Player Associations Archive

Intro

Guilds need more attention by the devs and many cool things could be done with guilds. Right now, guilds are out-of-character. They do not pose something real in the game world. This must be changed first, and it could be done in a convincing way. It is easy with neutral guilds, since they could form up their own organisations like a crime syndicate or a merchant enterprise. It is more difficult with guilds of faction aligned players, especially within the empire due to its standard armies. That is why the following lays emphasis on imperial guilds. But all solutions and ideas are basically for all types of guilds.

Guildhierarchy

Guilds and factions seem to be contrary systems. While factions are based on single players serving with an earned rank, guilds have own hierarchies made by players. Developers decided not to allow official ranks as guildtitles to avoid conflict with nomenclature, but the main problem is still there.

Currently, guilds are only game mechanical instances to organize a number of persons. This is a huge difference to other MMOG titles as explained in another thread. This rule does not allow factionguilds, although guilds with only factionplayers are still real. If all those members are in one faction with rank and if all of them bound together, they would be called a military unit. Arising Problems

If JEST3R succeeds with the GCW priority list, factionranks will be displayed. Although this is a cool feature on the first look, it reveals the problem with contrary ranking systems. Guilds of factionplayers have to deal with low members who might have a higher factionrank than the leader. If the rank is displayed it disrupts guild-rankings or forces players to whether ignore the ranktitle or to switch it off. All of this is unpleasing, because we want to be part of the factions, we want to use military ranks.The argument of members spending factionpoints to higher personal in the guild is not valid, since the factionranks cannot be lowered and it will in no way reflect hand-made hierarchies common in guilds. This problem is independent of the existence of ‘factionguilds’ since guilds of factionplayers are still real.

To solve the problem, we need a new guild type first: the declared guild.

Declared Guilds Declarationprocess Once a guild persists only of members of one faction (covert or overt), the leader could declare the guild to that faction. First, he needs to gain a higher rank within a faction which give him the power to form up a »special unit« in the empire or a »splinter group« in the rebel alliance. Then, the leader of the guild will meet a new introduced high ranked NPC to declare the guild to that faction. It would sound like this:

»My Name is Colonel XY. I have orders to form up a new special force and I want this guy and that guy and I fought with this three at the battle of Z so they would fit perfectly in my new unit« or »This is my wish-list of personell, this are my orders«

You got the picture It is like a recruitment of a special force seen in a dozen movies and I think it could fit even into the empire, since there are special units mentioned in the Imperial Source Book (see »Hell’s Hammer«).

Ranks The new declared guild can now set up a guild hierarchy with the official faction rank system. As mentioned above, it could not be done with the current system. A felxible system allows leader to promote and degrade their members to every rank they need. But the rank will only be the name (and displayed rank) without the advantages of a bought rank. The member may purchase ranks at the recruiter to gain those advantages (and to have a rank if they leave the guild) but this rank will not be displayed or mentioned as long the member remains in the guild, it is just game mechanical for the delegate factionpoint ratio (and for the new crackdown contraband rules). I.e. The rank of a factionguild member will always be given by his guildleader (and others with proper rights), but it is just the rank name. To have the regular advantages of a rank, the member has to buy them like everbody else.

The problem with that is, unguilded player may not like to see guildplayers in every rank without to pay for. But it is not possible to pay for the hierarchy, it must be customizeable and it must be quick. A hierarchy which is too inflexible will be ineffective. The system would be fair, since the guild ranks have no bonus attached. Unguilded players still could buy the bonus plus the benefit of higher ranks. It is a matter of attitude; players would pay for the benefits (fp ratio etc) in the first place than for the sake of the title.

