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
1. I would like to see an Oligarchy; in essence a guild with multiple co-guild leaders with equal power. Specifically for the flying mount for castle ownership, you could designate one of the guild leaders to be first among equals. But other than that, they would be the same. To go from a Monarchy to an Oligarchy simply requires the guild leader to change structure, and to go from Oligarchy to another type would require either a consensus or super majority among the oligarchs.
2. Democracy is always fun and messy, and while I wouldn't want to be in a democratic guild myself, I know some would. I suggest going with monthly elections for guild leader and officers, and any government type change would require a super majority vote from the members. This matches the scientific nodes.
3. Plutocracy, with the highest bidder winning the leader title. The money spent goes towards the guild coffers. This fits the economic node style elections. Major changes, like government type changes, are voted on using gold. 1 gold = 1 vote. The money spent goes towards the guild as a whole.
4. Theocracy. Basically the same process as electing mayors in divine nodes. The pope/supreme ruler/ayatollah has final say in all matters, much like in the Monarchy system.
5. Kratocracy - might makes right - where the guild leader is decided through trial by combat, much like the military node mayoral system. The guild leader also has final say over everything, like the Monarchy system.
A structure to your guild's agenda is much needed in games. When they were novel in WoW, it was fun to be part of a 'team' but unless everyone had a good schedule it was just a big chat with a bank full of cloth someone piled in.
If there is going be guild pooled wealth/ items, then having certain ranks specify what is actually useful is a must.
That being the case, there needs to be defined rewards or a reputation system otherwise so it feels in some way like accomplishing something if you're one of the bottom fish. I might be new, but maybe I'm really hauling in the <needed items> and if it goes unnoticed by the higher-ups, I at least get better repair/finance leverage from my rep increase or a flat payout as I go or something. Or even have an administrative function to tie a certain level of ranks to production.
Open contracts would be neat where non-members of the guild can still fulfill the contract at a different reward rate or something. A freelancer type approach where guilds can set them out on a public board and whoever can fulfill them- a bit of mercenary activity could be fun, if there could be a PvP element to the contracts.
Customizable ranks within the web above that can have their permissions modified and moved around in the web. Including permissions to mute a player who is full of drama and needs to calm down. (Loosing permissions to any guild tools until cooler heads prevail)
Permissions you can give to a specific player not tied to rank. Such as interior decorator for the guild hall or bank slot control for our most busy crafter etc.
Near unlimited slots for ranks within the guild. So each section can have their own ranking names and titles. If not unlimited then something close to 50+
In guild ranks could be worn as titles for rp division, would be awesome
Guild bank (with controls on withdrawals and access to different tabs)
Have guild numbers limit be associated with player accounts instead of characters. This allows alts to be in the same guild and not take away from the 50 player limit. Then it also allows you to keep track of alts, problem players and helps defend against infiltration. This is like ESO
A contract payout system like BDO where you can generate money for the guild with everything you do giving the guild a % of what you earn. Have the ability to use the money generated to pay out to the guild, use for amenities, or unlock events for the guild.
Some sort of indicator to mark members as custom types like PVP, RP, PVE, Crafter, Gatherer, Processor or Merchant
Have a sub guild chat keyed to the types of marks from above with custom colors. Also having a separate officer chat function. All with filters.
Alliance chat with filters
Tool to distinguish friendly guilds and non-friendly guilds so alliances or guild friendships have a different color to them along with potential enemies.
Inspection tools for gear on players.
Guild quest/contracts board where members can ask for things to be done and offer a payout in materials or gold.
Guild advertisements link to chat or other method like a sign or poster. This link or object would show customizable stats about the guild from an audit log or typed description of the guild. This could even be a rank permission to access and send.
Guild application connected to an app based guild page like how FF14 does it. Or even connected to the link sent to the chat in the advertisement above.
Have separate sub windows in the guild tab like the following:
Main page (has message of the day, this weeks calendar events, Guild motto, guild links(like discord and websites) and guild description)
Guild Leaderboards showing info on Node contributions, Overall reputation of the guild connected to PKs, Dungeon clear status, Map % surveyed and more
Custom Group subsection for mass group invites. Example a raid team that can be named or a gathering party, there are so many options here.
