What makes a good faction?

[JinM]

Hey guys, when the new power hits I thought about trying to establish a faction, with a focus on building including some engaging parts to build on electedly colaborartive rp projects, and a nice pvp part. I guess the relation will be 3/5 build, 2/5 pvp, maybe less pvp more rp.

picture unrelated

What are your experiences? What are good ways to have a working faction?

Where do you define your faction as working and good? What would make you leave a faction?

What are the best experiences in a faction you allways like to remember?

Every thought is appreciated.

I have some ideas on my own, but I don't want to taint the direction of the discussion early on.



(Please leave any remarks to ongoing disputes in the factions subforum behind. I know that a good faction needs healthy or a fitting reputation, and a fitting/not insane/polite/constructive/not obnoxious leader, allready. )

 

[Scypio]

A good leader.

 

[Jake_Lancia]

Here's some things I believe make a good faction, based on my 3+ years of experience running Trident/Trinova/Trident (again!):

• A good leader. Someone your members can look up to for advice, leadership, etc.
• Good or at least decent organisation. This gives everyone a sense of purpose.
• Clear and easily understood rank system. Same as above, and also gives members a sense of progression too, so your guys will work harder, resulting in a stronger overall faction.
• The feeling of inclusion for lower-rank members. This is important to retain new recruits, especially serverside recruits.
• A vetting system. Some way to keep alts of other people and/or spies out of the faction, mainly for security reasons.
• Clear goals for the faction as a whole. Something that everyone feels inspired to work towards.
• Know your members. Know their strengths, their weaknesses, what they like to do, etc. This will help you assign roles, keep everyone happy, and helps retain new recruits.

And here's some advice for new factions in general:

• Establish a faction-wide build style. This will help things look consistent. Also people will be able to recognise a faction ship without even needing to ID it on the nav menu. Look at known factions and their builds for reference on what this means.

Spoiler: Trident Gen3 ships (current style)

Avenger-class Frigate (15k mass)

Warspite-class Heavy Destroyer (66k mass)
(Yes, these are two different ships lol)

• Start small, say 2-3 people. This will help establish the essential trust that you need between you and your new recruits and will help you to form an 'inner circle' who can run the faction and/or command future recruits on your behalf if you are unavailable.
• Don't be afraid of inter-faction politics. Build alliances. Help people out. 'Scratch my back, I'll scratch yours' etc.
• Keep a constant supply of raw materials coming in. Even if this means going mining yourself every day, making sure you have enough materials for new ships and stations is always handy in case of a war, or whatever other reasons ships or stations need replacing or modification. It's normally easier to make a new recruit do mining for you though :D
• And of course, when it comes to it, never hold back in war.

 

[Aesthetics]

A faction is only as strong, as intelligent, and as capable as its leadership. A strong, wise leader will typically stand a much greater chance of survival alone, and moreso with a faction at his side, and, if he's cunning enough, he will instigate alliances and enemies, to allow himself to weasel into a position of supreme authority, giving him plenty of extra assets to assist in his long-term goal. I'd go into detail, but I'm unsure how to keep it concise.

 

[aceface]

Having a focused fun and interesting goal.

 

[Matt_Bradock]

A good faction needs a goal. Something to work towards and something to drive them forward. Whether to destroy everyone else on the server, or to be the most beloved by everyone else on the server, needs a goal and a leader who can motivate the members while not ruling with an iron hand (e.g. can recognize good ideas worth taking up from the members and allow at least some initiative)

Building stuff can be fun, but much more fun if what you built serves a purpose. Were it a game to play (like a Rocket League kind of arena where a bunch of small ships play space football), server domination, or hunting griefers, it must not only be for "show-off" and then sit at the base for the rest of its career gathering space dust and solar wind particles.

The best faction gives its members something to do together, and/or challenges them, and as a result, beautiful things can come out. Do you know how the major PvP factions came up with their break-it-all designs? Through challenging the members for either battling other factions or playing drill battles and test battles against each other. Set a mass limit, a deadline, and let the best ship be the next standard issue for the faction in that weight class (or keep scores). Maybe take it into 2 parts and first have your cosmetic experts (or anyone who claims to be good at it) build the best looking hull within a specified box dimension, and then have the winning design sent over to your engineers to turn it into the best war asset it can become, and again select the winner as standard issue vessel for the fleet.

