Guild Herald

"The Guild Herald"

Main Page | Guild Forums | December 1, 2012
~ now published quarterly ~

1. Retributions Blade Operations Report -

GUILD LEVELING - The Guild has been level 95 for over a year now and has a total of 149 members with 450 total characters (a net loss of 3 since last report). A new Guild Level cap of 95 was added since last report and we reached that level with ease with the superb help of all our members. We believe the loss of membership was attributed to the overall shrinkage of the game membership base as EQII continues to bleed members from disinterest, lack of new game concepts and the greatly anticipated new game platform EQ Landmark and EQ Next. We all certainly are looking forward to these new EQ game developments!

GUILD HALL - Located in Antonica:

Reaching our guild hall has never been easier. There are several ways to reach it, and the easiest by far is by taking any Norrath Globe from any dock in Norrath to Antonica. Once arriving on the dock in Antonica, click on the Navigator's Bell that has a picture of a house when you hover your cursor over it. You'll zone right in to the Main Front Courtyard. You'll be able to take the transport pad immediately to your right to all the major hubs within the hall, or take a self-guided tour to explore the extras that the hall has to offer. The Guild's Welcome Center is in a Kiosk located to your left after you zone in and provides books to help orientate all our new members. The Guild's Recall Statue is also located in this area within a Divinity Pool just to the left of the Welcome Center Counter (as you face the counter). The Guild Hall houses every amenity imaginable. So check out the Photo Gallery (here on the website) to view floor maps of all the amenities located inside the guild hall.

New Amenities - Added or Expected Soon:

There currently are no new amenities available to the guild, as we've purchased all the game has based on available amenity slots allocated to a level 95 guild hall. More amenity options did not develop as expected during the past T4 Guild Hall release and we chose not to spend 1,000 plat to obtain one extra floor containing 20 more rooms when there wouldn't be anything more to add to those rooms in regards to new amenities. We will review this issue if new changes develop with upcoming expansions. SOON TO BE ADDED: Watch here for news of exciting future amenities on the drawing board.

Contests

Over the past few months we've had the usual City Festivals and Moonlight Enchantment events. Due to the major real world holiday seasons and high volume of in-game live events, we've postponed holding future guild events until further notice. This certainly doesn't preclude our members from developing and holding their own contests or events and the guild is eager to assist in those type of events as always.

Specialized Crafting

We continue to seek out new specialized crafting stations. Our research has determined that: The Nest of the Great Egg - Has a magical hooluk loom and a magical hooluk Work Bench specifically for creating recipes whose books and ingredients are dropped in the Nest. Sanctum of the Scaleborn - Has a forge specifically for the Bone-Clasped Girdle Heritage Quest. Solusek's Eye - There is a forge for crafting wyrmsteel weapons deep in the dungeon. The recipe book is purchasable off a city merchant if you are in a level 25+ guild. A raid force (or at least a very good group) is required during the crafting process. Frostfell Wonderland Village has all the stations needed for Frostfell recipes and on April 1st (Bristlebane Day), a Frostfell Loom, Frostfell Workbench and Frostfell Stove & Keg can be found in the following places: In The Enchanted Lands, north of the Rivervale bridge, at -199.75,-0.01,-363.24 and in The Sinking Sands, inside the nomad tents and on the dock of The Skystrider Launch-Dock. A fuel merchant for the Frostfell specific fuels should also be found near the crafting stations. Please note that holiday specific crafting stations are usually only available for a very short period of time during the real world holiday season.

"Artisan's Pack Pony"

If you have a pack pony please watch the guild's Message of The Day (MoTD) for guidance on which tier to harvest. While any tier would help, focusing on the MoTD tier ensures we get the needed resources into the Harvest Box to support the guild's crafting stations. Everyone's help has been fantastic and is so appreciated! 1) "Dedicated Crafters"' - If you are a dedicated crafter seeking to pick up a little coin by completing work for guild members, please contact one of the guild officers to have your name added to our "Hitchhiker's Guide to Guild Crafters" book located on the Welcome Center counters by the Main Gate. This book makes it easy for guild members to locate you and help you advertise your trade. Additionally, if you are dedicating time to skill up your crafter to level 95, please let a guild officer know so we can focus the guild harvesters and pack ponies to the tiers you are working on to ensure adequate harvest materials are available in the harvest box. We try to focus on the tier above what these dedicated crafters are working on to allow time to stockpile these resources.

ESCROW FUND

Accessed via the Guild Hall Door (right click) 1) "Cash Escrow" Guild Hall maintenance reserve is adaquate to fund 52 weeks of Guild Hall maintenance. Guild Amenities are currently maxed out. Guild Hall maintenance is costing about 11 plat each week. Guild Bank FOUR is reserved for Guild Hall maintenance and Amenity purchases. Members may make donations to either the Guild Hall door or thru Guild Bank 4. For more details CLICK HERE 2) "Status Point Escrow" Status reserve is adequate to fund at least 255 weeks of Guild Hall status rent. We continue to build up our reserve of guild status points to prepare for any upcoming expansions and new level caps.

