I know this guild is trying to stick with 'Elite' members, but maybe we can have a guild expansion similar to the 'Recruit' process many clans go through in other games.

I'm not suggesting to do this immediately, that may cause severe organization problems.

This 'Expansion' guild will be organized and led by a volunteering 'Elite'. This person will be now be in charge of a 'Non-Elite' guild that does the 'Elite' guild's bidding. The members of this guild will be those that are deemed 'Un-Elite' but still want to have a chance to join, in this guild they will continue to play the game and we will give them time to become 'Elite'. The expansion is a second chance for people who failed to join Bràthair Prasgan while giving ourselves an expendable hand.

This guild can help with defenses, can be go far distances to do minor raids for more resources while we manage our settlement, and can help with our resource gathering. Maybe if we all get together to do an assault we can bring another army with us. This won't be an alliance to another guild, this will be a 'protectorate' or 'colony' guild. We can send them to do tasks convinient for the guild but would be a inconvinience for us. Basically, things that are 'beneath' (sarcastic) us, but too complicated for NPC's to do themselves.

That sounds more like a seperate division (like archers, horseman etc) where the "newbs" will have to go to. There they get to learn the know-hows of everything and they have to show to be worthy of a position.
You could compare it to the squire of the medieval age. The ones to do the nasty business.

A kind of nigger slave, yes.

errr no, cause it wont be that your in-game character looks will decide where you go. (ofcourse somebody with some extreme good armor might be allowed to join faster ;) )
it will be more like a training period of some kind.

Hehe :P

Nice idea EeSang. As long as they won't flood our forums with spam when we have this seperate branch, it might work.

I'd like to have underlings.
I volenteer to lead the pissants to glorious (deaths) :P

No but I do volenteer to lead them if you make such a division.

I like your idea EeSang, and it would be nice to implement it. This way we could have people 'try out', and show their skills will those that are the elite can sit back observe. Also this branch could give noobs to the game some practise, before heading out doing whatever they feel like in RV (ie boot camp which the recruits could either stay with our guild or not). This branch would be a good way to show other clans and players that the Brathair Prasgan chooses only the best.

Do we have anyone willing to be the instructor? This branch should also be implemented now, so those wanting to join can sign up. Maybe a beta tester should take the position since he/she will know the in's and out's of the game before its release?

Maybe we should have a vote on this idea, so we can get a feel as to how many want it.

I vote: YES

He volunteers to be the instructor. I guess all he can do at the moment is tell them about how they should organize themselves and get ready for the game.

Glad you all liked the idea, too bad it isn't original. Many larger Guilds in other MMO's use this, especially when theres a limit on how big the Guilds can get.

And since I proposed the idea, I vote: YES

I think it is a good idea especially for recruiting aspects. Even if people do not quite make the cut they can be trained (by capo) and eventually become part of the Elite. It wouldnt hurt either to have some people under us, like you said, to do some resource collecting. We have to keep these "pissants" in mind also when designing our city. I dont think this expansion guild should become to large to fast though otherwise there may actually be some serious organizational problems and we wouldnt want anything hindering us from becoming the dominate guild in RV :barb But nice idea all the same

My Vote: YES

Ah, that's what Etruia and Fulk function as; non-elite guilds. Remember your in a confederation, with two "common tribes."

So don't worry yourselves :P

Good idea to have some place for the lesser players to go to and train, this could also be where we test there loyalty to the clan and not themselves. Glad to to see Capo volunteering for the position of the head of the other guild, if you need any support of any kind, know that I am just an IM away. :sensei

Well sounds good in theory. Only hitch I can think of in-game will be the organization aspect, more talk about this and I believe it could work. However I believe we should get settled well and truely before starting such a thing.

I'll vote after hearing some more discussion over the matter. Sounds good though.

Maybe a system whereby every full member is (Or higher rank, depending on how many members we get in the lesser guild) in charge of a group of recruits from the same timezone. Then his job will be to give them help and tips and assess their loyalty and worth to the clan.

Once he feels their ready they get put before the clan's council who decides wether said member is worthy to join. We could implement a systme much like the way tradesmen worked in medival times, whereby if a craftsmen wished to progress a level in the Guil he had to present a piece of his finest work. So a warrior could bring back five confirmed kills and potter could make a decent pot and a weaponsmith could make a very good sword.

Just an idea on organisation, anyway I vote yes.

sounds quite good zelda, I vote for your idea.

I vote YES for a mixture of zelda's and EeSang's idea. And I'll add a bit of my own:

There will always be room for another sword in our guild. But the sword must be lead by a capable hand, and controlled by a clever mind. The capable hand will be tested by observing how well the recruit fares in battle (we can organize tournaments, for example). The clever mind should be tested by placing the recruit in front of several multiple-choice options where he has to make quick decisions in order to survive. I'll come up with examples later.

In the case of craftsmen, I'd stick with Zelda's proposal :)

I think the 'Recruit' guild should have it's own name and forums, everything. It'll be a completely seperate guild on the outside with several or one of our members leading it. Similar to what Britain did to it's colonies with direct rule. Just for easier organization.

Meanwhile we can just tag up 2-3 recruits per member, have some list kept somewhere on who is who's 'apprentices'.

The apprentice thing good, every elite member should help some apprentices of his profession to become one of us, or leave apprentices if they really aren't capable.

But I'm not so sure of a complete seperate guild though.

I think it'll help ease the organization, but if we don't need it then fine by me, not like I'm volunteering. :D

Too prove there worth in battle, we could even implement a final task for the recruit to accomplish, whereby he duals his mentor. See in RV if you lose a fight you won't automatically die, you will fall to the ground and in order to kill you the opposing player has to deal a final blow! Once a dual is over the loser is healed and if the mentor were too prevail then acceptance into the Guild would be granted.