Spoiler: Idea time, a little off-topic

Another way to promote player interaction is doing public service for the server. Whether hosting PvP arena games or building public game arenas (for said space football or microfighter gladiator battles) and/or a warpgate network for public usage, you can only profit. You gain renown on the server, and if someone ruins your public buildings, they provided a good excuse to legitimately declare war on them, and no one can call you a bloodthirsty griefer for doing so. It's a win-win situation.

Give your faction a theme. Are you builders, selling your designs? Are you miners, providing resources for ship designs, blocks or credits? Are you trying to be the good guys, hunting down griefers and helping new players? Are you maybe mercs, private military contractors on the side of the highest bidder, or maybe bounty hunters and hired killers, choosing credits instead of choosing sides? Are you just a bunch of pirates and scavengers, taking on anyone who presents a target of opportunity?
"Just existing" doesn't really cut it. See above at "needs a goal".

Sure thing, organization is important, but it must be balanced between too many restrictions on one end and anarchy on the other. Getting to know your members is your best chance against alts and saboteurs, and a voice communication option helps a lot with that (and with coordinating battles as well). Most larger factions require(d) a working mic and Teamspeak/Discord for recruitment, for a good reason. You can make up a profile, and a CV, but voice modulators are pretty easy to notice.

 

[FlyingDebris]

Treating your members equally and not putting yourself above them. Nobody will play a game when they aren't able to do what they want. That said, there are times when you need to provide direction (such as: We have a need for a new 500k mass ship, or Hey, I need pilots to help me shoot up XYZ)

As with the majority of life, it's all about finding the right balance between multiple extremes. Too harsh, and you'll find yourself without a faction. Too easy, and you'll have a good time but likely won't be a superpower any time soon provided your members don't have a common goal.

 

[jontyfreack]

A cult devoted to pipes.

 

[JinM]

Thanks for the insightfull responses. I skipped through them. Don't have that much time the last days.

And all around, what the best best experiences you had in a faction?

For me it was just coming online and having some people to chat with. Often I got asked for advice how to they could do this or that own project differently. It was also nice to see what others planned right on the station comming online, instead of flying around between allied stations if you are a one-man faction. It's just different if the people are just like yourself, instead of chatting with randoms where you got less in common and are often not twice online at the same time.

 

[MacThule]

I concur with some of the above opinions:

Start small with 2-3 members until you know how to communicate and work with them. This will also prevent you being overwhelmed by questions and "hey look what I built"s from several different people the entire time you are on.

Focus. It's a building game, so being about building is probably not focused enough. You are going to want to focus on something specific like one concept fleet, or even working on one ship at a time as the group project, funnelling your in-house PvP fun time into various test batteries for your focus ships (pit them against a variety of horrible scenarios involving other ships).

Delegation cannot be overvalued. Obviously there are certain top-level functions that cannot be delegated, but that makes it all the more important that you give permissions and explicit verbal authorization to your most trusted and competent 1 or 2 top lieutenants to handle things they can. This will ensure leadership when you are not online, and prevent burnout. For example, a leader has an obligation to ensure his people have a home base, so you probably don't want to ever give anyone build permissions for your HB (unless you can replace it very easily), but you absolutely can delegate decision-making about project status, logistics, events, and pretty much everything the faction does. Really the leader's burden is to hold the keys, resolve disputes, and provide big-picture guidance. After that, leave other decisions to your officers so you have time to play and build as much as everyone else. If you aren't liking the direction someone is taking the current project, ensure that you have staged copies so you can later propose a "variant" model of the ship with features you think superior (and then pit the two ships against each other in a series of in-house PvP sparring matches XD).

Personally, I hate leadership that is afraid to say "I don't know," and "I fucked up." We are all human; mistakes can be corrected and the whole point of working in teams is to share brainpower as well as clickpower.

