Guild Wars 2

Many have suggested the different colored guild channels. I’m all for that (it’s made a similar idea in TESO super easy to use). I’d go one step further and ask that these colors be customizable by the player — that, in fact, all channels be color customizable. Even if we don’t get a huge gradient bar to choose from but only a set of, say, 10 colors, then we could set things to catch our eye in intuitive fashion.

With that, I’d ask for something TESO seems to lack: The ability to sort out your guilds in the order you want. In that game my first guild is one of my GW2 buddies and my second is my old WoW guild people. But my GW2 folks are back in GW2, not in TESO, so nothing ever happens in chat or the bank there — and still it insists on being my default opened guild panel. If only I could make the WoW folks my “G1” chat.

Being able to sort one’s guilds in the order one prefers for selecting a channel would rule. Or instead of /G1, /G2, you could type the guild tag? Though tags aren’t always unique. Thinky thinky thinky.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Indeed. Alliances would be adding something to the game, and I’m sure they would make many players pleased. Especially, Alliance chat. =)

Not sure about the logistics of Influence, Bonuses, Buffs, or anything else. What I mean is would people be asking for such things? Would several smaller Guilds want to pool their resources in such a way as to be able to, then, participate in content only the larger Guilds are able to now?

It might require some thought.

Now… suppose we have Alliance Chat. Would that only display for the guild the player is currently representing? Imagine if you were in 5 guilds in 5 alliances…

And the other issue is for WvW use – scouts could get info out to a lot of people using an alliance chat channel but there’s no way to be sure that everyone in the alliance is on the same server. It’s a bit easier to police a server WvW guild, but right now that has the representing communication block.

Alliances could allow some new stuff in WvW, such as holding a fort for 24h to get a reward, but I wouldn’t recommend putting that one in unless something is done to address population imbalances and karma training. Alliances ain’t going to fix WvW and could possibly make it worse – more bandwagoning for rewards.

But in PvE, the ability to ally guilds allows for smaller groups to participate in meta-event sized guild challenges and could be loads of fun. I’ll just point to the Marionette again.

Much appreciated Chris. Perhaps there is hope for my pet petition, lobbied at you guys since beta: getting rid of dull grey /em text! Let it be that way for anyone that likes it so long as I can do, I dunno, pale blue close to white so it’s almost a /say but not quite … /dreams

steveway.3167:

If these issues were resolved by opening up a seperate channel for all guilds you are a member of, dividing all influence earned between each guild you are a member of and displaying the MOD and online members of each guild you are a member of, then it would not be a problem. In essance you would need full access to each guild you are in at all times to truly be in multiple guilds.

Quick comment – if you could switch between repping guilds without losing guild chat, dividing influence wouldn’t matter so much. If you wanted to go 50/50 you could switch over at will. I’m not sure how complex divvying up the influence would be to implement, but until then there’d be a workaround if we could have all /g channels displayed.

Ben K.6238:

steveway.3167:

If these issues were resolved by opening up a seperate channel for all guilds you are a member of, dividing all influence earned between each guild you are a member of and displaying the MOD and online members of each guild you are a member of, then it would not be a problem. In essance you would need full access to each guild you are in at all times to truly be in multiple guilds.

Quick comment – if you could switch between repping guilds without losing guild chat, dividing influence wouldn’t matter so much. If you wanted to go 50/50 you could switch over at will. I’m not sure how complex divvying up the influence would be to implement, but until then there’d be a workaround if we could have all /g channels displayed.

I could see that as an acceptable workaround, but not a permanant solution.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I would be personally very unhappy if the amount of Guilds a player could belong to was reduced to only two.

Ideas that add to the game are great…ideas that remove what we already enjoy? Not so great. As evidenced by the player-base reaction to the latest Feature Patch.

Yep that seems to be the resounding feedback about reduction in guild occupancy. Alliances can exist outside of that though.

Chris

Indeed. Alliances would be adding something to the game, and I’m sure they would make many players pleased. Especially, Alliance chat. =)

Not sure about the logistics of Influence, Bonuses, Buffs, or anything else. What I mean is would people be asking for such things? Would several smaller Guilds want to pool their resources in such a way as to be able to, then, participate in content only the larger Guilds are able to now?

It might require some thought.

I think small guilds would Ally . WvW guilds would. And potentially for PVE content to with larger guilds. And WvW alliances with pve guilds. I have been adopted by a WvW Zerg Smashing guild called Helioz on TC and they wanted to ally with a PVE guild to do the content.

