Good question, really hope we can get some specifics on guild tokens.

There appears to be at least one guild specific structure mentioned in the guild token description - the Guild Hall. Given the use of the plural form (Halls, Upgrades), it implies there may be multiple types of structures but this could also just be marketing speak meant to appeal more to our imaginations than to be taken too literally:

When you give a token, you are contributing to the organization of the person you give it to. The more tokens your leader receives, the greater the organization becomes. Each token increases research points or resources, depending on the organization type. At certain thresholds, tokens will create special Organization Upgrades that your Leader can use to create guild halls, get additional resources, and more!

From the title I instantly thought of the terrible guild levels that were in WoW.

But probably would be in the way that, some guild buildings are bigger, got more people within them. Just overall look richer. Would be pretty nice if there was something special that the leader could unlock by hitting more members, researching something new first etc.

Id expect something along the lines of the ability to make franchises or different kinds of contracts.

Like the towns etc. The difference is largely just because more people requires different styles of management etc.

Posted By Gunnlang at 6:03 PM - Sat Jul 07 2018

From the title I instantly thought of the terrible guild levels that were in WoW.

But probably would be in the way that, some guild buildings are bigger, got more people within them. Just overall look richer. Would be pretty nice if there was something special that the leader could unlock by hitting more members, researching something new first etc.

Yeah I wanted to change the title after I realized it could be a bit misleading but it was too late.

And I don't want guild upgrades to be the same as what the settlement upgrades are. I'm hoping if they do exist that they require more work than just posting more fliers and having more resources.

I would expect guilds levels to work more according to recognition levels, by the kingdom or npcs. Like taking on major quests or requests that would give them recognition. Tasks that could only/majorly be achieved by a large number of players. As such, the greater the recognition the greater the available actions, like the purchase of terrain for a guild hall in a kingdom, or the higher difficulty/more other possible quests/requests become available for more recognition. This could be understated as well as the NPCs recognize the players part of a guild allowing them to take on more/harder solo quests/requests as well. This is just the idea I conceived coming from the Q&A and systems developers mentioned before, but this does not mean any on what I mentioned would be inserted on the actual game.

I don't imagine there being skills specific to guilds. like in real life you don't suddenly have an ability only people in a similar group could get by being in a group. what i do see is npcs recognizing your role in a guild. Seeing how there are kings, queens, dukes, mayors, and such it wouldn't be hard for them to copy paste code for there to be leaders, advisers, seniors, and juniors in a guild. Along with that i don't see them having alot of voice lines for players or npcs seeing as language barriers wouldn't work well with voice lines so they could just type something like "congrats on your promotion in X. Being a Y is a very respectable position" X being the guild and Y being your rank. could change the lines depending on if you're low rank or high rank.

As far as I understand any 'levelling' of Guilds in CoE will be a matter of how the players define it.

"Elyrian guilds function as player created associations of professional craftsmen and merchants."

This simply implies players are free to define any kind of organizational structure and divide it into departments, chapters, branches or whathaveyou in order to keep things manageable. Therefore any kind of guild may distinguish certain organizational 'levels'.

I agree with the basic notion brought forward by Nesato regarding 'levels of recognition', but that too, is a player-only matter. Any outsider of a guild may recognize the 'level' of a guild by the guilds geographical influence. Guilds may operate on various geographical levels so to speak, like 'city' versus 'county' versus 'duchy' versus 'kingdom'.

Next to that, the ruling class of any realm is free to provide privileges to guilds dependent on (some level of) prerequisites they define. As such, this can imply effective 'levels of recognition'. The more economic power a guild will have, the stronger the tendency of the ruling class to strike some deal with the guild, for various and mostly obvious reasons. Do note that rulers may have a strong tendency, through powerful motives, to ensure they are in full control of the most relevant guilds in their realm.

Hi, lacking some crucial information, the way I imaginated it, guild evolutions/upgrades would have some similarities to those found in "Guild Wars 2" and "EvE Online" corporations (probably the only other major games that do not artificially condemn players to a unique guild membership).

What could upgrades allow an elyrian guild to do?

• Unlocking features (branding, patents, communication between sites, exclusive deals, terms of contracts...) and special crafting stations for both the guild headquarters and regional branches.

• Crafting items with the recognizable guild sigil (branding), building or messing with the guild reputation (and the problem of forgery/counterfeit) depending on perceived quality.

• Defining patents and rights to use, making sure techniques and recipes (ie. blueprints) are indeed a guild legacy and not lost with the death (or defect) of mastercrafters.

• Dealing with providers, authorities (and outlaws) instead of only individuals to make sure that necessary infrastructure and logistics are not impeded, ensuring the flow of goods and necessary components.

• ...

What could be needed to start?

How baronies are structured, over the town system, is probably a good clue on how guild ranks/levels/upgrades will exist in CoE.

Currently, within a building, any room can be designated to fit a particulat role, one and only one (like in theme hospital and similar management games).

So I suppose having one room in an owned building (neither leased, nor rented) defined as the guild headquarters, then register the guild to that town-level settlement (level III upgraded and acknowledged by the county) will be enough to start such endeavor.

Note that if it works like the rest, the organisation would integrate the building as its first asset. But since the game doesn't have that level of fine ownership division... we might have to dedicate an entire parcel to the fundation of a guild.

For instance, my own city project, Aurora, partly depends on what win-win deal I can provide, as a mayor, to our auroran concept of resident guilds. In order for them to thrive and synergize well within our urban planned community, I need to be truthful, believable and on point... last one being hypothetic for now, as the OP question has no official answer.

We'll see when the focus of design journals will come back on such topics, hopefully some time before domain selection.

Side note: Towns are organisation too

Indeed, and that organisation owns all the integrated parcels of the settlement (the town hall noticeably).

Both military and civil settlements can be upgraded independently when they reach a certain size and have built the required infrastructure for the next level. That's the mechanic I was refering earlier.

At one point, I even wondered if one could become a school or a guild of its own. Though they have already a lot on their plate with a few of their activities we know of: survivable shelters, local regulations (and lower courtouse), land management, safety measures and urban planning (zoning).

What could be the scope of a guild/school?

I don't think guilds (or their soulmate, the schools) are limited to "crafters" only, for instance harvesters' guilds (from fishermen to ranchers) would have their own techniques to improve (research) and productivity to enhance (through technology advances).

While those coined as guile guilds (previously called deviants) and generally labelled as thieves, smugglers, mercenaries (assassins among them), counterfeiters, scavengers, fences... also have their own "tools of the trade".

In my opinion, if you have tools in hand, you can have a guild or school related to that occupation. If not, you're an association.

The current limitation to one guild per "profession" should be treated as outdated design since players were later encouraged to invent their own player professions based on the more immutable skill tree (no recent news about it by the way?)

That design wlll surely come back in a new way, probably as a limitation to one guild per skillgroup... and per identity as it should (it is where/how a lot of interesting gameplays emerges after all).

Best regards, Leonim.

I agree with AlteOgre on this one. The renown and resources available to a guild essentially define the guild's level already without having to put a number on it.

Sure you can say Kingdom level guilds get this, while County level guilds only get that, but that is more a political decision based on the economy more than it is a guild "leveling up".

I would think of the guild level more as a slider than a solid lvl 1, lvl 2, etc system. Your renown goes up and down, your resources, your connections, building, everything that benefits you or costs you time and money is essentially the level of your guild, much like it is in real life. I think it would then be on the players to define laws at that point on what benefits guilds get.

Maybe if guilds reach a certain revenue point they are no longer a small business so they don't get a tax break, but they also can be entrusted with higher paying jobs for the county, as an example.