Feature dropoff "Faction Allegiance"

[ToXeye]

Hello! It would be nice if the player could choose a starting faction that aids the colony. A little bit cheesy, but it could be a nice feature anyway. The reason? I wanted to make a mod for Rimworld based on the source game called "Empires".

In Empires, there's two factions. One is genetically modified, and the other is prostophile. They are basically stuck in eternal conflict. Also, they are clones/androids, made with nano technology.

The idea of eternal (or not eternal in some cases) conflict between two factions is an old one. Games like C&C, Red Alert, Dune, Total Annihilation...

The reason for this feature is to make rimworld moddable into a kind of mockup of those games.

[Limdood]

Don't we kind of already have that with the pirate factions?

They're perma-locked as hostile to the player's faction.  They're ALSO perma-locked as hostile to all other factions.

While you don't have any ALLY factions from the game start, the game fairly effectively simulates a player vs. pirate setup, with various other factions in various in-between states....you just have to offer those factions enough benefit to side with you when you call.

[ToXeye]

You are right. If the pirate factions are modded out to make new "pirate factions" that would work like a faction allegiance kind of thing.

The point would be had to be made though, that custom allegiances would be a nice feature. One of the things that I want in the game is the ability to choose between two, three, or more allegiances. The differences would be small as is the case with all digital discernations, but it would be a powerful difference.

One of the most important things to gain from this is that, in ordinary modding cases, I would have to make one mod for switching up the allegiances of the colonists and the pirates, thus making two mutually exclusive mods instead of the one mod where allegiances are defined instead of colonists and pirates.

[ToXeye]

To the hardcore modders out there (that actually know things) do you know how to make such changes? I am going to start making simple mods some of these days, so that experience wins over procrastination.

[Limdood]

I do have to say, upon further consideration, that I can't think of any reason NOT to put one or both of the following into the base vanilla game:

1) the ability to select, in the scenario editor, the other factions in the game (excluding the pirate faction, who should probably stay hostile no matter what) and select their starting faction relation to the player.

Something like Relations with [Accord of Thrumboness] [Rough Outlander union] -> [75 - allied]
So that you pick the faction, you set the type (to determine natural faction relations resting point), and the starting faction relations

2) A custom menu right after world creation that allows you to set every factions' status with every other faction.

Maybe you want EVERY faction hostile to every other faction (except yours), so that your map is occasionally a warzone between competing NPC factions?  Maybe you want 2 pirate factions non-hostile to each other, and 2 outlanders non-hostile to each other, and 1 tribal hostile to everyone.

I feel both of these are in keeping with the customizability of Rimworld and the scenario editor, and boons for the story generator aspect of the game.  Both of them could EASILY be made optional (the scenario editor can always be left alone, and the faction relations editor could be a menu under advanced options in the map screen - only there if you look for it) and so bring nothing "bad" to the game, or at the very least, nothing forced upon the player that they have to tolerate.

So, I support this suggestion.  +1 OP

[Major_Fokker]

This is exactly the feature I'm looking for.  The second feature, though this can be done longhand via loading up a new race, was to create in a single mod, five races or new tribes, to which you select which tribe you want to play, this selection plugins the faction allies and enemies from the start.   Just thinking along the lines of say playing a LotR faction.

[Kirby23590]

I kind of like the second feature too, if you were to play as a different race or faction. Let's say that if you were to some faction that is a bunch of evil bunch, the friendly outlanders and tribals won't like you.  But the rough outlanders and the savage tribe will become neutral and the Pirate who are initially hostile are also neutral.  Or you are a bunch mass murdering angry aliens where everyone is hostile including the civil outlanders and the rough outlanders and both tribes but you are at least allied to your evil overlord's evil army who in different scenarios are initially hostile to you.

I think actually support which faction is hostile and who allied or neutral at the start, or at least pick which faction exists or doesn't on your world creation before crashlanding to your world. Like no outlanders but a bunch tribes instead or just no outlanders or tribes, just pirates everywhere...

+1