Alliance Halls

I here would like to suggest the implementation of special halls for alliances.

As we all know, members of an alliance can freely visit the halls of other allied guilds, etc. However, I propose that an alliance can purchase a special sort of hall.

The general gist of it would be something along the lines of one of the following:
Possible implementation methods of an Alliance Hall:
1) Like a Guild Hall, but different format: This implementation would be like a guild hall, except possibly a bit larger. They would also be formated differently, as PvP considerations wouldn't hold (UNLESS an actually Alliance vs. Alliance mode was implemented. But that's another suggestion, and thus does not belong in this thread). It would make sense to have services here, etc.

2) Explorable connecting zone: This implementation would have a specific layout that is a sort of explorable area between all of the guild halls of the alliance. It could be a rough sort of circular shape, with the entrance to the alliance leader's hall in the middle of the area, and the other guilds connected by roads. I think having a personalized explorable area between the halls of an alliance would be rather interesting. The area could behave in 2 ways: (a) like a traditional explorable area, or (b) allow zoning into a single instance. That is, when people enter the zone, and others are there, they also enter the zone. It could also (c) act like a town. There are many options with this route, and I think it is the preferable one.

3) Please bring your own ideas to the table.

Finally, this is a general proposal; further details would need to be worked out. However, it is my belief that having a sort of area like this would be very good for building better bonds between the various guilds of an alliance.

Additional thoughts for suggestion #2:
- Special arena of variable size.
- Possibly a special pet holding area, as has been suggested elsewhere.
- Skins could be a variety, such as: Ring of Fire, Pre-searing Ascalon, Desolation, Realm of Torment, Shing Jea, Kaineng City, Vabbi, etc.

I like the idea, but the only thing I'd have to add to it is the need for a button on the Guild window that would take you directly to the Aliance Hall, much like the Guild Hall button works now.

But, yeah, /signed. Would be fun to have

Just all go the lead guild's hall.

There is, in my mind, a significant difference between the leader's hall and the idea of a special hall for the entire alliance. If I had not felt that way, I would have refrained from making this thread.

At any rate, I would really like a better place to get together. Sure, you can say, just all go to the hall of the leader of the alliance. But that hall was chosen by them, not by the alliance. I'm suggesting something that's for the alliance, not just for an individual section of the alliance.

How many active members are in your guild? How many active members are in your alliance? Why would you even need an alliance hall?

In short, alot.

Same here, my current Aliance has at LEAST 4 VERY active guilds. We'd get a huge amount of use out of something like this.

/signed, I like this idea. Though still you can meet in one of the other halls, one big Alliance hall (with NPC's) could be a) a nice moneysink b) a perfect place to meet.

If you can build this hall in a way where you won't have to use it for GvG, but merely an outpost to hang out there are different lay-out options to it too maybe even with one area in it where TA type scrimage's can be held, but in a smaller area (which don't count for Gladiator title, to prevent abuse).

/signed.

Also I think it would be really cool if the sigil for this would be very rare (unless a real Alliance vs alliance is implemented)like sigils in old days. This is an aesthetic purpose mainly.

yea we already have that in a way. Our Hall is fully equipped with all services but not all the allies have equip halls so they go to Our hall for alliance stuff. I think thats basically the same thing...

The leader guild just has to spend the 550K to get all services and the others do not, the concept is the same.

Its interesting if you could be more specific on its uniqueness. Like lets say an Alliance meeting hall is the default hall to go to with Alliance button, and that it has all the combined services from all allied halls. So if one ally has it in their hall it appears in the alliance hall. IDK something...

/signed for some form of this

A real alliance vs alliance battle would be nice to go along with this.

If this hall was made bigger than guild halls there could be room for more "stuff" to go in it. That opens up more possiblilities. Alliance events/games.

I think a hall like this may have to require more than 1 sigil. Maybe 10 sigils...1 for each possible Guild.

Well, main points would be:
- Button on the Guild (G) screen like the Guild Hall button to take you there automatically.
- More extraneous things, with some ideas being:
-- A special Alliance arena sort of thing
-- Possible explorable area outside of the hall that allows you to walk to the guild halls and such.

- It would have a different format. I'll throw together a sort of "mini-map" look of what I'm thinking of (Mind, this is a very crude representation):



The exact nature, of course, is up to best implementation.

