Guild Wars 2

I want to start by saying that I write a lot, so there will be a lot of tl;dr (about 5 posts to be exact), but don’t worry I’ll put a quick summary at the end for everyone who wants the spark notes.

Now, I know that everyone and their mom has talked about guild halls, Guild vs. Guild, and the just guilds in general over the last year and a half since the game was released. Coming from the original Guild Wars, I was looking forward to new guild halls and all sorts of fun new features with the guild perspective and a lot of ways to make members of my guild happy. What I was met with though was no guild halls, multiple guild representation, and to be honest, a shift from the want to be part of a small close-knit guild to needing to be a part of a mega guild that either has enough members to gain influence to further their guild or has people with enough money to buy influence. This segregates a portion of the players in Guild Wars (though it may be a small portion) that enjoy that small guild feel that would rather have a close-knit group of a 100 members instead of say, multiple guilds with 400.

Whether or not we like it, if and when they eventually put guild halls in the game they will undoubtedly be geared towards these mega-guilds that can afford them, leaving smaller guilds without a chance. This will affect the small guilds just like the original Guild Wars with capes, guild halls, guild hall resources, and alliances that owned towns. Suddenly these small guilds will become even smaller because people will want to be a part of a mega guild because they have these resources. The more representing members in a guild means the more influence that guild gains. The more influence a guild has the more it can purchase and provide. Large guilds have the influence to have experience, magic find, karma, etc. buffs going 24/7 while small guilds can maybe manage to have them going once a week on the weekends. This I understand, but I don’t believe guild halls should be obtained in the same manner.

Let me step down from my soapbox and get to the point. I feel that since Guild Wars 2 is so dependent on micro-transactions that it would be a better idea to have certain resources for guild halls be dependent on the gemstore instead of influence. Now before you stop reading (if you haven’t already) and say that this is the worst idea in the world, give me the benefit of the doubt, read on, and then if you still feel that way, let me know that this is the worst idea in the world. I will cover: Guild halls, Guild Services, GvG and Influence. So here we go…

Guild Halls

I believe that any guild with a high enough Architecture level should have privileges to a guild hall. No need to increase the Architecture to an outrageous level, simply add the option to “Purchase Guild Hall Contract” under say Architecture 5 or 6. Set the influence price high but not unobtainable for smaller guilds, 20,000-30,000 influence maybe? That way it isn’t that every person who creates a guild can have a guild hall, but those guilds that do have active membership can definitely obtain it after a period of time.

Once you have the guild hall contract purchased, you can find it in the “unlocks” section when looking under influence. With this, you now have a basic template for a guild hall unlocked for you guild. This gives you a standard guild hall with no additions to it, which is merely a place for guild members to meet, talk, party-up, etc. To initially travel to the guild hall you have to go to whatever main city will take the place of Lions Arch (in the event it is not rebuilt). Whether or not representation will remain in the game is beyond me, but if they continue to allow multiple-guild representation, the portal will transfer you to the guild hall of whatever guild you are currently representing. If that guild does not have a guild hall, you will simply walk through the portal.

After the initial travel, you will be able to travel to the guild hall by clicking a “Travel to Guild Hall” icon that could be found somewhere in the guild panel.

Now, the fun comes in when you want to unlock additional guild hall skins. Each guild hall skin will have a basic lay out of: 1 primary guild hall, 1 secondary guild hall, and a playable zone between the two for GvG battles similar to the original Guild Wars layouts. The difference is that instead of buying the guild hall skins with solely influence or gold, you can also choose to purchase them with gems. This way, guilds have multiple options to change how their halls look. As far as gem prices for guild halls, that would have to be dependent of ANET but I would personally price it around the same as the Custom Arena Startup kit. And the best part would be that once you have it unlocked, you guild can hold the rights to it. To prevent people from constantly changing the guild hall style, maybe make it so you can only change the guild hall once every month.

Then, to entice people to buy more from the gemstore, they can release exclusive skins at certain times of the year that you can only purchase with gems. Say, a Halloween or Wintersday themed guild hall, or even ones that bring you back to your favorite living story events like the Zephyr Sanctum, Nightmare Tower, or Super Adventure Box even! Even guild hall bundles could be available in due time if they wanted. And to keep track of what ones you already have, there could be a new tab on the guild panel very similar to how the “Finishers” tab looks on accounts.

This way, ANET could continue to make a profit by selling halls via micro-transactions, and players/guilds have a choice if they want to spend real world money for gems, transfer in-game gold into gems, or use influence.

