Siege Perilous Overview

Siege Perilous Overview

The truest test of a player is one in which their true character is weighed and measured.

Siege Perilous is that very test. Those who survive it will achieve the "holy grail" of MMORPG's; success in a truly skill based environment. In order to prosper one must forge allies, communicate and trade with others. Those who desire to make trouble for others will quickly find themselves in great logistical peril, and as a result may find themselves struggling to survive.

• 1 Character per person only.
• 700 Skill Cap
• 225 Stat Cap
• Pub 13.6 combat mechanics (UOR)

What is Siege Perilous?

Siege Perilous is a shard hosted by Adam Ant that uses a special Ruleset in which players are only able to log onto one single character per person. You can currently log into the Siege Perilous test server to beta test the game for yourself! (Download link in sidebar.)

The shard will officially launch on May 6th at 11am EST.

On Test Siege Perilous you are able to use the test functionality, which includes the ability to set your skills or stats by simply saying "set swords 100" for example. See Commands for more information on test functionality.

As opposed to Angel Island, Siege Perilous allows players to ride their mounts, with the trade-off being that the recall spell (including scrolls) has been disabled as part of the Siege Perilous Ruleset. Players are still able to use gate travel.

Combat related aspects of the game have been set to be era accurate to Publish 13.6. Siege Perilous uses UO:R era mechanics such as the Special Moves Crushing Blow or Paralyzing Blow, as well as bonuses to certain spells if you have Inscription or Poisoning.

Siege Perilous History

The name "Siege Perilous" was chosen as a reference to the Arthurian legend and the idea that only the most virtuous and worthy players could succeed on this challenging server. The Siege ruleset was designed to be a throwback to the early (pre-t2a) days of Ultima Online, before many of the game's more complex features had been introduced.

The origins of the Siege Perilous shard can be traced back to the early days of Ultima Online's development, when the game was still in its beta testing phase. The developers wanted to create a more hardcore, old-school experience for players who craved a greater challenge. The idea was to create a server where players would have to rely on their true character and skills, rather than relying on overpowered gear or exploits.

Over time, the Siege Perilous ruleset developed a devoted following of players who appreciated its unique challenges and sense of community, and regard it as a classical UO experience for players who are looking for a more authentic and challenging version of the game.

Factions vs Alignment

In the Pub 13.6 era, the original Town Control Factions system was in place. However, it was determined that a complex town control system detracted from the early days feel that was intended for the ruleset. In place of Factions is a simple, notoriety based Alignment system. Guildmasters can choose from 9 different Alignments, such as Orc, Milita, Order, Chaos, Undead etc. If you are Aligned then you are at war with the other 8 Alignments, and all of their members will be freely attackable anywhere in the game.

Note that you can only set your guild's Alignment once per 7 days.

The Siege Perilous Ruleset

Character

On Siege Perilous, you are limited to:

• 1 character

NPCs

• NPCs will no longer be able to train characters.
• They will not purchase items from players and their prices are 3x higher on everything, except housing which is 10x the regular price.
• The cost to hire an NPC is also 3x higher than normal.

Skillgain

There have been changes to character development in order to balance the ruleset. Characters are limited to one account with only one character, and as a result, the rate of skill and stat gain must also be limited to inhibit players from quickly changing their builds using macros. The underlying point of Siege's "Return over Time" system is to level the playing field so that the players ability to play the game matters more than their ability to develop their character.

• You can only gain a certain amount of skill points per day in skills over 70, and there is a 20 minute cooldown between gains that rises as skills get to 80 and 90.
• You can only gain 6 total statistic points per day. For example, 1 strength, 2 dexterity and 3 intelligence.

Learn More on the Return Over Time (RoT) page.

Magic

As noted, there have been some changes to the way Magery works:

• Recall spell does not work as part of the Siege Perilous Ruleset.

• Mark spell does not work inside dungeons.

• Gate spell does not work inside dungeons.

• Telekenesis does not work on locked or trapped treasure chests.

• Magery works in town.

In Game Justice System

• Murderers may enter towns.

• Healing a murderer will make you a criminal, but the town guards will look the other way and not attack you.

• Wandering Healers may spawn as Murderers and will resurrect murderers.

• Members of the Thieves Guild may commit murder without being kicked out of the guild, nor are there any join requirements besides the 500 gold to join.

Skills

The Siege Perilous ruleset features some changes to the way skills operate:

• Bard tools and a variety of other tools will wear down with use.

• Fishers will notice a decrease in SOS bottles and will not be able to fish up treasure maps.

• Traps on treasure chests must be properly removed before opening.

• Failures for Tinkers and those identifying poison potions using the taste identification skill will have dire consequences.

Monsters

• Monsters that are also lower level tameables will not drop loot.

Factions and Hero/Evil

Introduced in December, 2000, the Faction System is a broad game system designed to promote organized player conflict within the society of Britannia. The fundamental goal of the conflict is to provide a foundation for player conflict based upon meaningful and contextual combat and conflict-related interactions. The system is designed to encourage the inclusion of a wide array of player types through the use of game mechanics that appeal to a broad set of play-styles.

