Nations

There are three nations fighting for control of Stoneholm: the Ismirs, the Midlanders, and the Sangmar. This article is primarily about the mechanics and social structure of nation-based gameplay. For lore about the nations click here.

When creating a character for the first time, the player will be asked to choose a nation and origin. The "origin" aspect of character creation currently does not serve a purpose and will be developed further in the future.

Players may freely choose to change nations until reaching level 70 on any one character. After that, All characters on the account will be locked to that nation with very limited opportunities to change nations. Reaching level 70 can be done in a few days of gameplay, so it is important to remember this.

There are no race or nation based traits, buffs, or effects.

Nation mates are your natural allies. They are the ones who will teach you, fight and die beside you, heal you, provide cover fire, and make the final push to capture the flag. Getting to know your nation, joining guilds, running events, and making friends is a great way to make a nation feel like home. Gloria Victis is a highly social game, requiring significant team work.

The Nations

The Ismirs

The Ismirs occupy the North and West sides of the map. Their national colors are blue and white, and their symbol is a serpent. Their lore and style is based on the Danes and Vikings.

The Midlanders

The Midlanders hail from the north and east side of the map. Their national colors are red and green, and their symbol is a tower and sword. Their lore and style is based on medieval continental Europe.

The Sangmar

The Sangmar occupy the southern reaches of the map. Their colors are black, gold, and purple. Their symbol is the zenith sun. Their lore and style is based on the Roman and Byzantine empires.

Identifying Friendlies

Nation Themed Armor and Weapons

Each nation has themed armor and weapon sets which can be obtained, worn and learned by players in all nations. Equipment statistics are based on tier, so Ismir tier 4 gear has similar to identical statistics to Midland and Sangmar tier 4 gear, and the difference between them is primarily visual.

Click here to see the full list of gear sets.

Balancing Player Population

Because Gloria Victis is an open world PvP game that strives to give players of all nations a fighting chance, but also give players the freedom to play on the nation they choose to play on, there are several balancing tools which help ensure every nation has a chance to enjoy themselves and the content.

The Underdog System and Nation Changing

The largest of these balancing systems is the Underdog system, which uses several metrics to determine which nation, if any, is at a disadvantage. If a nation is flagged as Underdog, a mercenary recruiter NPC will appear near the Logistician in the non-underdog nation(s), and allow players to transfer to the Underdog nation for free. Remember that transferring nations will transfer the entire account, not just 1 character. There is not always an Underdog nation, and there can be up to 2 Underdog nations.

It is important to note that transferring TO Underdog nations is easy with the Mercenary Recruiter, but transferring FROM Underdog nations is not possible. A player who is in an Underdog nation who wishes to leave it must do one of the following:

1. Wait for another nation to be marked as Underdog and use the Mercenary Recruiter to transfer out.
or
2. Start a new account.
or
3. Delete all characters and start over fresh. Items and coins stored in the account depot will not be wiped and will be available when creating a new character on any nation

New players who have not yet made a character will be alerted during character creation about which nation is Underdog and will be offered bonuses to gold and experience gain for joining that nation. Those bonuses will be in effect until the nation loses Underdog status. All current players on the Underdog nation also receive those buffs.

New players may freely change nations one time before they reach level 70 on any character on the account, regardless of underdog status.

Nations marked as Underdog give fewer Nation Points to enemies, get more crowns and loot from NPCs, and gain XP buffs for taking territory from non-underdog nations.

Limits on Joining Events

Another way Gloria Victis attempts to encourage even numbered fights is by providing events with either hard or soft caps on party size. Some events like Volcano and Sea Wraiths are hard-capped for small parties of 5 or 7 players.

Other events like the Valley Of Death Tournament will cap the party size based on how many players register from each nation, so that one nation cannot overrun the event. Here is one potential Tournament Registration scenario:

Ismirs: 13
Midlanders: 25
Sangmar: 9

In this case, the Tournament will allow in 13 from each nation because it balances the match based on the nation with the 2nd highest registration. Midlanders will have 12 people in queue, and any additional Ismirs wishing to join will also wait in queue until Sangmar reaches at least 13 players. Sangmar will be able to join the event freely as it goes on until they reach 13 members. In this way, although the Sangmar are outnumbered, they can join the event more easily than the other 2 nations.

Non-loot sieges that spawn directly after the Valley of Death operate on a queue system, so as more individuals from each nation join the event, the parties increase in size at similar rates. Note: players who are in queue can physically travel to the location by foot or by horse and participate without waiting for the queue. This is an intended mechanic. Players who skip the queue to run to an event are still counted among the population for that event as long as they are in the event area, so it is not possible to "evade" the counting system for the queue.

