Struggling to get more than 20 members in my guild

[Helen1701]

Okay, I've been playing for quite some time now, and after reaching arctic future in Fel Dranghyr, I decided to begin a game in Cirgard to make my own guild. So, as soon as I was able to, made the guild and people started joining. Once I had like, 15 members or so I assumed that my guild would continue to grow, and it did, up to around 20 members. I am now in LMA in Cirgard, and I cannot seem to get people to stick around. My core 20 members are staying (most are either at or a little below my era, with two being higher era, most advanced member in progressive era), but new people to the guild are not staying. Like, they join, and then they leave like a few minutes later.

Getting the second level of GE unlocked has been very difficult because it requires industrial era goods. I have been overproducing goods so I could trade up, but getting hold of rubber in particular has been so hard. Could this difficulty be the reason people aren't staying around? I know it will get easier as we progress through the eras, because we will be able to produce these goods for ourselves, eventually trading down for them. I am co-running the guild with someone else, and she has also been doing her best to get hold of the goods we're needing. There is no way we can unlock any higher than level 2 on any week because the era difference in the goods we need is even greater.

I've done everything I can think of to encourage people to stick around, I've even put up a weekly forge points lottery where I donate 30FPs to the winners GB (the number is chosen by a random number generator and the winner is whoever guesses closest to the one the generator picks, I did it this way because it seemed the fairest way). I have all of the threads people need, a general trade thread, a help trades thread so we can use our leftover bronze and iron age goods to help people in those eras, forge point swap threads, and even a thread for members to post suggestions. I haven't made GE or GVG compulsory because I understand that many people will be using their armies to conquer sectors on the map, the only compulsory activity is aiding. I did this because I wanted the guild to be a relaxed place where people could learn, develop and grow with minimum pressure from me. My guild is called Trade&Chill for this reason.

Does anyone have any advice for me on where I am going wrong?

 

[Matt999]

If your GE requires Ind goods, it's because you have people in the guild in Ind. If they don't have an arc/obs/SoH and won't/can't put one down, you need to get them to donate to the treasury. Not opening GE is pretty limiting. A relaxed guild has a market for membership, though you will get a lot of leavers who want to progress faster (i.e. a 1.9, winning GE, lots of camps in GBG etc), but you still need some kind of sustainable treasury management imo.

 

[Matt999]

Btw the ones joining and immediately leaving are guild-jumping - i.e. come in, aid everybody for coins+BPs and move on to the next one. Unless you have an invite-only/application guild (which you likely won't want at this stage), you just have to accept that.

 

[Helen1701]

Matt, I do have two members ind era or higher, but they haven't offered to donate or anything like that. I guess I will probably have to wait until I get to ind era myself... its a pain in the backside to be honest not reliably being able to open the second level expedition. If that is all the join then leave people are doing then that's fine, I thought I was doing something wrong that they were not sticking around. Thanks for your help

 

[Forwandert]

If they won't build arc/obs/soh or donate get rid of them. If they're restricting GE it'll be affecting more players than yourself and they're also restricting your own play if your producing/trading and trying to compensate for they're lack of help.

Theres a good chance the people diving in for a while and leaving are noticing you aren't really doing GE which is a good source of various prizes including dia. A good selling point for guilds is all levels of GE available and if you can't do GE they'll know GBG isn't going to be a focus either.

That's the easiest fix. It's a guild which by definition is an "association of people for mutual aid or the pursuit of a common goal." I wouldn't think twice about holding onto them to keep guild numbers up. Today would be their last day.

 

[Helen1701]

The most advanced member is in progressive era, I can't seriously expect anyone below the Future to have an arc, and even then they'd have to trade up for the goods. That said, donating some of their stock of industrial era goods is not a big ask. As I am newly in LMA myself, I don't yet have an arc, or even a blueprint for an arc yet. Most of my members don't have much beyond oracle of delphi.

I know we have at least seven members (excluding me and the other person running the guild with me) regularly do the GE level one. Like I said, I don't make it compulsory, but it is appreciated. I can't just throw people out for not doing something I made voluntary, that would be unfair. Nor would I make it compulsory because that would put lower era people at a severe disadvantage, it takes time for people to get on their feet. I can wait for iron age people to catch up, all I expect from them is aiding.

I guess it is just going to take longer than I thought. I always overproduce for trading purposes even when just playing for myself, but now it is doubly important, which is why I just started producing 100 talc per day and I might even increase this. I am getting plenty of supplies from my 12 cooperages to support large scale production. I was able to build so much quite quickly due to the coins and supplies I got in the last event. While I know I cannot do this alone, I also know that others are going to catch up. From colonial era on, it should become much easier to trade up for what I need.

 

[Forwandert]

The most advanced member is in progressive era, I can't seriously expect anyone below the Future to have an arc, and even then they'd have to trade up for the goods. That said, donating some of their stock of industrial era goods is not a big ask. As I am newly in LMA myself, I don't yet have an arc, or even a blueprint for an arc yet. Most of my members don't have much beyond oracle of delphi.

Nobody trades up for arc goods anymore as such via markets, They just buy the goods for fps from a trader and trade any goods with them. Every server will have someone selling arc goods. So it's more the effort storing up enough fps and collecting the bps. Takes a little effort but worth it for the player and the guild.

If you're struggling for certain era goods and dont want to kick, are happy to continue carrying those players and ignore the disadvantage they're creating for all the other guild players, I would be asking around in server chat if anybody wanted to sell 100s of those goods for fps and bulk buy them at a trade to your goods benefit I wouldnt be trying to trade up. Then you wouldn't have to worry about it for a while. You would have to save up the fps first if you don't have them but gbg is a good source of fps.

