The Guilds Act: A discussion

Gidorick · March 2015

Hello fellow TES Lore-mongers! I came across The Guilds Act recently and would like to discuss how it could benefit ESO.

In the book History of the Fighters Guild, First Edition we find the following:

"n the 321st year of the 2nd Era, the Potentate gave his approval to the Guilds Act..." which sanctioned the following guilds:

Mages
Tinkers
Cobblers
Prostitutes
Scribes
Architects
Brewers
Vintners
Weavers
Ratcatchers
Furriers
Cooks
Astrologers
Healers
Tailors
Minstrals
Barristers
The Syffim (Soldiers aka Fighters)

http://www.imperial-library.info/content/history-fighters-guild-first-edition

We have 18 different guilds here and 16 that do not yet exist in the world of ESO, but could since ESO takes place a few hundred years after the Guilds act was written. While I don't expect these to have the same presence as the Mages and Fighters Guilds I think they could be introduced as time marches on. For example, The Minstral Guild could be introduced with the Bard's College in Solitude. The Prostitute's Guild could very well be similar to the Minstral Guild and provide similar support style buffs. Not having combat-guild skills but could offer social buffs and a passive Guild Skill of "Beguile" which would act like intimidate and persuade.

Many of these guilds are for crafting professions so it might not make sense for them to have their own guild-skill-tree. I am not sure what a weaver could do in combat. These guilds could, however, be a vehicle with which ZOS could create a more dynamic player-driven economy.

Do you have any thoughts on how some of these guilds could be implemented in game? Should they all be joinable by the player with accompanying storylines and skill trees?

WhiteCoatSyndrome · March 2015

Gidorick wrote: »

Many of these guilds are for crafting professions so it might not make sense for them to have their own guild-skill-tree. I am not sure what a weaver could do in combat.

What about having any Light armor you're wearing repaired for free once a day? Or a once-a-day guarantee that no matter what your percentage chance with raising that Robe to the next quality tier (Blue to Purple or Purple to Gold), so long as it's above zero it will work?

Alternatively instead of skills we could have some quests associated with same that give boosts to mainline quests. For example, if we help the Cobbler's Guild in Glenumbra they could help us smuggle people out of Hallin's Stand later on. The Astrologer's Guild could give us some help in Craglorn digging up those stone tablets for Hermaeus Mora (saving us the trouble of going through the dungeon).

Mettaricana · March 2015

somehow i see players rushing to prostitutes

and some where a see the furrier losing its meaning fast lol

Gidorick · March 2015

Mettaricana wrote: »

somehow i see players rushing to prostitutes

and some where a see the furrier losing its meaning fast lol

Lol. That guild is exclusively for Khajiits.

Gidorick · March 2015

WhiteCoatSyndrome wrote: »

show previous quotes

Gidorick wrote: »

Many of these guilds are for crafting professions so it might not make sense for them to have their own guild-skill-tree. I am not sure what a weaver could do in combat.

What about having any Light armor you're wearing repaired for free once a day? Or a once-a-day guarantee that no matter what your percentage chance with raising that Robe to the next quality tier (Blue to Purple or Purple to Gold), so long as it's above zero it will work?

Alternatively instead of skills we could have some quests associated with same that give boosts to mainline quests. For example, if we help the Cobbler's Guild in Glenumbra they could help us smuggle people out of Hallin's Stand later on. The Astrologer's Guild could give us some help in Craglorn digging up those stone tablets for Hermaeus Mora (saving us the trouble of going through the dungeon).

I like the spirit behind this concept. Where skills aren't battle skills but do things like "gain more materials from deconstruction"... I also think specific crafting lines could be introduced to accompany guilds. Like the creation of clothes for the clothier guild. If capes are ever introduced they could be in the weaver guild. Cooks could introduce a player created recipe system.

I think there's room in ESO for most, if not all of these guilds.

What do you think about the availability of the guilds? Let's say the Bard's College is ONLY available in Solitude and that is the ONLY place you can create your own music. Do you think that would make sense within ESO?

Gidorick · April 2015

I was thinking how ESO established the Undaunted as a guild... I was thinking that ESO could expand on the established guild act by adding "The Guilds Act Addendum" to establish more guilds such as:

Mercantile Guild
Maritime Guild
Trapper's Guild
Cartographer's Guild
Courier's Guild
Angler's Guild
Farmer's Guild
etc....

not every guild established need to have a presence in the game but adding certain guilds, like the Angler's Guild, could lead to expanded gameplay mechanics.

Gandrhulf_Harbard · April 2015

Craft guilds work well in LOTRO.

