Group Idea Submission

[Severus]

Group Idea

Here is the group idea finalized after much discussion via forums and in-game with Joshy, Lavitiz & Markus. Murrawhip, it is now your turn to ask questions about the idea and compromise anything that isn't realistic or something you just don't want to do. Read it all through, obviously we're open to change the idea to fit reality - or improve it if you believe you can. I'm not a coder, so I'm not 100% sure on how some of these things may work, but feel free to ask questions about things you're unsure of - I'll try and be as specific as I can. I really like this idea as in my view it gives more variety and option to all players. Hope all goes well!

• Introduction

So, the idea is that a group of 3 players would have the ability to 'register a group'. Clans will be superior to Groups in terms of their features, control, verbs and administrative tools.

"Why make groups when there are 2 perfectly functional clans already?"
Well, the answer to that is simple. Not all players can be assed with clan drama, the constant commitment and training required to keep up to 'standard' - stat training is essential and some people just have not got time for that. Furthermore, people may have had bad experiences in the past with clans and do not wish to further their clan career, or, players just may not have interest in leveling and dueling. So, what do they do? Sit around in the library talking for half an hour, before going AFK or logging out and returning in a few weeks time - no offense to people who do this, of course. Remember, groups are not clans.
The idea is that clans will not have any involvement in groups - in terms of TWC rules. What I'm saying is, it will not be illegal to be an Auror and in Group X at the same time. Of course, clan leaders may not want their members affiliated with certain groups - that's all part of the fun though, right?

The idea of a group is simply to give a player more to aspire to and have more options. The group will have no 'official' way of showing what they represent apart from acting on it. What they represent/purpose/organization/specialty may be: selling items, security, potion making, gold adviser, new player support, personal trainers, vault cleaners, rare item traders, historians, iconners, programmers, Daily Prophet writers, Suggestions Team, monster info - the list goes on.

I hope to enlighten you in my next couple of points.

• Setting Up

To set up a group, there must be a minimum of 3 players willing to start the group. These 3 players must be online at the same time when they go to the bank to "register" their group. The player from the group who is going to be the "Head" or "President" of the group will right click on the banker, where a new option will appear (along with the others such as Bank, Talk, Threaten etc). The new option will be 'Group Registration'. The "Head" player will click this option. The banker will ask this player to select two other players online who will co-found the group. To avoid the "Head" player just clicking random players to begin a group, the selected players will have a 'pop up' message asking if they would like to co found a group with "Player X" (the 'Head'). The first player who is asked shall be put as default "Co Head", the other as just a "Member". If they both respond with "Yes", the banker will next ask for payment - "That will be 10,000,000 gold, please." The "Head" player (who will be carrying the gold) will have the option of "Accept" or "Decline" - if they "Accept" and have the correct money, then they will pay and continue to the next stage. If they "Accept" and do not have the correct money, they will be turned away and have to start the process again (with correct money of course). If they Decline, they have the option to pull out of the registration.

The next stage of setting up will be naming the group. A new option will appear, "Please enter the name of your group." Naturally, the head player will continue and enter the name of the group. Once the name is entered, the process will finish. The "Head" player will be set to default as the Head, the first player asked set as Co and the second player asked set as member. The "Head" player will have a new tab under "Info" (along with Stats, Items, Commands, Spells, etc) with the name of the group, e.g. "Group X". This tab will have hire/fire/quit/edit ranks. Hiring will involve entering the key of the player they wish to hire via a 'pop up' (similar to that when selecting founding players at the bank) and the player who wishes to be hired must accept. Firing involves a pop up window of available players to be fired - the head selects the player in the list and presses "Ok". Edit Ranks will be the ability to change the Head, Co Head and Members. They cannot create custom ranks - it is simply selecting Head/Co/Member. Quitting exits them from the group - if they have not delegated somebody else the 'Head' role through the 'Edit Ranks' verb, the group will disband. The other members (including Co) will simply have "Quit" in their tab.

