Continued Viability of Fighters & Mages Guild: Concept and Discussion

Gidorick

This is a pretty quick one:

One of the most frustrating aspects of the Fighter’s Guild and the Mage’s Guild in ESO is how they simply cease being a viable source for gameplay. Your character essentially saves each guild and then you are meant to forget about them.

Each guild offers services to the denizens of Tamriel, yet there is nothing for the player to do beyond each guild’s story. Players should always be able to run into their guild, grab a contract or two and run out into the wild to serve the people of Tamriel.

ZOS should add to each Zone of ESO a handful of dynamically generating quests that use sets of variables to generate objectives. Each time the quest is generated it can use a different set of NPCs, MOBs, quantities, and could offer varying rewards for completion.

Fighter’s Guild Perpetual Quests Types:

• Reinforcement: One or more of your fellow Fighter’s Guild members in trouble. They were sent to some place in the zone and are pinned down. Players must join the other members of the fighters guild and fight off waves of enemies.
• Retrieval & Rescue: An NPC or a Fighter’s member is missing! Track them down by going to their last known location and follow the dynamically generated trail they left. The trail could be breadcrumbs, blood, broken sticks, footprints, etc. Fight enemies as you follow their trail. The NPC could be alive or dead when you find them.
• Escort & Bodyguard: An NPC is going from one location in the zone to another. Escort them and keep them safe.
• Extermination: There has been a report of an infestation of some beast or daedra. Clear out the area for a reward.

Mage’s Guild Perpetual Quests Types:

• Stolen Artifact: An artifact has been stolen! Find and follow the bandit or beast that has stolen the artifact, fighting off their friends while in pursuit.
• Hunting & Gathering: The Mage’s guild supplies are low! Go out into the wilderness and collect the ingredients/glyphs/souls/etc. that are needed.
• Research & Explore: Notes on a local dungeon are mixed at best. Escourt a Mages Guild member through the dungeon and protect them as they study various locations in the dungeon to complete the Mage’s Guild’s notes on the subterranean vault.
• Dungeon Raider: Reports of a rare artifact have been whispered around the guild. Visit the dungeon and pilfer the artifact. Getting the artifact was the easy part, escaping in one piece will be a challenge.

Many of variables in these quests can be chosen from a predetermined list:

• Specific NPC
• Types of mobs
• Item/Artifact involved
• Quest Location
• Item Reward (if any)

Many of variables in these quests can be created dynamically:

• Number of enemies
• Path to follow
• Waypoints
• XP and Gold reward

Each of these quests could be obtained from a job-board or from a specific member of the guild. It is true that eventually players would see all the content each dynamic quest has to offer, but if each zone offers their own set of perpetual quests, players would find that they have some justification to revisit old Zones. If enough variables were included players could find themselves being surprised by content that they feel they have run many times before.

@Enodoc has some great thoughts about how these could be added as dailies:

Enodoc wrote: »

Fighters Guild dailies for destroying Mini-Anchors:
Something akin to the existing Dark Fissures, but in the style of Oblivion's Oblivion gates. You are tasked to go to a Dark Fissure location where instead of a Fissure, a Mini-Anchor has spawned (anyone who is not on the quest would just see a Fissure, as normal), and you need to defeat the enemies there. Once defeated, activate the pinion to be pulled into a delve-sized Coldharbour area. Fight through and defeat the boss to reach the Mooring Pinion. In addition to the immediate quest reward, you can stock up on Mooring Pinions to exchange for rewards. The assets for Mini-Anchors already exist; I think they are (or were? not sure if they're still around) part of a Dremora's spell arsenal.

Mages Guild dailies for collecting Lost Lore:
A quest to go recover a random lorebook (but not a purple one) from a delve. The book would be in a chest located behind the delve boss. In addition to the immediate quest reward, you also get some token that you can stock up on to exchange for rewards later on.

Enodoc wrote: »

What we also need are some solo dailies (that are interesting enough and rewarding enough to be worth repeating). All PvE-zone dailies at the moment (apart from Crafting) are for groups.

