I would like to start a little discussion about Guild Bounties and strategies. I have an idea for an app that I think could really help if people were interested, and if people think it will work. I would also like the app to include other guild tools if anyone has suggestions.
Insert Wall of Text:
Background:
So my guild regularly runs bounties each week. In general we do at least one T3 for the merits and then T1s to help people get their weekly credit. We are usually successful, even on the T3s (exceptions for Sotz and his barrels, but that is another topic). I am sure our strategy is the same as most: scout out as many targets ahead of time, and then start the bounty when X amount have been found.
Here is the thing though: prep time. It seems to take 30 minutes to an hour to get everyone wrangled up, and then send out 1 or 2 people to scout each target. Then you have to start the bounty and decide who goes where. I think it is especially hard for guilds with large numbers of members to try and organize. I have noticed people get a little annoyed at setup time for such a short event.
Considering Anet has mentioned that you should not have to pre-scout targets, I decided to get my hands a little dirty and do some research. Here is a summary of my findings:
1. Even the longest target paths (Bookworm Bwikki, Baked Komali, etc) can be completely tracked in ~15 minutes with no speed buffs and without cutting any corners (I walked them, thank you Dulfy and contributors)
2. Initial target discovery time under above conditions was 4-7 minutes. (Thats me, solo walking)
2. Targets can be killed in < 5 minutes. (I observed as many guilds kills as I could during my tracking sessions and casual play time)
Proposal:
A lot of time is wasted scouting. I think most targets could be easily found and killed in < 15 minutes using what I will refer to hereafter as “Strikeforces”. Using an app that allows you to select the bounty targets and participating guild members will accomplish this task.
This is basically how it works:
1. Create a guild roster (Name, map completion, etc. This step is only needed once; will save data for later uses).
2. Select participating guild members (From above list).
3. Start Bounty Hunt and select the targets from a list.
4. App automatically assigns members to strikeforces (using map completion info)
5. Send out strikeforces.
6. Profit.
Now you wont need to assign every member to a party. The goal is to just have enough people in each party to find and kill a target without waiting for others to arrive. So if you do a T2 bounty, ideally you will have 15 people selected for strikeforce assignment (3 targets * 5 people in each party). Anyone who is not in a strikeforce can choose where to go to help and receive credit. (Such as breaking barrels for Sotz, or helping find the Fire Shaman Arderus).
The reason I think this strategy/app will work is efficiency. Will you already know where the targets are ahead of time? No. But if you have parties of 4-6 people looking for a target they should be able to find the targets in < 5 minutes, leaving ~ 10 minutes for them to kill the target, not to mention the fact they will be able to start killing almost immediately once they find the target.
I know there are a few issues regarding this strategy/app. Some of the bounties are harder to find, such as Sotz (Blast you and your barrels!!!), Prisoner, etc, but you can direct the extra non-strikeforce members there . Initial setup time could be a little long because you would have to query each member about completion status (but only the first time and I bet you could get it done before all targets were scouted the normal way.) There are other things I haven’t thought of at the moment or just did not type up, I know. But please provide feedback on the basic idea first.
Feelings? Thoughts,? Concerns? If I wrote this app would you or your guild be willing to try it? Are some of my time calculations off? How long does your guild take to find/kill some targets? What game-breaking things could make this strategy/app not work?
tl;dr I am going to make a tool/app to help guilds accomplish bounties without spending a ton of time, provided there is enough interest and people think the strategy will work.