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Faction questions

Rotgut Willy

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I'm new to factions, and only sort of new to UO PvP. "Back in the day" before Trammel I was active in PvP. When Trammel was introduced I stopped playing UO for a while and just returned a couple years ago and have mostly PvM'd except for some disappointing moongate PvP (and some occasional good dungeon fights), so I know PvP has changed dramatically since I used to play way back when. During my leave from UO I did regularly play and PvP on PRS's but those were unique rule-sets that don't transfer well to production shards.

So anyway, I decided to join in Factions and have been having a blast. I get my butt kicked most of the time but it's still fun. I have some questions.

1) I was attacked the other day by an opposing faction. I ran like a little girl because I was alone and clearly outmatched. I was hit a few times before I got a lead and was able to gain some distance. Oddly enough... I was able to Sacred Journey soon after that. Why was I not hit with the whole "in the heat of battle" thing and prevented from traveling? (Or am I just confusing production shards with PRS's I've played where you can't recall while in the heat of battle?) This is new to me. Normally I don't even attempt to instant travel. This time, I hit my macro by mistake and was surprised that it worked.

2) What is the max silver you can get from opposing faction monsters and players? I know what I've been getting but I don't know what the current tithe is, or how to check it.

3) I was under the impression that kill points come only from killing players. I've only killed a small handful of opposing faction players but I've farmed a lot of opposing faction monsters. I'm already rank 7 or 8. How is that? Am I somehow getting kill points from monsters? That doesn't seem right, although I'm not complaining about being able to buy rank 7 faction artifacts (even if I do already have the non-faction versions.) Is this one of the faction bugs complained about?

4) Can a faction crafter repair faction artifacts, or is the only way to repair faction artifacts by using Powder of Perseverance? If the only way of repairing faction artifacts is by using Powder of Perseverance, it seems more efficient to not even bother repairing rank 1 artifacts more than once or twice before simply replacing them entirely. If faction artifacts can only be repaired 5 times, it seems I should keep 2 different suits? My Fel suit and my Tram suit... so I don't waste my Fel suit on PvM.

5) Currently I'm not guilded and mostly go it solo. If I decide to join a guild of a different faction, and leave my current faction can I still use faction artifacts previously acquired while in the other faction after I wait the (3 days?) and join the new faction?

Thanks!
 

Prime.

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
1) Not sure what you mean by PRS shards (I'm assuming it's free shards, which is not allowed to be talked about on these boards), but as long as you don't "Flag" you're safe to recall/sacred/gate out of a fight. Of course you'll get a lot of trash talking towards you for doing it. Also keep in mind you can't leave a few areas in fel by recalling/etc. Dungeons/Spawn Areas/T2A mostly.

2) I think it's 80 Max for players and it just depends on the faction's monster you kill for the silver from them. You can check the Faction Tithe rate inside your base's stone, I believe it's listed right under the Commanding Lord's name?

3) It's possible to be high rank without any kill points, depending on how big the faction is, you shouldn't be getting rank/kill points from killing other faction's monsters though.

4) You repair faction artifacts by repairing it with a Mule/Mule Repair deeds! The powder works like powder of fort and increases it's max durability (I believe)

5) Any faction you choose!

UOGuide (Kind of like the "Wikipedia" for UO) has a great summary of the newest changes to factions
http://www.uoguide.com/Factions

Also a good resources =)
http://uo.stratics.com/php-bin/show_content.php?content=26536
 

Rotgut Willy

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
1) Yep.. free shards. I figured (incorrectly possibly?) it was safe to mention if I didn't specify names or anything, and just generalized. I'm used to no recall on a timer (during the heat of battle) regardless of whether or not I'm the aggressor (flagged).

2) Thanks! I'll check it out. :)

3) Oic. That's kinda odd and unexpected. I assumed I'd have to work my way up the ranks. But still, I'm not complaining. :)

4) Gotcha. I hadn't tried repairing faction artifacts yet so wasn't sure. The UOGuide states that Powder of Perseverance resets the total durability but each artifact can only be recharged thus a maximum of 5 times, with decreased total durability each time. But if that only pertains to max durability and is separate from repairing, that's great.

