Why are guild halls so big?

[Coeruleum.9164]

Does anyone know why guild halls are so big? They appear to be the size of the entire city of Divinity's Reach. Divinity's Reach probably has 100,000 people based on the size of large cities during the Middle Ages and you can see all the houses, apartments, shops, and even the palace. Guild halls appear to be the same size geographically and hold about 500 people. You could fill up the guild hall with houses and apartments and still not feel crowded. I'm sure I've been to towns in Colorado that are smaller than the guild halls. Is there anything in real life or fantasy that's like the ginormous guild halls? Thanks!

[b k.1648]

Easier to use less of an oversized area than to use more of an undersized one, I guess. If there were a few more of them to choose between, maybe some could have been smaller.

[coso.9173]

I agree, guild halls should be the size of a manor or a very big house, but not the size of a city.Big empty maps are gw2 usual problem

[Coeruleum.9164]

@"coso.9173" said:I agree, guild halls should be the size of a manor or a very big house, but not the size of a city.Big empty maps are gw2 usual problem

Yes. You should be able to claim a guild hall IN Divinity's Reach, or Hoelbrak, or other locations and have it be an instance. The remote locations like Lost Precipice are fine for a guild hall to be but the hall shouldn't be the entire area with most of it as empty space and a bunch of helicopters flying around. I asked people in the game why the guild halls are so big and they were like "so it doesn't feel crowded when there are 500 people" and I was like... it's the size of a city... smaller spaces within Divinity's Reach don't even feel crowded when there's 500 people. The lodges in Hoelbrak are significantly smaller than the guild hall, have thousands of people, and don't feel crowded.

Big empty maps might be a gw2 problem, but big empty guild halls taking up an entire map really seem atypical. I can wander around the cities, towns, and settlements and feel immersed in a fantasy world. The guild halls just feel thrown together by comparison. The guild halls should really be what the home instances are. The home instances feel huge and they're probably not even 1/100th the size of guild halls anyways, and they still manage to fit all sorts of vendors and useful stuff.

I don't think it would kill gw2 to entirely rework the guild halls and make the areas of the maps that have the guild halls into something else with the same terrain. Big empty maps aren't a problem by me. I've seen enough "big empty maps" in real life. In fact, I don't think I'd mind more "big empty maps" in Tyria in-between the zones with things going on to make Tyria bigger geographically. Not every place in real life has a lot of interesting events going on. Montana exists, Canada exists, the Sahara exists. Big empty maps where you can just go and farm resources and enemies and you know those places exist would make Tyria seem more realistic to me. They probably wouldn't even have to be saved on your computer since there'd just be no story there, only a bunch of farming and maybe in a future update fishing.

[coso.9173]

Sadly i think the devs are kind of abandoning guild halls. it's not very updated.and when i say big empty maps, I mean mostly interiors. like most interior in the game are huge and pretty empty. :(

[Coeruleum.9164]

@coso.9173 said:sadly i think the devs are kind of abandoning guild halls. it's not very updated.ahdn when i say big empty maps, I mean mostly interiors. like most interior in the game are huge and pretty empty. :(

The guild halls don't have to be a nice place people hang out, since that's what actually playing the game is for, but guild halls the size of a large city are driving me crazy. Even putting up with the fact that people talk about horses yet no one's seemed to have ever seen one is easier.

[Stelawrat.6589]

@Coeruleum.9164 said:

@coso.9173 said:I agree, guild halls should be the size of a manor or a very big house, but not the size of a city.Big empty maps are gw2 usual problem

Not every place in real life has a lot of interesting events going on. Montana exists,

Canada exists,

the Sahara exists.

HEY! We have interesting stuff eh! So...Wait! What's that in the front yard? I can't tell if it's a moose or a beaver. I'll be back.

Sorry I yelled...

[Coeruleum.9164]

@Stelawrat.6589 said:

@Coeruleum.9164 said:

@coso.9173 said:I agree, guild halls should be the size of a manor or a very big house, but not the size of a city.Big empty maps are gw2 usual problem

Not every place in real life has a lot of interesting events going on. Montana exists,

Canada exists,

the Sahara exists.

HEY! We have interesting stuff eh! So...Wait! What's that in the front yard? I can't tell if it's a moose or a beaver. I'll be back.

Sorry I yelled...

OK, there are lots of interesting things that happen in Canada, but most of it happens in a few small parts of Canada. Most of Canada is a real-world large empty map. I think most of America is like that too. Most suburbs and many cities even have a ridiculous amount of spacing between buildings. However, that spacing still isn't the size of a Guild Wars 2 guild hall.

[Vayne.8563]

Guild Halls have limits to how many objects you can put in a small area. Since decorating guild halls, for some guilds, is a big thing, it's there as a blank canvas for people to "play with". In our guild hall we have a pet cemetary to honor our lost furry friends (or in some cases feathered), we have a party area, we have tombstones with guldies names hidden all over, a bone bridge raceway, and all sorts of other areas for people to explore and enjoy...and some people do. If you had a small guild hall, with the limitation on space, our super cool hologram dragon would look ridiculous. lol

[Zok.4956]

@Coeruleum.9164 said:Does anyone know why guild halls are so big?