Audit Log for all activity within the guild: Logins, who invited who, leaving guild, joining guild, bank activity, donations, red status, world boss kills, dungeon cleared, lvl ups, node xp earned, and guild xp earned, who was kicked and by who, etc. Each with its own toggle. This helps know where you need to work on your guild improving and where you are succeeding and when you are most active.
Roster (with member note options and officer notes to keep track of alts and other things)(Also with member location so its easier to find and group up with guildies)
Ranks (with space to describe what they are in game)
Event Calendar (maybe something that connects to an app portal for out of game use)
Guild bank management tab(something to set permissions while not at the guild bank)
Page to control the uploaded image for the guild tabard
Guild abilities tab
Finally an Alliance management tab.
Thus, when searching for a Guild, the player will be able to select the desired language from the list of languages, for example French or Russian, and first of all those Guilds for which the selected language is selected as the main one will be displayed to him.
Guild Applications
Players should be able to physically go to your guild hall and approach an NPC front desk clerk where they can apply to join the guild. This only needs to be a basic questionnaire where the editor can type questions into a text box followed by an input box for the applicant to answer accordingly. There should be various types of input methods for answer types such as a small text box, a large text box or an option for multiple choice answers. Applications can be rejected or accepted, with rejection reasons listed or the accepted applicant sent a guild invitation to join as the base rank.
Guild Roster
List the guild members, their ranks, GCPs/DKPs, and other relevant data.
Guild Emblem
Members should be able to purchase these from the guild hall, granting them a guild hall teleport with a long duration cool down.
Ranks & Permissions
Complete customization; the more, the better. Display ranks, roles, notes, etc.
Guild Bank
Accessible from the guild hall with a significant amount of slots that can be partitioned into any number of separate tabs with customizable permissions. Personally, I like the idea of starting out with a lot of slots, and then having options to expand the guild bank in the guild hall and earn even more slots. Maybe we should call this the Guild Warehouse instead of the Guild Bank, to further reinforce the fact that it should have a lot of slots.
Contribution Point System
Members can deposit specified items into the bank in return for either coin or Guild Contribution Points (GCPs). Officers can assign members GCPs for raids and use it like a DKP system; it doesn't necessarily have to be used as a contribution point system. Raid, or other valuable loot, can also be placed into the guild bank where members can pay a specified amount of GCPs or coin to withdraw them. Any additional functionalities should be determined by what makes sense according to game mechanics.
Event Calendar
Calendar with event tracking to manually log an event and add guild members to the event to track raid or other event attendance. There should also be a notes section to record things, such as dropped items from a raid and who purchased them for however many GCP/DKP.
Guild Logs
Log everything. When members log in or log out. When members kill notable boss or raid targets. When GCP or DKP are distributed or spent. When items are removed from the bank.
Guild Popularity & Guild Quests
Popularity points should be issued when members accomplish noteworthy achievements such as raid boss kills, first dungeon clears or complete specified quests. Higher popularity means more fame among NPCs, attracting them to post quests at your guild, therefore increasing the quantity and quality of quests available to members. When these quests are completed, the guild gains funds and popularity while the players that completed the quest receive the specified quest rewards. Guild levels or ranks can also be determined by a guild's popularity rating.
Guild Message Board
Most guilds forego guild websites and message boards these days in favor of Discord, which does not provide forums. A simple message board system, nothing fancy, that guilds can use to consolidate data and use as an internal knowledge base would be helpful.
Chat Mechanics
The only feature that is necessary is a basic guild chat channel where everyone in the guild can communicate altogether while logged in. Integrating the chat system with a website or external application is not necessary; everyone uses Discord. An officer chat channel as well as voice functionality is not necessary, again, due to Discord. If you disagree, then you should probably learn to use Discord better.
Guild Stocks
Anyone who owns guild stocks is traditionally known as a Guild Elder. Usually the leader retains 100% stocks at guild conception and issues them afterwards. I like the idea of the guild leader position being restricted to one person, but shareholders should possess the potential to vote in a replacement with a 50%+ vote. While Officers take care of administrative duties based on their positions, Elders are the decision makers in the guild, the two are not necessarily the same. Also, there must be a method for the guild leader to reclaim stocks from players who have not logged in to the game for a specified duration. A method for distributing dividends to shareholders should also be available for merchant guilds that may be focused on economics. If, as a guild leader, you don't like this functionality, simply keep all 100% of the stocks and don't use it.
