RUNESCAPE SUGGESTION THREAD -- The Clan Bank: Prototype

Before I put this up on the RS forums, I'd like to see some feedback from people I know can stay competent with their answers. Chatforce, we're gonna see if we can refine how clans are run in RS

THE GENERAL IDEA

Members of a clan could be given the ability to contribute in-game resources to the clan. A special bank account under the name of the clan is how that could be done.

REASONING

--Whether a clan be made for combat, skilling, or commerce, resources must often be managed to keep the clan running as smoothly as possible. A clan bank is a tool specifically aimed at resource management for the clan.

--It especially seems to be a missing feature for skilling clans, where more often than not, you need resources to function properly. Miners need pickaxes, smithies need ores/bars, farmers need seeds, herbalists need vials, woodcutters need hatchets, etc. Associated skilling such as one clan member mining and another clan member smithing it could be made a whole lot easier with a clan-wide banking system.

--Combat clans can be diversified to get their resources from an inside source. For example, you could have a player that fishes swordfish and gives them to the clan bank. Another player then proceeds to cook the swordfish, and the general combatants could put that food to good use in, say, the wilderness.

--A clan bank prevents players from having to scale distances and set up appointments to make contributions to their clans.

--Perhaps you can get a hold of fish but can't cook them. Maybe you've mined a load of ores that you can't smelt. You probably have a lot of seeds that aren't very useful to you. A lot of useful items have wasted potential in them that could be of more use in the clan or in the market.

--Pooling your resources with other clan members enhances team play, allowing players to judge their clans' capabilities and aims so they can act accordingly.

--"Corporation clans" will finally be able to have their own identities. Corporations can be run as what they really aim to be: a joint "all-for-one/one-for-all" effort.

--The spoils of PK or boss kills can go to a clan as a whole as an alternative to the often unforgiving Lootshare system.

--With tools for clans being developed and trade restrictions being released, this was never as applicable as it is right now.

--Keep in mind that the idea is a flexible one, and it doesn't have to be handled exactly the way that I describe it. For instance, if you think the clan bank should be at a new location instead of just any bank, state your mind!

CORE SPECIFICS

VERSION 1:
A player may go into a bank in Runescape to contribute to the clan that he or she is currently in. It could be called a "donate" function, and it would allow the player in question to give to his or her fellow clan members.

Recovering donations could be done through a new button on the bank interface that has the clan symbol on it. Who can recover from the clan bank will be at the discretion of the clan owner (like the way you can assign the KICK function to particular ranks, this could be assigned as a BANK function). If someone below that rank wants to recover goods from the clan bank, he or she can simply ask a higher rank to get the item, which can then simply be handed over since trade restrictions are soon to be gone.

Of course, no untradeable items are allowed into the clan bank, and the amount of space in the clan bank would be at the discretion of developers.

VERSION 2:
Instead of a "donate" button, a tenth tab is added to the player's bank which has separate item stacks from his or her regular bank items. The tenth tab shows your items that are invested into clan banks. You have access to all of these items regardless of your rank in the clan, so what YOU put in is always included in what YOU can take out.

Items can only be put into the tenth tab when you are in a clan, but they can always be taken out by the player who put them in. Items put into the tenth tab take up bank space for the player who puts them in, and items given to different clans take up different bank spaces. Tenth-tab items are also given a mark in their right-click menus that state which clan the items are in.

When the tenth tab is first opened, it displays items the player has contributed. There is a button in the tenth tab added that allows the player to access the clan bank (if he or she has the rank to).

ADVANCEMENTS/SUGGESTIONS

RANK-TAB SYSTEM
Issues addressed: High-ranks having to be bothered to get something when a clanmate wants it; distributing a high number of goods for processing by members.

A lower rank could have access to less tabs than a higher rank does. That keeps the high-value items secure and the more common goods in the hands of the people that use them.

The power to move items between tabs would be given at the discretion of the clan owner, effectively refining the "BANK" function.

In version 2, these security levels can be tabs that run along the underside of the regular bank tabs while the tenth tab is open.
--Suggested by writer (Kazmir Runik)
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CLAN BANK TRADING/LENDING
Issues addressed: Inability to trade items for clan use equitably; having to scale possibly large distances to be lent an item for use by a clanmate.

This would allow clans to trade with one another and to give support to players that are either outside of the clan or are at lower ranks within the clan. The trade can be made by sending a trade request to a member of a clan while he or she is at a bank. Since the chat interface is open while a bank is in use, a non-intrusive notification can be made in the chat box reading "Clan trade request from [player name]" in a currently unused notification color like light green. The trading player would be notified that he or she is engaging in trade with a clan.

Once the clan trade request gets a response, it opens a normal trade interface, but there is a button in the inventory panel that opens the clan bank, and the player could offer items directly from the clan bank to the trade interface. If this is used, any payment offered by the other player would go to the clan bank, NOT the player's inventory. Both players can offer from their clan banks or just one player could. When a player is using the clan bank in a trade, the text "The other player has # inventory spaces left." would be replaced with "You are trading with a clan bank."

ALTERNATIVELY, for clan lending, items could simply be lent to a clan for any member to take and use. A clan member might be gone for a while, so he or she lends the item to the clan bank so that item can go to good use in his or her clan for the duration of the lend.

--Suggested by writer, clan lending refined by Piper
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DONOR STATUS
Issues addressed: Greedy clan members; player accreditation.

