"New faction creation process and representation" discussion thread.

[Ironwatsas]

Questions that arise from this idea:
- In order to differentiate Factions from Groups, what kind of rights should [Official] Factions have over Groups or Independent players?

- Should the 500m fee stay or go?

- Should we limit the amount of official factions for each NPC group depending on the group? And what about Corporations whose headquarters are under the flag of a house?

- Should Independent players have a representative on the council?

- Should Factions be able to lose those rights if they go the wrong way?

- Should Groups have to abide by the policies set by the Council too?

1- As has been stated, official factions should be recognized as in control of most of the territories and wide-scale actions of the subordinates

2- A 500m credit payout should stay to show that aspiring official factions have enough momentum to continue sucessfully. However, the money shouldn't just go away. The faction and it's members should be able to recoup the investment somehow. Either that, or lower the amount by a degree. But I agree with the general concept.

3- Yes and No. Strictly limiting the number of official factions under an NPC group is going to cause more problems then it's going to fix. If diffrent factions do arise within the same NPC group, they should at least be mutually inclusive, yet not clones of one another. (E.G. A corsair strike group operating against the hessians as a faction, versus one operating exclusively in Bretonia).

4- I would say yes, but that actually depends on the faction at hand. For example, factions like Samura or The RM are less likely to listen to low ranking meat then more democratic factions like the Zoners or IMG. It may be best to let factions decide in RP how to handle it based on their parent faction's disposition.

5- Generally speaking, if unofficial factions of groups are a part of a faction, they should abide by said faction's policies and rules. Same goes for indies. However, they should be given a bit more freedom of operation and ability to enforce their own members to some degree.*

*An exception to that being Unofficial groups which use an NPC faction's ID and/or IFF, but in Roleplay are not technically affiliated with said faction. A few examples being the Harvesters (Who used a Junker ID), Consortium (Who use Outcast), Colonial Remnant (IMG) and any other faction who, for legitimate reasons is using a faction ID, but is distinctly seperated from it's parent faction.

The Consortium as an example, uses an Outcast Identification and IFF, but isn't technically part of the Nation of Malta, nor does it fall under the control of any other organisation. It has it's own command structure, zone of influance (within Outcast territory, but with diffrent exclusion zones), slightly diffrent diplomacy, etc. The main reasons it uses Outcast Identification and IFFs are that it has a few capital ships (which it has possessed since before 4.85's release, when it used a GC ID) which are important RP platforms. The Outcast ID was chosen over a few alternatives (Junker ID, Blood Dragon ID) as it was more conducive to the faction's diplomcy, ZoI, and ship usage as it was prior to the switch.

This kind of example should be taken into account when dealing with factions who have a unique Roleplay situation where they wouldn't nessescarily be considered a part of another NPC faction, but are forced to use an NPC faction's IDs to continue their storyline, in situations where switching to generic IDs proves untenable.

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