Need help with a custom faction

[EternalSpark]

Hey folks.

I'm putting together a custom faction (read: bored out of my skull, sick of Miriam), and while I haven't figured out much, I've decided on a faction somewhere between Santiago and Lal - my girlfriend gave me the idea of "Lal with teeth".

Anyways, I'm having a little difficulty deciding on a system the faction doesn't like.

Here's the thoughts I'm having -

The faction is too militaristic to be pissed off at Police State.

The faction considers Planet just another enemy, and thus doesn't like Green - but I'm considering making the Primary Goal of the faction to be Efficency, and Green is a + EFF choice.

I began thinking about an aversion to Planned. Then I thought, that would make it so that if playing another faction, no SE choice would make this faction happy - Morgan would be pissed at no HM, Dee would be unhappy with no Green, this faction would hate Planned.

My fallback idea is simply an aversion to Wealth, since that seems decent enough.

So what do you guys think? Does a custom faction need an aversion?

[smacksim]

The Pirates in Smax have no aversions. Personally, unless you are trying to make some challenges for yourself (make your faction harder to play, or make the AI factions stronger), I think an aversion is a good thing for a faction. Try starting with a storyline, as it seems you have to a degree. 'Lal with teeth' might be a militaristic Peacemaker type faction, rather than a Peacekeeping faction. Peacemakers might be fervently militaristic, or they might be pacifists themselves.

Keep the trade-offs as even as possible. The pirates might not have an aversion to SE choice, but they have other weaknesses. Aversion to Wealth is a good one, or perhaps aversion to knowledge. Either make for excellent storylines.

[EternalSpark]

Funny, Peacemakers was actually what I was tooling with

Here's a ballpark idea:

+2 Efficiency: Taught from early age to conserve resources
+1 Morale: Founding citizens have Marine background
-1 Probe: Favors direct actions instead of covert actions
-1 Growth: Considers keeping 'human footprint' small for safety

1 Talent for every 6 Citizens (would do -1 drone but don't have SMAX)
Robust Support (half negatives for Support)
Aversion to Free Market or Knowledge
Free Rec Tanks

[Googlie]

For a semi-militaristic faction you might consider deleting the +1 morale, and giving them free Command Centers instead of Rec Commons (seems to me that such a faction as you describe would have a predilection for mission planning and strategizing, the sort of things that go on in Command Centers) And they give +2 morale by themselves, so you wouldn't need the +1 as a faction bonus

[EternalSpark]

[SIZE=1]Giving them free Command Centers instead of Rec Commons (seems to me that such a faction as you describe would have a predilection for mission planning and strategizing, the sort of things that go on in Command Centers)

I dunno, I did an (admittedly) very brief test, and I found that the upkeep of 1 at the beginning meant I had income of 0. Maybe you confused Rec Commons with Rec Tanks?

[GeoModder]

Free Command Centers shouldn't cost a penny to your faction, I advice to do some longer tests.

[EternalSpark]

Is 'Free' facilities a SMAX only thing? Cuz I just retested, and sure enough - those Centers costed energy.

[smacksim]

I thought it applied to both Smac and Smax. It could be a 'patch' thing too. Should be free as in free.