Each clan member is marked with a number in the clan setup. That number represents how much that clan member has given to (+#) or taken from (-#) the clan bank. This number is judged in gp, according to the recommended prices on the Grand Exchange at the time the resources were contributed. This number does not change with the market, so if a player contributes 2,000 gp in willow logs and the price of willow logs changes, that player still has +2,000 as his or her donor status until the player gives to or takes from the clan bank again.

This helps management to judge who is using the clan bank favorably. Donor status may be reset at the discretion of management. This protects activities such as smithing armor that results in a net loss in gp.

If one takes too much from a clan, the owner may choose to derank or outright kick the member from the clan.
--Suggested by writer
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"DONATED BY"
Issues addressed: Junk donations; player accreditation.

This marks goods with the usernames of the people who contributed them. For example, if a player contributes 1,200 iron ore, it's mentioned on the ores' right-click menu in the clan bank. If another player donates 800 more iron ore, the right-click menu displays the first player's name followed by "1200" and the second player's name below it, reading "800."

When players take from the clan bank, it takes from the number on the top. For example, if a third player takes 300 away, it'll then read "player1 - 900" with "player2 - 800" below it.

The next person who contributes is always listed below player2 so his or her materials are used first, even if the next contributor is player1 again. Player1 contributes 1,100 more units of iron ore:

Withdraw 1
Withdraw 5
Withdraw 10
Withdraw X
player1 - 900
player2 - 800
player1 - 1100

--Suggested by writer
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CLAN-OWNED ITEMS
Issues addressed: Greedy clan members.

Instead of items withdrawn from a clan bank automatically belonging to that person, certain items could be marked with a prefix or suffix "(C)" to signify that item as belonging to the clan. A (C) item would be untradeable, unlendable, and unbankable except for the clan bank. It can work as a replacement for clan lending, and it could work the same way as the item lending system, in which the item is always kept upon death and it can only be set for certain items. (C) can be set by an appropriately ranked clan member.

In version 2, (C) can be set by the player who puts the item into the clan bank. It might also be set by a high-ranking clan member, but the player who put the item in can always override this since the item belongs to him or her in the first place.

--Suggested by Mrr (Raccoon)

THIS SPACE RIGHT HERE is open for more suggestions

--Suggested by [next suggester]

(once these advancements go up on RS, all of them will be listed as "--Suggested by the members of clan Chatforce.")

FEEDBACK

Talk about it, folks! Questions, fixes, etc... things like that

I really like this and I would support on the RS Forums. I had a friend who played World of Warcraft once and they had a very similar setup for their guilds. A guild only bank where players could contribute to the clan / guild. This would also be nice for people who are skillers only or a good way to get rid of junk. Also a good way as a clan overall to interact and come together.

Yeah, sounds really good, and helpful :p but can you make money off the items from the banks, like go and sell them to the GE or something? Or would they be marked with like a (C) or something and makes them untradeable to other players or the GE

This, much like communism, is good in theory.
However, this, much like communism, would fail, due to one main thing.

Greed.

support, i wont steal the cash

It's a good idea but there will be so many problems, hence why I'm going against this. Not only will Jagex need more software, but it also depends on how many will actually use this function. Not to mention how it will work...

Do you mean that this idea will apply to all of RS? Or just us, either way it will be very difficult to run. This is kind of similar to shaiya, the guild has it's own warehouse but only ranked 2 and up may withdraw items from it. Since this is RS it's going to be a bit different. To be honest I don't think this need to be suggested when something similar can already be done.

The problem with this idea is that some of the things you've listed can already be done. I just started playing again and I'm sure that lending is still part of trading. So really lending can be done between players so there is no need. If a bank is going to be made, the clan leader (Trim) should be the one in charge of this bank, and the only one in charge. So in other words, he can make a new account just for the purpose of storing things. The reason for this is because from what I gather if we use the ranking system... there will be alot of stars that are able to use the features.

It's more about trust that I'm worried about, also this idea will take away the meaning of some things. Especially cwars, if people want to be in a clan and want to contribute something, they go to cwar clans. Trust me I know, I am in these clans often. It will also reduce the meaning of playing a game, playing a game is where a player independantly learns how to increase his or her toon to the max they can. I think having a clan bank will just make lvling a whole lot easier since the bank willl have things that you can borrow that will help you with skills.

It will also affect the prices too...if this was introduced. I could go on but this is the main point I want to stress...

RUNESCAPE ISN'T THE TYPE OF GAME THAT NEEDS THIS FEATURE YET.

At this stage runescape is at a stage where things like this aren't necessary, I would only support if RS made guilds. Guilds will be different to clan chats, guilds will be the clans where you can contribute to cwars, pvp etc. At this point of time it's not necessary. If RS was more like the larger MMORPG games sure, but it's not. I don't think that this suggestion is ideal for a game like this.

I might add it's also the fact that...RS doesn't have enough items to do this. Unless they introduce new items and gear then maybe. Until then I don't think many are willing to donate sets of armor, weapos, bones, pots etc to this yet unless there is some way to gather these items other then GE. Some can atm with like monster drops but overall there isn't enough stuff on RS to do this, this is will also be grealy effected by the lvl of play. Not everyone is member and not everyone is f2p. There will be a lot of confrontation. That's all I have to say.

Also it will take alot of time and effort to keep this bank decent.