Suggestion Advanced Guilds

C

Christofosho

Hey everyone,

Long ago I held a community brainstorming session and came up with an idea to expand the community elements within the game. Specifically, I wanted to discuss with the community the idea of making guilds more involved and allowing for an additional layer of complexity within them.

The following link is the result of the discussion, and can easily be developed further if I end up having the time.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rKh2eTB3aLtsFA0H2GjHKpfkawYawL6otVFI2kgU63Y/edit?usp=sharing

The idea is to build on top of the current guilds. These would remain, and the option to upgrade your guild would be given by an NPC.

Let me know what you think,

Christopher
 
Love this idea. I think that something like this may have to be simplified for initial release, and features could be added on as they are needed.

Regarding the Guild NPC, what if he could be found on something like shipwreck island? Obviously such a thing isn't in the game, but since content is going to need to be added at some point, it might be a good start, since it would just require a very basic surrounding landscape and the actual structure would simply be various ship models. It would make sense lore-wise, considering the "Pirate Lords" one could be found inside the main room inside Shipwreck Island and he could grant access to advanced guilds.

Instead of getting 4 names to sign a charter, what if the Guild had to complete "missions" that would require one way or another, at least 5 people to complete? It would almost be like proving their worth to the Lords and/or doing favours for them. Could be one ground task and one fleet task, taking place in isolated server instances in unique "arenas" so that there's no interference. Similar to the Black Pearl Boss battle, but on a smaller scale.

Also, it doesn't make much sense for someone to just "Buy" an island - who are you buying it from? What if instead, you and your guild fought for an island via a quest through that same Guild NPC? And then you have to pay a certain amount to the Guild NPC so that they allow your takeover to take place. Think of a reverse Jolly Roger invasion. Once the takeover is complete, you and your guild has the island and is able to start rebuilding/building structures. There would be 4 unique islands to select from, with varying cost and difficulty to take over. It would be unusual for every guild to have the same exact island.

I know this sounds like a tall order, but I mean this is obviously something for the far future. Can't hurt to throw around some ideas.
 
I like the idea of being able to advance your guild but I worry about the magnitude of this. The nice thing about Pirates over many other games was that it was community based as opposed to competition based. Pirates getting additional gold because of successful guild-work sounds great, because the individuals in the guild are reaping benefits of their own teamwork. But you start getting to guild islands and manners where you're really pushing for competition between guilds, it seems like that is pushing the game towards more competition.

It could be neat to have more bonuses and inner workings for guilds. But as far as my opinion goes, this should only be something that brings a guild's community closer; not something that is threatening other guilds in a competition to be the best. The nice thing about PvP and SvS is you can choose to participate or not. Implement too much change to guilds and all pirates & guilds will be caught up in it, whether they want it or not.

That's just my thought on it.
 
I just wanted to comment on the balance of community and competition in that previous post.

However, after time to think about it; the options could be nice for the guilds that want it. As noted above, participation is by choice of the guild members.

As long as it doesn't interfere with regular gameplay of others, more guild options could be enjoyed by those that want them.
 
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A few more additions:
- Guild Ranks can be renamed and added by Captain/Quartermaster
- More structures/structure spots, max should be 15-20 at final level, for other structures, could have a fishing jetty, gypsy camp for brewing potions, tailor (which would also include the peddler outside), blacksmith and gunsmith, different kinds of houses for guild members (maybe one tenement/apartment style building where up to 10-20 members could live), barracks for recruiting up to 10 lv25 NPC Guards at high costs, light sloops that patrolled the island (on actual land map rather than sea) and fired during NPC invasions
- NPC Invasions by Jolly, EITC, and Navy
-Possibly PvP invasions by other guilds? (The time these invasions happened would be decided by the defenders and then agreed upon by both parties, the attackers if successful would take %10-%20 of the defender's gold, defenders benefit by not having their gold stolen and can launch a counter attack, you can only attack guilds where the leader has set a "PvP Flag" on the island, likewise only guilds with the PvP Flag could attack other guilds. PvP flag is locked for 7 days after activating it before it can be disabled again, to prevent abuse)
-Ability to rename the island (Captain only)
 
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StueGryffindor said:
I like the idea of being able to advance your guild but I worry about the magnitude of this. The nice thing about Pirates over many other games was that it was community based as opposed to competition based. Pirates getting additional gold because of successful guild-work sounds great, because the individuals in the guild are reaping benefits of their own teamwork. But you start getting to guild islands and manners where you're really pushing for competition between guilds, it seems like that is pushing the game towards more competition.

It could be neat to have more bonuses and inner workings for guilds. But as far as my opinion goes, this should only be something that brings a guild's community closer; not something that is threatening other guilds in a competition to be the best. The nice thing about PvP and SvS is you can choose to participate or not. Implement too much change to guilds and all pirates & guilds will be caught up in it, whether they want it or not.

That's just my thought on it.
Click to expand...

Hmm. The islands weren't meant in any manner as competition between other guilds. I mean, we could put it out there to have competitive traits within the guilds, but I wouldn't say anything there deems worthy of competition.

Talaith said:
A few more additions:
- Guild Ranks can be renamed and added by Captain/Quartermaster
- More structures/structure spots, max should be 15-20 at final level, for other structures, could have a fishing jetty, gypsy camp for brewing potions, tailor (which would also include the peddler outside), blacksmith and gunsmith, different kinds of houses for guild members (maybe one tenement/apartment style building where up to 10-20 members could live), barracks for recruiting up to 10 lv25 NPC Guards at high costs, light sloops that patrolled the island (on actual land map rather than sea) and fired during NPC invasions
- NPC Invasions by Jolly, EITC, and Navy
-Possibly PvP invasions by other guilds? (The time these invasions happened would be decided by the defenders and then agreed upon by both parties, the attackers if successful would take %10-%20 of the defender's gold, defenders benefit by not having their gold stolen and can launch a counter attack, you can only attack guilds where the leader has set a "PvP Flag" on the island, likewise only guilds with the PvP Flag could attack other guilds. PvP flag is locked for 7 days after activating it before it can be disabled again, to prevent abuse)
-Ability to rename the island (Captain only)
Click to expand...