Depends on how progression is distributed and the communication channels etc.

Chris

I might be a little late to this part of the conversation but I’d be all for this. I’m in a tiny guild (2.5 people!) and very hesitant to join a large one, though I have a slot reserved for just in case. Anything that would allow family guilds and small groups of mates to get together and get things done would be wonderful.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Castrin.8972:

Proposal Overview
Guild Material Storage and Crafting

Goal of Proposal
Allow players with crafting skills to craft items for the guild via a centralized system.

Proposal Functionality
In the Guild in game menu, on the left side there would be a “workshop” tab which would lead to a guild version of the crafting menu found at the crafting stations. This crafting station would support all crafting options and employ the level and knowledge (i.e. recipes) of the character doing the crafting (no separate exp system needed).

This in turn would be tied to a guild materials storage the same as each player has but with a stack limit of 5000 for each material stack. This would be a guild storage similar to the stash/trove/cave system, separated based on current material groupings, with rights to it assignable in the guild.

Any items crafted would be deposited in the highest level of guild storage unless full, then in descending order till an open slot is found. To access the finished item, or to deposit materials would require being at a guild bank location in game. The actual crafting of the object can be done anywhere in game just like building guild bonuses are able to currently.

Associated Risks
Security would be tricky but other than that I can’t think of any.

This is an interesting idea. What would you do about players who constantly take from thee stock pile, for example hitting limit everyday and not re-stocking. Would this be handled by just cautioning the player or would you design levels of restriction?

Chris

The way I see it and understood it was that any player should be able to craft for the guild by using the “workshops” materials which are deposited by the guild members that are willing to share resources for the guild.

The player crafting would never really acquire the materials but use them directly from the workshop.
The crafted item would go in workshop (if a component) or in highest possible level of bank if completed (and the access to those is determined by ranks for checking out those items).

Can I ask a question to the community? How does everyone feel of the importance of the Guild name being over your toon? Example if your “home” guild is always displayed but you can jump to your other guilds but only to join the chat. How do people feel about that as an incentive for guild unity/pride?

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Ben K.6238:

steveway.3167:

If these issues were resolved by opening up a seperate channel for all guilds you are a member of, dividing all influence earned between each guild you are a member of and displaying the MOD and online members of each guild you are a member of, then it would not be a problem. In essance you would need full access to each guild you are in at all times to truly be in multiple guilds.

Quick comment – if you could switch between repping guilds without losing guild chat, dividing influence wouldn’t matter so much. If you wanted to go 50/50 you could switch over at will. I’m not sure how complex divvying up the influence would be to implement, but until then there’d be a workaround if we could have all /g channels displayed.

How would you handle the UI design. Specifically clutter?

Chris

As far as clutter for general features, it could be just a matter of clicking on the guild in the guild menu and displaying all the information avail to a repping member to every member. you would select the guild and it would display mod, online members, influence, upgrades etc as it does now to repping members. If you wanted to change to another guild then just clicking on the guild would give you access to that guilds info without clicking rep each time.

As far as clutter in the chat, each guild would have their own color to signify each channel like map/say now. Players would have the option of turning off specific channels as they do now. It does present the porblem of channels with alot of discussion hiding comments of other channels. This is already an issue though when say/map chat gets really going in some areas. We would alwasys have the same option of hiding specific channels like we do now though.

On the topic of guild alliances – I have a different idea for potential discussion that could help get around some the logistics and confusion. Most of what Ive seen proposed amounts to alliances being little more than shared chat channels. I think they could be alot more.

Instead of having alliances be permanent connections between guilds, I would like to see an alliance system that is based around events.

The idea, which is just that (an idea that could be good or complete trash), would work like this:

1. Create an option in the guild permissions tab (ranks) called “propose/accept alliances.” This option would allow guild officers to propose temporary alliances with other guilds for particular events (wvw sessions, guild missions, etc) – as well as accept invites from other guilds offering alliances. The ability to invite other guilds to a temporary alliance would have to first be built – for a minimal guild influence cost – and activated (like any guild booster); and would last a set amount of time (six hours sounds about right to me).

2. While the event is active, the alliance would mean all guild perks and triggers are shared between the two guilds. Most importantly, these perks could include WvW boosters (+5 to supply, etc) and guild mission activations. Additionally, all members would be able to participate in an “alliance chat” channel.

