Revision as of 04:06, 15 December 2011

Gods of Spiral

A better icon will always be appreciated Guild Founder: Scarkro Approx. Population: 89 Guild Master(s): Linacakes Ajqtrz Scarkro Guild Officer(s): Recently a likely overzealous Scarkro demoted a lot of people. Here are remaining officers/ex-officers and most recent play dates of exes Addisona Arbituser Chorouu Drdrj Fastmerchant Firetatay Jocasta Justinputra Kijina 11/25 Lightknighto 11/24 Ludic Skatenisse 11/26 Thatguywiththegun 11/26 Trogdon

We are a guild. Nothing is posted here at the moment because a lot of things are still up in the air. This page was really just created to give future content-adders something to build on, as well as create a location for discussion and posting of ideas for a likely reorganization/enhancement of the guild. It will eventually evolve into a thorough guild page, with tips, announcements and such. If you're confused about how to change the little info-box on the right go to: http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Help:Creating_a_guild_page.

General Message Board

Post whatever relevant news you have here. If anyone actually posts anything here, please head it in bold by preceding and following the header with 3 equals signs. Also leave a date

Mass demotions 12/4

Recently I (Addisona), Arbituser, Scarkro and Ajqtrz got together and did a general housecleaning. Scarkro may have been a little over-excited and wound up demoting all officers who hadn't been on that same day. One even got on as Scarkro got off. Anyway, we will probably eventually remedy the situation, but being an officer is going to be a responsibility, not just a priveledge, from now on. You will not return to your officer status if you do not intend to get involved with and share some of the burden of running the guild. More people may be demoted if they choose not to be a part of running the guild. Please be understanding that losing officer status is really not much of a status shift; being a veteran is a new equivalent of being an officer.

Update: some officers were re-promoted. they and the other demoted veterans will likely be asked if they want to play an officer-esque role in the guild.

P.S.~ This is Founding Father Scarkro (Yes I just made that up just now)! I'm very sorry about me getting a little crazy on demotion day! I promise it wont happen again!

Proposed Structure 12/5

This is a simple structure for the guild.

Veteran - full 3* equip

Member - 2 3* equips

Recruit - full 2*

Applicant - nice person, 2 2*

Update from AJ (Ajqrtz) 12/5

Thanks, Addi for this Wiki start page. The information is great and much needed. I will be speaking with officers regarding various roles and duties and what they think should be done over the next few days. When I am done (and others can certainly do the same) we will get together and discuss the various duties and the overall structure of GOS. My vision, and I believe the vision of all involved, is to make GOS an elite and premier guild in the SK world. To do this we must have structure, discipline, and a willingness to work together and work hard. A bit of humor and graciousness doesn't hurt either.

Because we want to be successful I think the purpose of the guild is to bring together knights who believe in a disciplined and orderly approach to making each individual knight the most successful knight he or she can be. Over time I believe we can do this best by combining resources in the Clockworks and above the Clockworks. A team working together is always far stronger than individuals working alone.

If you have questions or concerns, if you just have ideas, and even if you have complaints, please do not hesitate to send them to me, approach me, corner me, or otherwise bug me with them. I like new ideas, fresh faces and good challenging (polite) debate. So bring it on.

And while you are at it, thank Addisona for the work on the Wiki page. I know it took some time to set up and it was done well.

AJ

Officer Duties

There are 10 offices and therefore 10 officers. They are as follows:

2 Recruitment officers (Candidate and Recruit) 2 Resource Officers (Crowns and Materials) 2 Training officers (First and Second) 2 Adjudicant Officers (First and Second) 1 Wiki Officer 1 Officer-at-Large

Recruitment Officers:

The Candidate Officer (CSO) is responsible for contacting potential recruits. At the request of a Veteran or above he or she contacts, interviews, and evaluates the candidates potential to be successful as a GOS guild member. Integrity, generousity, and teamwork should be observed by participating with the candidate in at lest one run by either the Candidate officer or a suragate appointed by him or her at or above the rank of Veteran and not previously a friend to or familiar with the candidate. This is the first "weeding out" and it should not be surprising that some, and perhaps many, condidates do not make the grade.