• Fighters Guild Dailies: You're sent out to shut down a mini dark anchor. These could occur in the same random places as the existing dark fissures, but you need to go into Coldharbour to find the pinions (a la Oblivion's Oblivion Gates). If you're not on the quest, you get the standard dark fissure which disappears after defeating the boss. If you are, you get to enter the mini anchor after defeating the boss and experience a delve-sized dungeon on your way to the pinions. In addition to the standard reputation/experience/gold reward, you get to keep the Anchor Pinion, which can be exchanged for gear. The more you collect before you exchange them, the better gear you receive.
• Mages Guild Dailies: You're sent to a delve in the region to recover lorebooks to be brought back and translated (a la Skyrim's Shalidor's Insights). If you're not on the quest, the delve acts like normal and the chest containing the book cannot be found. The chest would either be in the main boss room, or in a side room with a mini-boss. In addition to the standard reputation/experience/gold reward, you get a Gem Fragment, which can be exchanged for items. The more you collect before you exchange them, the better items you receive.
• City Guard Dailies: (Not very interesting, but would give you a bit more gold and XP if you want to go grinding.)
  • [x] creature is harassing [y] location. Go and kill [n] of them.
  • [x] criminal has escaped and is hiding at [y]. Go and apprehend them.
  • [x] item has been stolen, and has been taken to [y]. Go and retrieve it.
  • [x] citizen has been kidnapped and taken to [y]. Go and rescue them.

The Justice System, Thieves Guild, and Dark Brotherhood would add some more opportunities for dailies.

Do you like the idea of always having something to do in the Guilds? What are some other Dynamic Quest ideas?

RazzPitazz

Welcome back! Feels like a week since I've seen one of your posts!
I am loving this idea. Perhaps it should be considered as a daily?
I agree, the guild sreally need to have a greater continuing influence on the world, and this fits as a great non committal way to do that. There are always people to save, things to kill and questions to answer. Once the thieves guild and dark brotherhood show up this idea would add a lot of longevity to them as well.
The fighters guild could send you out on missions to kill a specific world boss, but change the fight, mechanics, difficulty or even the boss itself. This would still allow for group play.
The mages guild.... is a tough one. They have always been the more passive of the two making the player fetch plants and books. Perhaps locating ayleid wells?

There is an entire reward system begging to be discussed for this as well.

Kronosphere

i agree. infact i was very dispointed how the guilds were set up. its just like another main story. i say each guild hall needs 5 quests that are more oblivion in style. and it should be zone based. that mean when u go to gold and silver zone there are still 5 NEW quests specific to each zone.

Kronosphere

can i add to the quests for mages guild for things like collect alchemy stuff to study as well. like in morrowind =P

Enodoc

Once again, a great idea. I'll drop in here my own previous posts on Fighters/Mages Guild repeatables for anyone who hasn't seen them before:

Enodoc wrote: »

Fighters Guild dailies for destroying Mini-Anchors:
Something akin to the existing Dark Fissures, but in the style of Oblivion's Oblivion gates. You are tasked to go to a Dark Fissure location where instead of a Fissure, a Mini-Anchor has spawned (anyone who is not on the quest would just see a Fissure, as normal), and you need to defeat the enemies there. Once defeated, activate the pinion to be pulled into a delve-sized Coldharbour area. Fight through and defeat the boss to reach the Mooring Pinion. In addition to the immediate quest reward, you can stock up on Mooring Pinions to exchange for rewards. The assets for Mini-Anchors already exist; I think they are (or were? not sure if they're still around) part of a Dremora's spell arsenal.

Mages Guild dailies for collecting Lost Lore:
A quest to go recover a random lorebook (but not a purple one) from a delve. The book would be in a chest located behind the delve boss. In addition to the immediate quest reward, you also get some token that you can stock up on to exchange for rewards later on.

Enodoc wrote: »

What we also need are some solo dailies (that are interesting enough and rewarding enough to be worth repeating). All PvE-zone dailies at the moment (apart from Crafting) are for groups.

• Fighters Guild Dailies: You're sent out to shut down a mini dark anchor. These could occur in the same random places as the existing dark fissures, but you need to go into Coldharbour to find the pinions (a la Oblivion's Oblivion Gates). If you're not on the quest, you get the standard dark fissure which disappears after defeating the boss. If you are, you get to enter the mini anchor after defeating the boss and experience a delve-sized dungeon on your way to the pinions. In addition to the standard reputation/experience/gold reward, you get to keep the Anchor Pinion, which can be exchanged for gear. The more you collect before you exchange them, the better gear you receive.
• Mages Guild Dailies: You're sent to a delve in the region to recover lorebooks to be brought back and translated (a la Skyrim's Shalidor's Insights). If you're not on the quest, the delve acts like normal and the chest containing the book cannot be found. The chest would either be in the main boss room, or in a side room with a mini-boss. In addition to the standard reputation/experience/gold reward, you get a Gem Fragment, which can be exchanged for items. The more you collect before you exchange them, the better items you receive.
• City Guard Dailies: (Not very interesting, but would give you a bit more gold and XP if you want to go grinding.)
  • [x] creature is harassing [y] location. Go and kill [n] of them.
  • [x] criminal has escaped and is hiding at [y]. Go and apprehend them.
  • [x] item has been stolen, and has been taken to [y]. Go and retrieve it.
  • [x] citizen has been kidnapped and taken to [y]. Go and rescue them.

