Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Comments
While I'm putting together a recap on your suggestions for our team now, please feel free to continue sharing your feedback in this thread!
In-game I would love to see:
-custom ranks and roles
-Guild tabards/crests/insignias
-guild-related achievements (completing content w/ a guild, contributing in guild events, etc.)
-RP tools/events (promotion/initiation ceremonies, chapter meetings, guild lore-keeping, etc.)
-immersive, player-driven recruitment (no menus or chat spam pls! It would be dope to have “physical” guild invitations that were handed out)
- in that vein: would be cool to have in-game guild trials rather than the out-of-game process many guilds employ with discord bots or spreadsheets
-customizable guild perks (if I’m in a small RP guild that is focused on a divine node, it would be cool if any xp earned for a divine node was increased by a certain percentage)
-buffs or other bonuses for doing stuff with your guild
-guild businesses or some other pursuit like that where the guild is committed to shared success (raids would be this for PvE guilds I guess, maybe guild leaderboards for a PvP guild, etc.)
I think this is super important given the guild perks and how long I imagine unlocking those will take. Maybe guilds can opt for different systems to handle this scenario like how nodes handle mayoral elections?
I mentioned WoW garrisons recently in another post but if they were bigger and would of been guild housing instead then think that would of been a smashing success.
So the original post mention retention. Players would be more inclined to stay in a guild with a guild Castle that had in game representation of their guild history plus maybe a helped build the guild castle. Really guild housing is more important than player housing one is solo content other group housing. Looks like Nodes are kind of fulfilling that role. If you looked Nodes as large guilds then they would have to have guild structure (team oriented functions) in order for them to feel like a place that they belond to.
As far as guild recruiting this falls into the category of enabling behavior. For example if I was looking to do 40 man raid then their should be a way to let people know that. Thing is lots of games already have such systems in place just not too many people use such systems. Think it is because they are too tedios.
But if on the other hand you could click a few buttons and see all the guilds that are looking for a hunter for lets say PvP or raiding that would make it very easy for toons to be in the right guild. Kind of like a guild finder.
Giving the people the ability to customize their profile so when some one looks up their profile they see right wasy that they are looking for 3v3 bracket. Really just a matter of getting the right people together.
i play so many games where they spamm all ther lfg in global chat because and get instand blocked for this.
also a interface for guild requests where you can sort by rank and guild fokus (PVP/PVE/PVX/progress or chill guild and so on...) and language.
2. for me as member or guildleader is it important to know if someone is inaktive and i need to see it in the guildinterface .maybe you can write a comment at yourself if your not playing for some days or so
3. a website is for some guilds important but most multigaming guilds have there own. But if you looking after some month on this website - many guilds are inaktive or spamm "push" to push there own recrutment over others. And some guildleaders didn't check there own website or close there recrutment wen they are all gone so as a new player you have to search on many websites in older mmos before you finde someone how is there - so a ingame presentation is bedder i think and if a guildleader or someone have to aktivate it daylie manualy it shows in long games who is aktiv and who isn't. and death guilds will dissapear/be unseen
4. if you write with someone and want to invite them it is easy to right klick on his name and have a button for.
Alternatively you can coppy+paste the name in a guild menü so you didn't invite randoms in your guild by missclick. Guildranks are also usefull to organise your guild (new/member/leader/...)
5. guildaktivitys and goals are important like build up your city or slain bosses. also guildquests - but this didn't work in a long therm especially when a old guild have max lvl
6. a Guildchat is a musthave for organisation and chat to others
7. link objekts/positions in chat so others can see
8. in black desert your guildmembers are your employees, when they do guildmissions the guild earns most of this gold and they can debit money daylie. so guildmember gets extra money and less common play without a guild
9. unique guildskin like in blade and soul was also a good way for memberrecruitment
10. guildsave would also be nice to have so you can store some building materials orequippment for newbes.The guildleader can give permissions to take some of it. because trolls and guildhopper come and join random guilds to steal all the stuff even if it isn't mutch worth - tats what the permissions are for . then many guilds dissolve when this happend because everyone is frustrated
11.as an co-leader or officer you need a option to get the guildlead after a while (month or so) when they didnt show off anymore than it kill a guild because nobody have right to change ranks or so. and after a while a guild die because more and more player leave the guild or quitt the game.
