[2021] Explanation of manual cluster queue priority system

Hi all,

here is a short explanation of how the manual cluster queue priority system works.

1. The cluster queue in general works on an alliance level.

2. Based on the players from the alliance who are in the queue or already in the zone, the system calculates how many total player slots that alliance will get in the zone in the upcoming queue cycle. The calculation is based on the average IP value of the players in the queue or zone. This calculation is not affected by any manual queue priority settings.

3. Once the system has calculated how many total slots an alliance will have in the zone, it checks if the current number of alliance members in the zone is higher or lower than that. If it is higher, some members will be kicked form the zone. If lower, some members can enter the zone.

4. The system then determines players to be added to or removed from the zone based on the following:

Entering (if there are fewer players from the alliance in the zone than the alliance has slots)

• The system will pick the player from the alliance in the queue with the lowest party priority number. (priority number = the actual number that you choose in the cluster queue UI)
  
• If there is more than 1, pick the one with the lowest party member priority number.
  
• If there is more than 1, pick the one with the highest average item power
  
• Repeat the above until the all slots are filled
  

Kicking from the zone (if there are more players from the alliance in the zone than the alliance has slots)

• The system will pick the player from the alliance in the zone with the highest party priority number (if nothing is set here, it automatically counts as the highest, i.e. 100)
  
• If there is more than 1, pick the one with the highest party member priority number
  
• If there is more than 1, pick the one with the lowest average item power
  
• Repeat the above until all excess players are removed
  

Note that the above means that if no manual priorities are set, the cluster queue works exactly as before


Tipps on how to correctly use manual cluster access settings

• The absolute value of the priority number you set does not really matter. There is no benefit from setting everyone to "1" for example. The only thing that matters is order of the numbers that you use.
  
• Each party should have a unique party priority number. If multiple parties have the same party priority number, the system essentially considers them to be one large party and won't differentiate between them.
  
• If you want to structure your manual cluster queue in such a way that individual guild structures are preserved, a good way to do that is to reserve party priority ranges for each guild, such as 1-9 for guild A, 10-19 for guild B, 20-29 for guild C, etc. If each guild has 3 parties, you'd use priorities 1, 2 and 3 for guild A, 10, 11 and 12 for guild B, and 20, 21, 22 for guild C. This ensures that guild A will zone in fully before the first players from guild B can zone in, with guild C only zoning in after everyone from guild A and B has already done so.
  
• For individual parties, depending on what your aims are, you'd probably want to give custom priorities to critical roles such as party leader, tank and healer. Again, here, if you want absolute control, use each number only once. It's probably fine if you just assign a custom number to absolute key roles such as leader, tank and healer and leave the reset unassigned - which means that the system will automatically sort them based on average item power.