The Justice System, Thieves Guild, and Dark Brotherhood would add some more opportunities for dailies.

Ace_of_Destiny

I agree with Original Post.

Kendaric

I love the idea of expanding the use of NPC guilds (hopefully we´ll get thieves´ guild and Dark Brotherhood eventually).

Heromofo

I would love to see more of the guilds because your right after you finish the story you pretty much just forget about them.

Gidorick

Thanks @rajaniemiorama_ESO! I was gone for about 4 days. lol.

Thanks for adding your post @Enodoc! I tried using the search function to see if it had been suggested before, but I didn't consider calling them "dailies". *foreheadslap*

I'm going to add your suggestions to the OP so people don't miss them! Great ideas. I LOVE the mini-anchor idea!

Yinmaigao

Agree and like ;D

idk

Gidorick wrote: »

This is a pretty quick one:

One of the most frustrating aspects of the Fighter’s Guild and the Mage’s Guild in ESO is how they simply cease being a viable source for gameplay. Your character essentially saves each guild and then you are meant to forget about them.

How is this different than anything else in the game once a line is leveled. Even the added undaunted pledges are not done once players have their skill line leveled and have the monster sets they desire. After that we forget about them.

I have never forgotten about the mage and fighters guild. I use them each and every day. Good skills in the skill lines.

Enodoc

Giles.floydub17_ESO wrote: »

show previous quotes

Gidorick wrote: »

This is a pretty quick one:

One of the most frustrating aspects of the Fighter’s Guild and the Mage’s Guild in ESO is how they simply cease being a viable source for gameplay. Your character essentially saves each guild and then you are meant to forget about them.

How is this different than anything else in the game once a line is leveled. Even the added undaunted pledges are not done once players have their skill line leveled and have the monster sets they desire. After that we forget about them.

The purpose is to give quick, repeatable sources of XP for levelling (not skill-line levelling) as an alternative to Cadwell's (which is not repeatable) or Craglorn (which is best done with a group).

Azculain

Fighters guilds and Mages guilds need to open the door to more specialized and exclusive memberships.
We already need more options as far as skills/spells etc in the game So things like Order of the Lamp ,Knights of Stendarr
All the Daedric cults of course.

Gidorick

Giles.floydub17_ESO wrote: »

show previous quotes

Gidorick wrote: »

This is a pretty quick one:

One of the most frustrating aspects of the Fighter’s Guild and the Mage’s Guild in ESO is how they simply cease being a viable source for gameplay. Your character essentially saves each guild and then you are meant to forget about them.

How is this different than anything else in the game once a line is leveled. Even the added undaunted pledges are not done once players have their skill line leveled and have the monster sets they desire. After that we forget about them.

I have never forgotten about the mage and fighters guild. I use them each and every day. Good skills in the skill lines.

I'm commenting more on the narrative of the guilds as they exist in the world. If I'm a member of the Guild, and a pretty darn important one at that, why don't I ever help them again? Did I retire? Have I been shunned?

As for skills... Using those abilities isn't the same as you interacting with the guild.

@Enodoc hit the nail on the head as far as mechanics of the 'game' go.

Merlin13KAGL

Yeah, they've missed so much repeatable potential here, it's not funny.

Also, Eyvea should be the place to go for so many things, with better versions of (fill in the blank) to be found there (beyond the crafting station.)

At least the standalone's would have given you a new spell/ability.

KhajitFurTrader

I very much like the idea of the Guilds not becoming obsolete after their initial storylines. Frankly, I can't imagine the upcoming Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood not having some kind of dynamic content that keeps the players involved.

It's not easily pulled off, though. Have some sort of daily contract/challenge, and people might feel compelled to finish all of them on a daily basis, solely for not missing out on rewards. Have less rewards so people feel less compelled, and people might feel unrewarded and interest may wane. Have interesting and engaging content, you need a lot of it with diverse objectives, so people won't think of it as being highly repetitive.

