Advanced Guild Banner Upgrades and Guild Treasury

[kpihuss]

Advanced Guild Banner Upgrades and Guild Treasury

I would like to suggest a new long-term progression system for guild banners.

The idea is to add new and stronger versions of the existing guild banner tactics. Unlike the current upgrades, these would not be unlocked automatically by simply increasing the guild rank. Instead, the guild would have to purchase them collectively using different currencies and gold.

Guild Treasury

Guild members would be able to voluntarily deposit the following resources into a special guild treasury:

* War Crests
* War Emblems
* War Tokens
* Champion's Marks
* Mentor Marks
* Gold
* Guild coins

Once deposited, these resources could not be withdrawn, traded or returned to the player under any circumstances. They could only be spent on advanced guild banner upgrades.

The treasury could also include a contribution log so members can see who contributed, which currencies were donated and when an upgrade was purchased.

This would create a proper shared objective for the entire guild instead of placing the full cost on one or two officers.

Advanced banner upgrade levels

These upgrades could have three progression tiers, with increasingly expensive costs.

For example:

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Upgrade level:          I        II       III

Attribute bonus:       +15%     +20%     +25%
Critical chance:        +5%      +8%     +10%

These numbers are only examples and could obviously be adjusted for balance.

The general idea is that each advanced upgrade level should provide a noticeable improvement over the current guild banner tactics.

The system could be applied to different existing banner bonuses, including offensive attributes, defensive attributes, critical chance, healing bonuses, experience and renown bonuses.

Currency requirements by upgrade category

Each banner upgrade would require three different resources, depending on the type of content associated with it.

RvR-oriented upgrades

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War Crests
War Emblems
Gold

These would include bonuses mainly intended for large-scale PvP and RvR combat.

PvE-oriented upgrades

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War Tokens
Champion's Marks
Gold

These would include bonuses intended for dungeons, public quests and other PvE activities.

Progression-oriented upgrades

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War Crests
Mentor Marks
Gold

These would include improved experience, renown and similar progression bonuses.

Additional rules

* Advanced upgrades should be permanent guild unlocks once purchased.

* Only officers with the appropriate guild permissions should be able to purchase them.

* Deposited resources should never be refundable, even if the player leaves the guild.

* The upgraded tactics should follow the same activation, banner and stacking restrictions as the existing guild banner system.

* The highest levels should be very expensive and designed as long-term objectives rather than something a guild can unlock in a few days.

* A minimum guild rank could still be required before the advanced upgrade system becomes available, but guild rank alone should not unlock the bonuses.

Why add this system?

At present, guild progression becomes much more limited once the main guild ranks and banner tactics have been unlocked.

This proposal would:

* Give established guilds new long-term objectives.

* Encourage guild members to work together and contribute voluntarily.

* Create new currency and gold sinks.

* Give additional value to currencies that veteran players may no longer need for personal progression.

* Reward guilds that participate in several different parts of the game.

* Give players more reasons to play RvR, scenarios, PvE and the Mentor system.

* Make guild banners and guild progression relevant again.

The intention is not to replace the current banner system, but to add a new progression layer above it.

The exact bonuses and prices would need to be balanced carefully, but I think a shared guild treasury combined with expensive banner upgrades could provide meaningful long-term progression for active guilds.

[Akalukz]

some good thoughts here. Would be nice to see banners made more useful, the nerf to the rez was a huge blow. Speed should match that of a lvl 16 horse at lease, if not the 38.

Bring back reasons to belong to a guild other than guild coins / merchants.

[kpihuss]

Alternative idea: Purchasable upgraded guild standards

Another possibility, which may be considerably easier to implement, would be to allow guilds to purchase upgraded versions of their existing standards.

Instead of creating a new guild treasury system or developing additional banking mechanics, the purchased standard would simply multiply all the bonuses provided by one of the guild's currently unlocked standard configurations.

These upgraded standards would always be consumable items, not permanent guild unlocks. Once used, the standard would be consumed and the guild would have to purchase another one before being able to use the improved bonuses again. But you can reuse it if you don't lost it on combat!

For example:

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50 War Crests  = x1.5 to all standard bonuses
100 War Crests = x2.0 to all standard bonuses
200 War Crests = x3.0 to all standard bonuses

The same system could use other currencies and different prices depending on the type of standard:

* War Crests or War Emblems for PvP-oriented standards.
* War Tokens or Champion's Marks for PvE-oriented standards.
* Mentor Marks for experience or renown-oriented standards.
* Gold could also be included as an additional cost.

Example

Guild A has a recruit standard with the following bonuses:

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+10% Armour
+10% AP regeneration
+3% healing critical chance

After purchasing the x1.5 version for 50 War Crests, it would provide:

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+15% Armour
+15% AP regeneration
+5% healing critical chance

The healing critical chance would be rounded from 4.5% to 5%, although the developers could use a different rounding rule if necessary.

Advantages of this alternative

* It should be easier to implement because it would reuse the current guild standard bonuses.

* It would not require the development of a new guild banking or currency-deposit system.

* It would provide a recurring currency sink because every upgraded standard would have to be purchased again after being used.

* It could be applied to every existing standard without designing a completely new set of bonuses.

* It would allow guilds to choose which standard configurations they consider most valuable.

* Since these standards would be relatively expensive and require currencies obtained from specific types of content, guilds would be unlikely to waste them in unimportant fights.

* Guilds would have to decide when an upgraded standard was genuinely worth using, adding another strategic decision for organised warbands, sieges, cities, dungeons or other important encounters.

The exact multipliers, currencies and prices are only examples. The important part of the proposal is using the existing standard system to offer stronger, consumable versions of the bonuses that guilds have already unlocked.

Because they would be consumable and expensive, they would create a continuous currency sink without replacing the normal guild standards or making their improved bonuses permanently available.