Another way to improve faction relations.

[Louist]

The limited nature of faction interaction, at the moment, means that it's rather difficult to maintain friendly relations with non-raider neighbours. This problem is more pronounced as faction relations seem to degrade with time, and the only means of raising it, as far as I have found, is to (rather boringly) pay off factions with silver. I don't doubt that, as the game is developed, there will be more balanced and more nuanced options for faction interaction, but I still thought I might offer a suggestion.

I think it would be interesting to see colonies request aid from the player, in the form of colonists. In such situations, the player would be able to select one or more colonists to send to the faction for a set period of days, and they would be rewarded with an increase in standing based off the relevant skills of the colonist(s) sent. That is, if the faction requested medical aid, sending a better doctor would result in higher standing, or if they need help repelling raiders, colonists with higher combat skills would be more rewarding.

This presents the player with interesting choices. Is it worth losing access to a highly skilled colonist, or is it safer to send a less able one, knowing the reward would be lower? And, if there was a chance of losing the colonist altogether (killed in combat, decided to join the other faction), the player must also decide whether that risk were acceptable.

[StorymasterQ]

How about my suggestion here?

[Louist]

About a medical bay? I think that would be good too, but the two ideas aren't really the same. Room for both!

[Niddhog]

I was just thinking of this myself.  Perhaps the other factions can request specific items as well, like food or weapons.  Thus you are still giving them something, but instead are giving up more easily obtainable things.  Right now the only ways of gaining more silver are praying for a crashed silver transport or milking traders as they pass.  However, I'm really miffed with the state of trading right now (mostly lack of control, can't manually send/set limits on what goes into your "trading" stockpile). 

Personally, I'd like there to be some type of "overworld" where you could see the other nearby tribes/settlements.  The idea is that you could then interact with these settlements.  One idea is that you could send a trade mission over to them, where you would load up with certain goods and offer them for others (perhaps a relations boost?) The people would be gone for a few days before returning.  You could also send an "ambassador" to another settlement to talk up relations. This would require high social skills/take several days.  If nothing else, the ambassador could just pick up the mood of the colony (what they need/want, open to any trade, are they thinking of attacking, etc).  Maybe you could send scouts as well, or set up some relay/sensor stations to pick up movement.  You could notice a group of pirates about to descend upon another town, and tip them off for a relations boost (and then offer to send help for more).  Orrr.... you could raid other towns yourself! You could then raid the raiders, or attack the other settlements and specify goals (steal food/weapons/silver, capture colonist, etc).