Ruleset Declared guilds must only persist of aligned members, if a member quits the faction, he can no longer remain in the guild. Of couse it could be softened with a short time where the member could regain the needed factionpoints, which will auto declare him to the faction as long as he remains in the declared guild. Overt/Covert Declared guilds create a problem with the definition of covert/overt. A covert member is a sympathizer of a faction, who do not show affiliation. The covert looks like everybody else: neutral. Overts show their affiliation. That is why players need to go overt first, when they want to wear stormtrooper armor (and other faction clothing). If there are declared guilds who are special forces and who have faction ranks displayed, they could not be coverts in the given definition and they cannot be overt per default (due to the same reasons the devs set up this system).

Anyway, people know the affiliation of guilds on their server, because they see the guild-tag above their heads and know this guild is rebel or imperial (or mixed or neutral). It won’t make any difference if they are a special units in the world. It changes the definitions of covert and overt a bit. A covert member would be a sympathizer or supporter but no military target while overts are combatants. But this is where game mechanics are to make fun more than to reflect another reality. At any rate, displaying ranks would be for roleplay in the first place, but roleplay is not naturally PvP even both lies close together when roleplaying a soldier or officer. It is worth the question, if overt roleplayers can roleplay, without to be killed in the middle of their monologue by a swarm of enemy locusts. Consuetudinarily roleplayers and pvper are not exactly the same group of persons, to say the least, although the SW background puts them into the same space. Uniforms It would be consequent to change all names of declared imperial guilds to a standardformat like »#235 AssaultSquad« and change the last word with the number of members in the guild from Squad to Platoon to Brigade and so on. But I guess nobody really wants it. It would kill backgroundstories, images and all the stuff we like around the gaming itself. Guilds want to have personality, if a guild wants to be the #235 AssaultSquad so be it, if they want to be »the Order of Five« instead, then they should be the special unit called »the order of five«. The special unit »Hell’s Hammer« (mentioned in the Imperial Source Book, WEG 2nd edition) has own uniforms and armour, so even in the empire not all units are standard with standard gear and standard names.

To preserve the feel of the empire, we need typical imperial uniform parts and armor (-skins). We saw many uniforms in the movies, more are mentioned in sourcebooks all in rich and different colors. There are many different helmets, robes and armorparts player could use to create a unit’s uniform they like. It would look cool, it would increase immersion and It would enrich the world. When our guild »occupied« a city in our black/red guild-uniform, many players like it and said, that this really feels like star wars. NPC-Bots never create the immersion players could.

Crest/Logo

Finally a crest/logo system seen in other MMOG titles will complete the guildsystem in Star Wars Galaxys. The editor contains a list of stamps, colorpalette and a material selector for the background (for flags and banners).

1. Choose a background. There is a vareity of materials from smooth to rough to »rotten« drapery/cloth, along with color. maybe prefab backgrounds with divided areas which could be dyed with different colors.


2. Choose one or more stamps, select the color and size and stamp on the tissue. The number of stamps would be limited. Declared guilds may (or must) use the symbols of their faction, but there are many other stamps (geometrical forms, skulls, diamonds, stars, krayt heads, bantha horns...)


3. Done. Take the schematic and give it to a special NPC, it register the crest/logo for your guild.

All guildcrafters may now apply the symbol to clothing, armor, craftable banners (like those from the faction), and flags which could be placed outside of houses (custom housesign slot). Imagine a city controlled by a feared crime syndicate on tatooine, where you see a rotten flag with a skull everywhere and thugs with this symbol on their composite armor. This would give cities more flavor and help to make them real key locations in the galaxy (players do a great job to make it right now, but they need backup, since all cities look quite the same [per planet]).

Last words As you see, guilds of all types could enrich the worlds if they become a part of the galaxy rather than be just an organizer tool for a bunch of friends. The rich Star Wars Galaxy demands different types of guilds, other than in older games where they are based upon fighting. Since there are crafters, dancers, musicans and soldiers and more, who could form up guilds variety is needed. There won't be too much difficulties with neutral guilds, since they use fully customized titles and a crest/logo they like and which fits their needs. I have showed that there are a few problems with faction oriented guilds, which could be solved in a convincing way even for the imperial bureaucracy.

Comments, ideas and critics are greatly appreciated