Factions 101

[Aia]

There are four factions:
• Minax (MIN)
• Council of Mages (COM)
• True Britannians (TB)
• The Shadowlords (SL)

All factions are aggressive towards each other (in Felucca only).

Minax - The stone fortress lies deep within the mountains. The entrance to the fortress can be found on the north side of the mountains, almost opposite to the entrance to Destard.

Council of Mages- The Magincia Parliament Building in the southeast corner of what's left of Magincia.

Shadowlord- Located in the unused crypts in the Yew forest, a fair distance in a direct line northeast from the east Yew Healer's Shop named "Deep Forest Healing". This is not the Yew Graveyard, but instead the haunted crypts east of the Yew moongate within the woods.

True Britannians - Located within Lord British's Castle, in the town of Britain.

Joining a Faction
Note - You may join multiple characters on the same account into the same faction.

Non-guilded players:
Double click the Faction Stone, and select the "join" option.
• You must not have any other character on the same account in a different faction.

Guilded players:
• If you are in a non-faction guild, you must resign from the guild before you can join factions.
• You must join the same faction as the guild.

Joining a guild to a faction:
Only the Guildmaster of a guild can join a guild to a Faction.
• The guild cannot be allied with another guild. (This isn't in yet)
• If a member has another character on that same account and same shard in a different Faction, that member will be removed. (I think)

Non-participants:
Characters who are not in a faction will not be able to perform beneficial acts (such as healing, curing, etc.) on any character in a faction in Felucca (This isn't in yet, right now there's no beneficial acts anywhere). This rule applies to pets as well.

Quitting a faction:

• Guilded members must first resign from their guild, then from the faction.
• A Guildmaster may resign his or her guild from the Faction system. All players in the guild will remain within the Faction for three more days.

During the three day resignation process, players resigning will not be able to use the faction stone or steal sigils but will still be eligible to attacks from opposing Faction members.

Resigning players can find out how much time they have left in the faction by saying in game:

"What is my faction term status"

 

[Aia]

Combat
• Players in the faction system are able to freely attack any opposing faction member.
• Players cannot be in a party with opposing faction members.
• There is no faction combat on the Trammel facet.

Getting Kill points
Kill points are earned when Faction members successfully kill someone in an opposing Faction. The amount of kill points taken from the victim is 10% of the total kill points on the victim. (Percentages are rounded down.)

To see how many kill points you have, say in game:
Punkte
- or -
showscore

When a Faction player reaches a deficit of 6 kill points, the winner will receive 0 kill points.

Note: Kill points decay over time.

Deficit
This means you have died more than you've killed and are now in the hole so to speak. The most deficit points any faction member can have are 6.

Point transfer
Once a day players can transfer kill points. Both parties must be members of the same faction, and the one who is giving the points must have at least 10 kill points. (1 point will be lost in the trade).

To transfer kill points, say "I honor your leadership" and a target cursor will appear that can be used to select the player the kill points are to be transferred to.

Titles
Once per day, all faction player scores are recalculated in order to assign faction rank. Titles vary within each faction. (note: there is debate as to the accuracy of faction titles.)

To get silver:
• Slay faction enemies. (Players will not be able to get silver from the same opponent multiple times over a short period of time.)
• Slay faction monsters (Felucca facet only):

o Minax: Ogre Lords
o Council of Mages: Wisps
o True Britannians: Silver Serpents
o Shadowlords: Daemons (not summoned daemons)​

Silver can be used by Faction members to obtain the following:
• Horse: 500 silver (must be rank 2 or higher to purchase a war horse)
• Faction Traps: 250 silver
• Faction Trap Removal kit: 500 silver
• Faction Craftables: (Note: Faction craftable items currently cannot be created but this is being fixed.)