Guild Services

Guild Services will be the primary way for ANET to make money off of the gemstore. Like buying services through the gemstore, you should be able to buy permanent ones for your guild hall. Purchase your own Black Lion Trader, Guild Banker, Merchant, Crafting Stations, etc. They already sell these things in the gemstore, so it wouldn’t be so different if we could buy them for the guild halls. Have all the luxuries of Lions Arch or Divinity’s Reach in one easy location in your guild hall. It wouldn’t be all too different than the original Guild Wars, aside from using gems. This allows a level of equality to it for everyone who is either able to pay in or out of game.

Bundles could come out, just like they would with guild halls and just like they already have with other gemstore items. Maybe, you could buy a “Hall Starter Bundle” that comes with: Merchant, Weaponsmith, Armorsmith, and all of the guild exclusive traders (registrar, promoter, commendation trader, etc.) and over time develop other bundles “Economy Bundle” (Black Lion Trader, Crafting Stations, bank), “Gatherer’s Bundle” (3 mining nodes, 3 logging nodes, 3 harvesting nodes) and more and more as time goes on. Eventually, it could even lead to more enjoyable items like a Super Adventure Box for the guild hall to be used whenever, an NPC that allows you to spawn your own competitive game arena (Keg Brawl, Belcher’s Bluff, Sanctum Sprint, etc). There could be so many things that ANET could sell through the gemstore that guilds would want to buy.

And to encourage other members to chip in, they could make it possible to donate as well. The gifting system is already enabled where you can send gemstore purchases as gifts to other players, why not be able to send them to the guild. Say you purchase a mining node and want to donate it to the guild hall since it doesn’t have one. Simply click the “Gift to Guild” button and instantly add it to the guild hall. Another way to do this is if there was a “Guild Hall Purchases” Merchant that you could directly speak to in the guild hall, similar to a Black Lion Trader, that when you speak to them they direct you to the gemstore page for Guild Services.

This way we can get the perks that we have always wanted in a single location and the possibility of micro-transactions could mean some money for ANET as well.

Guild vs. Guild / Guild Influence

At this point, I believe it is important to state that though I have mentioned the original Guild Wars several times in relation to halls, guild halls in guild halls in Guild Wars 2 should be more or less referred to as a mix between a tower and a keep in World vs. World. The guild hall will have an outer wall with a closed gate and portal for people of the same guild to enter (When not in a Guild vs. Guild match this gate is not there). Once inside the gate there are no additional defenses, just a Legendary Guild Lord and several Veteran Guild Body Guards around him. The opposing guild will have a similar fortification on the opposite side of the map. The only other addition would be a control point at some location between the guild hall and the opposing guild’s beachhead.

When looking at Guild vs. Guild battles this is where I see influence coming into play. Undoubtedly, guilds that will want to be heavy into GvG and compete to win monthly tournaments will most likely recruit a significant number of players and have a heavier player base. As such, it is likely that they will be able to maintain a steady flow of influence and willing put it into their guild hall. This is where influence and architecture start to work together. Guilds looking to do GvG would have the option to improve their guild hall much like they do in WvW. Using influence they would be able to go through the steps of fortifying their hall long before the match begins. There would be two types of GvG upgrades: Consumables and Unlocks.

Unlocks: Unlocks would be major structural changes that would not need to be unlocked once and would roll over guild battle after guild battle and not need to be repurchased. These would include offensive upgrades (oil pot, cannons, mortar) and defensive upgrades (reinforce walls, reinforce doors, fortify guild hall). Much like WvW you will need to purchase and upgrade them in order, each upgrade costing significantly more influence. Unlike in WvW, there would be an additional upgrade that is to add supply pad to your guild hall. This allows a guild to start with a set number of supply to allow them to construct additional defenses. Starting supply pad is 100 supply, medium 500 supply, advanced, 1000 supply. Depending on how large the battles are, this can either be a lot or not enough supply.

Consumables: Consumables would be one time use items that are applied upon entering the GvG battle and before the match begins. These, like unlocks, are both offensive (preplaced trebuchet, arrow cart, ballista build sites) and defensive (guards). So long as a guild hall does not fall, guards will respond at a set time interval if they have been purchased. Preplaced siege weapons will not respond after they have been destroyed. These would most likely be purchased using the Art of War section of the guild upgrades. There would also be the option to “oversupply” the supply pad, adding an additional +500 supply to the pad at start.

The thing that should be noted with unlocks and consumables is that you do not have to be the sponsor of the GvG to get the perks. If you have fortify guild hall unlocked, even if you are the one that is supposed to be attacking the enemy guild hall, your “beachhead” will have its walls fortified as well. You can use the consumables as well on an opponent’s turf.

