[UO Herald] Incoming Changes to Faction Points

[UO News]

We are looking at fixing the issue regarding faction points and the deterioration of faction points. To fix these issues properly it will require us to wipe all faction points.

The fix will soon be available for testing on Test Center 1. We invite all of you to transfer your characters to TC1 and experience the changes as soon as it is ready.

Keep an eye on the Herald.



More...

 

[CovenantX]

Finally...

Hopefully It doesn't take as long as this did for the next Pvp-rebalancing.

 

[Tina Small]

Hmmm.... Sounds hopeful. Here are a few thoughts I have on some issues that may impact the testing process:

1. It's always helpful to provide "testers" with details about what has changed with a system so the testers can try out different things to see if the changes were effective and/or if they broke something else. I hope we will see extensive publish notes for this purpose and that the designers and developers will be monitoring the Test Center forum to provide feedback, direction on what they want to see tested, etc. Maybe they can even try to arrange for some battles, put up some war horse vendors, insta-pet-bond gates, etc.?

2. When you transfer characters between shards, including to Test Center, the transferred characters are dropped from the faction they belonged to on their original shard. They do not retain the faction affiliation or faction points they had on their original shard. So every character transferred to Test Center will start with 0 points. It would probably make a lot of sense to make sure that the Test Center shard is completely wiped too before this test commences to clear faction membership rosters and also let players who wish to test these changes have a decent shot at being able to place housing. Or perhaps set up a separate Test Center just for this purpose?

3. With no faction point information available any more on the official UO site for ANY shard (TC was never included), it will be very difficult for the average player to determine the overall effectiveness of the changes when they do hit the non-test shards. Players will still only be able to determine their own characters' point totals and rank. I sincerely hope Jeff and the team will find it possible to share positive news very soon about restoring character, guild, and faction information to UO's official website. It may seem that a lot of people only care about faction artifacts. However, if efforts to make faction points meaningful again are successful, maybe we'll see some renewed interest in participating in factions for bragging rights too. Anyone remember AgentSmith and his darn pixies? Hehe.

4. Also, Siege and Mugen have some old Hero/Evil aspects to factions on their shards. It would be wonderful if a developer/designer could address whether these changes will have ANY impact on the faction systems on those shards. Maybe you could just for once make a Siege/Mugen rule set Test Center shard??

 

[Lynk]

please don't make it a huge pain in the ass to play multiple shards in factions... that is the only reason I even play UO anymore, to have the ability to hop from shard to shard to find a fight instead of scouting one ****ty server for hours to not find anything.

 

[Vyal]

I have seen a few posts just like this over the years & nothing has ever been done to factions. Let me translate, they say "soon be available for testing" this really means they will push some other crap out & hope everyone forgets that this post was made then sometime in the next year or two we will see a post just like this one.

 

[puni666]

That's it? What else is on your plate?

 

[Tina Small]

Maybe now would be a good time to tell the developers our thoughts on a few things tied into points in factions, for example:

• What the points and ranking system should accomplish in terms of player motivation at individual, guild, and faction levels.
• What activities players think should earn "points."
• How quickly points should decay or what actions should cause a loss of points.
• Whether points should be transferrable between characters.
• Whether or not any aspects of the old Evil/Hero system still in force on Siege and Mugen might make sense to add on other shards (UO Stratics *New* | Hero and Evil System; Siege Perilous).

I'd really like to know why points are going to be wiped now. Is someone just working down a list of bugs and this came up next on the list; is this a prelude to other, more significant changes affecting factions; or are the developers just getting ready to use the UO player base as guinea pigs for something they want to add to another game still in development and what we'll end up with is just another buggy, broken system that no one on the UO team ever talks about, as if it's some valuable trade secret?

If the dev team expects players to help with testing these changes, they really need to be a lot more forthcoming with details of what's coming down the pike, if anything, in terms of efforts to actually improve the game and make people want to stick around, return, or give UO a try. Otherwise, just a handful of people might try out the changes on TC just to find any weaknesses or ways to exploit the changes and the game as a whole will just be worse off than it already is.

 

[Serine]

i am happy if they whipe the points .

sick and tired of seeing the Punkte : 25856954
make a max number of kills i think . and no to transfering points .

 

[Goldberg-Chessy]

Faction points essentially serve no other purpose except to promote ganking.

Wipe them clean and abolish them. The obtaining/earning of the faction gear has been a joke since it was introduced.

