Idea Guild Overhaul Update (Idea)

[Darkslinger]

Guild Overhaul Concept​

Below are a couple of ideas that I personally think may freshen the Guild experience in TLOPO and improve the mechanics over its predecessor. This whole idea was inspired by this post, which reminded me of the existence of the Ship of the Line class and sparked the creation of the following ideas.

Note: I am not suggesting that these ideas should be added in the game's current state, but once it is in a stable and update-friendly state.

Guild Fleet:

For a large amount of gold, each guild could buy (and customize) its very own Ship of the Line! Being an extremely rare ship, a hefty price tag of 500,000 Gold would be suitable.

How can the GM afford it?! (S)He doesn't have to! Guild members could deposit money into their very own Guild depository, which will allow more features to be integrated. Each Guild could buy multiple ships and build their very own modified Guild fleet, all under the GMs control. The Guild Master could assign each ship to themselves, an officer or a guild member. Loot runs and other similar runs achieved by the Guild fleet would reward each Guild member with a share of the loot. So as a Guild member, even when you're offline - you're getting rewarded for being a member. Your loot ranking improves with your guild status (officer, veteran, member) as well as your participation level.

Guild Emblems:

It's important to maintain a healthy level of variation within TLOPO, which is why it would be suitable for every Guild to have their own emblem showing off their beliefs or values. Guild emblems could perhaps be worn as tattoos, sewn onto clothing or could just shine proudly along your sails. Some emblems may be laughed at, some admired and some feared.

Special Events:

I mentioned loot runs and "other runs", didn't I? It would be interesting to have multiple hourly notifications of certain EITC and Navy ships carrying specific goods from certain Islands. The fleets wouldn't be easy work, though. Hence why a powerful Guild fleet would be required to sink them. Each fleet would have a certain difficulty and a proportional reward level, an indication of whether it is worth your time or not.

(Example notification: An EITC fleet was spotted near the isles of Padres del Fuego. It is rumored to be transporting cursed weaponry. Time remaining: xx:xx, Reward Level: Low/High/Legendary)

Special fleets with unique backstories can be released sequentially as the concept is integrated into the game.
In this event, each Guild would race towards the nearest dinghy and attempt to sink each fleet to heighten their ranking in the Guild leaderboard.

Guild Leaderboards:

Competition is always a good thing. It allows pirates to aim higher and want to achieve more. There are many achievements to aim for like having the highest amount of kills, the largest Guild fleet or being the richest Guild in the Caribbean (remember the Guild depository).

Securing a top rank (#1/2/3) will surprise Guild members with all types of rewards as well as displaying their Guild names in specific leaderboards.

You must be wondering where they will be placed... As a pirate, I am inclined to pick the tavern as the most suitable place for the Guild noticeboard to be situated. A noticeboard containing all types of Guild information ranging from leaderboards to infamy and nemesis Guilds will be placed in each and every tavern in the main islands of the Caribbean. Ranking will be adjusted by many factors including Guild level - while guild members earn exp, the Guild as a whole starts leveling up.

All-time leaderboards are kept for reference. The main leaderboards are monthly leaderboards which are reset each month.

Guild PvP:

Each Guild fight against another Guild for rewards. Whenever they want, Guilds can challenge each other to Guild PvP. An all out Guild PvP match could break across multiple islands in the Caribbean where Guild members are free to attack enemy Guilds.

Guild PvP takes place after one Guild requests another to join a match. Each Guild can discuss their own tactics to increase their chances of survival. At the end of each Guild PvP match, a panel (similar to the one displayed after invasions) will show which Guild won and may branch out to show how many kills each Guild and guild member got as well.

Being successful in Guild PvP will improve your leaderboard rank as well as help you earn more trinkets. Each enemy guild member kill would result in 2 trinkets being earned.