TL;DR

Anyways, I think I’ve said enough on what I would like to see. I tried to find as many guild hall posts as I could but I really couldn’t find them so sorry if I am just reposting what other people have already said. Just wanted to throw in my two cents…well I threw in easily $1.25. As promised, here is your tl;dr:

Guild Halls:

• Should be able to purchase basic guild hall contract with influence (stock guild hall with nothing in it).
• Travel to guild hall initially from Lions Arch via asura gate (or future main hub city like Lions Arch).
• Purchase special guild halls: Super Adventure Box Theme, Halloween Theme, Wintersday Theme, Living Story Location Themes.
• ANET makes money, it’s good for them.

Guild Services:

• Purchase guild services (ie Bank, Black Lion Trader, Crafting Stations, etc) through gemstore.
• Bundle the purchases together (“Hall Starter Bundle” [Merchant, Weaponsmith, Armorsmith, and all of the guild exclusive traders, ie registrar, promoter, commendation trader, etc.]; “Economy Bundle” [Black Lion Trader, Crafting Stations, bank]; “Gatherer’s Bundle” [3 mining nodes, 3 logging nodes, 3 harvesting nodes])
• Super Adventure Box and competitive games arenas for purchase for guild hall.
• The ability to donate purchases to the guild via “Gift to Guild Hall” in gemstore.
• ANET makes more money off of micro-transactions, ever better for them.

GvG/Influence:

• Purchase unlocks like in WvW to fortify guild hall in GvG
• Unlocks: permanent upgrades to guild hall (fortify walls, reinforce doors, mortar, cannons, oil, supply pad)
• Consumables: one time usage upgrades with guards, preplaced siege build sites, additional supply.
• No home field advantage, if the opposing guild has the things unlocked they can also fortify their “beachhead”

Thanks for reading. Like it, hate it, let me hear it.

They haven’t said absolutely anything about it all this time.

From that I gather that even if they were to add guild halls, it won’t be this year.

No real use talking/crying over it.

Ramiel.4931:

They haven’t said absolutely anything about it all this time.

From that I gather that even if they were to add guild halls, it won’t be this year.

No real use talking/crying over it.

I completely agree. From what they have posted up there isn’t any talk of pursuing it currently but regardless it is still something that is talked about by people. And I think you might have misinterpreted what I was saying. I’m not crying over it, just simply stating a way that if ANET were to put them in, they could turn a profit through gemstore transactions with it. I would be interested to have other people post up their guild hall threads or topics as well because being from the original Guild Wars I’m always interested in hearing what other people have come up with from experience or dreaming.

They will certainly be more interested in it if they can make money off of it through the gemstore like you wrote. I really like this idea and guild competition was my favorite part of gw1, particularly with faction and alliances. I need something like that in this game!

Brother Dulfite.5793:

They will certainly be more interested in it if they can make money off of it through the gemstore like you wrote. I really like this idea and guild competition was my favorite part of gw1, particularly with faction and alliances. I need something like that in this game!

I completely agree. Though I did not do as much in GvG I did do a lot of Alliance Battles. I feel that if they ever removed representation and reinserted alliances, it could make for more interesting GvG scenarios. You could have competitive Guild vs Guild and also have Alliance vs Alliance which would be a scaled down WvW. They only problem with that is that it might move attention away from WvW which I believe they are worried about. But by being able to add upgrades and reinforcements to your guild hall it could really tip the course of the battle.

Ramiel.4931:

They haven’t said absolutely anything about it all this time.

From that I gather that even if they were to add guild halls, it won’t be this year.

No real use talking/crying over it.

Of course there’s use talking over it! ANet responds to the direction of the community, even if they don’t always do so perfectly or as quickly as people would like.

It seems pretty clear that this is a major feature the community wants. I seriously hope they really start devoting resources to making this happen. There’s a lot of great stuff happening in the Feature patch, but guild halls is something this game sorely needs.

Yes please. What made the original Guild Wars unique, besides the extreme amount of skill bar customization, was it’s Guild central theme. Guild halls could sooo easily be added as an instance, just like in the original, and allow guilds large or small to have a rally/meeting point basically. Launch dungeons from there, GvG matches, WvW raids, etc. My entire guild of friends and family, while only 22 strong, have been patiently waiting for it.

I think a lot of people have been patiently waiting. Even if it was simply for guilds with members from other home servers to be able to meet and share a universal guild bank, it would be extremely useful. This is especially true for the new mega-servers starting up and multi-server guild recruiting.