I'd like to think about having a rank/standing/reputation system with Guilds, with according titles and fitting NPC recognition, cosmetic rewards, and guild-approriate resources/perks (e.g. discounts at certain vendors). All this without the grind, of course...

Gidorick

I love the idea of guild standing @KhajitFurTrader. It could be a degrading standing also. If you perform tasks for them every day you go up in standing. If you miss a while, you go down in standing.

tallenn

Well-presented post, and some really good ideas!

@ZOS should definitely take a look at this.

Shadesofkin

I've mentioned previously that we need to include more quest within the Fighters Guild and Mages Guild. These are pretty cool.

Merlin13KAGL

@Gidorick , @KhajitFurTrader

Gidorick wrote: »

I love the idea of guild standing @KhajitFurTrader. It could be a degrading standing also. If you perform tasks for them every day you go up in standing. If you miss a while, you go down in standing.

• Fame
• Infamy
• Guild Rank (other than the Skill level #)
• *Sigh*

Where are these things...?

Gidorick

I fear they are in the Bin-of-unimportance @Merlin13KAGL

Athas24

Sweet Concepts OP!

Furor

As the world first Fighter's Guild level 10 I approve this message

Kalifas

Gidorick's Fighter’s Guild Perpetual Quests Types:

• Reinforcement: One or more of your fellow Fighter’s Guild members in trouble. They were sent to some place in the zone and are pinned down. Players must join the other members of the fighters guild and fight off waves of enemies.
• Retrieval & Rescue: An NPC or a Fighter’s member is missing! Track them down by going to their last known location and follow the dynamically generated trail they left. The trail could be breadcrumbs, blood, broken sticks, footprints, etc. Fight enemies as you follow their trail. The NPC could be alive or dead when you find them.
• Escort & Bodyguard: An NPC is going from one location in the zone to another. Escort them and keep them safe.
• Extermination: There has been a report of an infestation of some beast or daedra. Clear out the area for a reward.

Gidorick asks"Do you like the idea of always having something to do in the Guilds? What are some other Dynamic Quest ideas?"

I do like all the ideas I am seeing here and have some of my own.

Kalifa's Fighter's Guild Perpetual Quests Types:

• Reconnaissance: A rumor is going around about a group of daedra that are plotting something sinister. You and other players must travel into a secret meeting location and gather information from eavesdropping, finding files, donning disguises or interrogating one of the daedra.
• Ambush: The guild has some info on some very dangerous cargo. You and other guild members are tasked to intercept that cargo by any means necessary.
• Loot and Shoot: You and other members of the guild gain insight into a cache of weapons and artifacts vital to the daedra. You must travel to locations on the map and find a secret cave, oubliette, or other hidden device and dispatch any resistance.
• Operation Decimation: You and other guild members are tasked to set explosives at key locations in a daedric structure to sabotage their operations.
• Decipher and Discovery: Spread across Tamriel are glyphs and symbols written in a language of the princes. Your guild members are tasked to decipher the alphabet and discover what the locations and riddles written reveal.

The Perpetual Dynamic Daedric Zone:
This concept is born to give incentives for what comes after the Fighter's Guild perpetual quest after the max rank has been earned and X amount of dailies have been completed. To begin a player must accomplish dailies and upon completing X amount. They gain access to dynamic daedric zone that constantly changes.

This is a daily portal. You travel into these portals spread across Tamriel and accomplish the quest described under Gidorick's perpetual Fighter's guild quest along with my additions.



After completing enough daily quest for the fighter guild you are given a rune that reverses the process of dolmens.Any dolmen you have previously completed is color shifted to red when in possession of this rune.



When you see these color shifted to red dolmens. You and anyone in possession of the described rune and are able to walk underneath the above red portal. Walking underneath this portal teleports you to a Daedric Zone.



Perpetual Randomized Public Zone with Daedra theme:

Upon entering the dolmen portal. You arrive in a Daedric plane something visually themed like Veteran City Of Ash or Oblivion. There are elite spawns, fighters guild perpetual quests, and mega world bosses to fight against for solo or duo or lots of players when fighting the same thing alongside other players. The enemies scale in strength, numbers, and survivability depending on how many players are engaging them. There are also Sigil Keeps instead of dolmens or burial sites with prisons and quests inside them particularly tuned or designed for fighter's guild. There is also a new kind of shard here similar to skyshards. These shards act as energizing crystals that power up your zone specific perpetual weapons which I will go into a little later.




