Factions

[Gnool]

I read somewhere that multiplayer games were going to have up to 16 players, and I'm just wondering what factions are going to be in the games. Will there be 16 (or more) unique factions to choose from or will we have to have 2 players playing as the Hive ? Post some factions (currently in SMAC/X or not) that you'd like to see in Stella Polaris. I've noticed that on networknode.org alot of the custom factions are enivornmental or militaristic (ie a lot of them follow a simliar ideology) so if you're going to post some ideas for new factions, please make them original

Personally I'd like to see Human Hive (or something similar) cuz they're cool (Police State )

[Rasbelin]

Well, now it seems that the MP game would have 30 players, instead of the old 16, so I guess it means that there's going to be 30 different factions. But I guess Blake will once again have other thoughts as usual, so you'd better wait for his response. But 30 factions would IMO sound most likely.

[Blake]

The factions system will work a bit different to SMAC, in particular there will be nothing to stop multiple players choosing the same faction.

It would be ideal to have it so players can create their own balanced factions using a "Faction Design Wizard", they could then submit the faction at game start. This would mean there would be a limitless number of different factions (not all good tho ) and you wouldn't automatically know what traits another faction has (you would have to use detective work, and prehaps some spying options).
Ofcourse there will also be premade factions, which may or may not be guaranteed to be competitive....

For campaign mode there will be pre-made factions.

[Frozzy]

Will you be able to change the factions using SLIC? (i.e. make a cutom one) Or, will you make an option to create one?

[Blake]

Creating your own faction could very well be part of the game. That means that players as well as modders could create their own faction, and it would be perfectely legal to use custom factions in a multiplayer game (and indeed, faction design would be part of the overall game strategy....)

[DeathByTheSword]

for creating factions for MP just give each player some points and let them use them on several pro`s for there factions and some choices cancels others out (police state cancels out demo) and +1 industry costs 10 point but +2 costs 25 points or something like that so that everone will have the change of getting the best faction to there liking

[Kirnwaffen]

for creating factions for MP just give each player some points and let them use them on several pro`s for there factions and some choices cancels others out (police state cancels out demo) and +1 industry costs 10 point but +2 costs 25 points or something like that so that everone will have the change of getting the best faction to there liking

What you're suggesting sounds kinda like MOO2 custom factions, where you could pick traits that cost a certain amount of points. I like that idea, but I would suggest simplifying it by taking something more along the lines of Fallout, where you were given five points to put into a set of attributes, where each point gave one additional point to that attribute. You could also take points out of one attribute to put them into another.

I think it would also be interesting to use something similar to the "perks" from fallout, where you could pick one or two perks for your faction, but each had certain benefits and drawbacks. This might be to complex in terms of balancing tho.

Anyway, just my $0.02.

[Lemmy]

Yes, perks, traits actually, would be a great way of customizing a faction, it would have an upside and a downside, sort of like the SE choices in SMAC, but not quite that big
For example a "Bureaucrat" trait would give +1 efficiency, but -1 morale.
Diplomat could give +1 economy, and -1 support.
They could be handled like personalities for the leader or government, a General personality could then have +1 morale, +1 support, but -1 science and -1 planet.
One thing to worry about would be balancing like Kirn said

[Jeremy Buloch]

Well, now it seems that the MP game would have 30 players, instead of the old 16, so I guess it means that there's going to be 30 different factions. But I guess Blake will once again have other thoughts as usual, so you'd better wait for his response. But 30 factions would IMO sound most likely.

Yes it does sound likely. I just want to add that Gateway's story talks about 36 vessels and 6 crash, which leaves as you could guess 30. So there could be a leader on every vessel. Yet if some of the ships are going to different planets it would seem odd that the amount was not mentioned in the story. I'm not sure if those 30 ships are all going to the planet or if they are seperating themselves. Hopefully Gateway will tell us.
-J.B.-

[Jeremy Buloch]

If there is 1 faction on each ship then only one will land at a planet. We should have 30 ships land and 210 ships will be able to land 30 ships at 7 planets. When Gateway is not busy he will most likely respond to this.
-J.B.-

[Gateway103]

Well, I am busy, but I can answer this little bit.

I would say go back and read the story outline again but that'll just be too mean

So I'll remind you that I had send 36 ships to Alpha Centauri system along, and there are many other colony ships that are going elsewhere (there were a lot more than 36 ships built). The preliminary idea is that 6 out of the 36 crushed/destroyed/or otherwise didn't make it, so there are 30 that made it, resulting in 30 factions on the planet, if all goes well

-Gateway103

[Jeremy Buloch]

I see, Gateway. Thank you for clearing that up for me and well other people that are sort of not posting. Thank you for answering and not redirecting me back to your story. It would have been a horrible experiance . Thanks.

-J.B.-

[Mark123jansen]

how about some victory types being unavaileble for some factions, I have always had trouble with a victory conquest with lal or an economic victory with deidre, so when we create a pacifist faction maybe the conquest victory should be blocked for them and an eviromentalist faction shouldn't be able to win economically

maybe this could be implemented in the faction editor with the idea of the traits that ive read somewhere: if you choose the trait 'pacifist' you will receive +1 growth and +1 economy but conquest victory will be unavaileble, or 'enviromentalist' +1planet +efficiency but no economic victory

[Disparat]

Originally posted by Lemmy
For example a "Bureaucrat" trait would give +1 efficiency, but -1 morale.
Diplomat could give +1 economy, and -1 support.
They could be handled like personalities for the leader or government, a General personality could then have +1 morale, +1 support, but -1 science and -1 planet.
One thing to worry about would be balancing like Kirn said

Perhaps instead of pre-determined advantages and disadvantages, you could let the player decide. Such that if they want to add +2 points to economy they would then be required to subtract 2 points from one other trait or subract 1 point from two traits. This would have the advantage of being a bit more customizable and letting a lot of factions be more unique. Of course this will require that the traits and abilities be fairly balanced so that folks can't get by adding points to really good ones and subtracting from the insignificant traits. Just an idea...

[Vultur]

Originally posted by Mark123jansen
how about some victory types being unavaileble for some factions, I have always had trouble with a victory conquest with lal or an economic victory with deidre, so when we create a pacifist faction maybe the conquest victory should be blocked for them and an eviromentalist faction shouldn't be able to win economically

I suggest you to look at this thread: there is some other ideas for "Role Playing Gaming".