Since we started talking about this li'l' ol'' game of ours, one question has been asked across various countries, time zones, and dimensional rifts - lucky for us it's a fairly easy one to answer: "Will there be guilds in WildStar?" The answer: of course there will be! Thus far, though, we've done everything possible to avoid talking about them. We've talked about Circles, cross-realm communication, and roleplaying, but we've totally avoided talking about this core MMO feature.
It's high time we resolved that, don't you think?
When designing WildStar guilds, we wanted to do something that was at once both completely familiar to MMO players, but still brought with it a unique WildStar twist.
Let's get all the obvious features out of the way in bullet-point format:
Now that's laid out, we can skip past all the standard stuff and go straight for the three meaty features that make WildStar different.
Whenever you talk guilds, everybody wants to make sure that their group stands out in a crowd. Whether you're the "Bunnygirl Bruiser Squad" or the "Protostar Resolution Action Team" you want a defining visual element that proudly displays your guild allegiance. In other games, this might be a tabard or emblem. But that kind of fantasy business ain't the way we roll out beyond the Fringe.
You can choose to have your holomark project on your back, your shoulders, above your head, or any combination of those options. Want to go gank someone in PvP? Make sure your Holomark is turned on so they know who's destroying them. Is your guild invading an enemy warplot? Your foes will be sure to know who's boss (and who to kill) when you've got 135 holomarks floating above their enemies' heads.
In many MMO games, a guild is a social group of players. They may raid together, or hang out in the VOIP system of their choice, but individual players tend to wander the open world on their own, their guild being nothing more than a passing word in a nameplate. A terrible, terrible, shame - and not the WildStar way!
Your guild earns Influence through one simple method: playing WildStar with guildmates.
"Playing" literally means being in a group with other guild members and doing almost anything you want: Questing, killing creatures, running dungeons, raiding, PvP, and so on.
The more guild members you have in your group, the faster you'll earn Influence, so it's definitely to your advantage to play with a full group of guildmates whenever possible. As the saying goes,"The guild that plays together, stays together.
This leads us to (arguably) the most important part of the guild system: where you get to spend all that Influence.
Influence is spent in three main categories:
There are six guild-wide buffs a guild can unlock and activate. Unlocking the ability to use a buff is a one-time, high-Influence cost. Once unlocked, the buff can be activated for 7 days (real time) by spending a smaller amount of Influence. Any member of the guild is affected by this buff while they are logged in during those 7 days. These buffs typically boost the rate at which you earn currencies in the game, including experience, faction reputation, and Influence itself.
The consumable items include things like summoning a guild bank out in the open world just by spending some Influence on the spot. You can also purchase the ability for guild members to buy "flasks" on their own, which give individual boosts that stack with the guild-wide buffs you may already have activated.
Of course, everything we mention is still in beta, and is subject to change, so we're eager to hear what you think about it all. What excites you most about guilds in WildStar? What are you most concerned about? Let us know via Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit!
It’s show time! Sara Conavius is in town to help renovate your homes for the best program on holovision.
Madame Fay is fixing to refresh her inventory again, and for this round she’s going medieval on her supplies!