Player vs. Player
In Ultima Online, player vs player (commonly abbreviated as PvP) denotes fighting other players rather than monsters. Originally the entire world was a PvP zone. With the Ultima Online: Renaissance, Trammel and most future areas were consensual PvP only. The original world of Felucca allows for non-consensual combat. There are two shards with special PvP rule sets: Mugen and Siege Perilous.
Contents
Flagging Status
You can determine another player's flagging status by looking at their name, health bar, or hovering over their character while in war mode. The color they appear to you determines what will happen if you attack them.
Blue
Applies to all innocent players and NPCs. Attacking a blue target in a non-consensual rule set will flag you gray. If you are in a Guard Zone, anyone who says guards will cause you to be executed instantly. If you target a blue player and they end up dying, they can give you a murder count. Two minutes after your last damage to a blue target will return you to being blue yourself.
Gray
Applies to all players who have committed a criminal action. This includes Stealing, attacking innocent (blue) targets, performing beneficial acts on another gray or murderer, etc. While gray they are freely attackable by anyone without penalty. The player flagged gray is free to retaliate and even kill their attacker(s).
Red
Applies to Murderers, commonly referred to as a PK (player killer). A PK has 5 or more murder counts and can only travel to non-consensual areas (usually Felucca). They are always freely attackable by anyone.
Orange
Applies to players you are in a Guild War with or enemy Vice vs Virtue combatants. They are freely attackable anywhere, including in consensual rule sets such as Trammel.
PvP Types
Player vs player combat can be categorized by the following types.
Arena
Players can meet at one of the arenas to engage in 1v1 or team duels. There are different rules that can be set, such as disallowing potions. A leaderboard is available to track points.
Champion Spawns
This is when guilds or groups compete for control of a Champion Spawn. This particular style of PvP frequently takes the form of a large guild or group raiding a spawn being progressed by a smaller guild or group, with the larger group usually scouting the progression of the spawn to time the raid to coincide with the appearance of the champion in order to obtain the Power Scrolls.
House
This is when one or more players inside a house either commence a battle on opposing players outside, or are chased into a house from outside and continue the fight while trapped inside. The players inside and out attempt to build up powerful combinations or pull off coordinated attacks with others to "snipe" their opponents, as lines of sight through the house are only open for a few seconds at most. This type of PvP can be frequently be witnessed around the Yew gate in Felucca.
Guild Wars
When players in two or more guilds wish to declare war on each other, frequently for roleplaying purposes, they can do so through the guild system. The guild war can be set up to end after a certain time period, a certain number of kills, or can be set to last indefinitely.
Vice vs Virtue
In Vice vs Virtue, each guild battles for control of virtue cities in the Felucca facet. Any individual player can declare themselves as a participant. They will flag orange to every other player in Vice vs Virtue, but only in the Felucca facet. By capturing cities you can earn silver to buy rewards. This has replaced the previous Faction system.
World
This is generally comprised of random PvP that takes place in Felucca for fun or sport. A miner could be attacked while mining. A player might bump into another in a forest. Players can also be drawn to a specific area for some reason. For example a collapsing house or Event Moderator event.
Templates
While there are an infinite number of ways to customize your character skills set, the following list the most popular templates in use today.
Magic
- Mystic Mage - Using Mysticism
- Nox Mage - Using Inscription, Poisoning
- Parry Mage - 120 Mage 120 eval 120 resist 120 parry 100 alchemy 100 anatomy 100 scribe
Warrior
- Stealth Archer - Using Archer and Ninjitsu for sneak attacks
- Sampire - Using Bushido
Support
References
- Perma Gray - At one time, thieves would be subject to perma-gray after a successful steal. This status would only be removed upon death. While perma-gray, the thief would flag gray only to the person they stole from. Other players could either use Forensic Evaluation or simply take the risk of attacking to figure out if a player was perma-gray. A cunning thief could try to trick others into thinking they were perma-gray in order to have them flag as aggressors, often resulting in a guard whack. This feature was removed from the game as some point.
- Perma Red - At one time, a player who committed too many murders could become permanently red. This was eventually removed and as long as your murder count is below 5 you can be blue.