Random Spawns:

All enemies in this zone spawn at random locations. In Tamriel things can be seen on the map like elite spawns, skyshards, and lorebooks. In this zone, there is no map or mini-map because the sky is clouded with red smoke and ash. So happening across something here is all about stumbling into it. The only signs you will see is either seeing it or seeing how something affects the environment around it. The sky may become the deepest black at the location during the spawn of a certain world boss. The lava may be solidified in the presence of a nearby elite spawn. Even the keeps themselves will not be found in the same location they were the previous day. One day an npc might help you by giving you a key to a prison there, the next day he could alert the slavers or trick you into a trap floor.



Perpetual Zone Specific Gear:

• Special items for crafting can be procured from bones, wood, plants, animals, and various other native things to the daedric plane.
• A special ingredient called Daedric Blood can be procured from Daedra inhabiting the plane.
• The gear crafted from the daedric plane materials and lacquered with daedric blood takes on a new property.
• It grants the player the ability to absorb energy from special sigil shards inside the Daedric plane.
• It also grants the equipment or user special powerful boons while exploring the plane.

How charging would work different in this zone:
There are 5 Randomly placed sigil shards located around the daedric plane.
Absorbing the energy from each shard grant the perpetual zone specific gear a charged status of 20 %.
5% of that charge is lost for every real life day you do not re-charge these zone specific equipments.
Twenty real life days without recharging would result in all zone specific equipment charges depleting to zero.

Some Types of gear the fighter's guild can craft for your ventures into this zone:

• Magma Boots Shielding: Grants you the ability to walk through lava.
• 5% Charge: Equals the ability to walk through lava taking 5% less damage.
• 50% Charge: Equals the ability to walk through lava taking 25% less damage.
• 100% Charge: Equals the ability to walk through lava taking 50% less damage.

• Winged Boots Shielding: Grants you the ability to take less damage from falls.
• 5% Charge: Damage from falls reduced by 5%.
• 50% Charge: Damage from falls reduced by 25%
• 100% Charge: Take 50% less damage from falls.

• Mercurial Boots Shielding: Grants you the ability to sprint with reduced cost.
• 5% Charge: Equals the ability to sprint with 5% reduced cost.
• 50% Charge: Equals the ability to sprint with 25% reduced cost.
• 100% Charge: Equals the ability to sprint with 50% reduced cost.

Perpetual Daedric Zone Active Ability:

• Visions of the Anointed: Active skill that grants the ability to see sigil shards general locations.
• 5% Charge: Equals the ability to see 1 sigil shards general location.
• 50% Charge: Equals the ability to see 3 sigil shards general location.
• 100% Charge: Equals the ability to see 5 sigil shards general location.

• Body of Knowing: Active Skill that causes causes your weapon to glow in the vicinity of your tracked objective.
• 5% Charge: Equals your weapon to start glowing when really close to an objective.
• 50% Charge: Equals your weapon to start glowing when within half a zone distance from an objective.
• 100% Charge: Equals your weapon to start glowing no matter where you are in the zone from an objective.

For the actives, remember there is no map or mini-map in this zone. For the body of knowing it glows white when close to your tracked objective, blue when in moderate range, and purple when really distant from an objective. The objective could be a fighter guild quest, a specific npc, a specific enemy, etc.





Conclusion:
The idea is that you gain items by completing content in this special plane. Then you need to charge them and keep re-visiting this content or the rewards deplete. The gears I listed above are straps that exist alongside the Daedric Boon effects tied to the gear. All bonuses from Daedric Boon Effects needs to be charged and can deplete as well. This zone is a big public zone something like Craglorn but without strict group requirements. It is a public system something akin to dynamic events in Guild Wars 2 but different. After completing a run in this zone, everyone walks back to the portal and returns back to Tamriel.

Gidorick

Beautifully done @Kalifas !

Many players have proposed more in depth Anchor mechanics and I think what you are suggesting would be a blast! The idea of Oblivion Gear is pretty cool. I like the idea of gear that makes you more powerful as you play that very specific area and once you leave... the power is gone. I would even go as far as suggesting the gear is destroyed along with the Anchor.

