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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsOfficers' Quarters: Cataclysm's guild revamp -- guild currency
by Scott Andrews 
Oct 19th 2009 at 1:00PM
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.
After Blizzard's big announcement about how they plan to improve guilds in Cataclysm, I've been examining the changes in detail. First, I wrote about the lack of guild improvements over the years and how the expansion will, for better or worse, change WoW guilds forever. Then I speculated on possible leveling system options, guild talents, and guild achievements. This week, I'm going to finish up the series by talking a bit about guild currency and suggesting some products that Blizzard should let us buy with this new system.
Here's what we know so far. Guild currency will be earned by players in your guild who earn experience. It remains to be seen if experience (and thus currency) will still be earned by players once they reach the level cap, but I assume that it will.
So far, they've only mentioned a few items that we can buy:
- Vanity items like mounts, tabards, and standards
- Reagents like frost lotuses for flasks
- Recipes
- Heirloom items that scale with level
If the only way you can obtain heirlooms is through your guild, there's going to be some drama over what items get purchased first and for which slots, who gets to use them when, and so on. Personally, I'd rather not deal with it. Sure, we could just skip buying them, but then people would complain that we don't have any. I just don't see a way to win here. It feels like no matter what we choose to do, someone is going to be unhappy with it. There are already too many decisions like that for officers!
According to the official unveiling at BlizzCon, all of these items, recipes, etc. are bound to the guild that purchased them. That means, if someone has such a recipe in their profession panel and they leave the guild, they will lose the recipe. Blizzard stated that the intention is to prevent the rampant guild-hopping that has plagued the game, and I am all for that goal. Besides the convenience of having the extra bank slots, there is zero game-supported incentive to stay with any particular guild right now. It's nice to see that Blizzard recognizes this situation as a problem. Officers could use a lot more help in this regard, and these guild-bound perks are a good start.
As far as earning the currency, I'm a bit wary that it will come only from experience. Apparently only the top earners will count toward the total, which is a nice way to lessen the advantage of a large guild over a small one. However, it seems odd to me that, considering all the group activities that guilds participate in, it's the one activity that's almost universally accomplished solo (questing) that seems like it will earn the vast majority of the guild currency.
Blizzard can tweak the system however they want to, even after they release it. I hope they eventually skew the currency to reward dungeon runs, raids, battlegrounds, and other group activities more than solo questing.
The rewards they've announced so far seem useful, but they are hardly exciting. Here are a few items I'd like to see as purchasable rewards from guild currency:
- Deployable guild meeting tent: If we can't have permanent guild housing, give us a temporary meeting space that we can set up ourselves from time to time. Allow the tent to be placed only in areas where the Darkmoon Faire currently sets up, and only when the Faire isn't in town. Give it a really long cooldown (27.5 days sounds about right) so there aren't tents all over the place. Inside the tent should be tables, a bar, musical entertainment that you can toggle on and off, a guild bank, a podium for speakers, and, of course, a guild currency vendor.
- Guild quests: Let us purchase quests that give tangible and desirable rewards that every member of the guild receives. Rewards could be a large amount of badges, a special mount, or even a legendary item. These quests would be both expensive and challenging to complete, similar to the epic Ahn'Qiraj gate opening questline that only a handful of guilds around the world got to experience. Making the quests accessible using this currency would allow motivated guilds to shoot for a long-term goal and have a lot of fun in the process.
- Heirloom resist gear: This suggestion isn't terribly compelling, but it would be really useful. Let us purchase resist gear that scales with level like heirloom gear does now. We're sick of crafting new sets for every expansion. If Blizzard insists on retaining resist gear as a necessary evil in their raids, at least let us obtain some gear that we don't have to replace every five levels.
- Guild airships: I vaguely remember someone floating this idea at some point after the WotLK airship models were discovered. And it's a great idea! Obviously there would be limitations on it, and it would fly somewhat slowly. But it would certainly make capital city attacks far more interesting! Further rewards could enhance the airship in some way, with shipboard cannons, faster engines, or grappling hooks for airship-to-airship combat. Why should Icecrown Citadel be the only time we can fight ship to ship -- and against NPCs no less? I want full-fledged guild vs. guild airship piracy. Let officers flag our ship for PvP and put part of our guild bank gold at risk. If we lose our ship to another guild, they get 500 gold of our money, and vice versa. This item should be the ultimate guild currency reward, costing far more than any other.
