Faction System (share your ideas!)

[Lurler]

We are planning to implement a faction system in A25 update.

Here is our current plan. Please take a look and share your ideas!

Please note: this is only the basic idea. In the future updates the system will be expanded with more features such as faction levels or upgrades and other features.


Basics

• Each player is starting as neutral (no faction).
  
• All of the current content from "Politics" menu must be moved into "Social", politics now will only be used for faction list.
  
• New menu "Faction" must be shown for players who have already joined a faction.
  
• In case of death from a non-neutral player, we need to update our current text to include faction information (e.g. showing clan tag/icon near the name). Additionally we may add another string there along the lines of "You can consider joining a faction to get help in fighting [browse Y faction to learn who are their enemies]" or such. To have a bit more option to show/hide certain things - this string must be separate in localization.
  

Faction properties

• Each faction has a name (text, must be profanity filtered or possibly randomly generated), tag (3 characters long), flag (composed from 3 layers OR selected from country flag list).
  
• Faction descriptions: public (visible to all) and private (visible to faction members).
  
• List of allies, list of enemies (declared by them and declared by your faction).
  
• Players cannot damage other players in their faction AND in allied factions.
  
• Players in a faction get access to the faction chat. ("%" prefix)
  
• Faction chat also receives system notifications about raids on faction member bases and players belonging to the faction being killed.
  
• Possibly: faction tag/icon is displayed near the player nickname in the chat.
  

Presentation

• Newbie - [Shield icon] Blue name
  
• Regular player - White name
  
• Faction member (different faction) - [Faction icon] White name
  
• Faction member (your faction) - [Faction icon] Dark green name
  
• Faction member (allied faction) - [Faction icon] Light green name
  
• Faction member (enemy faction) - [Faction icon] Red name
  
• Party member: just adds [Party icon] to other arrangement
  
• Issue: should we allow partying up with people from other factions? What about enemy factions? Also, with the faction in place we have no choice but to remove "no friendly fire" rule for parties. This mechanic will already be present from the faction rules. And I think we should only allow partying with your and allied factions.
  
• Note: we should include color coding information somewhere to make it clear which color represents what. For example faction screen.
  
• For party: add party status screen ( https://i.ytimg.com/vi/wvzbsCcvz4g/maxresdefault.jpg see center left ), that should be fine, since party size will be just 5 people.
  

Joining and leaving

• Newbie players cannot join a faction. This is especially important considering newbie protection and a mess of rules when combining newbie mechanics with faction mechanics.
  
• Depending on faction type player can: join a faction freely (open), send an application to join (closed), or be invited to join (private)
  
• If player leaves a faction he cannot join another for the next 24 hours. When leaving a faction there must be a warning confirmation which explains it.
  
• Idea: we should probably come up with more interesting names to classify factions, possinly: anarchy, democracy, autocracy. (reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_forms_of_government )
  

Politics menu

• Presents a list of all current factions and their basic information. Must include: name, tag, icon, current and max players, active players in the last 36 hours, etc.
  
• Button to join (a public faction) or send application to join (closed faction).
  
• Button to open detailed view for any of the factions.
  
• Button to create a faction.
  
• Join cooldown displayed in the Politics menu.
  

Creating faction

• Any player can create a faction. To do that they must press "Create faction" button in the "Politics" menu. But if players is already in a faction - they will receive an error message when pressing the button "Already in a faction: To create a new faction you need to leave your current faction.".
  
• To create a faction the player must fill in all of the necessary fields and press create.
  
• Cost to create a faction is: 500 LP
  

Faction menu (for members)

• Several tabs: overview, events, members, admin.
  
• Overview: basic page with general information about the faction. Button to leave faction, etc.
  
• Events (log): list of events that happened in the faction. E.g. someone being killed, raided, new members joining, leaving, being kicked, etc. Each event type must have an associated icon to make it easier to see.
  
• Members: list of members with their information, list of applications (to accept or reject) and management buttons (i.e. kicking all inactive members).
  
• Admin info: this tab only available to faction leader and officers. Includes different admin functions. Such as transferring ownership of the faction to another player, etc.
  

Faction roles

• Faction roles: member, officer, leader. Admin has access to all of the actions that officers do + extra.
  
• Leave faction (all) - if leader exits then faction is dissolved
  
• See list of applications (officers)
  
• Accept applications (officers)
  
• Send invites (officers)
  
• Kick members (officers)
  
• Edit faction information (leader) - only once in 24 hours. Note: possibly prevent changing faction name, tag, etc. AT ALL.
  
• Edit faction descriptions (leader)
  
• Assign roles (leader)
  
• Transfer faction to another player (leader)
  
• Add factions to enemies list (leader)
  
• Send invitations to other factions to ally (leader)
  
• See list of allied factions invitations (leader)
  
• Accept other factions alliance invitations (leader)
  
• Remove enemies/allies (leader)
  
• Dissolve faction (leader) - Note: clan hall will be destroyed when faction is dissolved. There must be a confirmation with a checkbox.
  

[MilesD37]

Setting in land claims that:
1. Allow faction members build access
2. Allow faction members door access
3. Allow allies door access.
4. Inability of non claim owner to demo (so that yiu can allow faction to access and even build... But can't just remove your claim, like they can now)

[Morgus]

"Leave faction (all) - if leader exists then faction is dissolved"
I think you meant exit, yes? There should be a deputy role then I think.

[Lurler]

"Leave faction (all) - if leader exists then faction is dissolved"
I think you meant exit, yes? There should be a deputy role then I think.

