AutoDKP User's Guide

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Download
  3. Installation
  4. Basic Concepts
    1. Raids
    2. Player Table
    3. Sorting
    4. Formula Editor
    5. Point Systems
    6. Recording Points
    7. Linking Points From One Raid to the Next
    8. Non-Raid Members
    9. Adjustments
    10. Locking Points
    11. HTML Format
  5. Menus
  6. Preferences
    1. Point Systems
    2. Alternates
    3. Date Formats
    4. Skinning
  7. Items Manager
  8. HTML Viewer
  9. Customizers
  10. Import/Export: Sharing AutoDKP Data
  11. Raid Merger
  12. About

Introduction

AutoDKP is Dragon Kill Points software (DKPSoft) used to facilitate administration and management of DKP points attributed in instances. It is a Java application (not an in-game AddOn) that runs on the same computer that World of Warcraft is installed on. Guild record keepers will use AutoDKP to automatically calculate points after raids are finished.

The program can be used to manage the entire record keeping and point calculation process (for Boss Kill, Zero Sum, and Time-based systems), or it can be used as a simple out-of-game RaidTracker viewer, or as a calculator to determine points before they are entered into other point system software.

AutoDKP requires CT RaidTracker, because it reads the CT RaidTracker log to automatically fill in the raid information - such as what loot dropped, who got what loot, and which bosses were killed.

Use any CT-modified Raid Tracker version 1.25.xx, where xx is 8 or higher.
(For example, valid versions are 1.25.8, 1.25.9, 1.25.10, 1.25.11, and so on...)
Do not use any version lower or higher than version 1.25.xx (i.e. don't use versions 1.0, 2.00, etc.).
Get the latest version here: http://www.curse-gaming.com/mod.php?addid=1836

Download

AutoDKP is available from Curse Gaming and the World of War Mod Community websites.

Installation

How to install and run the program:

  1. Download the file to wherever you want to keep the program.
  2. Unzip the downloaded file.
  3. Inside the extracted folder you'll find the executable ("AutoDKP.exe" for Windows). Double click it. If you are using an Apple computer, double-click the "autodkp.jar" file instead of the "AutoDKP.exe" file. AutoDKP requires Java 1.5 or later, which you may already have. If not, you may download Java from: http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp
  4. When you start the program, you will be prompted to enter the location of your CT_RaidTracker.lua file. Because you could have installed World of Warcraft anywhere, AutoDKP cannot automatically determine this. So, just one time, you'll need to tell AutoDKP where this file is.
  5. You may encounter another window that presents you with newly found loot. If AutoDKP discovers items from your Raid Tracker that it doesn't already know about, it will show this. Don't worry about filling in any information, you can close the window and fill in the information later.
  6. The main window will now pop up, enjoy!
  7. For more information on how to use the tool, go to the Help menu and click the "About" button.


Basic Concepts

AutoDKP has a few main concepts that need to be understood before you'll be able to effectively work with the tool.

Raids

Figure 1

First among concepts is that of raids. AutoDKP is raid-based, thus, you will always be working with one particular raid at a time. This raid corresponds directly to an in-game raid. Thus, if you went to Molten Core on Saturday, then you would open AutoDKP and select the Saturday Molten Core raid.

The main raids view consists of a list of raids, and a list of point systems. The list of raids will be sorted by raid creation date. Each raid item in the list will also contain icons that help show what the raid item pertains to. If a point system is selected, then a link icon may appear on the left side of some raid items. The link icon indicates a linkable raid, or in other words, a raid where points exist for the selected point system.

AutoDKP makes it easy to determine which instance(s) a raid pertains to with the following icons:

Figure 2
Ahn'Qiraj 20
Ahn'Qiraj 40
Blackwing Lair
Molten Core
Naxxramas
Onyxia
Zul'Gurub

Player Table

Figure 3

Once you select a raid, the player table will appear. This essentially displays the RaidTracker info for the current raid. AutoDKP does not allow you to modify this data (except for player class). The info displayed is player name, player class, join times, leave times, and loot. Join times represent each time the player joined the raid, and leave times show the times the player has left the raid. If a player disconnects, or leaves and rejoins a raid, leave/join times are added for that player. A player's join and leave times determine the both the total minutes that the player is in the raid and when the player was and was not in the raid.

The player table is the central view of AutoDKP. It shows all players and the loot each player received, as well as all calculations and totals. Certain columns in the table are modifiable. Keep in mind that in the player table, each modification is saved as you make it. There is no need to explicitly save any changes to the table.