Guild Shops:

A new type of currency, trinkets, could be introduced to the game. This currency is only accepted in special Guild vendors. These vendors can be spotted in their wagons across the Caribbean. This type of vendor will allow for new weapons (with special skills), clothing and jewelry to be released and purchased for a set amount of trinkets. In order to be able to use and continue using certain items - you must have a certain required Guild level. This will ensure that only the finest Guilds get their hands on special items as well as maintain long-term Guild loyalty!

The monthly leading Guild's (#1 in monthly leaderboard) members earn 1000 trinkets and honorary pirate robes (which can be sold for more trinkets if earned more than once) to show off their experience.

Guild Islands:

Each Guild could have their own Island (similar to housing) where their headquarters are located. There will be one Guild island all players sail to - once you're docked, you're on your very own Guild island. In order to purchase a Guild island, you must have a whopping 1,000,000 Gold. Similar to Assassin's Creed IV, the Guild Island could consist of a broken-down island which continues to improve as Guild members renovate certain aspects such as taverns, shipwrights, dinghies, potion stations, shops and Guild headquarters. Non-members could be invited to take a tour of the Guild island. Each Guild's island would be decorated with the unique Guild emblem and Guild color palette.

This idea could be expanded to serve as a base for many more features to come.

Guild Trading and High-seas quests:

A guild trading system (if high-seas trading were to be implemented) would be a great addition. It would be inspired by Assassin's Creed IV's fleet-management system. The GM would send the guild fleet on trading journeys with the required manpower and firepower to complete the task successfully. There could be multiple different trading tasks with varying difficulties and rewards. Players could be tasked to trade goods and cargo ranging from items like rum and sugarcane to weaponry - or even ordered to escort a friendly target or seize and transport high-ranking individuals while escaping enemy fleets.

Trading and high-seas quests should be a group effort, incorporating both of them into Guilds rather than having them as solo additions only should be the best way to go.

Guild noticeboard:

A guild noticeboard that stores GM messages, an event planner, daily goals, as well as general information such as who added who, who was removed, who left. There could be reasons provided for all of them, too.

Examples:

"Pirate" left the guild due to "the guild is too inactive"
"Officer" removed "player" due to "troublemaker"

Enhanced form of communication:

There should be some form of communication between online and offline members. Due to timezone differences, many guilds don't last. There should be some chat board or chat history that allows online and offline pirates to communicate. This will also allow players to provide reasons for inactivity before going inactive. Players could perhaps utilize the public-facing APIs and develop some application allowing online and offline pirates to communicate on the go!

Kick rules:

Guildmasters should be able to modify kick rules to their liking. Giving officers the ability to kick others, or taking it from them. They could also set limits or a requirement to state a reason and provide chat logs.

Also - permanent kicks. The GM can choose to permanently disallow a certain pirate from joining the guild so officers or veterans don't make the mistake of adding said pirate.

More roles:

As the current roles don't suffice, it would be nice to see more roles in the future. Such as a "co-GM" role, so GMs don't have to worry about being locked out of commanding their guilds as a result of giving others the GM tag in periods of inactivity. There could be a role similar to veteran that allows newer members to recruit others. As they might be unworthy of the 'veteran' tag.

Custom roles can also be created by the GM. This will allow for a more custom guild experience. SvS/PvP/roleplay oriented guilds can create custom ranks with certain powers. I would use this feature to create new roles including a "fleet commander" role for guild fleets.

Color-coded member names:

To make it easier for pirates to notice the ranks of other online members, the colors would look a bit like this:

Guildmaster
Officer
Veteran
Member

Guild statistics:

Statistics such as guild rankings, member increase, member activity, overall rep gain, ships sinked, enemies killed, hours played, and more.

It could also provide a deep look into each and every guildmembers progress and highlight their level increases and activities since they joined the guild.

This could be restricted to GMs/co-GMs/officers. Alternatively, more transparent guilds can share these details with all members.

More additions:

Currently, the guild experience is too two-dimensional and needs severe improvement. Guilds experience short spikes in activity that span over a long time (eg: content updates), so if there is anything else that will enhance the guild experience (eg: official guild activity planners, achievements, etc) it would attract more players to the concept of guilds and may ensure guildmember loyalty.