Yes, let me fix that

[Sanky]

The map separate into layers,
1. the map, with the landscape and your land claim
2. show party member and their land claim
3. show faction's land claim, not sure if you should also show their location
4. show quest location, like color a region for hunting certain type of creatures,
    - if player create quest board will be a thing, showing random spot of a wanted player has been to over the last 24-48 hours
5. player control - this layer allow player to indicate location or draw on the map for their own use.

[a531552862]

Is there a limit to the number of members of a faction?

If there is no limit, they will be invincible.

They will visit every vulnerable group in the way of large contingent

Although I hope to do so soon.

[Bukabukabakabaka]

Add damage to party members(or make some reduce incoming damage from party members near 20-50%) for balance outnumbers fights like 1 vs 2, 2 vs 4, 4 vs 8 and so on. It should help the small parties against big parties in the world so players need to manage the position and shooting not just push "left-click" when you see enemies and you don't care where your bullets fly.

[mav]

The faction system should not dictate who players can team up with. Therefore party benefits, like e.g. no or reduced friendly fire, should remain.

Consider that at a later time, there might be high level pve content with low player numbers on a server. Not being able to play this content because of an arbitrary faction restriction wouldn't be beneficial imo.

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Might be slightly off-topic, but the first association with "factions" I had when hearing about this upcoming feature was the implementation in an older game called Neocron. There, factions represent NPC institutions with them fitting in three affiliation groups: pro-city, anti-city, neutral
Every affiliation group has several factions within them.

Every faction has a relation towards every other faction (+100 for very positive to -100 for very negative). The relationship disposition is generally positive within groups (city, anti-city, neutral) and neutral or hostile towards the other groups.

Goals, structure and background of factions influence their final relations. Factions can e.g. be military, police forces,(shady) traders / corporations, hackers, monks (mages). Police forces and (shady) traders might both belong to the pro-city group, so they won't shoot on one another immediately, but the NPC guards might let fewer things slip before they interfere (start shooting at you) if the relation status isn't quite as positive as could be.

Just to highlight a few facets of factions, they can e.g. have access to different kinds of goods. Military has access to powerful (high-tech) weapons and armor, corporations have access to building material and vehicles, shady traders can manufacture drugs (temporary combat enhancements) more cheaply.

The higher the player's standing within a faction, the better stuff they can buy. Usually restricted areas might open up if a faction likes you enough. High standing players can buy fancy apartments in different areas and many more things.

Faction standing is earned or lost by e.g. doing quests, killing players of hostile/friendly factions, trading.

---

Clans are the player-made groups within factions. The standings of the players within the clan now result in a combined clan standing that "replaces" the personal standing. If a clan stands in high regards with a faction, it might now be possible for a player who just betrayed his former faction (switched factions) and joined this clan, but still has horrible standing, to make use of faction resources as if they were personally highly regarded.

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The faction (politics) system discussed in this post might become more relevant as more NPC aspects get added to the game. Might be too early for all this now, just something to keep in mind where the road could lead later on once the basic systems are in place and enough content is in.
This might all be a bit confusing because I just wrote it down in one go, might give it a little polish at a later time if/when it becomes more relevant.

[MilesD37]

action: dissolve faction should ONLY be usable by the admin of the faction, not "leader". larger factions will have multiple leaders and this can stop salty leaders from dissolving out of spite.

[Napalm]

In Albion Online, a game with huge population (and has gone a long way into trying to balance them, also full loot on death) has 3 types of player groups, Clans/Guilds, Alliances and Factions (NPC city group). Clans/Guilds are made by players, and is usually a group of friends but is basically a player controlled group with ranks, etc. Alliances are a group of guilds, also controlled by players. Factions are tied to the cities, you "flag up" (add the faction flag before your name) and can fight all other faction members with no penalties, there are neutral objectives (some tiny castles, with a NPC boss) where you conquer and gain points with that city faction, to exchange for stuff. The Alliances system does not work too well, as it ends up with a couple of them ruling everything. The Faction (city) system does work pretty well, as when one is too strong, people join the other to fight them for points/loot, it's very common for a guild to join a Faction just to fight others.

In Cryofall, I think there should be Guilds/Clans, for groups of friends, and Factions not controlled by players, with generic names, the parties for people who want to share LP gain. People could join/leave factions with a timeout (like 24h), so killing enemy faction players gives you bonuses (maybe resources), with a buff to the underdogs faction (like buffs). If one Faction end up too powerful, not only they would not have the buffs, but would also not get the resources for killing enemy factions, this would make Guilds/Clans switch Factions to get the buffs/resources. Adding a few neutral objectives, like capture points, could switch the PvP from just base raiding/hotspots to areas not required for player growth (and keeping competition). If the strongest groups are focused on areas where they get something, including bragging rights (maybe a ladder for scored points), they wouldn't monopolize areas that are needed for new players to grow and be able to compete.

It could also be interesting to add "safe zones" for each Faction, like a small city or outpost with some crafting stations and a safe storage, you could exchange your Faction points for resources there. While I do like the base raiding system, I think it's very snowbally, if one group clean up the other's base, things only get easier from there. Down the road this could even make the need for wipes (a controversial but needed feature atm) less often, or even eradicated.

[Revolucifer]

Faction Unique:
All Factions should be able to create their own Banner and to create a Faction own Outfit with colors, symbols and icons. Faction vehicles which can carry members together would be great (as example: Tanks, Robots, cars, Buggy etc.) The vehicles could be upgraded as well.

An Faction passive and active skilltrees should be implemented (example: faster walk, better gathering skills or a kind of fight buff).