 

[Aia]

Towns:
There are 8 cities that can fall under the control of a faction. The towns and the location of the townstones and monoliths which are used for controling the town are listed below:
• Britain (located south of the mage shop on the east side of Britain)
• Skara Brae (located north of the provisioner's shop)
• Magincia (located southwest of what's left of the tavern)
• Minoc (located south of the tavern)
• Moonglow (located east of the provisioner's shop)
• Trinsic (located east of the meeting hall)
• Vesper (located west of the docks)
• Yew (located west of the healer)

How to capture a town:
• A faction member with a stealing skill of at least 80 needs to steal the town sigil.
• The person who holds the sigil turns purple as well as all equipped items on that player.
• A sigil is "dropped" or "given" by double clicking the sigil, then targeting. A sigil cannot be "moved" by the normal means of dragging an item.
• If a player with a town sigil logs out or their character for any reason leaves Ultima Online, the sigil will return to its last monolith location.
• A player with a town sigil cannot:

o Teleport
o Gate
o Recall
o Cast Polymorph
o Cast Incognito
o Use a disguise kit
o Place sigil in a container on the ground
o "Give" the sigil to an enemy faction player​

• A player with a town sigil can:

o Hide
o Stealth​

• The sigil must be transported to a stronghold base and placed on it's associated monolith within 30 minutes otherwise it returns to it's last monolith location.
• The sigil must remain on that stronghold monolith for at least 10 hours.
• If the sigil is removed from the monolith before the 10 hour corruption timer is up, there is a 15 minute grace period during which it may be returned to the monolith without restarting the timer.
• After being corrupted (10 hours), the sigil must be returned to its town monolith in order to capture the town.
• The town falls under the control of the faction for a period of three days. After that time period the town sigil once again becomes stealable.

Guarding Rules
Faction Vendors: There MUST be a path between or around them. If there is not, the GMs will take action.
In A Faction City (but not in the stronghold): If there are items placed in such a way that other players can't move them easily (many many candelabras on one tile, for example) the GMs will take action.
In A Faction Stronghold: Anything goes.
If the GMs are forced to take action in any case, they will delete the items/vendors that are blocking a player's path. The faction signup stone is a good indication of where a faction stronghold begins. Keeping that in mind, any blocking that occurs outside of that area may warrant action

 

[Poo]

dont mean to slam anything youve done, but there is a factions 101, or WAS one on the sonoma forum for years.
stickied at the top.

bunch of pictures and walk throughs and such.

thousands of hits on it.

just thought id save you some work.

 

[Aia]

No! I loved your work Poo and I wouldn't have posted this if I could have found that post, but it's no longer there. The above is dry dry dry. Dry is better than nothing.

So find your work Poo and get it posted here so we have something interesting to read instead of something that will put you to sleep.

 

[Poo]

im sure the old forums will be up again tomorow.

 

[Arabella]

And I have a donkey that can fly too? Want to see it LOL!

 

[kelmo]

Good info. Thanks!

 

[Ruffles]

FoF: Far, Far Away
Jeremy Dalberg
03 Jul 2008 16:08:04

"What are the rules regarding blocking off areas in faction warfare?"

There are a couple of different possible cases - here is the breakdown:

Faction Vendors: There MUST be a path between or around them. If there is not, the GMs will take action.
In A Faction City (but not in the stronghold): If there are items placed in such a way that other players can't move them easily (many many candelabras on one tile, for example) the GMs will take action.
In A Faction Stronghold: Anything goes.
If the GMs are forced to take action in any case, they will delete the items/vendors that are blocking a player's path. The faction signup stone is a good indication of where a faction stronghold begins. Keeping that in mind, any blocking that occurs outside of that area may warrant action

 

[Aia]

thank you - got the above updated

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

Thank you.

-Galen's player

 

[Bouche835]

It says that your need a level 2 rank in order to get the horse. How do you get your ranks? Is it by the amount of kill or points you have?

 

[Cardell]

It says that your need a level 2 rank in order to get the horse. How do you get your ranks? Is it by the amount of kill or points you have?

You get points from killing. You get rank from points. You usually only need 1 point but a lot of people are bugged and sometimes you need a few more.

 

[Fluffy of GL]

I also believe you get rank from time served in factions. I know me personally, I have a theif that is rank 9, and my mage is rank 4, and neither have kill points. Correct me if I'm wrong, if it is some other way I've achieved ranks than what I think it is, lol I've always assumed it was that I was in factions awhile.

 

[Quenchant]

Fluffy....

The rank system is borked for some chars. I know of a players thief that never drops below 9. The only offensive action this thief has is pots and shurikens. While they have a couple kills, they don't have enough to make that rank and maintain it.

While they fixed somethings like the crafting, this is one of the many things that is still messed up with factions.

