Guilds have always been a fundimental pre-requisite in an MMORPG. Atlantica Online Producer, Kim Tae Gon, decided to share with us the basics of Guilds in Atlantica in this weeks Developer Journal. Kim writes about how Guilds will decide how cities like London are governed and consiquently, how they are inhabited. The system sounds as innovative as it does amazing; check it out for yourself...

As we developed Atlantica Online, we believed we had created something unique and exciting with our turn-based combat, since it is a feature that isn’t normally found in an MMORPG. However, the action of the turn-based battles is fast-paced and the rewards players glean from it, such as loot as well as a visceral excitement are to a great extent immediate. But what was also very important to us while we were producing the game was to allow players to get deeply involved in the community side, or the multiplayer part, of an MMORPG, which would provide more steady and measured rewards.

To do that, there needed to be a deep and rich environment for players to immerse themselves in, and our method to enable that is through the guilds of Atlantica. Combine guilds with the real-world elements of the Atlantica backdrop, and there is much to uncover.

For Atlantica’s guilds, they had to be more than just a place for players to discuss how to beat a particular boss, but rather a place that would foster a sense of community for players. Guilds also represent the basic foundation of the game’s political system, which we modeled after another NDOORS game, “Luminary: Rise of the GoonZu” and its real-world style economics.

Once you form a guild with other players, your guild will start collecting guild points. One of the many ways to acquire guild points is go on a Guild Quest. A guild member can go on one of these quests obtained from a Manager’s Scroll. Tackling a guild quest might take you off your own path to Atlantis, but you would be contributing to the greater good, accumulating more points for your guild.

Want more items and obtain them faster? Guilds might be your answer, since they can pursue different group crafting projects. Instead of just one player working to craft an item, you have the power of the guild’s teamwork and economies of scale to make more of the items you want in a shorter amount of time. A guild only needs to choose a crafting project, and as each guild member wins a battle against monsters, he or she is contributing to the group’s crafting project.

But don’t think that being part of a guild doesn’t have any immediate payoffs. Being part of a guild lets you take advantage of Atlantica’s turn-based battles in a very specific realm: the guild dungeon. These are special areas in the game only accessible by a guild after a guild leader purchases the key for entry. So get a group of three guild members and party your way through these extra-difficult dungeons, whose rewards will be more loot and much more guild points.

With all the guild points your team is picking up, you will then be able to apply them toward a very special endeavor: taking over a town. And in Atlantica, the towns up for grabs might have some appeal - how does London or Mumbai sound?

Once in control of a town, what kind of policies you implement with regard to different factors you must govern over, such as food production and food storage, will impact your scores along five attributes - Security, Industry, Commerce, Culture and Health. The higher your scores are for each of these areas, the more desirable your town will be and the more NPCs will want to live in your town.

You can be a civic booster, going out into other parts of the Atlantica world and trying to recruit more NPC residents to move into your town. If your town is experiencing a population boom, it’s up to you to build homes for them. Guild leaders have the ability to construct structures for their communities, such as homes and markets. Being a town leader is your opportunity to let your inner architect out.

In addition to putting your stamp on the town’s aesthetics, there are even better benefits to building a solid community that NPCs will want to live in. Residents of your town pay taxes, and the more residents you have, the more taxes you collect. That translates to more money for your guild and you.

If running one town doesn’t match your political aspirations, your guild can partner with other guilds to form a nation, of which you can be king, if you play your political cards right. As king, you can declare war on other nations in the game.

So there are many different paths a guild can take you. And if you become a good community leader, the world can be your oyster.

Kim Tae Gon
Producer - Atlantica Online