                 -  Fund Status Report  -                 

Fund	What Fund is Used For	Minimum Reserve	Current Balance
Mender	Provides free or reduced cost equipment repair	100 plat	100 plat
Promo	Pays for member promotions	100 plat	100 plat
Crafting	Pays for Armor and Contests	100 plat	100 plat
GH-Maint	Weekly Maint & Amenity Purchases	1000 plat	500 plat
Status-Pts	Weekly Maint & Amenity Purchases	26 million points	120 million points

AMENITIES

No new Guild Amenities are expected at this time. Use of the Guild Mender was adjusted last quarter to a (75/25) cost ratio in efforts to support members and prevent abuse of the "free mender services". It had been noted that several members were taking advantage of the guild's generosity when the services were totally free, and would brag about how many deaths they could incur. It seems that a "Death Contest" had developed and that activity violated the Guild's policies. So in an effort to balance the desire to provide free benefits to our members and prevent abuses we decided that having members pay for "some" of their own repairs might address this abuse. We are happy to report that this change has totally resolved the unfortunate situation and we expect the new 75/25 allocation to remain unless further issues develop. To help us continue to offer this valuable benefit members are requested to be diligent in using it. If you can't donate coin, consider using an outside mender when expecting a large repair bill. You can help keep these services almost free to all by making regular guild contributions to Guild Bank 1 when possible. Your contributions and donations are ALWAYS greatly appreciated by everyone. CLICK HERE to see the current Amenity Priority List.

POLICY CHANGES
Use of Guild Storage Boxes - Effective this quarter, Individuals who obtain the guild rank of Forager or higher may use these boxes to withdraw assets. All individuals may continue to deposit (with only the "Newcomer") rank being restricted from withdrawals. This protects the guild from loss when new members join with the focus to "take and leave". New members may feel free to ask higher ranked members for assistance in obtaining needed resources from these boxes as the need arises. Please contact any Guild Leader with questions or concerns regarding this new policy change. Thanks.
The Guild Policy page can be reviewed HERE

OPERATION CHANGES

Here are the latest changes that govern the way we operate: 1) GUILD RECRUITING - Individuals who join the guild with their first "Elder" character must reach the rank of "Associate" prior to enlisting any alternate characters unless sponsored by an existing Guild Associate or higher ranked member. Guild Members with the rank of Associate or higher have the ability to advertise our guild's open and active recruitment of those seeking to join a guild. The ability to issue the "guild invite" command is available to those of the "Member" rank and higher. We are focused on recruiting those players who are 18+ years of age, quality players who wish to remain long term and those mature enough to play drama free. Please turn on your Guild Recruitment Tag by making sure your Guild Recruitment Box IS Checked. If you're not sure where to look, ask any guild officer for assistance. 2) Guild Point Cash - The Guild Cash program is under review for modifications and the Catalog is being re-worked. It continues to be a very popular program and while it's working well we continue to look to improve it. Please read the Guild Cash page for more details, but for now this program is "SUSPENDED". 3) Grouping and Raiding - Heritage Quests (HQ) support times are now randomly scheduled as needed. If you need assistance completing a HQ, please feel free to ask anytime and we will attempt to provide you specifically to help with these types of quests. Adventuring Group Events are randomly held now because there's so many groups going out. This is fantastic and we are so glad to see members taking the initiative now to hold their own groups. The guild's scheduled group sessions are suspended for now since it appears we no longer have a need for guild intervention in this area. Guild Members that wish to announce their group event prior may complete one of the group flyers and contact a Guild Officer with the info. Once this occurs, we will add it to the MoTD and Guild Calendar in game. Please check out the "Group Event" and "Raid Event" flyers for more details. Note: Scheduled Groups or Events do not preclude members from spontaneously creating or joining groups for any event. Withered Lands and Skyshrine - Many folks are interested in these new "end-game" areas so we are holding nightly access-runs into these areas. Please contact any guild officer in game to find out who's leading the nightly run if you'd like to be added to a group.

WEBSITE CHANGES

1. Projects completed: (See a complete history of changes and additions) - Here's some of the changes or additions we've made in the past quarter: 1)Help Pages - We've developed a new system which will spotlight articles that need your assistance. You can see these pages by clicking the "Help Pages" link located in the "Content" box on the home page of the guild website. 2) New HELP NEEDED tag - We've created a new HELP NEEDED tag to help members identify website pages that might need assistance. We identify these pages by adding the Help Wanted Tag. 3) Collections - The new table to list all collection sets has been put on the back burner for lack of assistance. Please drop us a note if you'd like to volunteer with the website. 4) Guild Leadership Promotions - We are seeking to expand our Guild Officer ranks. If you have what you think it takes to be a Guild Officer, please contact any Guild Leader or Assistant Guild Leader to learn more about this exciting opportunity. 2. Projects in work: a) "Website Data Migration" - Transferring game/site data from an old database to the current database is slow but almost completed. b) "Volunteer Programmers Needed" - If you know of anyone who's experienced/familiar with html/javascript/css/wikia, flash platforms, website or graphics design and they would like to give us a hand in this area, please have them contact Councellor. c) "Guides" - We continue to add guides to the guide section and have added a link for folks to recommend new guides. So if you come across a new guide that we don't have or you think of one that we don't have but might could use one, please submit it so we can add one or make one up. We're pretty good at "winging it" so who knows? perhaps we can create a brand new guide! d) "Magical Doorway Location Map" - This project could use help to provide a map of all known magical doorway locations. If you know of one, please update the Magical Doorway page. Thanks!