This is another thing I talked about in another thread, but I wanted to organize my thoughts on it, add in some new things, and let it have its own discussion.
Table of Contents/Summaries
Main Additions (at least read this for general responses) - This first section goes over what this proposed update would actually add into the game
UI Overhaul - Going over all the UI additions and changes for guilds to make this update work
Guild Types Explained - This section goes further into detail on what guild types could be
LFGuild Details - This section goes more in depth on the LFGuild system
Deeper Dive on Guild Competition - This section goes into more depth on the proposed ledger changes & the guild division system
Why this update makes sense (at least read this for general responses) - This goes in-depth into the why behind this update idea
Main Additions:
This update would split the three guild slots player have access to into a Faction Guild, focused on the big 3 (DB, Reapers, Athena) and Hourglass, Trading Guild, focused on the 4 remaining trading companies, and an Adventure Guild, focused on various activities or aspects of the game (like Wes, alliances, and all the other things that aren't sorted nicely into the trading companies). Current guild would either become legacy or be able to choose what type of guild to become. Before a new season begins or upon creation, guild owners would be able to choose a new focus for their guild within their chosen category. These focuses would give guild members access to weekly tasks that give all sorts of experience towards the (far too many) leveling areas. Also as part of these focuses, guilds would be able to participate in "Guild Competitions" Guild owners would be allowed to sign up the guild up for competitions at the beginning of seasons. These competitions would not add much in the way of actual content to the game, rather they would focus on encouraging inter-guild rivalries and competition. Guilds would automatically be sorted into divisions based on size, rep, ledger participation, server region, etc. Points in these competitions would be specific to the guilds focus for that season. For example, a reapers faction guild would be gain points by participating in hourglass and winning matches. At the end of the season the top guilds of each division would receive an exclusive title. It should have some indication of their division as well. For example, Division One Champion of the Chalice (for reapers). Also the top guilds would receive an exclusive trinket (for example, a chalice would be cool for the Reapers, and it ties in nicely with the title). Similar to the SoTShot titles, I think it would be cool if the titles upgraded with successive wins. To go along with these updates there would be a proper guild ranking section in the main menu, similar to how many other FPS games have top 500/10000 leaderboards. Also in this section there would be a new LFGuild that is directly built into the game, rather than the one in the forums. Players would be able to sort based on guild type, focus, level, division, etc. Most players don't know about the LFGuild in here and it doesn't offer many tools for discoverability. Putting it right in the game would make it much easier. Expanded utility for guild leaders/owners to see participation would also be really nice. The last thing added in this section would be a guild announcement channel and guild chat directly baked into the game. Players shouldn't have to rely on discord only to do this kind of thing, especially in a game like SoT where you're likely to meet and recruit players directly from the game, where it's difficult to get people into outside things like discord. A helpful tool in this system would be a poll btw. Also there should be a section for guild specific rules. The last thing for this general overview is the updates to the ledger. This is a really simple addition, just make it so the top 500 or so ledger positions get a special in game indicator. This is an idea from Splatoon, where top 500 players get a special icon beneath their character when it's introducing teams. It just gives being top 500 a "cool factor" that pushes people to be competitive. It sends a message to opponents too.
UI Overhaul
I already went into a lot of the additions but here they are again. On the main menu of SoT there would be a guild section that would have the LFGuild, top guild comp/ledger leaderboards, guild chat/announcements, guild tasks, and the current boats for joining the game. This could all obviously all be organized quite well. For example, the LFGuild and top ledger positions could be in the same section (similar to how Clash of Clans works). You could also put the different divisions of Guild Comps and that players guild comp info (including tasks) in the same section. Or put the tasks in the same section as the guild roster. The guild chat and announcements would obviously be in the same section. Finally the guild boats could be made into much smaller profiles that could be expanded and viewed, rather than the pages and pages we have now. This would just be essential to give everything a place. In game I don't think you would need most of these, probably just keep the divisions, leaderboards, and tasks. Maybe the chat could be included, but I think really only the announcements and rules are essential from that feature set.
Guild Types Explained
There are 3 different proposed guild types so I'll be breaking it up into 3 paragraphs, starting with Faction Guilds, then TC Guilds, then Adventure Guilds.
Faction Guild would focus on the currently two faction companies, Reaper and Athena, and their HG counterparts. If there are more factions added in the future such as DB or Sovs, they would be included here. These guilds would be posed like groups that fight in the war of SoT, bringing that into the game some more. This guild slot should be locked behind Pirate Legend, as you really can't do a lot with the Athena side or any Hourglass related stuff without PL, so it just kinda makes sense. These guild would obtain a majority of their points through Hourglass wins, with streaks and emissary flags providing extra benefits. PvE would take a secondary role, allowing casual players to still get rewards, but not letting them reach top divisions. The tasks would also be focused on hourglass primarily, with some stuff relating to LotV/BB, just not a lot. The idea of these faction guilds is to give a place for top players to compete within the game, primarily through the division system I'll go more in depth on later.
