Instead of narrowing down any one point, let's discuss potential problems, bugs or imbalances with the faction bases or faction mechanics. If any strong debate can be made about any one topic, mechanic, or need/want then maybe we can start a separate thread.
Faction awards/prizes. I feel that some of the cool stuff could have EASILY been implemented into factions to get more interest in it. Like faction specific house decor. I feel factions can provide incentives to crafters if they craft in faction controlled towns, they could get a boost to crafting, like higher percentage to craft exceptional. Get them plate BODS done quicker, with RISK. Also I had this idea: After a sigil is captured and placed back into town it undergoes purification, when eligible to steal again, but that is TOO easy. How about if It is held by a guardian/champ in the city. The longer he stays alive, the more silver the faction accumulates (defender bonus) and decent loot drop for attackers. When he dies the sigil is transferred to the highest damage dealer (Minax/SL double teaming) and is looted and taken to a stronghold, only then is it stealable from the faction stronghold. Having a sigil immediately stealable from a town is too easy and requires no teamwork whatsoever, 1 person is (was) doing it these days. It should require a team to gain control of a town.
Here is my post for upgraded strongholds: The recent upgrade to the True "Britannians" helped improve strong hold security. I would like if some renovations were completed to the Council of Mages strong hold. I have included some proposals, although there are a few other ways you can do it, I have photos of all strong holds to support this. It can be added to the upcoming faction patches. Barriers can be placed on the 6 tile wide bridge for added choke points. Entrance idea to wall off the sigils, create two available passages. The SE passage will be wider/longer. the NW passage is shorter and narrow, but not by much. The back side where both enter into the sigil chamber, there could be added walls for choke points if needed. I did play Council of Mages before windows and North bridge were blocked off, so I remember how ridiculous that was. It is still way more wide open than the others. I have added the other strong holds (including British Castle) below: Minax entrance... you can recall behind it but you have to pass through it with the sigils: Main base of Minax is rather open, no doors just like CoM: Shadowlords has one of the most elaborate strong holds, at the main entrance you can recall past but you have to pass the underground bridge, stairs and pair of doors on your wait out with a sigil: Past the underground bridge there is a set of doors, a stairwell three choke points (two with 1 tile) and another stairwell to the sigil room: True Britannians Lord British Castle, not very well protected with a 5 tile gate: Inside Lord British you have a few doors and a main entry to the sigil room: True Britannians new stronghold at Lord Blackthorns Castle has a three tile wide bridge with some two tile main entrances/hallway: Sigil area and stairwell is probably the best defence in all the strongholds, 1 tile wide: Ranking the strongholds best to worst: TB - Blackthorn: Long 3 tile bridge, multiple doorways, 2 tile hall, 1 tile stairwell. SL: Long 3 tile bridge, 10~ choke points, two 1 tile choke points. Minax: Wide area to fight in the base, 4 tile main entrance, four 1 tile exit path (combat or sigil carrier). TB - British: 5 tile main gate, a few inner choke points, vast area to cover/defend. CoM: 6 tile bridge, here take my sigils right by the damn entrance.
If the sigil room was moved from the 2nd floor to the first floor of Blackthorns castle I think that would balance the strongholds.
Thanks for replying Wulver. I had been hoping to hear from Liberation since he has been venting lately, but I get the impression from the other thread he's not up for a debate like that.
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2748 This is a related link to faction discussion that covers ideas about balanced rewards, incentives and controls for faction participants. quarterly rewards system and decreased neon colors Oh snap! This is a burn on Blaise for not following his own words. Starting a new faction thread when mes had already made one! Consider this pay back for revealing my man crush to all the world!
Yeah, I honestly poked around for a thread but didn't find this one. My bad. I've said my piece in my thread, so no sense repeating here. I will say however, that the SL base should be the standard of complexity to which all other bases are designed towards. Unless SL is moved out of that subterrainian, undead spawning, double single-tile choke point, stronghold, all other bases should be constricted to suit a balanced defensible state.
I have a few things on ma mind... First up: Remove faction trap is currently pure GARBAGE! It is totally messed up and needs to be fixed. It should not take 4 skills to remove a faction trap! Currently you need: Lock pick Detect Hidden Remove Trap TINKERING!?!?!?!?!?!?! Tinkering is used for the creation of the faction removal tool and that is IT! Not required for actually removing ANY trap in the game PERIOD! PROOF: This is proof you don't need tinkering from a live player on Pacific, he lists his skills and everything: http://www.mikeshoe.com/mark.htm He even states there were changes in 2001 to make traps require higher detect hidden for traps, and GM detect hidden characters get a warning when you are in the vicinity of a trap. Currently you don't need detect hidden at all and you get a faction trap warning. You also get 20 silver for damage to and 40 for killing an opposing faction member with a faction trap. Here is another one: http://phoenixwolfclan.tripod.com/LORE/remove.htm This is from uoguide.com: http://www.uoguide.com/Faction_Traps "Traps can only be removed by opposing faction members through the use of the Remove Trap skill and a Faction Trap Removal Tool." And the original publish: http://www.uoguide.com/Publish_8 I have not seen anything about the requirement of 80 tinkering to remove a trap, except in our guide here, that is why you have a crafter to tinker a removal tool. COUNCIL OF MAGES STRONGHOLD: I have the current stronghold: Sigils are wide open right by the entry way. I increased the security of the Parliament by placing a small wall at the entry, this creates flow into the two passages. One to the West which is shorter, yet more narrow, the other to the East which is a bit longer and wider. The town sigils were relocated to opposite side of the building for even more security. I also added a few candelabras in the small circles just for a decorative obstacle. RES SICKNESS: Soon, I think we should bring back res sickness, but possibly at 5-10 minute range, not 20 minutes.
