Silk Games

It seems like most BYOND RPGs have a guild system in one form or another. With NEStalgia, the aim is to refine the formula.

Even in full scale professional MORPGs, the main function of Guilds is to join up with a group of people who you enjoy being around in order to chat, and to find help completing quests/tackling PvP. Therefore, the NEStalgia guild system will be very familiar. The basic features:

• A customizable cape worn by all members of the guild.
• A world-wide "Guild Say" channel for communication within the guild.
• A "Guild Pane" that is separate from the game screen, which allows you to control your personal guild settings, and to access/control information about other members.
• A simple ranking system which allows the leader to both name and set the privileges for each rank.
• (Eventually) Access to a home base and a shared guild bank.

Talking to the Guild Master

Creating the guild cape

It all starts by going to talk to a Guild Master. This NPC offers to sign you up as a guild leader for 10,000 gold (a pretty hefty sum). You start by customizing your guild's cape, which is identical to the way you originally customized your character. You are then asked to name the guild, another pretty self-explanatory process.

Once your guild is created, you'll have access to the aforementioned Guild Pane which has all sorts of options for customizing and controlling your guild (more options for Guild Leaders or high ranking members, as pictured here).

Naming the guild

The Guild Pane

The most convenient part about the NEStalgia guild system is that members are recruited and bestowed ranks based upon their key, not individual characters. This way your guild status will carry over to all of your characters saved under that key. This eliminates the need for leaders to re-recruit and re-rank all of your alts. If you want to join multiple guilds, then you'll need to login using a different key. But really, who does that?

Guild leaders can make changes to the cape design, ranks, and recruit/dismiss members at any time. All changes will take place instantly for players who are online, or will automatically be applied the next time offline guild members log in.

Now you can go afk in a bar with your friends in style!

All of this is pretty simple stuff, but as with everything else found in NEStalgia, it has been refined to the point of excellence. The guild capes are also a pretty fun touch, as there is something to be said for showing off your allegiance, whether you're traveling the world or ganging up to gank opposing guilds.

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On a different note, I want to answer a question that has been bubbling forth lately. If NEStalgia looks to you like it's already ridiculously polished and finished, that's because it basically is. Could we release the game right now? Yes... but I don't want to do so until we've stacked on a bit more content. We have only one chance to make a lasting first impression with NEStalgia, and I don't want people burning through the game and getting bored. Keep in mind that I'm going to be promoting NEStalgia on major sites outside of BYOND shortly after release, and it needs to be ready for that kind of scrutiny.

So right now my focus is exclusively on content, included some 'end game' stuff that will keep players well occupied until more content patches are released. As much as I hate giving release dates, I may very well do so in the near future once I am 100% certain of the pace at which I can sustain progress.