Currently the only PvP on UOPF is consent-only in an arena. I'm perfectly okay with this myself, but others have expressed interest in more wide-spread PvP. Botnick stated on the forums that guild wars are apparently okay, so that's an interesting tidbit. Other than the part where most people are in either one of three different guilds or that a lot of guilds set themselves up to support new players, this is a pretty great idea.
It could be better, though. I can fully understand the line of thought that doesn't want random PvP going on at Brit bank on a shard that claims to be a family shard. However, PvP doesn't have to be direct. Competition can be both indirect and cooperative.
Enter... FACTIONS
Oh, trust, not the same as UO standard. I'm not that lazy. I do like the general statement about Factions on UOGuide: "The Faction System is a broad game system designed to promote organized player conflict within the society of Britannia." My own goals with a system like this would be, firstly, to give people something new to do on PF with some of the classic spawns that are largely ignored these days; create a pseudo-PvP aspect that covers more than just a small, underused region of the shard; implement another Virtue;
I'll cover each of those points one at a time.
1) New use for classic spawn.
Anyone that pays attention at all may have seen that there are a few warring groups in UO. I say we make this the basis of the faction system, and allow players to align with one (or more?) of these groups. I have three in mind:
Orcs versus Tribals
Ophidians versus Terathans
Meer versus Juka
I think it would go better on bigger shards with just one faction per player, but since PF doesn't have a mountain of players I could see allowing simultaneous factions, such as a player that fights for Tribals, Meer, and Terathans. Each would track separately, so just because you work with Jo Blo in the war against the Orcs doesn't mean you won't be seeing him on the other side of the Meer versus Juka conflict.
The big advantages to these are that they all have existing bases; Orcs have the Yew orc cave, Tribals have the camp in central Ilsh, Ophids and Teras have their own keeps in T2A, Meer have the village in Ilsh, and Jukas could take either Blackthorn's Ilsh castle or Wrong. All of these places would make great strongholds without a need for spawn changes.
Each faction would have a Marker that sets you as a member of that group (and thus non-hostile to that group), similar to the Mask of Orcish Kin. As long as you hold/wear that marker, members of the your side will not be hostile to you and that side's enemies will give you faction points upon killing them. Obviously each opposing faction needs to use the same item spot for the marker, so if the Kin mask was used for the Orcs then tribal masks would have to be used for the Tribal side. I would rather a single item type be used universally, such as the back slot for a Quiver-type item or one of the relatively unused clothing slots. This way even if you fight for multiple factions, you couldn't do it all at the same time (not that you really would anyway).
If people were too opposed to giving up an item slot for factions, then maybe just a quest item type token could be used; a no-drop/no-trade item that would stay with you on death and still mark your alliance to one side. It would also be a way to ensure that people who betray their faction can't escape the big BOOM they so rightly would deserve (as the Orc Mask/paint does when you attack an orc/tribal while wearing it).
Each faction would let you earn faction points that you could spend for rewards/benefits. Something similar to the current community collections would be ideal. There would be NPCs for each faction that you would interact with. The first would be a merchant who would let you trade in your faction points for standard items; deco, weapons, armor, talisman, and maybe some special clothing items (the kind that can't be equipped with opposing faction clothes). They could be all-new items or, taking the cue from UO standard, they could be slightly modified "faction" versions of existing items, such as My Book talisman with 5% SDI bonus added.
Another of the NPCs you would deal with would be a Craft Master. Through him, you would be able to donate faction points for items that would directly boost your crafting skills similar to the gloves and smith hammers. They would be limited in some way, such as time or per use, and would only have effect in the faction's crafting space.
The final two NPCs you would interact with would also tie in with the new virtue, Spirituality.
2) New Virtue: Spirituality
I think Honor is a bit more thematic for this, but meh.
Spirituality would be earned in the same way that Valor is, but only for fighting your faction's enemies. Unlike faction points, these would be earned for all enemies you fight; that is, if you're part of the Meer and Orc factions, you would only earn faction points for the Orcs by killing Tribals or Meer faction points for killing Juka, but you would earn Spirituality for killing either Tribals or Juka.
Spirituality would be used for two things, both of which would give up your points in the virtue for one of two effects.
The first of the Spirituality NPCs would be a priest/shaman/spiritual-leader type guy (Orc Mage, Ophid Shaman, etc). This one would let you donate your Spirituality as a way to fortify the faction base with soldiers and/or traps. Each feature would require a certain amount of Spirituality to purchase. These soldiers would be challenging, and the traps very lethal.
