The Factions
The Faction System is designed to promote organized player conflict within the Felucca society of Britannia and encourage the inclusion of a wide array of play-styles. There are four factions:
| Minax | Council of Mages (COM) | True Britannians (TB) | The Shadowlords (SL) |
 |  |  |  |
Each faction has their own stronghold and ranking system.
The True Britannians and Council of Mages factions will be considered “Hero” factions. The Shadowlords and Order of Minax factions will be considered “Evil” factions. All four factions will still be at war with one another, in addition to being integrated with the Hero/Evil system.
Factions Stronghold:
Each Faction has its own stronghold, a place where their Faction stone resides and where the members of that faction are to take any sigil they might obtain. The stronghold is the base of operations. Faction strongholds are currently located at the following locations:
Minax – The stone fortress lies deep within the mountains that give access to dungeon Destard. The entrance to the fortress can be found on the north side of the mountains, almost opposite to the entrance to Destard.
Council of Mages– Off the southern tip of Moonglow a strange starfield encloses the base except for a narrow bridge from the island.
Shadowlord– Located in the unused crypts in the Yew forest, a fair distance in a direct line northeast from the east Yew Healer’s Shop named “Deep Forest Healing”. This is not the Yew Graveyard, but instead the haunted crypts east of the Yew moongate within the woods.
True Britannians – Located within Lord British’s Castle, in the town of Britain.
Joining a Faction
Players who join factions will be able to participate in the combat, politics, and trade within the Faction system.
a) Non-guilded players:
Double click the Faction Stone, and select the “join” option. You will be able to join as long as the following conditions are met:
- The player must not have any other character on the same account in a different faction.
- The player’s account cannot be a “young” account (have young account status) or be less than 30 days old.
b) Guilded players:
If you are in a non-faction guild, you must resign from the guild before you can join factions.
Before you can join a faction guild, you must first join the same faction as the guild. You will then be able to be guilded.
c) Joining a guild to a faction:
Only the Guildmaster of a guild can use the “join” option on a Faction stone for that guild. When the Guildmaster for a guild joins the Faction, all players are added to the Faction whether online or offline. The guild is checked for the following:
- the guild cannot be allied with another guild.
- if a member has another character on that same account and same shard in a different Faction.
- ff a guildmember has “young” status.
Non Participants
Characters who are not in a faction will not be able to perform beneficial acts (such as healing, curing, etc.) on any character in a faction in Felucca. This rule applies to pets as well.
Quitting a Faction
Unguilded players are able to resign from a Faction by resigning at the Faction stone. This is not the same stone as that at which the faction is joined, but the stone that is found in the stronghold itself – pictures below.
The player will remain in the Faction for three (3) days. After three days, the player will be removed upon the next login.
Guilded members (where the guild is a part of a Faction) cannot resign from a Faction. To leave the faction, members must first resign from their guild, then from the faction.
A Guildmaster may resign his or her guild from the Faction system. All players in the guild will remain within the Faction for three more days. After three days, the guildmembers will be removed from the Faction upon their next login.
During this three day resignation process, players resigning from the Faction will not be able to use the faction stone or steal sigils but will still be eligible to attacks from opposing Faction members.
Resigning players can find out how much time they have left in the faction by saying in game: “What is my faction term status“.
Controlled Towns
There are 8 cities that can fall under the control of a faction. The towns and the location of the townstones and monoliths which are used for controling the town are listed below:
- Britain (located south of the mage shop on the east side of Britain)
- Skara Brae (located north of the provisioner’s shop)
- Magincia (located southwest of the tavern)
- Minoc (located south of the tavern)
- Moonglow (located east of the provisioner’s shop)
- Trinsic (located east of the meeting hall)
- Vesper (located west of the docks)
- Yew (located west of the healer)
Town Conquest:
How to capture a town:
- A faction member with a stealing skill of at least 80 needs to steal the town sigil.
- The person who holds the sigil turns purple as well as all equipped items on that player.
- A sigil is “dropped” or “given” by double clicking the sigil, then targeting. A sigil cannot be “moved” by the normal means of dragging an item.
- If a player with a town sigil logs out or their character for any reason leaves Ultima Online, the sigil will return to its last monolith location.
