FOREWORD
I understand that most of this stuff will probably, conceptually even, never come to Darktide. Nor necessarily should it. There are far more pressing issues that deserve dev time. A lot of players, myself included, would probably appreciate more weapons, maps and add ons to the Penance system than anything listed here. This was mainly an overly long collection of ideas I had fun coming up with for @Khorne_Dawg 's Mourningstar post The Mourningstar Memorial; lest we forget . This is a result of me waiting for new PC parts to come in and with nothing better to do. So this is a last warning to stop here if you do not enjoy me yapping or aren’t interested in the concept. Look how much I’ve already waffled.
Pretty simple, I think that some way to form player groups would be fun, and if enough effort was put in could be a way to add some more content to people who want to participate in them in the form of a pseudo “end game.” This is by no means a comprehensive list and I would love to hear what other people think about them.
Plagiarizing Concerns
Heretical Cactus posted this before me containing many of the same ideas I had because he is evil and is praying on my downfall. I had the exact same penance idea which was shamelessly stolen from inside of my head and put into his post. Very rude.
I didn’t think of competitions though.
WHAT TO CALL THEM
idk
I think whoever is in charge of world building or narrative for Darktide could come up with an in universe name for it, whether it is an official grouping approved by Rannick and Zola or something perhaps more “off record.” For simplicities sake I am going to call them “Guilds” for the rest of this thread. I listed some other name ideas I had seen for them in the title, with KT standing for Kill Team.
You could call them Warrior Lodges in reference to the infamous HH organizations, but that might either be shot down by GW or bring on some unwanted implications. I think it is a cool reference however, and might go to show a degree of separation from the Inquisition that our “rejects” are implied to have but not shown.
BARE MINIMUM
If something like this was going to be implemented, the very least that would need to be added is a way to create and join Guilds, and a way to identify someone is in a Guild. I would suggest that a new tab is added alongside Social and Blocked players to create, search, or join a Guild. An owner of a Guild could set it to public or private joins. Additionally , once in a guild, the Guild page would show the status for everyone in the Guild, same as Social or Previous Players. For identifiers I believe a tag, consisting of 3-4 letters in front of a player’s username would be enough. An insignia could also work, but I have some more ideas pertaining to that later.
Example of Clan Tag
I don’t play any of the new CoD games so I don’t know if these are actual clan tags or in the Username. Either way in premise it should look something like that.
NOTICE AND GOALS
Going forward many of these ideas will involve various rewards and goals to incentivize people playing and working together in Guilds. However something very important, is that players who do not wish to participate in Guilds should not be forced to. People who just want to hop in and quickplay, and maybe not communicate with anyone should not be punished for doing so. So if there are going to be any gameplay effecting perks to being in a Guild, there needs to be an equivalent way to achieve this for solo players.
Because of the upcoming “Itemization” update that we unfortunately don’t know much about, I am going to refrain from touching upon how that might work with a Guild system. Depending on how it works, Guilds interacting with it could be a positive or a negative, so it’s a wait and see.
COAT OF ARMS
(Grey Knights are icky but their Coat of Arms is cool.)
Summary
The Guild’s Coat of Arms might only appear on the Guild screen itself which would be fine, although there are other ways it could be implemented which I will go into more detail later.
This could be as simple or complex as you want it to be. It could quite literally just be, “choose one of these 12 symbols,” and be the end of it. While I would prefer more, I would like that instead of nothing.
A step up from that would be to choose a symbol, the color of the symbol, the color of the background, and maybe a simple pattern in the back and what color that would be. Something similar to Destiny 2’s system (I know Destiny is very icky and gross and bad and disgusting but it is the only game where I actually participated in a Guild in any meaningful way).
(Example of a D2 clan flag, although it does have a tertiary color.)
The maximum amount of customization that I would like to see in a Coat of Arms would pretty much just be a copy and pasted version of the one from Manor Lords, although obviously without the ability to upload your own image. I won’t explain everything but there are a ton of different ways to customize it, a Coat of Arms can be incredibly simple or a bit complex, and it would assure that almost every single Guild had a different Coat of Arms which is always nice.
(Manor Lord’s Coat of Arms customization screen. Not shown here is that different backgrounds can be resized if you scroll farther down.)
GUILD HALL
(I don’t play MMOs so I don’t have any examples of the best Guild Halls in them. This is one of the first images that pops up when I look it up and says it’s from a game called Elsword. Idk if its a good example or not but this picture looks cool.)