Conclusion:

This concludes my large list of possible ideas that would definitely change TLOPO for the better and vastly improve a flawed (and limited) system. Most of these additions can be added painlessly into the game once primary development is complete.

I would love to hear your thoughts regarding my never-ending list of ideas! What did you like or not like? Which ideas would you like to see in the near future?

 

[Darkslinger]

bump​

 

[Stormtimbers]

+1 support, very interesting ideas

 

[tlonge]

I like the idea of a guild fleet, but guild wars not so much... I hate to be condescending since these are well though out ideas, but I would like to point out that TLoPO is a relatively laid back game (aside from maybe SvS this coming update), and I'd hate to see it turn into an ultra-competitive, elitist, we're-gonna-wipe-out-your-guild sort of scenario. As for guild Islands? Nah. Some sort of basic storage on a ship or in a tavern would be better imo.

Emblems sounds interesting - like I say, I like the guild fleet idea. Special events would be cool too.

Just my 2¢

EDIT: Misread the guild wars part - it was related to the trinkets I see. I still think it'd be too difficult to implement. Multiple islands and such... You can hardly see any icons on the minimap as is, let alone try and find a rival guild.

 

[Darkslinger]

+1 support, very interesting ideas

Thanks for your support!

I like the idea of a guild fleet, but guild wars not so much... I hate to be condescending since these are well though out ideas, but I would like to point out that TLoPO is a relatively laid back game (aside from maybe SvS this coming update), and I'd hate to see it turn into an ultra-competitive, elitist, we're-gonna-wipe-out-your-guild sort of scenario. As for guild Islands? Nah. Some sort of basic storage on a ship or in a tavern would be better imo.

Emblems sounds interesting - like I say, I like the guild fleet idea. Special events would be cool too.

Just my 2¢

EDIT: Misread the guild wars part - it was related to the trinkets I see. I still think it'd be too difficult to implement. Multiple islands and such... You can hardly see any icons on the minimap as is, let alone try and find a rival guild.

I may have not thoroughly explained the concept (as I didn't review it, just jotted down ideas). But I totally agree, I wouldn't like to turn the game into a hostile environment - hence why the trinkets mechanic would be a good reason to participate in these friendly competitions.

The Guild wars would work in a similar fashion to PvP (except it's one day a week, and on pirate islands) - one Guild requests to fight the other and if both agree, members start teleporting into the chosen island. It would be a large scale PvP scenario where you'd know who you're fighting (this is where emblems also come in).

I personally think that if the concept is clear enough, it could easily be implemented.

Regarding the guild headquarters, I think it would be interesting to see it approached in multiple ways ranging from Guild islands to Guild meeting rooms aboard ships.

Your storage idea is also really good - adding storage into the game might mean adding trading elements and trading missions where you have to securely transport cargo or goods as a Guild from point A to B while escaping bounty hunters. The trading and goods ideas could branch out even more in the future.

 

[Rahno955]

Very cool ideas, I would love to see some of this implemented in some way.

 

[Peter Goldbeard]

I like your ideas! My guild always meant a lot to me in POTCO, even though Disney never developed them to their full potential. This will make guilds a lot more exciting! I think TLOPO should add it after their planned new content rolls out (Isla Escondida, Headstone, etc.).

I have one worry because of this: I recreated a guild from POTCO, as many people have, but most of the people in the guild from POTCO have not joined TLOPO. Therefore, my guild is small with mostly new, low-leveled members. If these guild ideas were to be implemented, I would be afraid that my guild, being small (and mostly underleveled), would get squashed when it came to competitions, leaderboards, etc. How could this problem be dealt with so that these awesome ideas could be fun and fair for everyone in every guild?