I agree Wulver, Faction Stat-Loss should be reinstated at the 10 minute window it had before. Seeing people run back to their corpses mid-battle, loot up and rejoin the fight may be ok in certain fights, but not Factions where that 10 minutes could be closing the window of sigil corruption. I've already stated that all bases should be as much of a pain in the ass as SL, so yeah on that also. Tinkering should not be required for removal, as you've indicated with solid evidence to back it up. If possible, I would like to see Faction kill point allocation negated in the duelling arena(s). I would love to go spar with some folks but I'm not losing my Faction score because I chose to duel someone I know is better than me (everyone). Faction membership should be restricted to characters with 500+ skill points. Players should not be permitted to have characters on alternative accounts in opposing factions. Perhaps if you join an opposing Faction on one character, the other two accounts are forced into Faction Resignation and thus 7 days later, they are all out of the original Faction. Ideally, characters who have not been logged in for over 3 months, should be forcibly removed from factions.
I thought they added a skill point limit and booted people that were under it? I did see some low skill characters joining lately, maybe something got reverted on accident? Good point on the faction kill point being nullified when in dueling/tournament arena. Some may only use their factioners for that and the res sick could also pose a problem. I also agree on the faction per IP, so far nobody has given too many flying poops about it, but I think further down the line it should be restricted as such. The last point would give us more of an active roster, I wonder if there could be a way to not boot them but just not count them until they log in with that character? Maybe booting would be easier.
Yeah, I mean, I see names like Vagingo and Jexxa in the lists and I know Robbbb (Jexxa) hasn't been here in a long time and Vagingo like stopped in once a few months back. I'm just guessing on the skill cap thing, I think it is originally 300 but I propose 500 because anyone serious about factions won't be joining on a 300 point char.
You could just buy skills up to 500. Perhaps you should be required to have 100 skill points in 5 different skills?
Honestly, if the OSI original limit of 300 were forced to be 3xGM, not just 300 total, that could suffice. Basically just don't want worthless numbers in faction ranks personally. You guys jumped to Minax and look at the roster. It's long as hell and I haven't seen a real active Minax in ages, until you guys went over.
Agreed. even 1.5 months inactive (without X hours ingame, or X faction kills) should give an instant boot from factions (i figure at that point you've already waited your 7 day timer to leave). I'd also love to see more incentive/faction only rewards to increase activity. People need a real reason to fight for sigils, not just the ability to place a mount vendor. I'd also like to see a certain faction rank required to ride a faction mount, as well as to use the faction vendors in cities. Next I would really enjoy it if the faction ranking system was fixed. You can look at the faction pages and see that ranks are not calculating correctly.
I can agree with that, but maybe not too strict. Perhaps, only those with positive score can access vendors/ride faction mounts. Not that you should automatically lose it if you're negative, but at least be positive (maybe a low limit like 2-3 points positive). I wouldn't want to gimp anyone who's trying to move up in the world, even though they suck at pvp (me). I think the big win here will be figuring out a way to implement platinum rewards for town controls, but in a way that benefits based on activity. The real issue here being the wild complexity involved. For example, how can you calculate how much platinum to award, how it's divided among the active members (ie: got kills in the period of town control, time spent within x tiles of the sigils in process of corruption ie: guarding sigils, traps placed/removed?). There are so many factors involved that it's going to be a real burden to figure out any incentive system that doesn't burn the little guys or flood the big dogs with mountains of platinum/reward. None of which should be implemented prior to restricting players to a single faction across all accounts.
I don't know about 3x gm or anything, maybe base it off character age at least. But you can't be any geek off the street, gotta be handy with the steel if you know what I mean, earn your keep. Maybe 1/50 plat chance for kills (off a positive point enemy) in town/stronghold? After IP restriction of course, and remember there is a 3 hour limit for another shot at silver, points, PLAT! Faction monsters could also give a slightly better chance to get plat drop as well?
We have to consider that some people may make a smithy for faction crafting and barely have more than 1GM skill, potentially. Not that it's ideal but someone may/might.
(Idea stolen from a stratics faction discussion thread and particularly modified to suit UO:R) Four times per day, let's say somewhere simple, such as the fighting pits in Jhelom or other, a Faction Chest will spawn. Only accessible to members of any faction and trapped similar to a treasure map, however with only spawns of Faction Monsters, based on who pulled the item. For example, If a True Britannian pulled an item from the chest, any of the three opposing Faction Monsters will have a chance to spawn. Or perhaps only spawn the friendly type, so it will be a rush to get your own beneficial spawn out faster in a rush to loot the chest. The chest will only contain piles of 100 silver and perhaps 5-10 individual pieces of platinum. I don't know if you can somehow make a container impossible to restock from, other than making it a corpse or something. Who knows if any of it can be done. The point is incentive to push factioners to the same place for any reason and throw a steak on the table for them to fight over, other than sigils. Furthermore, looting the chest throws the combat flag so you can't recall either, resetting for each piece you pull out. I dunno, just a thought. Oh yeah, and turn on faction points for sigil theft and traps that get sprung.
Sounds like a nifty idea, or a type of event for faction members? Here is the current rankings: I would like to see, maybe another title added? Perhaps change the % of the titles around? Low rank should be like up to 25%, then switch to 2nd rank. Currently the low rank goes all the way to 50% and I was just thinking it could be changed a bit. If it is possible we could come up with another rank for each Faction? I would also like to see a faction members graph, single and overlapping. I think that would be neat, see how factions grows through time, maybe even a kill graph to chart significant battles? Total number of faction point/kills for each faction to show up on the faction page. Allow sorting of online members by faction/guild in the myrenaissance online players page.