Q

 

[frawsty]

What constitutes a "kill"?

Example 1: I dismount an orange guy but others (non-faction) kill him before I can do anything else. Does he go in stat loss?

Example 2: I one hit (kill shot) on an orange but he was hurt by another player (non-faction.) Does he go in stat loss?

What's the forumal to determine when someone goes in stat loss?

 

[wee papa smurf]

What constitutes a "kill"?

Example 1: I dismount an orange guy but others (non-faction) kill him before I can do anything else. Does he go in stat loss?

Example 2: I one hit (kill shot) on an orange but he was hurt by another player (non-faction.) Does he go in stat loss?

What's the forumal to determine when someone goes in stat loss?

Example 1: No he wont go into stat loss unless you got the kill shot ie you got the gold ect for the kill.


Example 2: Yea he does go into stat loss because you got the kill shot.



So the only important thing in putting someone in stat loss is the kill shot

 

[frawsty]

So the kill shot is all that matters? Simple enough. Thanks.

 

[Experimental]

"Point transfer
Once a day players can transfer kill points. Both parties must be members of the same faction, and the one who is giving the points must have at least 10 kill points. (1 point will be lost in the trade)."

When transfering points, my faction mate got the message that he must have at least 5 points to transfer, not 10.

 

[Balian of Asgard]

Could someone be kind enough to post where and how much silver the faction artis are available?

Thanks

 

[Lynk]

Could someone be kind enough to post where and how much silver the faction artis are available?

Thanks

http://www.uoguide.com/Factions

 

[Balian of Asgard]

http://www.uoguide.com/Factions

Thanks!!!

 

[Voodoo990]

"Point transfer
Once a day players can transfer kill points. Both parties must be members of the same faction, and the one who is giving the points must have at least 10 kill points. (1 point will be lost in the trade)."

When transfering points, my faction mate got the message that he must have at least 5 points to transfer, not 10.

I transfered kill points today and the char only recieved 4 kill points not 9 (1 point lost in trade) so it might only be 5 points a day and not 10??

 

[Lynk]

I transfered kill points today and the char only recieved 4 kill points not 9 (1 point lost in trade) so it might only be 5 points a day and not 10??

You transfer points by saying "I honor your leadership". The person transferring the points loses 5, the receiver gains 4.

 

[Gladius]

Greetings,

I am new at this faction thingy, recently joined a faction however I don't know what the next step will be.

I haven't met any co-faction members yet at the stronghold. Would I be advised to go out hunting for the enemy in order to get a kill? I did venture due east from Castle British however an army of orange players were all packed up together. I decided to back off.

I feel I need to be refurbished first to be of any dent in the game, how do i do this please?

TIA
Gladius TB

 

[Gladius]

Well thanks but no thanks for not replying.

I am really planning on stopping my faction play. Simply because I found out through a pal in the game that it really is all a scam.

He joined up same time as I did and I got the shock of my life to see him in level 9 rank with all the goodies and cool items to booth.

I asked how he did it and he said he simply got another account going and started killing off (To think I spent endless hours on ambush at sigils) the opposing faction member and gain the points.

How he's got himself all the rank and weapons to show off anywhere. If this is really just how simple and stupid it is to play factions then i would perhaps be better off begging off.

Back to high level PvM for me I suppose.

 

[Nonel]

Its not about kill points and arties. Its about PvP with a purpose.

But I wish you the best of luck PvMing.

 

[Arabella]

Well thanks but no thanks for not replying.

I am really planning on stopping my faction play. Simply because I found out through a pal in the game that it really is all a scam.

He joined up same time as I did and I got the shock of my life to see him in level 9 rank with all the goodies and cool items to booth.

I asked how he did it and he said he simply got another account going and started killing off (To think I spent endless hours on ambush at sigils) the opposing faction member and gain the points.

How he's got himself all the rank and weapons to show off anywhere. If this is really just how simple and stupid it is to play factions then i would perhaps be better off begging off.

Back to high level PvM for me I suppose.

Ahh I am sorry to hear your giving this up, but unfortunately many people are doing the same thing now that your friend did. But that isn't what factions are about.

 

[Lynk]

If all you wanted was the faction arties then factions are better off without you. Factions are about PvP outside of your dungeon grinders.