The Factions

There are four factions:

• Minax: The followers of Minax have taken control in the old lands, and intend to hold it for as long as they can. Allying themselves with orcs, headless, gazers, trolls, and other beasts, they seek revenge against Lord British, for slights both real and imagined, though some of the followers wish only to wreak havoc on the unsuspecting populace.
• Council of Mages: The council of Mages have their roots in the city of Moonglow, where they once convened. They began as a small movement, dedicated to calling forth the Stranger, who saved the lands once before. A series of war and murders and misbegotten trials by those loyal to Lord British has caused the group to take up the banner of war.
• The Shadowlords: The Shadow Lords are a faction that has sprung up within the ranks of Minax. Comprised mostly of undead and those who would seek to be necromancers, they pose a threat to both the sides of good and evil. Their plans have disrupted the hold Minax has over Felucca, and their ultimate goal is to destroy all life.
• True Britannians: True Britannians are loyal to the throne of Lord British. They refuse to give up their homelands to the vile Minax, and detest the Shadowlords for their evil ways. In addition, the Council of Mages threatens the existence of their ruler, and as such they have armed themselves, and prepare for war with all.

Faction Strongholds

The Faction strongholds are located at the following locations:

• Minax: A stone fortress carved in Dragonhame Mountain, southeast of Skara Brae.
• Council of Mages: The old Parliament Building in the southeast corner of Magincia.
• The Shadowlords: The crypts in the Deep Forest, east of Yew Moongate.
• True Britannians: Castle Britannia in the center of the city of Britain.

Joining a Faction

To join a faction, you must use the faction's Join Stone, at the entrance of their faction base.

Kill Points

Earning Kill Points

Factioners are able to freely aggress enemy faction members. By defeating faction enemies in battle, you gain Kill Points. The following rules apply to kill points:

• The killer takes 10% of the victim's kill points (rounded down).
• If the victim has 0 kill points, the killer will still receive 1 kill point. However, the victim will gain 1 deficit point.
• If the victim has 6 deficit points (or -6 kill points), the killer will no longer receive any kill points.

Kill Point Decay

Kill point decay may occur once every 47 hours. Kill point decay works as follows:

• If you have killed an enemy factioner within the 47 hours window, you will be considered 'active'. Active factioners do not undergo kill point decay.
• If you are inactive, you lose 10% of your kill points (rounded up).
• Kill points lost due to decay are redistributed among the active factioners in the same faction.

Friendly Fire

Killing a faction will result in a loss of 50% of your kill points.

Faction Ranks

Kill points determine your rank in the faction. The top 1% players with the most kill points attain the highest rank in that faction. All ranks are given below:

Rank	Score	Minax	Council of Mages	Lord British	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

Temporary Stat Loss

When slain by an enemy factioner, you will suffer temporary stat loss. All your skills will be reduced by 33%. After 20 minutes, your skills will return to normal.

Town Conquest

There are 8 cities that can fall under the control of a faction. Every city has a townstone and a town pedestal within its limit.

• Britain
• Skara Brae
• Magincia
• Delucia
• Minoc
• Moonglow
• Trinsic
• Yew

To capture a town, you must:

Faction System Murder Reprieve

The faction murder reprieve will be a one-time reduction in the various types of murder counts that a murderer may have accumulated. This reprieve will be given only when a murderer who has not previously received a faction-related reprieve first joins a faction. The reprieve will carry the consequence of regaining all of your prior murder counts should the character become labeled as a murderer once again (i.e.: they get 5 or more short-term counts). This reprieve will only be offered for one month after it is published, after which the reprieve code will be disabled.

To get the reprieve, the murder must join the faction (as described in the faction system document) through the faction stone. Note this means murderers will not be able to join the Council of Mages or True Britannians factions unless they are part of a guild whose guild leader is able to get to the faction stone and join the faction.

Murderers who have more than five short-term or long-term murder counts who receive a reprieve will be set to four short-term and long-term murder counts and automatically become “blue”. Murderers whose “ping-pong” counter is 4 or greater will have that counter set to four. The system will retain the previous short-term, long-term, and ping-pong for these characters and should a reprieved murderer become a murderer again, all of these counts will be set to their original numbers.

Hero/Evil

Around the time of our target era, Publish 13.6, Factions and Hero/Evil were merged. 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.

Killing faction characters who are in your own faction will incur a penalty. The killer in this case will lose 50% of his current kill points, lose 100% of the lifeforce accumulated, and be able to be reported as a murderer. An exception to this will be the killing of guild mates, thus allowing characters to spar with guild mates. Another exception is that if your character is attacked by another, you are allowed to defend yourself with impunity.

Faction characters will gain lifeforce equal to 20% of the life force of the character killed, and that character who was killed will lose an equal amount of lifeforce points.

Faction characters will gain 1 lifeforce point for each faction enemy monster that the character kills.

The maximum number of lifeforce attainable is 100 points.

