Suggestion: Guild House Fund Tracker

Due to a recent unpleasant experience I think the following should be considered.

Guild House Fund Tracker

- When a Player decides to create a Guild, he registers in-game as a "Prospect Guild Leader".
- A Prospect Guild Leader will then have a new option in the trade window, where he can receive donations from another player who signed up to join his Guild.
- Donations per Player are limited to 1/15 of the amount needed to build a Guild House.
- A Fund Tracker would allow a simple way to see who has contributed and who has not, allowing the Prospect Guild Leader to know how close the Guild is to the goal.
- The Prospect Guild Leader has the option to either kick someone out of the Guild, or disband the Guild. In either case the system automatically mails all contributed funds to each Player who donated.
- Donations do not combine with the Prospect Guild Leader's own resources, but stay separate and can only be withdrawn by the Players who donated. This process allows for all parties to be insured against scams, also if for some reason the leader is unable to return to the game, the donations are not lost and Ubisoft won't have to deal with angry customers.
- Players who decide to leave the Guild before the Guild House is built, can just request a refund and remove themselves from the Guild (the Leader will be notified by mail when this happens).
- For the Guild House to be created, the Prospect Guild Leader must still meet the requirements of having the storage for the resources required for the building even tho he is technically not holding them with his own.

If anyone has any ideas to improve upon this suggestion, please do so.

I actually suggested this from the very beginning. I knew that this system of throwing thousands of resources at one player was a bad idea. The members of my guild, I'm sure are very relieved I didn't take their precious resources and decide against building a guild.

The cost in hardwood / marble isn't that ridiculous -- many late advanced buildings similarly cost thousands. It's the cost in coins which is the killer, and because of that what I think would work best is kind of like what Windguaerd proposes, only just in terms of coin.

Basically, drop the coin cost to build the guild hall and instead change the way a guild is created. Make it so any person with a guild hall can attempt to create a guild, and then accept others as potential founding members. Each founding member (including the person that built the hall) would then contribute coin to an escrow, with the amount they contributed visible to the leader. Once enough coin is in the escrow the leader would gain the option to actually form the guild; at that point everyone's coin in the escrow would be transferred to the guild's treasury and the coin cost of the guild deducted from it (i.e. any left over coin would stay in the guild treasury). People would have the option to leave the formative guild (and get their coin back out of escrow) after 7 days if the guild hasn't formed yet OR instantly if the guild leader allows it.

This would still require that a hall be built using hardwood/marble, but secures the most precious resource. By requiring the marble and hardwood up front, it would also reduce folks starting guilds and then just giving up on them before they actually form. Folks could still funnel marble/hardwood to the leader like they do now as well.

There's a really easy way not to get ripped off. Don't join a guild and pay resources until such time a guild house actually exists. There's no need for a "fund tracker". You are your own best fund tracker. If someone is asking you to pony up resources to get a guild house off the ground, then hopefully you trust them.

To be honest, the construction of the guild hall should rest entirely on the shoulders of the guild leader. What the guild leader asks for membership once the hall is up is entirely up to the leader/guild charter.

The easiest (in terms of how if could be done, not programming wise) way to do this is if the guild leader could plop down a guild house plot, and people visiting his kingdom could add resources directly into its building cost without needing to give those mats a specific person. If the person cancels the plot, the resources go back to those that dumped into it.

You said plop.

ps. Cenzton check your inbox.

Well, I am "kind of" ok with it. The problem is that creating a guild is a big responsability....and if a guild leader is not ready to take full responsability for the guild he is going to run...he better not start at all. I agree with the fact that players that joined need to be protected somehow....but i would suggest to the players that wish to become leaders to think about it 3 times....even because messing up with these things makes you extremely known (and not for nice reasons).

OMEGA! Check your inbox. XD

Omega, check ur outbox too XD But seriously, I think Cenzton makes a good suggestion on how to handle the resources. Dunno how difficult it would be to implement however. I also agree and recommend to players to consider carefully about not only starting a guild, but also about joining a guild. At the early stages the cost in resources is huge because most often it occurs right around levels 17 and 18 which are also some of the toughest grinding levels to get through and using these resources for production upgrades at this time can carry a player a lot further in a short amount of time. Also, i'd say get to know the players/members a bit better before rushing into it to help minimize your risk. One bad apple .... as they say.

For those who do wish to begin or join a guild right away my best advice to you is simply to take advantage of one of this games best features - the trade community. I cannot begin to describe how useful it can be as an empirical tool. Finding the right balance in your production chains early on is tricky and building licenses are limited so often times a player will find him/her self running high in one material and low on another creating a bottleneck in production and crippling progress. This is where the trade board comes in handy. Mastering the art of trade will help defray the cost of building a guild charter dramatically. I'll look forward to doing business with you :)