Do we really need a system that promotes chest-thumping and abuse and ganking?

There is no reason at all that factions cannot be played to its fullest potential minus the points bs.

There are many other simple ways to distribute the over-powered faction gear that would not promote ganking.
Its also high time to stop allowing faction gear outside of its facet. Any gear that leaves Felucca should instantly become cursed or drop in pack.
Is this not painfully obvious to everyone that looks at it impartially?

I am pretty sure that 98% of the Sampires in faction gear soloing all those high-end monsters in Trammel could not even find their way to a Felucca faction base with a compass and a map. This is as intended? Wow.

Bring back Chaos/Order.

It was very simple and worked very well. If you are orange you are ready to fight anywhere. Period.

 

[Flutter]

please don't make it a huge pain in the ass to play multiple shards in factions... that is the only reason I even play UO anymore, to have the ability to hop from shard to shard to find a fight instead of scouting one ****ty server for hours to not find anything.

This.
On my main shard there are so few people to fight anymore, I hope it isn't too hard to rank up.
I play multiple shards also and hope I will still be able to do so without having to play it as often as my main shard.

 

[Slickjack]

Bring back Chaos/Order.

It was very simple and worked very well. If you are orange you are ready to fight anywhere. Period.

THIS!!!!!!

 

[slayer888]

Nice change.. so finally I can close 5 of my 6 accounts and quit the last account in faction.

The faction armors been giving me benefit of adjusting my 40+ pvp and pvm chars easier.

Now that its not viable anymore, I better close my accounts to easier management hehe.

But to be honest, faction points are way too annoying and not necessary at all.. why not just remove it totally.

There are lack of actions already to keep up the kill points and to corrupt the sigils in 10 hours without guarding isnt easy as well since there are thieves who keep steal back and forth every 3-4 hours interval.

So in another word, faction just simply is crap.

Thanks for releasing me so that I can close my 5 of 6 accounts.

 

[Poo]

please don't make it a huge pain in the ass to play multiple shards in factions... that is the only reason I even play UO anymore, to have the ability to hop from shard to shard to find a fight instead of scouting one ****ty server for hours to not find anything.

im the exact same.

now i have to rebuild suits, yaaaa!

 

[Picus of Napa]

THIS!!!!!!

would make my intrest in the game spike back up.

 

[Flutter]

Nice change.. so finally I can close 5 of my 6 accounts and quit the last account in faction.

The faction armors been giving me benefit of adjusting my 40+ pvp and pvm chars easier.

Now that its not viable anymore, I better close my accounts to easier management hehe.

But to be honest, faction points are way too annoying and not necessary at all.. why not just remove it totally.

There are lack of actions already to keep up the kill points and to corrupt the sigils in 10 hours without guarding isnt easy as well since there are thieves who keep steal back and forth every 3-4 hours interval.

So in another word, faction just simply is crap.

Thanks for releasing me so that I can close my 5 of 6 accounts.

Aren't you the guy who dueled Lynk and lost but never paid up on the wager?

Why are you stomping your feet and threatening to quit if your points get deleted. Everyone's points will be deleted, it will be an even keel.
You don't even know what changes are being made.
LOL @ You.

 

[Winker]

Well I will take this opportunity to remake my suits and quit factions. Factions suck anyhow, it has killed the pvp. You used to get great battles at champs a few years back. People would die and res back up and get back into the fight. Fights would last for hours on end, with everyone having a great time.

Now fights last 5 minutes, then stop for 20. Due to some people being in stat. A lot of factioneers are red now so I will play a blue and get my PvP that way.

 

[JoO]

Make factions active on every facet. Why should you turn off your allegiance when you go through a blue gate?

 

[olduofan]

Faction points essentially serve no other purpose except to promote ganking.

Wipe them clean and abolish them. The obtaining/earning of the faction gear has been a joke since it was introduced.

Do we really need a system that promotes chest-thumping and abuse and ganking?

There is no reason at all that factions cannot be played to its fullest potential minus the points bs.

There are many other simple ways to distribute the over-powered faction gear that would not promote ganking.
Its also high time to stop allowing faction gear outside of its facet. Any gear that leaves Felucca should instantly become cursed or drop in pack.
Is this not painfully obvious to everyone that looks at it impartially?

