Over the many months [and years at this point] I've spent lurking in this category since Guilds were introduced I've seen a wide variety of Guild Hideout suggestions.
It makes sense, as Guilds are basically a player-led trading company - Reapers and Athena's Fortune have their own hideouts, and the other trading companies have various shops at every outposts [and seaposts for the Hunter's Call]
Here are my thoughts on what a Guild Hideout could be like:
I think lore-wise it'd take place in the Sea of The Damned/equivalent as an instance, perhaps at a delapidated Sea Fort or the main fort from the last module of the Legend of the Veil Voyage - starting as the delapidated remains of the fort as it was destroyed (unsure how it'd work in terms of a destroyed sea fort, maybe one that was attacked)
Over numerous guild levels [perhaps 0 - distinction 5, or even to distinction 10 depending on how it'd be implemented] the hideout could be slowly restored, similar to Port Merrick's construction. This would give a incentive for players in guilds to progress further, gaining higher and higher levels in order to get a more complete guild hideout.
These hideouts would be accessible from the Guilds Tab of the Main Menu, or accessible via a portal similar to the tall tales to take them to the Hideout (they wouldn't be able to take any loot into the hideout and their emissary would be lost) - perhaps they'd black out and wake up in a tavern in the Hideout, or there'd be a generic ship docked that they'd wake up on.
Similar to an outpost these hideouts could have NPCs, such as a tavernkeeper, shopkeepers and maybe even some sovereign NPCs that could give out special guild voyages or quests, that could give better decorations or levels for the guild.
Although, in my mind, it'd be styled on the LOTV fort, perhaps there could be different themes of hideout in order to showcase the unique nature of all guilds, for example a more reaper's themed hideout, or an athena's fortune themed hideout, and so forth. These could vary from minor decorations to a whole reskin of the hideout to make it more ashen or ghostly, or gold-filled.
Maybe there could be even different types/physical layouts of ruined forts to choose from?
The rooms inside the hideout could be for example, a tavern, a meeting room/common area, a storage room/gold vault, shops for the shipwright, equipment shop and clothing shop, and a dock. Maybe some battlements as well, although they wouldn't need to function.
These hideouts would allow the 24 people to meet up and have a common space (I think visitors should be allowed to visit the hideout, in order to have a safe ground in order to invite guild members via the emote), where they can meet in-game for a social space. Some people in the past have said about the possibility being able to start sessions from here, although I'm unsure how that'd work, maybe their ship would appear through the shroud into the session for them to set sail into a server?
Apologies that this is quite a long one, but if Guild Hideouts were ever to come I feel like there'd be the major selling point of a season.
Hopefully we'll end up seeing them in some shape or form in the future, seeing how requested they've been over the years.
If you've got any additions to make to my suggestion, or any critiques/questions, feel free to drop them in the comments!
Able
