The Faction System Controlled Towns Dec 6 2000 12:38PM CST   The Faction System - Controlled Towns Town Conquest Town Sigil Taking Control of a Town Faction Office Faction Commander Faction Sheriff Faction Finance Minister NPC Shopkeepers Faction Floor Traps (In Town Use) Part 3: Faction Controlled Towns There are 8 cities that can fall under the control of a faction. Each of these cities has a townstone placed within the city limits. These townstones have a variety of uses (described later in this section) for the faction that controls the city. In addition, there are eight town pedestals upon which the "town sigil" (described later, used for capturing a city) for that particular city rests. The towns that contain the townstones, town pedestals, and the respective town sigil 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 the tavern) Delucia (located west of the south entrance) Minoc (located south of the tavern) Moonglow (located east of the provisioner's shop) Trinsic (located east of the meeting hall) Yew (located west of the healer) Town conquest One of the most important sources of context within the faction conflict lies within the ability of factions to conquer cities. There are eight cities that can be conquered and subjected to the control of a faction. The conquest of a city serves as the foundation for many of the other features of the faction system and can be done as described below. Each of the above towns has a town pedestal Each town has an associated town sigil (created on town pedestal). A faction member with a stealing skill of at least 80 may steal the town sigil. The sigil must be transported to a stronghold tile within one hour (otherwise it returns to it's home pedestal location). The sigil may be corrupted at a Faction stronghold by placing it on that Faction's stronghold tile. The sigil must remain on that stronghold tile for at least 24 hours. There is a grace period of 15 minutes during which if the sigil is moved from the tile, it may be restored to the stronghold tile without restarting its corruption time. After being corrupted, the sigil must be returned to its town pedestal in orde to capture the town. The faction has one hour to return the sigil to a town, or it returns to it's last stronghold tile location (still corrupted). The sigil will remain on the last stronghold tile or town pedestal until the steal/move process is performed on it again, at which time the player or players moving the sigil have the required times to achieve their objectives or the sigil will return automatically to the stronghold tile or pedestal where it was last located. A faction controlled town falls under the control of the faction for a minimum period of three days. After a town becomes subject to re-conquest, other factions may steal the sigil and attempt to corrupt it. If a sigil is corrupted and stolen from the stronghold by an opposing faction they can take it to their base to restart the corruption process. If they fail to deliver it within one hour it will teleport back to the stronghold from which it was stolen. A sigil's home location is always defined as the last stronghold or town tile it was placed on. Town Sigil Each of the eight towns that can be captured by a faction is represented by a "Town Sigil". The town sigil can be stolen by a faction player using the stealing skill. This sigil can then be returned to the faction's stronghold in order to be corrupted. After a successful corruption period of 24 hours, the sigil will become "corrupt" by Faction holding it. The Faction can then return the corrupted sigil to it's respective town and place it onto the town pedestal. At the point of return, the town falls under the control of the faction which corrupted the sigil. If the corrupted sigil is not returned to the town pedestal within one hour, it will return to the last stronghold tile that it was placed upon. The town sigil operates under the conditions listed below: Conditions: A player must have at least 80 stealing skill to "steal" a sigil from its town pedestal or a stronghold tile. The stealing player must be in a faction. 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. A player with a town sigil is hued purple, as well as all equipped items on that player. A player with a town sigil cannot: Teleport Gate Recall Cast Polymorph Cast Incognito Use a disguise kit Use moonstone Place sigil in a container on the ground "Give" the sigil to an enemy faction player "Give" the sigil to someone not in their own faction If a player with a town sigil logs out or their character for any reason leaves Ultima Online, the sigil returns to its home location. Players under the effects of a disguise kit, polymorph spell, or incognito spell cannot steal the Sigil until those effects wear off. Taking Control of a Town Once a Faction has successfully placed a corrupted sigil onto the town pedestal, then that Faction will control that town for a specified but variable amount of time (described further below). Faction members can operate within special designations, through an internal election process within their Faction. Faction Office Faction players are eligible for public office within their faction. The three eligible offices are: the office of Faction Commander, Town Sheriff, and Town Finance Minister. As implied, a Town Sheriff and Town Finance Minister can exist for each town under a faction's control. While the office of Faction Commander is attained through an election process (described below), the offices of Town Sheriff and Finance Minister are attained through appointment from the Faction Commander. There is only one Faction Commander per Faction, and only one Town Sheriff and one Finance Minister per Faction occupied town. Faction Commander Faction Commanders are elected to their position by the members of the Faction itself. Only Faction members with a rank of 6 through 10 or who is currently Faction commander is elegible to be elected a Faction Commander (please refer to the section "Faction Scoring and Points" for more information about ranks). The information below describes voting for Faction Commander: Campaigning takes place once per week, starting 6 days after the Faction system begins on the shard, and lasts for 24 hours. During campaigning, up to 10 players with a rank of 6 through 10 are able to run for public office if they so choose. The first 10 eligible Faction members that choose to participate in running for the Faction Commander position are allowed to do so. Any subsequent Faction members are denied candidacy during that election cycle, even if they are eligible. After 24 hours of campaigning, the voting process begins. Faction members have 24 hours to vote for a candidate. Faction members