I am pretty sure that 98% of the Sampires in faction gear soloing all those high-end monsters in Trammel could not even find their way to a Felucca faction base with a compass and a map. This is as intended? Wow.

Bring back Chaos/Order.

It was very simple and worked very well. If you are orange you are ready to fight anywhere. Period.

this is spot on but if they keep the points system no transferring of any points in anyway from char to other char or cross shards no transferring at all and no fraction items outside fel and have the decay on them drop faster than any other decay in game and im completly against any sort of decay but im more against the fraction items and feel its far to easy to get them and people that never pvp are all over tram using them its just not right either you fight and earn them or you dont get to use them

wish they would just replace fractions with the older chaos and order system just tweak it a little

 

[Podolak]

Make factions active on every facet. Why should you turn off your allegiance when you go through a blue gate?

I definitely welcome the point reset, I think it is a good first step in the right direction. I also think the quoted post makes a lot of sense. I'd be for that though I'd wonder about guilds that are both pvp and pvm. The non-pvpers might need to branch off to a non-faction wing, not sure how that would work for some.

 

[Vyal]

I definitely welcome the point reset, I think it is a good first step in the right direction. I also think the quoted post makes a lot of sense. I'd be for that though I'd wonder about guilds that are both pvp and pvm. The non-pvpers might need to branch off to a non-faction wing, not sure how that would work for some.

I also would welcome this. I hate sitting in fel waiting on some random faction guy to come. When they just sit in tram. So basically I am sitting there all day waiting for a faction fight & all the other factions are sitting in tram or malas. So I got days weeks without getting any pvp action. It sucks... If you want to be in a faction get to the fighting if not get the heck out and sit in tram and get your own freaking armor the hard way.

 

[SugarSmacks]

We are looking at fixing the issue regarding faction points and the deterioration of faction points. To fix these issues properly it will require us to wipe all faction points.

The fix will soon be available for testing on Test Center 1. We invite all of you to transfer your characters to TC1 and experience the changes as soon as it is ready.

Keep an eye on the Herald.

More...

This is hillarious, but first let me say faction point decay was stupid, and yes i believe everyone thinks it is/was stupid.

Wipe everyones faction points? Start from scratch? lol

Apparently the people who multi shard play factions are going to take a big screwin, getting rank back up wont happen quickly, then multiply that per shard you play = lol

I mean i have over 2 billion points on a couple factioners even flipped a couple but that was the fun of it, outrageous points which guaranteed a few deaths didnt result in me not being able to use a suit. Now thats all going away. If factioners were afraid to fight nonfactioners before, they will be fleeing in hoardes from pvp now.

I often wonder if EA employs someone who can screw the game up worse constantly in the name of "progress" lol!

 

[kelmo]

Seriously SugarSmacks? Factions is ruined. It needs to be deleted and reborn. When factions was last "updated" it killed an entire shard. Many will debate this but you can trace the decline of Siege back to faction artifacts.

Imbuing helped nonfaction folk, but it was too late.

I am with the factions should be shelved and Chaos/Order should be implemented until a real faction system can be redone.

2 gagillion points... *spits*

 

[Orgional Farimir]

Seriously SugarSmacks? Factions is ruined. It needs to be deleted and reborn. When factions was last "updated" it killed an entire shard. Many will debate this but you can trace the decline of Siege back to faction artifacts.

Imbuing helped nonfaction folk, but it was too late.

I am with the factions should be shelved and Chaos/Order should be implemented until a real faction system can be redone.

2 gagillion points... *spits*

He is just mad that he is going to lose points on his spirit speaking stealth archer.

Don't take SugarSmacks seriously...... Everyone knows he is the biggest joke in UO.

 

[kelmo]

I take factions very seriously. Well, I used too. Factions used to be alive and happening. Great fights, even for those that were PvP challenged. Then "Super Pets" and vending machine artifacts changed it all.

I had 6 accounts on Siege. Five of them were in factions. Now I have two accounts. Only one left in factions... I only keep him in factions too be able to go anywhere I like, including the castle in Britain.

It also keeps me on my toes... it upsets some that my retired faction thief is still good at escaping.

I do PvP. If I escape. I win.

 

[SugarSmacks]

I take factions very seriously. Well, I used too. Factions used to be alive and happening. Great fights, even for those that were PvP challenged. Then "Super Pets" and vending machine artifacts changed it all.

