Guild Gathering #2 - Guild Halls

Glorious Ashes community - we're excited to continue our new series called Guild Gatherings! Guild Gathering topics are a "reverse Q&A" similar to our Dev Discussions, where we ask you about your thoughts on everything related to guilds.

Our team has compiled a list of questions we'd love to get your feedback on regarding guild tools, gameplay, your previous experiences, and more. Join in on our Guild Gatherings and share how your gaming family is special to you!

Guild Gathering #2 - Guild Halls
What Guild Hall features would you like to see in Ashes of Creation? What features have you liked from other games? What features do you think have been missed opportunities?

Keep an eye out for our next Guild Gathering topic regarding how you measure success!

Hiya everyone - thank you for joining in on our latest Guild Gathering topic! After compiling your notes for our team, here was some of the top feedback you shared with us:

Many chimed in to provide examples of features they’d like to see enabled in guild halls:
- Storage - chests with variable permissions, bank, member apartments
- Commerce - guild/alliance exclusive shop, tabard/pennant vendor, artisan merchants
- Decoration - maps, trophies, log books, flexible building tools
- Activities - duel/arena area, guild quests, parlor games, music
- Announcements - bulletin board, banners, war room
Some felt that guild halls should not provide all of a node’s services, so as to keep a bustling hub of player interaction within towns
In addition, a few shared their thoughts on whether or not teleportation should be enabled to and from a guild hall

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Comments

Marzzo

A fun mini game with guild high scores

Yuyukoyay

I like guild quests and mini games.

Inixia

I agree with some of the concerns that guild halls shouldn't be too all inclusive. I remember times in other mmo's (eq2 comes to mind) where guild halls became such a key meeting point that the public community areas tended to become pretty desolate. Being able to see other players wandering around and getting a sense of community is a big part of the immersion in an mmo imo, so I would definitely remove some public functions like marketplaces/commerce and quest initiation from the guildhall. But aesthetic style features and training dummies are great.

On the other hand, I do really like when mmo's emphasize joining guilds for progression and guild halls should reward people for forming those connections. Especially as opposed to random group finders - I hate that these end up watering down raid content to the average random group difficulty and creating bosses that are more one-shot loot bags than long term. Its more personally rewarding imo to raid content that is inherently difficult that you have to spend some time to overcome and succeed at, and be able to form actual dialogue and connections to your teammates.

The Erudite Trader

some kind of guild system where members can contribute items or loot to the guild storage in exchange for points which they can then use to exchange for other items in the guild storage, these amount of points per specific item depends on what the GM or authorized member set to the said item. E.g. I'm level 30 and I put a mix of common to rare level 20 items with over all worth of 100 points and use that points to exchange for a weapon worth 100 points that suits my level.

It's complicated but I say it makes the guild more alive and functional and also gives more motivation for starter to mid level members to work hard for that item they want.

Ingvarr

1 The Guild must have enough levels and the difficulty of raising these levels. When you increase the level, add various improvements for the players.
2 It would not be bad to be able to name the ranks in the guild yourself and set up their permissions for actions in the gi yourself
3 Roll of Guild buffs

Korkum

Teleportation to the guild hall and back
First of all, i see the benefits of teleporting across the continent and back, but I'm not a fan of it.

The guild hall feature isn't implemented yet, but I assume the hall will be in a node and the teleport will be from node or hearthstone(like WoW) to the guild hall.

How i see it, this are the things players will do with this feature:
- When your node/guild gets attached all your member can wait until the last second to teleport back, no need for traveling back.
- They will use it as a secure way to trad goods.
- The Guildhall becomes the players main hub.
- after the teleport step out of the guild hall and your are at your main node. It's a node teleport now!
- In Case of unwanted PvP in the area they will port to the Guildhall instead of searching a group to defeat the attackers. Easy way out!
- basically utilize the teleport in every way possible to gain an advantage

Why i think player will do this? Because i would do it xD

I would prefer no teleportation.
I like to travel around. It's creates a feeling of a great untamed world. Traveling always leeds to exploration. Exploration leeds to awesome moments ingame.
Without teleportation Guilds have to cooperate with other Guilds to defend objectives if not enough members are in town.
Imagine you are with a bunch of Guild members several rl days on exploration in some dungeon on the other side of the world und you come back to your guild... Back Home... finally.