Trading Company Guilds would focus on the 4 main trading companies, HC, GH, Merchants, and OoS, as well as any future ones that could be added. So long as they aren't factions. These trading company guilds would focus on completing quests and collecting loot for these trading companies. Rather than being posed like guilds being a part of the war of SoT, these would be seen as competitions between guilds that work for these trading companies. These guilds would be unlocked from first playing the game. This would help encourage players to associate with a TC more, really becoming a gold hoarder to merchant, rather than making it just feel like a grind. It also gives guilds a specific goal for each season, ensuring players are all focused on similar tasks and encouraging people to play with each other.
Adventure Guilds would focus on specific aspects of the game that don't fall nicely into the trading companies or factions. Here are some examples of potential adventure guild focuses; World Events, Safe Seas, Alliances, commendations, tall tales. Stuff like Hourglass or fishing, though being general activities, wouldn't be included because there would already be the Faction Guilds for HG and fishing is a Hunters Call activity. These could be posed as listed under the Bilge Rats company. You could include a variety of tasks that all relate to the different focuses. This really gives players a reason to revisit older content or random activities, or find likeminded groups of players easily. For example a player that wishes to get commendations done would be able to join a comm guild and work on stuff with them for the season. This is the most casual level of guilds, mainly having players just do what they think is fun or want to get accomplished. I could very easily see "helper" guilds pop up for some of this stuff, like tall tales or commendations that have a core set of players that just help new players. A very casual idea.
LFGuild Details
There is a guild owner/leader focused section and one for guild people trying to join guilds.
The LFGuild system would allow guild owners to set (pre-determined) requirements for joining the guild. For example a faction guild would have the baseline requirement of being PL across the board, and then guild owners could set increasing allegiance requirements up to like 500 total or something. This is just a quality of life feature. Sure it's mean to people, but it saves guild owners from having to go through massive amounts of new player requests. Especially with the leaderboard system, as the most visible and desired slots would be in top guilds. Hours, rep, allegiance, play activity, server region, etc could all be factors available for guild owners/leaders to see and set requirements for. Guild owners could pick whether to leave the guild as open, open to friends, or invite only. This would let open "helper" guilds be able to keep their guild open for all kinds of player to join, but also let ultra competitive top division focused guilds review people before letting them join, and of course there would be all kinds of uses in-between these extreme examples. Also guilds should be allowed to write a short welcome description for what they do. Finally guild owners/leaders should be able to see stats from their guild mates activity (doesn't have to be super specific), rather than it being left up to guess work. For top guilds it's important to be able to make decisions about who to keep/cut and not having tools for that is really annoying.
For people trying to join guilds they would be able to sort by guild type (faction, TC, adventure), guild focus, guild division/ledger ranking, guild requirements, server region, and whatever other factors you could think of. This would let players easily find guilds that might align with their vision and allow players to find a group quite easily. Players that only play on the weekends could find a guild based on all these factors and then check the guild descriptions to find one that plays at similar times as them. I think since this update would add chats and other features directly into the game, it would be easy for players to find a group that fits them and that they can play with constantly. This could really help the "solo epidemic" in SoT and of course stuff like "helper" guilds would likely show up, giving tutorials on specific aspects of the game to newer players. This all would help get players involved in the community quickly and create a lot more guild identity.
Deep Dive on Guild Competitions
I'm going to first go over the general mechanics of this, then the rewards, then go into the details on divisions.
Guild competitions would be opt in, allowing guild leaders to decide whether it's something they're interested in. I could see many different styles of guilds arising as part of this update, and just having like division 200 where all of them are generally inactive is pointless. The opt in window would be at the end of the last season/beginning of the new season. I think divisions should be server region dependent, so that these guilds have a good chance of actually meeting each other. I don't know how many total guilds there are, but I think targeting somewhere around 15-25 guilds per division would be ideal. This would be enough to make it feel like a real competition, while also making it so players can actually recognize the other guilds.
I already went into the rewards a little bit in the summary portion, but I will restate it. I think the top 3 guilds of each division should get an exclusive title. For example, the reapers might call the #1 guild the Champion, then #2 the Master, and the #3 slot the Warden. Everyone would get a title just commemorating their participation (like servant). These titles would start with the division the guild competed in. It would also upgrade with successive wins, similar to the SoTShot titles. A title for the #1 division 1 guild for reapers might be something like "Division One Champion of the Reaper Bones" and upgrade to "Division One Champion of Chalice" after another win, then maybe Flameheart could be the last one. I think 5 wins for the max title is realistic, that's already like 5 seasons worth of time, if someone was able to do it in a row meaning it would likely last years. This could end up with a lot of titles if players ended up in a lot of different places, so just automatically defaulting to the highest division of each title upgrade would probably be smart. Ex: you can have a D2 level 2 one and a D1 level 1 title, but you cannot have a D2 level one title, because you already have the D1 version. Perhaps a waterfall style, instead of the podiums would work better for the title distribution. For example you would have #1 get the highest honors, then 2 - 5 get the next highest, then 6-10 get the next highest. Depends how many people are in the guilds tho. The other thing that would be awarded is a trinket. A basic wooden base would be given to all players, with a bronze, silver, and gold base getting distributed in the same way as the titles. It would also be cool if the division number was carved into the base or put as a plaque. These trinkets would relate to the guilds focus, like a flowing chalice for reapers or mini PL-gate for Athena's. It'd be especially cool if they were animated, dunno how that impacts performance tho. That's enough on rewards tho lol.
