Turbine may have bitten off more than they can chew by trying to tackle the task of giving guilds a level up system. Well, my personal opinion is that those responsible didn't really think things through.
Let me start by talking about the Guild Renown system, particularly the Renown Fade system.
Now my guild is not at a level yet where we have to worry about Renown Fade, BUT I can tell you right now that when it happens I will definitely begin "banging on Turbine's door" so to speak.
First of all, at level 25 or 26 is when you begin to get renown fade, for those who did not already know. By that point you've gotten your first airship, and luckily that cannot be taken away from you.
However to level up from there takes a lot of grinding, and getting to level 100 is almost impossible. At some point most guilds will fade away and die out just as they have before Update 5. If it takes a guild so much time to even get to level 100 why would you even have a fade system? Isn't the excruciatingly long grind enough?
Not to mention this "reward" is based on how many active players you have in your guild. This is another flaw. Then it is not about quality it is about quantity. I'll give an excellent example. One of the number one guilds on Khyber server (I won't name names.) sends out blind invites to anyone it sees without a guild. They are literally stalking the unclaimed. And they have no standards as to who they bring in, just as long as they are actively playing. This means this guild could have 999 newblits all playing level 4 and under toons on Korthos and have a better shot at level 100 than the guild with 100 quality players of all level ranges that actually has some standards. Now, does this seem fair?
This particular guild I speak of, I have partied with a few of their number in PUG's. And I can tell you right now the majority of them are either completely new to the game or they are children. Obviously I have not played with all 999 members, but this has been the only experience I have had with this particular guild - and it frustrates me. You can also see multiple people complaining about them DAILY on general chat out in the market, korthos, etc. Players are really get fed up with these "top guilds".
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Moving on, I'd like to address the airships themselves. I feel like there is really nothing wrong with this particular system other than greed. When you buy a ship with Astral Diamonds, you should be able to choose its colors right off the bat. Not have that as an extra expense as well. I tallied up the amount of Turbine points it would take to fully customize JUST your ships colors and it comes to a whopping 1,980 turbine points. This amount can be covered by the $30.00 turbine point package. But seriously, 30 bucks just to color your ship? Let's not also forget the amenities you might purchase in the DDO store too. The prices for these ships are outrageous.
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Next I wish to discuss the Guild vendors out in House K. These are great, if only they worked properly! Why the hell hasn't Turbine fixed those spell component vendors for guilds yet? Both the arcane and divine still appear to be broken. Even if I have a stack of 500 components from the Guild Reagent Vendor it will still not allow me to use my spell until I go buy the more expensive ones in the Market. Even then, it will only use those - not the ones from House K. What a rip. Turbine, could you please give us a perk that's actually a perk and not something that completely wastes our in game plat?
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Another epic fail fro Update 5 is the Guild Vendor in House K. Oh yeah, sure, better prices for your stuff. That's really awesome. Thumbs up. HOWEVER many people are selling really awesome items to this vendor just for the extra plat, and it's a waste to see such good items fade into nothingness. An improvement would be to implement a PAWN SHOP for guilds in that same area of House K, where people can sell their good armor and weapons for a 1.5% better turnaround than the Guild Vendor. This would encourage people not to destroy good items at the Guild Vendor, but instead make them a little more money to give other guilds the opportunity to purchase their unneeded weapons and armor. This would improve the economy (I speak mostly of the Auction House) a great deal. Because people are selling to the Guild Vendor there is less competition in the AH, and therefore prices have gone up. Even now people are charging the same amount in platinum they would have normally charged in gold. 1.2 MILLION platinum for a blank greensteel greatsword? ARE YOU F***ING SERIOUS?! By the time I had earned that much plat I would have run the Vale over three hundred times! Something needs to be done to improve AH prices, and I think a Guild Pawn Shop is the way to go. You could even limit it to only buying armor and weapons. Or have two separate Pawns, one for armor and one for weapons. The point is, that in order to keep the economy in balance the best selling prices should be found in pawn shops! PERIOD.
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Next I want to address the Augment Slots and Crystals. I already know they've tweaked this already for Patch 1 in Lamannia, but I'm gonna bitch about it anyway. Why in god's name would you put a large augment slot that requires guild level 75 on a f***ing +1 STR belt?! This is entirely STUPID. Why would I hold on to a piece of junk like that until my guild was level 75? Are you serious, Turbine? You people need to start thinking things through before you put crap like that out in the public servers.
Now a lot of people have also been complaining that the effects of the crystals only last 6 hours, but actually I am not. I actually like those temporary effects. Maybe it's the way I use them. For instance I'll pick up a augment crystal that will help out in a particular quest. Then I'll crunch a new one whenever I need something different. That's not a big deal to me.
BUT (and it's a big but) I think that these effects should be available for all items not just certain ones. I noticed that a lot of the augments for gloves are mostly at the benefit of rogues, but EVERYONE uses gloves - not just rogues. Do you see where I am going with this? The benefits need to be beneficial to us all, regardless of the type of item the slot is in.
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That does it for my rant about the new guild "perks" of Update 5.