Summary
Personally this would be one of the main appeals for me. Having some sort of gathering place, where you can see each other either at game launch or even if you aren’t in a 4 man together would be awesome. I think something around the size and shape of the Obscura Den ambush would be good. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a picture of it and I do not have access to my PC for at least another 3-5 days, but the idea is to have a large enough location for a good amount of people to walk around, but nothing so large as the Mourningstar hub itself. The size of the hall would also probably influence the maximum amount of people in a Guild.
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Vendors
At the very least, there should be an NPC or terminal relating to Guilds. If there are no other mechanics tied to guilds, it could simply pull up the Guild tab up from the Social menu. If there are other mechanics tied to guilds, than multiple vendors or terminals pertaining to them would be nice.
(Would 100% awkwardly stand in the corner at a party with a drink in my hand next to this guy.)
Now, this second idea is something I would like to see but might go against FS’s design philosophy for the Mourningstar, but in this space I would like to see a Surrogate for all the vendors and the mission terminal, with the NPCs themselves just being Servitors. Additionally access to a mission terminal would be great. As mentioned before this might conflict with lobby interactions with randoms, but at the moment I believe it’s fine:
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Almost no one talks in the Mourningstar chat
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The majority of people, from my expereince, who do chat in the Mourningstar only do it for trolling or sh*tposting, not forming groups, discussing builds, or making connections
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Running around the Mourningstar to all the different vendors is an unnecessary waste of time
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A decent amount of players (myself included) already ignore the Mourningstar with a couple of different mods
If it is still considered a problem, than disable the mission terminal but please allow players to access the different vendors. It would be fun to discuss that type of stuff, what weapons you are trying to build, rolls you get, penances you are working on etc if you are in the same lobby with each other. Maybe after you form a strike team in a Guild Hall, you could exit it as a group and join a Mourningstar lobby.
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Decorations
At the very least if there is some sort of Guild symbol, it should be noticeable when walking around the Hall. Whether grimy, old, and chipping away on the wall or hanging proudly from a magnificent tapestry it should be a reminder of what the group is. And most importantly it’s just pretty cool.
As mentioned by Cactus, trophy room or collection would be cool. V2 has one, although obviously the Ubersreik gang have bagged themselves a fair few more named baddies than we have. Although part of that is Assassination maps not having unique named characters but boring Scab Captains who have 0 story whatsoever.
https://youtu.be/0IYo2mboXwg?si=5a3MlQuK9hN6GIBk
(Example of the VT 2 trophy room. This was made 4 years ago and the quality is a bit low. Additionally I believe they have made some changes to it since then and maybe added a couple more trophies? Either way it’s a nice touch, alongside the little lore blurbs.)
Trophies could either be displayed as what the Guild Leader has achieved, combined achievements of the whole clan (so if any member of the clan had killed the twins it would show their memento mori (I don’t know if this would be the correct use of that phrase, but I guess their death trophy would remind us that we will die at some point as well which is very 40k!), but it would also show how many members of the guild had done it. If there are Guild wide achievements/competitions (more on these later) it could be where they are displayed.
It would be cool if the guild leader could choose a sort of “theme” for their guild hall, although some of these might not be possible based on the narrative associated with them. The layout of each would be the same, but they would all appear different A few ideas:
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Secret Hideout. Tucked in the underbowels of the ship, in secret. Signs of habitation and organization are strewn around amidst the forgotten labyrinthian pipes and catwalks.
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Smuggler’s Den. Just the Necromunda Hired Gun hub aesthetics pretty much, although scaled to make it in line with DT. Similarly ramshackle to the hideout, but with a bit more rough “charm,” and more readily accessible. A very scummy looking bar. Somewhere you could easily imagine the Loose Cannon vet. Literally just what Quorin posted:
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Barracks. What Morrow wants the whole ship to look like. Very Imperial Guard themed, with weapons and old guard armor on display. Very organized and something perhaps approaching official. Some basic chairs and tables and some very bland looking meals.
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Swanky Hall. Whoever started this Guild obviously has some connections. Vaulted ceilings, expensive art, and luxurious carpets will have all but the most finely dressed rejects feeling woefully out of place. Maybe even some Windows to outer space, similar to the Mourningstar hub.
No matter what it is, the little details will matter here. The art direction team has been phenomenal for Darktide and this might give them the chance to create some unique areas and styles that we might not get to see in mission.