5) Thanks!

And thanks! :) I appreciate you taking the time to reply.
 
T

Thyrrkyzzz

Guest
Willy, I just rejoined the factions after an extended absence.

3) I believe that some players build temp faction characters on separate accounts to simply accumulate kill points on their primary characters on their main accounts.

If a player has a char in the True Britss and builds temp chars in a second account in the Shadow Lords, they could easily accumulate kill points. The downside is that the Shadow Lords are loaded with a lot of temp characters with large negative deficits in kill points and any newbie could join and gain higher rank without killing one enemy.

I have yet to harm an opposing faction member with this char, and he is already at level 4, 5, or 6, based on my title.

Those are just my thoughts.
 
B

Beleg Megil

Guest
I think someone else said this but rank is based on not just kill points but how many members are in a faction. On Catskills, Shadowlords is the least populated faction.

The max silver you can get from monsters, if your faction tithe rate is 0% is 30 silver per kill. Unless you are killing wisps, they only give 20. Player kills are variable.

You can take your faction arties with you if you jump from one faction to the other, and you can use them in the new faction, as long as you meet the rank requirements. Using Catskills as an example again, you can probably use rank 10 arties after 24 hours in Shadowlords, even with only making a couple of kills because there are very few Shadowlords. If you decided you didn't fit in Shadowlords and wanted to hop into TB, you'd probably need 10x the number of kill points you had in SL to be able to wear the same rank 10 artie just because there are that many TB.

On Cats, what Thyrrkyzzz said is done to death. Lots of player kill farming, especially now that you don't need a 3rd party program to log in a second account.

Also, each faction on Cats has a guild that controls that faction. And each of these "boss guilds" of their faction have reds that will pk you even if you are in their faction, simply because you are not in their guild. An extremely small few care about the "fiction behind each faction", or what each faction was supposed to stand for. There is no "faction unity". There is little care for the reason factions were created, that being Town Control/Capture. There are no fair fights on any side, no "honorable battles".

What there IS, is lots of cheating, rampant griefing, and lots of racist and sexually offensive smack talk in General Chat from all factions. Rez killing is legal now, and even though every side complains about it and calls it lame,they all do it. The pvp mostly consists of ganks, ambushes, house fighting/hiding and trying to trick people into getting guard whacked. In short, people use factions as a way to be PKs and griefers and internet thugs without getting murder counts or going gray too often, and as a means to get cheap arties. Atleast on Catskills, that is.

Basically, there isn't much "Factions" left in factions. Maybe the proposed revamp will change things. Anyway, good luck to you! :D
 

Prime.

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Willy, I just rejoined the factions after an extended absence.

3) I believe that some players build temp faction characters on separate accounts to simply accumulate kill points on their primary characters on their main accounts.

If a player has a char in the True Britss and builds temp chars in a second account in the Shadow Lords, they could easily accumulate kill points. The downside is that the Shadow Lords are loaded with a lot of temp characters with large negative deficits in kill points and any newbie could join and gain higher rank without killing one enemy.

I have yet to harm an opposing faction member with this char, and he is already at level 4, 5, or 6, based on my title.

Those are just my thoughts.
This is completely true, which is how they got themselves million of points, through alll that farming.
 
T

Thyrrkyzzz

Guest
Sad, but true, Prime/Beleg.

I assume most players use the faction system to further their own goals in game. Some goals are fairly short-term with wide-ranging effects - like kill point farming.

Some goals are fairly far-reaching and require thorough planning and coordination, like campaigns for Faction Commander and hiring groups of guards by Town Sheriffs.

Too bad few faction members/guilds don't choose or are too-burdened to chooose the second example. In my opinion, some of the best parts of the game UO are rarely unlocked.

Beleg, it's good to see an old RP Ring member from my days of hanging with Bad Lady Glennni-teroth. I'll drop a PM/private message tomorrow.
 
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