Guilds

The CoE Wiki is a wonderful source to answer all of your questions. This link will answer your questions :)

i read those and to me the only difference is that schools make the information public where guilds normally dont was wondering if there's any other information like can multiple guilds or schools each focusing in one thing join together under a larger banner or could you make a religion or something like that even? or is that all the info thats currently available?

I feel like the terms of groups is very confused within the community and id like to clarify to what each is to my understanding, to do so I'll be talking about Guilds, Schools Business's and associations.

Guilds

"Guilds in Chronicles of Elyria act as professional societies and unions specializing in a specific craft. Guilds fulfill a wide range of activities that may include facilitating contracts of trade, development of new technologies pertaining to the craft, and patents of new discoveries on a broader scale than can be achieved through individual efforts alone." - Wiki

In my opinion one should expect a guild to be, and more specifically a guilds needs to be something that allows the research and production mechanics to be relevant, also known as crafting skills and professions like blacksmithing and Leather-working.

Guilds will provide perks to production and research as well as allow new technology to be patented. That being said i think its practical to say only groups concentrating on crafts and professions capable of research and production advancements can be a "guild" since only they will make use of the mechanics.

A good example of a common mistake in CoE standards of groups is "assassins guilds". That doesn't make sense in this game, it would need to be an "assassins association" or other variation of groups.

Schools

"Schools in Chronicles of Elyria represent a collection or group of people who share common characteristics and goals of a certain philosophy, discipline, craft, economics, art, or culture." - Wiki

Much like a "guild" schools offer mechanical perks to things like research and learning. However one of the bigger differences is that "schools" will have a greater perk to research than "guilds" that, in return, receive a greater perk in production.

Another difference between a "guild" and a "school" is that any research done in a school is considered free knowledge, and will not be open to being patented for personal use by the institution or anyone for that matter.

It is important to note that, unlike a guild a school has a learning perk mechanic that makes it useful to a wider range of activities and professions that don't benefit from a production or research mechanic like Astronomy, Cartography, Music, Scholarship, Scribing, Art and Cooking and other things that may be "learned". Much of these are things under the bardic skill tree that is often seen as the tree a "scholar" would go into.

Business's

A business in Chronicles of Elyria leaves endless options and opportunity in the hands of the players, although there are no in-game mechanics for this type of group (aside from contracts) it will be a big part of the game. Similar to the real world, if you can create a demand for something, whether it be a product or a service, you can make a business of it. This ideology will be the same in CoE.

Some examples are Bank, Transportation service, restaurant (tavern), sellswords, Inn, mining, skinning, and more. The game leaves endless options in the hands of the players.

Associations

Associations are one of the variation of words that is used to describe a group that doesn't fall under any of the 3 groups, they are not a Guild, School or Business. An association would be a group that works for a certain cause or towards a certain goal.

Some good examples of associations are "Assassins Association" or "Human rights Association". Its a loose term of a group of individuals that organize themselves for a common cause or goal.

Finally, to answer one of the OP's questions, yes this does mean you can technically make your own religion, granted you may be limited; however, you can very well gather a following of people that worship and follow the guidance of your "made up" religion and act on the beliefs of that religion. It would be a group of people gathered for a common cause, belief or goal.

To also add im not trying to impose my understanding of groups in CoE onto people but simply sharing my understanding. Im also very interested in hearing other peoples opinions and how they view my response.

very clear and useful delineation of the various system...thank you...hopefully the next generation of forums will separate these into separate entities for less confusion

IMO I think they should change the guild buff. Like right now both give a research buff right? Well when creating an item you can either put points into researching how to make it better OR the quality of that single item once your past the expert rank. In a guild that functions much like a corporation or group of businesses wouldn't it make more sense for working in a guild to buff the quality side of scale rather than the research? I think that would separate the 2 very clearly.

Craft in a guild hall to make more profitable products and make more money OR craft in a school to learn new recipes and discover information. It also gives more reason to join and craft with either a guild or school other than just "public vs private" information.

Posted By Wicked FlamezZ at 11:56 PM - Thu Feb 16 2017

IMO I think they should change the guild buff. Like right now both give a research buff right? Well when creating an item you can either put points into researching how to make it better OR the quality of that single item once your past the expert rank. In a guild that functions much like a corporation or group of businesses wouldn't it make more sense for working in a guild to buff the quality side of scale rather than the research? I think that would separate the 2 very clearly.

Craft in a guild hall to make more profitable products and make more money OR craft in a school to learn new recipes and discover information. It also gives more reason to join and craft with either a guild or school other than just "public vs private" information.

