E
Eyes of Origin
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I thought this could be of interest to those of us on Pacific who are in Factions and have brought it here to the boards since there are some who don’t read Uhall.
This question was posted in the Ask the Devs thread on UHall with a response from Phoenix, the UO Systems Designer.
Question Asked -
Faction point system & warhorses.
Will there ever be any plans to clear the faction points system? Some shards have an insane amount of points which really mess with ranking. There's really no need for points to accumulate that high, and it shouldn't be achievable by normal gameplay. It's obvious which shards are an issue, and comparable to other shards without any abuse towards the point system, the difference between shard overalls is simply amazing.
Basically, will this ever be cleared & will the way points are distributed be tweaked in a way it don't happen again? It just makes no sense for people to be holding millions & billions of points across a guild & characters who do not participate in factions (on the characters holding the points... IE; a 50/50 med/mage new character), with the only reason to do so, is to affect the other players in that faction.
Also, can we introduce a new way for players to obtain warhorses? Either through the faction collection boxes that require an increased amount of silver, or a permanent breeder accessible by all. I shouldn't even have to explain the importance of a warhorse, or why they're so desirable by people participating in factions now, but there's some shards & factions that have a terrible time trying to get horses because of the unbalanced distribution of players among some factions. There's a lot of players who think it shouldn't be allowed, but why not? It's a bit absurd that I was able to transfer over X amount of warhorses to another shard recently & sell them at half to a dozen mils per with little effort just so others can finally obtain theirs.
Phoenix’s response -
"Quote:
Originally Posted by Nystul 
Will there ever be any plans to clear the faction points system? Some shards have an insane amount of points which really mess with ranking...Basically, will this ever be cleared & will the way points are distributed be tweaked in a way it don't happen again?"
We are working on a prototype of a new scoring system for Factions right now. The plan is to publish it to a Test Center once it's ready, in order both to test it with lots of players and to give y'all an opportunity to give feedback on it.
Once it's tested, tweaked, re-tested, etc. and we're happy with it, it'll go into a live publish. The new system will be significantly different in design from the old one, built in such a way that it'll be difficult enough to exploit that it would be easier just to go out and fight for real. There won't be any carry forward of old score information, so it will be a complete reset.
We're not ready to discuss the details of how the new system will work yet. We want to get it out on Test Center and let you experience it for yourself before we start discussing the details of the design. Theory crafting is fine but I believe a working proof-of-concept is a hundred times better.
"Quote:
Also, can we introduce a new way for players to obtain warhorses?"
The new scoring system will mean a new way of assigning ranks, and a new way of obtaining faction bennies -- not just horses, but equipment and consumables as well. The most important design goal here is to make it so that you have to actually participate in faction PvP in order to reap the rewards of having these things. That's only fair!
Again, we're not to the point where we are ready to talk about the details, but we will be before long. Stay tuned!
Mike Moore
Systems Designer
This question was posted in the Ask the Devs thread on UHall with a response from Phoenix, the UO Systems Designer.
Question Asked -
Faction point system & warhorses.
Will there ever be any plans to clear the faction points system? Some shards have an insane amount of points which really mess with ranking. There's really no need for points to accumulate that high, and it shouldn't be achievable by normal gameplay. It's obvious which shards are an issue, and comparable to other shards without any abuse towards the point system, the difference between shard overalls is simply amazing.
Basically, will this ever be cleared & will the way points are distributed be tweaked in a way it don't happen again? It just makes no sense for people to be holding millions & billions of points across a guild & characters who do not participate in factions (on the characters holding the points... IE; a 50/50 med/mage new character), with the only reason to do so, is to affect the other players in that faction.
Also, can we introduce a new way for players to obtain warhorses? Either through the faction collection boxes that require an increased amount of silver, or a permanent breeder accessible by all. I shouldn't even have to explain the importance of a warhorse, or why they're so desirable by people participating in factions now, but there's some shards & factions that have a terrible time trying to get horses because of the unbalanced distribution of players among some factions. There's a lot of players who think it shouldn't be allowed, but why not? It's a bit absurd that I was able to transfer over X amount of warhorses to another shard recently & sell them at half to a dozen mils per with little effort just so others can finally obtain theirs.
Phoenix’s response -
"Quote:
Originally Posted by Nystul 
Will there ever be any plans to clear the faction points system? Some shards have an insane amount of points which really mess with ranking...Basically, will this ever be cleared & will the way points are distributed be tweaked in a way it don't happen again?"
We are working on a prototype of a new scoring system for Factions right now. The plan is to publish it to a Test Center once it's ready, in order both to test it with lots of players and to give y'all an opportunity to give feedback on it.
Once it's tested, tweaked, re-tested, etc. and we're happy with it, it'll go into a live publish. The new system will be significantly different in design from the old one, built in such a way that it'll be difficult enough to exploit that it would be easier just to go out and fight for real. There won't be any carry forward of old score information, so it will be a complete reset.
We're not ready to discuss the details of how the new system will work yet. We want to get it out on Test Center and let you experience it for yourself before we start discussing the details of the design. Theory crafting is fine but I believe a working proof-of-concept is a hundred times better.
"Quote:
Also, can we introduce a new way for players to obtain warhorses?"
The new scoring system will mean a new way of assigning ranks, and a new way of obtaining faction bennies -- not just horses, but equipment and consumables as well. The most important design goal here is to make it so that you have to actually participate in faction PvP in order to reap the rewards of having these things. That's only fair!
Again, we're not to the point where we are ready to talk about the details, but we will be before long. Stay tuned!
Mike Moore
Systems Designer