But that's my opinion on this topic. The Devs will get it perfect, I'm sure!

Oh and for the RP guys. How about a magic something... Stone, ring, spell, that creates a mirror image of yourself in the guild hall ( like StarWars hologram). You can walk around the gild hall read boards, see maps, attend meetings, but no traiding, no guild bank.

JouleGlow

Dance floor + dancing minigame like Sid Meier's Pirates! Reward for success with buffs or consumables.
Straw poll system for guild votes with interface for all members to review results
Ceremony scripting (character placement + text), for marriage, guild induction, promotion, castigation, etc.
Auto-arrangement of seating for guild meetings

Deejayseesee

I would leverage the unique node system to have similar affects for guilds. Guilds would designate a home ‘node’ where infrastructure would be integrated into the node (to prevent dead regions because guilds would be instanced in their halls). As the node progresses, more buildings would be available for the guild. A guild bank would be a service offered within a normal bank; guilds could invest into nodes for exclusivity in stores/parlours/etc. My key takeaway would be integration and to make it as much a part of the world as anything else; the more siloed, instanced experiences, the worse (personally) - you start losing the MM aspect of the MMO.

tiltowait

Guild halls should definitely have a world portal in them! A magical doorway that leads to somewhere else, open both ways, and destroyable. With other balancing rules attached (maybe someone has to place it, or it can only be opened to certain spots, or just once a day, or guildmaster only... rules).

With said portal, the guild hall will become the nexus of important activities involving travel/pvp/etc. For more than just afk crafters and guild meetings.

Juicy Dubs

Tockz wrote: »

Final Fantasy 14 Style house...

FFXIV has some issues with its housing market. While yes I do believe access to housing should be limited or reserved for those with active and ongoing subscriptions, the ways in which Square Enix addresses housing (or rather, the ways in which they ignore it) leave much to be desired.

I believe every established "Guild" should have access to instanced housing by default of certain achievements, the size of which is determined by member count, their activity, and direct Guild contributions that are automated and not at the whim of even the Guildleader (for example, in-game currency and resources donated are not accessible to the Guildleader, but are applied directly to the improvement of said Guildhall). Furthermore, these contribution metrics should be tallied and visible to establish certain rankings and permanence. This would eliminate the possibility and incentive of the would-be shadier Guildleaders making them unable to "kick" members who contributed to certain benchmarks of development. Should a guild find themselves in disagreement, the 'founders' of that guild must agree to an in-game resource reimbursement should that guild decide to disband...

The designing and customization of XIV housing is also somewhat limited, with even the best home designers resorting to "glitching" items in order to be more creative using methods inaccessible to the greater playerbase; such things as adding 'makeshift stories' or levels to their home, pseudo-lofts and balconies through glitches with furnishings and UI manipulation shouldn't really be the quentissential example of a 'good' housing system. If you make a standard house "two stories tall" scaled to the player, the option to add a second level / loft internally without increasing the size of that estate should be an available feature by default.

Personally owned plots should absolutely be limited to premium and ongoing subscriptions! The acquisition of plots in XIV is also something I would hope Ashes steers away from - that being: random demolition timers followed by random "ready to buy" timers, with spam-click competition most often won by bots and third party automation such as device/peripheral macros or auto-click softwares... What I would like to see in place of this is that for players who decide they want to acquire a plot or home, they would:

Complete the achievements necessary for home ownership.
Gather and submit the materials required to build (capable of being a collaborate effort with no more than three contributors and two listed for residency).
Be placed on an active automated waiting list for available housing, which requires acceptance of this response within the week, depending on further contributions and barring successful Seige of that land-owning settlement.
Be required to maintain an active subscription regardless of "login status" or frequency of home / facility access, to be scheduled for demolition 30 days after their subscription 'lapses' (If I have 30 days remaining on my subscription and should become inactive, my home is subject to demolition on the 60th day).
Implement an in-game system where players may purchase homes / estates / land from other players who wish to relinquish their property, optionally and proportionately including current non-exclusive furnishings - cost to be determined by the playerbase (*To prevent perceptions of potential "pay to win" abuse - housing access and availability should be limited to ONE personally owned plot, per server, sharable by a player's "alt" characters on the same server*).