The loot column can be configured in a couple convenient ways. For both of these controls, see the bottom of Figure 1.

Sorting

When you are working with the player table, you may find it convenient to sort table data. Do this by clicking on the header of the column you wish to sort. If you wish to sort multiple columns, hold down the CTRL key while clicking the second column. This makes it more convenient, for example, to view which players of a certain class have the most points. One note to keep in mind is that the exported HTML is in the same sort order as the player table itself. Thus, sort the player table to appear the way you want, and then export to HTML. This will ensure the HTML data appears in an easy-to-read order.

Formula Editor

Figure 4

Often, loot needs to be sharded, or loot is accidentally given to the wrong player. Also, it is possible for loot to get missed by RaidTracker (this occassionally happens if your character is too far away from the recipient of the loot, in which case your RaidTracker will be missing this data). Or, perhaps you just want to add in a special bonus or penalty on a player. This requires the flexibility of the Formula Editor. On an unlocked raid point sheet, double click on the formula cell for the desired player. The formula editor, see figure above, will open. This editor will allow you to add, modify, or delete items from the formula. For example, you can remove line items that were sharded, or add line items that are not somehow in RaidTracker. Note that line items that come from RaidTracker are not removable, and instead, you can only deactivate them (because remember, AutoDKP does not modify your RaidTracker log). Custom line items that you create, however, can be deleted.

Point Systems

The next main concept is point systems. To record points for any particular raid, you need to define the formulas and values that form the rules of how points are determined. This is called a point system. Typically, guilds may only have one active point system at any one time. However, some guilds use different point systems for different instances. For example, you could use a Boss Kill system for Molten Core, and a Zero Sum system for Blackwing Lair. Or, you could use two different Boss Kill systems - each having different boss and loot values. AutoDKP supports having any number of simultaneous point systems. But before you can record points, you must have your point system defined within AutoDKP.

Recording Points

To record points for a raid, you must have selected both a raid and a point system. AutoDKP grabs the raid information from RaidTracker and the point rules from your point system settings. However, point calculation doesn't start until you officially start points for a raid. When you start points, the current raid is "promoted" (extracted from RaidTracker and saved), and a special points file will be created for the raid that corresponds to the selected point system. If you ever choose to delete points (and thus reset points) for the raid, you can hit the delete button.

Figure 5

The figure above displays info for a raid where points were not yet started. There may be many raids that have points that were never started. For example, Upper Blackrock Spire may not be a point-producing raid for many guilds. In such a case, points will never be started on that raid. If you change the top tab from "DKP" to "Bosses", you will see all bosses that were killed for that raid.

Figure 6

The figure above displays info for a raid where points were started. Notice you may delete the points for the raid and start over. You may also link points from a previous raid as well as lock formulas (see below).

Linking Points From One Raid to the Next

Another major concept is that of raid-linking. Usually you always want to base the points of the current raid off of some previous raid. In other words, the final total from a previous raid needs to be the incoming total for the current raid. In order to specify this, you must use the Link feature. If you are using AutoDKP for the first time, or if you start a new point system, you instead will probably want to enter in the incoming (initial) point values manually.

Linking raid points effectively connects the output of one raid to the input of another. Instead of having to manually copy over the resulting totals from the previous raid into the current raid, you can simply link the current raid to the previous raid with the push of a button.

Non-Raid Members

Linking to a previous raid allows you to bring the final totals of the previous raid into the current raid. It also copies players from the previous raid into the current raid, such that players from the previous raid who are not in the current raid are still saved into the current raid. These non-raid members do not gain any points for the current raid, yet their points will be available to be linked by later raids. Thus, the link mechanism creates a chain of raids that are linked together. Raid C might be linked to raid B, raid B might be linked to raid A... and thus all player points in raids C and B are automatically available to raid A.

Points, formulas, and adjustments for non-raid members can be edited just as they can for raid members. This can be useful for adjusting points for players who receive loot for non-raid sources, such as from the guild bank. You can also add new non-raid members to the raid.

The "All Players?" button allows you to show or hide non-raid members in the player table. If the button is checked, then all raid and non-raid members will appear, otherwise if the button is not checked, then only raid members will appear.
See the bottom left of Figure 1.

