Factions Testing Commencement

[Traveller]

Uhm, because that is what support personnel do...
because it is what loyal faction mates do...
because it is what needs to be done to reach the objective... (control of towns)
because my faction appreciates what I do and they let me know it...
because allegiance to a cause and a group is more important than points or goodies....

Shall I continue?

Feel free to continue, but that doesn't seem to make much sense. Do you realize I could use the same arguments you are using here to argue that support personnel in an army should not be paid?

Also, I could use those same arguments to argue that pvpers should not receive any rewards either:

"because that is what fighting personnel do...
because it is what loyal faction mates do...
because it is what needs to be done to reach the objective... (control of towns)
because my faction appreciates what I do and they let me know it...
because allegiance to a cause and a group is more important than points or goodies...."

What's the difference?

 

[tink'r_toiz]

There is no difference but since I am not a pvper I didn't feel I could speak for them. Strictly from my perspective as a support person in factions, I don't feel we do it for the recognition or what we will be given.

 

[Cailleach]

I don't support, protect and go to bat for my guildies for what I can get out of it - I do it because that's what guild leaders do. But damn, it would be nice if those folks who do the support thing could get a little nod every now and then. Fighters or their support, each is equally important in fights, and that should be recognised. The way the fighters get all the nods in terms of points etc makes it seem that the support bods are considered second class, which they most certainly are not.

And, no, I don't play factions, nor do I PvP, but I do play support at times and we do hunt in Fel too. And I take the baby PvP'ers out in Fel ruleset champs, to get them started on the long learning road. I could give a list of reasons why I don't PvP but I'm not going to - I'm simply trying to show that I do have a reasonable understanding of PvP, not least because I'm married to a guy who does.

 

[tink'r_toiz]

Agreed, it is nice to be noticed but I don't think you get the most loyal or dedicated when you "tempt" them into factions for what they can get out of it. You just get players that expect to get more and more ... and as always that is from my experience and my opinion.

 

[Cailleach]

Agreed, it is nice to be noticed but I don't think you get the most loyal or dedicated when you "tempt" them into factions for what they can get out of it. You just get players that expect to get more and more ... and as always that is from my experience and my opinion.

True enough, if you're looking at things from the 'tempt em in' perspective. I wasn't. More that since there's an over haul going on anyway, it would be very nice if those who don't get equal status got bumped a bit! And since I don't play factions myself, I, personally, gain nothing from this.

 

[Traveller]

Agreed, it is nice to be noticed but I don't think you get the most loyal or dedicated when you "tempt" them into factions for what they can get out of it. You just get players that expect to get more and more ... and as always that is from my experience and my opinion.

Well, there is always the other alternative: scrap the ranks, leaving only the deserter and soldier ranks. Deserters can't use arties, soldiers can (or just remove the arties). Then leave a pure kill point system, to be used only for bragging rights and nothing else.

In this way pvpers keep their bragging rights, but support roles are not kept as second rate citizens.

 

[Lady Michelle]

There is no difference but since I am not a pvper I didn't feel I could speak for them. Strictly from my perspective as a support person in factions, I don't feel we do it for the recognition or what we will be given.

We need solutions not bickering back in forth i want or i dont want is not helping. hear is my idea for the point system.
it could be done like this.
pvpers get kill points (2 points)
thieves get sigil stealing points (2 points)
support players get healing points (1 point)
Only way to get healing points is
1. being in your own base or an enemy base. anywhere else no points
2. healing a pvp in your faction who was attacked by a enemy faction. no points for healing someone who is not fighting.
3. you heal one pvp in your faction to get more points from that person you will have to heal 10 or more players to get more points off of that first pvper.
4. you only get 1 point per heal, or a point per every 4th person you heal.

 

[Chap]

whatever the score system is, keep it less than thousands of points.

it just look dumb running around with 1503423 points
or 2317 points for that matter

Transfer points to other chars is a nono.

And make a system that dont require points for crafters and thieves.
One thing for sure, you wont see my smith/tailor/imbuer do any pvp anytime soon. And please, without the title "deserter".

what would be funny (not reliable) would be a list of names who gave you the points,
as an extra feature for the lolz. Not that it matters in ganks, raids/defending though.

mission more important than points.

 

[Traveller]

One thing for sure, you wont see my smith/tailor/imbuer do any pvp anytime soon.

But thieves do (or at least they are involved in it), and trust me good equipment helps them as much as any pvper.

 

[tink'r_toiz]

WOW... three really thoughtful posts in a row.. I would seriously love to get you guys in vent for a discussion sometime... Michelle, I already got you

Well, there is always the other alternative: scrap the ranks, leaving only the deserter and soldier ranks. Deserters can't use arties, soldiers can (or just remove the arties). Then leave a pure kill point system, to be used only for bragging rights and nothing else.

In this way pvpers keep their bragging rights, but support roles are not kept as second rate citizens.

Simple and clean....

We need solutions not bickering back in forth i want or i dont want is not helping. hear is my idea for the point system.
it could be done like this.
pvpers get kill points (2 points)
thieves get sigil stealing points (2 points)
support players get healing points (1 point)
Only way to get healing points is
1. being in your own base or an enemy base. anywhere else no points
2. healing a pvp in your faction who was attacked by a enemy faction. no points for healing someone who is not fighting.
3. you heal one pvp in your faction to get more points from that person you will have to heal 10 or more players to get more points off of that first pvper.
4. you only get 1 point per heal, or a point per every 4th person you heal.

Agreed on the bickering ... thanks for the scolding and I shall control my scorpio....

Very interesting possibilities ... personally, you know me, I don't need or want points for my thief but I do enjoy recognition now and then so I can support a reasonable "reward" system for thieves and this one has merit.

Healers, imo, healers are as valuable as pvpers and they do deserve to gain from their work. They put themselves on the line in the middle of the battle and heal others before themselves. I like the heal in bases to gain points, the other items about how many points, exactly how they should gain. I need to think about that.

whatever the score system is, keep it less than thousands of points.

it just look dumb running around with 1503423 points
or 2317 points for that matter

Transfer points to other chars is a nono.

And make a system that dont require points for crafters and thieves.
One thing for sure, you wont see my smith/tailor/imbuer do any pvp anytime soon. And please, without the title "deserter".

what would be funny (not reliable) would be a list of names who gave you the points,
as an extra feature for the lolz. Not that it matters in ganks, raids/defending though.

mission more important than points.

Agreed, support players must not receive the title deserter just because they may not pvp/heal/steal or somehow fit into the new scoring system. That might be very interesting to separate a real deserter from a contributing craftsman.