- A player with a town sigil cannot:
- Teleport
- Gate
- Recall
- Cast Polymorph
- Cast Incognito
- Use a disguise kit
- Place sigil in a container on the ground
- “Give” the sigil to an enemy faction player
- A player with a town sigil can:
- Hide
- Stealth
- The sigil must be transported to a stronghold base and placed on it’s associated monolith within 30 minutes otherwise it returns to it’s last monolith location.
- The sigil must remain on that stronghold monolith for at least 10 hours.
- If the sigil is removed from the monolith before the 10 hour corruption timer is up, there is a 15 minute grace period during which it may be returned to the monolith without restarting the timer.
- After being corrupted (10 hours), the sigil must be returned to its town monolith in order to capture the town.
- The town falls under the control of the faction for a period of three days. After that time period the town sigil once again becomes stealable.
Faction Offices:
Faction players are eligible for public office within their faction. The three eligible offices are:
- Faction Commander
- Town Sheriff (separate office for each city)
- Town Finance Minister (separate office for each city)
While the office of Faction Commander is attained through an election process, 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. Faction Commander abilities:
- Determines the percentage 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 Stronghold Faction stone.
- Determines the disbursement of the faction’s treasury to cities under the control of the faction.
- Appoint or remove the sheriff and finance minister for each town that a faction controls. The commander accesses these functions by using the townstone within the controlled town.
- Ability to send speech messages to all online players within a faction by saying; “Message faction“.
- Faction Commanders can use the remove trap skill (without having the skill), on traps created and placed by members of his/her own faction.
Faction Sheriff
Each town under the control of a faction may have one sheriff appointed to it by the faction Commander. The Sheriff abilities are as follows:
- Hire Faction Guards by saying “I am Sheriff” within the town you are sheriff of.
- Each faction may purchase 4 different guard types, 2 generic types (Henchman, Mercenary) and 2 specific types (described below)
| Faction Guards | ||||
| 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 | Shadow Mage | 8,000 credits |
- A maximum of 10 of each guard type may be in service at a time in one city.
- The Faction Sheriff may give the Faction Guards orders.
- “Orders Follow” the guard will follow the faction member
- “Orders Patrol” the guard will patrol the area he is in at that moment
- “You are fired” this command will dismiss the selected guard
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 silver 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 finance minister abilities are as follows:
- The Finance Minister may view the city treasury, purchase faction shopkeepers, or set the town’s taxation rate. By saying “I wish to access the city treasury” 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 (faction and non-faction) prices will reflect the increased or decreased prices.
- Increased or decreased prices affect all players, whether they are in a faction or not.
- Purchase additional NPC vendors for the town. These vendors include Horse Breeders (who sell “war horses”), reagent vendors, ore vendors, and lumber vendors. The NPC vendors will appear at the location where the vendor is purchased.
| Faction Shopkeepers | ||
| 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 and can be reserrected by it’s owner without using the Vet skill.
Faction Floor Traps
Floor traps can be created by Faction members with the proper tinkering skill amount. There are four different types of floor traps: Spike, Saw, Gas, and Explosion Trap.
The Faction member must have at least 90 skill points in tinkering to create a faction trap.
A maximum of 15 traps can be placed at any given time.
Traps can only be placed in Faction-controllable cities or within Faction strongholds.
| Faction Floor Traps | |
| Trap Type | Usable in |
| Gas trap | Faction stronghold only |
| Explosion trap | Any faction town |
| Saw trap | Faction town under control of your faction |
| Spike trap | Faction town under control of your faction |
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.
Those faction members with the detect hidden skill will get a display message alerting them to a trap in the area. They can then attempt to reveal the trap.
Traps can be removed by opposing Faction members through the use of the “remove trap” skill. The faction Commander can also use the remove trap skill (without having the skill), but only on traps created and placed by members of his/her own faction.
Combat Related Interactions
The unique Faction combat conditions:
- Players in the faction system are able to freely attack any opposing faction member in Felucca only.
- Players cannot be in a party with opposing faction members.
- Pets will not attack players or pets within the same faction.
Faction Scoring and Rank
a) Getting Kill points
Kill points are earned when opposing Faction members successfully kill someone in an opposing Faction. The amount of kill points taken from the victim is 10% of the total kill points on the victim. (Percentages are rounded down.)
- For example, assume the victim had 100 kill points and the winner of the fight had zero. 10% goes to the winner. The victim drops to 90 kill points and the winner of the fight now has 10 kill points.
When the victim’s kill point total is 19 or lower, the winner will receive 1 kill point.