that wish to vote must use the faction stone, select the "vote" option, and select their candidate choice. Players can only vote once and cannot change their vote after submission. The player with the largest vote total after the 24 hour voting process is over becomes the new Faction Commander. Faction Commander abilities: The Faction Commander is able to appoint or remove the sheriff and finance minister for each town that a faction controls. The commander accesses these functions by using the appropriate townstone within the controlled town. The Faction Commander determines the degree of faction "tithes". The tithing rate can be set anywhere from 0 to 100% in increments of 10%. The commander accesses this function by using the Faction stone. The purpose of this tithing is described in the section titled "Faction Scoring and Points". The Faction Commander determines the disbursement of the faction's treasury to cities under the control of the faction. The disbursement of these credits is further described in the section titled "Faction Scoring and Points". With a limit of once every hour, a Faction Commander may send two speech messages to all online players within a faction, by speaking the words "message faction". Once every hour the commander may send a global message to all online faction members in his faction. This is done by saying "message faction" - a prompt will appear asking them what they want to send as a message. The commander types in the text and hits enter - it is sent to all online faction mates. Faction Sheriff Each town under the control of a faction may have one sheriff appointed to it. The conditions of Sheriff appointment and function are: The faction Commander may access the townstone of a captured city in order to hire the sheriff (described above). The commander may not select him/herself to be a Sheriff. The commander must select a player from within the same faction to be a Sheriff. The town sheriff is able to perform their official duties by speaking out loud "I am sheriff". The Sheriff abilities are as follows: Sheriffs may hire "Faction Guards". The Sheriff may control the amount of Faction Guards in operation, their cost, the maximum allowed, and how they function. Note that a faction guard does not have the same strengths and abilities as a regular town guard. They are able to be overcome by players, and their strengths will be comparable to some of the monsters that roam the lands. Each faction may purchase 4 different guard types. 2 generic types (Henchman, Mercenary) 2 specific types (described below) A maximum of 10 of each guard type may be in service at a time in one city. The chart below shows the different types of Faction guards and their cost in credits (also known as "silver"). Credits are described earlier in the section "Faction scoring and points". Minax Council of Mages True Britannians Shadowlords Cost Henchman Henchman Henchman Henchman 5,000 credits Mercenary Mercenary Mercenary Mercenary 6,000 credits Berserker Sorcerer Knight Death Knight 7,000 credits Dragoon Wizard Paladin Necromancer 8,000 credits A Faction Sheriff may also view the finances in the town treasury. This allows for them to plan for the distribution and expenditure of the credits available. The Faction Sheriff and Faction finance Minister both are able to allocate this town treasury for the various Faction activities. Faction Finance Minister Each town under the control of a faction may have one finance minister appointed to it. The Faction finance Minister is appointed by the Faction Commander. The Finance Minister appointment process works as follows: The Faction Commander may access the townstone of a captured city in order to hire the finance minister. The commander may not select him/herself to be a Finance Minister. The Commander must select a player from within the same faction to be a Finance Minister. The Finance Minister is able to access the town finance options by speaking out loud "I wish to access the city treasury". The Finance Minister's functions and abilities are as follows: The Finance Minister may view the city treasury, purchase faction shopkeepers, or set the town's taxation rate. The taxation rate can be set from 1/3 normal price to 3x normal price in increments of thirds. In a town that has a taxation rate other then 0 (normal price), the NPC vendor prices will reflect the increased or decreased prices. In addition to setting the taxation rate of the NPC vendors, the Finance Minister is able to purchase additional NPC vendors for the town. These vendors include Horse Breeders (who sell "war horses"), reagent vendors, ore vendors, and lumber vendors. A faction may only change shop prices once every 12 hours of real time. If a city is taken by a faction, that 12 hour wait will reset itself. NPC Shopkeepers The following NPC Shopkeepers are available for purchase for use in the Faction controlled town: Shopkeeper Type Cost Maximum Available Reagent Vendor 5000 credits 10 Ore Vendor 3000 credits 10 Wood Vendor 3000 credits 10 Stablemaster 5000 credits 1 Note: War horses have additional amounts of strength and stamina. Faction Floor Traps Floor traps can be created by Faction members with the proper tinkering skill amount. There will be four different types of floor traps. The types of floor traps are the Spike Trap, the Saw Trap, the Gas Trap, and the Explosion Trap. The trap's creation and function are as follows: The Faction member that wished to create the trap must have at least 90 skill points in tinkering before they can create the trap. A Faction may have a maximum of 15 traps placed at any given time. Traps can only be placed in Faction-controllable cities or within Faction strongholds. Traps will only affect opposing Faction members, not members within the same faction as the trap creator. The traps cannot be set to selectively ignore any other faction. Traps will be visible for one full minute if someone in a faction uses the "detect hidden" skill on the trap. This will reveal the trap for one full minute globally, so that anyone within range can see the trap during that minute. This allows for faction members using a trap they own to have the opportunity to show their fellow faction mates the location of the trap. All Faction members that are in the general vicinity a trap created by the other factions will get a display alerting them to a trap in the area. The Faction members opposed to the trap's creator can then attempt to reveal the trap that may be in the area by using their detect hidden skill. Traps can only be removed by opposing Faction members through the use of the "remove trap" skill. If the trap is not removed via this skill, it will reset itself infinitely until removed. Back