Transfering points, at the moment, is the only way for you to honor a faction member. I would like to see the ability to honor another deserving player preserved but make it really mean something. The what I have yet to think of...

The big numbers ... I thought it was terrible when my thief got to 400 points... *sigh* ... so I am in complete agreement. Tone down the numbers.

Interesting about the list... would solve a few general chat disputes about who killed who ... I know someone, a thief, that keeps a list of the people that have managed to kill him one on one as well as a pictorial accounting of the kills he has made. This list idea might be very well received.

Mission more important than points ....

 

[Nystul]

The current system only tracks kill points. So what incentive is there to be anything other than a stealth archer hiding out at a good res spot?
There's really no reward, incentive or tracking of anything other than the last hit.

How about the satisfaction and the right to gloat that your 4 players outsmarted a team of 9 players and achieved victory wether in a base, dungeon or in the overworld field? There's a LOT more "incentive" to being other than a stealth archer & getting a killshot wether players want to believe it or not.

If you're looking to reward & give players incentive for participating in factions apply it to a part of the system that is neglected & meaningless with the exception of warhorses... Sigil corruption & town ownership.

The point system isn't bad, but it has issues obviously. I don't think we need a score for all the things there are... like stealthing/healing... A healing score actually exists indirectly in a sense. If you don't heal yourself/others, they simply die, and their score goes down. Why should it be seperate?

Remove the ability to honor points to other players & you fix the issue with complaints of players joining but not participating & "supporting" their faction.

Scale point distribution/loss based on the odds/players you're fightning against. If you're out fightning against 2:1 odds you should be rewarded more points/score for killing against those odds, and lose less for losing against those odds. The same goes for fightning 1:2 odds but obviously backwards. I know it's been mentioned from a development member that they had that in mind, but It's always been a opinion I've agreed on.

Now let's say you're "fightning" 4:1 odds but you're "only a stealth archer" and "waiting" for the killshot. Take in consideration the amount of damage you applied to the player who died and when that damage was dealt and apply point distribution. If you didn't attack the player until they were at 20% health, then you shouldn't recieve points. If you attacked that player from "the start" but you only dealt 12% of the damage while another player or two dealt the other 88% damage than scale it accordingly. Then there's a reason to be more than just a killshot stealth archer...

 

[Viquire]

Let's see if we can't un-derail the thread.

The "vision" of the scoring system is so that faction participation gets rewarded.
So as much as possible player activity within the faction system should get you points.

We're working out the bugs in the point calculations system (divide by 0 VERY BAD)

But the theory behind the point boards is to allow players to get an overall feel of how they are doing in factions.

So after you have spent noting all the stuff being tracked, and then wondering why would you give points for that?
Consider the following
The current system only tracks kill points. So what incentive is there to be anything other than a stealth archer hiding out at a good res spot?
There's really no reward, incentive or tracking of anything other than the last hit.

The in progress system allows us to rank based on what players are actually doing.
So dishing out alot of damage will net you some points. Not getting that last hit won't mean that your effort amounted to nothing.
Getting that kill shot will still be sweet, but if all you're going to be doing is waiting for the kill shot, you are really not being as useful as the guy dishing out the damage that allowed you to make the kill shot.

Tracking things like stealth, and healing.
If you're stealthing around and reporting and gathering intel for your faction, you are performing a valuable service.
Sitting back and healing your faction mates even though you aren't in the fray directly, is also a valuable service.

The important thing to remember is that if you sat there and fought one guy and got X points from damage, Y points for healing.
X could be 100000000 and Y could be 10000000000.
You're still gonna be considered low rank if everyone else has done 10 times as much damage, healing, or stealthing than you.


So you can sit there with a buddy and beat on each other morning and night till I convince the Power's that be to let me make Frying pans, chairs, and lutes wieldable in combat, but in the end you still are competing with anyone else who's actively participating.

What I understand, from the stated fact that transfer of points will not be available in this system is that you are able to obtain your own faction ranking through, healing and cross healing, scouting, actively observing, stealing, and damaging opponent oranges without relying on the benefaction of those making kill shots. Thus "earning" your own rewards based on an arbitrary score that is compiled and tracked through a scoring system that tracks individual achievement and allows for more accountability for earning of individual rewards, in addition to whatever rewards any group might earn in the category of town control.

 

[Viquire]

The important thing to remember is that if you sat there and fought one guy and got X points from damage, Y points for healing.
X could be 100000000 and Y could be 10000000000.
You're still gonna be considered low rank if everyone else has done 10 times as much damage, healing, or stealthing than you.


So you can sit there with a buddy and beat on each other morning and night till I convince the Power's that be to let me make Frying pans, chairs, and lutes wieldable in combat, but in the end you still are competing with anyone else who's actively participating.

Okay, so lets put this shoe on the other foot and see if we can address something that concerns everyone.

If the above illustration is correct, how does that effect the system if we have say, several less scrupulous players on my shard and they have four accounts each. If from the time they go to work, until the time they get home they are "busy" earning points for damaging, healing, stealthing, etc through manipulation of the system by staging a battle between characters in opposing factions or what have you, where will they stand in ranking as opposed to say, someone who logs in after work every day, and does not find actual pvp in the towns or bases, or how would they fare in point accumulation say to someone who sits next to sigils they stole and guarded in stealth waiting for their friends to come home?

What would happen if they moved their point generation machine to my faction?

Would they bump me down a few notches in rank. It was said no points are accumulated within a house. How bout a castle courtyard?

It was also said that anyone killing a member of their own faction would take a hit in rank and on score. Would that hit be sufficient enough to deter us from tracking down and putting an end to any point generation bots we might be able to locate?

 

[Cloak&Dagger]

Okay, so lets put this shoe on the other foot and see if we can address something that concerns everyone.

If the above illustration is correct, how does that effect the system if we have say, several less scrupulous players on my shard and they have four accounts each. If from the time they go to work, until the time they get home they are "busy" earning points for damaging, healing, stealthing, etc through manipulation of the system by staging a battle between characters in opposing factions or what have you, where will they stand in ranking as opposed to say, someone who logs in after work every day, and does not find actual pvp in the towns or bases, or how would they fare in point accumulation say to someone who sits next to sigils they stole and guarded in stealth waiting for their friends to come home?

What would happen if they moved their point generation machine to my faction?

Would they bump me down a few notches in rank. It was said no points are accumulated within a house. How bout a castle courtyard?