Players will be able to spend lifeforce points toward special Hero/Evil powers. Players will be able to use a special phrase ("I invoke my good powers," for Hero characters, and "I invoke my evil powers," for Evil characters) to bring up a special menu through which they may control the following effects:

Colored Armor (5 lifeforce points; duration is permanent; turns an article of armor or clothing white for Hero, black for Evil) (items which have been turned "Hero" or "Evil" will only be equipable by someone in the appropriate faction.)

Detect Evil/Detect Good (1 lifeforce point; duration is immediate; allows Hero character to scan the area for Evil, and Evil to scan for good)

Summon familiar (10 lifeforce points; duration is 30 minutes; allows the character to summon a familiar to fight for the character, silver wolf for Hero or dark wolf for Evil)

Silver Steed/Dark Steed (30 lifeforce points; duration is 30 minutes; creates a silver steed for Hero character to ride, or dark steed for Evil character)

Holy Shield/Unholy Shield (40 lifeforce points; duration is 60 minutes; character is ignored by all monsters and faction guards while this power is active)

Evil characters will not automatically hue red, and any Evil character who kills a blue innocent may gain a murder count. The faction system hue will be in effect to handle aggression and flagging.

What all is different between Angel Island and Siege Perilous?

Shard Variations Chart:

	Angel Island	Siege Perilous
Total accounts allowed	3	1
Total characters per account	5	1
Mounts	No	Yes
Recall	Yes	No
Gate Travel	Yes	Yes
Item Insurance	No	No
Trammel Facet	No	No
Factions	Kin System	Classic Factions
Resource Drops	Normal Rate	Halved
Skills and Stat gains	Normal difficulty-based gains	Return Over Time (RoT)
NPC Skill Training	Yes	No (Cartography and Lockpicking gain from 0-10 normally on SP)
Animal Taming Skill Difficulty	No	Taming high level monsters (such as nightmares, wyrms, and dragons) will become twice as difficult.
Blade Spirits and Energy Vortex	Normal	Weakened
Telekinesis	Normal	Will not work on trapped or locked chests.
Item wear	Normal	Musical instruments, fishing poles, herding crooks, scissors, axes used for Lumberjacking, and other bladed objects will wear down and break with use.
Shopkeeper buys items from players	No	No
Shopkeeper prices	Normal	3x
Shopkeeper Resource sales	No	No
Hireling fees	Normal	3x
Housing Prices	Normal	NPC prices are 10x higher.
Balanced Buyback System (NPC Consignment)	Yes	No
Murderers allowed in town	No	Yes
Heal murderers in town?	Criminal flag and guard whack	Criminal flag but no guard whack
Reds/Greys can insta-log or ban thee in housing	Yes	No
Poisoned Arrows	Yes	No
Thieves Guild	Normal rules / requirements	Although you must still be in the Thieves Guild to steal from players, you will not be removed from the guild for collecting a murder count, nor are there any skill or time requirements to meet before joining.
Stealth Skill Mechanics	Normal	Rogues will find it a bit easier to sneak up on their marks as the chance to be automatically revealed when near player-characters while stealthed has been reduced to one tile.
Weapon Enchantments	No	Yes

Take Back Sosaria Event

"An evil swarm of wretched gargoyles swooped in during the night and captured the various cities and towns. We have secured Britain, but the rest of our world has been completely overrun. I pray thee, citizens of Britannia, come join the war effort to defeat this evil presence and Take Back Sosaria!!"

- Errol Pantzike, First Lieutenant, Militia

Siege Perilous will launch with an event underway called “Taking Back Sosaria.”

The Taking Back Sosaria (TBS) event accomplishes two primary goals; 1. To shrink the usable map without introducing a custom map, and 2., provide the player base with a fun and enjoyable initial experience that encourages teamwork.

An army of wretched gargoyles have descended upon the land of Britannia. They have decided that there is no room for humans in the world. Currently, they enjoy ownership of all cities and towns, save for Britain which is still under the control of Lord British. Venturing to these captured towns as a lone individual is both difficult and treacherous.

Tips, Tricks, and Strategies: While these creatures are formidable, they are not without their weakness. The gargoyle guardians first appeared in zones within the cities. We have learned that if you take out a zone, the gargoyles do not return. This was the tactic we used for Britain. So, the strategy is to recapture cities zone by zone. We have further learned that these zones seem to run north to south. So, attacking from the east or west works best, then work your self N/S to capture the zone. Cities seemed to be split into maybe four or so zones. So a smaller city will have smaller zones. Your character will receive feedback in the form (N of M kills) for zone XYZ. If you take too long to capture a zone back, the guardians will respawn and you will then need to start over. It's important to team up as you don't want your hard work to go to waste!he guardians will respawn and you’ll need to start over.

Suggested Initial Strategy: Since Britain is clear of these loathsome creatures, I recommend staying close to Britain initially, then banding together to take back the other cities as you gain a foothold back into this cursed realm. Target each City and Town, one by one, until they have been taken back from the claws of the detestable gargoyle race.

It may be wise to take back interesting and/or important zones within the cities that may also be captured, for instance around banks, forges and such valuable resources.