 

[Darkslinger]

I like your ideas! My guild always meant a lot to me in POTCO, even though Disney never developed them to their full potential. This will make guilds a lot more exciting! I think TLOPO should add it after their planned new content rolls out (Isla Escondida, Headstone, etc.).

I have one worry because of this: I recreated a guild from POTCO, as many people have, but most of the people in the guild from POTCO have not joined TLOPO. Therefore, my guild is small with mostly new, low-leveled members. If these guild ideas were to be implemented, I would be afraid that my guild, being small (and mostly underleveled), would get squashed when it came to competitions, leaderboards, etc. How could this problem be dealt with so that these awesome ideas could be fun and fair for everyone in every guild?

I previously mentioned that most leaderboards that really matter are the monthly ones, there's a clean slate each month and more Guilds will be given the opportunity to reach the top and maintain their spot until the end of the month. Monthly leaderboards will ensure that no single Guild dominates the leaderboards and that the trends will constantly change every month.

Also, it's rewarding in the sense that each day spent as a Guild within the top 5 rank could rewards guild members (eg: 50 trinkets, potions, gold, special clothing, etc.) depending on the rank they have achieved and in which category they have achieved it. This may allow Guilds with certain favorite activities (eg: fishing) to be recognised as masters in the art of sailing, fishing, combat and more.

As a small and low-level Guild, you can exponentially improve within a few months and start attempting to secure your place at the monthly top spot. The more you do so, the higher your all-time rank would be in the all-time leaderboards. But the all-time leaderboards are mainly for reference - the real-time monthly leaderboards will definitely prevent your new Guild from being squashed as long as you're up to the task!

 

[Peter Goldbeard]

I previously mentioned that most leaderboards that really matter are the monthly ones, there's a clean slate each month and more Guilds will be given the opportunity to reach the top and maintain their spot until the end of the month. Monthly leaderboards will ensure that no single Guild dominates the leaderboards and that the trends will constantly change every month.

Also, it's rewarding in the sense that each day spent as a Guild within the top 5 rank could rewards guild members (eg: 50 trinkets, potions, gold, special clothing, etc.) depending on the rank they have achieved and in which category they have achieved it. This may allow Guilds with certain favorite activities (eg: fishing) to be recognised as masters in the art of sailing, fishing, combat and more.

As a small and low-level Guild, you can exponentially improve within a few months and start attempting to secure your place at the monthly top spot. The more you do so, the higher your all-time rank would be in the all-time leaderboards. But the all-time leaderboards are mainly for reference - the real-time monthly leaderboards will definitely prevent your new Guild from being squashed as long as you're up to the task!

Ok, I see a point here. Larger guilds will have to use their size and power to their advantage, while smaller guilds must strategize to make up for their numbers. I think that could work! Good idea!

 

[Punkin Pie]

I like the idea of having a larger "guild ship" for a guild home base. Maybe it could be driven only for certain events, like the Treasure Fleet or Queen Anne's Revenge.

You have some nice ideas, but a couple of them might have some downsides.
Guild Wars in Tlopo, as fun as it may sound, would most likely cause aggression between guilds.
I've always liked the idea of new tattoos for accomplishments, but not to signify guilds. I think that would brand someone like a gang. Then folks would probably be switching guilds just because of a "cooler tattoo" lol. Then again, a tattoo of a pie might be cool! I'm on the fence with this one.

I've had a leader board idea that I've been meaning to make a thread on. I'll post that later separately, as it doesn't only affect a guild, but folks as individuals also.

Nice ideas!

 

[ThunderStorms]

I kind of like the Idea of the GM Buying the ship for us myself ! lol

 

[Hoot]

Not really I prefer to have SVS do this for me. I don't like to much change.

 

[Kat Five Knives]

I like a lot of your ideas. I'm not too fond of the Guild Wars idea simply because being hostile to others just because of their guild affiliation is against our own guild rules. I think that's just asking for trouble. I would love for our guild to own a large ship such as an SOTL for treasure fleets and such. A lot of details would have to be worked out, such as who would have the authority to launch it? Officers only? etc.