--------

I like the idea of importing all of the hall features of the various guilds of the alliance into this one alliance hall.

It would make sense to me that the skinning (tile set, whatever it is that you want to kill it) of the alliance hall would match that of the explorable area around it (the current way that I am envisioning it).

As to the exact nature of the Alliance hall itself, I think of it more like a town, with a more definite exit. There would need to be an NPC added to the member guilds' halls that allows transportation out to this area. Perhaps personal docks? I could see something like that working quite well. A nice dock in the explorable area that has certain guild information (such as: roster, actual hall, that sort of thing), as well as a banner of the guild's flag and an NPC that takes you to the hall.

[EDIT] As stated in the post above mine, it definitely have room for more features and have a bigger possibility. And it would also have to cost more. Perhaps a sigil from each of the guilds in the alliance, and the leaders have to do it together?

I agree, an actual form of Alliance vs. Alliance (as opposed to the Faction vs. Faction that is being called Alliance vs. Alliance that we currently have) would be very welcome to the PvP Community.

I like this idea, considering it act as a common meeting place for people to gather. You certainly could meet in your Alliance's leader Guild but then you are visiting and it does not feel like home.

For #2, having portals like instances would be nice, especially if you could have on in your own Guild Hall, so it would be like you are actually travelling there.

(+) An added feature to the Alliance hall would be an Alliance Roster. Where you could actually see who in the Alliance is actually online. I cannot keep track of which character a player is on so I do not know if I am actually talking to that same person in Alliance Chat and vice versa.

@#2: implementing portals that lead to each of an alliance's halls woudln't have too much of an effect, it would act as an added since we already have that service (G, alliance tab, visit hall)

The alliance roster would help very much though. For one, you can see who is on and not just stand around waiting for a response in AC, wondering if there actually is anyone on in the other guilds. It would also help in knowing if you are talking to the same person and vice-versa, as Esprit pointed out.

/signed

/Signed

I like this idea very much. I mean alliances for the main part form a community. Having one communal area seems pretty realistic. I mean a central hub for an alliance is a pretty good idea.

Why not have guild portals for different guilds to walk through from their guild halls to the alliance hall and so forth.

/SIGNED

See the problem were all missing here, is that ArenaNet doesnt consider Guilds to be a PvE feature. Most of what your conceptualizing here has to do with PvE, and not PvP. Furthurmore, Alliances were designed specifically for PvP... so it would make sense that ArenaNet wont do anything like this.

We can see how ArenaNet has treated PvE ideas for Guild Halls in the past..... what have they done? A half-@$$ed goldsink trader option. BS, if you ask me. None of the more 'neat' ideas have been implemented. As far as I'm concerned Guild Halls do not have any real PvE usefulness beyond the traders. In fact.... even the TRADERS arnt that useful... take the weaponsmith for example.... does he smith weapons? NO! Useless....

ArenaNet has not made signifigant improvements to Guild Halls in favor of PvE becuase; in reality..... they favor PvP more. They advertise and hold massive events for PvP, they spend more time tweaking skills for PvP than adding full-fledged features, and they even call Guild Wars a CORPG..... COMPETITIVE Online RPG.

If you ask me... your barking up the wrong tree. This is a WONDERFUL idea.... but I dont see it coming to fruitation anytime soon.

/SIGNED

OK I see that Sientir. So like having all the guild halls connected together in a way that leads to a large area. and having a real alliance battle that and possibly many guild halls linked together for fighting... interesting indeed. so say an alliance battle would be several alliances fighting against each other like in HoH... Just with their guild halls as their starting base and fighting in an alliance battleground area. I see the 8vs8vs8vs8 possibility again coming out of this huh? Becoming 16 vs 16 when its allied guilds in the battle together...

interesting...

/signed

Oh and Counciler132, your right. From day one Anet designed the game around pure PvP, and at one point it was the thing to do. Heck a large portion of the original beta was only PvP... Anet pitched it as a PvPers game. Not PvE. I conceder anything I get for PvE at all bonus and an after thought to the original concept. Now even you have to admit though in recent months they have tried to do some interesting things for PvE too, and succeeded. They do know that the PvE side is growing. And the PvP side is still strong, but starting to retire itself because of lack of new content for them. As such they have to do some things to keep it going. Because that was their original pitch after all. If It fails, the concept of the game fails. so I agree PvP is important, I'm just not a fan anymore of that part of the game.

