Everquest 2 Guild Hall Details Released

For quite some time, one of the most interesting and exciting planned Everquest 2 features has been the Guild Halls. They represent an ambitious and robust feature that incorporates a lot of ideas, content, and potential fun. Some concrete details were recently released at the Everquest Fan Faire.

Basic Information about the Everquest 2 Guild Halls from the Fan Faire:

Tier 1: Level 30+ guild. Available in every city. Size and Layout: the same as the 5-room house model. COST: 100 platinum.

Tier 2: Level 50+ guild. Located in South Qeynos in the Hall of Thunder and in North Freeport near Stonestair Byway. Size and Layout: Uses a new 10 room hall model. COST: 500 platinum.

Tier 3: Level 70+ guild. These are on a special island off Antonica and the Commonlands. They are accessible via the Mariner's Bell. Size and Layout: They are so large that an internal teleport system is needed. COST: 1,000 platinum.

The real gem of guild halls are the "amenities." These are the special features like brokers, teleporters, and the like. There will be 42 different amenities at release. The Tier 1 guild hall can have 15 amenities installed at one time. The Tier 3 can have 30 amenities installed. They can be changed, but that requires a new purchase of the new amenity.

Each amenity has a coin cost and a status cost up front, as well as a weekly maintenance cost (definitely status, possibly coin as well). Player crafted items WILL NOT reduce the status cost of the hall. Some examples of the types of amenities include:

1. Banker
2. World Broker - Allows buying and selling through the normal broker system.
3. Guild Broker - Lets people sell things only to guild members.
4. Mender (with the option of a guild fund to help people pay for repairs)
5. Druid Portal NPC
6. Portals
7. Crafting Implements
8. Fuel Merchant
9. Harvested Items Storage

A calculator has already been created that lets people plan the coin and status costs for the things they may want in their guild hall:

Guild Hall Cost Calculator

This release of information has already resulted in enormously volatile discussions on Everquest 2's official forums. Threads have already been closed down by moderators as they work to keep control of the discussion.

The most common complaint is that the costs are too high. Many believe the maintenance costs will make guild halls feel more like a job than a fun feature. Guild leaders will have to constantly hound their members to grind writs and other sources of status points just to "pay the bills."

Leaders of smaller guilds are also very concerned because it seems like they are going to be completely left out. Most of the nifty features are far beyond the reach of a smaller, non-raid guild.

It remains to be seen what the final costs will be or if SOE will be responsive to the concerns of its customer base. It would be a shame if such an expansive, feature rich bit of content ends up failing to reach its potential due to out of reach costs. It seems evident that a lot of development resources went into the design of Everquest 2's guild halls. It would seem wise to make sure as many customers as possible are able to enjoy the content.