Silhouette is my carpenter, much loved. She’s also my coercer, level 77. I love the class. I love everything about this character. I’ve decided to actually devote some time into her – I typically play EQ2 this way: Person says “Oh, we could really use such and such class” – and I run out and make it if I don’t already have it. I rarely ever play what I enjoy, because I enjoy whatever is needed and wanted. If it’s not needed or wanted, chances are I’ll bore of it. I know that’s a horrible way to play a game, but that’s been my ‘tactic’ so to speak for a little while now. It doesn’t work out. The coercer is one of those classes I play for myself. I just simply love it. I can accomplish so much while I’m alone that it doesn’t feel dreary. Its also complicated enough to keep me interested. Anyhow, I digress.
One conversation me and a good friend were having, was the state of guilds, specifically guild status, and how SOE sort of made a bad move.
Currently, this is how status items work. They’re the little documents and relics that drop from mobs. Right now, they are level restricted. If a guild is level 50 they can only contribute status via items that are also level 50 and up. What this means, is that lower level players, can not contribute their items towards guild status. It leaves them out of the loop. Yes, I understand that there are also writs in order to get status, but why should they be forced into a particular method of leveling the guild that they are just as much a part of as anyone else.
I understand (or think I do) why SOE implemented this method a few years back. I also think there was a better way, though. They obviously wanted to cut down the number of people who would easily farm lower tier items and turn them in by the mountains. Now if you’re a level 75+ guild, you need level 75+ items to turn in. Because I feel that this excludes newer / smaller leveled characters, what I thought about was simple:
Why not just make the items NOT drop from gray mobs.
That way, at least SOME effort was put into obtaining the relics. You know they were not just easily spam harvested, and if they were, at least someone was mentored / benifiting aside from just simply harvesting these tokens. The poor new level 20 can turn in his items finally. Even if he’s buying them from the broker, how is that any different then purchasing the level 75+ ones in order to level your guild. The lower level items give less status as it is, there’s nothing else that needs to be changed.
Small guilds have been at a severe disadvantage ever since the revamps. You used to get more status (when the guild level cap was 50) for having less people in your guild, then you would for having a full guild. That actually made sense to me, you have less people working towards the goal of leveling your guild then you would a raid guild, for example. However, it could be abused. Kick everyone out, level it with two people in the guild, etc. Small guilds were out leveling the larger raid guilds, and of course oh no we couldn’t have that now could we.
Another solution? I think we should be able to flag our guilds for certain rewards. Let me explain.
Be able to flag your guild as a crafting guild. For all of the crafting writs you do, you earn x2 the normal experience of a writ. Your guild also unlocks specific crafting items, perhaps house items that give buffs, or a set of gear that can improve your crafting, maybe some special recipes.
Then you have a guild flagged as a raid guild. For each raid zone they clear, they earn x2 the total amount of status for that raid zone. They unlock trinkets specific to raiding that will AID them but are NOT essential to a raid. It shouldn’t make or break a raid, it should just give them incentive to raid and work that status.
You could have a guild flagged as a questing guild. The EQ2players site keeps track of the average number of quests your guild has completed per person. There’s so much potential with the information that’s kept online, it can be taken any number of ways. Once a week perhaps, take the number of quests completed, and add a small amount of status per quest turn in. Or something along those lines. Again, have them able to unlock rewards that would base around questing.
If you want to flag your guild as a different sort, have them drop 20 levels, and have to re-earn their guild status, and unlock the new ‘type’ of guild rewards.
Maybe add tabards, so that we have a better way of displaying guild heraldry that doesn’t require covering up the very pretty cloaks they keep releasing. I never display mine, I’d rather wear the crafting ones. The guild cloak designs leave a lot to be desired. Why not allow people to create guild banners for their homes, or allow them to put the guild symbol on a shield.
There’s so much untapped potential out there with these things. I understand it takes time, and money, and well, a desire, to get this stuff anywhere. They’re just a few ideas I had though.
Speaking of all these new ideas. I also feel that EverQuest2 has really missed the boat on “busy work” for people to do once they’ve hit level 80. EQ2 lacks two very significant things EQ1 has. One, is proper aa. I’m not talking about the ones we have now, but the meaningless busywork ones that we should be able to get. For example, aa that let you choose a second crafting class. An aa perhaps that extends your food and drink. Another for enduring breath. Perhaps run speed (unbuffed). You know the stuff. That we all KNOW is busywork, but keeps us interested anyhow. Take a look at EQ1 and see just how many aa are out there. A lot of them are things that don’t affect you as a raider or adventurer, but are just other means of character progress. As it is now, people can reach level 80, finish their aa’s, and basically be “done” with the game. There needs to be more meaningless busywork. Even if we KNOW it is meaningless, it’s still SOMETHING to do.
Alongside of that busywork, would be LDoN (Lost Dungeons of Norrath). You remember the adventures EQ1 has, that lets you travel in a dungeon with 3+ people and caters to how many are in your group. You can select normal or difficult, and there are goals like killing X number of mobs, or rescuing an npc, etc. You earn points, for these missions, which unlock gear, augments, spells, and any number of other “things” that people deem fit to have (and plenty that are just garbage too). There are leadership boards, and you can check your status for successful runs vs. failed. It’s also experience for people, and when they’ve hit end game and don’t quite have all the points they need to purchase that thing on the LDoN vendor, they keep doing them.
Right now, the only thing EQ2 has to keep end game folks around – is alts. That’s all they have. Once you have your level 80/80 with complete aa’s, and your mythical – what exactly is keeping you playing? You’re not supposed to be able to “beat” an mmo. It’s supposed to be an ever going game. Right now people are playing on raid nights only because there’s simply nothing else to do. SOE needs to give them something else to do that is NOT just another raid or instance. It’s natural for folks to want to see progress on their characters. They want to constantly feel that they are moving forward. This stagnant feeling that’s going through the ranks is something that has to be quelled, and again not with some new raid zone or instance, but with actual personal character progress.
stargrace 
