Guildship for smaller guilds idea

Participate in Conquest fully... what parts of Conquest can guilds that do not have ships NOT participate in? They can still earn conquest points by doing flash points, operations, war zones, GSF matches, crafting, killing specific NPC's, etc., right? What content does the ship gate away from them?

The ship DOES start small and build up in progression. The small start is 50 million. The next expansion is more credits plus some stuff you earn via conquest. And so on and so on.

That is totally NOT what I said.
You keep claiming that you cannot do Conquests without ship. We told you you can, and that those exact activities can help bring guild together to earn the gosh darn ship.
To recap
YOU CAN STILL DO CONQUESTS WITHOUT A FLAGSHIP

if we were to have cheaper/ less effective guild ships, i would recommend that the Gage-class transport ( like the black talon) be made available to imperial guilds, and the Hammerhead-class cruiser ( like the Essles) be made availible for the republic, i never liked the design of the valor-class anyway.

So free race cars for EVERYONE!

Does the plea for free handouts sound different if the context changes only slightly? I wonder if we did it with bowling or softball if that would make much difference...

You cannot participate on an equal playing field without a ship. It will take twice as long to achieve personal which is the bare minimum. You cannot argue this simple fact. Whether you are cool with the implications of it is up for debate, but I personally am not. This discussion from my end is less about being able to compete and more about being able to participate in a reasonable format. Conquest is meant to reward playing the game.

Personal conquest is the minimum reward for that activity. It is achievable over the course of a week, but easier for guild ship housed players as opposed to shipless players. Why is that? If this were sub vs nonsub that could be easily explained by the fact that one group puts money into the game the other doesn't. But that is not what it is. Having a ship does not enable you to win. Your guild's efforts and coordination is what does that. All a guild ship does is allow you to reasonably accrue points since they double specific points. So why restrict the guild ship concept at all?

The only conclusion I can reach is because some people want this to be a fight between those who play a lot and those who do not. Hardcore vs Casual. And honestly if that is what this whole argument is about then it is a losing battle for the hardcore in the long run and one they MUST lose. Promoting fighting between hardcore and casual is tantamount to killing the game. Blocking gametypes/systems the game offers is suicide for those systems. Ranked PvP, specifically 8v8, was a casualty of this war. Some would say nightmare should be thrown into this category, but the reason why it cannot be is because it is just an augmented form of content that already exists for casuals and since PvE in its nature is not competitive those who do nightmare do not make the casual's experience worse. PvP is and those that do ranked also do regulars and with the quicker progression in ranked they do make the casuals life harder. GSF was a casualty of that war. A game mode that simply put gives the edge to the hardcore and keeps out the casual. Conquest saved GSF because it gave it more incentive.

To sum it up having smaller guild ships would help conquest stay successful and add to it by providing another form of progression via getting the bigger and better guild ships.

This is not true. A guild flagship might grant bonuses to certain conquest objectives depending on which conquests are currently running and which one the guild leader chooses to participate in. However, there is no guarantee at all that these bonuses would line up with what the players would do to earn their conquest points.

It's not twice as fast. Sometimes it might be. Sometimes it might be no bonus whatsoever on the things the player wants to do. But I would agree that the ship does, overall, somewhat reduce the number of things you need to do to earn the same number of conquest points.

But speed of point acquisition is not content.

If you want to earn conquest points more quickly, then go earn the flagship that enables it. The game does not make that impossible. The game doesn't even make it hard. Well, for guilds, which is what they're designed for. Guild Flagship. It's right there in the name.

The design goal for the release was Guild content and the name of the thing that enables it is Guild Flagship. It's all about Guilds.

Fortunately enough for people who don't want to be in a guild for whatever reason, BioWare saw fit to enable Personal Conquest, which does not require a Guild Flagship, which looks a lot like Guild Conquest, and whose rewards look a lot like the rewards from Guild Conquest.

Options are cool.

It's not restricted. What in the game prevents any guild from acquiring one? (The answer is: nothing. The only thing preventing any guild from acquiring a flagship is that guild's lack of desire to obtain one.)

A single player can earn the credits to acquire a guild flagship by playing less time than the average player who enjoys such aspects of this game as flash points, PvP, and GSF. It's not about playing a lot. It's about doing the right things for a fraction of your gaming time.

That argument became a cop-out the moment a bunch of small, casual guilds came here to the forums and said they either got or were getting their flagships. It became even more of a cop-out the moment some of those guilds hit the top-10 list.

Don't sell yourself short. Any guild can do this. It requires desire and, yes, a bit of knowledge. Fortunately enough that bit of knowledge is easy to acquire. The desire... that may be more difficult.

This isn't an argument of hardcore vs. casual. Just like keeping the 600k cost for a guild bank way back in 1.2 wasn't hardcore vs.casual. It's desire vs. lack of desire. Hardcore effort is not required to obtain 600k or 50 million... if you're a guild.

The only thing blocking Guild Conquest is a guild's lack of desire to participate. There is nothing the game's publishers can do about that.

But if you the acquisition of a guild flagship is a "block", then is the requirement for level 55, appropriate gear, and learning to play well in groups also "blocking" engame PvE? (Personal conquest is story mode. Guild conquest is Nightmare Mode... think about it.)

You have a small, expandable guild ship. Start with the entry level one. Expand it by first acquiring it and then participating effectively in Conquest content. You have exactly what you asked for... what others have asked for... except you don't like the 50m entry level price tag, just like others hated the 600k price tag on guild banks 2 years' worth of releases ago.

The playing fields aren't equal even with the ship. Conquest is a brutal affair and those who don't have the fortitude to earn the ship don't have what it takes to compete in guild/group conquest. My guild uses spreadsheets to track the progress of other guilds and we make guesses based upon the average amount of points they can/have put up to see if we'd want to go up against them in conquest. the second week, many of our members stayed up 24 hours straight to make sure we didn't lose. We store thousands of mats and have grinded hundreds of warzones, flashpoints, and operations.

how many casual guilds that can't/won't work for a ship do you think will make commitments like that?

Oh please! Non Subscribers don't deserve a Guild Flagship and should never ever have 1. Be lucky you can join a guild full of subs who can buy 1 and you can go on it. A flagship was stated to be something guilds would strive for. Not something a group of freeloaders could get together and buy.

Understanding what participate means in my post will help understand my argument. Competing is different than participating. Achieving personal quest is participating. This is something you can do without any sense of competition being involved. Trying to get into top 10 is when you compete and that is the part that your post refers to. Personal conquest is seperate from the battle for top 10. It is simply put a personal goal. Having a guild ship allows you to participate in a more reasonable manner.

@DarthTHC I am running out of time so can't reply point by point at this moment, but one thing you said stood out and that is how if a specific planet is invading and the guild wants to do other stuff then having a ship changes nothing. Then WHY the hell did the guild invade a planet their guildies wouldn't benefit from!? ROFL

Competing requires a whole other level of commitment, but I am not talking about competing!!! Participating is difficult without a guild ship. This is not an opinion of one lone Sentinel I hope . Not impossible, but requires far too much grind. A guild ship allows conquest to be more enjoyable and in turn makes it appealing content to the masses. In its current state it is not super appealing unless you are part of a guild that has a ship. By the way my guild got the ship day one and has hit top 10 twice I think. So this whole discussion has little to do with me lol. But I know many others in my circle that it does impact and in a negative way. 2.10 might as well have just been strongholds for some people.

I laughed.