I like these additions. I do agree that the framework I supplied is limited, and that it could be expanded. Also liking the island naming idea. Neat! PvP invasions could be a neat opt-in idea, as per @StueGryffindor :).

Chris
 
I like this whole idea of an advanced guild. I personally thought the old guild system was very bland the basic. I like the idea of a council. It adds a sense of democracy to the pirate world. There should be an even number of council members (6 would be the ideal) and when a consensus cannot be reached the quartermaster can serve an arbiter.

The one thing I am not fond of are the Guild islands. While the islands do sound like a cool idea I have my concerns. My biggest concern is that guild islands will attract the guild members to stay and socialize at their island instead of spots like Tortuga. I may be exaggerating this a little bit but if everyone is at their islands instead of population hubs then new players might find the game discouraging to play. If they see themselves all alone they might get false thoughts about Tlopo like, "Wow like no one plays this game." I remember seeing everyone at Tortuga socializing made me want to go and meet up with some people.
 
I like this idea. I remember when it was going on in the IRC and can't really remember what all was put forward, but here are a few of my ideas.

With the guild islands/guild "wars", so to speak, perhaps a separate server like how there's Antigua, Abassa, Vachira, etc. but when you go into this server(s), you would go in knowing full well what could happen, and I think that's something that would be taken as a vote within the guild. Perhaps a voting system could be implemented for that and other guild-related matters.

With the structures, I'm thinking alot of like what Talaith said, with a few added buildings like a physical warehouse so you can store items you don't want/need anymore for other guild members, and that it could be set as to which ranks could deposit/withdraw from it. And for the guildmaster/captain, a sort of mansion with NPC's inside that would give missions to the guild members at random, with varying difficulty.

I don't necessarily like the idea for the NPC invasions, because they could happen at random when there's only one or two guild members online, and then the guild would have to deal with the cost of repairing everything that was damaged/destroyed. If there was a way to kind of predict when these NPC invasions would happen, I think that would make it a bit more easier. PvP invasions don't sound like a bad idea, especially how the date/times of the invasion are chosen by the guild members.

Would the gold buff increase with more money being paid for it? That's something I think would be nice to have up to 5%, so as to not make it incredibly overpowered, but that the upgrade for it would be expensive enough to make most people hesitate in buying it, even with the added bonus payout.

One of my only concerns with this would be that there would be too many people all over on the advanced guild side of the game, that the normal aspect of it (the one from POTCO without all the added enhancements/benefits) would be forgotten and not have near as many people as they began to expand to the advance guilds.

Just my 2 cents on this idea :p :fish: I do not apologize for this fish whatsoever. I was trying to find something else and saw this instead :3
 
I think Guild Housing/Islands should be a separate feature from Guild PvP. Monthly maintenance is bad enough, don't need troll guilds raiding your base at the last minute and stealing all your gold.

What would happen if a guild fails to pay the maintenance cost? Would they lose access to everything? I like the idea of there being an upkeep, but I think it needs to be carefully fleshed out before it is implemented.

Personally I hate the idea of limited functionality choices. I think cosmetic options and interactive buildings should be counted separately. Lets say at first there is only Cannon Defense and Guild Hall. Then there should be two spots to add one of each. A guild shouldn't have to choose if they want to play Cannon Defense on their island or play Poker in their own Guild Hall. Now, if they were just cosmetic items then I would have no problem with there being more props than places to put them. That way Guild Islands can be somewhat unique. Currently, guilds may be forced to pick certain options because of the design of the feature. A smaller guild may be forced to buy the discount buildings because they might not be able to afford the upkeep. Which means they have fewer spots to add other cool stuff.

In short, Cosmetic Items (like crates, trees, etc...) should be added as a separate category than Important Items (like Guild Hall, Cannon Defense, etc...). For example, the Level 1 small guild island may have 5 Cosmetic slots and 2 Important slots. Upgrading the island will add more Cosmetic and Important slots while also unlocking access to additional items. Personally, I think this is a better system, that way a guild won't have to design an "ugly" island just so they can enjoy all the features it has to offer.

Instead of having multiple buildings (Guild Hall 1, 2, 3, etc...) I think that there should be one building that the guild can upgrade. So Guild Hall Level 1 may be a small shack but Guild Hall Level 5 may be a glorious mansion. This works well with my previous suggestion of having all these Important Items available to the guild. You wouldn't need dozens of Important Spots just 1 for each type. I think a Upgrade system would work a lot better because it makes goals a lot easier for the guild to achieve.
 
I really Really like this Idea, I always thought it would be a good idea for them to expand on the guilds a bit more, it seems to much like just a fraternal order which served no real purpose.
 
I like this idea the only part I don't exactly like is the gold bonus part. I never felt like this game was competition based. Even between guilds. So I feel like that would add an aspect of competitiveness that I wouldn't want. Thats all. :)
 
Like these ideas! Especially the bank. Trading/distribution of gold has always been a little limited.
 
Its Vis said:
Oh xD
I Wasnt Trying To Steal Your Idea

(Plus Yours Explains It A Lot Better)​
Click to expand...
I totally understand! I was sharing it with you cause we had very similar ideas (Guild Ships and Guild events). I would love to see these features implemented into the game.
 
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