We now know that GHs "may" exist in each barony of a node. And that they're similar to freeholds. I assume they use the bidding system as well (cause I didn't see anything saying otherwise).
Here's my suggestion for GHs in hopes of limiting guilds' ability to outbid everyone for their freeholds. Write whether you agree or disagree with any of the following points:
- the starting bid should be fairly small
- GHs should be able to have all processing, crafting and business buildings available in the game at the same time
- GHs should have their own apartments with up to 300 rooms (depending on the upgrade tier)
- GHs should have huge lands for farming
- the bidding system for them should be completely open (we see who and how much have bid)
- the money from all bids go towards the node's treasury and do not return to the guilds (even if they lost the bid)
- the bidding process for the entire Barony ends with GH's bid (so all freeholds will have been sold by that time)
- the last bid's time is random for all the participants within the last hour of the whole process (i.e. guild A can bid at 19:20, g B at 19:35 and g C at 19:55, while the bidding stops at 20:00)
To me this seems like the best way to funnel all the guilds' money into GHs instead of freeholds. If GHs can't accommodate the things I've mentioned, guilds will just go for freeholds instead and we'll be back to the issue we had before.
Having apartments there will also help non-guild people to find housing in nodes (unless we have 50k apts in the game).
Taking all the money from guilds by the end of the process will help prevent other baronies from being overrun with guild-based freehold buyouts. Obviously it won't completely resolve the issue, but will at least lessen it.
I'm very interested in hearing from both the casual players and the GLs of the forum. From casuals: would that amount of power for guilds be ok with you? From GLs: would this setup make you try going for a GH or would it instead just reassure you that getting several FHs is better?