12 guildbuffs - all 10 logged in members +5% more exp as an example
13 maybe guilds have there own map where they can summon and slain bosses - which they can drop out in the woods randomly by slaim enemys or gather matereals
a guild is not a big group of players with a name on it and a own chat. a MMo live or die with there guilds in it. And MMO live from sozial aspects thats why they are not only a rpg or something.
Recruitable NPC around the world to become guards/merchants in your node?
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AOC is very cleverly designing a dynamic world and environment with the goal of keeping the game evolving and fresh. So often, social dynamics like the environment can also become stagnant, which leaves players feeling that their guild (and then even projected sometimes into the game itself) is “dying”, or they are trapped in a strong guild with no other social/enjoyment options. Similar dynamics to the issue of the environment problem in a sense but on a guild/social level.
I think the best answer is to encourage/nurture small groups and then allow those small groups to broaden/choose their places (with a balanced degree of flexibility) within larger networks. This more closely resembles human diplomacy, community and social dynamics. It supports social interaction, encourages exploration, and allows the smaller group to be a place where individuals aren’t mistakenly overlooked- forging some of the deepest relationships that then extend into the larger community with trust/strength from the small core group. It allows the small group itself to forge diplomatic relationships or tensions with other small groups, allowing the social dynamic of the game to be more diplomatic, complex, and evolving. It possibly even promotes forging new guilds based on the confidence of knowing that smaller groups would be willing to join a new guild. It also supports new players in being able to construct their small group and grow alongside other players without having to be individually rejected from a stronger guild or stuck in a less active weak guild. As the smaller group grows together, it then has the power to choose the larger guild network for themselves- but they are in it together.
This could be established with a small group squad/pack/clan that gives allegiance to a guild together, with the ability to change that allegiance if they choose...
Or if could be established with the (likely unpopular) notion of keeping guilds themselves small and requiring them to work together within a node/area and forge relationships and constantly engage in politics with other guilds.
But the very best tools for recruitment and retention foster the organic relationships and teamwork that is formed through chance encounter and relationships forged within the game. Propaganda is not as meaningful, and if guilds are becoming desirable as a one-stop-shop for single players looking for fast carries or “the best guild on the server” (which hasn’t changed in forever) you know that something is unbalanced and stuck. (Just my opinion)
(Clearly this would be subject to the image not breaching TOS, and the image passing a nudity and profanity filter. Also make custom guild icons that breach TOS reportable.)
2 . Guild vs guild naval combat, and guild vs world boss naval combat.
3. An arbitrage/merchantry system of moving trade resources from one zone to another to sell them for profit, and cross continental trade for extra profit but with a pirate faction which can steal the resources.
- Thereby encouraging guild interaction and long adventurous journeys across the playable map and continents with guilds for protection when moving large quantities of trade resources, lest the Outlaw pirates steal the trade resources at sea and destroy your ship.
4. Guild ranking system (just different named roles that you can create that have different permissions, and the option to enable or disable guild role permissions to access officer chat, or to access guild bank, or to invite members. (Pretty much all noteworthy mmos have a system like this.)
5. Have different sized guild halls, ranking in prestige, which incentivises larger guilds to try and obtain the most prestigious guild halls and gives smaller guilds the chance to compete over smaller guild halls.
6. Have the option to upgrade guild halls temporarily whilst the guild has ownership of them (e.g. Improving the quality and height of the wall defense's, NPC dragon guild hall defender as a tier 3 defense upgrade, NPC ogre defenfers as a tier 2 defense upgrade, cannons as a tier 1 defensee upgrade, NPC archers as a tier 0 defense upgrade)
7. Make a barracks in the guild hall, which allows for all guild members to purchase weapon upgrades for NPC archer and knight guild hall defenders, which changes attack modifiers of the NPC guild hall defenders. (E.g. Bronze swords x100 cost 100 gold each and can be equipped to 100 knights, for a +10 damage modifier per NPC, iron swords give +18 attack, steel swords +25 attack, oak bows 10+ damage per unit equipped, yew bows 25+ damage per unit equipped)
8. Make a blacksmith which guild members can purchase armor for NPC guild hall defenders from, which increases the defense modifiers of NPC guild hall defenders. (E.g. bronze armor +10 defense per unit when equipped, iron armor +18 defense per unit when equipped, steel armor +25 defense per unit when equipped, etc.)
