Safeguards for Guilds

armadeonx

There have been a number of unfortunate incidents within guilds since Strongholds were introduced, most recently this has happened to a guild within my alliance.

A well established GH20 guild on XBox had a rank 7 leader 'go postal', demote the other rank 7's, kick everyone then destroy the guild. This leader had been a friend of the other leaders for a number of years and was trusted and liked, but due to reasons known only to them, they 'lost it' and took extreme action that has destroyed the investment of many players.

I would like to propose a simple safeguard that would help protect guilds from such incidents:

* Vote to demote from rank 7
In a guild of more than two rank 7's, Leaders should have a vote on the demotion of other Leaders.

Essentially, if a guild has 3 or more rank 7's, this would prevent a single person (or persons in guilds of 4 or more Leaders) from demoting or kicking other rank 7's and taking control of the guild

* Vote to promote to rank 7
In a guild of more than one rank 7, further promotions to rank 7 should be voted on.

This would simply be to prevent a rank 7 from promoting friends in order to win the vote for kicking other leaders - and would also counter the current spate of 'infiltrators' pretending to be an existing rank 7 in order to take control. The chance of them being spotted would increase dramatically.

It may also be worth considering a block on Leaders destroying structures if they are the subject of an outstanding vote.

I believe these simple safeguards, (using existing leadership voting mechanics) would increase trust between leaders, decrease issues being passed on to Cryptic Customer Services and generally improve the faith ordinary members have in their guild leaders through the knowledge that the chance of their investment being hijacked and destroyed/sold is significantly reduced.

Your consideration would be much appreciated.
@nitocris83 @mimicking#6533

beckylunatic

It's been pointed out that STO has more robust safety features for guild co-leaders not being subject to the whimsy of one of their number.

http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/1004730-legacy-of-romulus-dev-blog-_41

Neverwinter should likely copy this functionality.

I'd also agree that anyone with provisional or demotion pending status should not have full privileges for destroying stronghold structures.

sorvikcorsair

As long as they fix the bug that allows other ranks to accept alliance invites then fine. Currently you have to demote ALL rank 7s except yourself, leave alliance, accept new alliance. For alliances that move guilds around to maximize stronghold bonuses this becomes a pain since you can't allow officers the ability to accept invites or even leave alliances without a vote of other rank 7s (some who might be on vacation or not on for a few more hours).

armadeonx

Well if someone is on vacation then they can be voted down. If more than one will be away then it's a matter of planning ahead.

However, that's a minor inconvenience compared to a r7 being able to kick any others and destroy the guild out of vengeance or get greedy and sell it.

A voting system would increase the security of collective/cooperative guilds and they could be run more democratically, or similar to a board of directors. The present system promotes 'monarchic' structures that depend on the integrity of a single individual.

armadeonx

beckylunatic said:

It's been pointed out that STO has more robust safety features for guild co-leaders not being subject to the whimsy of one of their number.

http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/1004730-legacy-of-romulus-dev-blog-_41

Neverwinter should likely copy this functionality.

I'd also agree that anyone with provisional or demotion pending status should not have full privileges for destroying stronghold structures.

Oh wow, that's almost exactly where I was aiming. STO has had this system for four years?! They absolutely need to add this to Neverwinter!

beckylunatic

From the sounds of that article, STO also previously had the exact same issues NW experiences now with guild leadership.

armadeonx

@nitocris83 we sooooo need this!