And yes we have Begged and begged for things to be added to GHs so they could be more like our own customizable towns. I know they have read our ideas and implemented a FEW of them, but I still think it goes away from their original intent for those halls. For the moment I am content getting something for halls new every year or so. Just so they do not completely forget about it, I often repost and revise some ideas here on Guru and in GWonline about such things, and every once in a while a Devo PMs me and says oh yea I remember that idea... How interesting... or something along that line.

The key to getting something implemented in this game has ALWAYS been to show how it will improve your PvP experience. So thats how you have to word proposals that benefit PvE and PvP. But to focus on the benefit to PvP more so. As we did with the storage in the halls, and such... The existing services are still not everything we wanted but I really do think more will come eventually, as they get around to it. Its still considered very low priority atm compared to PvP ladders, Events, PvE holiday events, and new chapters... I sometimes think a few of these Ideas make it to a post it wall and every once in a while they throw a dart at the wall to see what gets hit and go with it when they have time. lol Who knows.. but as long as they are not completely forgetting about our requested ideas, I will be happy.

Aye, definitely could have nice large battles. I honestly think that's something that is seriously missing from Guild Wars on the PvP scene. At any rate, the idea would definitely be to have a stronger community center for alliances to get together and get to know each other.

The rosters for the other guilds would probably be with some sort of NPC in the alliance hall. Would need to be tabbed and all that fun stuff.

However, I would request that the thread doesn't degenerate into the all too familiar PvP vs. PvE debate. Both sides argue that ANet cares for the other one more, so it's a pointless argument.

(I want to thank everyone for their support of this concept!)

no no I was not trying to start that again. I was simply trying to point out that what little we have gotten implemented was mostly because we showed how it would benefit PvP in some way first. it took a long time to get storage into the guild hall. and that is honestly what it took to get it to happen.

Look at it this way. From the marketing stand point. the PvP version of any chapter is $39.99 (I consider the UAS in this version to be a added value as well), the Full campaign including the PvE and PvP in a chapter is $49.99 right? so in Anets view professionally speaking PvE only is worth say $15 to $20 to them and as such only 2/5 the value of the game overall. So you have to get them to pay attention to your proposals when it effects the 3/5s part of the retail value of the game. the added 2/5 value is the bonus to everyone else.

I did not mean to get into a PvE vs PvP thing again. It just in the past thats what worked on getting proposals recognized and talked about... 90% of the time I make it a PvE only thing and then months latter start revising proposals from comments and addendum on the original for PvP benefits and all the sudden WHAMO its talked about in the community again. go figure. lol

/Signed

This is a superb idea. Fully supported/10.

If there is an alliance hall, then I would see guild halls pretty much pointless. I honestly don't think it would fly over too well and it will just become another unused thing in GW.

However, if ANet actually introduced REAL alliance battles, where 12 members from an alliance battle another 12 members from another alliance in a PvP style thing (and not the Kurick-Luxon AB stuff), then I could see it as being possibly used as the entering point to the match and useful. With a GvG feel to it with a totally different twist (get rid of the Guild Lord crap and make it a deathmatch or some rules/format that are NON GAY). Do GvG - win glory for your guild. Do HA - win glory for your country. Do RA/TA/HB/AB - win glory for yourself. Do new AvA- win glory for your alliance. Like I said, with that idea, I could see your alliance hall being used as a sort of "war room" and starting point. Other than that, I think it will go unused. Your thinking, but I in the wrong direction.

/signed like the idea, as for those arena's and stuff. Why not make those upgrades like storrages nd priest of balth?

/signed
Just building onto Sientir's layout of the hall, I kind of made my own too. See the attachment.

This is an interesting idea, and I like it, but I don't see much use for it unless ANet implements an Alliance vs. Alliance mode.

So, /halfsigned.

This would be great
I really think they should improve some of the alliance features.

/signed

Ya thats what we do. All alliance activities usually start in LOD GH, unless there is more than one activity planned at the same time.

