Royal Saqqarah Research Society/Vigils

THE LITTLE VIGIL THAT COULD

This is a post-mortem for the RSRS vigil held last Saturday/Sunday. It's purpose is to examine what went right, what went wrong, and how we can make the vigil better. We managed to get 336 sacs in 20 hours with a team that ran from, at times, 3 players up to a maximum of 15 participants and 3 generous helpers who aided but did not sacrifice and without whom we would never have made it to 300 sacs. Special thinks to MidnightDragon, Emmy, and AdrianConrad for their generous donations and tireless effort.

What Went Right

Cooperation was astounding. Everyone worked really hard, there were no complaints and comraderie was high. We were well prepared with rare items such as gold, silver and gems. We had a solid stash of wood. And when items we hadn't expected were called for, we were able to make the sac and then prep another sac of the same size forlater. This made the later sacs in the night go much more smoothly. We had two warehouses for stashing items. And Robkin, Azaton, and Tuttom having nearby facilities superior to what the guild had made it possible to do a lot of work with minimal running.

What Went Wrong

The vigil ended when we were unable to deliver two sacs of pulleys that had to be delivered within a 10 minute timeframe. We made the first one but just didn't have quite enough time for the second. There were two reasons for this. 1) We thought we had run out of cuttables. 2) We thought we weren't going to make it past the Abdju fish and pulleys are highly valuable and not something we wanted to waist. When miraculously we were able to get enough fish to survive until people could fish enough Abdju for the next 3 large Abdju sacs we discovered cuttables had been stashed in the warehouse earlier, but people had forgotten. So we went to work on cuttables using Robkin, Tuttom, guild and Azaton saws. That allowed us to do 7 at a time, but with each pulley taking 10 minutes, it just was not enough time.

AC had extra pulleys he volunteered and went to get, but communication broke down and he was unaware of the timer and thought we had more time than we did. The vigil monitor was running around cutting pulleys and so was missing the timer for 5 minute intervals at a time, so by the time she was aware of the timer hitting 5 minutes, 2 of those 5 minute periods had elapsed. So the timer went to 1 minute far sooner than expected.

We were EXHAUSTED. Staying up for 20 hours to do a vigil while a lot of fun is not a sustainable way of playing. It leads to mistakes and it leads to burnout. Not to mention, it's not all that healthy.

The majority of participants were available during the slowest part of the vigil and the fastest part of the vigil had very few (at one time only 4) players participating so people had backed up numbers of sacs and it was hard to keep track of who was doing what. We probably could have gotten another 10 sacs done even missing the pulleys had we not had this level of confusion.

We hadn't prepared enough of the easier to prepare materials and they were called for in huge quantities - 700 wood, 600 dried flax, 35 canvas. A lot of time was spent amassing these materials which, while we made the sacs, put us further behind on the smaller, but rarer items. The chaos that ensued meant a few people didn't make as many sacs as they could have and we got a bit out of order toward the end.

Next Time

• the weekend before the vigil we do any group activities necessary for the vigil - for example, a dig. The dig should be 50% to vigil and 50% to personal use and we would set a vigil minimum required

• use shifts so that people can get sufficient rest. The early part of the vigil needs only 2 people to maintain it. This part of the vigil should be done during the less populated times so that when the larger population arrives, they are there for the faster paced part. 2 people doing 50 sacs at the beginning will get the same points as 10 people doing 250 sacs at the end. All 12 people will have 25 sacs.

• early sacs do not used stored supplies. There is SO much time that all sacs should be created/gathered unless it is a rare object that one person cannot obtain within 2 hours.

• add a warehouse manager so we don't lose track of what we have. This person is in charge of all the items being made in preparation for the vigil and for telling people what is needed next. The constant question was "what should I work on". The warehouse manager will answer that question because the warehouse manager will know what we are low on and what is needed for the upcoming sacs.

• put a tent or several baskets next to the bonfire itself. These contain ONLY the materials for requested sacrifices. The warehouse manager moves what is needed from the warehouse to the bonfire storage units (BFU).

• once the pace increases from 20 minutes a sac to 5 minutes or less a sac, we move from single rotation sacrifices to multiple sacrifices per person per turn, depending on the number of people participating. For 5 people, then 5 sacrifices per person. This eliminates the case where people aren't available when the sac needs to be made, things start going out of turn, etc. Accumulate enough sacrifices to make it worth while for the person to leave the work they are doing and make the sac.

• the sacrifice caller whose job is to keep track of what sacrifices are ready to be made and whose turn is next for making them. The sacrifice caller tells the warehouse manager what is needed. The warehouse manager tells the sacrifice caller when those materials are in the BFU. The sacrifice caller then calls the next person in line to come make the sacrifice(s).

• if a sac is under 20 minutes, then it gets sac'd by either the sacrifice caller, the warehouse manager, or the person bringing the mats depending on which of the three is "next" but there isn't time to worry about lines at that point as things get crazy so just get the sac in and worry about points later.

This basically separates the actual materials needed from the person doing the sacrifice and allows people to work on what they do best. Some people kick at growing flax, some may have 12 rocksaws and can make cut stones by the dozen.

So what we need to know is who wants to do the vigils and what are the best times for them. We need 2 ppl to run it the first 8 hours, then 4 people the next 4 hours then 8 people for the rest of the vigil. They don't have to be the same 2, 4 or 8 people as long as there are enough people keeping it going at all times.

I'll be asking around in guild chat as the week prior to the next vigil comes up. We should be able to find enough people without having people have to stay up for 20+ hours. And next vigil we should easily hit 400 sacs!!!

Next Vigil weekend of April 9,10,11 sign-up

Player Name	Friday (EDT: GMT - 4)	Saturday	Sunday
Mercille	9 - 12 (PM)	2 - 10 (PM)	2 - 10 (PM)
Dracneir	3 - 3 (PM-AM)	3 - 3 (PM-AM)	3 - 3 (PM-AM)