Guild quests need adjusting

[Methius]

The rebalancing update has altered a lot of things in the game. Some of the guild quests are no longer worthwhile. This thread isn't meant as a complaint but as a reminder that the guild quests have been overlooked in the rebalancing. I'm going to go over the guild quests I think should be changed and even make suggestions as to appropriate changes. My guild is in the 56-100 members tier so I'm going to be focusing on those quests.

The Good Generals [36-45] Ready the Crossbowmen
Pay 25 Crossbows from your storage.
Produce enough Retired Bandits to obtain 25 settlers

The Good Generals [46-50] Read the Cannoneers
Pay 40 cannons from your storage
Use 3200 Musk deer fragrance to refill a meat deposit.

When weapon drops were removed from loot it had a major effect on the price of the advanced weapons. Many of us stocked up a ton but that doesn't apply to all players, especially lower levels and new members. Many will have to build the expensive chains and create their own. I realize that was the point of the removal and I don't have a problem with it. But now that the value of advanced weapons has increased significantly we should no longer be required to pay them as part of guild quests. I've got 31 members who are 46-50 and another 26 who are 36-45. That's 1240 cannons and 650 crossbows that have to be paid for this quest. The cost of cannons continues to rise. On Ares the market price is up to around 10-15 coins per cannon and 6-8 coins per crossbow. Meanwhile guild coins are still around 1-2 coins per guild coin. We do have some members with cannon chains and we are happy to provide the cannons needed so that guild members don't have to spend 400-600 coins in order to complete a gq that will reward them 136 guild coins. But we shouldn't have to. The gq should not be designed in a way that members are paying significantly more than they are getting back. It discourages people from doing the quests. With the current state of the market guild members would be much better off not doing the guild quests and instead trading their Cannons and Crossbows for guild coins in the trade office. Either the guild market need dramatic improvement so that guild coins become more valuable or we need to stop paying advanced weapons for guild quests.

Alternative pay options - Exo Planks, Advanced paper, Steel bars, Iron bars, gold bars


Big City Life - [36-45] Provisions, provisions.
Pay 300 Sausages from your storage
Complete the adventure "The Island of the Pirates"

During the rebalancing update Island of the Pirates was removed from the adventures tab of the merchant. It is no longer available for map fragments. Now the only way to get ahold of one is to get one from explorers, trade for one, or spend 745 guild coins in the guild merchant. The market price on IOTP seems to run between 300-400 coins. That's if you can find one. Every time that quest pops up my guild alone has 26 players that need to obtain an IOTP. And paying 745 guild coins for an IOTP so you can complete one and be rewarded 120 guild coins is just silly. I stocked up on IOTP before the update and so I've been able to provide my guild with the adventure when needed. But those won't last forever. Adventures needed for a guild quest should be much easier to find.

Alternative to IOTP - Witch of the Swamp is the only adventure that is currently in the adventure merchant that I think would be appropriate. Of course the easiest route would just be to make IOTP available for frags again. An even better option would be to make Dark Priests available for frags again and just make two Dark Priests guild quests. Dark priest encourages players to work together instead of forcing them to do it on their own. Other 1 player adventures that could work if available for frags are Tropical Sun and Lost Skull. And then there is also the option of changing the quest to "Complete 1 Experience adventure" or "Complete 1 Co-operative adventure". Both would give the guild more options and the latter would make guilds have to occasionally play co-ops.

Desert Riders - [46-50] Carriage
Pay 40 Carriages from your storage.
Use 3200 Musk deer fragrance to refill a meat deposit

The Adventure Seekers [46-50] Lazy Apprentice
Pay 40 carriages from your storage
Complete the adventure "The black Knights"

With these two quests we run into the same problem as the cannons. I'll assume anyone running the cannon chain is buffing the forges x3 or x4. Those 40 carriages could have been used to help create 120-160 cannons. Instead we are being asked to pay them for 136 guild coins. For those that don't have cannon chains they are required to ask for carriages from guildees or to scramble in trade trying to find someone willing to sell carriages at an affordable price while cannon prices continue to rise. That's a pretty tough assignment. It's certainly possible for many guilds to provide the carriages needed for their guildees. But once again it shouldn't be necessary to pay out more then you are getting rewarded. Guild quests should not be a punishment.

