[Suggestion] Guild "Artifact" System

deadlys7

I believe this system would be relatively simple to implement, would increase enjoyment of the game, and would likely provide enough revenues to offset the cost required to implement.

Suggestion:

Add a new tab to guild bank for some equivalent of guild-wide artifacts. Rather than refining with enchantments, these should be refined by salvaging Epic items. A guild would be able to equip some number of these artifacts and would have a storage section for uneqipped artifacts. These artifacts would provide skill bonuses to all members.

Benefits to gameplay:

• Encourages guilds to organize and successfully complete Dungeon Delves. While most active guilds frequently complete Dungeon Delves, I believe that if these events benefited the guild as a whole, more effort would be made in organizing these events. A successful Dungeon Delves event is one of the most enjoyable aspects of the game, so this should be encouraged. (You may also replace "Dungeon Delves" with "Arena PvP" or "Gauntylgrym" as each of these events are enjoyable and may yield Epic items)
• Encourages guilds to work together for a common goal. A guild that gets along and works together can greatly improve enjoyment of the game for all members.
• I find dumping a bunch of enchantments into my artifact to be much more satisfying than salvaging Epic items for a few thousand Astral Diamonds. This would provide a similar satisfaction to those who feel the same way, and salvaging for Astral Diamonds would still be available for those who prefer that.
• Finding Epic items that are not worth anything is disappointing. If these items could be used to refine guild artifacts, they would likely be more valuable in the Auction House. This aspect would benefit players not in guilds as well as players in guilds. Additionally, I find similar disappointment in finding character bound Epic items that I cannot use, and this would provide a use for them other than salvaging for Astral Diamonds.

Implementation and concerns:

• Would be relatively easy to implement. A tab would need to be added to the Guild Bank. The refinement system has already been developed, and would just need to be adapted for this purpose. Epic items already have an Astral Diamond salvage value that could be a starting point for refinement value.
• The most significant concern is balance. If these guild artifacts are as powerful as artifacts available to individual characters, and these benefits are in addition to the character artifacts, they would likely be overpowered. However, if the quality of these guild artifacts is so small as to be trivial, then the benefits described above will be diminished or non-existent. Of course, balance is something that needs to be figured out through testing, but my suggestion is that there should be 3 guild artifacts that are between one-third and one-half the strength of character artifacts, with no additional artifact action.
• The source of these artifacts could be anything from Epic dungeon drops, Glory rewards, Grym coin rewards, Astral Diamond purchases, Zen purchases, quest rewards. I think that if some system was developed where the guild could pool resources such as Glory, Grym coins, campaign currencies, or Astral Diamonds to be used towards an artifact, that would be most desirable, but not absolutely necessary.

While it is generally unpopular to discuss real-world revenues as the result of a specific gameplay change, it is important to consider as these revenues fund development and server maintenance. I believe that a feature like this with sufficiently high refinement requirements balanced with significant rewards could potentially increase Zen purchases.

I have played MMOs for many years and have seen much time, effort, and resources donated to guilds with little expected benefit to the donor. I believe many things drive this charity, ranging from satisfaction gained from helping out friends, to pure "showing off". Ultimately, it doesn't matter what motivates this, I think it's reasonable to expect that if this feature were implemented, some players may purchase Zen to buy Epic items to salvage for their guild's benefit. If this was visible in the Guild Bank Records or if there were a similar ledger that recorded refinement of the guild's artifact(s), this would encourage this activity. As this feature is relatively easy to implement, I think these revenues would more than offset the cost of development, testing, and implementation.

Finally, if this idea interests you, I ask that you help me develop upon this idea. There are a couple questions I have that I'm not quite satisfied with my own solutions:

What should these guild artifacts be called? I would like to avoid re-using the "artifacts" idea, because it seems unoriginal and uncreative. Ideally this would have some tie-in to lore/storyline.

How should you get these items? Please consider difficulty of implementation because, as this idea is currently presented, I believe it could be developed with less resources than say, a new campaign or Epic dungeon. As with the above question, it would be ideal if the source of these items "fit in" with the world of Neverwinter.

I welcome any constructive criticism, meaningful additions to this suggestion, or general feedback regarding this idea. Thank you very much for reading my post and I hope you like my idea!

facexcontrol

Good idea , infact all development ideas from the community are good !

This is really good suggestion but when u think about it its too deep and i dont see this being implemented any time soon.

