Friday, September 19, 2008

Guild Halls on Test

I thought it was about time I paid a visit to the test server. I just had to see the guild halls before they go live. The entry room of the level 50 Qeynos guild hall looks like this:


Originally, it was planned to be a 10-room hall. But if I added correctly, there are 13 rooms now. I thought they were beautifully done and just a perfect size for our guild. The amenities have been reduced somewhat as well, making it a little more affordable both to purchase and upkeep.

The level 30 guild halls, which originally were just existing 5-room houses with amenities added to them, are now smaller versions of the level 50 halls and quite nice as well. This is great news for the smaller guilds.

I did pay a visit to the level 70 guild hall. While the entrance is impressive, the layout was confusing and it was difficult to find your way around. I never thought I'd say it, but I actually prefer the level 50 hall. I think they've done a great job on the halls as well as a great job taking in the player feedback and making adjustments.

Along with guild halls, they've also increased experience gains from levels 20-70. While many aren't happy with the change, a lot of folks do seem to get stuck in the mid levels. I think this will help some with player retention. Also in the next couple updates they will be adding experience bonuses for players with alts at the level cap. For every maxed toon you have, you get a 10% experience bonus for all your other toons, up to a maximum of 50% bonus. Time to get my 70-somethings closer to 80!

2 comments:

Hektor said...

They look pretty fantastic, to be honest. I really thought that guildhalls were a waste of dev time when they were proposed, but they seem to have worked out fine. Though, just was with the personal housing, there doesn't seem to be much of an actual point to it beyond being able to decorate a little piece of the world.

Aspendawn said...

The point will be that it will reduce travel times, as everything will be in one spot.

All the ports will be there. Currently, for example, to get to say Barren Sky, you zone to Antonica, take the bell to Thundering Steppes, run across to the other side of the zone to the spires, and wait for the teleporter to activate. In the guild hall, there will be a bell that will take you right there.

All tradeskill tables will be there, as will the writ giver. Currently, to turn in status items in Qeynos, you have to run around to 4 locations in 3 zones to turn them in. There will be one person in the guild hall to turn them all in.

Existing gates to your home city are on a one-hour timer. Gates to your guild hall are on a 15-minute timer.

With all the darn zoning you have to do in EQ2, the think the halls will be a wonderful convenience.