Family System Ideas
 

As a disclaimer, this has nothing to do with any type of marriage, adoption, etc. None of that... It's relating to the new guild changes.

Many people have complained that the new limit to only joining 5 guilds has restricted them from accessing multiple groups of their friends and chatting with them. In response to that, I posted:
So, that idea is broken down as:

• Create a family
• The family offers no other functionality in game other than offering you another chat stream and (optionally) displaying your family (either in name or in profile)
• Leaders have the ability to invite an infinite number of other people to the family and kick members
• Members have the ability to disable family chat and leave the family

http://puu.sh/nzQv8/c88842c8fc.png

As you see to the left of guild chat in that screenshot, it'd give you a chat stream at all times that you're a part of the family. As mentioned in the list before, there could be an option to turn it on or off (since we aren't always in the mood to read through spam). I'm not sure how cluttered this would be on certain devices.

As for how families are displayed in game, there is quite a lot of open profile space:
http://puu.sh/nzQRg/79d478f77b.png

The cross-stitched area above would be just fine to display something like "Family: Enguard". Clicking on the family name could simply bring up a list of the members? That's just fluff, not even necessary honestly. Alternatively, it could display in player names with some distinct effect to differentiate that it's an official "family tag" rather than just text appended to the name, like:
http://puu.sh/nzRw6/7156772ff9.png

That's probably not the best or most distinct text effect to give it, but you can see how the family name glows a bit and sets it apart from just standard nickname text. It wouldn't need to be mandatory that this is shown in your name.

There are a lot of other ways you can fluff this up, but I don't really see the point in overdoing it. It'd give people access to chat with their friends without relying on the guild system and it'd be something you can easily turn on/off. Families would essentially be nothing more than a group chat, way to show yourself as a part of a group of friends, and a new distinction for social guilds without imposing any gameplay limitations.

I don't think it needs to be anything complicated or crazy. Anyway, post what other ideas you have.

Very good idea, one question, can we be in GST's with these families?

Get ready for the mlg families.

if you guys are in normal guild.

kind of 'eh' stuff is when two friends are in different family and both ask you to join it. #enableMultiFam

Familia > family name-wise.
Would this have a separate pm? Would be nice if it didn't get in the way of guild chat, and pms.

Unlimited members?

Only issue I could for see

Trolls taking the big family names(Brutal, Enigma, Maphasy).

And other names would be taken to troll specific people, your Enguard family name for example.

I think that could be mitigated by having a small "claim" period, where those who have family guilds already could take the name. What I mean by that is, you'd have to gain approval by an administrator to claim the name. So those who already have family guilds wouldn't have to worry about being online the second the system is released to protect their name.

That period would only last a day or two, just to get the system settled in without massive hysteria.


Also, I don't know if they have the ability to make changes like that to the player card easily(they might, I just am not sure.)

I feel if families were implemented it would be cool to build a family tree that is permanent. However you obviously shouldn't be stuck with a family, nor should one be stuck with you if problems arise so you should be able to disown a child. This would merely remove you from the social aspect but the records are permanent. However this is just my opinion from playing roleplay-heavy mmo's in the past so it may be overcomplicating the whole thing.

I'm not sure if this is a right solution though. The problem is guilds not only being competitive and pvp oriented, but also catering to those who use guilds more casually and for social aspects. This patches one niche of the social aspects of guilding, but it doesn't tend to the other social guild a that don't fall under the catgory of families.

I think some kind of party system would be better, you could create a temporary tag, add up to 15 people in it and have a group chat similar to guild system. Once you go offline you would automatically leave the party.

I don't think people would use the party chat system of it leaves everytime you log off.

Needs to be implemented ASAP

This idea definitely has my interest. It seems like something that could work, however; would you only be able to have one tag on, or both family and guild tag? If both, then it could be a problem with the chat because you'll be getting mixed messages from both parties. If not both, then I could definitely see this working out- or if you have some magical way to somehow sort the chats into two different boxes. Then again, that'd be 5 boxes across the top screen... (i'm overthinking this too much @_@)

Also, don't think the chat box for family should be yellow considering that PM's are already that color (maybe blue?). Could cause some confusion.

I'm all for this idea, but those are my only concerns.

I'd say red since the controls color change to blue during winter.

lol pls not a family tree

Good discussion. I'll completely dismiss my original idea since you did such a good job at convincing me otherwise.

Where does "Guild House" come into this conversation?