3. The primary advantages of a system like this would be to encourage guilds to work together (rather than simply serving as a shared chat channel) – and it would give large PVE guilds a way to, if they were feeling benevolent, help smaller guilds or WvW focused guilds participate in guild missions without having to ask members of either guild to un rep for the duration (likewise, it would allow large WvW to do the same and share WvW perks with PVE focused or small guilds).

Again, it’s just a thought to throw into the pile. Feel free to shovel and discard if it has no merit (late night musings and all that).

Chris Whiteside.6102:

LostBalloon.6423:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Castrin.8972:

Proposal Overview
Guild Material Storage and Crafting

Goal of Proposal
Allow players with crafting skills to craft items for the guild via a centralized system.

Proposal Functionality
In the Guild in game menu, on the left side there would be a “workshop” tab which would lead to a guild version of the crafting menu found at the crafting stations. This crafting station would support all crafting options and employ the level and knowledge (i.e. recipes) of the character doing the crafting (no separate exp system needed).

This in turn would be tied to a guild materials storage the same as each player has but with a stack limit of 5000 for each material stack. This would be a guild storage similar to the stash/trove/cave system, separated based on current material groupings, with rights to it assignable in the guild.

Any items crafted would be deposited in the highest level of guild storage unless full, then in descending order till an open slot is found. To access the finished item, or to deposit materials would require being at a guild bank location in game. The actual crafting of the object can be done anywhere in game just like building guild bonuses are able to currently.

Associated Risks
Security would be tricky but other than that I can’t think of any.

This is an interesting idea. What would you do about players who constantly take from thee stock pile, for example hitting limit everyday and not re-stocking. Would this be handled by just cautioning the player or would you design levels of restriction?

Chris

The way I see it and understood it was that any player should be able to craft for the guild by using the “workshops” materials which are deposited by the guild members that are willing to share resources for the guild.

The player crafting would never really acquire the materials but use them directly from the workshop.
The crafted item would go in workshop (if a component) or in highest possible level of bank if completed (and the access to those is determined by ranks for checking out those items).

Yep the need for some kind of control of output of materials is an interesting topic (-:

Chris

Or maybe having a system in place where officers (just like how we queue upgrades) place “orders” for what we need as a guild (ex: 100 sup. rams, 20 feasts of Y food, etc) And players can either donate materials towards those orders or fulfill by crafting them.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

steveway.3167:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Ben K.6238:

steveway.3167:

If these issues were resolved by opening up a seperate channel for all guilds you are a member of, dividing all influence earned between each guild you are a member of and displaying the MOD and online members of each guild you are a member of, then it would not be a problem. In essance you would need full access to each guild you are in at all times to truly be in multiple guilds.

Quick comment – if you could switch between repping guilds without losing guild chat, dividing influence wouldn’t matter so much. If you wanted to go 50/50 you could switch over at will. I’m not sure how complex divvying up the influence would be to implement, but until then there’d be a workaround if we could have all /g channels displayed.

How would you handle the UI design. Specifically clutter?

Chris

As far as clutter for general features, it could be just a matter of clicking on the guild in the guild menu and displaying all the information avail to a repping member to every member. you would select the guild and it would display mod, online members, influence, upgrades etc as it does now to repping members. If you wanted to change to another guild then just clicking on the guild would give you access to that guilds info without clicking rep each time.

As far as clutter in the chat, each guild would have their own color to signify each channel like map/say now. Players would have the option of turning off specific channels as they do now. It does present the porblem of channels with alot of discussion hiding comments of other channels. This is already an issue though when say/map chat gets really going in some areas. We would alwasys have the same option of hiding specific channels like we do now though.

Hey Steve,

Interesting points. If you had each guilds chat on your main chat panel you would likely get a huge amount of traffic and not be able to keep up with the volume. I get that people can hide channels but it needs to be designed in such a way that at its max functionality it doesn’t break immersion.

Chris

I definately see your point. Its currently an issue in some areas now too. There are days when map/say chat in Divinities Reach can get going and I miss comments from my guild chat. Adding more channels could make things worse, definately. Maybe a chat revamp is neccessary? I don’t know.

I don’t follow why the log has to be readable with absolutely everything turned on under the most extreme conditions. I already have problems through the combat log alone, or game messages when I’m crafting materials.

While I can’t say I’ve been in 5 guilds full of motormouths myself, the very first thing I do when I’m getting too much clutter from some channel – whether it’s LA chat or system messages – is just turn the channel off.

That’s leading into a general UI topic, but there’s one thought. Is it possible to separate channels into different windows, so game messages and combat log for example are not competing with chat?

