I appreciate that this is a bit of a stretch given where the game currently is and the list of priorities that I imagine the developers currently have but...
Is it possible for non player minor factions to disband if no-one supports them.
As it currently stands (as I understand it), each system can have a maximum of seven faction present in it before strange things happen.
When any faction expands, it will expand into systems that have space (and are local, and probably a few other criteria as well)
If a faction comes under sustain attack for a period of time (conflict, election loss, other nefarious activities) it is possible that it can retreat from a system.
It wont however, ever retreat from its home system, i.e. the system that it was first created in.
With the player faction introduction back under way now that 2.4 has settled down (it was on pause over the summer), there is a backlog of player factions looking to get added.
The recent post by Brett on factions rejected for various reasons hasn't gone down too well for various reasons (some self inflicted, some unfortunate).
One of the quoted reasons was that the system was already full, i.e. at seven factions already present.
Most of the systems that I have looked at (un-scientific survey) contain 4 or 5 home factions and 2 or 3 expansion factions occupying the available capacity
Suggestion:
either
1) In instances where a player faction wants to be introduced into a system that already has a full contingent of seven factions present, could they be swapped in for the lowest / bottom NPC faction? - maintaining the max 7 cap.
or
2) Can it be possible for NPC factions who are not supported in a system (down at the 1-2%) have a real chance that they will get disbanded, freeing up space either for another faction to subsequently expand into or for a new player faction to be created into. - dropping the number of factions present in a system to 6 for a period of time.
The faction system, as it currently works favours early adopters, either the early PC player factions or the initial NPC faction creation routine.
I believe that whilst the early player factions have a valid claim for territory, the NPC factions were originally present only to flesh out the systems ahead of player population. Where factions are not being actively supported, a genuine player faction, at least initially run by real life commanders will make the game much more personal to the average player.
(it could also increase the occurrences of local meta-game mechanics where rival player factions actively strive to control different areas of the bubble etc.)
Players joining the game now on any platform are facing an artificially high wall of existing factions to find a gap in.
The eventual extension of this could be that player factions that become dormant could eventually be wiped but I don't think that we need to go quite that far whilst there are so many un-favoured NPC factions present in the game.
Is it possible for non player minor factions to disband if no-one supports them.
As it currently stands (as I understand it), each system can have a maximum of seven faction present in it before strange things happen.
When any faction expands, it will expand into systems that have space (and are local, and probably a few other criteria as well)
If a faction comes under sustain attack for a period of time (conflict, election loss, other nefarious activities) it is possible that it can retreat from a system.
It wont however, ever retreat from its home system, i.e. the system that it was first created in.
With the player faction introduction back under way now that 2.4 has settled down (it was on pause over the summer), there is a backlog of player factions looking to get added.
The recent post by Brett on factions rejected for various reasons hasn't gone down too well for various reasons (some self inflicted, some unfortunate).
One of the quoted reasons was that the system was already full, i.e. at seven factions already present.
Most of the systems that I have looked at (un-scientific survey) contain 4 or 5 home factions and 2 or 3 expansion factions occupying the available capacity
Suggestion:
either
1) In instances where a player faction wants to be introduced into a system that already has a full contingent of seven factions present, could they be swapped in for the lowest / bottom NPC faction? - maintaining the max 7 cap.
or
2) Can it be possible for NPC factions who are not supported in a system (down at the 1-2%) have a real chance that they will get disbanded, freeing up space either for another faction to subsequently expand into or for a new player faction to be created into. - dropping the number of factions present in a system to 6 for a period of time.
The faction system, as it currently works favours early adopters, either the early PC player factions or the initial NPC faction creation routine.
I believe that whilst the early player factions have a valid claim for territory, the NPC factions were originally present only to flesh out the systems ahead of player population. Where factions are not being actively supported, a genuine player faction, at least initially run by real life commanders will make the game much more personal to the average player.
(it could also increase the occurrences of local meta-game mechanics where rival player factions actively strive to control different areas of the bubble etc.)
Players joining the game now on any platform are facing an artificially high wall of existing factions to find a gap in.
The eventual extension of this could be that player factions that become dormant could eventually be wiped but I don't think that we need to go quite that far whilst there are so many un-favoured NPC factions present in the game.