The divisions would be determined by a variety of factors such as the number of people in a guild, the guilds past ledger/competition positions, average hours and experience (like levels) of the guild members, activity metrics, etc. I already mentioned targeting around 15-25 guilds per division would be ideal, so just sorting guilds by this and then cutting them into nice sizes would work well. The divisions are really important for encouraging guilds to actually compete with each other, as the endless and mostly unviewable ledger makes it impossible to have any real competitions except at the very top level. This division system would hopefully let people have good competition at all skill levels while maintaining meaningful and cool rewards. The only other thing I have to add with divisions is that it would be cool if you could see the division of a guild when the captaincy banners pop up, as well as having an indicator for being top 500 on the guild ledger.
Why this update makes sense
S10 on release brought guilds into the game, a long time requested feature, that was really rather well received. While the actual content in the update was lackluster to say the least, the wider community was able to make something special of it. However as we get further and further away from S10, we're seeing guilds matter less and less. What was once a semi competitive scene has dwindled into a more convenient way to join friends. Many people have stopped caring about ledger positions or their level. I had 3 goals with these additions, keep it light on the game world, add a lot more utility and features to guilds that the community found necessary directly into the game, and finally implement a system that brings back and maintains that competitive spirit, for all players.
All of these features and additions focus on adding player incentives and utility to the game, not direct content. While this might be perceived as a flaw, I think in the case of guilds it is actually a benefit. It's not a realistic expectation for Rare to be able to implement separate guild servers or specific guild content. Arena was removed for this same reason, instead being "replaced" with hourglass, which is all on the same adventure server. I don't see Rare wanting to go down this same path as it massively hurt the player base's feelings and was an all around L for the game. Opening themselves up to this same vulnerability would be bad. And so if they aren't going to do private servers or more than one ship content, it limits any guild activities in the sandbox to being a maximum of 4 people. 4 people out of 24 will just never feel like a "guild" a crew? sure. But not a guild. And so adding specific sandbox content that requires being in a guild just seemed foolish to me, it doesn't make sense since they could never capture that feeling. So that's what led to me prioritizing all features being QoL out of sandbox expansions. The idea is to massively expand the utility of the guilds and their feature set so that it can be a constant benefit, similar to how the ship features already implemented are.
The second design fundamental of this was to add a lot of the "requirements" players found were necessary to effectively run guilds directly into the game. Almost every single strong guild uses a discord server for their guild communication, so adding a similar feature set directly into SoT would really benefit the many many on the spot, less planned, more casual guilds. While I'm sure SoT wouldn't be able to offer all the same features and options discord does, it would be a great first step. This is the same kind reasoning behind things like the LFGuild and other UI changes. Implementing these key features, even with diminished utility (like the chat) would be incredible for the casual players who don't want to go through the effort of setting up a discord and corralling their members into it. We could even see expanded features and utility from what we have now in some cases, like the LFGuild could be significantly more powerful than the current version.
The last design goal was finding ways to bring the exhilarating and fun competitive guild experience I had the pleasure of participating in to broader audiences. When S10 released there was a great race to the illusive D10 guilds. I was pretty active in the community in the time and was able to get a group of really strong hourglass players to pursue that goal with me. We were top 100 at the end of every single ledger and even top 50 once, and were able to get D10 towards the end of S10. The experience of managing my guild and pushing everyone to be the best was honestly the best time I ever had on SoT. This experience was not shared by a majority of the player base though. Realistically only cheaters, alliance server players, and HG grinders could ever aspire to be near the top of that ledger. The wonder of fighting the guild just one spot above you was exhilarating. Rivalries and connections were made between us, streamer guilds, and the top players in the game. We all got better as a result of the grind and found ourselves near the top. We might encounter different people and they would talk about how our guild was so common in the NAW region. I mean it was really a magical time. Guild competitions would offer the experience to all manner of guilds by creating smaller groups based on activity, size, server region, and play style. This would allow this kind of competition to exist for gold hoarder players rather than just HG players (and the unsavory lot). And the upgrading rewards would offer incentives to try and keep the top spot for multiple seasons in a row. I mean if the experience I had with guilds could be captured and shared with all the players, in any form, it would be incredible. This was the best way I thought of for making that experience available to all players.
Also something I couldn't really fit into those overarching themes, the reason there's 3 guild "types" is so that guilds aren't competing for a players attention. Rather they can just join one for a specific type of session and play in it if that's what they're interested in doing. Most players only use 1 guild, or maybe 2 if they've maxed one out, so adding guild types helps remove some of the decision and encourages players to actually use all their guild slots. If a player wants to play HG then they got a guild slot for that, if a player wants to do quests they got a guild slot for that, if a player wants to get comms they got a slot for that. Just works out nicer imo.