 

[Tak]

You have missed something important for new faction players?
If you get killed by an enemy, your spirit weakens and you are alot weaker for a while. Until i found it out, i thought you all are cheaters

 

[Tak]

Nevermind..

 

[Gladius]

If all you wanted was the faction arties then factions are better off without you. Factions are about PvP outside of your dungeon grinders.

OMG you are such a hypocrite pal. Don't tell me you never aspired for the top faction items too right? The point is all things being equal one who beefs up his gear via the cheats still would have an advantage over starters don't you think?

You just added yourself as a reason for people not to get involved in factions you simply don't care to help (reading your apparent lame contributions here) and am very sure you have another account to kill off for your glory eh?

You suck brother! get a sword and nothing else on you and we can duel anytime hehehe.

-G-

 

[Cardell]

OMG you are such a hypocrite pal. Don't tell me you never aspired for the top faction items too right? The point is all things being equal one who beefs up his gear via the cheats still would have an advantage over starters don't you think?

You just added yourself as a reason for people not to get involved in factions you simply don't care to help (reading your apparent lame contributions here) and am very sure you have another account to kill off for your glory eh?

You suck brother! get a sword and nothing else on you and we can duel anytime hehehe.

-G-

First of all.. Lynk fought in the factions before all the faction item garbage came out.. With that being said he contributed more to factions than any of the new era pixel crack ***** trammies that are coming into factions today just for the uber items... and then tucking there tails between there legs and hiding in tram.. Lynk actually fights.... So no, you are wrong, he isn't a hypocrite.

2nd people who farm points aren't cheating, they are exploiting. There is a big difference.. No one cheats to get points, they exploit to get points... yes its lame, if you want to blame someone about that... look at the devs. They have no member on the dev team that represents the pvpers let alone the faction pvpers and implemented a bunch of garbage. When the few community members who knew what they were talking about tried to warn them, the devs simply chose not to listen.. and thats why you have what we have today...

3rd. Again Lynk fights. If you are in the factions you should want to fight... people like Lynk make the factions more active.. so no, you are wrong again, he is definitely not a reason not to join the factions.. its quite the opposite really..

and I'd like to see that duel... I'll put my money on the pvper... and not the ignorant cry baby.

 

[Gladius]

First of all.. Lynk fought in the factions before all the faction item garbage came out.. With that being said he contributed more to factions than any of the new era pixel crack ***** trammies that are coming into factions today just for the uber items... and then tucking there tails between there legs and hiding in tram.. Lynk actually fights.... So no, you are wrong, he isn't a hypocrite.

2nd people who farm points aren't cheating, they are exploiting. There is a big difference.. No one cheats to get points, they exploit to get points... yes its lame, if you want to blame someone about that... look at the devs. They have no member on the dev team that represents the pvpers let alone the faction pvpers and implemented a bunch of garbage. When the few community members who knew what they were talking about tried to warn them, the devs simply chose not to listen.. and thats why you have what we have today...

3rd. Again Lynk fights. If you are in the factions you should want to fight... people like Lynk make the factions more active.. so no, you are wrong again, he is definitely not a reason not to join the factions.. its quite the opposite really..

and I'd like to see that duel... I'll put my money on the pvper... and not the ignorant cry baby.

Well that's the reason I joined a faction. To fight for what the faction stands for ok. Got myself killed too in the process. Why simply coz the enemy wasn't playing fair and had a lot of accessories on top of natural cyber skill hehe. Now how some of them got it is what really bothered me.

As for the developers they can all go to Gaza and get bombed!

 

[Aia]

I'd like to update the above info once the invasion stuff ends, so ummm... plz don't get the thread locked?

 

[Alagos Galadrim]

You left out the story of factions -

This is for those who think that don't know Minax was an individual and are like Lord who, and why everyone is killing each other?

"When Minax took over Lord British's realm, she started a rift, both among her followers, and among the followers of Lord British. Both sides split into two different groups, with different ideals, and war ensued among all 4 sides.

The rebellion began in Moonglow, where the council of Mages decided that Lord British was no longer fit to rule Britannia. He'd not only failed to protect his lands from the invading hordes, but many of his own people had abandoned him and fled to the side of darkness, taking post with one of the factions of evil.

