Ok, so now that we know factions should be randomly generated, here's my take of different groups of people that could appear in Rimwold.
The Inspectorate of Colonization and Development Project
Amount: Zero to maximum of one generated per playthrough
Type/Role: Special event
Naming: Due to it's nature, randomization is limited - surely should be used for the inspector himself, the flagship (giving "names of pathos" like Saint Michael, Emperor's Glory or Retribution), can be randomized in a limited fashion ("under x's supervision" and "of x project")
Appearances: Once per gameplay
Relations: N/A
Background: You could only imagine some bureaucrats back on the core worlds would find it atrocious, that there is a place somewhere that has no oversight nor control from the civilized part of the world. Or, that politicians would simply love the idea of not only extending their control, but also getting rid of that one guy no-one likes (and not realizing until too late, they are that guy). It's also not out of the realm of possibilities, that neither of this groups would really care about effectiveness of such solution.
Inspectors themselves are mostly a backwater or corrupted (and revealed - thus uncomfortable) politicians with bad case of no luck. They are extremely bored, irritated people, who see their job as a drag and a punishment. Their lives now consist of long times of hibernation, intertwined with few days of living in "mud, rot and poverty" every now and again. They do their job with as little care as they think they can get away with (and with no inspectorate to inspect them, that means not a lot). More often than not, they are a punitive squad under their own right, handing out decrees according to their humor at the moment.
Gameplay: Inspector arrives in a giant behemoth of a flagship, in best WH40k fashion (text description only, obviously). Upon arrival he and his 2 bodyguards become non-controllable colonists, and any raids are disabled for the time being. They stay in the colony for 2 to 4 days, "inspecting" the "not approved colonization effort by a group led by <original colonists names>". At the end of the stay, there are 3 outcomes possible:
- Inspection went perfectly, and as a reward player is allowed to build completely useless and awfully expensive statue of Emperor/Director of Ministry of Colonization Effort/President.
- Inspection went meh, and player is issued a warning, that inspectorate will be back in 100 years to check on the progress.
-Inspection went horribly wrong. Inspector decrees a fee to be gathered and paid in next 2 weeks. If refused, he'll send a small wave of specialist and hi-tech marines to enforce the payment. Upon certain amount of losses - on either side - they will be called back wither due to "cost of well trained vatgrown soldiers" or "boredom and abhorring of blood". Arguably the best outcome, as it allows you to get some hi-tech equipment.
Mechanics: Pretty simple, really. There are no relations to be had per se, and inspection mechanics can be very easily a simple happiness meter - either an average or a readout at the end of inspection. That would also give different results to a successful happiness-based and successful fear-based colonies.
Junkers
Amount: Zero to one gorup per gameplay
Type/Role: Special trader / event
Naming: Pretty free - anything from Rusty Angels to Jake's Tinkerers or Nuts and Bolts Society
Appearances: Multiple times per gameplay, depending on relations
Relations: Slightly positive from start, goes any one way
Background: Junkers are the steam-punky types. Except the steam, you have gadgets, tinkering and home made inventions. They are a shoddy but happy group, traveling in duct-tape held vessels en-masse for protection from pirates, traveling from world to world and gathering old junk. Why? Because different worlds evolve differently, and junkers simply like to see it and then do something with it - not to mention they immensly enjoy the "out of time" lifestyle. Most of them take on their fathers job and stay spacers, some leave the fleet to settle on colonized worlds.
Gameplay: Appearance of junkers is for most cases just another trader with some special communication message. They offer item-based trade - you can give up some old firearms or resources (in small quantities) in exchange for their unique gadgets and equipment - both equipables and building plans. There should be two groups of things you can get from them - expensive but guaranteed good items, or a gamble items - that can be worse than their equivalents or turn out to be much better. Every exchange would build up relations, every donation (exchanging something of more value for what you get from them or giving for nothing in return) build em even more. With good enough relations you can sometimes get special events - like group of junkers wanting to stay in your colony for a week for R&R or one of junkers settling with you for good (big bonuses to builds and repairs).
Mechanics: Outside of item based trade and relations system (that I assume will be there anyway) there is nothing special. And item based trade shouldn't be to hard to implement either - it's basically there already, it's enough to lock the money aspect itself out of it.
