Proposed Guild Shield Design

A. Choosing your colors

When a guild is chosen, the guildmaster can choose that guild's 'colors'. This is another tab on the guild creation dialogue. A guild can also change their colors at any time: the guild color dialogue is enabled at all times on the guildmaster's (and only the guildmaster's) guild administration box. A guildmaster may never choose a design that matches another guild's design.

B. Getting a guild shield

Getting a guild shield is a very simple quest, a new one of which starts about every hour:

• When guildmaster enters the room, Random NPC tells guildmaster, "If you have a guild member who is eager to prove his teeth, have him go to <blacksmith> and ask about a mining expidition."
• If someone says mining expidition to <blacksmith>, the blacksmith responds, "Aye, someone eager to do this favor for me. Undoubtedly you've heard that the orc mines have reopened. Well, them orcs mine a strain of iron ore that's of a much higher grade than what we can get out of the stripped out Jasper mines. I want to get my hands on some of this before the Princess or Duke or whoever's running the show now closes them caves back up. Bring me some ore, and I'll use a chunk of it to make you a coat of arms."
• The blacksmith will not respond to any non-guilded member who says mining expidition.
• The blacksmith will not respond to anyone who has done this quest in the last 24 realtime hours.
• The blacksmith will also buy the ore, if you aren't 'doing the quest'.
• The ore can be found by killing orc miners, each of which has about a 10% chance of carrying it. A rock of ore is a huge thing (weight 20, bulk 25), so players will be loath to carry or store them most of the time.
• Bring it back and the blacksmith will give you a guild shield with your guild's current colors on it.

C. The guild shield

• When set, the colors of the guild shield never change.
• Even if your guild changes it's colors.
• Even if your guild disbands.
• Even if someone else (in a different guild, or who is unguilded) picks up the shield.
• The stats of a guild shield are, in general, not as good as a gold shield, but offer minimal protection from magic attacks (existing shields actually magnify this damage).

D. Insignia

• A guild shield may only have one piece of insignia on it at a time. If a guild shield has a piece of insignia on it, they cannot get it replaced or removed.  If they want a different insignia, they'll have to get a new shield.
• A player may choose to have an uninsignia'd shield, if they so desire.
• Seven NPCs will offer to strike your shield with their insignia. They will occasionally randomly mention it, and if you say 'insignia' to them, they will offer more details - IF and ONLY IF you have an uninsignia'd shield.
• The five priestesses will offer an insignia to anyone who gives them an offering that they like. However, this offering will be of items worth 5000, and in general will be reagents from the island, which they are eager to get their hands on. The priestesses will tell you what they want when you ask them.
• The duke and the princess are different:
• If you say 'insignia' to them, they will say, conspiratorily, "Yes, I will be happy to offer my insignia to you, should you prove your dedication. Are you interested?"
• If a player responds interested, the duke says, "I had thought, until previously, that we had <NPC name> firmly in our pocket - but my spy network reports that this is not the case, and that <PC name> is his point of contact. I want you to go to this guy, and ask him about <PC name>, and tell me what he responds.  We'll see what he's up to."
• The parliament kod will from now on store the last 10 people to do minor favors for the faction leader. It uses this to make the above quest.
• If you say the PC's name to the NPC, and that PC is on the list (i.e. the NPC did sell out), the NPC responds with something nervous, such as, "I.... um.... I wouldn't know what you're talking about. No, really."
• If you say the PC's name to the NPC and he's NOT on the list, the NPC responds, "Um, should that name mean something?"
• Player takes this response back to the duke/princess, who translates what the phrase means:
• "Ah, acted nervous did he?  Well, we'll see how <NPC's> choice of trade fairs in the next parliamentary session, won't we!"
• "Hmmm, curious.  Ah, well, spies cannot always offer perfect information. Or perhaps he just wants us to think that...."
• Duke/Princess embosses your shield.

E. Implementation

• Art
• Guild shields (color translatable parts)
• Insignias
• Rock of ore.
• Client
• Guild colors in creation dialogue.
• Guild colors in guild admin dialogue.
• Kod
• Guild shield object
• Hooks for guild color alteration.
• Rock of ore object
• Parliament stores recent faction behavior.
• Quests
• Initial quest (mining expidition)
• Priestess quest (bring me these reagents as an offering).
• Duke/princess quest (say this player's name to X, and tell me what he says.)
• Infrastructure
• Not offering the quest unless they have a blank shield.
• Offering an insignia as a quest prize
• Not offering a quest if you've done it in the last day.
• Adding 'colors' and 'insignia' to speech/hints around the world