Ahoy,


Introduction
While there are already many reasons as to why a guild should recruit new members, we feel that the reasons are not enough.
The MOST important thing in order for the game to grow, is how the guilds evolve.

For example, 10 strong guilds could help the game skyrocket to new heights.
Lately, we are noticing an increase in stable players without us doing anything special. We believe that this is thanks to a few individuals that created new guilds.

At one hand, we admit that guild numbers and especially strong guild numbers will naturally need time to evolve. At another, we want to ensure that players will keep doing it.

Right now, the most successful guild leaders seem to also do it out of love for the game. While we are more than grateful for this, we still need to give inceptives to them.

Ideas

1)Ideas that directly help the guildmaster. Either with gold or voodoo cards or turns. These bonuses come directly from the active members and not from the members themselves. This can also be % etc.

2)Bonuses that apply to all guild members, relevant to active members again.
Example:
-For every active member, you gain +0.5% profit from every sale (max 10% earned this way - stacks with rest modifiers).
-For every active member, fleets travel +0.5% faster (max 10%)

In the same way, modifiers can be offered for accuracy,attack roll,etc in battles.
The modifiers will be calculated once per day during the daily update and any player active in last 7 days will count.
Guild leadership will be able to distribute points interest so that they can earn bonuses by priority for up to 50 members (no more bonuses for guilds larger than 50).

3)Bonuses that come from the players themselves.
-Arrival bonus (larger if the player has never been in another guild before).
-Entry fee (paid by the players - gold coins most probably directly to the hands of the guildmaster)
-Membership fee (paid by the players daily - gold coins to the guildmaster)

4)Common Projects funded/constructed by everyone that apply to everyone.
Bonuses similar to 2)
These can be wonders/projects that will require both turns and gold coins. A progress bar, a list of contributors and more levels to add.


These from now, give your piece as well.

Well, I am speaking for my guild... Brothers In Arms ( REBEL ) is built for helping new people out whilst growing for ourselves , in my eyes we are a strong guild. The only thing that is stopping us as a guild to help out more newbies is the lack of genorisity/buried treasure or iron golams we get - without them we can not help out the new people.
So maybe we could get voodoo packs?
So maybe something like this: 5 Generosity, 10 buried treasure, 20 iron golams to the guild leader a week? a month? To supply him with enough voodoo to help more newbies out at once...

We will talk about no.2 option which is:
2)Bonuses that apply to all guild members, relevant to active members again.
Example:
-For every active member, you gain +0.5% profit from every sale (max 10% earned this way - stacks with rest modifiers).
-For every active member, fleets travel +0.5% faster (max 10%)

I agree with no.1 of this idea, as the extra profit could help feed a new player. Whilst no.2 of this idea may seem a bit risky, as trade fleets that last for a hour could go down to around 54 mins, which would add danger, leading for them to be attacked, so the profit would not be much of a profit if it is getting stolen? If that makes sense..

Now we will talk about idea number 3)
3)Bonuses that come from the players themselves.
-Arrival bonus (larger if the player has never been in another guild before). - Nothing wrong with this in my eyes
-Entry fee (paid by the players - gold coins most probably directly to the hands of the guildmaster) - It would be a deterrent for actually being in a guild..
-Membership fee (paid by the players daily - gold coins to the guildmaster) - It could act as a deterrent to the members other then the guild master. As they are paying to keep the guild masters eyes on keeping the guild...

-John Roberts

Grant101 wrote:The only thing that is stopping us as a guild to help out more newbies is the lack of genorisity/buried treasure or iron golams we get - without them we can not help out the new people.
So maybe we could get voodoo packs?
So maybe something like this: 5 Generosity, 10 buried treasure, 20 iron golams to the guild leader a week? a month? To supply him with enough voodoo to help more newbies out at once...

Isn't this what the Top Helper rewards are for? Perhaps they need to be tweaked.

While I agree with the idea of rewarding active Guilds and Guilds that support members, perhaps a better way would be to put the bonuses, subscriptions etc into a Guild Treasury rather than directly to the Guildmasters?

I agree with everything except No.2. Btw, will post my ideas later

Not a big fan of bonuses going directly to the guild master, it just seems too close to the milking rule.

However, the bonuses and modifiers as mentioned in point 2 is a really good idea.

I also like the projects etc. in point 4. Bonuses linked to these Wonders would create a nice incentive to complete them.

50 Members is a huge number, Why not cut that in half and use 25 players get the incentives. If you look at the member count for most guilds it seems like a feasible idea.

Diplomatist wrote:

Isn't this what the Top Helper rewards are for? Perhaps they need to be tweaked.

While I agree with the idea of rewarding active Guilds and Guilds that support members, perhaps a better way would be to put the bonuses, subscriptions etc into a Guild Treasury rather than directly to the Guildmasters?[/quote]

Yes but only the guild masters control the guild treasury...

No, the top helper would give out less, and i think people are abusing the system, i do not know the rules to top helpers tho

Perhaps thread " Give Guilds a Treasury" could be incorporated here as well although related, maybe too far off topic.

Lack of tools to give players a healthy start has limited Aye's in its membership drive although we do try to add as some members become inactive. An approx. 10% retention rate is the normal so 1 in 10 new players remain to become long term players.

I don't think that 10% number can be improved upon but putting incentives for guilds to recruit more often will definitely help overall player numbers become loyal long term members.

point 1 : I'm wary of investing control of bonuses in a single figure : not saying guild-masters are not trustworthy, just that I have seen guilds hamstrung before (in other games) by a guild-master going inactive and not handing over 'the keys' beforehand. As some powers (like admitting or kicking a member) can already fall to less senior officers, I would argue for the bonus allocation to do likewise : maybe the top 2-3 ranks having the power to do so.

point 2 : excellent idea, I like the focus on active members rather than just sheer numbers including those who once joined 6 months ago but never came back.

point 3 : Yes, but the payments should go into a Guild Treasury, not the guildmasters purse :

point 4 : This does hold some interesting potential : it would allow guilds to focus on whichever aspect of the game they prefer : i.e. a trading guild might go for a wonder called 'Adam Smiths Diary' which would deliver an appreciable boost to trade and profits : A more war-like guild might prefer 'Gunpowder Mill' which delivers a better grade of gunpowder thus boosting fire-power for members ships. Whatever, the path should be long and expensive but giving a notable reward when achieved.

To skip the guild treasury, incomes can go directly to projects/wonders.

The 50 members number is large indeed but since players come and go at a high rate, it is better to have a larger span in order to succeed into fulfilling the initial objective. We will see where the final value sits through implementation I suppose.

So, we are already gathering ideas for wonders/projects and the bonuses that should accompany them as I see that you like this already.

Keeping open the rest options and waiting for more.