Basic Information Menu
Small spaces to post a Message of the Day, a website link and a Discord invitation link. The location of any guild halls or other assets that members should be aware of should be listed here. Listing of guild stats such as guild popularity, your personal amount of GCPs/DKPs or any stock shares you might own. Help Button listing guilds commands and their functionality, Guild Invite button, Guild Kick button, Mass Raid Invite button, etc.
Some way to inspect offline players gear, class, level, ability
A guild report or suggestion box system that allows players to make complaints either anonymously or not that can be reviewed by officers
global guild chat mute toggle that is relatively accessible. having to edit rank permissions is rough. one button useable by specific ranks that can just shut the whole thing down if need be.
5) Just as there will be (or at least are planned to be) fulfill-able job-contracts in the towns, such a system available for guild-members only.
6) A "Guild Store" - by which we can set prices on our goods that we would only want to offer to guildies.
7) "Kick-limits" for officers that a Guild Leader can set; It'd be great to limit potential saboteurs from kicking more than so many people, per 24 hours.
Give us ways to help bring the world around us to life. Stagnant dead areas become boring and often meaningless.
1. Upload guild image for cloaks and ship sail like in Archeage
2. Audit log so we know who killed who in what guild to minimize drama and confusion (screen shots of this will save relationships).
3. An RP way of doing ranks and assignments of guild members not a static "leader" "officer" I like to be Grand Marshal with Marshals as officer or someone as Lead crafter sub rank for example.
4. A guild store that we can set up and have permissions for the various ranks.
5. A guild bank LOAN and REPAYMENT system with a settable interest rate % for members.
6. Guild hall and with more to do than just stand and look at trophies, mini games would be nice, I've always yearned for taverns and halls in these games to be an actual hang out spot for players versus just "pretending" to be having a drink and playing a game of dice.
7. Guild NPC soldiers on payroll to guard land and goods that we can equip and outfit to guild colors.
8. I want the guild to feel like an actual organization where how the game interacts with you and your guild as a real entity something (respectable) not just something players recognize (superficial).
9. The ability to set a schedule on a calendar in game, point system would be nice as well to keep track and reward those who participate in guild functions or dock points if someone PK's someone I didn't declare as enemy for example.
10. The ability to give a custom written quest to a guild member: Guild needs 500 stone. Send quest to X person and have the game count how much stone they have till they reach 500 like an other quest then come back and return items for a settable payment that I entered and already submitted for them to receive upon completion.
2. Ability to create and save equipment presets to swap easily between them.
3. Tool that allows user to test character builds. Like where you can create a character, choose classes, augments, and equipment and just see what the end result would look like so that you can tailor your in-game progression towards achieving that build.
4. Ability to get nonfictions of in-game item sales on mobile device. Would also be nice if you could check what items are available on the local market from a mobile app.
5. Node events billboard or notification system. Like getting mobile notifications if a siege is declared, monster event is occurring, or node caravan is setting off.
A Fully embraced discord paradigm would mean giving us an API so we can make our own bots AND making an "official bot" that has some basic functionality for guilds that can't or don't want to make their own bots.
Irrelevant discord paradigm might mean having (multi-group) voice comms, event calendar, raid builder/sign-ups, useful in-game chat for recruitment/diplo/spy-games. Having an option that is better than discord would probably include some immersive communication elements (like a cartography table, intrigue/spy mechanics, a verra calendar that overlays a RL calendar). Hell, maybe even have a windowed "second monitor companion" that we could put things like the map/mini-map, chat/comms, inventory & quest journal, guild activity, etc. A lot of guild organization is done out of game anyways, even if discord is made irrelevant, so something that could keep us connected to our guild when we are away from our gaming rigs would fit in to this paradigm as well.
But if AoC guild admin is not robust: imo people are going to primarily use discord anyways, then probably dont even bother with this and just give us an API and "official starter bot." Maybe just have a discord plug-in instead of a chat window (only half-joking).
tl;dr: embrace discord and give us an API and an official bot that less technical guild leaders can add to their guild discords.