What I would like to see is a system that combines the housing of ArcheAge with Final Fantasy XIV - that is public housing in the open world, built and upgraded using personal and friend-gathered materials. Personal plots should ALL start as a base wood log cabin or cottage, with their ability to grow in size and quality (from small to medium to large, from wood to stone, etc) depending on the contributions of those who share that estate -- invested materials and furnishings available for reclamation upon demolition due to inactivity. Avoidant of ArcheAge's open world PvP mechanics would be eliminating ability of opposing players to destroy this open-world housing, with the only exception being Seige gameplay understandably also destroying those players housing as their territory is destroyed / looted if the city were to be taken over. But this should be the byproduct of a city and its territory being seiged rather than individual housing being destoryable itself.

This would further the implementation of additional mechanics already in the works:
1. Retain limited availability of housing determined by the size (and security) of the city which owns the surrounding residential land.
2. Establish persistent housing competition among the playerbase for allied AND enemy territories, further incentivizing both cooperative defense as well as PvP assualts for Seige gameplay - as opposed to a perpetual stalemated "peace" among the playerbase.

This would allow for an endless pursuit of better housing opportunities and motive for seige of nearby cities even in allied areas. Once two settlements grow to a certain size, it would then be up to those two (or more) settlement communities to determine whether its neighbor(s) should be allowed to grow.

Alternatively, having smaller personal domiciles in "friendly" or neutral territories which are immune to takeover or demolition, similar to apartments XIV provides as the base functionality for all who wish to have a consistent 'rental' property. In this regard I would perhaps combine the XIV concepts of the "Inn" with "Apartments" - making the Inn customizable save for a few mandatory / non-removable furnishings which offer a taste of what personal housing may offer. Things located here would be a place to re-watch Cutscenes, peruse your in-game collectibles, manage your personal storage, etc. where in-game friends may also visit. Similar to XIV this example should be made accessible from the instanced "Inn" of ANY / every allied settlement/city of a certain size simultaneously without owning personal land - effectively having multiple places to access said storage and collectibles while still being 'limited' as the Inns in XIV City-States.

I can keep throwing around ideas but ultimately I'd rather have an ArcheAge system than a FFXIV system, albeit with Guildhalls in particular not being exclusively "First Come, First Serve." Should ANY guild have ~20/50/100 'very active' players (or whatever your chosen benchmarks), those players should 100% have the ability to work towards achievements that earn their Guild a Guildhall to bask in their collective efforts even if their original territories were successfully seiged. Having an entire Guild of tight-knit players disband because such accomplishments were diminished by a Seige which revokes access to that Guildhall would be discouraging to say the least.

To remedy this while not trivializing Guildhalls, the achievements in question should be substantially difficult offering a proportional reward system. Recruiting mass numbers should not be the sole focus or criteria for advancement, but a combination of efforts from that guild's activity. Material contributions to the Guildhall, successful seige OR material donation towards neighboring / allied Guildhalls, in-game progression achievements, etc.

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TL;DR - What I would admire and respect the most of Ashes of Creation Guildhalls is to see them serve as direct reflections of its most valuable contributors and irremovable "Founders" of their Guild/Guildhall through natural progression and prestige that serves as a permanent hub for Guild members - with the exception of Founder disbandment or Guild dissolvement - subject to a resource redistribution system implemented for those founders.

A simplified example of this might look something like:
20% Guildhall wealth & resources being forfeit, 80% divided respectively among its contributors:
Owner = 20-30%, Founders = 10-20%, Lesser Contributors = 10-15%, New / Lesser members = 1-2%. This just reinforces cooperation and makes joining a 'guild' worthwhile no matter what your level, while disbanding to join a different guild forfeits your would-be stake in the former guild.

Edited for typos and clarity.

Aklipso

Maybe also a guild quest/bounty board and possibly a ranking system for completing them.

