Idea - Guild Types (Mercenarys)

[Hawk]

Ok so here is my idea in more detail

There could be three types of guilds: Merchant, Mercenary, or Normal
When you start your guild you could choose which type it is, and each guild type would have it's own fame and ranking system.

Merchant
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Fame could be gained for a merchant guild by how much profit a player makes, but also by average %profit per trip (smart trading routes).
Also it would be a cool if merchant guilds had a guild ability, (like picking up or dropping off goods from other guild member warehouses), to help out other members.

Mercenary
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The fame system could be the currently used one, but maybe it could use the average fame of the guild members for the guild fame, (instead of adding the total).
Mercanary guilds would need a link so players can see the available guilds, also there would need to be a way to pay the guild for services. I was thinking a gold payment divided among the members would work best. There could be a payment cap based on number of members and fame(1 member- 50k gold)(2 members-200k gold)(3 members-500k gold) I'm not sure how the fame would fix in.

I also think mercenary guilds should have a max of 10 members


Normal Guilds
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They would stay the same, but have an option to change into a mercenary or trading guild. (this change would be irreversable, and to change to mercenary guild would need 10 or less members)

[Captain Jack]

Guild special abilities could be a good idea for the future. But we need to speak of abilities rather than types.

Each guild leadership will have a finite number of attribute points to select the abilities that will be shared over the guild. We are open on ideas on what these abilities should be.

Simply adding 3 types does not serve our ambition for this game; It would be too much work for too few options and limited strategy.

[Hawk]

Sounds great.. Each guild would be able to customize their attributes to what kind of guild they want, off the top of my head I can think of a few possible attributes



Guild Bank: Allows the guild to have a bank, each point would increase the amount of gold the bank can hold. I'm not sure how many points will be avalible, or what the max amount of gold the bank can hold should be. The fairest way for banks to gain gold would be for members to automaticly be taxed until the bank is full (% of total gold daily from each member)

Trading: Allows guild members to store and sell goods from other member's warehouses. Maybe this could be unlockable after spending a set amount of points.

Payment: Allows players (outside of the guild) to deposit gold into the guild bank. Each point could increase the payable amount.

Voodoo: Every day there is a chance that each member in the guild will get a random voodoo card. More points = higher chance and/or more cards given out.

Planning: Allow guildmaster (or someone with a rank that has permission), to choose a player with less power in the guild, and see all current voodoo, ships, fleet locations, and recent battles. This could start with only showing ships (like spy network), and then when lvled show the other things I mentioned.




I'm sure there are many more good ones.. which ones did you have in mind when you decided to go with this plan Jack?

[John rackham]

If there were a wide range of possible attributes or abilities, and they were suitably expensive to develop, would there be any need to restrict the choice artificially? This would be especially aggravating if the ownership of the guild changed or the game got new features that led to the guild wanting to change its abilities.

As well as the capability to develop certain abilities, a guild could be given a set of statuses to choose from, which could be changed, say, once every 24 hours, such as
Peacetime - default state, as the game works now.
Wartime - fame and gold gained from trading (maybe by adding +1 to port prices?) are reduced for all members, who get a 5% bonus on combat chances (the effects of a couple of existing voodoo cards I believe) or similar combat enhancements.
Privateering - trading reduced as for wartime, members get a bonus on the fame and gold won in battles.

[Captain dungeness]

I thought this might be more like the "Guild Perks" I have seen in another game I have played. In that system the abilities are earned by guild members gaining game experience- in this case it could be paying gold and fame. The guild would collectively pay gold and fame toward the next "level". When the guild has paid the required gold and fame, the guild is awarded 10 attribute points which the guildleader can spend on the available abilities. It seems to be fitting that some abilities can't be chosen until the guild has reached a certain level. This would give more established guilds a reward for continuing to work together.

Just an idea.

-Captain D

[Captain Jack]

I like how it is going. Perhaps we can now be specific with which abilities we can add. Any ideas, keep them coming.

[Hawk]

I thought this might be more like the "Guild Perks" I have seen in another game I have played. In that system the abilities are earned by guild members gaining game experience- in this case it could be paying gold and fame. The guild would collectively pay gold and fame toward the next "level". When the guild has paid the required gold and fame, the guild is awarded 10 attribute points which the guildleader can spend on the available abilities. It seems to be fitting that some abilities can't be chosen until the guild has reached a certain level. This would give more established guilds a reward for continuing to work together.

Just an idea.

-Captain D

I was thinking that it would be more interesting if points were earned via guild achivements, special events, or guild quests. Paying for points would give guilds that have players who are set (have strong fleets and gold to waste), a large advantage over guilds with players that would rather spend gold to lvl their own fleets.

There could also Fame milestones. 500k, 2 million, 5 million, 10 million, 20 million, 40 million, and 80 million could all give attribute point(s) when reached. This would give stronger guilds an advantage (just not as much). Also the points could be lost if the fame drops below the Fame mark, points paid in gold and fame can't really be taken away.

[Hawk]

Anyway here are more Ability Ideas


Tactics: Guild member fleets lose danger at a faster rate when danger above 3. (-1 danger per 45mins max)

Shipyard: Increases chance to get 5 points when guild members lvl their ships.

Plunder: Increase gold gain per plunder for all members (10% max?)

Fame: Decrease fame loss per attack for all members

Frenzy: Increase Gold and Fame gain for 4 hours. More points would increase the duration and % gain.


I'm just throwing stuff out there.. not sure which ones are good ideas lol

[Captain dungeness]

Tactics: Guild member fleets lose danger at a faster rate when danger above 3. (-1 danger per 45mins max)

Shipyard: Increases chance to get 5 points when guild members lvl their ships.

Plunder: Increase gold gain per plunder for all members (10% max?)

Fame: Decrease fame loss per attack for all members

Frenzy: Increase Gold and Fame gain for 4 hours. More points would increase the duration and % gain.

These ideas seem to be all things voodoo allows you to do. I think the most obvious perk to being in a strong guild would be to get another voodoo card each day or few days (depending on how many points are put into this ability).


A few other ideas that aren't quite like voodoo cards:

Cheaper ship building (gold, turns and/or resources decreases by a percentage). Call it "Guild Shipyard"?

Cheaper ship repairing. "Guild Carpenters"?

Cheaper warehouse upgrades. "Guild Storehouses"?

Cheaper officer hiring? <- it would be significant even if it was a 1% reduction.



If you want to do milestones then one could be total number of ships in a guild. I am curious what this number is for each guild. I wish it was in the guild rankings page after total fame.

Another milestone could be missions completed. <-- That possibly wouldn't favor older players because missions haven't been implemented yet and no one has a headstart yet.

-Captain D

[Hawk]

These ideas seem to be all things voodoo allows you to do. I think the most obvious perk to being in a strong guild would be to get another voodoo card each day or few days (depending on how many points are put into this ability).

Yes but unlike voodoo these would be a slight permanent gain. They would not replace voodoo in any way, only complement it

Cheaper ship building (gold, turns and/or resources decreases by a percentage). Call it "Guild Shipyard"?

Cheaper ship repairing. "Guild Carpenters"?

Perhaps cheaper ship building and repairs could be one ability (Guild Shipyard) to make it as useful as the other abilitys.