Guilds: Discussion of how they can help you!!! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once upon a time, a long long time ago on a 7 day free trial, I tried playing AO. The trial expired... and I play off and on with friends accounts. It was not until I discovered the advantages of being in a Guild that I got a permanent account. All new players should join a guild. The bigger the guild the better. There are pros and cons of joining guilds... but the pros out weigh the cons. In this post I would like to have a general discussion of how Guilds can help you. But first, I'll mention some of the cons to get them out of the way. Cons 1. you might get overwhelmed with chat. but this can be dealt with by turning off chat channels when you don't need to use em. 2. there aren't many people in guild your level. if this is an issue for you... change to a guild with more players your level. but keep in mind that a guild with high level players can help you in ways lower level players can't. 3. personal conflicts with other members of guild. no different that dealing with conflicts in real life. deal with it as best you can. if bad... ignore the person or find another guild. 4. the guild does not support your interest. some guilds are pvp only. or shadowlands only. etc... no problem. just find a guild that matches your interest. If anyone has experianced other cons... please share with us. Now... on to the Pros... 1. Tons of help!!! Got questions? Don't know what to do? Don't know where to go? How can I... Where do I... Where is... What is best for... Just ask your guild mates. They will be happy to give you pointers on all aspects of the game... including how to develope your character. Even in casual chat you will learn about stuff you never even knew existed!!! 2. High level assistance for quest and trade skills. You and your buddies can't finish quest cause high level bosses kill all of ya? No Problem. Ask a high level guildmate to help you. They will. After all, someone did the same for them once... Need help making those implants, making armor, or hacking something? Once again your high level guild mates can help. 3. Team mates! Team mates! Team mates! Guilds are the best place to find team mates. Once you join a guild, odds are you will never be on a team again that doesn't have at least 1,2, or 3 or your guild mates on it. It is not uncommon for entire teams / multiple teams to be comprised people from your guild. And if you didn't know it before... team work Is The SECRET to power leveling your character and having a ton of fun in the game. 4. Towers and Tower Battles... Lets say you are in a guild that has towers, but you don't care about Tower Battles. Thats fine. Just being in a Guild that owns towers gives you tweaks, buffs, and bonuses to your skills. These can make a HUGE difference. And if there is room for you to add your own tower out at the tower spot, you get even more... You will benefit from the added tweaks, buffs, and bonuses no matter where you are on the planet. Some of these advantages give you extra health, extra nano skills, extra treatment, ect. As a result, you will be able to wear implants, use nanos, and fight mobs that you otherwise couldn't... 5. PVP.... Yes, I know. Some of you love it. Some of you hate it. But point is... sooner or later you will need help with it. Trying to finish a quest or mission, but can't because it is in a PVP zone? Other players killing you before you have a chance to finish it? Need that rare loot that drops from mob boss, but only way to get it is to not only kill the mob but also kill the other 9 players who want it as bad as you? Guild help is the answer. Grab some of your guildmates, form a pvp team... and off you go. Kill your competition, finish the mission / quest... and get the rare loot. 6. Raids... Some of the quest can only be finished by killing an UBER MOB BOSS. And it will take 2,3, or 4 full teams working together to kill him. To make matters worse, the allied teams might have to compete with 2,3,4 or more allied teams of some other group or faction... in which case quest items and loot go to the highest damage team... In some cases... the area in which you are fighting might be in a pvp zone... what a nightmare. As you can see, the only chance you will have to finish some quest is teamwork. And not just Guild teamwork. We are talking about Multiple Guilds working together... If your in a big guild... your good to go. If your in a small guild, you will need allies. A popular solution is for players to join 'raidnet' or similar chat bot which helps players organize for these events... but even then guildmates make a huge difference. 7. PVP again... Ever been minding your own business when out of the blue someone Kills you? Ever seen a large raiding party storm into a pvp zone, killing everyone in sight, making it impossible for anyone to do missions or quest in that zone for several hours at a time? Ever heard the term Ganker? Many of you know about the arenas... but do you also know about the popular Ganker hangouts? PVP is a fact in this game. Some are polite about it and will challenge you to a duel. Others will lie, trick, hide, sneak, ambush, or do whatever else it takes to kill you. And they won't care if you like it or not. These people are known as Gankers, and their only purpose in life is to Gank you any way, any where, any chance they get. The reason is simple. There are several 'Titles' that are only available to those who win multiple pvp battles. And they will get those titles no matter if you want to pvp or not. 8. Tons of free stuff. It is a common pratice amongst guildmates