The Recruit Officer (RCO) tracks each of the new recruits to insure they are progressing at a satisfactory rate. Working with the First Training officer the Recruit Officer makes sure each recruit is trained in tactics, strategy and teamwork to the highest of standards. In addition the Recruit officer will need to insure that recruit has the proper equipment or is makeing the necessary progress toward acquiring that equipment. When both the Recruit Officer and the First Training Officer recommend a Recruit be raised to Member and that Recruit has the proper equipment a GM will be notified and the Recruit will be promnoted.

Resource Officers:

The Crowns Officer (CRO) is responsible for carrying the Guilds purse. All crowns owned by the guild collectively go to this Officer and each transaction is reported to one or two of the GM's. This officer is responsible for protecting the guilds purse and receiving donations and making disbursements at the request of a GM. Nothing is spent without a GM authorization but donations can be made anonymously or not, as the giver desires. Our first report tells us we have 2500 crowns in our account. You might note that when a Veteran does a run with candidates, or any other guild sponsored run, it is proper and right that that veteran be recompensed for the expenditure of crystal energy needed to make that run. At first, until our coffers become larter, it may not feasible to do so but with the generousity of our members and perhaps with some additional fees or dues we can make it so.

The Materials Officer (MAO) is responsible for carrying the Guilds Materials. Materials (or "mats") are used for crafting and it is thought that if we combined our materials we may save each other a lot of time and effort collecting some items. In addition materials have crown value and we can use them to reward good and faithful services rendered.

Training Officers

The First Training Officer (FTO) is responsible for insuring recruits are trained in the strategies, tactics and attitudes necessary to become a sucessful member of GOS. He or she must evaluate or receive evaluations from Veterans or above regarding the recruits level of activity and improvement. With the Recruit Officer he or she recommends or does not recommend the advancement of the Recruit to Member status.

The Second Training Officer (STO) is responsible for advanced training of Members. He or she works with the FTO and veterans to introduce any advanced, improved, or newly introduced tactics and strategies. He or she will also make recommendations regarding promotion to Veteran status or, should the need arise, for demotion to Recruit if a player is in need of remedial training. Together with the FTO and a team of three to five Veterans this officer is responsible for designing the training curriculum.

Adjudant Officers

In every group conflict can arise. The First Adjudant Officer (FAO) adjudicates between members who have a disagreement. He or she interviews the parties, investates the claims as much as necessary, and makes a determination. If the parties are generous and displaying the spirit of cooperation expected of them the matter will be generally settled at this level. Failure to perform as the FAO has determined shold be done may result in the FAO recommending to the GM's that the knight be suspended. Appeal of any FAO's decisions should be rare and can only be done to a GM. A final appeal may be addressed to the 3 GM's as a board. In all cases of appeal if the GM or GM's do not think the appeal has merit they may refuse the case altogether.

The Second Adjudant Officer (SAO) takes over when the FAO is either too closely tied to one of the paries (or both) or otherwise feels he or she cannot be fully fair. The SAO then performs the duties of the FAO in the same manner. Appeals are, as in the case of the FAO, to a GM and if necessary to the 3 GM's. Again, the GM and/or GM's may refuse to hear the case and let the decision of the SAO stand unchanged or they may hear the case and make their own decision regarding the matter.

If the unlikely event that one of the Adjudant Officers is involved in a dispute the case will be heard by a GM with appeal to the 3 GM's allowed.

And finally, if a GM is involved in a case the FAO and SAO will appoint an independent 3 Veteran panel to judge the case and make the final decision. From this panel no appeal can be made. This protects the players from an errant GM and gives balance to the power the GM's have.

Wiki Officer

The Wiki Officer (WKO) is the primary communications officer. He or she posts the official record of things happening, things needed, things done and things left to do. He or she has final approval of postings and is only subject to override by the 3 GM's acting in concert. The Wiki page should, and currently does, reflect the overal needs of the guild and provides a summary of much of the information a member needs to function within the Guild. All guild members, including recruits, are responsible for knowing what is on our Wiki page. We encourage each member to read it at least once a week.