I'm not really hearing anything about gbg and you playing that though. Are you playing gbg? If you are playing gbg asking players to build SOH is a very viable option which will not only help the guild with goods but give the builder fps too for their own city, plus any rewards from gbg. If you're not playing now you're probably going to be up against low rated guilds if you start and SOH fragments to build a first SOH can be won quite easily.

It might be you're lack of additional rules that are slowing your guild progress down. If I'm looking for a decent guild I would expect some things as compulsory. In order to progress and show your guild is serious and one to join you need to stand out a little.

Bear in mind there's potential you're competing with guilds that could have been established on the server for 8/9 years for new members. There would be some tried and tested rules that are usually achievable (If they wasn't achievable all the guild with them would be empty) but better rewards, GE opened up without even a thought, probably unlimited access to goods for building gbs and plenty of options to gain bps, which would you join if you started a new server tomorrow and just wanted to play and not run a guild?

 

[Helen1701]

GVG battlegrounds, like GE is optional in my guild. The ONLY compulsory activity I have is aiding, I thought that because we have generally low era members, it would be unreasonable for me to expect anything more. We do do GVG, but I don't expect people to do it if they are using their soldiers to fight for sectors on their map, being able to produce current era goods would be a priority. I don't expect us to do brilliantly overnight.

Let me put it this way, I am a normal member of another guild in Fel Dranghyr, and they only expect aiding, I built the arc when I reached the future, and was helped with goods by members who were at the time in space age mars. I didn't do much GVG there, but often did the GE, finishing level one most weeks and doing some of level 2. I donate regularly to the treasury and I routinely help people in lower eras with trades, why wouldn't I, having hundreds of lower era goods I neither need nor use myself. I had kind of expected that most members would end up doing for my guild, eventually, what I am now doing in Fel Dranghyr. The point is, that guild allowed me the freedom to allow me to grow and develop in my own way at my own pace, knowing that the further I progressed, the more I could contribute. I want to allow my members the same freedom.

I've never heard of a trader, how would I find one? didn't realize that there was any way to get goods apart from trading then donating to the treasury, donations from members, and the arc. I never heard of a trader before.

 

[Forwandert]

A trader is just a player who sells goods for FPs, you can usually just post in the chat to find someone, they tell you the price in FPs and you add that amount to whichever one of their gbs they request you add to and then set up trades for whatever you need and they accept them, which you then add to the treasury. The advantage over just trading up in the market is they're not usually concerned what goods you put up for trade so for example trading goods 2:1 several eras higher is normal with the goods trade in your favour. Now if you wanted to go down this route I would try to buy several eras above what you need and then trade back down via the normal way so 500 goods could lead to several 1000 of the correct goods once traded down and the fp cost would have been worthwhile.

I was asking about GBG as even if the higher age players aren't taking part they could still use the SOH fragments the guild is collectively gaining from guild position to build one.

Tbh I don't know what you posted the thread for, every suggestion is met with you not wanting to ask anybody in your guild to do anything so you're probably just best carrying on as you are and not worrying about what anybody does or if they stay. I also don't mean that to sound harsh as it's not meant to be just very direct but combined with your description of your abilities on your main server and trying to follow the same lead means you're probably in line with expectations anyway.

 

[FantasticMrFrank]

GVG battlegrounds, like GE is optional in my guild. The ONLY compulsory activity I have is aiding, I thought that because we have generally low era members, it would be unreasonable for me to expect anything more. We do do GVG, but I don't expect people to do it if they are using their soldiers to fight for sectors on their map, being able to produce current era goods would be a priority. I don't expect us to do brilliantly overnight.

Let me put it this way, I am a normal member of another guild in Fel Dranghyr, and they only expect aiding, I built the arc when I reached the future, and was helped with goods by members who were at the time in space age mars. I didn't do much GVG there, but often did the GE, finishing level one most weeks and doing some of level 2. I donate regularly to the treasury and I routinely help people in lower eras with trades, why wouldn't I, having hundreds of lower era goods I neither need nor use myself. I had kind of expected that most members would end up doing for my guild, eventually, what I am now doing in Fel Dranghyr. The point is, that guild allowed me the freedom to allow me to grow and develop in my own way at my own pace, knowing that the further I progressed, the more I could contribute. I want to allow my members the same freedom.

I've never heard of a trader, how would I find one? didn't realize that there was any way to get goods apart from trading then donating to the treasury, donations from members, and the arc. I never heard of a trader before.

How on Earth did you get to FE with so much lack of game knowledge?

 

[Janet Devlin]

I'm just not game smart enough in game know-it-all so sorry so not able to contribute very much to how to play for best advantage. What I can appreciate are guilds that are not as strict as other guilds which pressure sell their way of doing things. This alone should attract new players but sadly not ones which desire the most they might get in other guilds. I don't inhabit Cirgard. In another world I've been wandering around testing the waters from one guild to another. I avoid the overcontrolling pushy ones and favour the laid back ones even if they are not fantastic but then that's just my preference.

 

[Helen1701]

I think it is a matter of personal preference, if I'd encountered a pushy guild I'd have run for the hill, perhaps even given up before I'd really gotten started. I think it might just be a waiting game, some people, as you said, prefer laid back guilds.

 

[RegV]

Just curious, how long do you wait before booting someone for not being active?