Leveling the gear as you progress through the Oblivion Realm with Sigil Shards is pretty awesome. By the time you're at the boss of that realm you could be just wiping the floor with the might of a Daedric Prince! Once you beat the big bad of the area you destroy the Anchor Pin and you are teleported back to Tamriel and your gear is destroyed because it was made of the same energy as the anchor. Destroy the anchor, destroy the gear.

This would make each of these realms sort of act as a MOBA... hell... this could even be expanded upon with multiplayer mechanics for Cyrodiil Anchors. It's a race to the end and players must compete for Sigil Shards and to get to the Anchor Pin. You're fighting against the Daedra and other players.

Oh and the "Decipher and Discovery" perpetual quest would be better suited for the Mages Guild.

Perhaps it could one that is offered to BOTH guilds. Accept the quest from Fighter's Guild and you're escorting the Mages while they decipher and translate the text. Accept the quest from the Mages Guild and you are the one to decipher and translate the text.

You should make another thread with your Perpetual Daedric Realm concept... it deserves it's own spotlight!

Kalifas

@Gidorick

I didn't want to go as far as gear should be destroyed upon leaving. Because some players don't like the thought of losing stuff. That is why I proposed a charging mechanic with the sigil shards. Destroying the gear might be too harsh? What I mean is you spend all week in this content then take a month break when you get back your gear is broken, so you would have to start back at zero. If you could keep the gear but have to at least come into the realm and recharge it then that would keep a degree of it perpetual.

When you mentioned the multiplayer blending like Moba. That could be cool. They could apply this perpetual randomized public zone to different themes as well, not just this oblivion plane. A plane of light and darkness involving the tinkering of refracting, reflecting, or absorbing lights to add light or cover areas with darkness to advance.

Thanks for the support!

STEVIL

Agree and support.

I think esp as we move into one tamriel these guilds need stronger play for end game.

I think repurposing delves and dungeons across tamriel is good as well as other missions.

But more importantly, the missiond should ALL be outside your core alliance start.

One of the key story elements for the guilds was they are cross-factional. So i think the missions could be used to send you to foreign guilds, using portals, run errand for that guild and of course let you see the other zone and wayshrines.

Have portal travel and unlocking wayshrines be a major benefit to the guild dailies.

Since several of the original guild missions used portals, there is precedent.

Gidorick

Unlocking Wayshrines as you "research" them for the Mages Guild ? Brilliant @STEVIL !

tinythinker

(stuff)

Rex-Umbra

Hopefully one tamriel expands the guilds. Kinda strange every town has a guild hall even the small towns yet offer no quests.

LioraValkyrie

Just wanted to say that I love all of the ideas above! The RP value of having a perpetual fighter's and mage's guild is immense, with gear that performs particularly well in conjunction with the related repeatable quests. I am reminded, of course, of the repeatable Companions quests in Skyrim. I believe, however, there is the opportunity to take this one step further towards the creation of immersive in-game roles.

I would add to the above an idea that has occurred to me, building on how the crafting certifications are done... Once you have completed the main questline of the Mages and Fighter's guilds, you are approached about formalizing your role within the guild. You are offered a number of choices, which determine the type of quest available to you, accompanied by subsequent titles, or you may elect to play an auxillery role within the guild, completing any type of quest available. However, if you choose to take a particular path within a guild, you will receive a passive skill which grants extra XP and/or reward bonus for provision of your 'specialist services' upon completion. An auxillery member could be compensated by having a greater number and variety of guild quests at their disposal and may have a lesser, though more generally applicable, passive available for use within designated areas.

A system of this kind would allow the player to decide who he/she is in relation to the guild, and subsequently to Tamriel as a whole, helping massively to develop a sense of character identity which is currently lacking from ESO in my opinion. Titles such as "Arcane Scholar" could reflect the adept's role as an aquirer of forgotten lore; "Servant of Meridia" for combatting necromancy on behalf of the Fighter's Guild... "Beast Trapper" for extermination of undesirable creatures, "Master Cartographer" for exploration and note-taking quests (a-la scouting missions in Cyrodiil). If you don't complete a quest of your specialism for, say, 7 days, you are stripped of your title temporarily.

There could even be occassionally offered 'special' quests which require the co-ordinated efforts of, say, an Arcane Scholar and Beast Trapper to receive guild authorisation. This would provide the opportunity for group play ("Master Cartographer LF Servant of Meridia for scouting in daedra-infested terrain!")

I think you should, of course, be able to change your guild-related career path but only at times when the guild requires adventurers who specialises in those fields. There could be new 'job advertisements' every month!

Endless possibilities, anyway!