Player Guilds

''Guilds redirects here. For NPC run and maintained groups, see NPC Guilds.''

Players can form their own guilds by talking to the guild master in Vertisa. Registered guilds have the benefit of guild sanctuaries.

Starting a Guild
Players must talk to the guild master located in the beaurocratic district of Vertisa. Guild creation has a few required steps that must be completed before the guild can be registered. Canceling during any of the required steps will cancel guild creation. Most settings can be changed later, but must be completed for the most basic use of the guild. There are other settings that can also be changed from the sanctuary's guild panel.
 * 1) Players must choose the basic settings for their guild. Basic settings include a guild name, membership requirements, and private/public.
 * 2) Players must choose sanctuary settings. These settings include, sanctuary location/type, private/public, password (if password protected), and sanctuary permissions.
 * 3) Players must name ranks, and allocate rank permissions within the guild system. The only permissions for each rank that MUST be modified is rank administration and leader elections (this must be set to at least one rank other than leader). All other permissions are defaulted to the guild Leader(s) only.

Sanctuaries
Guild sanctuaries are started by the guild founder. Every guild has their own sanctuary. Sanctuaries are instances separate from the rest of the main world that can only be accessed by using a transport pad in the guild master's hall. Sanctuaries are limited in size and players will be stopped at the outer bounds by an invisible wall or physical barrier. Players can pay to expand the size of sanctuaries. These expansions can be bought by anyone and donated to the guild they wish it to apply to. Every sanctuary comes equipped with a guild panel. Upon entering a new sanctuary, the guild founder will see a guild inventory in the guild panel with furniture and buildings related to the environment that was chosen. To place these items in the sanctuary, the area must be empty except for the person placing the items.

The Guild Panel
Any visitor to the sanctuary may access the guild panel. The user's level and permissions in the guild will determine what they are capable of doing. In addition to the standard administrative actions, there are a variety of different actions that can be performed from the guild panel.

Guild Roster
The guild roster lists everyone currently in the guild. Along with their username, their hunter title, guild title and guild rank. Members of the guild can also send instant messages, or offline messages to other members' HunterBracers though this interface.

Maintenence Lockout
In a maintenence lockout, all members currently in the sanctuary will be given an amount of time designated by the initiator to leave the sanctuary. After this time, players will be automatically returned to the guild master's hall with the exception of the player initiating the lockout. During the lockout the sanctuary's builldings and environment can be modified. Furniture marked as static during this time cannot be moved outside of the lockout. Otherwise, furniture can be moved by any player any time. The sanctuary setting can also be changed. All default assets will be moved back to the inventory, and replaced with he default assets for the new area. Any other nondefault items will be returned to the guild inventory. The lockout ends when the player who created it ends it, leaves the sanctuary, or logs out. It's strongly suggested that the maintenence lockout remain available only to the founder, and very high ranking members.

Guild Inventory
Items can be deposited and withdrawn from here. It is possible to restrict who can withdraw and deposit items. It is suggested that all players be allowed to deposit and only trusted rank players be able to withdraw. Players can also use the guild inventory like a package delivery system by specifying the recipient of a deposited item. The item will be deposited into the guild inventory and only withdrawable by its marked recipient. The player will receive an offline message that they have received an item at their sanctuary and will need to access the guild panel to withdraw their item.

Sanctuary Store
Furniture, buildings, and environmental items can be purchased here. If an building is bought outside of lockout mode, it will automatically be deposited into the guild inventory to be placed during the next lockout.

Polls
Polls will be shown to all authorized players upon entering the sanctuary. Players who see the poll will then be prompted to access the guild panel to vote. The poll creator can select which ranks are allowed to see and vote in the poll and how long it will last.

Guild Titles
Like hunter level titles, guild members can have guild titles. These titles will show up over the player's head whenever they are in the sanctuary. Titles can be used to reward a player, punish a player, or just for fun. There can also be a timer set for titles so that titles will be removed after a certain period of time.

Guest Passes
Some leaders may choose to make their guild public. However, many leaders will choose to make their guilds private. It is possible to allow access to someone who is not part of the guild. Permissions must be set as to who can invite a guest. Different ranks can issue one time only guest passes, timed guest passes, or lifetime passes. Permissions can also allow certain ranks to ban players from entering the sanctuary, or being issued a guest pass. The only exception to this is game moderators, administrators, and active developer accounts who cannot be blocked.

Leader Election
In the event that a leader steps down without naming a successor, or becomes innactive, leader elections would be held. The proper ranks can begin an election and set its duration. An election can only be started when there is an unfilled leader position. Players will have "x" time to submit their name for nomination; players can only submit their own name. All nonrunning players will then have "y" time to vote on the new leader. If a player becomes innactive the election process remains the same; however, it can only be initiated after the player has not visited the sanctuary for over 90 days.

Allies
Having an ally guild can be very useful. The two guilds will still run under their own set of laws but they will have the added benefit of extra players in guild disputes taken to the arenas. Each guild may only have one ally at any given time, so if a leader of one guild decides he would rather be allies with another guild, he must break ties with his current ally.

Guild Disputes
A guild battle can be initiated by talking to the guild master. All guild leaders of both involved guilds will receive notification of the challenge. Guild disputes do not expire, but they are canceled if one or more leaders declines the challenge. If the all guild leaders agree to the dispute, then the dispute can be resolved immediately, or set for a later date and time. If the dispute is to be settled immediately, players online will be contacted by the guild master and asked if they wish to participate and if so, he will transport them to their guild's bullpen immediately. Players will have 5 minutes to respond to the invitation to join their guild in battle. If the dispute is to be settled at a later time, a message from the guild master will go out to all guild members stating the time and location of the battle. It is then the player's responsibility to either speak to the guild master or the appropriate arena master to be transported to their guild's bullpen. Members of an ally guild may also participate, though they will not receive any notification from the guild master; it is the guild members' responsibility to communicate the dispute to their ally. Members of the ally guild can then talk to the guild master or appropriate arena master to be taken to the guild bullpen.

Rewards
For winning guild disputes, the guild will receive whatever wager they had made into the guild inventory, and guild credits. Guild credits can be used to buy sanctuary decoration items and other sanctuary upgrades.

Linked Sanctuaries
Allied guilds will also have their sanctuaries linked. Each sanctuary still remains exactly the same, with the exception that they both now exist in the same instance and there are no boundaries between the two areas. The outer boundaries still exist, but players can walk between the two sanctuaries freely. Guild titles also show up in both sides of the sanctuary.