It was also said that anyone killing a member of their own faction would take a hit in rank and on score. Would that hit be sufficient enough to deter us from tracking down and putting an end to any point generation bots we might be able to locate?

Castle Courtyards, I assume you mean the player owned castles, count as part of the house. So it should be that they can not gain there.

The other question have not really been answered, except maybe they said that fighting a friend all day and night should not yield as much of a reward as just going out and fighting normally. I also think they need to modify the assisting code, Currently you can not assist enemy faction members if you are flagged, but when you are not you can, this should not be. You should not be able to assist an enemy faction at all. (pretty sure its just buggy, but you get the point...fix it.)

 

[Tina Small]

I also think they need to modify the assisting code, Currently you can not assist enemy faction members if you are flagged, but when you are not you can, this should not be. You should not be able to assist an enemy faction at all. (pretty sure its just buggy, but you get the point...fix it.)

I was always under the impression that this coding existed because two or more factions might want to have a temporary informal "alliance" or "truce" for the purpose of defeating another faction.

I have fond memories from when I first got started in factions of a certain enemy faction character who had a dead pet (not a war horse) he had been dragging around with him for about a week. This was back at the time when you couldn't get a pet rez from a NPC or from nonfaction characters, regardless of which facet you were in. I finally took pity on him and rezzed his pet in Luna with my faction tamer. I just couldn't stand the sight of that ghostly pet any longer! He was also the guy that killed me the first time in factions, so I guess he had some special status as far as I was concerned. LOL

 

[Nexus]

You know I really don't see a point to revamping Factions.....yet. Not to discredit the work you guys are doing, but the problems that plague factions are not all faction related. Let me give you a quick breakdown of big things that I see that will hamper your best efforts.

1) PvP in general is broken, not only is it still very imbalanced but the attitudes of players towards it is broken also. It won't matter if you go from 4 to 3 factions, a new point system etc if you don't fix the underlying problems in PvP in General. There have been enough posts on this you guys should know where the issues are. Fixing attitudes is a different story though and a much bigger issue, I still see Para-Ganks being a huge thing in Fel not much you can do when 4 folks are bashing you while X-Fielded. Other things are broken too, you guys might be working on a fix for Speeders and Scripts, but what about folks running modded .Mul Files?

2) I don't know what you are gonna do with the Faction Arties, I just hope that the new approach doesn't add to the problems in #1. Faction players still can attack non-factions members. So what can you do? Let those who wish to be factions have access to superior gear and everyone else be victims? That's called an imbalance. Sure you can say that skill will be a bigger factor but already Gear benefits to the point it helps cover slips and mistakes. Are you going to restrict Faction members to just Faction Fighting and spawn areas? Make it so they can't attack anyone not factions outside the Spawns? That would be a fair trade off for access to easily replaceable gear.

Seriously, how can any changes you make fix things if the underlying systems are broken?

 

[Cloak&Dagger]

I was always under the impression that this coding existed because two or more factions might want to have a temporary informal "alliance" or "truce" for the purpose of defeating another faction.

I have fond memories from when I first got started in factions of a certain enemy faction character who had a dead pet (not a war horse) he had been dragging around with him for about a week. This was back at the time when you couldn't get a pet rez from a NPC or from nonfaction characters, regardless of which facet you were in. I finally took pity on him and rezzed his pet in Luna with my faction tamer. I just couldn't stand the sight of that ghostly pet any longer! He was also the guy that killed me the first time in factions, so I guess he had some special status as far as I was concerned. LOL

Don't get me wrong, The original ideas are not completely wasted, but "today" things are not that simplistic. Faction a is fighting Faction b Faction A has x friends In Faction b so x Friends help Faction A to defeat Faction b. This is the current state of things, Loyalty has been an issue for awhile now. I know its not always like this, and Sometimes you would like to help the opposing faction to fight faction D, but the problem is still there for faction b to help faction a beat faction b.

Also, If I am not mistaken, the ability to help the opposing faction members is not completely intended but was a "flaw" that was.....Fitting? We could say.

 

[Cloak&Dagger]

Seriously, how can any changes you make fix things if the underlying systems are broken?

No disagreement, but...The issue with pvp mostly is the Attitude of the players. A good deal of them have a horrible attitude. Do you know how many times they have adjusted the server side setting for speed? and still people cry speed. I sometimes wonder if people can even speed (hard for me to tell lately being as how I ping at 100, everyone is faster than me. generally). How would you have them handle the .mul files? I really do not see a way for them to do this, honestly....They can try and try but people are pretty good about getting around most anything.

your second point....is somewhat....I dunno, not comprehensible. Non-Faction members can attack faction members but faction members can not attack non-faction members? This would not make any sense. And then the other option is to separate them completely not allowing either to attack either. This creates more of a void in our pvp situations than we have already, so most likely would not work either. Lots of arguments against how the faction gear is not all that great, but You make a good point about it being easily replaceable, but then I do not know many people who are losing their items, Faction or other wise (Do you play on siege? cause then....We are just barking up the wrong trees no matter how you look at it, prodo and siege can not be held to the same accord).

 

[Nexus]

No disagreement, but...The issue with pvp mostly is the Attitude of the players. A good deal of them have a horrible attitude. Do you know how many times they have adjusted the server side setting for speed? and still people cry speed. I sometimes wonder if people can even speed (hard for me to tell lately being as how I ping at 100, everyone is faster than me. generally). How would you have them handle the .mul files? I really do not see a way for them to do this, honestly....They can try and try but people are pretty good about getting around most anything.

your second point....is somewhat....I dunno, not comprehensible. Non-Faction members can attack faction members but faction members can not attack non-faction members? This would not make any sense. And then the other option is to separate them completely not allowing either to attack either. This creates more of a void in our pvp situations than we have already, so most likely would not work either. Lots of arguments against how the faction gear is not all that great, but You make a good point about it being easily replaceable, but then I do not know many people who are losing their items, Faction or other wise (Do you play on siege? cause then....We are just barking up the wrong trees no matter how you look at it, prodo and siege can not be held to the same accord).

Well as to the .mul files if it were me (and it's not) I'd tag them with a some type of hash generated by the client, based on content of the file. When the client loads that hash is checked, if the hash doesn't match, it won't load the client until the patch loader is run to update and restore the proper .mul files. A second check would be done (and remember this hash would be a small packet or group of packets) when a character is logged in, that prevents swapping after client load. Sure this might be difficult to implement and would slow the client load time a bit, but worth it to get rid of an exploit.

