PATCH: January 26 – Factions, Permanent Buffs, Potion Crafting and more

01 / 27 / 2023

Factions

Faction Castles

• Murderers participating in Factions can now access Faction Castles without being ‘Guard Whacked’ (they must stay within the boundary of the Castle, however)

Faction Flags

• Each Faction now has a custom Flag design

Castle Layout

• Each Faction Castle now has an additional set of Exterior and Interior Faction Doors to offer an additional access point to approach the castle and assault the flag room
• A number of pathways in Faction Castles have been widened allow for better player movement

 

 

 

 

Stealing and Securing Flags

• Players inside of a Faction Castle who are assisting in a Flag Steal attempt or Flag Secure attempt can now roam up to 50 tiles away from the Stealing/Securing player and continue to qualify for Potential Faction Score on control Ticks (so they may leave the Flag Room to engage other players and still earn points)
• The Stealing/Securing player, however, must remain within the Flag Room to maintain the Steal or Secure attempt

Heat of Battle

• Whenever a Waypost returns to 100% Control (regardless if it switched controller or not), all Faction players within 50 tiles will have any Heat of Battle removed

Underdog Handicap

• In addition to the Weekly Handicap Bonus each Faction receives based on their past week’s performance, each Faction can now also receive a temporary Underdog Handicap Bonus that is directed against a specific Faction
• Factions will receive an Underdog Handicap Bonus towards another Faction if that target Faction has more Flags Secured in their Castle than they have
• The Underdog Handicap Bonus is 15% per Secure Flag Difference (for a max of +60% for 4 Flags)
• The Underdog Handicap Bonus will stack with a Faction’s Weekly Handicap Bonus
• As a reminder, Handicap Bonuses provide a chance on any Waypost, Purification, Flag Steal/Secure Ticks to result in 20% Progress (instead of 10%)

Example
The Terran Faction currently has 1 Flag Secured in their Castle and the Andaria Faction currently has 3 Flags Secured in their Castle

Because Andaria has (3 -1) = 2 more Flags Secured than Terran, the Terran Faction will receive a (2 * 15%) = 30% Handicap Bonus against all actions towards Andaria

Faction Kills

Kills To Give

• We have removed the “Daily Kill Max” mechanic and replaced it with a “Kills to Give” mechanic for players
• In order for a Faction Kill to be worth Faction Score, the victim must have 1 or more “Kills To Give” available
• Players regain 1 Kill To Give every 4 hours (even if not actively participating in Factions or if player is offline)
• For every cumulative 100 Faction Score that a player earns from Securing Wayposts, Securing/Stealing Flags, or killing Faction Spawns they will regain 1 Kill to Give
• Players can have a maximum of 6 Kills To Give stored
• Players will receive a “You have earned a zero-score faction kill” message when killing a player who have 0 Kills To Give

Faction Score for Kills

• Any player who has 0 Kills to Give will be worth 0 Faction Score on Faction Kills
• Any Faction Kill worth Faction Score will reduce the victim’s “Kills to Give” value by 1
• Faction Kills are now worth a base 10 Faction Score

Faction Kills will be upgraded to be worth 30 Faction Score if they occur in any of the following conditions:

• Within 50 tiles of a Waypost
• Within 50 tiles of a Faction Flag
• Within 50 tiles of a Faction Door (i.e. the nearby exterior of a Faction Castle)
• Inside of a Faction Castle
• Inside of a Faction Dungeon

Faction Dungeons

• Creatures in Faction Dungeons will no longer suffer a 25% Damage penalty
• Creatures in Faction Dungeons will no longer suffer a 25% Health penalty
• Creatures in Faction Dungeons will no longer have their Loot Amounts/Chances reduced by 25%
• The chance of Faction Spawn creatures occuring in Faction Dungeons has been increased

Secured Flags
If a Faction has Flags Secured in their Faction Castle, all participating members of that Faction receive the following bonuses inside of a Faction Dungeon:

• +10% to Loot Drops and Special/Rare Items Chances for each Secure Flag
• +10% Faction Score earned from killing Faction Spawn creatures for each Secure Flag
• +10% Damage Bonus to Creatures in the Faction Dungeon for each Secure Flag

Faction Switching

• Guilds that belong to a Faction cannot switch to a different Faction if Tabula Rasa will occur in the next 24 hours

Alliances and Factions

• Fixed an issue that was causing un-Factioned Guilds to sometimes block their Allied guilds from joining a Faction

——————————–

Area of Effect (AoE) Spells

• Player-casted Area of Effect (AoE) Spells such as Meteor Swarm, Chain Lightning, Earthquake can now only hit players/followers if the caster has a Line-of-Sight (LOS) to that player/follower