Juicy Dubs

On the subject of Teleportation to the Guildhall...

I believe this SHOULD implemented, however only as a somewhat limited feature. Should the accesssibility of Guildhalls be permanent (instanced, without subject to seige) teleportation to and from the Guildhall should also be implemented to and from limited locations.

These locations by default might start as "From your current location to the Guildhall, and back to your origin point." Nothing fancy. The more your Guild expands and accomplishes, the more options would become available and customizable in the form of open-world waypoints and allowances, which lend to Guild adventure organization and planning:

"Small" Guildhalls which meet certain critera gain ONE teleport waypoint to place at limited distance in the open world, which can be relocated once per week. There would be an allowance of teleportations equal to one full party to the Guild's waypoint up to twice per day.
"Medium" Guildhalls which meet further criteria gain an ADDITIONAL teleport waypoint to place in the open world at an improved distance, able to be relocated once per week, with a teleportation allowance equal to two/three full parties to the Guild's waypoints up to three times a day.
"Large" Guildhalls which meet even further criteria gain TWO additional teleport waypoints (3 total) to place in the open world at an even further improved distance, can be relocated once per week, with a teleportation allowance equal to three/four full parties up to three/four times per day.
Assuming there is something beyond "Large" to attain, a fourth teleport waypoint may be added - the ability to change EACH waypoint up to twice per week, with additional teleportation allowances.

This style and function of teleportation would allow Guildmates to travel to their Guildhall and back at any point no matter what they were doing last - but enable convenient travel as groups to predetermined points of interest without trivializing the adventure and exploration of open-world travel. With limited playtime for some, it's a bit of a pain to spend substantial portions of your dedicated gaming time traveling to places you've already been, as is gate-keeping players from the ability to multitask. This system aims to remedy both!

Ideally a Guild would agree upon their available waypoint destinations - the start or entrance for a particularly challenging group quest or dungeon, for example - while only being able to make use of this from the Guildhall itself as a preformed group. Perhaps a Lore or Guild-driven element relevantly explains this as a special device or recruited NPC whose special-purpose displacement magicks are available for limited use, upgradable through Guild missions as reputation grows. For independent activites players can then return to & from the Guildhall to their point of origin as they please.

Teleportation otherwise in the open world should just be a flat-out NO - at least in the beginning! (About the first couple years.) While effectively implementing "Fast Travel" through a teleportation system may be considered a "Quality of Life" improvement for many MMORPGs, I personally feel that unlimited teleportation not only leaves entire zones feeling desolate but ultimately trivializes the artistry that went into painstakingly creating the world along with the sense of exploration and immersion. Systems of limited teleportation as described here is flexible enough for guilds to accomplish their objectives without excesive waiting for other players to travel, while retaining that sense of world and lore-building integrity. After all, there are always mounts~!

Perhaps to appease the overwhelming copy+paste desires to implement a "Fast-Travel" system in this open world would be to install transportation waypoints at very limited / key locations for modest but not trivial fees... settlements which reach a prerequisite development benchmark, and major story-related quest destinations in the form of faster-than-mounts but NOT instantaneous pseudo-cinematic ground-travel. To keep the theme of lore or world-building, let us not negate the use of personal mounts entirely because transport cabbies are faster - rather they are special breeds of purpose-built steeds trained to keep to unobstructed mainroads between frequent destinations, whereas personal mounts (while slightly slower) are more freerange and able to follow the whims of its owner off-road!

This is all a matter of personal taste. I'll always find it kind of silly that I can instantly and endlessly warp to pretty much any location in every other game at ZERO effective cost or detriment. Some features I LOVED in prior games (namely FFXI) were that specific player archetypes were sought for waypoint travel - Black Mage to warp to your favorite "home point" and White Mage to teleport to the acquired lore/world-specific "waypoints" ...and moreover from FFXIV 1.0 the Aetheryte teleportation system which limited each player to ~14 teleports per 24 hours but shareable with an entire party!

Why? One main reason. This very strongly and effectively encouraged and seemed to prioritize cooperation and amicable gameplay by relying (some) on other players. If your chosen class and playstyle is not one who specializes in such world-travel abilities, or if you've exhausted your personal allowance of convenience, you still had options!

