Guilds are very important in Astro Empires. They are not strictly necessary for gameplay, but in practise almost all players join a guild.
What does a Guild do?[]
Protection[]
The reason a lot of player join guilds is for the protection they can offer. Obviously all guilds are different and their policies on protection depend on who runs the guild. However, the majority of players won't attack players with a guild tag before their name for fear of possible retribution by the guild unless they're already at war.
War[]
Some guilds war constantly and some try to avoid it at all costs (often referred to as sim-guilds). In war, simply guilds fight each other, occupying the other sides bases and destroying their fleets. With the evolution of AE politics, simple wars with one guild on either side are rare and in most cases, guilds invite their friends and allies to join in. This can lead to server-wide wars.
Chat[]
All guilds have a guild board. This was originally a simple board where any player can post a message and other players can reply. It was updated to include 4 different sections, General, Announcements, Combat and Trade. General is just for anything. When a guilded players base is conquered, a battle report is sent to the combat board of their guild. If a guilded player fights a battle and posts the report to his guild board, it appears in the combat section. This is generally reserved for commenting on battles and discussing wars. The trade board is where players post their free trade routes in hope of finding a partner. When a new message appears in any of these sections, the link in the top right of a player screen shows the number of new messages and turns blue. Posting in the announcements section is restricted to guild members with "M" permissions. It is generally used for important information and when there is a new post there, the link turns red rather than blue.
Guild Structure[]
Each guild has a guild master or GM who's nickname appears on the guild page. The guild master has the ability to recruit players into his guild and to kick them. He/she can edit the guild page and the internal information, edit players titles/ranks, delete posts from the boards and post in the announcements section. The guild master can also delegate these permissions to players via the permission system. When a player has a permission a letter appears next to their title and other player in the guild can see it on the list of members in their guild. The permissions are-
Vice-all of the above can set other members permissions,a vice can set the permissions of other guild members.
R - Recruit ability
K - Kick ability
M - Post in announcement board
I - Edit guild page, internal information, delete board posts
T - Edit guild members titles/ranks
These codes appear in () next to a normal players title. Next to the GM's title, the code appears in <> and is always * so a GM is designated by <*>
The GM also has some extra abilities. He/she can edit the guild name and tag, disband the guild and transfer mastership of the guild.
All guild are structured differently. Some guilds only have the GM with any power, others have hierarchy's of power. An example one is-
GM - leads the guild
Diplomats - 2-3 players who are "second in command"
Galaxy set commanders - command a set of galaxies, eg. B00-B09
Galaxy commanders - Command a single galaxy, eg. B00
Players - Have to do what everyone else tells them.
Guildmate abilities[]
As a member of a guild, you get certain abilites. You can use the Jumpgates of your guildmates, you can see any system where your guild has a fleet/base. You can also detect your guildmate's fleet movements as soon as they are sent.
Guild Size[]
In the new versions 2.0 the following change will occur. "Maximum members reduced from 250 to 200. "