With Faction vs Non-Faction yea it's difficult but has some merit. Right now faction players have access to better equipment, and everyone here knows that equipment is key when building templates. It can't totally replace skill, but in the hands of a skilled PvPer this superior gear can make a difference. By easily replaceable, there are still times when people loose items in Fel on accident, either they forgot about insurance gold, or just bought the item and forgot to insure it. Sure that's their problem, but how many Crimmies are available on most shards? 1 maybe two at a time, often there will be periods where there are none for days to weeks. These accident happen and most Factioners will be able to replace what they lost, a non-faction player will have to wait. Even if those accidents aren't happening it's harder for a newer person on the PvP scene to gain access to either the Faction Artifacts or non-Faction artifacts when everyone they compete against is running much better equipment.

Siege is a much different animal as you said, there Faction Arties need to vanish, the easily replaceable aspect makes it even worse since non-Factioners will have to choose between a comparable Non-Faction Artie, or their weapon when siege blessing an item. Personally after spending time on Siege I feel the entire shard just needs the plug pulled, and used to host the "Classic Server" if one is ever implemented. RoT is asinine, and item based play without insurance is a self defeating concept it allows further issues when things like the Faction Arties are thrown in the mix. Robust Templates are difficult to manage since most players to give up something in favor of Hiding. The only thing beneficial on Siege is lack of passive reveal.

 

[Cloak&Dagger]

Well as to the .mul files if it were me (and it's not) I'd tag them with a some type of hash generated by the client, based on content of the file. When the client loads that hash is checked, if the hash doesn't match, it won't load the client until the patch loader is run to update and restore the proper .mul files. A second check would be done (and remember this hash would be a small packet or group of packets) when a character is logged in, that prevents swapping after client load. Sure this might be difficult to implement and would slow the client load time a bit, but worth it to get rid of an exploit.

With Faction vs Non-Faction yea it's difficult but has some merit. Right now faction players have access to better equipment, and everyone here knows that equipment is key when building templates. It can't totally replace skill, but in the hands of a skilled PvPer this superior gear can make a difference. By easily replaceable, there are still times when people loose items in Fel on accident, either they forgot about insurance gold, or just bought the item and forgot to insure it. Sure that's their problem, but how many Crimmies are available on most shards? 1 maybe two at a time, often there will be periods where there are none for days to weeks. These accident happen and most Factioners will be able to replace what they lost, a non-faction player will have to wait. Even if those accidents aren't happening it's harder for a newer person on the PvP scene to gain access to either the Faction Artifacts or non-Faction artifacts when everyone they compete against is running much better equipment.

Siege is a much different animal as you said, there Faction Arties need to vanish, the easily replaceable aspect makes it even worse since non-Factioners will have to choose between a comparable Non-Faction Artie, or their weapon when siege blessing an item. Personally after spending time on Siege I feel the entire shard just needs the plug pulled, and used to host the "Classic Server" if one is ever implemented. RoT is asinine, and item based play without insurance is a self defeating concept it allows further issues when things like the Faction Arties are thrown in the mix. Robust Templates are difficult to manage since most players to give up something in favor of Hiding. The only thing beneficial on Siege is lack of passive reveal.

I do not want to give people ideas on how to get around your hash table suggestion, but seeing as how you have enough knowledge to present an idea I assume you also know it is not perfect and would not take to much time once presented for someone to actually get around it. That of course is assuming anyone would take the time, most of the people who made the cheats of old do not even play anymore.

I agree with you on the items being easily replaceable, and I agree those accidents do happen. I do not agree to them being superior in a way that skews the faction/non-faction system. I also feel that new players would benefit from these "easily" obtainable items, so long as they found a guild willing to help them. In the current system (granted with the changes the method of doing this will change, possibly for the worse in regards to new players trying to get into pvp) if a newer player, or even an older player with less access to funds, wanted to pvp they could find a faction guild willing to help them, the guild could award them enough points to be able to use the faction items and then go out and get the silver. This gives them access to easy items, but it will in no way make them better than those who have the equipment and are not in factions.

 

[Tina Small]

Don't get me wrong, The original ideas are not completely wasted, but "today" things are not that simplistic. Faction a is fighting Faction b Faction A has x friends In Faction b so x Friends help Faction A to defeat Faction b. This is the current state of things, Loyalty has been an issue for awhile now. I know its not always like this, and Sometimes you would like to help the opposing faction to fight faction D, but the problem is still there for faction b to help faction a beat faction b.

Also, If I am not mistaken, the ability to help the opposing faction members is not completely intended but was a "flaw" that was.....Fitting? We could say.

You might want to read this June 19, 2009 FoF: http://www.uoherald.com/fof/?fofId=160. Interpret Draconi's response however you want, I guess. Mistake? Deliberate? Who knows.

 

[hungry4knowhow]

is the factions shard down?

 

[Cloak&Dagger]

You might want to read this June 19, 2009 FoF: http://www.uoherald.com/fof/?fofId=160. Interpret Draconi's response however you want, I guess. Mistake? Deliberate? Who knows.

I know about his post, but he did not code it to be this way. He just allowed it to continue. I did say this already, they did nothing about it because they thought it the same way draconi posted it. His response is exactly as it says, that does not mean I have to agree with him. Specially given the example that I did.

 

[Nexus]

I do not want to give people ideas on how to get around your hash table suggestion, but seeing as how you have enough knowledge to present an idea I assume you also know it is not perfect and would not take to much time once presented for someone to actually get around it. That of course is assuming anyone would take the time, most of the people who made the cheats of old do not even play anymore.

I agree with you on the items being easily replaceable, and I agree those accidents do happen. I do not agree to them being superior in a way that skews the faction/non-faction system. I also feel that new players would benefit from these "easily" obtainable items, so long as they found a guild willing to help them. In the current system (granted with the changes the method of doing this will change, possibly for the worse in regards to new players trying to get into pvp) if a newer player, or even an older player with less access to funds, wanted to pvp they could find a faction guild willing to help them, the guild could award them enough points to be able to use the faction items and then go out and get the silver. This gives them access to easy items, but it will in no way make them better than those who have the equipment and are not in factions.

What I was actually meaning with the .mul files was the Client on loading verifies all those files, it could be something like how many bytes of data, or something embedded in the .mul files to be patched in for the system that would change with any modification, even some type of decent encryption would help. The Server Side would have to match the client side on each client load, and again on character login. Sure it's not perfect, but it's also outside the competence of many script kiddies.

The hard part is blocking distribution from people who can get around it and that's a different issue entirely. Personally I've been saying it for a while EA should take a leaf out of Blizzard's book and do what they did to the people who made Glider. I think after the lawsuit Blizzard was awarded like $6 million in damages...