POTCO had guild leaderboards and I'm sure that's going to be implemented at some point in TLOPO. As I have stated on other threads, I would love for our guild to have a private place where we can meet, be it a guild hall, an island, etc. But it needs to be restricted to guild members only OR allow the GM/officers to restrict access based on some menu (sort of like ship boarding permissions).

There's a huge problem with Guild Emblems. If you mean player-customized emblems, then the problem is that each design would have to be vetted. You know as well as I do that without some sort of vetting process the Caribbean would be full of unmentionables everywhere. This would require the attention of staff, whose services we rely on are 100% voluntary. While it would certainly be a very awesome idea (our guild has an emblem already and it would be great to have it in game as well), I just don't think it's feasible .

I like your post and you have a lot of really great ideas here!

 

[Darkslinger]

Guild Wars in Tlopo, as fun as it may sound, would most likely cause aggression between guilds.

I replied to tlonge regarding this issue - guild wars are a weekly thing and it's purely PvP but for Guilds. The aim of having these Guild Wars is mainly for rewards. It could be called Guild PvP, but I thought Guild Wars would be a more appropriate name.

Here's my reply to him:

I may have not thoroughly explained the concept (as I didn't review it, just jotted down ideas). But I totally agree, I wouldn't like to turn the game into a hostile environment - hence why the trinkets mechanic would be a good reason to participate in these friendly competitions.

The Guild wars would work in a similar fashion to PvP (except it's one day a week, and on pirate islands) - one Guild requests to fight the other and if both agree, members start teleporting into the chosen island. It would be a large scale PvP scenario where you'd know who you're fighting (this is where emblems also come in).

I personally think that if the concept is clear enough, it could easily be implemented.

Regarding the guild headquarters, I think it would be interesting to see it approached in multiple ways ranging from Guild islands to Guild meeting rooms aboard ships.

Your storage idea is also really good - adding storage into the game might mean adding trading elements and trading missions where you have to securely transport cargo or goods as a Guild from point A to B while escaping bounty hunters. The trading and goods ideas could branch out even more in the future.

I've always liked the idea of new tattoos for accomplishments, but not to signify guilds. I think that would brand someone like a gang.

I mean, we're pirates after all! (and it's optional)

folks would probably be switching guilds just because of a "cooler tattoo" lol. Then again, a tattoo of a pie might be cool! I'm on the fence with this one.

This issue has an easy work-around I mentioned in the main post - to prevent valued members from leaving, there's a loot ranking amongst Guild members (increases with participation and Guild status). Moving to a different Guild would mean losing this ranking and having to start all over again - Guild members could suggest new emblem ideas instead.

I believe these concepts add more to a lacking system and implementing Guild events and Guild areas as I have mentioned will definitely create a strong relationship between a Guild and its members.

 

[Darkslinger]

I like a lot of your ideas. I'm not too fond of the Guild Wars idea simply because being hostile to others just because of their guild affiliation is against our own guild rules. I think that's just asking for trouble. I would love for our guild to own a large ship such as an SOTL for treasure fleets and such. A lot of details would have to be worked out, such as who would have the authority to launch it? Officers only? etc.

POTCO had guild leaderboards and I'm sure that's going to be implemented at some point in TLOPO. As I have stated on other threads, I would love for our guild to have a private place where we can meet, be it a guild hall, an island, etc. But it needs to be restricted to guild members only OR allow the GM/officers to restrict access based on some menu (sort of like ship boarding permissions).

There's a huge problem with Guild Emblems. If you mean player-customized emblems, then the problem is that each design would have to be vetted. You know as well as I do that without some sort of vetting process the Caribbean would be full of unmentionables everywhere. This would require the attention of staff, whose services we rely on are 100% voluntary. While it would certainly be a very awesome idea (our guild has an emblem already and it would be great to have it in game as well), I just don't think it's feasible .

I like your post and you have a lot of really great ideas here!

Thanks!