Nations with higher populations will receive events on both front lines for non-loot sieges, further potentially splitting their forces, while smaller nations will receive one event on one front.

Login Cooldowns

Players owning 2 or more Gloria Victis accounts they are playing on the same computer may be subject to log in cooldowns if those accounts are on different nations. The length of the cooldowns depends on the behavior of the individual player. This system was put in place to reduce the amount of nation hopping between players trying to circumvent various systems, reduce spying, and reduce toxcity. A community manager is responsible for placing cooldown timers on individual players.

When this system was added to the game, some players were given cooldown timers by the community manager based on previous reports of rule violations.

Behaviors that can affect cooldown lengths:

• Purposefully harming your nation (ex: body blocking/opening doors for enemies).
• Breaking game rules
• Griefing other players
• Chat violations
• Reporting players specifically to try to get them in trouble
• Abusing the Votespy mechanic

Penalties on any of a player's accounts will result in longer cooldowns on ALL of that player's accounts which are accessed from the same PC.

Cooldown lengths:

• 0 Violations = 30 minutes in game/1 hour out of game (whichever is achieved first)
• 1 Violation = 12 hours in game/24 hours out of game (whichever is achieved first)
• 2 Violations = 12 house in game/24 hours out of game (whichever is achieved first)
• 3 Violations = Accounts are permanently banned

These violations do not decay over time, so it is important to play your different nation accounts fairly to avoid penalties.

Cross-Server Play

There are 3 servers:

• Europe (Eaglewood)
• North America/South America (Aquilla)
• Asia (Dukla)

Players must choose a Main server for their account. Playing on other servers is possible, but comes with significant drawbacks.

• Players may not loot other players on a server that is not their main server, but they can be looted.

• Players may not fish on a server that is not their main server.

• Players will receive a significant health, stamina and damage debuff (50% reduction) if playing on a server that is not their main server if their nation is not marked as Underdog.

• Glory is gained separately on each server.

• Sometimes players may not be able to join a server other than their main server at all if their nation is not Underdog. This mechanic is intended to prevent "invasions" from off server players for events like State of War.

• Note: Crafting is not affected by changing servers. It is a common tactic that if your nation is not doing well on the map, to go to another server to gather and craft for a while.

Access to Content

In Gloria Victis, many valuable resources and high level content is located along the Native Territory borders between nations. For example, the Holy Temples and various world Events are in these conflict zones. it is much easier to complete events and quests in these areas when your nation controls the area, but it is not impossible to do the content otherwise. Each nation's native territory offers similar quests, resources, and events. Expanding your nation's borders puts pressure on opposing nations who want easier access to the resources and materials, and it provides your nation with a larger Territory Bonus.

The center of the map is not considered to be any nation's "native" territory and is dominated by guild provinces. There are valuable events and resources here as well.

Please see The Map for more information about access to content and resources.

Friendly Fire and Criminal Activity

By default, Friendly Fire is turned off. It can be turned on by typing /ff or clicking the skull icon near the minimap. Turning it on alerts all players in the vicinity that it has been turned on and a red fist icon appears next to icon or nameplate of the player. Friendly fire will allow you to hit and eventually kill an allied player, at the cost of a severe debuff, described below.

In general, there is little reason to use the Friendly Fire mechanic. If a player is harming the party, it is recommended to use the /votespy command to vote him away instead of killing him. All /votespy actions are monitored by the community manager. See Votespy for more info.

Although Friendly Fire is an option any player can use at any time, doing so comes with significant risks. Harming or killing a fellow nation member will mark all characters across the entire account as Criminal for many in-game hours, and it allows players to kill criminals on sight without penalty. In addition, criminals will not be able to capture flags, or respawn in nation held locations. Instead, criminals respawn at Traitor Island. They cannot use tents. It is not possible for a criminal to loot a nation member. Criminals cannot join parties.

Nation members should refrain from looting or reviving traitor characters, as this can give them a traitor debuff as well.

Players who have committed minor crimes (causing damage to friendly players) have a yellow nameplate and a short traitor debuff.

Players who have committed a serious crime (killing a friendly player) have a skull icon beside their health icon, their health icon turns red, and their nameplate will be purple. Any player may kill a criminal without penalty. The criminal will have a very long traitor debuff.

Reviving a criminal will mark the player who revived him as a criminal as well. Criminals cannot join parties.

Remember that taking criminal actions results in a Traitor Debuff for ALL characters on that account.

Outlaw Gameplay

Playing as an outlaw or mercenary is not a viable playstyle. The Traitor System is a punishment system, not an alternative playstyle. Players are meant to play within nations and view their nation as their team. It is not possible to be independent from a nation.

Also see: Guilds | The Map