When a Faction player reaches a deficit of 6 kill points, the winner will receive 0 kill points.
Kill points decay over time.
b) Deficit
This means you have died more than you’ve killed and are now in the hole so to speak. The most deficit points any faction member can have are 6.
c) Point transfer
Once a day players can transfer kill points. Both parties must be members of the same faction, and the one who is giving the points must have at least 10 kill points. Once transferred, player A (giver) loses 5 points and player B (receiver) gets 4 points (1 point is lost in the trade).
To transfer kill points, say “I honor your leadership” and a target cursor will appear that can be used to select the player the kill points are to be transferred to.
d) Titles
Once per day, all faction player scores are recalculated in order to assign faction rank. Titles vary within each faction as described below. (note: faction titles aren’t always accurate.)
| Faction Titles | |||||
| Rank | Score | Minax | Council of Mages | True Britannians | Shadowlords |
| 1 | Below 20% | Defiler | Mystic | Defender | Servant |
| 2 | 20% – 39% | Defiler | Mystic | Defender | Servant |
| 3 | 40% – 49% | Defiler | Mystic | Defender | Servant |
| 4 | 50% – 59% | Executioner | Diviner | Sentinel | Keeper of Lies |
| 5 | 60% – 69% | Executioner | Diviner | Sentinel | Keeper of Lies |
| 6 | 70% – 79% | Executioner | Diviner | Sentinel | Keeper of Lies |
| 7 | 80% – 89% | Warlord | Luminary | Crusader | Bringer of Sorrow |
| 8 | 90% – 94% | Warlord | Luminary | Crusader | Bringer of Sorrow |
| 9 | 95% – 99% | Dread Knight | Archon of Principle | Knight of Virtue | Agent of Evil |
| 10 | 99.1% – 100% | Avenger of Mondain | Inquisitor of the Council | Knight of the Codex | Purveyor of Darkness |
Death at the hands of a Faction Enemy = Stat Loss
Faction players are subject to a temporary skill loss of 33% when slain by a faction opponent. This penalty lasts 20 minutes – and is also applied if a faction character commits “suicide” or is killed by an opposing faction monster.
Note: This penalty is not applied when a faction player is killed by a non-faction player, faction mate, or non-enemy faction monster.
Looting Interactions
a) Looting Rules:
- An innocent faction member (blue) cannot be freely looted, however a fellow faction member who is a criminal (gray) or murderer (red) can be freely looted.
- Damage done to an enemy faction member by a placed faction trap will add the trapper to list of people that can freely loot the enemies body.
b) Getting Silver
To get silver:
- Slay faction enemies (players will not be able to get silver from the same opponent multiple times over a short period of time)
- Place a faction trap. The player who placed the trap will receive silver when those from an opposing faction set it off.
- slay monsters associated with opposite Factions:
- Ogre Lords – affiliated with the Minax
- Wisps – affiliated with the Council of Magicians
- Silver Serpents – affiliated with the True Britannians
- Daemons (not summoned demons) – affiliated with the Shadowlords.
To get Silver for the Faction:
- Player Tithes are 0 – 100% of all faction player silver income. This is set by Faction Commander in increments of 10%, with no more then one change every 24 hours of real time.
c) Silver Use
Faction Players: Silver can be used by Faction members to obtain the following:
- Horse: 500 silver (must be rank 2 or higher to ride)
- Faction Items may be purchased within each stronghold.
Factions:
Silver is taken from the player tithes and is placed into the Faction Treasury. The finance minister and Sheriff for that town can use these credits for various expenditures, such as Faction vendors and/or guards.
Faction Floor Traps
Floor traps are created by players in the faction system with the tinkering skill.
- The tinker must have at least 90 skill to attempt to create a floor trap.
- A faction may have a maximum of 15 traps placed at any given time (total).
- Traps can only be placed in cities and/or faction strongholds.
- Traps will only affect opposing faction members.
- Traps can only be removed by opposing faction members through the use of the remove trap skill.
Faction-Allied Monsters
Faction-allied monsters are:
Minax: Ogre Lords
Council of Mages: Wisps
True Britannian: Silver Serpents
Shadowlords: Daemons
- Faction monsters only spawn on the Felucca facet.
- Faction monsters will highlight orange (using the cursor) to opposing Faction members and be aggressive.
- Fation-Allied monsters be non-aggressive to members within their associated Faction.
- Faction monsters will be attacked on sight by enemy Faction guards.