We still wait for basic guild features such as Alliance,Guild Lore, Guild PvP system and so on..

deadlys7

If by too deep you're referring to the amount of resources that would be required to implement, I disagree. One of the key elements to this is its simplicity. I believe that a lot of the tools required for this system have already been developed for other purposes. I think the "retrofit" from refining personal artifacts and salvaging Epic items to using Epic items to refine guild artifacts is relatively minor, for example.

I don't mean to say that I think this would be easy. There would still be considerable effort required to plan, design, and balance each artifact, but I think this is the most significant requirement. If you compare this to the effort required to develop a new PvP Arena or Epic dungeon, I don't think this suggestion is too demanding.

I appreciate the positive feedback, and look forward to other Guild improvements as well. This idea could be accomplished in spirit in a vastly different form if it accomplished two things: (1) give us something to do with worthless/character bound Epic items other than salvage for a small quantity of Astral Diamonds, and (2) give guilds some cohesive goal to work together towards that would benefit all members of the guild in a way other than possibility of loot used for individual gain. I think the second goal is similar to what you and others desire when you refer to basic Guild improvements.

zimzammer

Well, maybe you could associate these new "artifacts" will the gods etc. And depending on the god you would get different stats and whatnot. e.g. for tymora probably Crit/Deflect/Goldgain, this would also be good if it was a mix of offense/defense/utility. just my 2c

bioshrike

It would be interesting if the guild artifact sort of worked like this:

1. It provides a rather small stat bonus when solo.

2. The more members of the same guild that are within a certain proximity of other guild members, the more that stat grows.

3. Each member of that same guild has their own separate timer for said artifact's effect.

4. Similar to above, the benefit of this effect grows the more guild members are near each other when it activates. Whether this effect can stack with itself can be decided later.

5. Guild members would have to commit to the guild in some way, in order to access the artifact - maybe some sort of initial AD cost or minimum rank within the guild would be required. Leaving the guild would also make you forfeit the artifact, or you would only retain the solo bonus, (even if you teamed w/ other members of the guild since you're no longer in it).

celticgamer0

facexcontrol wrote: »

We still wait for basic guild features such as Alliance,Guild Lore, Guild PvP system and so on..

The guild I am with would love more RP options. Gauntelgrym (sp?) is good and all, but I would like to see other options. I have many people ask me what the use of having a guild is and all I can think of is the aforementioned Gauntelgrym. If there are other reasons I would like to know.

aulduron

Let us use seals, grym coins, and bounty items to refine it.

charononus

The problem I see for this system is it turns guilds into another power system rather than the social system they're meant to be. This means that new guilds will not form as no one will want to join them and have less power. It does weird things to a game having guilds have perks. One of the most basic is that you won't see people saying (random example) "looking for a pve focused guild with active hours 9pm - 1am est" You'll just get people saying "Looking for a guild with level 100 artifacts". There are several other games that have gone down this route that I've played and every single one has been the poorer for it.

melodywhr

there are pros and cons to making this a guild-only option. for example, some players have never been to gauntlegrym because they prefer non-guild play. some soloists don't care enough about it to guild-up and some refuse out of principal. i think the same would occur if this was implemented.

also top guilds would already have an unfair advantage over lesser guilds due to numbers and in-game assets. why join a lesser guild when you can join one with high level artifacts?

alternatively i'd like to see artifact fragments drop from bosses that can be crafted individually and then utilized. they'd obviously be BoP, of course. it'd be a great way to introduce new artifacts.

deadlys7

bioshrike, that is a wonderful contribution to this idea, especially:

bioshrike wrote: »

1. It provides a rather small stat bonus when solo.

2. The more members of the same guild that are within a certain proximity of other guild members, the more that stat grows.

I agree whole-heartedly.


aulduron, I agree with this notion.

aulduron wrote: »

Let us use seals, grym coins, and bounty items to refine it.

Since you can purchase Epic items with these things, you would effectively be able to use seals, Grym coins, and bounty items to refine them.


With regards to this system disadvantaging smaller guilds, or forcing all players to join a guild in order to be competitive:

A properly balanced feature would avoid making small guilds or solo (un-guilded) players uncompetitive. If the new feature fails this, it is overpowered. Yes, you absolutely will find players seeking a guild with a level 100 artifact; however, this is only a problem if too many players only care about the guild's artifact.

I think it is possible to implement this feature and still have the majority of players care about play times, play styles, etc. more than the artifact. It can be more satisfying to work together with a guild you like to gain an advantage than it is to just join a guild that has this advantage already.

I have seen games that advantage large, powerful guilds in a similar fashion (Anarchy Online comes to mind first), and when it is done properly, small guilds and solo players still thrive.