Scientific Society
Amount: Zero to max one group per gameplay
Type/Role: Special event
Naming: I would go with a mythology based names for both organisation and their flagship. Something like The <myth> <organisation> - so The Valkyrie Corporation, The Cerberus Coalition, The Hydra Committee with names for flagship like Avalon, Pandemonium or Valhalla.
Appearances: Possibly multiple times per gameplay, depending on relations
Relations: Neutral on start, can go both ways
Background: As different colonies progress in different ways, it is possible one of them advanced more than others due to some specific discovery. This is where ScSo starts at. They are from one such planet - an technologically advanced society that valued science above all after some great discovery that boosted them almost to transcendent level. As they slowly approached Transcendent level, they hit a brick wall - unable to progress farther. They interest peaked in different possibilities of alternative research patch that could open the final push for them - and approximately at the same time, a natural/scientific catastrophe struck, slowly changing the climate of their homeworld and turning it into inhabitable wasteland. That's when the <name of ScSo> decided to evacuate, building a big (not "giant", as Inspectorate's) and technologically advanced ship that would be their new home. They decide to go on as explorers, searching for different research branches and researching different anomalies, hoping for that last breakthrough that would allow them to cross the transcendence barrier.
Gameplay: It is assumed, that from their first appearance to the last one, they stay in or nearby the solar system. They exist as a "side-quest", offering a bunch of special events. They will mostly request something of value to be donated for research - unique equipment that you got, most powerful of your firearms or a considerable amount of resources. Of course every time you agree, your relationship with them rises. At some point, them may decide to land a scientific team, to research some minor anomaly - asking you for accommodations and to provide for them and protect them. If you agree, they join the colony for a week or two as NPCs, and leave the map every morning. You can obviously just kill them off or enslave them to get their sci-fi stuff (they cannot be converted into colonists). If you don't you'll be rewarded depending on your success - meaning if they were fed and if they survived. Or how many of them anyway. There would be unique equips, special research and a new colonist to gain (one fo the researchers stays behind to observe the anomaly and leave notes for ScSo when they return in 100 years or so)
Mechanics: Basically, just a bunchup of events and one specific mechanics to handle the rewards giving.
Knightly Order
Amount: Ont to few per gameplay
Type/Role: Possible ally for lawfool good players
Naming: Would be fun to keep it knightly. A Knightly Order of X, or Knights of X and so on.
Appearances: Multiple times per gameplay, non-relations dependent, possibly constant threat
Relations: Starting neutral-good, may go any one way
Background: As Rimworlds are a huge hub of anything unlawful and wrong, there is a huge possibility for all good-doers to search for justice and all things good. That is, searching with bullets. Basically, Knightly Order is a bunch of mercenaries and almost religious fanatics, deciding to team up and for a so-called militia, fighting off evil and moaning about lack of princesses to save. They travel around in packs of whatever they got their hands on - modified freighters, police fighters or even small, outdated military vessels. Different groups may vary in approach - some of them will be more likely to accept some fear tactics, others will be fanatically "clean and pure" about things like slavery or bounties.
Gameplay: Knightly orders are meant to be the big "side" for good players. Relationships with them depend on player's playstyle and choices - going against riders and pirates, helping travelers and people in need or leading the colony through happiness are the big relationships boosters. They should have a good amount of random events - landing in the middle of raiders/pirates raid to help out, paying out head bounties for leaders of baddies or simply dropping by to say hi. With bad relationships, they could be an additional enemy to fight, with good - they can sometimes drop some spare resources or a rescued princess. Except she's not a princess, not a she when we're at it, but hey! Dreams are priceless, right? They will also provide the majority of "please, hide this guy/gal for some time, as baddies are after him/her".
Mechanics: This is really anyone's guess, as there is pretty much limitless amount of quests and events that can be given to a major faction
Raiders
Amount: Few groups per gameplay
Type/Role: Main threat
Naming: Free for all :P
Appearances: Constant re-appearances
Relations: Starting neutral-negative, can only go down
Background: Raiders are your run-of-the-mill baddies. They steal your walls, kill your resources and blow up your people. They are equivalent of forest bandits - unorganized, brutish and straight forward. They are very unlikely to negotiate and are mostly hit-and-run, ground based operations. They travel in old, rusty vessels and avoid space combat as much as possible, staying in one system only as long as they can without risking a posse sent after them. Different groups vary in approach to success and failure - some will increase their effect when faced with strong opposition, others will back off for a time.