British's loyal followers tried to crush the rumors quickly that Moonglow was planning on seceding from the throne's grasp, but this only furthered their cause, making those who died or were jailed martyrs for the cause of the mages. The Council of Mages now believes that what Britannia needs is a new leader: one who can not only lead Britannia against Minax, but who can also keep peace once it's restored. To this end, they have begun preparations to do something drastic.

Though they've never had to do this themselves, they are the keepers of the arcane knowledge, and they have prepared many notes and items which they will need in their quest. They oppose Minax, and Lord British, and as such, are not safe from danger in either company.

Meanwhile, Minax has something of a rebellion herself occurring. Strangely enough, from within her own rank and file, there are those who are calling for the Shadow Lords to be released from the Abyss to take their rightful place as the rulers of the dark land. While her minions are grateful to Minax for allowing them the opportunity to strike terror at Lord British, they feel she is only useful as a magical tool, and is not powerful enough to lead them against Lord British for an extended period of time. To this end they have begun preparations to do something drastic of their own; call for the Shadow Lords.

Her minions are now split amongst those who would follow her, and those who wish to see her dethroned. Infighting is the only thing thus far that is keeping Minax from working out a way to breach the virtue spell that protects Lord British and his followers."

 

[Kratos Aurion]

If all you wanted was the faction arties then factions are better off without you. Factions are about PvP outside of your dungeon grinders.

I think EA brought this upon factions by implementing an extremely poor structure for recruiting new factioners. It was bound to be abused by PvM'ers and PvP'ers.

Who wouldn't abuse it? The artifacts are considerably better. It was a lousy fix to get mass recruiting.

Honestly the faction motives should have been different and structured to be used in fel only like..

All faction members...

1) 10% higher chance to get 120's during spawns (starts at 1% at rank 1 and follows up to 10% at rank 10)

2) All members gain a 10%-20% DI or SDI (based on active skills) bonus towards all PvP combat in general in factions (the percentile is based on the same scale above)
-melee requirement = 3x gm any 3 melee related skills
-mage requirement = 3x gm any mage related skills (discluding necromancy/chivalry)

3) The ability to take 1 skill passed 120 up to 130 (but still uses the 700 overall cap/720 cap with a 4 year veteran - will not stack over cap like skill modded armor/jewelry - only works on legendary skills - instantly makes the change from 120-130 when used and char has available skill points)
-these scrolls can only be used on faction characters @ rank 7 or higher and can only have 1 active scroll per character
-unlike normal skill gain, the scrolls would give you the skill instantiously
-must have available skill space for the scroll to work
-if person decides to not use the 130 skill, all he/she needs to do is train any active skill up .1 and the scroll is automatically redeeded into the characters backpack (and only useable by that character) *or if the dev team isn't lazy, they may add an option to remove the advanced skill at the loss of the scroll on the characters toggle menu*
-unlike normal scrolls, faction 130 scrolls can either be obtained through random acts of active faction fighting (and killing) with a rare chance of obtaining one or obtainable with a set # of silver.


I believe changes like that would have been far superior than adding highend extra/advanced modded arties and would require active pvp participation in order to use the bonuses and only usable in fel *with the exception of the scroll idea*. It would have been enough incentive for any active pvpers to join knowing that all 3 of them would be actual benefits to pvp (scroll bonus/pvp di/sdi/advanced skill).

 

[Lynk]

I think EA brought this upon factions by implementing an extremely poor structure for recruiting new factioners. It was bound to be abused by PvM'ers and PvP'ers.

Who wouldn't abuse it? The artifacts are considerably better. It was a lousy fix to get mass recruiting.

Honestly the faction motives should have been different and structured to be used in fel only like..

All faction members...

