Guild Advancement overhaul

After seeing how the guild covenant discussion comes along, I figured I'd create a discussion about my proposed change to guild advancement. I've modified it slightly from the initial idea, but the core concept is still the same.

Basically, my initial thought was "How can the pressure on GA/secs/undersecs be reduced". The system would still work in that direction, but it would also help the newbies that go through it. It would still revolve around the ADVANCEMENT command, but I have included some other perks (at least from my point of view they are).

So, without further ado, here's how I envision it working.

First, the GA (and GA only!) would be able to set tasks to be completed. I've moved away from it being GR-related, so a guild could have two different advancement steps in the same GR if they wanted to. Why this change? Because it would separate guildranks from advancement completely. This is mostly because of personal experience (I was once favored before doing my advancement tasks, so since my rank didn't match the advancement I was working on, it confused the heck out of more or less the entire guild when I asked for a test), but also to allow for greater flexibility. After the tasks are set, the GA can set the results of completing the advancement step. This could be titles, a new guildrank, a new advancement step, etc.

After everything has been set up, we do, of course, have to put newbies in it. There would be a "default" advancement step which every newbie that joins from the Portals or through the guild-mob enters. At this stage, they can do ADVANCEMENT and see what tasks they are supposed to complete, and all those completed would be checked off. Once the final task is checked off, they send a message to the GA or a secretary, and the GA/secretary can then GUILD ADVANCE <person>. This would make all the results happen (new title, new guildrank, a new set of advancement tasks and whatnot) and they then start with their new tasks.

GAs would also be able to put someone in a specific step. This would primarily be done for inductees, who they can either put in their own advancement path, or put in either of the "standard" steps, all depending on the circumstances surrounding the inducted. It then progresses just like above.

So what role would undersecs have in all this? Well, aside from the automatic tasks ("get x amount of herb", "find x on a map" etc) there would also be manual tasks ("Write me a sonnet" or "Do a handstand") that undersecs would be able to check off. They would also be able to focus more on helping the newbies with general tasks instead of following them around to make sure they can find everywhere properly.

When it comes to guild covenants, I envision the GAs and undersecs being able to advance and check off tasks just as if the person was in their own guild as well as assigning or removing a person to or from a step.

So what would need to be included in this as far as individual tasks go? Well, these are the ones I think would be needed:

• Herbs
• Potions
• Enchantments
• Geography tests (i.e. it would be marked once a person visits a specific place)
• Skills
• Collegium status

When it comes to results:

• Prefix/Suffix
• Guild rank
• Next step

To summarise a bit: Things for the GA to do:

• Alter/Create/Remove steps/tasks -- Not to other guild in a covenant
  
• Assign a step to a person
  
• Remove a person from a step
• Everything a secretary can do
  

Things for secretaries to do:

• Advance someone from their current step, giving them the results
• Everything an undersecretary can do
  

Things for the undersecretaries to do:

• Check off manual tasks in a person's advancement
• View the advancement status of a particular person

People in an advancement step can:

• View their advancement status
• View the general outlining of any advancement step

That's pretty much it for the idea. I'm sure a lot can be improved upon, but it should give you the core of it as I envision it. Are any other kind of tasks needed? Any other results? Any other things GA/secs/undersecs need to be able to do? Anything else that would be nice to have included?