9. Purchasing armor or weapons from a guild hall blacksmith or barracks, and then equipping those weapons or armor to an NPC guild hall defender, changes that guild hall defender's weapon and armor skins.
10. Make a merchant camp in the guild hall, to recruit NPC guild hall defenders such as Knights and Archers. (Maximum 100 defending NPCs at a time to minimise latency)
11. Merchantry trade ships with no weapons, which can store additional trade resources and move faster than warships with cannons, to encourage the guild interaction with large scale trading mentioned above in point 3.
Those things would all be amazing, and would make a bigger incentive for guilds to stick together, and work together, to build a community of NPCs and a towns infrastructure. which can be built up, improved and strengthened just like a players character can be with gear.
For recruitment: An in-game recruitment tool (similar to Eve Online) where you can filter what you are looking for in a guild such as PvP, PvE, Raiding, large guild, small guild, roleplaying, etc. The guild who posts recruitment notices also can list requirements for the said interested party. To apply, they may require x, y, z. You can still app, but it at least tells the interested party what is expected of them. It would need to also list how many folks are in said guild currently. Some people simply want to be parts of huge guilds for PvE, others want minimal for PvP.
In conjunction with this, a forum dedicated to recruitment but sub-categorized would be awesome. Instead of just a notice, it allows leaders and officers to get a little more personal with interested parties and really let them know what they are looking for. You could post a link to your forum post and discord on the notice above as a recruiter so not only can they get basic info, but larger information about said guild.
Good point. I can imagine PvPer jumping guilds just to get into battles. Thought needs to be given as to what extent this is permitted. Maybe you need to have been out of a guild for a period of time before you are allowed to apply to a new guild?
We must remember the most important guild "tool"....it should be fun.
It works great in Minecraft and I've seen several guilds where people would log on because they saw activity in the chat ingame and wanted to join in.
In the same vein, Discord Rich Presence could help show what people are doing by showing where they are, in what kind of party they are and some info about their current character, tho I can see this becoming problematic when people run alts to spy on people as this will quickly reveal their identity so they should probably turn it off
I'd like to see sub divisions in guilds.
Guilds can be massive entities and often we are part of seperate groups sitting inside these guilds. Some groups can be as small as a 5 man crew. A way to divide up the guilds into sub groups would help in control and decisions made setting the guild on who goes where or with who.
Having these captained or led by designated roles would give ranks meaning sorting the guild this way.
We always have players that like to play with specific squads and designating them within a guild would be a way for them to stand out. They could be set up around roles or close friends but also be switched up in a moment to affect the need at the time. Need a training group designate a lead and put your trainees in it. Need a raid party to flank designate and send em.
Make it a versatile and reactionary group system that can be static or temporary.
Even being part of multiple squads at the same time would help.
One a static friends group, the other a temporary raid group!
An example would be officers may control a few groups of sergeants and the guild lead would control the officers. Each designated group would be able to see raid calls in chat colors refered to under their lead.
This will give all ranks a sense of belonging and not leave people lost in the fray as easy.
Also allow these groups to be named in the guild as well and shown.
Thanks and hope to see you all on the battlefield!
I actually pretty much agree with most that's been said in here.
My only concern is if we can get a in game chat with Guild + Alliance guilds. Why? Because we will have over 300 members, I really would love Person A at 2am to be able to broadcast within the game to see if there's anyone from the guild who can help with XYZ.
We can utilize discord as an alternative but I would love something in game.
So far I have read great ideas. Keep it up !
This is mainly a Guild Retention Idea.
Mobile App that has in game guild chat integration. Something similar to the Wow Armory but specific to guilds.
Roster, Messages of the Day, Daily, Weekly, Monthly Goals. Calendar and Guild Only Chat.