Guilds will have a dominant perk in production while schools have a dominant perk in research

If a business or association planned on having any crafters might as well become a guild for the production benefit

I believe the guild will be the most important denominator for players as it identifies their vocation or most important business connections. This game is highliy individualized and open world so having a guild group is a refuge for players to go and make wages or do their skill based activities together for profit. Guild wealth will likely trump personal wealth as more active players will have more they can do than lone individuals most of the time. Those who don't have a guild should find one anyway just to participate and learn about a trade or meet other players. Always worth meeting other people in MMOs.

Posted By RubbrChickn at 7:34 PM - Thu Dec 14 2017

If a business or association planned on having any crafters might as well become a guild for the production benefit

If it's a group with only a focus on one single crafting profession, yes. If there is multiple we may perhaps see more advanced organization structures, like for example an administrative association with various guild subsidiaries or divisions under it.

Also take note that an individual isn't limited to only one organization. A person can be a member of any number of associations, while restricted to one guild per profession (without disguise).

And not everything is crafting related, there is no point in having a mercenary group be a guild rather than an association for example, precisely because an association do not have any member restrictions outside the organizations own rules.

Thought I should add this here too, since Caspian just mentioned this tonight:

"

SCHOOLS:

These are organizations dedicated to the furthering of education, research, and technology. Their org structure consists of some members of the organization who pay to be members (to receive training and to gain access to the school's resources) while other members of the organization are paid to be a part of it (as trainers and researchers). Their funding comes from a combination of their paying members and grants from the Kingdom, Duchy, County, or Settlement they reside in.

The main advantage to being a part of a school is that they offer increased and rapid opportunity for learning. This comes in the form of consolidated access to skill trainers, and also access to specialized research tools. And, as new technology is discovered, all students immediately gain access to the new knowledge. Because their primary benefits come from having a larger number of members in a single location, few schools want to create multiple locations, preferring to increase in size and scope at a single site or campus.

Because knowledge is power, and people are encouraged to focus their skill development on one set of skills at a time, characters (ie. identities) are restricted to enrollment in one school at a time.

GUILDS:

Despite the same word being used, Guilds work differently in Chronicles of Elyria than in most MMOs and instead function more like guilds on Earth. Where in most MMOs they tend to recruit members with a variety of classes and crafting abilities with which to outfit the group for raids, Guilds in CoE tend to be about crafting goods or services, specializing in one or more trade skills, crafts, or professions - such as Smithing Guilds. Their org structure works similar to businesses on Earth, with employees and owners.

Revenue for an organization comes entirely from its members, with most organizations allowing its employees to keep a percentage of profits and depositing the rest into a central lockbox. Organizations rarely receive money from government, and, more often than not, must pay income taxes. Unlike schools, there is only so much business to be done in a single location and the most successful organizations will find increased wealth from setting up franchises or satellite locations all across their kingdom. The main advantage to being in a guild is increased access to resources, and a steady stream of customers who trust the brand name established by your guild. As your guild's reputation and fame increases, so, too, will your revenue. As with schools, knowledge is power. Because most guilds don't want their trade secrets shared, players are restricted to one organization per type at a time. This means you could be part of both a Tanning Guild and Smithing Guild, or both a Smithing Guild and a School.

ASSOCIATIONS:

These are organizations which generally provide a service to the community or to the governments. These range from preservationists to religious organizations. Members of an association come with varying skills and capabilities as, more often than not, the services they provide are unrelated to the hard skills of their members.

Similar to guilds, funding for an association typically comes from its members. Unlike guilds, however, all revenue from the members are passed up to the leadership to be redistributed or consumed as necessary to run the association. Because it is expected that all revenue is consumed for the purpose set forth by the association, these organizations typically do not pay income tax. That said, they're closely monitored by governments and settlements and, if they're perceived to be running a guild instead of an association, you can rest assured people will come to claim the money they're owed.

There are no common criteria around size and distribution of associations, as their purpose dictates such things. There are also no restrictions on the number of associations a character may be a part of at any given time."

I hope the guild "buffs" are not dependent on time spent in guild hall.

Such would work only in larger towns where there are several practioners of the same crafting profession. But how could a lone small town blacksmith use the guild, if the guild hall is located in the biggest town of the county, and run his own smithy in his home town? Travelling will take quite a long time in Elyria.

It would make sense that one could e.g. once a week bring his new ideas and recipies to guild hall to share with others and one could also receive new knowledge during that visit. Maybe a little practice and some crafting in the guild hall should be done, but the main part of training would happen back in his own shop.