Factions

[Qazaan]

When makin a faction, what should i consider?
Which merits make up for which flaw? How do i make surtain that it is a balanced faction Im makin?

Any advices?

[livid imp]

It is definately more of a art than a science. It basically boils down to balance. When you make a faction, ask yourself, would people stop using the University/Hive/Drones to play my faction? If so your faction might be too strong. That is a good basic rule of thumb. Try to figure out ways a person could exploit you faction into something not intended. If you faction makes a significant part of the game obselete, it is likely too strong. Try to emulate the basic balance shown in the original seven, and then add a bit of your own.

Once you have a grip on proper balance, give your faction a theme of some kind. Even if your theme is that they have nothing in common. Say a mixed group of refugees. There was one idea over in the Creation forum for a faction of escaped genejacked drones in which the genejacking process had been taken to such an extreme that it would have looked like the cantina scene in Star Wars.

Lastly add the details. Background story, graphics, etc.

Once you have an idea for a faction, go post it over in the Creation forum to have it critiqued and distributed. And personally, I wouldn't worry about the details until you know you have a basic faction people will be interested in.

If you want to know how not to make a balanced faction, go check out networknode.org
No offense to the site owner, he is providing a great service, but 90% of the factions there are the worst.

[Chaos Theory]

As well as worrying about making a faction too strong, avoid making it too weak as well. Livid imp is right about network node, but I find that many factions there are horribly underpowered, rather than overpowered.

[Maniac]

The network node is still the best source for faction graphics though.

[livid imp]

Originally posted by Chaos Theory
As well as worrying about making a faction too strong, avoid making it too weak as well. Livid imp is right about network node, but I find that many factions there are horribly underpowered, rather than overpowered.

I was thinking of terms of players using the faction in which case, too weak would simply be a matter of taste. But is it true you should not make a faction too weak because you may want to have the AI use the faction, and god knows the AI doesn't need a handicap.

[Dis]

what you have to consider are a couple of things. This is how I look at it.

Envision the AI playing this faction on transcend level and you playing against them. This should help you avoid making them too strong (unless you like big challenges, but personally I'm not that good on transcend)

And then Envision yourself playing this faction against the ai or other humans. This should prevent you from making it too weak.

[Darsnan]

As far as too strong or too weak is concerned: I really liked Smacksim's approach in his Aldebaran mod where some of the Factions were meant just for the AI's to play: they were sort of an uber-version of the Factions that a human would select to play in an SP game.

Right now in my own personal mod I'm experimenting with giving the Progenitors free nerve gas once they research HEC.

[bondetamp]

Ururpers attacking at a base +75%?

[Chaos Theory]

Nope, 1.5 * 1.25 = 1.875, so Usurpers attack bases at +87.5%!

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Chaos Theory
Nope, 1.5 * 1.25 = 1.875, so Usurpers attack bases at +87.5%!

It appears to add to the challenge but doesn't really unless the AI is given other advantages. Defending against attack is usually not a winning strategy anyway and I usually choose attack over defense everyday of the week with kill zones, monoliths and good tactics meaning AI armies just get chewn up.

You could pretty much DOUBLE the AI's attack strength across the board and I don't think it would make things much tougher for the ground war. Now it would get crazy if you don't get airpower long before them .

A really tough modification would be to add something significant to the AI defense strength so that attacking ground troops were not just more fodder. . . make it tougher to just wipe them out. Imagine how tough ground war would be if the attacker had an armor 3 with a strength of 6 even before the terrain 50% and morale modifiers(and you with only attack 6 weapons). As I think about it, a 100% defense bonus might be too much but I think you could compensate with arty, worms and high morale units. It would make ground warfare more interesting though as you would probably avoid attacking anything on a good defensive tile. With the way attack/defense usually plays out, Ground warfare is usually a matter of simply killing everything you see since weapons are usually twice armor