I kind of clarified the concept of Guild Wars in my previous replies. It's more of a reward-based PvP system rather than a long-term grudge against a Guild.

This is how the Ship of the Lines captain is chosen:

Each Guild could buy multiple ships and build their very own modified Guild fleet, all under the GMs control. The Guild Master could assign each ship to themselves, an officer or a guild member.

Meaning there could be multiple Ships assigned by the GM to certain trusted players within the Guild. They have the authority to launch it and are the only ones given permission to sail. Also, the appropriate thing to do is disallow non-Guild members from boarding your Guild fleet.

Once you invest a lot of money into your Guild fleet (multiple Guild-customized Ships of the Line and other ships), you'll be able to take on higher level special events. There may be new types of events added in the future with backstories to them, multiple rounds of ships to fight against as well as board. Also, difficulty is proportional to the reward level.

I definitely agree with you on your last point, Guild Emblems need to be monitored closely. I'm sure most emblems won't be a problem, however once development is complete there could be a team of players/staff members who volunteer to monitor such things. I don't think there's much to worry about regarding this, maybe the max number of Guild emblems could be 10 per day (once the hype has ended).

 

[tlonge]

I replied to tlonge regarding this issue - guild wars are a weekly thing and it's purely PvP but for Guilds. The aim of having these Guild Wars is mainly for rewards. It could be called Guild PvP, but I thought Guild Wars would be a more appropriate name.

Here's my reply to him:

I think I understand what you mean better now. The fact that both guilds would have to confirm they want to PvP makes me feel a bit better about this sort of thing . I had been under the impression that any guild could attack another without warning once a week, which was setting off sirens in my head haha. I'm pretty sure @Kat Five Knives and @Punkin Pie were having the same worries.

In the case of both confirming it, I'm okay with that. I think that it would require a lot of coordination, however, seeing as TLoPO lacks a "world chat" or "server wide" chat feature. I do think that leaderboard would be nice, even if the emblems aren't implemented.

Special events would be neat - even if we don't get a guild fleet!
Interesting idea for sure!

 

[Punkin Pie]

I'm pretty sure @Kat Five Knives and @Punkin Pie were having the same worries.

Thank you for the thought, but no. I just think overall anything with the word "wars" in it is bound to cause issues. There's enough other games that have built-in aggression. Nothing against violent games, I just don't think it belongs in this game. It's just my opinion.

 

[tlonge]

Thank you for the thought, but no. I just think overall anything with the word "wars" in it is bound to cause issues. There's enough other games that have built-in aggression. Nothing against violent games, I just don't think it belongs in this game. It's just my opinion.

I meant it in that you (as well as Kat) had also voiced concern over causing "aggression" between guilds... Sorry if you felt the mention was misplaced...

 

[Darkslinger]

Thank you for the thought, but no. I just think overall anything with the word "wars" in it is bound to cause issues. There's enough other games that have built-in aggression. Nothing against violent games, I just don't think it belongs in this game. It's just my opinion.

It can always be called Guild PvP.

 

[Punkin Pie]

I meant it in that you (as well as Kat) had also voiced concern over causing "aggression" between guilds... Sorry if you felt the mention was misplaced...

Nooo not at all, no reason to be sorry! Nothing was misplaced, I just am trying to voice my humble opinion.

It can always be called Guild PvP.

That's a much friendlier name for it! It's funny how putting a nice name to make it sounds better (it does!) lol. If there was a way to be sure aggression wouldn't be an issue I'd be for it! But you know, there would be some folks who would look forward to "bashing another guild" and then their guild is hyped for it, and then they look forward to it weekly for their next victim.. then they feel the power of victory and so on an so on... It's bound to happen in something like this. I may be wrong. *shrugs*

I don't mean to be a prude against some battling - which could possibly be lots of fun - I'm just saying the end results can really go downhill fast.

PvP is fun, but I've known quite a few people who don't take defeat easily, and others that gloat in victory, lol. Just sayin!