Alternative pay options - Exo Planks, Advanced paper, Steel bars, Iron bars, gold bars

Shooting Down the Moon [36-45] Rare Resource
Pay 40 Saltpeter from your storage
Complete the adventure "The Island of the Pirates"

Shooting Down the Moon [46-50] The things that sparkles
Pay 40 gunpowder from your storage
Own 45 Soldiers

The War Above the River [46 - 50] Blazing globes
Pay 60 Gunpowder from your storage.
Own 45 Recruits.

The first one is a double whammy. We've already discussed Island of the Pirates so i'll move on to gunpowder. We run into the same problem as Cannons and Carriages. You either need to build very expensive powderhuts or find a way to trade for a resource that rises in price by the day as people build the cannon chains. Compared to the others i don't think paying gunpowder is that bad yet. But I'm sure it's still a difficult proposition in many guilds to come up with enough gunpowder for everyone to complete.

Alternative pay options - Exo Planks, Advanced paper, Steel bars, Iron bars, gold bars, exo wood, saltpeter.


Winter Might Come [46 - 50] Under the burning waves
Pay 40 Steel from your storage.
Complete the adventure "The nords".

This is a quest that has always been a problem. I'd hazard to guess that over 75% of guilds just cancel it. The nords itself isn't a problem. It's a pretty easy adventure to do for advanced players. The problem is obtaining them. Nords is one of the more popular adventures in the game because of the experience you can gain for low troop losses. It's a great adventure to level up on. Their popularity also makes them very difficult to trade for. On Ares the Nords market price is around 2600-3k coins. In my guild that would be 31 players needing to pay up to 3k coins each for Nords adventures. That's if we could find 31. It's never been realistic that every guild can find all their 46-50 players enough nords to complete this gq. And even if we could I'm not sure anybody really wants to spend 3k coins so they can finish a nords and be rewarded 136 guild coins.

Alternative Options - My choice would be Roaring Bull. As a 3 player it would once again encourage guildees to work together to complete the gq.


So that's 7 quests out of a possible 14 that have options that are arguably not worth doing. I've been cancelling Nords since I started this guild. A year ago i didn't have a problem doing it but the price has just gotten so high i don't think it's fair to force players to run it for so little guild coins. When the rebalancing came in to effect it was pretty obvious it was eventually going to cause problems for the guilds. I was hoping we would see some changes made. Recently with cannons at an all time high I've been getting suggestions that we start cancelling the pay cannons quest because it's nowhere near worth it. I'm still a little hesitant to do so because if we start cancelling all the quests that aren't worth it we may only end up with 7 out of 14 guild quests. We typically complete 5-6 gq's a week and cancelling half of the available quests would significantly lower the amount of coins we receive. But it's not fair to ask guild members to pay expensive resources that are worth more than the rewards they receive.

Guilds are about much more then just the guild quests in my opinion and so if it becomes necessary to start scaling back the quests I will do so. The last couple months have brought about quite a few unpopular changes as well as more lag and adventure problems then i've dealt with in my 2 previous years of playing. But I still enjoy playing the game because I have a great guild full of people I enjoy spending time with. I'd like to be able to have daily guild quests that aren't a punishment to my guildees. I'd like them to be rewarded for being active and taking the time to work together and complete quests for the benefit of everyone. These issues with the quests can easily be resolved. We should be able to make all guild quests worthwhile.

This thread is just meant to bring some attention to the problem. If any of you disagree and like the current guild quest system please let us know. If any BB thinks it's fine the way it is please come and explain your reasoning. I'd love to hear more suggestions for alternatives to some of the problem quests as well. I hope that this thread at least gets some serious thought as I think changes are needed. Thank you for your time.
Methius

[c0nquistador]

totally agree, or make stuff in guild merchant more interesting (next market you can get grain, leather, and other useless stuff) why not give us higher level buildings (imp silo, frozen manor) or even generals would make it worth doing GQ.

[Deano1978]

I so Agree with this as a Guild Leader I have Informed my Guild we arent paying Cannons or anything like that on GQ Ill just cancel it first.

[ZolaRZeaR]

I support this.

[Strider487]

Agree

[Nobenz4me]

Couldn't agree more. Please make these changes.
Thank you for taking the time to write this up Methius, was very much needed.
Benz

[W1lson]

Agreed!!!

[BB_Endesmor]

I will forward this thread to the developers.

Thanks for your suggestions.

BB_Endesmor

[Fleedle]

agreed

[MenialQueen]

agree! very well written and presented Methius!