It's one thing to create an interface.. its another entirely to actually get that interface to do what it is supposed to do.

For example, I can create an interface on this computer to control my lights in my house.. but until I actually write the underlying code to send the actual commands to the hardware, it'll just be a pretty interface.

I guess, but since it's going to be a web interface and will be linked to the program, it shouldn't be hard. All you really have to do is do it, then sort out the problems (just like anything else it takes time, but isn't difficult).

my computer screen *is* my office light so i dont need to write an interface for it.

i'm cleaver than you.

All these ideas are great.

I want tl see all of these management things put in place, but even more so, I want to see the possibility and functionality of a basnking guild put in place. Have an actual, built in Guild bank that can be accessed by whatever terms a guild sets up. Additionally, allow guilds and individula players to set up loans and stuff that are automatically repayed through ingame functions.

I don't want to go too much off topic, but would it be interesting to introduce a cash system, instead of having everything on credit? I know there is no need to what with the "give money" command... I just like the idea of cash being utilized to give pirates straight cash every once and a while, and who knows it could be fun to make deals with people and actually add it into a trade menu or something of the like.

Dropping cargo for eachother sometimes ends badly, so why not put it the trade menu into a couple strategic spots, say 1 in Sedina, and one in each nation space. I'm suggesting making them scarce only because there will likely be more populated areas across the galaxy, rather than hanging around Sedina to watch fights all the time...

Um, I think a trade menu is VERY NEEDED, but in stations not outstations.

Credits or Cash... all the samething really

But back on topic, Guilds should have any number of categories, any number within each category, any rules they want, it should be all up to the creator. I mean, I really don't see the need to get people recruited to your guild. If your guild is worth joining people will join. Members of your guild who recruit people should have a little competition from other guilds in regard to recruiting, but it shouldn't make or break the guild. A Guild Hall Station should be created, where anyone can view, create, request to join, and manage guilds.

In UO (Ultima Online), they had guild stones to access all aspects of the guild, in a common guild hall.

I suggest a similar system, but in a station, guild roids wouldn't be realistic.

Their should also be a seperation between position and rank. That way veteran members, who have a higher position but are currently in no rank, can get advantages that someone who just joined can't get. If a guild offers a discount to on something, then the veteran members could get more of a discount, or vice versa if they guild wants to make it financially easier on its newer members.

bump because we still need this.

also, working on an interface.

link to the guild features sticky?

Guild Management Interface Prototype including suggested features.
Defaults are set at the closest thing to our current guild system to demonstrate compatability.

http://skycommand.org/adeck/interface.htm

I didn't include full documentation on the page, but in short:
Guild ranks are managed by a hirearchy of numbers. A guild can have up to 10 ranks total, including the Commander and Default (basic member), and must have a minimum of three ranks total (equiv to commander, council, and member), but only has to use two of them (ranks 1 and 2).

Here are the different settings and what they would do:

Used:
Check to use this rank in your guild. Unchecked, the rank is void.

Default:
Select which rank will be the default entry rank for your guild (basic membership upon /invite). This setting overrides "Selection By" if selected (i.e., if it's the default rank, there is no other selection method aside from /invite and promote/demote)

Level:
Self-titled, it's the rank level. 1 is highest, 10 is lowest. The level is important in expelling, promoting, demoting and voting.

Title:
This is the title of the Rank, that will show up in-game and on the guild page in place of the rank level number. Its purpose is aesthetic and for roleplay. A title can be selected from a list of appropriate titles, or can be typed in and submitted as a request to the devs/guides. If approved, the Custom title can be used by the guild, or may be added to the list of appropriate titles.

Min # of Positions:
The Minimum number of positions for each rank that must be held at any given time to prevent the guild dissolving. If operating at the minimum, certain demotion features will become unavailable. If the guild drops below the minimum for rank 1, the most senior member of rank 2 will be automatically promoted to rank 1. If it drops below the minimum for rank 2, the most senior member of the next highest rank to hold members will be automatically promoted to rank 2. This keeps the guild from dissolving until there are too few total members to keep it afloat.

Max # of Positions:
The maximum number of members who can hold that rank without dev intervention. There is no absolute maximum for ranks 2-10.

Invite:
Members of this rank can invite other players to join the guild at the default rank.

Expel:
Members of this rank can expel any members of the selected rank level or lower.

Promote:
Members of this rank can instantly promote other members up to as high as the selected rank level, but no higher.

Demote:
Members of this rank can instantly demote other members from as high as the selected rank to lower ranks.

Can Vote:
Determines the rank's elegibility to vote in any guild elections. This works together with the "Selection By" setting, to remove the ability for specific ranks to vote.

