If your %quota column is at least 110% AND is at least 5% higher than your patron's %quota column you are eligible to pass your patron. You are eligible for promotion every 42 days. You have to be in the Order of Hyssop at least one reporting period in order to be eligible.
The promotion's rationale broken down: We need something that is as fair as possible to everyone. One of the results of the policy now is that you can only be promoted past your patron, and not move up multiple positions (explained below). The one position move-up is probably the most obvious change in the policy from what was posted before. Another change, even bigger, that may not be as obvious is that your promotion is based on comparing your %quota column to your patron's %quota column now, not to your %vassal column like it was before.
Addressing the "
%quota column" part: Before, basing your eligibility for promotion on your %vassal column meant that if you passed up (enough) more XP than your vassal passed up, you were eligible for promotion. That was backwards logic though, since to pass someone, you should be doing better than THEM, not better than your vassal. Now, to be promoted you have to outperform your patron and it doesn't matter what your vassal does.
The
110% and 5% higher part is based on looking at the amount of XP involved to make that happen. We need something that is hard to attain, yet is still reachable. Our very best guess is that 110% and 5% higher than your patron is a good set of numbers to use. This is the answer to where the percentage number came from.
Addressing the "
you are eligible to pass your patron." part: The Food Chain's promotion policy has always been based on outperforming your patron, measured in that chain by character levels. (At post 126+, levels no longer dictate where you can swear, therefore levels aren't a good measurement for determining where/when you can move up.) The FC has a minimum limit of passing your patron by three levels in order to be eligible for promotion. One of the results of that policy is that when people get promoted in the FC they usually move up multiple levels. It isn't really designed in order to move them up multiple spots, it is simply the result of the having to move them in order to be able to reswear them in.
In the OH, as soon as you are precentage-wise qualified to move up at the end of a promotion period, you can move, every single time your percentages are high enough. The reason for only moving up past your patron is the only person you have proven you have the ability to pass is your patron. Most people will try to hunt hard enough make quota (or else they get removed from the chain). However, most people will also try to hunt hard enough to keep their vassal from passing them. If we move people up multiple positions, it is very likely that somone will skip ahead of someone else in the chain who is hunting enough to stay ahead of their vassal, and maybe even enough to pass their patron, but they end up getting passed from someone 3 positions below them. If I'm a couple of positions ahead of you in the chain and am working hard to pass my patron, and you skip right ahead of me, it wrecks my loyalty bonus when I had nothing to do with you getting promoted (if we were to promote multiple positions).
Honestly, I expect the single-position promotion to be the emotional hotspot of the promotion policy. It may feel like it's slow, but it is the fairest way to promote for everyone involved. If you go back and look historically at the Food Chain promotions, there were only rarely any promotions. Having the ability to move up every 42 days in the OH can result in a LOT more moves up the chain than we have seen in the past. Instead of having to outlevel by three (old FC) and getting promoted, then taking forever to outlevel like that again, now every 42 days you can move up if you're eligible.
Addressing the
eligible for promotion every 42 days. part: Our normal quota reporting period is 21 days. Many of us have been raising loyalty and building our loyalty bonus, and it is starting to show in the average XP the chain receives each day. The 42 days is a compromise between giving people an opportunity for promotion and trying to maintain as much loyalty bonus as possible. When someone is promoted, they will wreck their loyalty bonus, the loyalty bonus of their old patron (who will become their new vassal), and their old vassal (who will become their new grandvassal). At 240 hours of ingame sworn time, it takes a long time to rebuild the bonus, but makes a huge difference in the amount of XP passed up. By having a promotion time set every 42 days, it gives us about a week to get the moves done and then gives everyone a little over two weeks to run tank or robochef or something to keep them logged in somewhere safe for the next couple of weeks in order to rebuild as much loyalty bonus as possible before the next promotion period starts.
If I hunt for 100 million a week, and have a maxed loyalty bonus versus a reset one it means I pass up probably 50 million to my patron instead of 25 - 30 million. Even more important than that, consider this: Say my patron passed HIS patron last time (and we aren't waiting 42 days before promotion again). Now, I didn't get passed, but my loyalty bonus reset anyway because my patron moved. The person under me wasn't affected at all. He is trying to pass me for the next promotion, and I am trying to stay ahead. Both of us hunt for a 100 million. I pass up 29 million (reset loyalty bonus). He passes up 50 million (kept his loyalty bonus). If we don't give some time to rebuild the bonus some, whoever gets reset might continue sliding down the chain.
You have to be in the Order of Hyssop at least one reporting period in order to be eligible. part: This is just to make sure a new insert has a full reporting period in place. It's pretty easy to make more than 110% with only one day in the reporting period. It's a lot harder when you have 21 full days.
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