Adjustments

After you link a raid, you may be finished with points. However, guilds usually employ special bonuses or penalties that cannot be automatically applied. These subjective points are called "adjustments". When you define your point system, you are allowed to specify a certain number of adjustments. Each adjustment will show up as a separate column in the point table. Adjustments are positive or negative numbers that can be added to the total. For example, you could add a punctuality/duration column in which players get 2 points for being both punctual and staying the entire raid duration (and perhaps 1 point for one of the two, 0 for none).

In Figure 3 above, the "Misc" and "Donations" columns were defined by the user in point system preferences as the adjustments. "Misc" is a catch-all column where any kind of point fix needs to be made. The "Donations" column is for guild bank donations.

Locking Points

After adjustments, you should be done with points. At this time, you should lock points by pushing the Lock button. This effectively freezes your formulas, which prevents any future changes to formula rules from effective the calculations of the raid points you just finished. Locking points also prevents accidental modification of the player table.

HTML Format

You will probably want to share points with fellow guild members, and AutoDKP provides a feature to export points into an HTML format. Typically, guilds will have a website (either their own or hosted by sites such as GuildPortal) upon which you can post your HTML file.

AutoDKP allows you to fully customize the HTML format with your own desired column names and Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) styles. From the Preferences window, you can access HTML customization features. A CSS template is used to provide default styling of the HTML format. You may use the Style Editor to make modifications upon this style sheet. See W3 Schools for a short tutorial on how to use CSS.

Optionally, you can include the raid creation date, as well as general notes and notes that are specific to each point system. All of these optional features are accessible from the Preferences window.

Menus

Preferences

The Preferences Window allows you to define point systems and set up alternates.

Point Systems Preferences

When you first use AutoDKP for your guild's point system, you will first need to tell AutoDKP what that point system is. The point system settings that AutoDKP provides should allow you to define most any strategy.

Figure 7

The figure above displays point system creation. When you create a point system, a key is generated based upon the name that you gave to the point system. The key will never change from this moment on, however, you can change the name of the point system as much as you like without impacting any point data that may already have been saved. Thus, the key serves as the true identifier of your point system. You probably will never need to know what your point system key is, however.

Point systems come in three basic varieties: Boss Kill, Time-based, and Zero Sum.
Your point system may use one, two, or all of these three DKP types simultaneously.

The Loot Categories Tab allows you to set up groupings of loot values on a per point system basis. Loot Categories are a handy way of assigning values to loot. Instead of assigning a value to each individual item, you can define a Loot Category, and then assign the category to many items. This allows you to group items with the same values together, so that you can easily change loot values for multiple items at once. For example, all class-restricted BOE (bind on equip) items can be assigned the same value. A loot value can be entered as a positive or negative point value, or as a percentage. If a loot value is entered as a percentage (by entering a number followed by the "%" sign), then that percentage is always applied to the incoming (previous raid) points. Note that loot values for individual loot is never entered in preferences, instead, they are entered in the Item Manager. The preferences for point systems only handles categories, not individual loot value.

The Adjustments Tab allows you to set up custom columns in your player table. These custom columns allow you to set aside special column in the spreadsheet where you can enter in custom point values. These point values are editable even after formulas are locked (i.e. points are finished) for any given raid. For example, you could add a column for punctuality where bonus points would be entered for all members who were not late to the raid. Adjustments are automatically incorporated into calculations. You can even specify an initial value for the adjustment column to save some typing when recording points.

The HTML Tab allows you to define a custom note that will be inserted into the HTML outputs of your points. Each point system can have its own custom HTML note. An example use of this is to include the rules for how your point system works.

Alternates

Sometimes, players will have their alternate characters participate in guild raids. How points are handled for alternates may vary from guild to guild. By default, AutoDKP will treat alternates as separate players, and each alternate will have its own points. However, by using the Alternates preferences, you can combine alternates into one player, such that AutoDKP will treat a player's alternates as being the same as his/her main character. Thus, the points for all a player's characters can be pooled.

Set up alternates such that the player's main character appears on the left, while all of the player's raid-attending alternates appear on the right. Once you specify alternates for a player, that alternate will never be shown in the player table again (unless you delete the alternates setting for that player). Instead, the player's main character will appear in the alternate's place.

Date Formats

You may customize the way dates appear within the program. For example, you can change the time format from 12-hour to 24-hour. You can also specify your own time zone and have the time automatically adjusted from server time to your own locale. Furthermore, you can switch around the order of the dates, such as swapping the position of the month and day. Virtually any date format is supported. Access date formatting features from the Preferences Window (Format tab).