Guild halls in the original Guild Wars are isles and were used also as PVP-maps for GvG (Guild-versus-Guild) battles.

My guess: Because of this the devs created big guild hall structures in GW2 when Anet introduced guild halls with the first game expansion.

[coso.9173]

@"Vayne.8563" said:Guild Halls have limits to how many objects you can put in a small area. Since decorating guild halls, for some guilds, is a big thing, it's there as a blank canvas for people to "play with". In our guild hall we have a pet cemetary to honor our lost furry friends (or in some cases feathered), we have a party area, we have tombstones with guldies names hidden all over, a bone bridge raceway, and all sorts of other areas for people to explore and enjoy...and some people do. If you had a small guild hall, with the limitation on space, our super cool hologram dragon would look ridiculous. lol

this sounds prety nice, do you have an videos?

[Vayne.8563]

@coso.9173 said:

@"Vayne.8563" said:Guild Halls have limits to how many objects you can put in a small area. Since decorating guild halls, for some guilds, is a big thing, it's there as a blank canvas for people to "play with". In our guild hall we have a pet cemetary to honor our lost furry friends (or in some cases feathered), we have a party area, we have tombstones with guldies names hidden all over, a bone bridge raceway, and all sorts of other areas for people to explore and enjoy...and some people do. If you had a small guild hall, with the limitation on space, our super cool hologram dragon would look ridiculous. lol

this sounds prety nice, do you have an videos?

I don't but I can give you a tour if you like. I'm not recruiting or anything but always happy to show someone around.

[serialkicker.5274]

Ideally, it should start small and have an option to expand for those guilds that want huge areas of nothing. Sun's refuge is example how a guild hall should look like.

[Lottie.5370]

I really enjoy the size of the guild hall (in Lost Precipice) and I have had a ton of fun decorating it. It gives you loads of space to make jumping puzzles and races/mount races. I also love the hidden homes around the edge of the map, and all the different levels. I don't really see there being any problem with the size they are, especially when all the NPCs you need to use regularly are pretty compacted towards the centre (aside from the Arena in this map, but it's also very fast to glide to).

[Iris Ng.9845]

Can people complaining about big guild halls just leave us who had been wanting for big guild halls for years alone? Lol.

Since 2012 to 2015/HoT, the only place you could gather the guild is the small mansion on the side of Lion's Arch (look up where the guild commendation vendor is). If you like to squeeze in a small cozy place, just go there. They even have a couch by the fireplace to lounge around.

Me and others, we love our big guild halls. Decorating the guild halls is the only fun thing to play after fashion wars. While we're at it, please increase the decoration limit!

[Brycar.2651]

@serialkicker.5274 said:Ideally, it should start small and have an option to expand for those guilds that want huge areas of nothing. Sun's refuge is example how a guild hall should look like.

Exactly. I love my guild. We are very active and meet up for events. We never meet at the guild hall.

[Brycar.2651]

@Iris Ng.9845 said:Can people complaining about big guild halls just leave us who had been wanting for big guild halls for years alone? Lol.

Since 2012 to 2015/HoT, the only place you could gather the guild is the small mansion on the side of Lion's Arch (look up where the guild commendation vendor is). If you like to squeeze in a small cozy place, just go there. They even have a couch by the fireplace to lounge around.

Me and others, we love our big guild halls. Decorating the guild halls is the only fun thing to play after fashion wars. While we're at it, please increase the decoration limit!

Of course you’re right. Enjoy it. It doesn’t decrease my enjoyment of the game. Have fun!

[Chichimec.9364]

@Vayne.8563 said:Guild Halls have limits to how many objects you can put in a small area. Since decorating guild halls, for some guilds, is a big thing, it's there as a blank canvas for people to "play with". In our guild hall we have a pet cemetary to honor our lost furry friends (or in some cases feathered), we have a party area, we have tombstones with guldies names hidden all over, a bone bridge raceway, and all sorts of other areas for people to explore and enjoy...and some people do. If you had a small guild hall, with the limitation on space, our super cool hologram dragon would look ridiculous. lol

Generally I use the guild halls only for their resource nodes and for easy access to various maps while not paying much attention to the decorations. So yeah, for me, most of the guild hall is space I don't bother with. However, I'm glad all that space is there for those who enjoy decorating. Just because it's not my thing doesn't mean I want to shut down such options for other people. Heck, what @Vayne.8563 is describing sounds pretty nice.

[serialkicker.5274]

@"Iris Ng.9845" said:Can people complaining about big guild halls just leave us who had been wanting for big guild halls for years alone? Lol.

Since 2012 to 2015/HoT, the only place you could gather the guild is the small mansion on the side of Lion's Arch (look up where the guild commendation vendor is). If you like to squeeze in a small cozy place, just go there. They even have a couch by the fireplace to lounge around.