Guild missions sounds downright amazing and is worth spending quite a bit of development time on if necessary. I have been the leader of many small communist-style guilds, and this would have saved me hundreds of hours of my life by having an in-game system to track resource management like this.
Being able to read and type in guild chat without being in the game is huge. I assume the easiest way to do this would be through an app, and that means having the chat history saved indefinitely. I do a pretty good job of keeping drama out of my guilds, but even still I've been in guilds where someone will say something (a racist comment, for example) and if I weren't logged in at the time I'll have no way other than one-sided screenshots with which to draw context in order to judge an appropriate penalty. Certainly larger guilds will often have even bigger issues this would be helpful for that I've never had to deal with. Even if the messages were automatically archived after a week or month, the tool would be invaluable. If it had functionality with Discord that would be a pretty sweet cherry on top.
This may have been mentioned already (I didn't have time to read every post), but having a way to do polls in-game could also be very useful. A lot of guilds have members that aren't going to bother checking alternate resources like Discord or message boards, so being able to vote on things like where to build a guild house or who should get an officer promotion could be very nice. Having a selector to determine which ranks get access to each vote would be even better.
* An in-game guild calendar is super important so guild members can quickly check for events and activities, equipped with an RSVP system in-game with player limits in case you want to allow for first-come-first-serve raid signups.
* A way to assign players' alts to their mains to keep track of players with multiple characters in the guild.
* Guild halls would be a huge bonus but they should be functional in some way. I'm a big fan of skill-based minigames where players could help perform tasks around the guild hall - like cooking meals or completing quests that contribute to a guild goal or prestige. But please please please make any crafting stations VERY expensive to be built in guild halls. Nothing clears out major cities - making them empty and worthless - than allowing players to craft items inside of their homes or guild halls. Especially don't give a bonus to production in these places.
* Teleportation to the guild hall would be nice, but should require some kind of structure to be built in the hall that takes up space as a trade-off.
* Players involved in a guild achievement - it would be great if their names could be added to a plaque in the guild hall to see who actually participated.
* Do. Not. Implement. Passive Guild Bonuses. Big guilds RUSH to get passive upgrades as quickly as possible. This leads big guilds to get bigger, and small guilds to look less valuable to players. Not only are passive guild bonuses sort of immersion-breaking, but they're also terribly unbalanced for the new-player experience. Let players join guilds for the people - not the numbers.
* A board or a mini marketplace where guild members could request and sell resources to one another would be great. Sometimes I know that a player in my guild is a jewelcrafter, but we're never on at the same time. I'd love to post a message on the message board requesting gems. And have this be searchable by any jewelcrafters even while I'm offline.
* Minigames. Minigames. Minigames. Let players buy beer or drinks for one another using real gold, and have those drinks actually be holdable or give players an animation kind of like they do in Deep Rock Galactic. Let guilds create mini games in the guild hall just for fun. And do this all in a way that allows for emergent gameplay. And...don't take it too seriously either. Having a playful approach to this kind of stuff will give the game a feeling of levity and lightheartedness - exactly what I'm looking for after a long day of grinding levels.
And i realy like to use google sheets to get info about who was on the siege and who wasn't. What they k/d ratio on each siege and staff like that(what stats they have, how they progress over time).
Of course logs is really important, but for me it's really hard to get this info from the game, it's always some hand made work. So please allow to to export logs to some sort of file, like .csv .txt .json so i can parse it and automaticaly put it to my table.
I really like the idea of putting information on a secondary monitor... So I made it it's own topic, to include not only the guild tools but all kinds of UI elements.
-Karp
Guild Bank/Chest - Item sharing among guild members
- lockable tabs/chests (permission set based on guild rank or individuals)
- item sharing inventory to assist lower level or newer players with progression
-feature to recall loaned items back to the chest or set a timer on borrowing these items
-economic cost to loan items donated to guild coffers (optional)
- Kitchen for food buffs
- guild events calendar
- guild objectives notice board so all guild members can strive for a common goal
- guild bounty hunting - posting bounties on individuals from other guilds
Guild Features
- guild war flagging
- logs of guild member combat activity - general info like guild member x was killed by "name" from guild "name" while doing "Activity" in "location"