Skinning

With skinning technology, you can greatly change the appearance of AutoDKP. The Theme allows you to change the program color scheme. You can optionally specify a second theme, upon which the color scheme will be a combination of the two. The Watermark allows you to specify a background pattern. This semi-transparent background can range from simple null (empty) space to a complex mathematical pattern. You may even disable skinning to increase overall performance, or if you prefer the vanilla AutoDKP look and feel. Skinning features are accessible from the Preferences Window (Skin tab).

Items Manager

Figure 11

The Items Manager is an important aspect of AutoDKP. The Item Manager displays all loot that AutoDKP knows about. It also shows the value, per point system, assigned to each loot item. The purpose of the Item Manager is to allow you to view and modify loot values on a per-item basis. You can enter in direct loot values, or you can assign a loot category (as defined in your point system preferences) to each loot. There are also handy filters that allow you to navigate through hundreds of potential loot items easily.

Note that you must explicitly hit the Save button to save your changes. Changes are not saved as they are made, and this allows you to recover from accidentally changing the value of a loot, and then forgetting what you may have changed. Unlike the player table, which saves each modification as you make it, the Item Manager requires an explicit Save.

HTML Viewer

Figure 12

The HTML Viewer allows you to view your raid points in HTML form. By pressing the "Copy to Clipboard" button, you copy all the HTML to your computer's clipboard, which you can then paste into another application or web page. The idea is that once you have finished points (remember to Lock them), you will usually want to post them somewhere. Typically, guilds post their points on websites, such as GuildPortal. You can copy this HTML to the website and everyone will be able to view the points.

The Preview button allows you to view the HTML as it would actually look inside a web browser. It is a quick way to verify that you did points correctly. Note that the HTML Viewer may not support all CSS styles. If you do not see that a certain style is supported, you may wish to view your HTML in a standard browser, such as Internet Explorer, FireFox, or Safari.

Customizers

No amount of automation can provide the correct answers for every situation, and thus complete manual intervention is needed. A customizer exists for each point system to fine tune your calculations. Customizers are accessible from a customizer button below the raids list. The Customizer button will appear and be enabled when points have been started for a raid, and if Formulas are unlocked.
At the bottom right of Figure 1, you can see the Zero-Sum and Time customizer buttons.

Figure 13

The Boss Kill customizer allows you to apply or unapply the kill points for each boss on a per player basis. Though Boss Kill points are calculated automatically, it may be necessary to remove/add a player as contributing to a boss kill. As you click each checkbox, the changes to the raid points are applied (and saved) immediately.

Figure 14

The Zero Sum Distributions customizer allows you to apply or unapply the distributions from each player's loot on a per player basis. Though distributions are calculated automatically, it may be necessary to remove/add a player as receiving distribution points from any particular loot. As you click each checkbox, the changes to the raid points are applied (and saved) immediately.

Figure 15

The Time customizer allows you to apply or unapply time points on a per player basis. Though time points are calculated automatically, it may be necessary to remove/add a player as receiving a certain type of time point. As you click each checkbox, the changes to the raid points are applied (and saved) immediately.

Import/Export: Sharing AutoDKP Data

Figure 16

AutoDKP is designed to be easily sharable among those who might record points for a raid. The Exporter and Importer allow you to export and import AutoDKP, respectively.

The AutoDKP Exporter allows you to export as much AutoDKP data (including points, raids, point systems, loot, alternates settings, etc.) as you need. When you export data, that data is saved into an export Zip file. That Zip file can then be sent to a friend (i.e. via email) who also has AutoDKP. Thus, your friend can thereby use the Importer feature of AutoDKP to import your export Zip file, and his/her AutoDKP will then have all of your exported AutoDKP data.

When you import data, you overwrite your own data with that of the imported data except when importing items and alternates settings. When you import items or alternates, the imported data is appended to your data, such that you don't lose these settings.

Raid Merger

Figure 17

The Raid Merger allows you to merge two raids together in order to create a new merged raid. This merged raid contains everything from each raid, minus the duplicate information.

Merging raids is useful when you want to combine information from multiple Raid Tracker raids. For example, sometimes you may end up with multiple Raid Tracker raids if you switch from one character to another (i.e. you log off your main character to log on your alt). Also, perhaps you have imported raids that come from separate sources yet, each refers to the same raid. In theses situations, it's handy to be able to combine raids into one.

About

AutoDKP written by Anarch of Silvermoon / Drano of Spinebreaker (Josh Sandusky)
Contact me in-game or send emails to: joshsky@gmail.com