It regards to the message of the day, a small and potentially useful change would be for people that do NOT have permissions to EDIT to still be able to open the textbox popup, but having only a cancel button or close window (basically no confirm)

This would allow anybody in guild to copy/paste information for ease of use.
Ex: Sending a friend teamspeak info that is contained in the message, guild “profile” info for potential recruits, etc.

Objective: Ease of copy/paste operations by every member.

Because we’re pretty much required to join guilds for Teq and Wurm I wish there’d be “more guild membership” expansion Because other guilds also do mode limitation. Some are PvP/WvW focused (some require rep in their game mode), some are PvE, some are friend’s guilds and some are technical. The more organization new events require, the better the odds of having guild specializing in it.

Ideally I wish guild members of certain rank could:
- auto-whisper people who are not repping (so ’we’re doing missions now’ or ‘second Teq attempt in 10 minutes’ can be whispered to everyone)
- allow filtering by server – which is funny, as guilds are going global, but inevitably there will be cases where people discuss wvw things in guild chat. And being on N servers now causes confusion (“Our Garry is under attack?! What? – No, it’s on server X”)
- give an option to show message of the day when someone starts repping for the first time since message has changed

Only other thing that comes to mind is hiding old lines from the same channel after 3-5 lines, depending on the number of channels they’re mixing with. Might be possible to toss in an integer field next to the display setting to set the number as well.

So rather than showing every guildchat at once, the active tab selects which one? If there’s a highlight showing when new lines have arrived for each tab that could work.

I like Blaeys idea. I don’t think the experiences the allied guilds share should be lost though. If guild x joins guild y for a dungeon, then joins guild z for some WvW, then re-allies with guild x for another dungeon the next day-all 3 guilds gain merit and achievement points. Perhaps there can be tiers to the alliance, and the more times guilds ally with other specific guilds, and the more diversity in events they share- the higher the shared guild buffs and bonuses become.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Ben K.6238:

So rather than showing every guildchat at once, the active tab selects which one? If there’s a highlight on the tab showing when new lines have arrived for each one that could work.

Exactly.

+ this is very clever:

‘If there’s a highlight on the tab showing when new lines have arrived for each one that could work’

Chris

I like this idea reminds me a bit of the old chat system of GW1.

I apologise if I’m too late in the discussion to be posting this:

Proposal Overview

The ability to be in more than 5 guilds

Goal of Proposal

Guilds can serve many different functions (this list is not exhaustive)

Small groups of friends

General purpose e.g. buffs, lots of members, voice comms etc

Specific purpose eg running Arah, doing big world events like triple trouble, player mentoring

Different game mode types e.g. WvW, PvP

At the moment it is possible for a player to run out of guild slots e.g. join a general purpose guild, a couple of specific purpose guilds, a WvW guild, a small group of friends and have 5/5 guild slots in use, and still want to join other guilds.

Goal: This would allow players to multi-guild more

Proposed Functionality

There are a couple of ways to implement this

1) Increase the number of guild slots each account is allocated

2) Sell additional guild slots as account upgrades

Associated Risks

Possible storage / bandwidth / processing overhead increases if this is implemented with other changes eg multi-guild chat, guild wide mail outs

Implementation logic may become complicated eg when tied to other multi-guild suggestions

P.S. I know that the idea of guild alliances has gathered interest, perhaps this proposal would go well with that idea?

EDIT: added a risk

Ailse.8190:

2) Sell additional guild slots as account upgrades

Have to admit I’d actually pay for that.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Hey Blaeys,

But what about the awesomeness of rocking an alliance over a period of time that is famous for killing it in WvW or Legendary Bosses or PvP that you would lose if i am understanding you correctly?

Chris

here is where the idea is coming from, to (hopefully) make things clearer.

I lead a decent sized PvX of about 350 members (with daily activity being around 50-70 members logging on). We have what I think of as informal alliances with three other other guilds on our server – one that is dedicated to WvW, one that is made up primarily of APAC players and one that is a small guild of real life family/friends that want to remain small because they have young children playing in their guild.

While I would love shared chat channels with these three guilds, I could easily see how it would get out of hand, so I wanted to think about it from a “what do we do together as guilds” point of view.

We work with these other three guilds in five different ways:

1. When the WvW guild needs support and we arent doing anything as a guild, we have a large number of members hop into their Teamspeak and follow their lead.

2. When members of the primarily APAC guild have to miss their guild mission night, we have a standing arrangement that they can come to ours (and vice versa). Additionally, officers from each guild agree to help out if the other guild is short of people in a given week.