1) 10% higher chance to get 120's during spawns (starts at 1% at rank 1 and follows up to 10% at rank 10)

2) All members gain a 10%-20% DI or SDI (based on active skills) bonus towards all PvP combat in general in factions (the percentile is based on the same scale above)
-melee requirement = 3x gm any 3 melee related skills
-mage requirement = 3x gm any mage related skills (discluding necromancy/chivalry)

3) The ability to take 1 skill passed 120 up to 130 (but still uses the 700 overall cap/720 cap with a 4 year veteran - will not stack over cap like skill modded armor/jewelry - only works on legendary skills - instantly makes the change from 120-130 when used and char has available skill points)
-these scrolls can only be used on faction characters @ rank 7 or higher and can only have 1 active scroll per character
-unlike normal skill gain, the scrolls would give you the skill instantiously
-must have available skill space for the scroll to work
-if person decides to not use the 130 skill, all he/she needs to do is train any active skill up .1 and the scroll is automatically redeeded into the characters backpack (and only useable by that character) *or if the dev team isn't lazy, they may add an option to remove the advanced skill at the loss of the scroll on the characters toggle menu*
-unlike normal scrolls, faction 130 scrolls can either be obtained through random acts of active faction fighting (and killing) with a rare chance of obtaining one or obtainable with a set # of silver.


I believe changes like that would have been far superior than adding highend extra/advanced modded arties and would require active pvp participation in order to use the bonuses and only usable in fel *with the exception of the scroll idea*. It would have been enough incentive for any active pvpers to join knowing that all 3 of them would be actual benefits to pvp (scroll bonus/pvp di/sdi/advanced skill).

Those ideas are horrible. Factions is a different side of PvP than spawns. 2 completely separate systems. No reason anyone should be able to get to 130 skill (or 120 imho).

The arties don't give you that much of an edge, it's just cheaper. All it does is enable people to make a good PvP suit who would otherwise be unable to afford it.

 

[Belanos/Icicle]

a lot of misconceptions on faction rank. Rank is based on how many kill points you have as compared to every other member of your faction on the shard, as percentiles. Once you have more points than x% other faction members, your rank adjust accordingly, once per day.

 

[Ivory Norwind]

Maybe I am some some stupidi girl. In Magincia there are not of a place where I can join weith CoM.
There is soemone that can help me, please me4ssage me in ICQ and we go togrther to theat place. I do9nt'0 care the rank, for now. I only to join the faction.
Please

 

[Kellgory]

Maybe I am some some stupidi girl. In Magincia there are not of a place where I can join weith CoM.
There is soemone that can help me, please me4ssage me in ICQ and we go togrther to theat place. I do9nt'0 care the rank, for now. I only to join the faction.
Please

I just created a new char on Europa, and was able to go to Magincia and join COM. The town has been destroyed but the COM base is still there as well as the sign-up stone.

It is probably easier to go through the teleporter located at the Trinsic docks which will teleport you to the Maginica docks. All you do then is run to the North a little ways per UO compass until you hit the first street that runs West to East and just follow it East. It will lead you straight to the Sigil post and just past that is the sign-up stone located next to the bridge leading into the COM base. Just make sure all your chars are out of any other factions for at least 3 days before you go.

 

[Mar Scyth]

So, what about faction crafters? can they make special stuff for factioons? Do I need to put my crafter guy in? I cant find these answers.

 

[Cardell]

So, what about faction crafters? can they make special stuff for factioons? Do I need to put my crafter guy in? I cant find these answers.

Currently you can only make faction traps as a crafter in factions. Everything else is either useless or disabled/not there anymore. ...... and yeah.. u need to be in the factions to make faction items....

 

[Poo]

there was a old sticky on the sonoma forum.
went up oct 2005 and i just took it down today (neally) oct 2010.

5 years up there.

but its getting outdated and such.

so i locked it and unstickied it and we are letting it drift off the front page and into history.

i thought id post a link to it so if in the future on the off chance that someone is trying to find info from sonoma's factions there is a lot of good info in there and a lot of links people added to old news stories about fights and such.

so, here is the link.

Sonoma Faction 101

 

[C.DeAth]

how do you get points on a shard you are new to? and know nobody. i cant wear my faction items, so it be difficult to get points by killing with no suit.

 

[Cardell]

Go to your base, stand one square from the sign up stone and then hit 'ALT + F4' and it automatically gives you 20,000 points.

Its a one time use. So use it wisely. Let me know if this still works.

 

[BahamaMama]

OP, thanks for the great info. One change... the location of COM base.

Post says the COM base is located in Magencia:
"Council of Mages- The Magincia Parliament Building in the southeast corner of what's left of Magincia."

The location was changed a while back to the southern coast of Moonglow.