The new Raid system!

[Airelyn]

All I can say is WOOOOOOOOOT.

Note: The following is from the Test Server and is not available on the Live Servers. This system may change as it undergoes further testing before being put live.
Raids


In the past, and even at the writing of this [...], experience on raids would generally go to a single group or a few groups. The group doing the most damage would get the experience on any given kill. But, perhaps even at the time you are reading this [...], that will be changed by a new Raid feature.


Because the system is still being worked on as this is written, some of the details may change by the time it is implemented. However, we'll give you the planned functionality as it stands at this time.


The Raid system is intended to aid in the formation and organizing raids and make looting on raids a little more manageable. At the same time, it allows a certain amount of experience to be shared among all members of a raid. The basics of the system work very much like grouping has always worked. The Raid Leader is the leader of all the raid groups and the group leaders remain leaders of their individual groups.


Alt-R or /raidwindow will toggle the new Raid Window. This window works much like the group window. You can invite people to the raid (if you are the raid leader) and see a list of the folks in your raid, along with the status of those members (Raid Leader, Group Leader or raid member - which shows with no rank). It also shows you the group number of the individual members.



Inviting and Removing People from a Raid.


Only Raid Leaders and Raid Group Leaders can invite people to a raid. This is done with the Invite button on the raid window.


If a Raid Leader invites an individual (someone not in a group), that person joins the raid as a Raid Group Leader. If the Raid Leader invites a member of a group, the entire group joins the raid, and their group leader becomes a Raid Group Leader.


A Raid Group Leader can invite people to their group, thus inviting them to join the raid group as well.


Only a Raid Leader can remove someone from the raid. He or she does so simply by clicking on the character's name in the raid window and clicking the Disband button (also in the raid window).


Being removed from your group (using the normal grouping features) will not remove you from the raid.


You can remove yourself from the raid just by clicking the Disband button in the raid window.



Raid Chat


Just like groups, raids have their own chat channel. /rsay works for the raid just as /gsay does for groups. Just like group chat, you can set this to be your default channel for a given chat window by choosing it from the right-click Default Channel context menu.



Experience


Experience for killing NPCs will be distributed to all members of the raid that are within range. However, the experience given will be smaller than the experience that would be earned by a single group. Generally, unless you are fighting NPCs that require a raid, you will still be better off earning experience with the old fashioned six-person group.

Raids will definitely allow for larger than traditional groups, however, much of EverQuest is designed with the six-person group in mind. Adding a small number of people to a given group will allow this "oversized" group to gain experience. However, we recommend that once a "raid" of ten or more people forms, a second, traditional group split off and adventure on their own.



Looting


The Raid Leader determines the looting permissions for any NPC killed by the raid. There are three types of looting that the leader can choose from (though the Raid Leader can always loot NPCs killed by the raid).


1. Only the raid leader can loot until the corpse opens up for all

2. Only the raid leader and raid group leaders can loot until the corpse opens up

3. Raid leader chooses up to 9 other raid members that can loot until the corpse opens up


Please note that altering loot permissions only applies to NPCs that are killed after changing this setting.

See the command list below for more information about setting raid loot permissions.


When an item is looted by a raid member, a loot message is sent to all members of the raid.



Summary of Raid Commands:


Below is a list of all the slash commands that are related to raids followed by a brief description of what they do and how to use them for quick reference.


- /raidwindow - toggles the raid window

- /makeraidleader [name]- reassigns raid leadership - Optional argument, name of raid member to be new leader, or you can just target them. If you type a person's name, that name is used instead of your current raid window target.

- /raidinvite - invites the current target to the raid

- /raidaccept - accepts an invitation to a raid

- /raiddecline - declines an invitation to a raid.

- /raidremove - removed the current raid target from the raid

- /setloottype <#> - sets the raid loot type - Takes one number argument: 1, 2, 3.

- /addraidlooter - adds a raid member as an early looter to all future corpses - Target a raid member in raid window.

- /removeraidlooter - removes a raid member as a possible looter from all future corpses - Target a raid member in raid window.

- /rsay - Sends a message to all members of the raid

[Carellron]

Instead of all the brewhaha on the test servers, they should really fix problems that are already in game.  If you continually add trash code in it only gets worse.

[Fizzgig]

yeah but this is useful....allow's greater control of looting AND let's everyone on the raid see exactly what dropped

I don't think that xp from ToV mob's shared is going to make much of a difference though lol

[Airelyn]

The raid exp thing I could care less about... at least it will stop anyone from ever complaining about KS groups :)

The point is, this raid system will make raid leading so much easier... one of the hardest parts of running a raid is the organizing of groups and looting is a pain.  This new system will make it much easier.

This is something they should have implemented a long time ago.. granted yes there are a billion things that need to be fixed in game.  But you know, raids are a huge part of this game and as a raid leader this stuff needs to be implemented.