As the leader of a relatively large guild, overall I adore a vast majority of the changes that have been made to guilds in Heart of Thorns. However, there is a lot that feels unfinished, and/or is clunky and nonintuitive.
Firstly, it took us a long time to figure out how it was that upgrades WORKED. Where we could view them, which needed what, how to approve and so on. Now that we know how, the primary complaint is that it’s obnoxious.
I appreciate that the Treasury panel on all NPCs provides a list of total upgrade components needed. That’s fantastic, along with the functionality of viewing how much is needed and for what upgrade. However, I would suggest that a sort function would be great. If not a “sort by upgrade” than at least “sort by completion %,” so that the stuff that we still need appears first.
It’s also deeply frustrating to be unable to view what upgrades you have/need, and what items you need for them, from the normal guild panel. Having to go through a loading screen to talk to an NPC, so that I can go back through the loading screen to get to the cooking station because I forgot how many empty kegs we needed, is frustrating. Not being able to tell at a glance what level our Workshop is, or what upgrades we could add, is frustrating (and a loading screen to find that out seems unnecessary). Why can we view decorations from outside the guild hall, but not upgrades/upgrade items?
Even if we still have to go to the NPCs to donate and approve upgrades (although honestly I’d like those abilities from the normal guild panel, as well), please let us VIEW them from wherever. Also, a more minor note, the ability to donate directly from one’s bank/collections, or even the guild bank, would be very nice.
The “Processing Table” – aside from crashing my game, never announces itself (has no name, and the interact is just “manage,” and I’d never have found it except a guildie pointed it out to me. I’m also still not entirely sure what it’s used for, but it seems to be replacing the old guild queue? Why can’t we make this ALSO controllable from the UI, like the queue used to be. Also, some ingame documentation on what it is and how it works might help.
Finally, it’d be nice to have some sort of “skill tree” viewable from the main guild panel. I’d be nice to see everything in perspective, regarding how far we’ve come in upgrades, and how far we have yet to go. Right now it all feels sort of nebulous and neverending. What’s Guild level 17 MEAN? What’s the cap? How do we get there? It’d be really nice to have a more tangible, visible goal regarding upgrades.