If a player has a Store/Tavern it would be nice if they can see current inventory/Stock. This may incentivize them to log on to top things up or if they are in an area where they can access an Auction House they can see what is listed, but can only buy if logged in. They can also see all their character stats. You could even put in a talent tree simulator so players can plan their builds and see what a build might do for their character by playing around with the points.
This way even casuals can feel connected to the guild and game when at work or with the family. They can chat with their guild mates, see what events are coming up and set reminders on their mobile device via push notifications.
Love a good story and lore.
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A divine node can use some sort of religious theme to discover guilds in and around the area.
Military, similar but themed towards its style.
same with scientific and economic.
They could acquire their information differently but have an area to retain information across the node and it's vassals as well as allies.
Each node type could have it's own advantage/disadvantage to the area of information and how the information is obtained.
Could seem a bit complicated, but as the world grows and connects, so does the information available.
Players could have the option to go the different nodes outside of their vassals if not flagged as an enemy to said node being able to post their information to be shared across the nodes that is connected.
Like the internet
EDIT:
this is intended for guild recruitment and information for guild recruitment purposed so players can look up what is in their area if anything catches their eye. If not, they can travel to neighbouring civilizations and find what's around that area
If you dont want your information on a guild recruiting board, make sure your appointed recruiting officer with permissions doesn't post anything on it or anywhere else.
We're excited to kick off our next topic on guild halls, but in the meantime, please feel free to keep leaving your notes on recruitment and retention for us here!
-Outside of the game:
Most guilds are already going to use something like discord to communicate and keep track of info. I feel like creating your own system in the game wouldn't be used to its full potential due to apps such as discord or teamspeak.
I don't have a lot to put here as I feel like the focus should be completely in-game.
As for recruitment and retention though I have some ideas of what players would probably like.
In-game:
Invitations should not be a hassle, something simple like /guildinvite Heartbeat should be enough and the target player would get a yes/no pop-up on their screen. A guild list that allows for filtering of what kind of activities a guild focuses on or a leaderboard for the hardcore players that just want to apply to a top ranked guild and allows players to contact recruiters of that guild would be helpful as well. A chat message pops up for recruiters saying "[Name] is interested is joining your guild". So it would go both ways, applying is simple, and sending invites is simple.
Lots of games have a message of the day for your clan/guild that is set by a higher ranked member right when you log-in it is displayed as the first notification in chat, this is very useful for quickly sharing info to those who may not check other sources such as discord as often or may not have discord roles set correctly as those can get jumbled up time to time.
Expanding on the previous point, just like how a MOTD would display in chat, a guild could have a calendar that would be available to all members to show when certain guild events would occur and this would be from anything simple all the way to a scheduled node/castle war or siege, or to defend a friendly caravan as it sets off, this would display a message in chat on regular points as the event draws closer and closer, IE 4 days away, 3 days away, and then displaying regular messages hourly until the event kicks off and is auto deleted. Notes could be set by whoever makes the event, such as bring X materials or be prepared to fight for example.
Guild warehouse, items and money can be deposited by members that could then be used to benefit for guild related activities or objectives/goals. These items could be obtained by members willingly contributing to the warehouse themselves or auto obtained from completing guild related missions. Items/money could be distributed to members similar to how BDO does their payouts.
There doesn't have to be a lot of systems or content for a guild to retain members, but rather the feeling that a member has a place in that guild that is what makes them want to stay, or for other reasons such as the guild is very sociable and active. Easily accessible info makes it easy for members to know what the guild plans on doing or is currently doing that they can participate in or contribute towards. On the flip side, tracking contribution is helpful for kicking lazy members that only plan on leeching off the guild, or for rewarding very helpful members.
Ergo, player in non-competitive guilds have no real incentive (again, non-competitive) to deposit excess stuff in the guild as they won't be recognized for their generosity …but a point/karma system would change that.
Basically: Add a counter to guild members that is normalized to some standard in the value of goods, and have that information displayed somewhere so that guild leaders can spend 1 minute finding who has earned a cookie instead of 20 minutes combing through logs and deciding it isn't worth the trouble.
Yes, too much restraint will make the game more disgusting and will reduce the fun of the game. Isn’t it better to be free? Why do we force ourselves to play games, we are here to play games
That would be so COOL