Me and others, we love our big guild halls. Decorating the guild halls is the only fun thing to play after fashion wars. While we're at it, please increase the decoration limit!

Can't people who prefer smaller big halls not have any options? Only people that like big halls matter or something? Easy for you to say, "can you not complain", when you have three options for big halls and we have 0 for small.

[Friday.7864]

They are big because you can do some amazing stuff with them when it comes to decorations.From anything as simple as a portal to the top of your guild hall to making entire race tracks or jumping puzzles.It's a good gold and material sink considering how decked out some guild halls are.

[Bast.7253]

I feel like they were originally meant to be expanded upon. There are signs in Gilded Hollow like a vanishing updraft, a hidden interactable crystal room, and large chunks of what seems like an obvious organic jumping puzzle that make me think they originally planned on developing more more on them.

At some point they decided they didn't want to invest the resources, or they started transferring people off to other projects. I think the biggest issue with why they didn't really take off was the fact that there wasn't much to do in them and they costed an insane amount of gold to upgrade. That and making most decorations is obnoxious with the tab inception of scribing mixed with the timer schematic system.

I think a lot of people in result asked for smaller guild halls, probably in hopes for comparably smaller upgrade prices, but instead they just kind of gave us Windswept with POF for the sake of adding one and toss in a few decorations every now and then.

They've always seemed like they're EXTREMELY focused in what they devote any resources to. There's a lot of music from POF that isn't able to be played in the guild halls. Living Season soundtracks never get added. We rarely get decorations and when we do, half the time they're some miniscule item like a statue or a lantern that doesn't really create much room for creativity.

(With a few nice exceptions of course and I think they've been slowly trying to improve what they add, i.e. the most recent structural decorations from this festival, the trees from Drizzlewood.)

If you really want a small guild hall, Windswept is much smaller than the others and there's really no reason to go anywhere besides the main center city section. Everything else is pretty much just desert, rubble, and open space. There's a hidden room in the mine and upgrades unlock some neat-ish areas, but for the most part it's pretty straight forward.

[Stelawrat.6589]

I didn't realize that guild halls came in different sizes, so I'm just curious... is it more difficult to get a big guild hall vs a small one, or is the process identical re: the number of obstacles, fights etc.? Is there an advantage re: location & does that have an impact on the size?There must be a reason for the various sizes. I haven't checked the Wiki, so if the answers are in there, then feel free to send me there!

[Ashantara.8731]

I love the size, it leaves endless options of decorating. :)

[Coeruleum.9164]

@Bast.7253 said:I feel like they were originally meant to be expanded upon. There are signs in Gilded Hollow like a vanishing updraft, a hidden interactable crystal room, and large chunks of what seems like an obvious organic jumping puzzle that make me think they originally planned on developing more more on them.

At some point they decided they didn't want to invest the resources, or they started transferring people off to other projects. I think the biggest issue with why they didn't really take off was the fact that there wasn't much to do in them and they costed an insane amount of gold to upgrade. That and making most decorations is obnoxious with the tab inception of scribing mixed with the timer schematic system.

I think a lot of people in result asked for smaller guild halls, probably in hopes for comparably smaller upgrade prices, but instead they just kind of gave us Windswept with POF for the sake of adding one and toss in a few decorations every now and then.

They've always seemed like they're EXTREMELY focused in what they devote any resources to. There's a lot of music from POF that isn't able to be played in the guild halls. Living Season soundtracks never get added. We rarely get decorations and when we do, half the time they're some miniscule item like a statue or a lantern that doesn't really create much room for creativity.

(With a few nice exceptions of course and I think they've been slowly trying to improve what they add, i.e. the most recent structural decorations from this festival, the trees from Drizzlewood.)

If you really want a small guild hall, Windswept is much smaller than the others and there's really no reason to go anywhere besides the main center city section. Everything else is pretty much just desert, rubble, and open space. There's a hidden room in the mine and upgrades unlock some neat-ish areas, but for the most part it's pretty straight forward.

I haven't been to Windswept Haven, but it looks like it's still pretty much half the size of Amnoon. I want the guild hall to resemble... an actual guild hall. Everything else seems pretty immersive to me except for the guild halls that are the size of cities. The size of the home instance in Hoelbrak seems big enough for 1,000 people and it doesn't even need waypoints.

[hugo.4705]

The size isn't an issue (was decorator in 3 guilds in the three guild halls). It is in fact, very frustating to not fully express yourself because you reached the decoration limit of the area/hall. I would like to have a guild hall that really look like a city. The lost precipice is neat, gilded hollow offer lot of space and grottos but windswept is a disapointment: the core sure can be used but when you start aiming to borders it's bad. If the guild halls were ACTUALLY looking like the loading screens arts would have been even better.

I would ask for empty living story instances as guild halls: The Auditorium, Rata Primus, Gandara Fortress, Farahnur, White mantle hideout.....