/salute
Send Scott your guild-related questions, conundrums, ideas, and suggestions at scott.andrews@weblogsinc.com. You may find your question the subject of next week's Officers' Quarters!Filed under: Officers' Quarters (Guild Leadership)
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 4)
Therizo Oct 19th 2009 2:06PM
The panel that you posted a picture of clarified that the Heirlooms would be PATTERNS that you purchased with guild currency, and could be given to guild members, that would allow them to craft the guild heirlooms. These would also be guild bound, so if they left the guild they would auto-mail to the guild master. So give your top exp earning tailor the awesome heirloom pants recipe, and then let folks have him craft them when they gather up the mats. Then pass em to a guildie when you're done. Maybe, or maybe it'll be completely different, since we're working with 10 minutes of speech and 6 lines of text -.-
Toast Oct 19th 2009 1:59PM
I want to know how much historical credit will be given to guilds celebrating their 5th anniversary, and with characters who have 40+ exalted factions already in the guild. It'll be incredibly disappointing to me if you only get credit for experience/reps/achievements after the guild changes take place.
Tooay Oct 19th 2009 2:03PM
Here's some ideas I think would make guilds a lot more interesting;
- Guild reputation. Your own guild becomes another faction to rep grind! Through guild quests, contributing to the guild bank or simply leveling while in the guild, you gain a reputation standing within it. Guild leaders could then decide of promotions that would immediately be applied at a certain standing. This could also prevent guild heirlooms from becoming "wellfare heirlooms", by making sure every player has his work to do before having access to them.
- Guild dungeons. Raid dungeons open for guilds, tied to guild quests and progression. These dungeons would be open to all level players, by removing most of the trash mobs and replacing them with teamwork puzzles, and having bosses with mechanics that allow every player to be useful, like the current headless horseman attack on the starting towns, where teamwork allows you to push him back rather than raw damage.
- Guild recipes. On top of guild-only recipes, make crafting professions create items that benefit the guild itself instead of guild members. If a guild airship was ever implemented (I doubt though, it doesn't sound like WoW's kind of gimmick) it would have to be crafted through leatherworking, blacksmithing, tailoring, alchemy, then have an enchanter and an engineer put it all together (because there's no way current WoW airship could stay in the air without freak magic or divine intervention). If they're putting guild talents, why not guild glyphs to benefit the whole guild with things like 2% extra health, faster reputation gains, etc.
The goal is to make sure every player can do his part in the guild progression. Some players will think "there's no way I'll ever make it in the top ten", so they just won't even try. By adding active things you can do instead of just a passive bonus to you every day things, players all have a chance to get involved.
Extrox Oct 19th 2009 2:08PM
I was under the impression Guild Heirlooms would be essentially the same style of Heirlooms now except that they'd be Bind on Guild.
In other words, if a guildmate has a alt he's working on they'd be able to pull some heirloom pieces from the guildbank to use. When they finish they could either throw it back in the gbank or trade it to another guildmates alt.
Of course, all the toons would have to be in the guild.
As for if the player were to gquit with guild heirlooms on....
Chirri Oct 19th 2009 3:32PM
This.
You're referring to Heirloom items in their current incarnation, but I don't recall ever hearing anything about Heirloom items that resemble the BoA experience bonus items currently in game.
The announcement itself:
"11:49 - Guild heirlooms will be bought with guild currency. Variety of these types of items: mounts, tabards, etc... If the person who buys the plans leaves the guild, they don't get to take the recipie with them. We don't want people to bounce around from guilds very much.
11:50 - Players can buy these heirlooms plans from vendors in major cities.
11:51 - Heirlooms will be bound to the guild. If you leave the guild, the bound item will be automatically be returned to the guild bank. No more people leaving the guild and taking amazing items."
It doesn't sound to me like a type of item that would be in competition with the current Heirloom items in the game, unless their only use will be to help people change mains partway through an expansion, rather than helping alts level in general. The TYPES of Heirlooms mentioned don't even sound much like the current Heirlooms in the game, either - mounts and tabards (etc could be anyone's guess).