Just a fun idea I had.

Or we could have a large battle Royale. All the recruits are asked to be at a certain point at a certain time. (If they can't we could arrange for two seperate battles, so people can actually do it) Then the last 10% of the combatants standing are accepted. The dead remain as recruits for a certain period before being allowed to take part in the trials. :D

that would be cool zelda.
We put forth certain rules and whoever breaks them gets a Brathair Prasgan spear in the back of their neck :ph43r: <--DAMN I LOVE THAT!

thats always a good stress reliever, putting your spear/sword right through a problem causer's neck :D

Some how I don't think this will get people to join the guild :huh: :P

I like the idea of mentors, but acceptance should be because of dedication and skill not because the bugger managed to hide during the thick of the battle royal.

I like the idea of tournaments, but that should be more or less for fun and prizes (armor and weapons, money, etc.).

Maybe we should instigate trials instead. Before the person can go through the trials he most get acceptance by the guild (ie if makes it, we all agree we want him in).

The trials should be something like:

1. Trial of Courage: The player most go raid and kill a clan member from a different guild. This would show that he has the 'balls' to face a foreign clan member and persevere in such an adversity
2. Trial of Dedication: The member most work as a resource gatherer for a certain amount of time (ie miner, or wood cutter). This would show his comitment that he would be willing to spend some time doing, arguably, boring labour.
3. Trial of Knowledge: The member most answer certain questions about the guild (ie government, diplomacy stances, member positions, etc.). This would show us if the member has the capacity to take in information and remember it (think orders, diplomacy views, selling and buying prices)

What do you guys think about this idea? Do you think we need more trials? If you do please post it here.

That way you might end up with recruited members more dedicated than the original ones...

And is that such a bad thing? Maybe that will make the original members work harder to prove themselves B)

I'd say the mentor could make trials for his profession... As example, I'll be a smith, so I'll teach my apprentices the ways of smithing, mining, smelting,... (of course not only the in-game teaching command) and also some fighting tactics. When I think they're ready for their trials, I let them do the basic trials (which Xeno posted) plus some of my own. Like, make me a long sword and decorate it. Or make an armour out of this and that,... And maybe also a challenge, to see what he rembered of his combat training.

When he succeeded in all of the trials, he's an official member, and capable to train apprentices on his own. Of course he can still come and ask some questions to his former master :)

I think Lhorkan's idea is probably one of the best if not the best option that we have. As an apprentice the person will get a taste of how the guild runs along with learning the workings of the game. We would also have direct feedback from the mentor on how "worthy" that apprentice is to face the trials and attempt to become an elite guild member. It also provides motivation for the mentors to perfect their craft so they will be able to prepare the apprentice. I like the apprentice idea more than the idea of a group of people who didnt quite cut it trying to all fight for recognition in order to get into the guild. The mentor could always take on more than 1 apprentice, which would further motivate the apprentices to out-do eachother. Friendly competition is always a good thing :sensei

The drawback with the direct mentor thing is that it takes time from every mentor, if theres 2 apprentinces per mentor, and 16 apprentinces then 8 of our membors lose a lot of time 'guiding' 'un-elite' members, when we can just have one or two 'elite' members just devote most of their time running a seperate guild.

On the other hand, by having the elite members having apprentices it, bonds the Guild closer together and makes it a more effective fighting force. Plus if each elite member has one or two apprentices then he has his own little army in effect. It means that he's a lot less vunerable from attack because they will travel around as a group.

Well I see your point EeSang, but they would only be a problem if there where a lot of fresh recruits and few elite members. I don't, unfortunatly, think this will be a problem :blink:

Anybody personally trained by their supiorer in that field will have skills then one who isn't. Thats why apprenticing is such a good idea. It also gives the recruit a feel on how the guild do's things.

I like your idea Lhorkan and how we could blend the two. Have some basic trials along with spefic ones too.

I'm glad you guys are supporting Lhorkan's idea on the apprentice thing. And thank you Eesang for helping me look at the flip side. I still think that the apprentice/mentor system will work best :sensei

Until we're flooded with recruits. But I'll go with Xenophon's word and say it's not going to be a problem... for awhile.

yeah, for a while, i can see how it might get hard to keep track of all the different mentors and apprentices once the guild gets to a certain size

Every mentor will only have room for a few apprentices at a time, and if they really would be too much, the worst ones could be set aside for a while.

And thank you for supporting my idea :)

i'm with you all the way :sensei

Remember people its not just a matter of keeping a smaller branch organized. In the opening days, if not weeks I imagine it's going to be very confusing. I'm unsure how we will start exactly but as barbarians it will be alot harder to get organised than the roman's. I presume we will select a territory or something alike to start in, though finding each other and starting our village will be quite stressful, especially as we are split into two primary groups.
All I want to stress is that we each need to keep our cool, don't get misguided or simply join another community because it looks easier than finding your Guild. Stay on track and use common sense, send messages to fellow members explaining your situation.
I might be expressing the worst case senario and the actual game will let us begin together with our own village.

The first members who get online should make a sign, a flag or something if possible, and place the exact location on the forums so that eveyrone can find it. We'll start building houses after a while when we have some more resources (and skills), so it'll be even easier to find our way back.

I like the idea, I belive the "down under" clan could form the basis of the lower guild of the Lombard League.

Do you mean the Land down under (of beansotorix)?

And it's not even sure if we'll have a lower guild. Who knows, maybe they'll rebel sometime and turn against us, because they aren't that they don't have much to say. :P

lol i spose we could be the basis because im so desperate for new recruits, but were in spain so its gonna be hard to keep in communication.

although the treck would be lon and hard, seeing as spain is so plentyful in needed materials i would be willing to travel to austria to sell you whatever you cant get, like spanish horses and gold.