Officer-At-Large

The Officer-At-Large (OAL) is the player assigned special projects and an acting GM if no GM's are currently online and some matter must be decided. This player assists the other officers and does not out-rank them except, as stated above, no GM is available and the matter must be decided immediately. This Officer's decisions should be treated as a GM's when they occur, but can be appealed if necessary to the GM's. From time to time the GM's may assign a special project to the OAL but overall this officer is responsible for taking some of the burdens off of other officers.

Final Remarks

These are the officer duties as we understand them today and as I envision them to be. Some positions have been filled at least temporarily while others await volunteers. It may be that you are an officer and do not wish to take on any of these responsibilities. It may be that you are eager to do so. In either case please contact me regarding your desire. Those officers who which to be demoted to Veteran status may do so without prediduce. Those who have other ideas about officer duties may certainly make suggestions. We will listen. And those who wish to take on any of the specific responsibilites listed above may notify me of their desire.

Officers duties are not easy. If you are not an officer you may want to encourage and support whatever officer you come into contact with. Praise and "thank you's" are always welcome.

AJ

Addisona -

Wow... that must've taken a long time to type. In the future we will want to abridge it. The following edits (to the policy) seem logical to me. Please take them as my personal opinion, they are not an absolute truth.

1. Merge the resource officers with another officer. It's a really easy duty. A job for the GMs, maybe?

2. Let members (not recruits and members, members) recommend new people. I know we discussed this, but the 3-step process seems overdone in hindsight. Kind of state bureaucracy-style inefficiency and excessive attention to detail.

3. We should make up for the loss of veteran power (due to previous edit recommendation) in some way. Ideas?

4. Add another candidate officer

5. Get rid of the first training officer and recruit officer, replacing them with more player-specific mentors (possibly 3 of these). The mentor would stay with a player until they became a veteran. The mentors would rotate having new members join their group of proteges. They would go on training runs and recommend equips for specific players, allowing more player-focus, and giving new people someone they know in upper management.

6. Get rid of the second training officer. There are no high level techniques to learn that shouldn't have already been taught by a mentor, and the only thing that a t3er won't already know is how the new levels work, which should be taught by whoever is with them at the time.

7. Okay, I'm not sure about this one, but I really don't see why we need a court system (Adjudants). Why not just have the available officers talk about it? Or, in the case of large disputes, they could wait for a guild master.

8. Get rid of officer at large. We don't need a constant source of authority, and the officers can, once again, just talk through any issues, and wait for a GM in the case of major ones. Also, this would just add another source of authority, it wouldn't actually ensure constant figures of authority being on.

9. I may have more. If we are to make all of these changes, we may want some more officer roles, but bear in mind that they should not be there simply to add more officers; we should only have as many as we need. And my job is pretty easy; we should find me another duty to do as well.

Response to Addisona's Comments

1. Good idea. My concern is with insuring the GM's don't hold all the power and are free to step in where an officer is weak/uncommitted. Perhaps one GM could replace the Crowns and the other the Materials Officers.

2. The three step approach is, in my mind, the equivilent to a screening process. Elite means high standards. We should not expect every interested player who might want to join will be allowed to join. We, in fact, should expect most to "wash out." As for Members recommending..not a problem. I can agree to that easily.

3. If we lose officers because they choose not to particpate at that level then we gain Vets. I assume that some of the officers will want to "step down" and some not. Elevating Members to Vets can also occur if we are diligent in our efforts.

4. Agreed

5. I really like this idea. Mentors from the Officer core would add a lot...especially if they take the role seriously. I also like the suggestion that the Mentors have several recruits and members they are working with. We might also consider moving recruits from one mentor to another with each mentor working on a specific area-- tactics, weapon usage, defense, etc..

6. You are probably right about the second training officer. I do think there may be more tactics and strategies to be taught at some point but for now the higher training officer is not needed.

7. One of the reasons is that occassionally people get so ticked that they need a formal method of resolving issues. On the otherhand I suppose the 3GM's could take charge of this, hopefully rare, occurance.