 

[Cloak&Dagger]

What I was actually meaning with the .mul files was the Client on loading verifies all those files, it could be something like how many bytes of data, or something embedded in the .mul files to be patched in for the system that would change with any modification, even some type of decent encryption would help. The Server Side would have to match the client side on each client load, and again on character login. Sure it's not perfect, but it's also outside the competence of many script kiddies.

The hard part is blocking distribution from people who can get around it and that's a different issue entirely. Personally I've been saying it for a while EA should take a leaf out of Blizzard's book and do what they did to the people who made Glider. I think after the lawsuit Blizzard was awarded like $6 million in damages...

I know what you were suggesting, And we can both agree its not perfect, and agree that the majority of the cheaters would not be able to get around it, it is the distro that becomes the problem.

As for the EA blizzard thing.....blizzard still has cheats, quite a bit in fact. In some ways I feel the lawsuit was wrong, but I also am of the opinion of "what ever works" so, if it takes that to fix our cheating problem then so be it.

 

[MiNi MaGi]

the factions server has been gone for a few days now....

 

[JobriathCairn]

As a person whose only real exposure to factions is pkers armed to the teeth with godly faction artifacts, I'd like to make the following suggestion.
If you're killed in faction warfare, 20 mins stat loss, or whatever those who play factions feel is fair.
If you're killed by nonfaction players, 2 hours stat loss, or hell, 24 hours stat loss. Provide some incentive to keep factions preying on the nonfaction players.
This isn't a "I wanna play in fel too" trammie attitude. Just a call to stop the "over-arming" of players against the general populace.
Just a thought, flaming to follow.
Jobi (Catskills)

 

[Lord GOD(GOD)]

Well I got to test for two days before the shard vanished, its not really the direction I hoped it'd be going in, but then my idea of factions would involve pushing more toward arena type fights that I don't think would necessarily work in UO.

Such as 3 bases/castles/forts connected to a large open field that could also have traps and terretories to be captured to indicate progression. Bases could be captured but only temporarily. Faction gear and horses would be given to everyone but you would be required to participate for a set amount of time in the arena each week to continue to use it. This probably wouldn't work too well in UO as it would take players away from other areas but, well the idea is more based on how spread out the towns are, right now if Minax owns Minoc and I go to Minoc on a TB character so what? It means nothing that they own it.

Other than that I agree with most of the early posts, the bases look lived in, not fought in, not sure who is going to sit there with Imbuing materials on them in a faction base. The points system isn't really what I'd like - though again, what I'd like probably isn't possible in UO - a non exploitable way to track legitimate (non res kill) kills/deaths that isn't tied to your items. I see factions as sort of armies if you join an army they should equip you to fight.

The base with the elevators makes it really easy for someone to run away from you, could it be made so you can fall on to them when they're going down? It's only one floor falling off the Demon Temple is higher. The layout is confusing. Personally I'd prefer bases to have a mix of narrow and open parts to allow both open field and choke point fighting in a straight forward line to the sig room.

 

[Locryn Finck]

Well I got to test for two days before the shard vanished, its not really the direction I hoped it'd be going in, but then my idea of factions would involve pushing more toward arena type fights that I don't think would necessarily work in UO.

Such as 3 bases/castles/forts connected to a large open field that could also have traps and terretories to be captured to indicate progression. Bases could be captured but only temporarily. Faction gear and horses would be given to everyone but you would be required to participate for a set amount of time in the arena each week to continue to use it. This probably wouldn't work too well in UO as it would take players away from other areas but, well the idea is more based on how spread out the towns are, right now if Minax owns Minoc and I go to Minoc on a TB character so what? It means nothing that they own it.

Other than that I agree with most of the early posts, the bases look lived in, not fought in, not sure who is going to sit there with Imbuing materials on them in a faction base. The points system isn't really what I'd like - though again, what I'd like probably isn't possible in UO - a non exploitable way to track legitimate (non res kill) kills/deaths that isn't tied to your items. I see factions as sort of armies if you join an army they should equip you to fight.

The base with the elevators makes it really easy for someone to run away from you, could it be made so you can fall on to them when they're going down? It's only one floor falling off the Demon Temple is higher. The layout is confusing. Personally I'd prefer bases to have a mix of narrow and open parts to allow both open field and choke point fighting in a straight forward line to the sig room.

Its funny - if they just added a big ass open field with 3 bases nearby to res and bank at, it would likely be the place I spent the majority of my time. Im sure an underpaid writer could find a way to lore it up - then just provide some repeatable incentive to fight for.

 

[o2bavr6]

I know what you were suggesting, And we can both agree its not perfect, and agree that the majority of the cheaters would not be able to get around it, it is the distro that becomes the problem.

As for the EA blizzard thing.....blizzard still has cheats, quite a bit in fact. In some ways I feel the lawsuit was wrong, but I also am of the opinion of "what ever works" so, if it takes that to fix our cheating problem then so be it.

Question: I don't play WoW but from what I Heard there are no exploits in that game.

Is this true? if so, why cant EA implement something similar?

 

[Berethrain]

Question: I don't play WoW but from what I Heard there are no exploits in that game.

Is this true? if so, why cant EA implement something similar?

Even more free games have better anti cheat mechanisms than UO does. Figure that one out.

 

[o2bavr6]

Even more free games have better anti cheat mechanisms than UO does. Figure that one out.

I know this is off topic, but it goes to the heart of PvP, which in turn affects factions:

yesterday i was standing at yew gate when a red attacks me. We fight for about 5 minutes, a couple of times i had to run into a house, because he was better than i was, when he finally dies cause a couple of other blues ganked in on him.


He gets ressed and proceeds to attack me again, don't forget that I never flagged him, but this time I was in flee of battle. Can anyone explain how this happens?

I have no reflect phys on my suit yet I was in flee. It is inconsistencies like this in PvP that keep people from participating.

So as much as we appreciate the effort being put into revamping factions, we would sure love some effort put into "bugs" like I just mentioned. When they are fixed, and also hoping tht the exploits are fixed, it will be at that point that you see more people participating in PvP activities, factions and all.

Which in turn would increase the subscription rate for UO, bringing back players who gave up on PvP.

 

[Cloak&Dagger]

Question: I don't play WoW but from what I Heard there are no exploits in that game.

Is this true? if so, why cant EA implement something similar?