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Customization
This would probably be the biggest thing I would like to see out of a Guild Hall. If anything, I would like to see SOME customization of it, even if it is very small. There are lots of different ways it could be implemented, and different levels of customization that could be possible, but I will go over what I personally would like to see.
Only the Guild master should be able to customize the Hall. Maybe Lieutenants can, if that is even something that is implemented.
If there is some sort of guild leveling system, perhaps certain upgrades or customization options are locked off until you reach the appropriate level.
As I am refraining from talking about gameplay, I won’t be talking about any Guild upgrades or customization that might effect in mission performance, or out of mission acquisition. Merely cosmetic.
I don’t think a full place stuff wherever you want is feasible or even desirable. I believe the Guild master would have a special screen that could zoom around to different areas of the Hall, and they would a couple of choices for what they would want there. Some choices could be locked off by Guild Level or specific Guild Penances/achievements.
Something I think could be helpful to a feeling of progression of the game is some cosmetic "upgrades’ to your guild would be really, REALLY expensive. I’m talking Millions or higher of dockets. Just brutal. If there’s anything we know about Hallowette and Krall (who would be the 2 I would assume would supply us with these probably contraband upgrades), is that they certainly are not cheap. However, this is something the entire guild could work towards together.
(This is an idea I somewhat stole from Red Dead Redemption 2, although in that game you’re the only one ever putting significant amounts of money into the donation box.)
Individual guild members could donate out of their personal inventory to a Guild Treasury, which would be used to make upgrades.
While part of this hinges on what the itemization update brings, and how grindy and free weapons are at that point, it gives players a resource sink at the end of the game and some sort of progression that isn’t tied to gameplay in any way, and is entirely optional. It would additionally make collecting Scriptures and Grimoires a lot more attractive for the extra money they provide, and also adds another reason to quickplay.
Whether or not these upgrades would take resources like Plassteel and Diamantine or only Dockets is entirely based on what crafting looks like at that time.
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Activities
These could be tied to a potential upgrade system for Guild Halls, or all of them be always available. Stuff like arm wrestling, drunk fights, Soccer/Football, Cards, the knife game where you stab in between your fingers, pretty much any idea someone has recommended for the Mourningstar hub would fit in great here as well.
Add a Jukebox servitor. Please. Even if it’s in the Mourningstar main hub. It would be awesome to listen to some of the DT sound track, and also the idea of a Jukebox servitor is not only entirely plausible on a Rogue Trader’s ship but far more importantly hilarious .
GW would probably be lame and say no but it would be really cool if they didn’t.
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Premium Upgrades
It’s theoretically possible to have a rotating cash shop for Guild hall things similarly to the normal cosmetic store. If this would be the only way to justify having Guild halls I guess I could potentially maybe just possibly slightly tolerate it. I would be very sad though. Like I might start crying sad. And you don’t want to make me cry right?
(It could also be an animalistic, feral rage but it’s best not to mention that.)
NO GUILD HALL
Summary
Since putting in a Guild Hall is probably out of the scope of the game at the moment for a multitude of reasons, if Guilds do get added to the game at the very least it would be nice if they were joined by an accompanying vendor on the Mourningstar. Either some shady guy trying to look inconspicuous if these groups aren’t official, or some sort of pencil pusher (another scribe like Hestia or perhaps a servitor scribe) that would contain all the relevant screens to Guilds.
PENANCES
Summary
We already have a penance system in place, so hopefully it wouldn’t be too hard to implement an additional one. There are 2 different ways to go about this. The progress bar and each potential penance could be shared universally across the Guild, or only apply to each member individually. While I personally like the idea of the entire Guild sharing the same objectives, it would probably be easier and smarter for it to be on an individual to individual basis. This way would also shown who has done “the most” for the Guild.
There is the question to what happens to these rewards if a player is either kicked from a Guild, or if a Guild is disbanded. Unfortunately I don’t have a great answer to this. Simplest and probably the best solution would just be to have all progress be kept, and you can pick up where you left off when you join another Guild.
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Penance Ideas
A lot of these will hinge on what is or isn’t a feature for Guilds, but I think a priority should be to not make anything to boring or grindy, and push people to play together.
You could take some of the basic Penances and just put a Guild member requirement on it. Revive X amount of Guild Members. Complete X amount of Damnation games with at least 1 other Guild member. Simple stuff like that.