8. Actually, I'm embarassed to say this office was presented just to fill out the 10 officer quota. I suppose that if a GM is not around when things need to be done we can count on the officers to do the right thing, whatever that happens to be.

Finally, one wonders if your job will always be so easy. After all, if GOS members actually get involved there might be a lot more to report. Time will tell.

In the end this reduces the Officers to about 7: 2 Candidate and about 4 Training Mentors, and 1 Communications Officer. We currently have 10 Officers and if we get them together and ask them to fufill one of these roles we will probably lose 3-5 who would rather be Vets and help out once in a whils. At least that is what I think.

Comments by the manliest guildie 12/14

-Why not transfer all the crown/mat duties to a totally different account whose login would only be shared with officers and GMs?

-Addi, you were NOT promoted to meet a quota. Actually, when we promoted you, there wasn't even a quota to meet. We just thought you were cool. :3

-Why not turn this guild into a training ground, where we can teach new people the ins and outs of various parts of the game. The section at the bottom of this page is a good start.

-I agree with the 101 training officer idea, but that would just bring us back to when officer was just a rank everybody had, so I suggest a 1-3 ratio of mentors to new people. That way, we'll have a full party on training runs.

Guildies

Advanced Gameplay (Teir 2 Briefing)

This section is designed to help t1ers understand the more complicated aspects of the game, and help them move into t2 without too much trouble. t2ers who are still unclear on some things should skim through this.

Damage

The damage system in Spiral Knights is based off 4 types of damage: Normal, Elemental, Piercing and Shadow. Both monsters and knights use the same damage system. Normal hits all monsters equally, and elemental, piercing, and shadow each have 2 monster types they get a bonus on, 2 they hit for no bonus or loss, and one type that they can barely hurt. Each monster type will generally deal it's own damage type, mixed with normal damage. In some cases they stray from this. Your own attack damage type is determined by your weapons; each has it's own damage type(s). Your own weaknesses/resistances are determined by your armors. Further info on this topic at http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Damage.

Monster Type	Damage Type	Weak To	Neutral To	Strongly Resistant To
Slime Family	Piercing	Shadow	Elemental	Piercing
Beast Family	Piercing	Piercing	Shadow	Elemental
Gremlin Family	Elemental	Shadow	Piercing	Elemental
Construct Family	Elemental	Elemental	Shadow	Piercing
Fiend Family	Shadow	Piercing	Elemental	Shadow
Undead Family	Shadow	Elemental	Piercing	Shadow

Gates

Going to the gate map (gear menu) shows you the monster and special condition themes of the level, as well as the style. Use this to pick the right equips for the situation. More on gates can be found at http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Gate

Technique

Simple methods for maximizing your damage given/damage taken.

Swords

The same advice goes to almost all swordmasters: be less aggressive. In t1 you could take 3 hits and walk it off with a couple of hearts. It doesn't work that way from now on. Remember that you can always get another hit in later, so keep moving and don't feel obligated to finish your combo; faster monsters will get a hit in before you're done. If you have enough space, it is a good idea to run around charging, close, hit an enemy, then retreat and repeat. This is somewhat risky in some situations because charge attacks usually take more time to complete than a standard attack, and you cannot shield while charging (leaving you vulnerable in "bullet hell" situations). All swordmasters should also be aware that it is possible to change your direction in a combo; you can use attacks to extract yourself as well as knock back enemies sneaking up on you. Another important technique is shield-cancelling, where you restart your combo via briefly raising your shield (bear in mind that you don't have to actually bring the barrier up to do this). This is useful if you do not want to have your combo move you forward. This is usable by all swordmasters but is most easily used by those carrying slow swords.