Gameplay: This is pretty obvious - they land, they get killed, the sulk. What is not obvious is an idea first proposed in fear (http://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=1471.msg13783#msg13783) topic - you can modify the amount or frequency of raids by presenting some heads on spikes. Every now and again, there will be some off-shot of a group raiding you - be it son, sister or pet dog of a certain group's leader. If you "spike" them, it'll force a raid led by either a lieutenant or the leader him/herself (depending on the state of relations thus far). Lieutenant's also show up on their own every few dozens (or so) of raids you managed to kill off. If you also get to kill enough lieutenants (they can't run or it doesn't count), you get a leader raid. Killing off a leader can actually buy you some time free from that group raids before another one rises - and that new one will start from easy peasy raids.
Of course surviving a raid means worse relations - and the more of raiders you kill off, the worse it is. If some raiders get out with some resources stolen, the hit is smaller. Other things that can somehow annoy raiders is using fear tactics (using dead bodies of raiders), and obviously using lieutenants or important people from that group means bigger hit. Different groups react differently to bad relations - some will wait longer before another raid, and some will increase their frequency. Some may increase the strnegth of raids or send some specialists.
Mechanics: Once again, too many possibilities to outline it precisely. One thing definitely useful would be implementation of idle chatter (http://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=1613.msg15072#msg15072).
Pirates
Amount: Few groups per gameplay.
Type/Role: Main ally for bad players, additional threat for good ones.
Naming: Bloody. Well, you get the gig.
Appearances: Constant re-appearances.
Relations: Stating neutral-negative with a guaranteed "turn-the-knife" event before things go too far.
Background: Pirates are the organisational opposite of raiders. They are well organised, they work for profit and they are not happy with just plundering and killing. They are much more likely to threaten and demand that to actually attack - they prefer to keep milking an easy target than to risk loses and non-profitable engagements. They also target space-based targets as well as land-based, some of the groups actually rarely risking landings. Their fleets are much better maintained than these of raiders and while still being mainly based on modified freighters and scrapped military ships, they often consist of some newer and stronger models stolen or commissioned during the raids. Different groups vary heavily in morality and approach - some of them will be comfortable with anything, others may avoid drug deals or slavery, rarely you can even see pirate groups avoiding killing altogether. Doesn't mean they won't, of course.
Gameplay: The big thing here is the "turn the knife" event. At first, there will be some demands and threats, but with a capped negative relations hit. Then there comes one of the "ally" events - they will ask to hide someone in your colony or set up a ambush with your help, and this will allow you to start working forward becoming a safe-heaven for pirates. You can obviously refuse and just keep dealing with them in much more standard, bullet-based manner. As for "ally" events - there is obviously all the "hide someone" or "lure someone and we'll ambush them" events. As for ambushes, they can be easily both space and land based. We can also see some pirates - raiders, pirates - pirates or pirates - knights fights, where they ask you to help them out and stage the whole battle to be played out near your colony and with your help. Pirates will also post head bounties - for knights or other baddies. They can ask you to hide some illegal goods or provide them with some resources for repairs.
Mechanics: Once again, anyone's guess - as there is too many possibilities that can go with a major factions.
What about rebels?
What rebels?
Rebels or Rogues, the hardcore enemy of the righteous law.
Rebels against what?
And how are raiders and pirates not the enemy of the law?
Rebels: Outlaws organized against a society.
Pirates: Not-so-Righteous outlaws looking for a profit by any means.
Rebels are the ones to blow up the death Star, pirates are the ones that give them the weapons to do it.
If the rebels are against a specific (probably their own) society, what would they be doing in another part of the solar system, raiding some god-forgotten colonists? Why did they pick up arms against their society? What is their drive? How are they different from raiders? Why can't they fight on their own planet against whoever they rebel against?
Not to mention - rebels against society? Are we just talking about emo group of raiders?
Guys, give me something to work with here. Rebels is a cool word, but Antidisestablishmentarianists is also a cool word. But it's not good enough to just pop a word and be done with it.
Okay.
Rebels are neutral. They will ask you to side with them. There are 3 things that can happen.
a)You say no, and they launch a massive attack with high quality 2nd hand weapons
b)You bribe them and they leave you alone.
c)You bribe them and they still attack you
d)You say yes, and they will assign tasks and missions to you. You are also an enemy of both the knights, other rebel factions, and the police;you are also now on the friendly side of pirates.