Faction
A Faction Player casting an AoE Spell will only hit other Faction players/followers (no blue targets) if any of the following are true:

• The Caster is within 50 tiles of a Waypost
• The Caster is within 50 tiles of a Faction Flag
• The Caster is within 50 tiles of a Faction Door (i.e. the nearby exterior of a Faction Castle)
• The Caster is inside of a Faction Castle
• The Caster is inside of a Faction Dungeon

PvP Event Participants
As a reminder, players who are actively participating in a Town Struggle, Dungeon Flashpoint, or Corpse Creek Contest event are NOT considered Faction players while within those respective event areas

Friendly Faction Players
The existing mechanic will still apply where any “Friendly” Players of the caster’s same Faction existing within the AoE spell target radius will reduce the damage of the spell

Arena

• Players will now be able to start Duels up to 5 minutes before a Tournament starts
• Any duels that are still in progress when a Tournament starts will automatically be ended, with the player(s) with the highest remaining Hit Points deemed the winner

Forensic Eval

• Players will now always receive their bonuses to Damage and Barding skill from the Forensic Eval skill even if they have not Skinned Creatures recently
• There will no longer be a damage bonus message when using the Forensic Eval skill
• Players will no longer have a Buff Icon for the Forensic Eval skill (since its bonus is always active)

Tracking

• Players will now always receive their bonuses to Damage and Barding Skill from the Tracking skill even if they are not currently Hunting
• There will no longer be a damage bonus message when using the Tracking skill
• Players will still have a Buff Icon while in Hunting mode (as a reminder the Tracking mechanic is still active)

Camping

• Players will now always receive their own bonuses to Damage skill from the Camping skill even if they have not Secured a Campfire recently
• Players will no longer have a Buff Icon for the Camping skill (since it is always active)

Group Camping Comfort Bonus

• We are removing the Group Camping Comfort bonus that players would receive from visiting other player’s Campfires (i.e. players must now have the Camping skill themselves for those bonuses)

Taste ID

• Players will now always receive their bonuses from the Taste ID skill even without using the skill
• Players will no longer have a Buff Icon for the Taste ID skill (since it is always active)

Herbal Poultice Bonus

• We are removing the Herbal Poultice bonus that players would receive from other players using the skill nearby them (i.e. players must now have the Taste ID skill themselves for those bonuses)

Player Customizations

• Players can now purchase the Quick Change customization to further reduce Echo Cooldowns

Quick Change

• The Quick Change customization reduces a player’s Echo Cooldown to 15 minutes (flat value)
• Players must have both the “Jack of All Trades” and “Jill of All Trades” customizations purchased on their account in order to be able to purchase the Quick Change customization

Ships

• Ship Crewmembers will now gain Loyalty Experience by completing Special Fishing Nets, Fishing Spots and SOS/MIBs

Crafting

• Craftable items that are crafted in multiples (rather than single item at a time) will now display the amount to be crafted in the Crafting Menu Overview for that category

Potion Crafting

• The highest level Potion available for each reagent type (such as Greater Heal, Greater Explosion, etc) now has a crafting entry option to create 25 Potions at once
• The skill required to create stacks of 25 Potions is equal to the normal Maximum Skill ceiling of that potion type (i.e. a potion with a normal 65-90 Skill Range will require 90 Alchemy skill to make 25 Potions of it)

 

• Society Job Progress for Potion Jobs will properly track players crafting stacks of 25 Potions
• Artisan Aspect Experience and Crafting Antiquities will adjust their gain/drop chances to scale based on the amount crafted for potion stacks as well

Lethal Poison Potion

• The Alchemy skill range of crafting Lethal Poison Potions is now 110-120 (i.e. 120 Skill will now have 100% crafting chance)

Kegs and Potion Kegs

• Removed the “Keg” crafting entry from the Carpentry system
• Removed the “Potion Keg” crafting entry from the Tinkering system that used “Keg” + “Barrel Tap”
• Potion Kegs now have a single crafting entry under the Tinkering system that uses Boards and Ingots and requires 100 Tinkering and 100 Carpentry

War Aspect Distillation

• War Aspect Distillation is now craftable from the Alchemy skill (was missing from the crafting entry list)

Wizard’s Grimoire

• The Magic Arrow, Harm, Fireball, and Lightning Spells will now display a system message when they have been activated so they can be utilized by the ClassicUO Client’s “Cooldowns” mechanic

Barding

• Fixed an issue that was sometimes causing a mismatch in the Song Bonuses received by nearby players compared to the original Bard who created the effect

Followers

• Tamed/Summoned Followers will no longer use Regeneration-type abilities while Dead