It is not true, cheating is not as rampant, but then Blizzard pays its gms...I think EA is just holding a bunch of people hostage and forcing them to click a button for canned responses. Blizzards games all have cheats, they do however have better anti-cheating. Of course they are newer games and have "better" available tech, but I don't wish to get into the hows and whys but rather Blizzard has cheating and exploits, every game will so long as people want to cheat/exploit it will happen.

I know this is off topic, but it goes to the heart of PvP, which in turn affects factions:

yesterday i was standing at yew gate when a red attacks me. We fight for about 5 minutes, a couple of times i had to run into a house, because he was better than i was, when he finally dies cause a couple of other blues ganked in on him.


He gets ressed and proceeds to attack me again, don't forget that I never flagged him, but this time I was in flee of battle. Can anyone explain how this happens?

I have no reflect phys on my suit yet I was in flee. It is inconsistencies like this in PvP that keep people from participating.

So as much as we appreciate the effort being put into revamping factions, we would sure love some effort put into "bugs" like I just mentioned. When they are fixed, and also hoping tht the exploits are fixed, it will be at that point that you see more people participating in PvP activities, factions and all.

Which in turn would increase the subscription rate for UO, bringing back players who gave up on PvP.

I can not be sure why you were in flee, but I would assume it was not a bug but rather a set of events that are "supposed" to cause it. Would most likely have to ask a Dev, hell I am not even personally sure of all the reasons you go into a flagged state. Perhaps the person you were hiding from did not physically attack you for a period of 5 minute while you attacked him? i.e casting or clicking on the person, if he did neither of these but you did then he would un-flag and you would flag. Just a thought.

 

[MiNi MaGi]

after reading most of these post im not surprised they took down the faction server. i wouldnt be surprised if they said **** there factions all together. yall are a bunch of ****ing cry babies. you guys should be giving suggestions in a positive form to help the devs out in return helps us out. all i see are the SAME ****ing posts repeating over and over about the same stupid ****ing ****. THE BASE IS TO BIG! Hey STFU.. the poeple who REALLY pvp/faction dont give two ****s about the base. we would have been just as happy if they left the guards out of mag/brit. well they shouldnt be in any town or fel anyways.

 

[Cloak&Dagger]

after reading most of these post im not surprised they took down the faction server. i wouldnt be surprised if they said **** there factions all together. yall are a bunch of ****ing cry babies. you guys should be giving suggestions in a positive form to help the devs out in return helps us out. all i see are the SAME ****ing posts repeating over and over about the same stupid ****ing ****. THE BASE IS TO BIG! Hey STFU.. the poeple who REALLY pvp/faction dont give two ****s about the base. we would have been just as happy if they left the guards out of mag/brit. well they shouldnt be in any town or fel anyways.

.....breath.

They took the shard down to fix the points....

the people who REALLY do factions care about the bases because the base defense is currently the main aspect of factions....lets consider the faction system as it is instead of "just pvp" its a bit more than pvp, while sure when im out and about just pvping the bases don't matter but when I am defending, the current bases are going to be difficult to do so (although unlike the others I somewhat like the challenge presented, might be a bit to much though but not enough testing to be sure )

Over all though, I agree with you. People should be giving positive responses, even if it is "make the bases smaller" instead of saying "who ever designed this sucks" or....like some others have done, make suggestions on how to make defending these bases more interactive, such as the ability to create "gates" that you need lockpicking to get through, and only be able to place them in x number of entrances, but not all of them.

 

[Lord GOD(GOD)]

For me the most fun fights were those where you had a good stand off, I don't know if its possible, but I think there needs to be more incentive to fight for your faction and not just for yourself. Pre AOS faction fights on TC you would end up teaming up with people just because they were in the same faction that doesn't seem to happen anymore. You would fight along side faction guards instead of just dumping them at a location to be killed off when someone else has time, and faction weapons automatically poisoned. (not saying that should be brought back just that it happened...)

Another thing I liked was when they once had a TC with fel rule set (think it was just after AOS) and people set up houses like fortresses to fight each other from.

Ideally I'd like something that was a combination of both of those, but with towns its too far spread out for the number of players per shard, hence the arena comment, I don't know what arena PvP is in other games though so that might be a bad reference.

It just seemed more like if you turned up on your own then you could still participate where as now you just get ganked by all sides including your own.

 

[o2bavr6]

I can not be sure why you were in flee, but I would assume it was not a bug but rather a set of events that are "supposed" to cause it. Would most likely have to ask a Dev, hell I am not even personally sure of all the reasons you go into a flagged state. Perhaps the person you were hiding from did not physically attack you for a period of 5 minute while you attacked him? i.e casting or clicking on the person, if he did neither of these but you did then he would un-flag and you would flag. Just a thought.

I wish you were correct but this timeline is 100% for sure:

Red attacks me, we fight for about 5 minutes. Red finally get ganked by other blues and dies.

I am looting his body when another red resses him. He gets his leftover items and immediately cast a spell on me to attack me. it was from this point on that I was in flee.

I usually have a good handle of what the flagging system is, but I've seen this happen to me a lot. I would say that at least 3 times a day I end up in flee when I am not the aggressor.

 

[Cloak&Dagger]

....................
It just seemed more like if you turned up on your own then you could still participate where as now you just get ganked by all sides including your own.

I agree with you on the best parts of what faction fighting was or should be.

I also agree about getting ganked by other factions + your faction, hence why I think we need to come up with a way to prevent same side fighting, not remove it but ya know incentive not to do it.

I can not be sure why you were in flee, but I would assume it was not a bug but rather a set of events that are "supposed" to cause it. Would most likely have to ask a Dev, hell I am not even personally sure of all the reasons you go into a flagged state. Perhaps the person you were hiding from did not physically attack you for a period of 5 minute while you attacked him? i.e casting or clicking on the person, if he did neither of these but you did then he would un-flag and you would flag. Just a thought.

I wish you were correct but this timeline is 100% for sure:

Red attacks me, we fight for about 5 minutes. Red finally get ganked by other blues and dies.

I am looting his body when another red resses him. He gets his leftover items and immediately cast a spell on me to attack me. it was from this point on that I was in flee.

I usually have a good handle of what the flagging system is, but I've seen this happen to me a lot. I would say that at least 3 times a day I end up in flee when I am not the aggressor.

Are we sure there is no chance looting a live body may make you the aggressor? I do not really have a house around any major pvp area's, they are all round and about in various places, so I can not test it much, but it is a thought.

 

[o2bavr6]

Are we sure there is no chance looting a live body may make you the aggressor? I do not really have a house around any major pvp area's, they are all round and about in various places, so I can not test it much, but it is a thought.