Rebels like to butt heads with serious opponents such as the system police and other Rebel factions. Their missions are a wide variety and sometimes asks you for help or they will protect you against a powerful foe(sometimes they will).
Each rebel faction has their own beliefs and ways of doing things(some are more bloodier than others). They all however share the same common goal, to overthrow the government(possibly corrupted). They will often get in each others way and kill each other. Knightly Order is considered a rebel faction by the government, but they don't impose a threat on civilians making them the "good guys" of the "lawless".
P.S. Each side you choose should give benefits with some access to some sort of technology and equipment.
Overthrow what government? Why would local rebels fly around? And if they are anti-core, why would they complain anyhow, they are way out of the reach of core worlds. And how are they different from raiders or pirates?
Also, why would any Knightly Order be considered rebels? Outlaws, sure, but rebels? Why?
This still doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
Okay, Knightly are Outlaws, not rebel at all. I'm fine with that.
The government controls the sector. Since the government controls the system perhaps like a dictatorship. The government could be corrupt and care more about money than the welfare of its citizens. Thus came the knightly who wanted to do things with their own hands that the government could not.
Raiders are just people who raid to survive and can't really make a honest living.(most of the time). They travel in stealthy groups and sometimes one will split from the group to raid a a settlement.
Pirates are an organized group of raiders technically and are controlled by a regime. They scour the sector for profits and sometimes will put a fight against local authorities. These pirates do all the nasty work for the blackmarket, raiders, government officials, rebels and even knightly for their cause.
Rebels on the other hand have a real purpose and are the opposite of knightly(who intend to keep order and peace, but not by the law). They want to overthrow the government THAT controls the solar system(even rim worlds have government with power that is spread very thin through out the solar system). The government could be corrupt or simply the rebels just don't like them(anarchists). Rebels don't fly around for no purpose. Sometimes the rebels want to reach colonies with supplies for assistance. When a colony is a serious threat, Rebels will send in a powerful fighting to suppress your colony and use it as their own(if they don't burn it to ashes presumably).
So, the rebels are flying to colonies that are under dictatorship for help, waving a big red sign "shoot us" no doubt. Because having their own fleet is no doubt a great way to remain incognito. I give up, not one thing of that explanation makes sense to me.
Civilians don't necessarily have to shoot rebels. They are neutral. Also rebels have their fleet, but much much smaller than government's(even though theirs are small too).
I support these suggestions despite the semi-heated argument regarding the definition of raider/pirate and rebel.
Yeah, this rebel/pirate semantic argument is even more pointless than most Internet arguments. Please drop it.
Quote from: Tynan on January 23, 2014, 02:26:55 PM
Yeah, this rebel/pirate semantic argument is even more pointless than most Internet arguments. Please drop it.
Can't, we already did :c
There is a difference between rebels and pirates and it is shown in multiple games. >:D
For example: Raynor's Raiders in Starcraft 2(They are rebels, not raiders!)
Pirates on the other hand are organized assholes.
Define what a raider is though?
Someone with a cause, that involves acquiring something. That something can be booty (pirates), slaves (slavers), freedom/peace through bloodshed (rebels), or anything useful (scavengers).
These distinctions are pointless without explaining how one's groups motivations are different than eachother. So for all intents and purposes a pirate = a rebel, UNLESS you point out exactly how they are different, both organizationally, and what motivates them. A pirate usually rebels against an established order just like a rebel does. Its what motivates them that is different.
Ok, maybe a correction - we tried to drop it >.<
Seriously guys - dev himself asked to drop this. Drop this.
We probably won't have any hardcoded factions; I'm planning on doing factions which are generated from some list of "types". So they'd generate a name, a hometown, a slogan, a basic history, a style, stuff like that. It remains to be seen how much room there will be for actual authored content in this. However much room there is, though, you'll be able to mod stuff in to fill it.
Well, that's not exactly what I imagined when I've heard "randomized factions" ;)
Anyhow, once you get to the part when you will actually be building factions, remember about poor modders. Some simple solutions, even if not used in game itself, can work wonders later. Being from modding community yourself, I'm sure you're well aware of that :)
Quote from: Tynan on January 23, 2014, 03:40:01 PM
We probably won't have any hardcoded factions; I'm planning on doing factions which are generated from some list of "types". So they'd generate a name, a hometown, a slogan, a basic history, a style, stuff like that. It remains to be seen how much room there will be for actual authored content in this. However much room there is, though, you'll be able to mod stuff in to fill it.