Selection By:
Determines how members are selected to join the rank within the guild. May choose one of four different methods:
Appointment -- members may be appointed to this rank by members of the selected rank(s).
Election -- members may be elected to hold this rank by voting members of the selected rank(s), and can be voted back out of the rank by the same means. Election type can be selected as a specific percentage majority or as a specific number of total votes.
Seniority -- There are two types of Seniority selections, and those are Hard and Soft. With Soft selections, the most senior members of the lower rank levels are automatically promoted to that rank as places become available (within the max number of positions for that rank). With Hard selection, members are automatically promoted to that rank once they have been a member of the guild for a set number of days (up to 999).
Contribs -- Again there are Soft and Hard selections. With Soft selections, the members who have contributed the most credits to the guild bank are automatically promoted to that rank from lower rank levels as positions become available (and are demoted again if another member surpasses their contributions to take their place). With Hard selections, members are automatically promoted to this rank once they have contributed a set credit amount.

Can Edit:
Determines what special guild information members of the rank have access to. Includes: Guild Name, Guild Acronym, Guild Info Page, and the in-game MotD.

Can Manage:
Determines what management functions members of the rank can perform.
Guild Bank -- if checked, members of this rank can make withdrawls from the Guild Bank. (any member may make deposits)
Guild Storage -- if checked, members of this rank can access the guild inventory and remove items from the Guild's storage facilities. (any member may put items into guild storage)
Special Resources -- if checked, members of this rank may call upon special guild resources, such as ordering capital class ships, special guild equipment, or activaging exclusive guild abilities such as intel nets and command interfaces.
Guild Management -- if checked, members of this rank may modify ranks on the Guild Management Page after the guild's creation.

Bump. Nice, Cunjo. We were just talking about this in-game with Incarnate.

Some of the points I'm most interested in, here, are how corner cases will be handled. Like, for instance, how you want to deal with leadership that goes off to play another game, or just isn't around anymore. Or leaders who play every so often, but not often enough. Under what conditions will a guild auto-disband, because I don't want a bajillion dead guilds lying around. Etc Etc. I would like mechanisms to allow guilds to manage this kind of stuff themselves, without Dev or Guide intervention.

Thanks for the interface mockups, they're neat.

Normal members should be given the ability to vote for Officers and Council if the current ranking leadership is inactive. The new guild system should track activity levels for all members, so if the entire Council has not been in-game for 3 months, the normal members who ARE active should be given the ability to vote for a new Council. I think 90 days is a reasonable time period. Any ranking member of a guild should be in-game AT LEAST once every 3 months, or else they should be willing to forfeit their postition to someone else who is active and is willing to invest the necessary time into the game. If only 1 or 2 Council members were inactive, there would have to be no special intervention because the rest of the Council can vote to replace that member. This system would only take over if the majority of the leadership was MIA.

Alternately, you could make it so that there is a 96 hour voting period. If only 3 out of the 9 Council members vote in that 96 hour period, then the game will make a decision based on those 3 votes. So even if most of the Council was inactive, decisions could be made by the remaining active Council members, however few they are. In this system, only if the ENTIRE Council was inactive would voting abilities be given to normal members.

As far as auto-disbanding, I think if less than 2 (or maybe 3) members have been in-game in the last 3 months, the guild should auto-disband. You can't have a guild with only 1 member active in a 90 day period.

This system isn't perfect, but it would be better than what we have now. It would prevent the need for guides and devs to reorganize guild structures and do periodic "clean-ups" where they have to decide what guilds to delete and which to leave alone.

In addition, I love the mockups that Leebs and Cunjo did. That kind of control over the structure of a guild would be excellent.

all i really need for my guild is more people with the ability to invite players.

Yes. That should be an option when setting up the guild structure. You should be able to decide which ranks can extend invites. Both Leeb's and Cunjo's mockups had that option.

Aye a 90 day inactive commander should drop and give council the ability to replace them, same goes with council being inactive for the same period, that would eliminate having to bother the guides for the active members.The mockups are great (Cunjo needs pirate titles in his :P) and fit in with my idea as well, also allowing us some flexibility in what the ranks are called, without making it too open as Inc has mentioned that is leads to inappropriate titles.

This could also work in favor of disbanding mostly inactive guilds, where if there turns out to be only one or two active, the system would allow them to self promote, remove the inactives and either disband or build it back up as they desire.

I'd still love to see some of these guild management features added to the devs' to-do list.

It might be a good idea to require a few levels from everyone forming a guild as well IE 2/2/2/2/2 or better for all 10