Needing super artys as an incentive to join factions? all that brought to the mix was PVM players,people abusing the system to use them in tram, and people using them to bypass ever having to "deal" with the community in uo. (you know...those other people in game that you pay gold to do the things you don't want to do...yeah...gj devs making a vending machine that completely gets rid of that). Might be a different story if the silver costs weren't so ridiculously low, and they had to be regularly replaced, because as stands I have 2 ways to get an orny myself.
1. Farm doom for months to years wearing a full luck suit hoping for a drop that isn't the ******* luna lance yet again
2. sit afk in the daemon room in fire l1 for 30 minutes. (oh, and the one you get from here is BETTER btw)
Honestly, looking at that even, do you really blame people for abusing the factions system for pvm?
And ya know some of us actually pvpd and were orange for reasons other than "we get awesome gear for free" years and years before they were even introduced, and though you may say it's "good" for pvp on other shards...where are all the players fighting at then (and I don't mean the pathetic little scuffles and house fighting at yew gate)? a LOT of players on all shards left the game due to them, pvp just really isn't all that fun when everyone, mages,dexxers,tamers alike is geared to the point where they're max in every stat. On siege a good 95% of the pvp population quit then, it absolutely destroyed pvp on the shard by introducing super artifacts to us that are faction only and PLAYER BOUND on a shard with no insurance. (meaning not only does a faction player get to wear a suit 1000x better than everyone else for essentially free, but even if you DO kill and loot them their loot is worthless to you, while they can freely use all of yours. I was only around for the tail end of their introduction and the fallout from it, but it was night and day...as soon as factioners started using them fewer and fewer people would risk facing them, as being non-faction was essentially guaranteed death, and chunk by chunk whole guilds/groups of people just stopped participating in fights, packing up and leaving the shard, pvp is essentially non-existant now on siege. (tiny scuffles here and there, but insignificant really)
I don't agree to you.
#1. Faction was nearly or was dead before faction artifacts were implemented
#2. Faction have increased in numbers after faction artifacts were implemented (even up to now, there are still people in factions fighting each others. Because of what? Because they can have 20 minutes stat loss after they die? Because their towns?)
Face the realistic, people who still in faction nowadays is because of the faction artifacts, period!
#3. If faction didn't ever implement any faction artifacts and just the same ole system back in 10 yrs or 11 yrs ago, it will be deserted, simple! I mean maybe not deserted but like you said, a few people thoroughing around.
#4. With reforge/imbue nowadays to the system, it is possible to create suits similar or competitive enough with faction suits, you think people would be joining factions if they couldn't maintain the faction arties on their bodies?
#5. By not able to maintain the faction arties on their body, more people will just eventually tired of dropping their arties in their backpack and then quit faction and readjust their armor
#6. Those who cannot have time or interest to readjust their armor, will either close their extra accounts or abandon their extra characters to play with (i.e. decrease of the community of UO overall).
The above points clearly tell you what happens to a player who started faction right off the bat 10-11 yrs ago until now.
I have been fighting in Asuka and been over the 2.1 billion points limit at least 10+ times, and I know what's going on in factions clearly.
But again, I have to agree that there are people who have abused the system (like get easy faction arties and never step foot in Felucca anymore). But this situation have been declined lately due to the following reason:-
#1. Reforge, imbue and new SA artifacts been able to make suits competitive enough to a faction arties combined suits
#2. Trammies who do not have interest in pvp, will not use faction chars to work on Felucca spawns and then get kill and end up 20 mins STAT LOSS right?
Honestly, my proposed method to cope with this problem is very simple:-
1. Use silver to insure faction artifacts (tone down to around 100 silver per piece and 50 silver for re-insurance upon death)
2. Every faction members who are killed in Trammel by monsters/npc will incur 20mins Stat loss same as Felucca
3. Seperate battleground within Trammel, Ishenlar, Malas, SA ruleset for factioners to be able to attack each others:-
for example, Wrong dungeon (currently cannot be recalled), Ishenlar spawns, Malas spawns, UO:ML hunting locations, etc..
or take out #3.
4. Provide Aura in certain area or from certain bosses that will auto unequip all faction arties once within certain 15 or 20 tiles of the boss or within the area
The ways to improve faction participates SADLY is to enhance, fix, or add new contents. I am sorry, but face the truth of it. Here are some ways in my mind:-
1. Remove the rank requirement for all faction artifacts, making it convenient for everyone to have the SAME chance of using the same level of artifacts. Geez, I can't understand everyone here. What's the problem if everyone have the SAME chance of using the same level of items? What's more to whine about this? LOL..... my gooodness..
2. Allow faction Commanding Lord to have an option to remove all faction traps within the faction every 24 hours to avoid griefing of faction traps
1. Make corruption of sigils in 2 process:-
a.) same as now
b.) After a.) process is completed, there will be an additional 2 hours time in which FACTION MESSAGE will be announced to everyone in faction that; "2 more hours, sigils will be corrupted by TB/Minax/SL/CoM"
2. Change how each town's faction silver are functioning:-
a.) Reset all the current town silvers to 10k
b.) Allow each faction to have it's own Silver coin status for each town upon corruption
For example, TB finance minister or sheriff showing 10k in its town, doesnt mean that Minax finance minster or sheriff showing will be 10k. Because now we change it to be independant budget for each faction.
So meaning if TB got 10k in this time, they do nothing and hire some guards or vendors or whatever, they spent 8k. Meaning next time they control the town, it will still be only 2k left in the budge for that town. But if Minax controlled, it doesnt mean that Minax will be only 2k because Minax didn't use any.
c.) Changing of faction npcs:-
1.) Trading Manager - will randomly spawn traders which patrol around the town
-this type of npc will allow the faction to gain in silver for "that town" only.
-this type of npc can be killable on sight by other faction players
-upon killing this, there will be silvers or low % chance some additional random rewards generated
-the more traders inside the town, the more income will generate for the controlled faction town
2.) Guard Captain - will randomly spawn faction guards which patrol in that town
-this type of npc will attack enemy faction on sight
-this type of npc can be killable on sight by other faction players
-upon killing this, there will be silvers or low % chance some additional random rewards generated
Every week, faction message / town criers will be showing that a mass war will be coming in each particular town. During this time, all Trading Manager / Guard Captain can be killed by opposing faction members. Specific time will be noted by the faction message / town crier such as (1 more hour, the war is begin... etc.)
So the faction who controls the town will need to try their best to guard their Guard Captain(s)/Trading Manager(s), whilst other faction tries to kill it in the process killing each others.
Upon the death of Guard Captain(s)/Trading Manager(s), there will be a less than 1% chance that certain random rewards will spawn in the 16 top damagers bag.
If after the war is over (1 hour from start), the Captain and Manager still here, the winning team faction who is within that town will have a 2% chance that certain random rewards will spawn in their bag (up to 16 players).
Anyways, I have a huge list of what to propose of improving factions, but I will type more when I have time.