Howdy,

I am a new Guild Master (Organization Master just sounds wrong to me, so I’ll refer to them as Guilds in my post). I must say I am very disappointed in the amount of options available to us within Guilds that would make them enjoyable for rank and file and manageable for the leaders.

What I think I know:

Most Guilds have less than 50 members, however there are maybe 20 or more with over 100 and several over the 300 mark including Obsidian with over 600 (I did not check the German Server and I know about the issues with Obsidian);

There are very few levels for members to attain within any Guild governing form;

At least one Guild option is available to members 3 levels above the target;

Taxing is based on a flat rate;

Enjoy-ability:

One thing that makes Role Playing games fun and able to keep my interest is the ability to advance and gain more experience, power and associated prestige. Within the Guild structure this is very limited.

The default is a Feudal system with 4 levels. Relating this to real life and your work place or school just imagine going to work and all 100 employees have one of 3 Titles as 1 (Lord) is only able to be used by one person. Add on top of this no way to tell what area what person works in, such as mail room, IT, security etc.

What I would like to see, keeping in mind we are talking about a few text strings of information passed on only when someone ‘looks’ at you, is a system where Guilds would have more flexibility when it comes to Ranks and the added ability to pass out Titles. There really are no associated extra advantages (id est - work for the coders in keeping the system balanced).

A way for Guilds to be able to lay out their rank structures as the /promote function already exits would need to be devised. /promote could be used the same way it is now; you can only promote someone to a level just below you. One way to make this work is to have the ranks stack. The Guild Master would then need to type in the Ranks in order or have an HTML Form for them to fill out. You would just keep /promote(ing) someone till they reach the rank you are looking for. For example the stack could look like this:

Guild Master
Security Master
Recruit Master
Credit Master
Security Commander
Recruit Commander
Credit Commander
Security Leader
Recruit Leader
Credit Leader
Pledge

If you wanted to promote someone to Recruit Master from Pledge, you would just ‘/promote %t’ 8 times.

However, another possibility and one that adds even more versatility is for the ‘/promote’ command to be adjusted to where someone could just ‘/promote %t Recruit Master’ where the system would need to check:

1) If the person attempting to use the ‘/promote’ command is even in a Guild (should already be in place);
2) If the person being targeted is in the same Guild (should already be in place);
3) If the Rank exists within the Guild (something close should already be in place);
4) If the person doing the ‘/promote’ is of high enough level in the Guild to promote someone to this level (should already be in place); and
5) If the person targeted is of a higher rank voiding the use of the ‘/promote’ (should already be in place).

As for entering ranks a simple HTML Form could be used where the Guild Master could enter all Guild Ranks from top to bottom as shown above and associate a number with each from the top. In the above example the Guild Master would be the only one with a rank of 1 (Leaving one person in charge as I believe “The Credit (Buck) has to stop somewhere!”). All Masters would be a 2, Commanders a 3, etc or however each individual Guild Master decided to set their Guild up. This would allow a Guild to have different areas of responsibility (Houses) all with Ranks with the same respect.

For example the initial draft of my Guild calls for 5 separate areas of responsibility to include recruitment, security, weapons and so forth as indicated above. This gives members of the Guild an option of what they would like to do to help out since everyone likes to do different things. Within each area of responsibility I have made 7 Ranks as partially indicated above as well as one rank given to all new members. This results in someone being able to have a rank of Security Master while someone else can be a Recruit Master and everyone in the Guild knows not only what their rank is but what area of guild expertise they have.

But I want more and I believe the Rank and File do too, so Combine this with a Title.

This would be something new to the system. Honorary Titles would be something that could be assigned by Guild Members of a higher level than the person receiving the Title. These could be Titles like “Keeper of the Sword” or “Badge of Valor.” Again, these would be things each Guild would come up with, if they even chose to do so. A simple ‘/guild title %t <enter title here>’ could be used (/guild title %t Keeper of the Sword).

So, now we have Ranks and a Title. Which results in Rank: Security Master – Keeper of the Sword.

What would this do?

Well, I believe it would give members of the Guild something to strive for and allow them to strut their stuff a tad. Where is the fun when you have a Guild of 50 plus members and there are only 3 real titles you can have? As Professionals we have 200 levels and FunCom is finding this isn’t enough to keep players interested. I want my Guild Mates to have fun and feel proud when they achieve a new Rank and/or Title.

This would also allow leaders the ability to manage a larger Guild easier as certain leaders could assume the role of leading a certain section of the Guild. Using the rough draft for my Guild, I have 5 areas (Houses) and 7 Ranks for a total of 35 possible Ranks beyond the introductory rank of Pupil (Security Master and Recruit Master count as two different Ranks, but have equal status in the Guild).

I believe it would also add to people becoming more involved in the Guilds, and hence the game, and maybe take a better look at what the Guilds and factions really stand for.

Taxes:

The first thing I would like to see changed with this is the word itself. Taxes. What an ugly word. My first choice would be Dues, but I’m sure there are others that could be just as easy to use.

As it stands now there are two different tax systems, yes two! Either you tax all members regardless of level the same amount or you don’t charge any tax at all.

As Fatebound pointed out in her post about a personal experience she hadn’t even taken her first breath of Notum enriched Rubi-Ka air when she was asked to join a Guild. Ok, granted that is a little over the top, but I have seen Guilds do recruiting runs in backyards and training areas just like everyone else. So why not give Guilds a few more options on how to collect credits?

Keep the one that is in place now, but add one that would allow Guilds to set an amount based on the level the person is within their profession. This would allow players of all levels the ability to afford the dues as the higher the level you are the more credits you can earn.

Another option that could be set would be at what level to begin taking dues. This would also allow new players the chance to earn some credits for supplies before they are hit with dues.

I’m sure I will have much more to say about Guilds as I bring mine to full speed, however these are just a few of my initial thoughts since creating mine on the 27th of December.

I look forward to your thoughts on what I have presented as I think this is an area that could bring some real depth to the world of Rubi-Ka without hours and hours of adjusting to keep the system balanced.

Conteur
Iron Rose