There are currently 2 pieces of Heirloom gear that give experience bonuses, but there remain other kinds that give no experience bonuses whatsoever. Those heirlooms are still very useful because it means your alts continue to have very nice gear in a number of slots, allowing them to sell whatever quest gear they get that doesn't compare to the Heirloom stuff. Many people may not use them, but I'm sure a number of people do - they have very good stats and are a "put it on and forget it" sort of thing. You don't have to worry about upgrades until you hit 80, which is rather nice.
Heirlooms have only just begun to enter WoW, I don't think pigeonholing them all into the "Only get for the exp bonus!" way of thinking is the way to go.
Drob10 Oct 19th 2009 2:10PM
I don't see a way for any of these 'tent' suggestions to work.
Either they would have to be phased or instanced, which would require more computing power than worth it (player housing type, which I believe they've said is doubtful) or they would be able to overlap, just imagine the chaos of lots of guilds ploping down a tent as soon as were able.
Cats and dogs living together...mayhem I tell ya...
Volaro Oct 19th 2009 2:17PM
Aren't the guild heirlooms made by blacksmiths / LW / tailors? As in you buy the recipe with guild currency and you can make as many as you need. I remember reading that somewhere, if I'm wrong, by all means correct me.
PeeWee Oct 19th 2009 2:28PM
"If the only way you can obtain heirlooms is through your guild..."
http://www.wowhead.com/?items&filter=cr=133;crs=1;crv=0
Only way? Let's see, where exactly has it been said that the current heirlooms will be removed? It's been posted that the won't have effect once you reach lvl 80, but that's it.
Nawaf Oct 19th 2009 2:38PM
The guild tent is something people have wanted for a long time (RPers have RPed that they were in one http://www.wow.com/2009/07/05/all-the-worlds-a-stage-the-guild-hall/ ) but I think it should have more places than just the Darkmoon Faire, so I thought of a number of places:
A) Empty places in front of some cities (Exodar, Daranassus, Undercity).
B) The places where the fire festival guys were (Can't be used during the festival).
I also think it will be better just to make it an instance, where there's a portal to it in every city, and give each player something similar to a hearthstone that teleports you to the guild hall (used out of combat). The guild will have the option to choose between a number of themes. The guild hall will have guild currency vendors. The guild will have a board for big announcements, rules, and other stuff. The guild will be able to unlock more stuff, like lots of flags (like the guild tabard), guards wearing the tabard, a forge, an anvil, and a lot of other stuff. I would also like to see a trophy wall. It would be cool if we can see important NPCs coming for the guild hall for guilds who done certain guild quests, like Wrynn or Garrosh coming to honor the guild for doing something for the alliance/horde, or Tirion/Mograine coming when doing something for the Ashen Verdict.
/Salute
Unknown Oct 19th 2009 2:43PM
I never understood the burning desire for any sort of guild housing (or, in this case, tents). our guild officers used to have "meetings" in cleared instances (khara was particularly fun), over vent, after runs. Musical chairs in moroes' room. Skydiving from Aran's chambers. parties on the opera stage. if you want to include more people ,go on a MC run.
what would you actually *do* in guild housing, or in a tent, that you wouldn't be better off doing while talking on vent and actually playing the game?
Maxpowr Oct 19th 2009 2:50PM
Because there isn't a raid with a beer wench.
Adam Oct 19th 2009 3:08PM
Meanwhile, everyone under raid-level gets frustated at being excluded and eventually quits.
Phelps Oct 19th 2009 6:25PM
Our raids have several beer wenches (although we prefer the term Beer Goddesses) since Corin DIrebrew took a ride on the Pain Train.
Wild Colors Oct 19th 2009 2:56PM
Guild quests would be amazing. I would be in favor of the following model:
Each major faction would offer a guild quest. This would include a combined Cenarion Circle/Expedition quest, Earthen Ring (which really should be a faction...), a combined Argent Dawn/Crusade, a combined Steamwheedle Cartel, a combined faction forces in Outland (one for horde, one for alliance), and the same with Northrend, possibly one for the Ebon Blade and/or the Wyrmrest Accord, possibly one for Shattrath, and possibly one for the Keepers of Time.
