I propose a new base be found for True Britannians, thus restoring the glory of Lord British's castle for use by all players. Restricting access to this facility is unfair to the people of Britannia who wish to visit Lord British or spend time in his domicile. I suggest perhaps Lord Blackthorn's castle, as it is still easily located but also provides more defensive function, such as the Shadowlords base provides. Please share your thoughts.
TB = True Brit.... Blackthorn is an enemy to the empire and stands for all that is evil! Join a faction and Lord Brit's castle shall bestow its glory upon thee once more.
We could easily pen up some lore to back it up. LB's castle sucks as a base and players who don't give a crap about PvP should be able to enjoy it. Every other faction base does not remove a popular and well known player area from use by all. Blackthorn is also a Britannian, for what it's worth. He also left Britain in this story (not sure if it's just fan fic or not) http://dragonpress.tumbolian.org/tfolb.html Also, Throughout the Ultima series, Lord British never leaves his castle, except for Ultima V, where his absence constitutes the main storyline, and at the end of Ultima VI, when he uses a red moongate to travel to the Isle of the Avatar. Instead, he relies on heroes like the Avatar to go forth and correct the various crises that crop up in Britannia. In Ultima IX, the Guardian comments on this behavior, accusing Lord British of always hiding in his castle while his land suffers. In the climax of the same game, Lord British finally ventures outside the confines of his castle to help the Avatar in a final showdown with Lord Blackthorn.
While this is entirely possible to do, in order to accomplish this & return this area to a public region we would have to relocate the True Brittanian faction stronghold to a new area. If this were to ever be done we would need to find an acceptable location to host the new faction stronghold.
That's why I was suggesting (OP) Lord Blackthorne's castle, as it is far more seldom used than Lord British's. Like seriously, how many people even know what the inside of Blackthorne's looks like? There are a number of statics in there that might make it impractical, but I thought I'd get the idea out there for discussion. Thanks all Edit: While looking at the world map, I was thinking perhaps somewhere near Vesper for a more 'four corners' geographic spacing between all four Faction Bases (Yew/West of Trinsic/Magincia/TB?) However, the thought of NOT having the TB base in Britain proper, seems a bit off to me. Perhaps something in the underutilized town of Minoc? (maybe I'll go TB again if my base is right by my house ;P) I dunno more idea flow plz!
I agree w/Blaise. Give the castle back to the uh, taxpayers? Anyway -- you could easily house the True Britannians in several locations. The city is enormous. Or hey -- is it really an issue for normal players to walk into their base?
I agree with freeing Lord British's castle but I think it's only worthwhile if the castle were going to be used for other game purposes. If you were to remove it as a faction stronghold immediately, most players would still not go there except to mark runes to the shops. There's nothing to do or see there but a little shopping and bookshelves to steal from, both of which can be found in 300 other places. So what would be the point of the effort then, really? If Lord British's castle were going to be used then I wouldn't suggest making Blackthorne's castle the new stronghold as it could have plenty of in-game uses as well. Lord British's Conservatory of Music, now there's a huge waste of space. Doesn't sound too appropriate for a faction stronghold but maybe it could be converted? Or the Serpent's Hold Counselor's Guild Hall? Being that Serp's Hold is based on the Order of the Silver Serpent, baddest warriors in the land and all.
I think the Serpent's Hold Councilor's Guildhall is a great spot for the relocation. Unfortunately, I can't muster up too much enthusiasm for this idea on account of how pointless both LB's castle AND facions seem to me.
It should be noted, however, that the Serpent's Hold Councilor's Guildhall does technically have 4 entrances. This might be a deal breaker to some.
I would have to agree with this statement. As it stands currently the only shops located inside the stronghold region (British Castle) are a single blacksmith & tailor shop, as well as a stables, all of which are already present in Britain and have multiple shop locations within the city excluding those found within the castle walls. Without making additional modifications to the region I can't really see any purpose for a non-faction player to frequent this location.
Blasphemy! Factions are awesome once people partake on the regular. It keeps the pvpers out pvping with lots of action, and less of us out hunting other players.
To visit Lord British? I always found the castle to be a great rally point for large-scale shard events. When Lord British, supreme ruler of the lands, calls out to the people to rally at his side.....should he be standing at the bank? I can think of dozens of scenarios where this could come in useful in shard lore and future events. As an Ultima fanatic, NOT being able to wander about LB's castle, is disheartening. Not ever seeing LB chilling in his throne because I can't go there, or if I can it's just to check sigils, is wasting a nice area for something that is hardly used. Not only that, but the entirety of 'faction play' in the stronghold is the throne room and entryways. The vast space is not required at all for gameplay but aesthetically, it is something that just does not make any sense to me, to have it completely cut-off from 'the people', just because they're not in the Faction. I know not everyone agrees with me on my stance of trying to build a 'world' here, but that's what I always think about when I'm discussing possibilities on the shard. Factions are an aspect that some are interested in and I doubt anyone would be upset with a stronghold that was easier to defend, even if it's not as ridiculous as the Shadowlord stronghold. Blackthorn's could be made to be as much of a pain in the ass as SL base, and we could have LB's back for rallying parties and events. Hell, in all honesty, I think that it would make a far superior shard-event sign-up area. Trying to explain to people where the sign-ups are would be 1000x easier if you could just say 'LB's Castle'. I bet there's about 1000:1 ratio of people who know where LB's castle is, compared to the Chamber of Virtues.
Blaise, now you've trekked into territory that I was thinking about over the past week. I'll start a separate thread so as not to derail and you'll see that I agree very much with what you're saying.
Serps Hold would require a moongate. I like the Blackthorn idea, but I did gm hiding there in his balcony.
