Guild Cap & Buff Rework

Here is an idea to rework guilds based on feedback I’ve read across various threads.

Change buffs so that guild leaders pay some of the cost to “activate” a helix. Once activated, individual members can use the helix to gain the buff at whatever strength they want, for a much smaller cost.

I’ll follow up with some details on why I think this is a positive change, but first a poll.

Do you want to see this change in the game?

  • Yes
  • No

0 voters

In no particular order here’s some positive downstream effects:

  • The guild cap is no longer closely tied to guild buffs. You are free to ask the devs for as big a cap as you need without worrying about buff imbalance. (The cap may still be stuck for technical limitations on the servers.)

  • Guilds can now activate all the buffs and let players decide which three they want. No need for the guild to reach a consensus.

  • New players can choose to buy weak buffs while more experienced players buy the mega buffs. (helix coils willing)

  • Players have another reason to visit their guild’s headquarters, creating a guild hall vibe.

  • Can do away with the “you’re there when we activate it or you miss out” problem. The machine will be activated for the week and you pay a prorated cost to gain the buff any time during that week. Swap buffs as often as you want, whenever you want, as long as you got the coin.

  • Have the option, if it’s desirable, to decrease buff times to 24hrs and lower the individual cost even further. Don’t play Tuesday thru Thursday? Don’t pay for the buff on those days! Will cause even more frequent visits to the guild hall. (For better or worse)

  • Rep multiple guilds during the week. Note that switching primary guilds will now cancel your existing buffs. This plays better with the 24hr timer suggestion.

  • Alts are no longer seen as freeloaders. If you want the buffs on all your alts, buy them too.

  • Factions are no longer needed to manage buffs so they can focus on managing permission sets within your guild.

Right now guilds are small and tight and must agree on specific playstyles. (Larger guilds experience this at the faction scale.) This change creates 1 power progression for all guilds: be able to get and activate as many guild buffs as possible every week. It then moves the character customization down to each individual player’s choices. I think this will let guilds shine based on their social and game goals rather than their buffs or wallet size. I also think it will scale better in the long run as devs add more and more buffs.

Many aspects of this idea have been touched on or outright suggested by other members of the community. I’ve just written the summary.

In my opinion the only thing I would add is for the cost to initially turn them on be tied to the number of people within a guild. The more individuals the higher the initial cost is per week. I love this idea and I also think it could be an incentive for guilds to pay their members who maybe cant afford the buffs for the week creating that tight nit guild vibe even within large guilds (say 200+?). Also moving the guild system to an account wide setting rather than individual toon? It is boundless “Empires” and I would love to grow a community that big… with the faction system letting people split off into smaller groups in an overarching mega-group. Your idea for the guild buffs could really push it in an awesome direction.

1 Like

This is a good point, you can always enforce something like the old behavior by having a coin controller go to the guild book and pay all members enough dosh to cover their buffs. Or just subsidize the new players. Whatever the guild wants to do.

Switching guilds should not effect buffs, at all. you should be „Repping“ the guild you support most, or most relate to.

I am getting tried of theses buffs diluting what guilds should stand for!
ᵀʰᶦˢ ᶦˢ ᵒⁿᵉ ᵒᶠ ᵗʰᵉ ᵉˣᵗʳᵉᵐᵉˡʸ ʳᵃʳᵉ ᵗᶦᵐᵉˢ ʸᵒᵘ ʷᶦˡˡ ʷᶦᵗⁿᵉˢˢ ᵐᵉ ᵘˢᶦⁿᵍ ! ᵐᵃʳᵏˢ

If you want to use a buff from Guild B, and „Rep“ Guild A while having the buff from Guild B, This should be allowed.

I would like to see Numbers to be suggested for the ratio of how much the guild leader pays, and the member,
before I can say rather or not I support this, however, I feel this might be a step in the right direction, depending on the other things.

Curious to hear from the nays what their feedback is

I think it could work. I’d be willing to give it a try, at least.

I like the idea that the buffs scale with the amount the individual spends, but I’m with Trundamere; it would depend on the ratio. I think that the member payout system would put PS in a weird spot. Historically non-profit type of guild potentially paying coin to members who could then pocket the coin without buying buffs would be a bit dicey. If we got better guild reporting and management tools, I’d be fine with testing any number of systems.