If we "started working a little for the guild"? The higher-levels are already working our butts off just to break even.
Upkeep looks to be <12M per week. I overlooked inactivity of 3JS, who alone would possibly cover almost half of that.
Of course, a handful of 300+ players trying to pull a guild isn't easy... it will often require sacrificing a bit of own progress (i.e. saving 10FSP on EW1500 and playing a bit slower with CA)...
First, yes. 3JS is about to leave either the guild or the game, and we are making preparations for that. (He's also got significant backpack space, so we're doing a bit of sell-off of guild items right now.)
As for sacrificing my own progress... *laughs* I haven't leveled in
months. The last 21 levels I've had have been XP gain and a couple quests I've cleaned up. I'm not sure how to sacrifice my progress much more than that. The only progress I've made is on my shiny new Gold Adventurer's medal.

Alright... I'm getting conflicting information on this. You're saying we'd be able to buy an Earth Hammer for 60 FSPs? Then why do I have a good friend who used to be in our guild saying that she'd give us an Earth Hammer for 100 FSPs? Are you including crafting and forging or just a vanilla Earth Hammer?
bare one for 69 now, FF exc. 90.
We MIGHT be able to scrape 69 FSPs up. Maybe. *thinks* If we stretch it, maybe.
68K per hour for us. I'm asking the other founders if we can save a little bit by demolishing our Crafter's Workshop, Inventor's Laboratory, and Health Shrine. I don't know if we're actively using them. It would only save us 2,353 gold per hour, though, but every little bit helps.
I was aiming more at the expensive ones.
Fury Shrine 5 12,000 - these days, there's truckloads of gear that will provide this. It takes only a little effort I guess. (correct me if I'm wrong and those truckloads do not include lower-level items, it's just an assumption on my side).
Tranquil Retreat 11 16,000 (you)
Tranquil Retreat 8 2,000 (we)
Do you think that +60 stamina is worth 2FSP per day? How many members really make effective use of that +60?
Preemptive Temple 10 1,816 - ok, not an expensive one, but the last 2 steps double the upkeep. Worth the 4% increase in first strike? Maybe...
The stat-increase buildings, I don't remember exact costs but perhaps not getting the maximum from them wouldn't hurt.
With those that would need only downgrading, it's not worth the effort to tear down and rebuild - but I wanted to point out that a lot of expenses are, so to speak, self-inflicted wounds.
Well, most of these were built in the glory days of the guild, back when the guild or a member of it was on every single "Top" board. Our guild has taken a severe beating. We had a few significant players leave for other guilds, and the guild started struggling a bit. Then, we had about half our players either leave the guild or go inactive, all within a week. Our former guild founder does a massive gear sell-off. He then kicks most of the inactives we had (We're down to maybe 10 original members from when I joined the guild, including inactives used for BackPack space, and we have a list of significant former members on our guild website that's over 40.) Then, he did a bunch of structure destruction (we
used to have every structure, all maxed out, and we were fine in paying for it because we had the players to do so). Then, the former guild founder dumps it all on me, someone not used to leading people, and goes offline himself. And then, HCS comes out with GvG rewards the same week. So I'm sitting here, holding the reigns of the guild which is headed for destruction, and here I am, a player who's simply played the game since level 2 in this same guild, holding on for dear life while we're getting
SLAMMED with GvGs (which no one in the guild cared about at the time, since the guild was dying, so that's how we racked up most of our current amount of 851 losses) and watching the guild bank drain from 50 million to 4 million in the span of a week. I was pouring everything I had into the guild just to keep it alive, which is probably why I'm broke now. It wasn't until I ended up recruiting Dradin to our guild that we got back rolling. He whipped us into shape while he was here. (He is now in our brother guild, the Brotherhood of the Broken Sword, which is made up about half of former Knights, and we always knew those folks were never permanent.) He was the one who convinced me to destroy our Endurance Shrine and build it back to Level 2. He helped establish our GvG defense force. He did all sorts of stuff. We miss him, but we still have him, sort of.
Anyway, away from guild history and back onto structures... I never really thought much about the Tranquil Retreat, but I do know that the Pre-emptive Temple has helped us win some GvGs, since, after we rebuilt it, we started winning a bit more.
You now have an earth hammer, have a great day and I wish you all the best in the future.
I remember when being kind didn't have to come with stipulations and where greed wasn't the primary motivating factor in the game. Where the personal satisfaction of seeing others enjoy themselves more due to something that you could do with a little sacrafice was as rewarding as any personal gain.
You are a saint, an angel, a God-send. *hugs you*

And I love your philosophy, mainly because I share it. I get great joy in seeing my guildmates level well after I buff them. I spend all my stamina buffing these past few months, since I have no money to level and even when I did, I was always spending more on buffs than I was getting in return. So combining that with pouring everything into the guild to keep it alive, I've been scraping along the bottom for a long while, but I've been mostly happy because I've been able to help others.

(This is also why I'm
really pissed at 2 people who I can't name due to board rules (but would really like to), for stealing guild deposit gold from us.)