Handguns

Now, being a top notch gunslinger is, well, almost impossible. BUT! If you got the right gun, then your 1 step ahead of the 3 steps of gunslinging! HOORAY! Back to business, when I get bored I investigate the little things in this awesome game. For example, you have 3 Tier 2 Gremlins behind you and the only weapon you have at the time is a Level 10 Master Blaster. The only thing is, is that you broke your mouse and the only button that works is the fire button, you're totally cornered, out of energy, and you're facing the complete opposite direction of the enemy. Ok, theres this very useful little gadget in Spiral Knights that has been around ever since Three Rings made the game. Its called Auto-Aim! When an enemy gets close a target will appear right under its feet. When it is targeted, that is the green light to get button mashing! Now, I'm sure you're saying, "Scarkro, doesn't this mean that we don't have to have any talent in gunslinging? Just an awesome gun?." Well, technically... yes. Now that you got that down. You need to pay attention to what is going on around you, which means you need to shield from danger, and you need a pretty good shield, because being a gunslinger is tough living.

Bombs

Feel free to actually create this section, if you are knowledgeable about the topic. As of now this section does not exist, so head on over to the bombing guide for information on bombs. http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Bombing_Guide

Equipment

This section is designed to help you find what type of equipment you want to use. This is because at this point in the game equipment stops being so cheap; you can't just buy anything and try it out. It is worthy of note that the 3-star to 4-star upgrade is by far the biggest increase in power, and that most equips have a certain stratum at which they preform best, with their performance dropping as they venture away from that stratum. This is why there is little noticeable difference between any new equip you have acquired and it's predecessor; you have to venture deeper for you new equip to really show it's stuff.

Weapons

First you need to determine what types of weapons you want to use. Start out with no more than 4 and do not rent weapon slots yet, they cost a fortune. While you can use just one weapon you will do poorer than those with more; their greater diversity helps them match their opponents better. 2-3 is the ideal number of weapons. First pick out what weapon types you want to carry. If you have not yet tried out bombs I suggest you buy a really cheap 2-star blast bomb. Find which weapon types you're best with, and use them. Holding more than one of the same type of weapon grants you the ability to pick the right one for the situation, and only using one type of weapon will allow you to buy a set of armor that grants attack bonuses for that weapon type.

• Swords more at http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Swordmaster_Guide

Depending on if you are carrying more than one sword, you will want to pick a normal sword or a sword with a damage type. Do normal if you plan on using only one sword. Next decide how fast you want your sword to be. This should be based on how good you are about predicting enemy attacks. A fast one will allow you to stop at any point, a slow one requires more foresight. The rest is up to personal preference. Following are VIABLE options (in my opinion).

Super-fast Swords

• Cutter - Normal. Comes in a variety that causes poison and one with a beast damage bonus. Beast bonus not recommended

Fast Swords

• Final Flourish - Piercing. Do not stray from main flourish line
• Barbarous Thorn Blade - Piercing. Flourish with different charge attack

Medium Swords

• Brandish - Comes in elemental/normal and shadow/normal. 3 statuses for elemental: Fire, Shock, Freeze
• Calibur - 2 normal damage sword possibilities, one with undead damage bonus.
• Fang of Vog - Elemental/normal version of Calibur with great charge attack. Only available in 5* form

Slow Swords

• Sealed Sword - Comes in elemental/normal and shadow/normal
• Troika - 2 normal damage sword possibilities, one with freeze and one with stun

• Guns

Feel free to actually create this section, if you are knowledgeable about the topic. As of now this section does not exist, so head on over to the gunslinger guide for information on guns. http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Gunslinger_Guide

• Bombs

Feel free to actually create this section, if you are knowledgeable about the topic. As of now this section does not exist, so head on over to the bombing guide for information on bombs. http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Bombing_Guide

Armor

Until you reach the point at which you want to diversify in equipment (whether this is 4* or 5* is up to you), you want to have one set of armor. Damage bonuses are always a nice plus, and should be crammed in if possible. There are only 3 types of armor that protect you from 2 damage types where neither is normal damage. These are useful if you want to only want one armor set but still want protection from all 4 types. They are: Radiant Silvermail, Divine Mantle, and Dragon Scale Mail. Bear in mind that the divine mantle will only start protecting you against shadow damage instead of normal damage in it's 5* form, so it is not as viable an option for those looking to diversify at 4*.