With Guild Standing offering access to unique craft patterns for example.

All The Best

Huggernaut · April 2015

The vast majority of these seem utterly unnecessary. Why not throw in sanitation workers too while you're at it? I know a few stable boys looking to climb the union ladder.

Ask yourself what purpose a guild of cobblers would have, why devote time and resources to this project? (as a dev)

Now, I'm not saying that all of them are bad ideas, but the line needs to be drawn somewhere.

Speciality guilds that can offer unique feats, challenges and bonuses such as Dark Brotherhood, Thieves Guild, Fighters Guild & the Mages guild are one thing ... cobblers and their ilk ... whole other story.

I could see some sort of Merchant association. There is a particular quest on the AD side that springs to mind with some Khajit that would fit that very well. This could include a vast array of things under it's umbrella as well.

I could also maybe see some sort of Religion based faction system put into place.

A lot of this other stuff would simply be swallowed up by other larger, meaner in some cases, guilds. Like for example prostitutes wouldn't have their own guild. They might have some sort of leadership structure within the various organizations, but they would most definitely be owned in reality by other more nefarious and powerful guilds such as the Dark Brotherhood or the Thieves guild which would use them for carrying out assassinations, information, money, etc, etc.

Try and look at the big picture and how everything fits together as a whole, then ask yourself what benefits the player would receive, what they would need to do in order to get said benefits , what the downsides would/could be, etc.

I applaud the effort, but like I said there needs to be a line drawn somewhere

nimander99 · April 2015

I'm certain that I read almost this exact post a year ago in these forums.

Yep this is a copy paste from an older post.

Gidorick · April 2015

nimander99 wrote: »

I'm certain that I read almost this exact post a year ago in these forums.

Yep this is a copy paste from an older post.

Really? Care to share the link of that older post?

Enemy-of-Coldharbour · April 2015

Mettaricana wrote: »

somehow i see players rushing to prostitutes

and some where a see the furrier losing its meaning fast lol

Agreed!

Gidorick · April 2015

Oh, I agree that not ALL of these guilds would make sense for players @Huggernaut. And exactly how would the Weaver's Guild and Tailor's guild differ in the context of a game such as this.

Many of the guilds could not be used as player organizations but more as a foundation for missions and stories. I suggested a Furrier be used as a pet shop and that furrier could be part of the Furrier Guild... no need for a player to be in the guild.

Some of these guilds would work well as player mechanics but many... Like Vinters... would not.

Gidorick · April 2015

cgipervert wrote: »

show previous quotes

Mettaricana wrote: »

somehow i see players rushing to prostitutes

and some where a see the furrier losing its meaning fast lol

Agreed!

lol... check out this thread: http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/167153/eso-furrier-a-pet-shop-concept

Lord_Kreegan · April 2015

The Prostitutes Guild should be like werewolves: once a week you can give another player VD.

Gidorick · April 2015

Lord_Kreegan wrote: »

The Prostitutes Guild should be like werewolves: once a week you can give another player VD.

I've totally equated Werewolves and Vampirism in ESO to prostitution... especially since people sell them to players.

Gidorick · April 2015

So, actual on-topic question. Do you think all guilds need full active and passive skill lines? Could a guild skill line just be 5 passive skills or maybe even one specific skill?

How detailed do guild skills need to be?

Huggernaut · April 2015

I think we need a lot more passives across the board, at least it feels that way.

I already feel constricted being forced to swap bars, only using 5 abilities at any given time as it is.

I suppose some of these could be used to start quest lines, but, again like I said, I don't foresee them needing to have any bearing on the actual characters themselves other than as a source of xp / gold / etc.

We need more substance & less fluff in the game, like personally I've been waiting for the Dark brotherhood since beta. Now that isn't to say that fluff doesn't have it's place. Not everything has to either set the world on fire or save it, at the same time however, there needs to more to do with our characters then what we currently have available, considerably more.

Like for example, to take that furrier idea and kick it up a notch, why not having something like the following:

- a npc guild that sends players out to trap / capture various rare creatures and daedra to be used as summoning pets.

So instead of everyone running around with a winged twilight or a clanfear, we could use zombies, or flesh golems, watchers, really all kinds of stuff.

This could be a simple system, where it's nothing more than a skin upgrade or costume for your summon if you will, or it could be infinitely more complex with each new thing you capture/trap upgrading abilities, adding new ones, so on and so forth. There are a number of online games that pet systems much like this as well, but honestly, I think that would eat into the crown store profits if people were going out and trapping their own pets, vs buying something in the store.