In addition, each of the 5 Horde and Alliance factions would offer one, and a new guild quest would be available for guilds that had completed all 5 (i.e. an ultimate Horde and an ultimate Alliance quest).
A guild should only be able to be on one guild quest at a time. The guild has essentially accepted a major contract or responded to an overwhelming plea for aid that will require the full measure of guild attention to deal with.
Completing a guild quest for any given faction should raise the reputation of all guild members to exalted for that faction (after all, you’ve just completed some monumental task for them). The quests should require adventures out in the world, crafting certain items (or having them crafted for you), running through all different levels of instances, and perhaps some 10-man raid content. I think 25 and 40 man content should not be required, since it’s unfair to expect even a progression guild these days to field more than a 10 man raid party. However, much of the current 25 and 40 man content can be run with 10 or fewer Northrend-geared raiders, so perhaps that should be included.
In addition to the reputation gain, I think these quests should award either a guild-wide benefit of some sort (perhaps sometimes linked to class or race...guilds would choose which to do first based on the benefit and to whom it was offered), or a legendary item. The legendary would probably need to scale somehow, since I’m envisioning scaling benefits (nothing too imbalanced, but something akin to a set bonus for classes or a 1-5% health or speed boost for races). These benefits should not be present in PvP arenas or rated battlegrounds, since that would be quite difficult to balance, but perhaps there could be another guild quest specifically for the PvP factions that would grant bonuses there.
The ultimate faction quest should grant something amazing. Perhaps new, faster, better decorated mounts. Perhaps all the guards would salute and cheer whenever members of the guild rode by. Perhaps the faction would give the guild members rings (or recipes for them) that could teleport the wearer to each faction city. Perhaps a new title would be involved. Perhaps certain end game content would only be available to these guilds (very limited content, along the lines of Algalon...clearly, almost all content should still be accessible to almost all guilds). Perhaps these guilds would get to participate in certain lucrative and simple (but fun) dailies offered in the faction capitals.
Essentially, these guild quests could give guilds direction and focus for weeks at a time, and allow the players to feel like they are actually accomplishing something epic.
Hopefully Blizz will do something like this, sometime in the future.
tkc Oct 19th 2009 2:58PM
I'd love to be able to turn over my BoA stuff to my guild when I'm done with it. I know I can pass the stuff from alt to alt but the reality is that I have so many badges/shards/whatnot that my alts pretty much have their own set of heirlooms.
I don't know what I'm going to do with all the BoA gear once my alts finish with them. Making them Bind on Guild would be nice, ie. you have to be in the guild to use them. If you take them, and then leave the guild, they won't work for you. It would be a godsend for social/leveling guilds. Instead of the usual, we have a tabard, a bank, and a vent, a guild could advertise that they have X number of heirlooms for people to level with.
Rob Oct 19th 2009 3:01PM
My feeling is that they want some sort of token system that allows you to take stuff from the gbank and pay for it in some fashion.
My guess is that they will follow a model like KOL (kingdom of loathing), which is a very simple game and has a cool clan system. The system worked like this to the best of my memory. Each item had a currency cost. If you donate to the gbank you get that much in currency. You can then withdrawl other items up to that currency limit.
Okay say that a frost lotus is worth 10 coins. And you deposit 5. You have 50 coins. Now you can buy a frozen orb, which costs 25 coins. You can buy 2 frozen orbs.
this would be an alternative to the slot limits and prevent ninjas, and frankly would greatly help the utilization of the gbank. Of course that means much more guild bank management, setting coin costs, cleaning out all the junk that is put in, etc.
WaterRouge Oct 19th 2009 3:02PM
Someone above mentioned how any heirlooms that tried to leave the guild would be mailed to the guild master. (I think this would be best as long as there is an option to change who the designated recipient is as GMs can go Afgame for a long time.)
Bucktron Oct 19th 2009 3:11PM
I'd like to see a guild bus... a short bus for some guilds.
kitearcher Oct 19th 2009 3:48PM
Why am I seeing more guild dysfunctionality erupt before my eyes?
catharsis80 Oct 19th 2009 4:09PM
"It feels like no matter what we choose to do, someone is going to be unhappy with it."
C'est la vie? Living in fear of pleasing everybody is not living at all.