to help each other with free trades, transfers, buffs, etc. Why drive yourself crazy trying to raise creds to buy that nano when you can just swap the loot you don't need for one that someone else has? Free trade amongst guildmates is the way to go. But keep in mind that guildmates can not be forced to give you that uber rare loot worth 50 million credits for free. But they might Want to give it to you free of charge when they remember the hundreds of times you've been on missons with them and the dozen of favors you've done for them. 9. Guild bank... this is not an actual 'bank' per say... Members volunteer to hold bags of loot in their personal bank space, and make that loot available free of charge to anyone that needs it. Usually you will have to trade one item you don't need for one that you do need. One person will volunteer to be a Implant bank, or Armor bank. Someone else will volunteer to be the Agents bank or Meta Phys bank. This banking system is invaluable... Well... that is enough for now... more will be added later. I'm really looking forward to everyones questions, feedback, and pointers on what wasn't covered. Cheers! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted by DemiRaven A few tips on guilds from my perspective. Get to know some peeps from whichever guild you're interested in. Don't join a guild you know nothing about, chances are, it will be an unhappy fit. Once you're in a guild, remember... you represent that guild now. If you act disrespectfull or behave in any manner that's considered mean/hatefull, the guild leaders will find out. Peeps will remember that guild's name, contact the leaders and lodge a complaint. In other words, you are no longer anonymous ( a good thing in my opinion). If your guild has towers, and you're not interested in PvP... then don't complain if you can't place a tower. No one will take one of their tower's down, to make room for someone who wont help defend. Of course, if there's already room in that land control area, then no one will complain if you put a tower there. Once in a guild, you will have tons of help (in a good guild anyhow) with transfers, items (buying or camping), tradeskills stuff, buffs and even plenty of peeps willing to come into that mission and kill that boss that owned you. You will have plenty of teamates you can trust (I really don't like pickup teams), and don't forget. If no one is near your level, no worries, you'll either catch up to a few peeps, or some peeps near your level may join. I see peeps complain in-guild about no one to team with... and a week later, they can't get any peace from /tells for teams If it werent for the great guilds I'm in (RT and DI-RT), I would have left AO a long time ago. Great guilds and the peeps in them keep things fresh while you play. And if you get bored and don't want to level that night, you can always help a guildie __________________ ============================================================================= Posted by Strawpeter Good post - surprising, really, that there's so little in threads for new players about the value and also about the disbenefits of orgs. My 'rules', such as they are? Take time, different orgs have different aims, tones, ways of behaving - and they change from time to time. The most important things about orgs is to recognise that they are one of the most dynamic aspects of AO. So they are a large part of what makes the whole game work, etc, but they are also not entirely controllable or predictable. Without good orgs, AO would be boring as hell - in fact a sizeable slice of the gameplay effectively depends on their success, and there will come a point when you find it hard to make game progress without reliable org-mates. (As an Adv, I simply couldn't get the weaponry I need at higher levels without supportive org friends.) BUT if your org doesn't support what you want from the game (company, fun, aggressive takeover of enemy territory, trade skills, advice, chat about your favourite bands, jokes in dubious taste, whatever), then see if you can find it somewhere else. Chances are, you can. ============================================================================= Posted by Nintech Guilds in all MMORPGs are the most fun and appealing concept of the game. I always try and find a guild pretty early, since the benefits are so good. If you are looking for a guild then you can check this thread if you are on atlantean or use this thread if you are on Rimor. In those threads guilds that are looking for members will post, look there for guilds that seems interesting. Good luck to you all, and have fun. ============================================================================== Posted by Tarto* Man, without my Guild answering my (numerous and lousy) questions, I would have just simply sold yesterday in a shop this Grid Armor Mk1 Instruction Disk without even knowing it was worth a dime. Now i'm rich (mohahaha, etc...) and a -little- less ignorant. BUT, I always insist on sharing my load of pain and efforts to make things run smooth and clean. Without a Guild and/or a team, IMO, AO comes down to a crappy Quake-like game (WTB Rail Gun plzzz ? ). ============================================================================= Posted by Faeruithir guilds keep ppl in game me include ( aside from my current break, due to RL stuff) i bin in game for 14months and ive had 2 different guilds 1 on each side, my clan guild was a small close knit guild and really helped me at the start. and my omni and current guild is big uber power guild and i love it there, but if i had joined when i was a noob i would have been overwhelemed