3. The APAC guild and the faimly guild both have permission to use our custom guild pvp arena (which is technically mine, but it is kept running by donations from the guild) – and we set aside one night every other week for fun 3v3 deathmatch tournaments in the courtyard.

4. The family guild leads a “themed” wvw night (all minion master, all asura, etc) one night each week that we like to participate in.

5. Officers of all guilds often whisper back and forth whenever their guild is doing anything that takes larger numbers, so alot of adhoc groups form.

The point of spelling all this out is to illustrate what I think alliances should be trying to support. The trick is drawing the line between guild and cross-guild activities. For that reason, rather than seeing a shared chat channel that is active 100 percent of the time, Im more interested in tools that could make events like the ones I list above easier to coordinate and support between the guilds involved more fluid.

My first instinct was to look at making alliances event focused rather than chat focused. That may not be the best solution – and maybe shared chat is the answer (if the logistics can be worked out). Personally, though, if alliances are introduced, I would like to see them implemented around a toolbox of functions (such as shared resources and event triggers) that offer something more than just another chat option.

The idea of inviting other guilds to participate in my guild’s activities, most notably guild missions, really appeals to me (as does the idea of them inviting my guild to theirs ). That large scale organization between guilds is how I would define an “alliance.” The more tools we have to do that, the better the experience for all involved.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Ben K.6238:

Ailse.8190:

2) Sell additional guild slots as account upgrades

Have to admit I’d actually pay for that.

It makes everything more complex though!

Chris

True… and is one of the ‘nice to haves’ rather than a ‘must have’.

Hi Chris,

I agree the proposal does add to complexity, I’m sorry I should have added that as a separate risk.

I’ll go and edit the post.

Separate tabs for chat that show a number in a bracket for how many comments there have been in that tab since you last looked at it.

So the chat tab would look like:

• | Combat | All | Random Guild Name[RNDM](4) | Other Random Guild [RnDm](15)

Chris Whiteside.6102:

I agree with everything you are saying. I am simply stating that persistence is fun (-:

Chris

That sounds great to me, as long as the individual guilds can retain their original identity – for example, the small family guild I mention would be against an overly formal alliance because it would potentially expose the children in that guild to a large number of strangers (which is understandable).

With all of what’s been said in mind, Yaya’s suggestion regarding shared or saved progression – that advances a larger alliance (with unique perks and unlockables) – seems like a really great idea.

The tricks would be implementing that progression without using a system that puts one guild above the other – and implementing a system that allows for multiple alliances between divergent guilds (basically, my guild would possibly want to be in three unique alliances with the three guilds I mention above – based on the activities we share with each).

Of course, to make things even harder, the system would need to be simple to understand and implement (makes me really glad im not a developer and, instead, just some schmuck voicing my ideas on the Internet ).

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Iason Evan.3806:

Separate tabs for chat that show a number in a bracket for how many comments there have been in that tab since you last looked at it.

So the chat tab would look like:

• | Combat | All | Random Guild Name[RNDM](4) | Other Random Guild [RnDm](15)

It is still a drop down window though, as apposed to a click.

Specifically: | Random Guild Name[RNDM](4) |

Unless i am not understanding your design.

Chris

Think of that garbage diagram I threw out there as the top of the chat window and each of those is a tab. the number in brackets (4) is the number of messages that has been typed since you last looked at it. You click the tab to view those. Kinda like how Twitter works when you have it in a browser window you arent looking at. It would say Twitter(24) meaning there were 24 tweets you havent seen yet since you last looked at that particular page.

It would very much be a tab you would click on.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Iason Evan.3806:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Iason Evan.3806:

Separate tabs for chat that show a number in a bracket for how many comments there have been in that tab since you last looked at it.

So the chat tab would look like:

• | Combat | All | Random Guild Name[RNDM](4) | Other Random Guild [RnDm](15)

It is still a drop down window though, as apposed to a click.

Specifically: | Random Guild Name[RNDM](4) |

Unless i am not understanding your design.

Chris

Think of that garbage diagram I threw out there as the top of the chat window and each of those is a tab. the number in brackets (4) is the number of messages that has been typed since you last looked at it. You click the tab to view those. Kinda like how Twitter works when you have it in a browser window you arent looking at. It would say Twitter(24) meaning there were 24 tweets you havent seen yet since you last looked at that particular page.

Yep so an extra click. We can do better than that (-:

Chris

Fair enough. As long as I get my guild Message of the Day in the chat window, I am ok with whatever

Have a good night man.