Family Name: Irkalla & Talshani

Region (NA/EU): NA

Suggestion:

GUILD RECRUITMENT UI REVIEW & SUGGESTIONS

Written by Reipunzel Irkalla
(Heavily) Reviewed by and Image Provided by Talshani

This Feedback was inspired by the 2024 Heidel Ball, where it was mentioned that the Guild Recruitment UI is possibly being reworked. We are greatly excited by this and want to ensure the changes are satisfactory for the modern and future playerbase. If you have anything to add, or any critiques, please leave a comment. :D

Initial Reaction of Current UI:

Neat, but limited. Don't feel can truly search. Am at the mercy of RNG on a frustratingly long cooldown.

Can't filter liked and disliked activities.

*Wish had been prompted to open, ie reminded it exists.*

Unsure if new players are prompted when they first make their accounts. Existing players, certainly, should be reminded it exists perhaps daily until they join a new guild - a pop up?

Can't see what Alliance a guild belongs to.

The window itself is surprisingly small.

Both love and hate that the Guild Rankings are given. The focus should be on guilds that are actively recruiting.

More on Guild Rankings, they should be updated since the Recruitment UI is being updated. The Occupation Status aka Territory/Node is now __useless__ under the Current Node War System, because it resets every day. Guild Score is also fairly useless, as it is based on gaining Guild Skills, not on Guild Member's lifeskill levels or character levels or how many nodes the guild has won or the guild's Guild League score, etc.

Current Categories Impressions:

Unsure what "Adventure" means.

"Life" is a very broad category.

"Combat" is too vague. Does it mean monster slaying, or player vs player content?

"Sailing" is *almost* fine as-is.

Other Impressions:

Amount of Guilds shown in Selection box is too few.

Refresh button needs a hoverable message appear that shows the remaining cooldown for using the button.

Refresh button, if kept, needs to be a gold shade so it stands out. It is currently easy to miss.

Not all Guild's Icons are loading. The same happens with Node ownership etc. As people judge books by their covers, this deserves an attempt to be made to address it.

Proposed Changes

1) Update the Categories (see below)

2) Add Filters (see below)

3) Create a maybe daily pop-up prompting Guildless players to view the UI

4) Remove the Refresh button or color it to be more noticeable

- - -  For removing it, can simply show all guilds, separated only by pages, of maybe 50 guilds per page. Can be neatly accomplished by purging all guilds from the Recruitment UI monthly or weekly. They will have to opt back in, but they can handle that. And, do not allow guilds to sign up if they are full, whether at 100 cap or whatever their alliance has capped them at.

5) Increase amount of Guilds shown in the selection box.

6) Find a fix for Guild Icons not loading.

7) Show what Alliance a Guild belongs to, including the Guilds in that Alliance.

8) Make the Guild Recruitment Window separate from (G) for non-Officers, so those who are currently in a guild but aren't happy, can look for a new guild.

- - -  This can be placed in the Main Menu, in the Information Category. This is so players can find a new guild before leaving their current guild.

9) Make the Window bigger.

10) Make plans to recalculate how Guild Score is determined, per above.

Current Categories Suggestions:

When a Guild selects a Main Category, this is not the same as choosing what Filters they opt in or out of (the Filters are additional). These Category Suggestions are so players can tailor their Guild experience to their specific needs.

Add "Progression".
**Reason:**

By Progression, I mean guilds that have been given the special status that puts them at the top of the list. This is so they don't show in the other Categories.

Remove "Adventure".
**Reason:**

It's too vague. See next two suggestions for what would replace it.

Add "Roleplay".
**Reason:**

Because it's wanted and Roleplay support in-game AND out-of-game is lacking. Adding a "Roleplay" category would fill a need.

Split "Combat" into "PvP" & "PvE".
**Reason:**

Because while all PvPers certainly engage in PvE, many monster slayers are utterly disinterested in Lifeskills and PvP. "PvE" will also accomodate players who would have fit in the "Adventure" category and those who desire to do dungeons.

For "Combat" or "PvP" guilds, need to see if they have recently won nodes, and their Guild League ranking, and other rankings.
**Reason:**

So players can be better informed on the activity level and strength of the guild they are applying for.