This however does open the possibility for Fatshark to get really creative with some other penances however. Penances that are more interesting but might hurt quickplay can be relegated to private games with Guild members. Some fun(ish) ideas I thought of:
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With at least 2 other Guild members, complete a Heresy or harder mission with none of you firing once.
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With at least 2 other Guild members, complete a Heresy or harder mission with all of you playing as X class.
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With at least 2 other Guild members, have everyone extract from an Auric Maelstrom Mission after destroying every Heretical Idol and everyone holding a Martyr’s Skull.
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With at least 2 other Guild members, complete a Heresy or harder mission after killing X amount of enemies with environmental hazards. (Could include friendly fire damage? Might make it too easy if you just farm groaner/poxwalker kills off of poxbursters).
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With at least 2 other Guild members, complete a Heresy or harder mission with 1 player not getting a single kill, whithtout dying (Could make it an Auric mission but maybe that would be too hard? I would like it more as an auric required mission though. Playing pure support sounds like it could be an interesting challenge.)
I’m sure these ideas aren’t perfect and might be horribly unfun to complete. But the idea is that you can get together with a couple of friends, and do a couple of runs with a weird quircky requirement. Fun for an afternoon type of deal. And it opens up what Fatshark can do for challenges without worrying about how it might effect quickplay.
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Penance Rewards
Once again this could be as simple or complex as the devs would want. Personally I would like the same sampling of different rewards as the normal penance list, although probably less of them. Both so people not in Guilds don’t feel totally left out, and so that stuff like frames, charms, and insignias don’t become even more crowded and bloated than they already are.
A sort of pipe dream wish I would have, is that the player cosmetics you receive are different based on what your Guild symbol is. Like if your guild symbol is a blue lion on a red background, the cosmetics you earned from the Guild Penances would have blue lion on a red background etc etc.
Like I said this would probably be hellish to achieve and super buggy but it would be really cool.
COMPETITIONS
Summary
Shamelessly stolen from Cactus. Although personally I’m not sure how fun this would be I would be down for some limited time challenges between guilds. Stuff like, over a week, most enemies killed on Damnation, most Auric Damnation runs complete, etc etc. Although something very important, and probably nearly impossible to do would be make these challenges require players to actually play the game, and not just farm or cheese them in stupid and boring ways.
He suggests giving some sort of handicap buff to smaller guilds but I disagree with that. It would have to be balanced very delicately so the optimal strategy doesn’t involve creating a smaller sized guild. It would just be simpler and easier to not have a handicap system imo.
Rewards would just be the same as everything else, skins, poses, frames, charms etc, with let’s say the first 10 Guilds getting something special, but every Guild that signs up and participates in the challenge at least getting something. I would say give 1st through 3rd unique prizes but I don’t trust FS to give out that much unique stuff.
GUILD LEVELING
Summary
Pretty self explanatory, but it would be cool if you could level up your guild for different rewards. Maybe your clan tag would upgrade in color from gray to orange at the highest level. Maybe everyone would get some unique insignia’s or frames. Maybe a full on Guild Hall would only be unlocked after a certain level? At the end of the day the rewards would be very similar to something available in penances, except the whole Guild would be awarded them for reaching certain levels.
Going back to the problem of a player leaving a Guild or a Guild dissolving, I think they should keep all the rewards they have gained, but not get anything new until the next Guild they join reaches a level higher than one their previous Guild reached.
Players just joining a Guild should have some sort of requirement to reach before they get access to the rewards system. Maybe a certain amount of games won in the Guild? Maybe their earned Guild XP would go towards leveling them up in the guild, until they reach the level everyone else is at?
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XP
Imo the best leveling system would just be a certain amount of points earned after every game, same as regular XP although you could add a requirement that you only get Guild XP after winning a game. I believe the best system is that even when playing in QP with randoms you would still earn XP for the Guild, but you would get a multiplier on Guild XP based on how many people in your strike team are in your Guild. Therefore you are encouraged to play together, but are still contributing if you want to play solo.
That’s It and TLDR
I think I had more ideas but my brain has become significantly mushy over the course of the day. Feel free to scream and yell abuse at me at obvious ideas I missed.
TLDR is some group customization is neat and can bring players together, having groups could facilitate more weird private game only penance runs, and having some more long form “end game” in either leveling up a Guild through play or as a resource sink could help make playing the game feel a little bit less repetitive.
Again doubt any of this would be worth the time and effort to put in the game for a system everyone might not use or enjoy but it was fun thinking about it.