Kindly request other players to use their abilities to transport you.
Wait until your personal resource allowance replenishes.
Hoof it on foot or by mount.

Edited for typos and clarity.

FuzzyWuzzy

Maybe have some perks related to the type of government associated with the town the guildhall is influenced by. Take for instance a guild shop for the public to buy that would be sold by guild members if the influence was an economic government.

Caine

As an RPer all I care about with Guild Halls is customisation. I wanna be able to create a Monastery-style guild hall, a castle-style guild hall, a war-bunker-style guild hall, a greenhouse-style guild hall, a magic tree-style guild hall. I don’t mind minimal customisation to begin with but I want the systems to at least show promise for what is to come.

I’d like to one day be able to build a nice inn/public house-style guild hall atop a mountain or a small oasis-town off in the desert.

Trob

The guild usually feels like a good mash up of text boxes in most games not a physical hall. I have heard about player housing and apartments. For those guild large/grand enough I feel a mansion or physical locale in a metropolis would be awesome! A guild herald with some quests outside for your guildies or for non guildies (new and veteran players) to help make the guild money on the side and help those players gain xp. And a few (2-4) guild activities or games to be played in the guild hall. A guild forum room for meetings. Obviously not everyone would take advantage of these utilities but for RP and for those who like the sense of community the guild hall of a major city is not only a huge advertisement for recruitment but a fun place to gather (hearth/teleport to) after events.

The way I see it you walk up to the gate and a Guild NPC hands out quests and activities to non guildie or guildies. You walk in and see the guild Board with either quests or information about the guild member info and unlockable things. A Guild Herald or Butler who gives quests or sells you things. A game/tavern room and a forum room. Treasury and that's about all. For the biggest guilds or the most active these guild halls will stand out and be a fun place for RP in the metropolis. For those smaller guilds The treasury would be at the bank and they wouldn't have a forum room or game room or quest NPC. Just RP perks and nothing you couldn't live without.

T Elf

I know in EQ2 guildhalls had so many amenities that it made the cities look dead. While it's very convienent to have them, it works against the game's liveliness.

Definately have storage for members and perhaps a guild shop where the guild can put up auction items for the guild's coffers. Also an internal guild exchange.
Also limited crafting stations that are more allined with guild events like stations that help make siege items.
Places for trophies, especially like heads of mob bosses (perhaps shrunken).
Guild initiated quests/work orders.

SirBarathon

Khankar wrote: »

Some open-world environments that can be turned into a guild hall if the guild completes a challenge to

This is awesome and add to that Log Horizon stuff i've said earlier. In the anime a guild could own places by money or by defeatin a boss, for example, imagine a dragon takin over a castle (or like in Hobbit's Erebor) and u kill it and claim that place.

Illumin

I think it would be nice to have assignable roles, with modular permission sets, so that guilds can create rankings.
Restriction settings, so that role "A" or less, cannot enter rooms that have a restriction assigned for role "A".
A guild community chest, to place items for new guild members to freely take.
A guild bounty board would be awesome.
I know this could be difficult to balance, but I think it would be amazing to have a "guild" enchantment once reaching a certain guild level. Something that is unique to members of that guild. Maybe difficult to reach the point where it is accessible then make it difficult to create.

Emba

A part of being in a guild should feel exclusive - would be cool if some of the major guilds had a section they could go inside the city where people could see them but not enter unless they were in the guild hah - like VIP access to make people desire to get in.

OakenHilt

Most have been covered. I guess the sense of Ownership and aesthetic in the guild halls is going to be a massive point of difference to other games. Especially with the node system changing, this will be a great opportunity for the players to own a space. I think some cool features I wanted to reiterate:
- Trophy/Showcase of achievements it could be as simple as a sign post out the front style.
- Crafting components inside? I don't know how viable that would be, but for the RPG element it would be awesome to be able to be the creative in the guild hall.
Things that have been mentioned just to bump up again.
- Notice boards
- Guild banks and deposits
- Vendor
- Tavern
- Custom guards
- Music

Child Item