Split "Lifeskills" into "Gathering" & "Training" & "Hunting" (and Trading)
**Reason:**

If someone wants to primarily gather and/or craft items, a Horse Training guild simply doesn't specialize in that. While "Training" & Trading are synergistic, as are "Gathering" & Trading, so is "Hunting" as it is a type of "Gathering" that *can* include Trading, but there are definitely Hunters who want nothing to do with the Crafting aspect of it (and Hunted monsters can't be Trained by virtue of being... Hunted). As for making "Trading" it's own category, because "Gathering" & "Training" & "Hunting" are all so syngergistic with it, dedicated Traders already have a great selection of available choices. That said, if there is space in the updated UI, do consider including "Trading", then I can't see any reason to not include it.

Change "Sailing" to "Ocean".
**Reason:**

So it will also include "Fishing", not just "Bartering" & "Sailing".

**Summary of Categories that are suggested to be shown in this new UI:**

Progression, PvP, PvE, Roleplay, Gathering, Training, Hunting, Ocean
(Maybe include Trading)

*Total Number: 8, which is an increase of 4 from 4*

Suggested Filters:

These would need to be both "checkable" and "x-able", as in, __able to be opted in or out of__. And Guilds would have to be limited to, say, only 10 filters they can opt-in to, so prevent ne'er-do-wells from cluttering the listings.

**Newbie Friendly:**
Yes, No

**Microphone Required:**
Yes, No

**Guild Sizes:**
Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large

**Most Active Hours:**
Morning, Noon, Afternoon, Evening, Night, Graveyard

**Primary Language:**
English, Spanish, French, German, etc (all languages the game is available in)

**Gear Score Requirement:**
None, Over 600 (or Balenos/Serendia total), Over 650 (or Mediah/Valencia total), Over 700, Over 725, Over 750, Over 775

**PvP Activities:**
Final Battle, Guild League, Node War, Siege War, War of the Roses, Arena of Solare, War Declarations, Battle Arena Duels, Arena of Arsha, Red Battlefield

**PvE Activities:**
Atoraxxion (dungeon), Scroll Parties, Grind Parties, Hunting Parties (eg for Khalk & Whales), Grand Prix Horse Racing

**Lifeskill Activities:**
Crafting, Gathering, Fishing, Hunting, Cooking, Alchemy, Processing, Training, Trading, Farming, Sailing, Bartering

**Other Activities:**
Yar!, Music Composing, Questing, Lore Theorizing, Roleplay, Socializing

Sketched Image of Proposed UI Changes

NOTE: This sketch is missing vertical scroll bars for the Filter & Main Guild Recruitment Windows

The Main Guild Recruitment Window is also missing pages to click through.

More Professional Mock Up by Talshani

Amazing post. I hope this feedback reaches PA safely. 

You are a shining example of a passionate BDO player. 

Thank you for putting this together. All great ideas! The whole Guild UI & missions, history, storage, etc. need an overhaul, and the best place to start is with recruiting! I especially like the idea of an alliance UI-- you can't tell who's in an alliance until they win a node, and then still sometimes that even shows bugged on the map.

enthusiasm is commendable but lacks crucial points. such as 14 days shitass guild handover system of theirs. 

This suggestion is specifically for the Guild Recruitment UI.

+1

I'd also like to see something to speed up requirement checking for applicants before having to communicate with them via discord or use 3rd party systems. A snap shot of their gear score, life skill levels, carracks/gear, and most importantly their guild history and family name change history. This would be mutually benificial and save some time for both the recruiter and the applicant for guilds that have requirements and documentation verification.  

Cool up till the last part. Someone that changed name should never have to let it be known who they was for many reasons. to suggest something like that shows the lack of common sense you have as many change name for good reasons thanks to toxic players and wanting to step back from or get away from that drama.

Previous name is a feature on Runescape and visable to all, not just Guild recruiters. I'd ask this only to be visible by ranked guild members/officials. This prevents people missusing the feature for negative reasons. It goes both ways here. Not everyone is changing their name to 'avoid harrassment,' some are doing it to cause and continue harrassment or when they buy or inherit their accounts.  Perhaps a way that guilds can permanantly ban specific accounts (too bad banning ips isn't viable, but I digress) even after they left on their own accord to prevent re-entry... would be more suitable. 

And unless you are changing or deleting all of your char names, tracking can be done with apps or some leg work as well