I don't think there is an issue with flagging for looting a red corpse but who knows.

I mainly pvp at places like yew gate and have looted my fair share of red corpses.

But the one thing I would say is that if for some reason looting the red made me gray, i would have probably been ganked by everyone ;-)

 

[Cloak&Dagger]

I don't think there is an issue with flagging for looting a red corpse but who knows.

I mainly pvp at places like yew gate and have looted my fair share of red corpses.

But the one thing I would say is that if for some reason looting the red made me gray, i would have probably been ganked by everyone ;-)

Not "gray" but flagged. Just offering possible answers in the wake of a Developer reading this and saying "oh this happens because" or "oh that sounds like a bug we will look into it".

 

[JC the Builder]

There is so many words being posted. Plus the developer comments. It is a full time job to read it all. I missed this from the first page:

As Mike mentioned, this is just the beginnings... provided there is support from the players to move forward. Cal's not going to let us keep working on it if noone seems to be interested. We are really excited about these changes so I hope you all well at least create a character on the Faction TC and check it out for yourself.

I hope enough support has been provided thus far.

Forum Topic
Faction Testing Commencement - 389 Replies
Faction Stat Loss - 164 Replies
New Scoring System - Intentions and Details - 41 Replies
Hey Mr. Dev, While you are at the Factions Fix: - 102 Replies
Lets Put an End to This - Thieves Are Not Important - 75 Replies
About new FACTION setup! - 112 Replies

Those 6 topics alone are made up of 883 replies. And it was only on Test Center for about 1 day. There hasn't been this much discussion about a change to UO in a long time.

 

[bumblefutz]

So you can sit there with a buddy and beat on each other morning and night till I convince the Power's that be to let me make Frying pans, chairs, and lutes wieldable in combat, but in the end you still are competing with anyone else who's actively participating.

Who cares? I'll have five or ten multiboxed accounts all beating on each other and healing themselves 24/7 using scripts. Heck maybe I'll just have them all stealth circles around each other in my house.

Well *I* won't, but I guarantee someone will.

 

[Mark_Mythic]

I have cooled down a bit now. Agree totally with Arabella. I pay EA $52.00 a month to maintain 4 accounts to play FACTIONS. I did not read anywhere that "EA Devs at any given moment may determine your play style invalid or you to be a crappy player". We are your customers and you have no right to decide which of us is "crappy". Your measure of crappy most likely is NOT my measure of crappy.

But I am willing to listen and I am still waiting for that definition.

I think you might be taking my comment out of context. I was explaining how the fact that we don't put caps on the number of people who can join a faction isn't going to unbalance factions. In any team, organization, army, whatever, you have 20% of the people doing 80% of the work. It's an old cliche and it is old because it is true. My point is that if the 20% who do 80% of the work stay reasonably distributed among the factions then the 80% that only do 20% of the work can do whatever they want and the system will still balance. I have no interest in labelling individual people. Perhaps "crappy" was a poor choice of words, perhaps I should have said "people who don't really help the cause in any measurable way."

I think the new scoring system will actually give some overdue credit to your members who help with healing and stealthing. We obviously don't devalue these services to the faction because we are now giving them points for it.

Anyway, I hear those people who say they want to get together on the test shard and show me specific problems with the keeps. I will be glad to get together with you in a few weeks and you can show me. As I said in the beginning I am not able to spend much time on this, I am currently working on pub 66 stuff and I have deadlines for that. Once I get my pub 66 stuff done I can get involved with factions again. That's how it has been since last November when we started this project.

Until then, Shade out.

 

[tink'r_toiz]

I think you might be taking my comment out of context. I was explaining how the fact that we don't put caps on the number of people who can join a faction isn't going to unbalance factions. In any team, organization, army, whatever, you have 20% of the people doing 80% of the work. It's an old cliche and it is old because it is true. My point is that if the 20% who do 80% of the work stay reasonably distributed among the factions then the 80% that only do 20% of the work can do whatever they want and the system will still balance. I have no interest in labelling individual people. Perhaps "crappy" was a poor choice of words, perhaps I should have said "people who don't really help the cause in any measurable way."

The problem is definitions. "people who don't really help the cause in any measurable way". Some say thieves don't help in a measurable way, some say scouts, etc., you get the idea. What is to be measured and how much to be good? Crappy is slang meaning a lack of quality. What is quality? To me it is desire and dedication. Maybe they do only 20% of the work but they are 200% there when they do it. *shrugs* The written word can be as deadly as a greater dragon sometimes.

I think the new scoring system will actually give some overdue credit to your members who help with healing and stealthing. We obviously don't devalue these services to the faction because we are now giving them points for it.

So most of us that heal and steal and scout don't do it for the points. The abusers of the faciton system, imo, are the ones with 10 kazillion points. I appreciate your wanting to acknowledge the "quiet" contributors but rather than points, a few fixes would be more appreciated.

Anyway, I hear those people who say they want to get together on the test shard and show me specific problems with the keeps. I will be glad to get together with you in a few weeks and you can show me. As I said in the beginning I am not able to spend much time on this, I am currently working on pub 66 stuff and I have deadlines for that. Once I get my pub 66 stuff done I can get involved with factions again. That's how it has been since last November when we started this project.

Understandable and thank you for being willing to talk to us. Please insist that you have a nice cross section of faction players.

Until then, Shade out.

Ok someone enlighten me... I am old... "shade out"? Sounds a little like he just told me to lighten up or go away or something... ;P

 

[Cloak&Dagger]

Ok someone enlighten me... I am old... "shade out"? Sounds a little like he just told me to lighten up or go away or something... ;P

Sarcasm again tink?

I am not sure but it would seem that adding healing in the point system would be less geared towards helping fight the exploiters, and more just to reward those who do it. Not that I know, but still would seem like it to me. *shrugs*

 

[tink'r_toiz]

Sarcasm again tink?

I am not sure but it would seem that adding healing in the point system would be less geared towards helping fight the exploiters, and more just to reward those who do it. Not that I know, but still would seem like it to me. *shrugs*

No sarcasm at all... I truly would like to know what "Shade out" means and yes, I have the same concern about points for healers and stealthers since, at this moment, there seems to bee a lot of ways to exploit it.

HAH! I found a definition ... Shade Out ... to leave party or function when no one is paying attention and without saying goodbye (Urban Dictionary)....see I told you it was because I am old...Maybe I just need to keep various assorted dictionaries handy to decipher what is meant...