/signed

just one problem - Anet either wont ever see this thread/will say they are busy with GW2(HEY! GW is still a game, if you made it, actively work on it)/will ignore it like 99% of other ideas

While I love the idea, we're talking about a change that would be very involved and have serious ramifications on how Alliance members interact. Currently, each guild has a defined leader, the alliance has a "Lead guild" but for most that doesn't make the leader of the top alliance the leader of the alliance as a whole. When it comes to managing such a hall, I think a lot of responsability would fall on just a few people in the alliance. This could be a good thing for many people (myself included), but could have a negative impact on how others manage their guilds.

As I see it, "If it ain't broken, don't fix it". I would love this in GW2 where we are already looking at a redefinition of what guilds and alliances are, but it's a lot of work for the developers to implement this in GW1, and would only be a true benefit for a small portion of the community. A smaller section of the community would hate it (because they hate every update), and most would be indifferent to it's addition.

/Not Signed, but I like the way you're thinking.

I would add that AreaNet is very good at listening to the community. When devs pander to every person who can post on a forum, it makes for a shitty game. That destroyed UO, EQ, and countless other MMOs. They do indeed read these posts, but they have to sort out many factors. The logistics of implementing a new feature are insane. They need the staff, specific programmers and designers who's skills are suited to the paticular task to be avilable and not have a more important project in the works. They need to evaluate the cost of resources in time against the prospective pay-offs of other ventures, they need to consider the legal (yes, I said LEGAL) ramifications of an update that may seem harmless to you but be frowned upon for financial or social reasons by another country they serve with the game. Then they have to test it, deploy it, and FOREVER support it as a game feature. Once they give something, taking it away is not an option. It's a huge job and often a worthwhile effort, but not everyone can have what they want. There are 6 major GW fansites with forums similar to this, and thousands of smaller sites, each serving a section of their millions of customers. For them to attempt to read these is a testament to their quality as a game studio, but issuing a response to every one of these thousands of threads is simply impossible, and implementing even a handful costs a ton. Think of it this way, would you rather have this update if it meant delaying several others? If it pushed back the GW2 release date? If it hindered their support efforts on existing bugs? Is this the most important thing to you? If not, don't criticize. If it is, you have a few hundred thousand fans to convince your right before they would look seriously at the suggestion.

I suggest the Alliance Halls be smaller maps with larger rooms, sorta like the Eye of the North kind of area. It might be best to have an EotN themed setting for the new halls, to make reason to put Asura Gates from there to the other Guild Halls.

/signed

/signed

nice idea

Great Idea!!! I often wonder who on my friends list is in which guild in the alliance, LOL.

I've been in an alliance with over 800 members before.
Just because you are in a small guild/alliance that can't keep members doesn't mean everybody is.

Anyway /notsigned Just use the lead guild's hall. It's way to much work to do this.

And Vlatro... GREAT post. I wish more of guru thought the way you do.

/Signed

Tis an old suggestion, but I think it's a pretty good one. Though at this point I think it's more of a GW2 suggestion then a GW1 suggestion; this would be a very large update for the original game.

Isn't the Alliance Leader's Hall the Alliance Hall?

I love the concept, don't like the "walking to guild halls" though, just add a NPC that can transport you to those halls. Would love the explorable area concept, but thats more of a persistence setting then what we have, unless the whole hall is explorable, which would only cause a problem with not being able to change builds .

I would love to see this idea implemented, however it is probably not going to happen due to complexity. /halfsigned

I'll throw in suggestions I have as well:

1. Add in the NPCs that are usually at main towns (the ones that are already in the guild hall and some random NPCs like Horace). The skills NPC should have either all unlocked skills or all skills from the port cities in each campaign and all EN skills.

2. Should be much bigger then the Guild Hall.

3. Should cost a pretty penny (maybe make it 400k - unlike the guild hall, this price should be set in stone - and have all the NPCs come with it?) to make having an Alliance Hall a little more uncommon (to help bring in guilds and keep the amount of new tiny guilds low)

4. Should have banners of all guilds in the alliance (instead of just plain tapestries, have the actual capes on them). Possibly making an "Alliance Cape" would be nice, but it would only show in the Alliance Hall and the Alliance Window.

That's all the ideas to improve this I have for now. Again, I doubt this will go into GW1 due to the concept of the explorable + non-explorable is a persistence concept and it may be hard to implement.