• Upkeep

- Initial Start Up Fee: 10,000,000 gold
- Monthly Fee: 250,000 gold (the first month is free) (pay this at bank, if it is not paid, group will disband)
- Initial Player Capacity: 4 (attempting to hire more than available capacity will result in hiring being rejected)
- Capacity Expansion Fee: 1,000,000 gold (bought at Bank)
- 28 day rule - you cannot join another group after joining one for 28 days (by TWC law)

• Group Experience

Group Experience is earned through doing special 'group tasks'. These can be set up in whichever format by Admins and hosted by GMs. In these task events, group members can earn 'group experience'. A group leader can find out their total group's experience at the bank.

Group Experience can buy features for their group. A feature already discussed was:

- Communication Coins
A communication coin can be bought for the group with Group Experience. The coin enables you to communicate with other members who have coins. You go to the Items tab, right click the coin and an option will come up 'Input Group Message' - the recipients will be those who also have coins. Yes, the coin will have an individual I.D. for each group. No, they cannot be 'dropped' and thus sold. This also enables 'communication' for the group - without having a clan channel as such.

Other features could be purchasable. Murrawhip, surprise us.

Group Experience could also be bought at the bank or gained through monster kills or every time the groups members together make 100 levels - I don't know, just spitballing there.

• Location

Vaults can be used for a group location - a member would grant access to the other members of the group. When the option to customize and expand vaults is available then this feature will be a lot more fun.

• Robes

It was an idea for group robes. However, the answer is no - groups will not be allowed robes. If this was somehow allowed, it should be as rare as animagus and sole responsibility of the group leader to provide icons.

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Summary

Groups bring togetherness for all. It allows players to be experts in other areas than dueling and stat training. It brings a more adventurous side to the world of TWC - in the books/films of Harry Potter, not all were fighters, some were wand experts, potion masters, tradesmen, etc. This really makes the game more real. It also opens up avenues for others to bring ideas to add new professions - I know I keep mentioning potions as that's just one of many ideas - you get the picture.

I hope this is really considered, again, feel free to ask questions and I'll do my best to answer.

Sev

[Odd Future]

I loooovvveeee this idea. And maybe you could choose a color for your group and everyone where it? Something like that, or someone could icon ''Group capes'' and are only issued to group members. And of course it'll be a fee and what not. And a group that has a good iconer can customize their ''Group capes'' with their own logo.

[Ash]

If we did group capes, we might as well just give people group or not the option to have a custom icon thing, because that'll be the real reason people join groups.

[Murrawhip]

With the "Group Experience" section, what are these "group tasks"?
It seems as though that requiring GMs to hold dedicated events to cater to this groups function isn't really in the spirit of the game. It shouldn't be a vital part of your gaming experience to join a group. Otherwise it'd result in what happens with every other Naruto/DBZ/etc. game - you login and get spammed with "Will you join group ~_-/A4RKANG3L5\-/-_~?"

I'm just not really getting the point of the deal tbh. Much of this could be accomplished by doing what people do for other games - opening a group chat in whatever IM client you use. The rest doesn't really seem to solve any outstanding problems per-se, and doesn't seem to add an amount of 'fun' proportional to the amount of development time this would take to implement.

The time I can give TWC with my increased workload lately is lessened, so it's in ya'll's best interests to have me working on things with the best my-time : overall-game-fun ratio. Occasionally I'll break away from that to work on something that just seems fun to me/will change TWC's source in a way that'll make future developments easier, but I wouldn't rely heavily on my next project being what you want it to be.

I really, really do appreciate the extra effort you're putting in with suggestions lately, by the way.
I imagine it'd be easy to get frustrated when Murrawhip tells you that he's probably not going to add your idea, but just know that I don't think it's worthless. While I'm not in a position right now with the game to implement this, it could very well change in the future. Obviously if our playerbase was larger, I'd factor in more time to its development

[Severus]

Group tasks are like quests - for groups, lol. No GMs really required - what I meant was, in some cases, there may be special ones which GMs could host.

Right, I see. That's cool.

Maybe when you have more time or the playerbase increases we'll return to this idea and make it fit for function.

Thanks for your time Murra!