 

[Cloak&Dagger]

No sarcasm at all... I truly would like to know what "Shade out" means and yes, I have the same concern about points for healers and stealthers since, at this moment, there seems to bee a lot of ways to exploit it.

HAH! I found a definition ... Shade Out ... to leave party or function when no one is paying attention and without saying goodbye (Urban Dictionary)....see I told you it was because I am old...Maybe I just need to keep various assorted dictionaries handy to decipher what is meant...

I had not even thought about that definition when he said it. Hmm see now it could mean what you just posted, or it could be what I was thinking.

Like his call tag is "shade" and he was saying he is "out" Sort of like how Mike is known as Phoenix, be the same as him saying "Phoenix out". But yours could be correct also, now I am wondering which one he meant.

 

[Arabella]

No sarcasm at all... I truly would like to know what "Shade out" means and yes, I have the same concern about points for healers and stealthers since, at this moment, there seems to bee a lot of ways to exploit it.

HAH! I found a definition ... Shade Out ... to leave party or function when no one is paying attention and without saying goodbye (Urban Dictionary)....see I told you it was because I am old...Maybe I just need to keep various assorted dictionaries handy to decipher what is meant...

Ut Oh! Remember the last time we didn't know what the word in slang meant Tinkz !

 

[Lore Denin (GL)]

I think the new scoring system will actually give some overdue credit to your members who help with healing and stealthing. We obviously don't devalue these services to the faction because we are now giving them points for it.

I love the theory behind your proposed system but what if we stacked a mask on top of the numbers and modifiers to make it somewhat understandable. Something any person joining factions could say "I get that!"

Proposal
When a person joins a faction they declare what capacity they wish to serve the Faction by declaring the Division they wish to server: Soldiers, Scouts or Crafters

Soldiers: Earn rank from soldiering type activities like killing enemies, Defending their faction towns, faction spawns and strongholds. Raiding enemy towns, spawns and strongholds.

Scouts: Earn rank from things like tracking, stealthing, detecting, stealing, trap removing.

Crafters:Earn rank by crafting: making traps, making faction artifacts, making faction weapons, making faction armor, sewing faction clothes, etc

WHY?: Each division would use the same formula you are developing to determine rank with some factors being weighed universally (using abilities in faction locations, in the presence of enemies, etc) and other factors weighed more heavily based on the Division's purpose.

Each Division would have ranks from 1-10, Rank 1 being the bottom 10% of that Division and Rank 10 being the top 10%. This will keep a Soldiers from having to compete in rank against the person stealthing outside the base all day scouting or a crafter banging out 100's of faction weapons. It will compare people with similiar roles in the faction, apples to apples so to speak. Thus if Soldier A is higher rank then Soldier B, he is probable doing a better job fighting and protecting his base. This way people don't have to worry about complaining, "I fight all day and that guy does nothing but hide, stealth and make endless katana'a in the base, Why is he a higher rank then me!"

Also saying "show rank, showscore, or punkte" should show a player his/her rank which is a simple 1-10 rather then the score which from the examples looks more like I'm at Skara bank asking for my account balance. The raw scores however are useful to players in that they can use the boards in the faction strongholds as a guideline as to where they are strong and where they can improve.

Adding Divisions would also help you catch potential exploits, isolate problems and make necessary adjustments. If for example all the top ranks in the Soldiers Division ended up being mages and archers because range and their abiltity to deal out damage over time. Then it would be easy to see that adding weight to melee damage might be important. The data could also be used to support balancing issues in pvp. (For example, is *blank* really over powered? Well every faction on every shard has the same template dominating the top ranks, could be).

In addition to Division within the Factions, I am a strong believer in rp, story and keeping the Factions true to the founding principles. The Virtue Faction should not be led by JakeMeUP Murderous Necromancer.

Therefore the universal scoreing ranking system should be applied differently depending on which Faction you are a member. Virtue Faction based on Karma, Free Traders based on own merits and Guardian based on Fame.

Virtue Faction: [Rank advancement capped by Karma]

The Quest of Virtue is not one of conquest but one of the righteous duty. Only Virtuous Men and Women of the highest moral character can save Felucca and its people from the surrounding darkness.

Karma Level:______Title_____________Max Faction Rank:

[-1<]__________Rude or Lower_____________0 (Deserter)
[0]_____________No Title_________________1
[1]_____________ Fair__________________2-3
[2]_____________Kind__________________4-5
[3]_____________Good _________________6-7
[4]____________Honest_________________8-9
[5]___________Trustworthy______________10 (Knight of the Codex)

*A Murder (red) can never achieve a rank higher then 0 regardless of current Karma level.

Free Traders Faction: [Karma and Fame have no effect on Rank]

All men and women who fight for the Free Traders may advance as far as there skill and hard work will take them. Let them be judged by there industry not some dogmatic view of the world or hollow reputation.


Guardian Legion: [Rank is Tied to Reputation]

The Gaurdian Legion does not allow just any lowly soldier to lead, only a Warlord of great reputation, earned through the trials of combat is worthy to command the Guardian's Legion.

Fame Level:______Title_____________Max Faction Rank:

[1]_____________No Title____________________0
[2]_____________Notable___________________1-3
[3]_____________Prominent _________________4-6
[4]_____________Renowned_________________7-10
[5]_____________Lord/Lady__________________ -

*Commander of the Guardian Leader must be at least Renowned [Level 4]. If an election for Commander is a tie, the candidate with the higher Fame is declared the winner.

 

[Phoenix_Mythic]

If you're looking to reward & give players incentive for participating in factions apply it to a part of the system that is neglected & meaningless with the exception of warhorses... Sigil corruption & town ownership.

These things are part of the long-term plan. These plans are still in the design phase. As such, I'm interested in getting some feedback.

Here's a nebulous overview of where we'd like to go with town control:

Basically, we'd like to change the way it works such that each of the 8 controllable towns would come up for grabs in a continuously rotating schedule of approximately three hours. The schedule would work in such a way that the window to take a town shift by a few minutes each day, and from the perspective of someone who plays at the same time every day then each day a different town is up for grabs.

So, instead of being a constantly ongoing battle open for potentially all towns, the game instead would be a series of concentrated battles for single town at a time. At any given time, all online players would be able to tell what town's capture window is open. The idea is to capture that town's sigil, hold it for a short time to corrupt it, then successfully return it to the town. Failure of any faction to do so means the town goes uncontrolled until it comes up for capture again the next day.

I'd like to see responses discussing the pros and cons of a system such as this. This feedback is important because it will help shape a possible future Factions change. Again, this is something we are considering for future development, not something we have solid plans right now to implement and publish.