In that case, how will factions differ from one another, other than the story based items you already listed? Will there be different strategies? Will one be more diplomatic whereas another will attack without question?
Do you have any specific factions planned yet?
Nothing specific planned. They'll vary in their hairstyles and ethnicity, the kinds of equipment they bring, the numbers they show up with, the backstories (and thus skills and work disables and such) they have, and the goals they pursue.
Can you make them have custom generated flags. :3
Quote from: Trensicourt on January 24, 2014, 02:46:27 PM
Can you make them have custom generated flags. :3
Feasible, but not high priority.
I like this idea and wood love to see it in the game arrrrrg
Quote from: bigwolf2101 on January 24, 2014, 04:57:24 PM
I like this idea and wood love to see it in the game arrrrrg
It's my priority #1 for modding right now :) To be completely sincere the "completely random, generic faction" sounds one hellov'a boring to me.
With modding being in only basic support in next update, it may need to wait till later - but I'm definitely going to give it a shot with each of my ideas as mods.
What I would like to see is a story line with each faction you move towards to.
Quote from: Galileus on January 24, 2014, 05:00:54 PM
Quote from: bigwolf2101 on January 24, 2014, 04:57:24 PM
I like this idea and wood love to see it in the game arrrrrg
It's my priority #1 for modding right now :) To be completely sincere the "completely random, generic faction" sounds one hellov'a boring to me.
With modding being in only basic support in next update, it may need to wait till later - but I'm definitely going to give it a shot with each of my ideas as mods.
If they re randomly generated it COULD be interesting if it is done well.
Dwarf fortress has preset races that form various civilizations with different goals/history and such.
It could be done randomly though, for example, if you are sharing you planet with a bunch of tribal trans-pigs (yes those will exist) and a group that has a reputation for raiding/capturing people/capturing trans-pigs for food. They could have differing goals. The trans-pigs would presumably be your traders and the group that loves how they taste would be the bad guys that you defend them from/fight with the pigs to keep em away.
I could see stories forming. off of this.
Why don't we have an A.I. trader ship that is manned by 1 trans race.
If the factions are the same every time you'll know what they have for weapons/goals/tactics/etc.
Random ones could be neat, not knowing what they got for the first few battles with them.
You should be able to get a basic information about each faction once you get some info, either by communication or trading. Once you have direct contact, you would then know a little more.
Quote from: Workload on January 26, 2014, 10:58:21 PM
If the factions are the same every time you'll know what they have for weapons/goals/tactics/etc.
Random ones could be neat, not knowing what they got for the first few battles with them.
Just like this!!
My idea is to have 2 diffent confence room that are for 2/more types of Fations, so you can double side, but if you mess it up, they will attack echther (or by chance become allies) and if they fight echother they are instantly your enamy inless you have a good confesstion to them and/help them,
Quote from: CodyRex123 on January 26, 2014, 11:39:14 PM
My idea is to have 2 diffent confence room that are for 2/more types of Fations, so you can double side, but if you mess it up, they will attack echther (or by chance become allies) and if they fight echother they are instantly your enamy inless you have a good confesstion to them and/help them,
Why not have 1 conference room? You can 2 TVs with 2 factions. The colonists could decide to share communications with both factions or keep 1 private. Still, the game most likely won't have 6 factions generated for you to pick a side on(imagine how chaotic this would be). So 4-6 factions with 2 or 3 factions to side with is my opinion.
Quote from: Trensicourt on January 28, 2014, 06:49:40 PM
Quote from: CodyRex123 on January 26, 2014, 11:39:14 PM
My idea is to have 2 diffent confence room that are for 2/more types of Fations, so you can double side, but if you mess it up, they will attack echther (or by chance become allies) and if they fight echother they are instantly your enamy inless you have a good confesstion to them and/help them,
Why not have 1 conference room? You can 2 TVs with 2 factions. The colonists could decide to share communications with both factions or keep 1 private. Still, the game most likely won't have 6 factions generated for you to pick a side on(imagine how chaotic this would be). So 4-6 factions with 2 or 3 factions to side with is my opinion.
Becuase you need to show your loyalty to both of them, and also they send convoys to you every once in awhile, so you want to keep the parts of your bases that have rebel infuelnces andor/ government infulences