I had 6 accounts on Siege. Five of them were in factions. Now I have two accounts. Only one left in factions... I only keep him in factions too be able to go anywhere I like, including the castle in Britain.

It also keeps me on my toes... it upsets some that my retired faction thief is still good at escaping.

I do PvP. If I escape. I win.

Honestly though factions werent to be taken seriously to be begin with what control does sitting 10 hours protecting give you? If gives you the ability to place guards in towns no one barely goes to. It allows you to get a faction horse of your faction. The economy manipulating with taxes is worthless and woopee do to buying a zillion bottles.

So basically there is no real point to participate in the system as it was intended. It doesnt change anything for anyone and certainly isnt worthy of a players time.

However when points were plentiful on many shards i saw consistent more pvp and faction participation due to the ability to get and retain easy armour. You take that as good or as bad as you wish but there was MORE participation.

You really think a player like me whos run his points over the flipping mark of 2.15 billion points a few times to know exactly what it is, is really going to have a hard time retaining a few more? lol i just think this will ruin whats left of factions, meaning it will be even that much harder to find an enemy to get a fight.

 

[Goldberg-Chessy]

I take factions very seriously. Well, I used too. Factions used to be alive and happening. Great fights, even for those that were PvP challenged. Then "Super Pets" and vending machine artifacts changed it all.

I had 6 accounts on Siege. Five of them were in factions. Now I have two accounts. Only one left in factions... I only keep him in factions too be able to go anywhere I like, including the castle in Britain.

It also keeps me on my toes... it upsets some that my retired faction thief is still good at escaping.

I do PvP. If I escape. I win.

Honestly though factions werent to be taken seriously to be begin with what control does sitting 10 hours protecting give you? If gives you the ability to place guards in towns no one barely goes to. It allows you to get a faction horse of your faction. The economy manipulating with taxes is worthless and woopee do to buying a zillion bottles.

So basically there is no real point to participate in the system as it was intended. It doesnt change anything for anyone and certainly isnt worthy of a players time.

However when points were plentiful on many shards i saw consistent more pvp and faction participation due to the ability to get and retain easy armour. You take that as good or as bad as you wish but there was MORE participation.

You really think a player like me whos run his points over the flipping mark of 2.15 billion points a few times to know exactly what it is, is really going to have a hard time retaining a few more? lol i just think this will ruin whats left of factions, meaning it will be even that much harder to find an enemy to get a fight.

Chaos/Order could make it much easier to find an enemy to fight. Anywhere. Thats the beauty of it.

What is cleaner or simpler then choosing a side, going orange, and being ready to fight anywhere?

 

[puni666]

Chaos/Order could make it much easier to find an enemy to fight. Anywhere. Thats the beauty of it.

What is cleaner or simpler then choosing a side, going orange, and being ready to fight anywhere?

This should be forced in game play imo..

 

[Mervyn]

Guys, they're resetting the faction points which people have been asking them to do since they broke it.

Stop whining

 

[Maximus Neximus]

please don't make it a huge pain in the ass to play multiple shards in factions... that is the only reason I even play UO anymore, to have the ability to hop from shard to shard to find a fight instead of scouting one ****ty server for hours to not find anything.

x1000

 

[Vyal]

Guys, they're resetting the faction points which people have been asking them to do since they broke it.

Stop whining

It's all broke dude. Stop crying about people whining.

 

[SugarSmacks]

Guys, they're resetting the faction points which people have been asking them to do since they broke it.

Stop whining

Thats what UO needs! Another player who doesnt pvp to tell the rest of us the way pvp should be! Or maybe you pvp from your house or stealther, but damnit im sure your right even though no one knows you.

BY GOD I WILL REMOVE ALL PVP FROM UO AND MAKE IT PVM FOREVER!

its funny but heading there LOL

 

[Vyal]

Any ideas when we can expect this? Seriously, I have seen posts like this before and nothing ever changed.

 

[slayer888]

Why do we need to wipe the kill points? What does it affect honestly?

Is it better off to have everyone recustomize their armor again better off?

I dont see the point of doing this.

It's better not to happen like i said since its annoying to recustomize my 40+ chars and i might as well close 5/6 of my accounts due to not able to manage my characters as efficient as before anymore.

By not able to customize my chars more efficient means lesser 1 person in pvp actions... I dont get the point of doing this at all.

 

[Petra Fyde]

I think we can put a hold on this conversation until the changes hit test center.