The second NPC would require both faction points and Spirituality. This would be the War Leader, who takes faction points as a way to finance a raid mission and Spirituality as a means to inspire followers. Donating to him would be the most costly for both currencies and would allow players to participate in a raid on the enemy stronghold, in hopes of felling their leader and stealing their sigil.
3) Indirect PvP
The key of all this is that aligning yourself with a specific faction does *not* make you hostile to players in the opposing faction. Instead, the PvP aspect plays differently.
Each faction has a sigil. Sigils must be stolen from their stronghold, from the very hands of the faction leader. This would require overcoming the leader, the defenders, spawn, and any traps created by player donations. Traps, again, would be quite deadly. Detecting and removing the traps would be something VERY worthwhile, bringing more use to Detect Hidden and Remove Trap. Scouting the area before a raid with Stealth might also be a very smart move (Traps disabled outside of a raid would only be disabled for a short amount of time, as a means to prevent people from camping an enemy stronghold to amass faction points).
When the War Leader is given faction points and Spirituality to start a raid, he creates a gate to the enemy strong hold and, along with the player and a certain number of followers, launches an attack on their base. The end goal to is keep the War Leader alive long enough for him to combat the enemy leader and take the sigil. Afterwards, the War Leader leads the escape with the sigil and returns to their own stronghold, capturing the sigil and rewarding all members of the faction with bonus faction points, a larger bonus going to any who donated towards launching the raid.
When a raid is launched, any members of the raiding or defending factions that are online are notified, giving them the opportunity to join in. For defenders, killing the enemy War Leader will stop the raid and give their side a faction point bonus for successful defense. Bonuses are given out on defense to those who bought traps and soldiers as well as those who were present for the defense.
In any case, there would, of course, have to be a cooldown timer on raids regardless of success or failure, such as one per day or 36 hours. It would need to be done in such a way that it didn't allow certain players to dominate the raiding schedule and block some players from joining just because of the time of day they play (PF is international, after all).
There is also the possibility of contested, constant battlegrounds. We already see this in the case of the Cove Orc Fort, where tribals and orcs battle constantly or the underground of the Terathan keep, where Ophidians and Terathans are fighting. These places could have some sort of mechanism that would allow players to help tip the scales and take these areas over for their factions for a certain amount of time, earning a bonus for their faction of some sort (more troops for raiding or resources for stronger traps, etc...).
The contested grounds idea could be taken even further, honestly. Seeing as most towns in Tram are loaded with monsters anyway, the system could easily be expanded so that a faction could, instead of raiding an enemy base, choose to raid a town and take control of it for a day or so. This might cause the vendors and services there to become more faction-oriented, such as blacksmiths selling mostly ringmail and double axes when the Orcs are in command.
If creating an impact on the city itself is too much to code, maybe capturing cities would last longer and the effects would be felt in the faction's stronghold instead; a "Moonglowese supplier" might show up in camp after taking over Moonglow, who would provide resources for alchemy or spellcrafting that the faction otherwise lacks.
Either way, the idea could easily be grown into something very visible and enjoyable for everyone. The best way to do that is to make sure that the effects of factions are a positive to the successful faction without being a negative against everyone else.
The key point, again, is that players are not attacking one another. The focus is on the conflict between the faction leaders; this also emphasizes the player's role as, essentially, just another grunt in the eyes of the leader. Success and failure depends on protecting your leader and defeating your enemy's leader, or striking down enemies to capture territory. The faction conflict from the perspective of the player is more of a sporting competition rather than a war. At no point does this require (or allow) attacking other players.
(Though if Botnik's point about guild wars being okay is true, that would be yet another way to allow direct PvP into the system without requiring it of players. It might also inspire roleplaying Orcs again (for example), though hopefully with much more emphasis on the roleplaying aspect than I've seen many times.)
The other important point of this sort of system is that this is one that staff could simply lay out and let the players run. It would require no further input on their part, yet remain as a source of constant and dynamic action on the shard. Honestly, people can only do quests so many times before they want something else. Factions would create a realm that is ever changing based on who players align with, what factions they show preference, and how they use their resources. Players that choose to focus on the raiding aspect might find themselves too vulnerable to being raided to make use of their high aggression strategy.
Though I honestly don't ever expect it, I would love to see a system like this on PF. I'd love to see a system like this anywhere.
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