to date info.
3. Collaboration in clan.
Helping out other clan members with building teams, or helping them build teams out of their existing selection of characters/talismans. That also goes towards testing new teams that seem to work with one person to verify that they're reliable, or if not, why not. That also means if someone needs toons or talis, helping them get them if at all possible, either by telling them where to find them in the game, or picking up slack to complete a clan goal so they then have access to extra resources. It's also recognising that life gets in the way of things and being understanding that not everyone has the time to throw their all into the game 24/7. This also means we try and let others know if we need to take some time off (for whatever reason). Having comms outside the game really helps here.
Plus things happen in game too. What should work against a raid boss doesn't due to either chance, a bug, comms errors, power outages, a wrong press in game, etc. We don't chew people out, we simply help them get back on track. That might mean helping them clean up, or it might be just giving them some advice and ideas.
Also, I will say that if you don't get on with your team mates, or at least are civil towards them, it can really make it hard. We used to have one person who was really disruptive and after removing them from the clan, our collaboration improved dramatically. Part of that was people were just less inclined to interact because of that persons presence. I also suspect that if you don't "in general" like and respect your clan members (ie: they rub you the wrong way), you need to find a new clan that is more what you prefer. Everyone's different.
They're mostly what allowed us to improve our rank. Communication was by far the biggest contributor.
Something else we noticed, is that if you don't get the rewards screen at the end of a raid run, then the points haven't yet made it into the clan raid points pool. We tested it and the best way seems to be to exit back to the main menu of the game (out of the clans sub-section). This seems to give the game the boot in the rear it needs to sync the points up. Even typing stuff in the chat doesn't help, though "sometimes" completing another run does.
Anyway, one other thing I wanted to share. With the addition of the counters for raid boss defeats on the raid levels (the number under the skulls on the top right of each raid boss panel), we've been able to see the battles we did this time to get SSS. We're going to record this over time and see how we can optimise it to reduce how much SoB we spend each week.
If there's no entry below, it means we've only completed it once:
- Odin IX: 4
- Odin X: 202
- Baphomet VIII: 5
- Baphomet IX: 56
- Baphomet X: 29
- Boss defeats: 322
- Total Runs: 422
1043530 Raid Points
Note: We actually got 426 total runs and 1051030 raid points, but the above is all I have stats for.
Could we have done better? Sure. But we're still learning that, and you don't learn unless you know what you did right and what you didn't. So hopefully we'll do better next week. :D