 

[Matt_Bradock]

And all around, what the best best experiences you had in a faction?

The giant battles we had in CR, when in a chivalrous fashion we agreed on date and mass limit with the other faction. A gentlemen's war, so to speak, before there even was stuff to fight for (before systems could be claimed)
Those were the days - could have used a little less flaming on forums afterwards looking for excuses whoever lost - but still I count those my best memories in Starmade.

 

[Nauvran]

The best experience I have had with the factions that I've been in, is that I made friends.
The most frightening experience was being the leader of TE.

 

[FlyingDebris]

Fleet ops and playing other games with the guys.

 

[Coyote27]

Having clear shared goals and clear communication is important. You don't all have to play the game in the same way, but make sure you're playing the same game.

This is the main reason why my LvD faction, Nine Lives, fell apart - I'd brought in another player that I'd known for a while on IRC/Discord, and he's definitely a helpful and useful player with a lot of energy... but we didn't really have the same vision or concepts in mind, and as my motivation had been flagging for a while due to various reasons, I ended up just handing the faction off to him and taking a vacation from LvD because we had too much trouble working together and cooperating, and I didn't feel right trying to give orders as a leader when I'd been at a low level of activity and no longer contributing as much.
I'm not sure if I'll come back as part of another faction or just make my own one-man faction again, haven't decided yet, but it'll have to wait until I feel the creative urge to actually build things again that won't only exist for someone else to destroy.

 

[OmegaGame]

 

[Epsellis]

A good design.

Many factions are fundamentally flawed. Instead of focusing on the benefits of people coming together, They exist just to carry the ego of the leaders.
in reality, the moderators in a faction should exist to serve the core group of the members.

Viewing this from a design point of view. A design solves a problem. A faction should be engineered towards it's members's wants and needs. "I should be better off joining you than going it on my own." Sounds obvious, doesn't it?

You'd be surprised at the amount of factions that do not understand this

Here's the worst one I've been in:
- Asks if I am loyal before recruiting me (red flag for REALLY incompetent leadership)
- Gives me a crappy miner i'm not supposed to modify (with complimentary lack of mining knowledge)
- Takes everything I mine, and locks it away from me.
- Asks me to submit resource requests if I need anything. (which i may or may not get that day)
- Does not allow personal storage, or personal ships except for ranked officials
- Wonders why members are leaving or becoming inactive

I approach factions from a social/game design point of view.
People join you because they got needs.
Do they need to blow shit up?
Do they need security?
Do they want to be seen?
Do they need dueling partners?

The whole thing is pretty complicated, but if you want a simple tip for normal factions, The one box you need to tick, is "It's better to be with us"

Right away I usually start by giving them some standardized ship frames to modify as they please.
- It's a welcome gesture. pavlov them.
- The ships reduce the initial building grind are a good starting point for inexperienced players that prevents them from getting overwhelmed
- Having similar ships provides a sense of being on the same team

Here are some of the faction ships I designed for this purpose. They're like almost-complete puzzles.
Oppaius Consortium Ships

Miners.
Squire - For newbies, Give them a small mining ship so they don't feel overwhelmed, but one that teaches them weapon mechanics
CSM - For more experienced players, comes with a 50x50x100 mining waffle (Mining standards, Set.)

Fighters
Lancer - Big cheap gun they can afford to lose. (good for gaining pewpew experience)
Valken - Small fighter with tons of power leftover. (They're gonna stick a huge gun on it, They're going to shoot things with it and feel proud)

And a section of the space station dedicated to them, It's starmade, They're here to build.
(This is also conveniently in full view of the parking lot and other personal spaces, so as you are envying other people's babies, you are being reminded that you are, quite literally, part of this place)

Of course, this is just an idea of getting started. If you're in an aggressive faction that's not wolfpacking, this whole ship thing may not work as people feel more pride in pwning others with THEIR ship. Different social layouts work differently, such as how materials are shared. Do you want everyone to have access to a shared resource pool, or do you to create a sense of progression and ownership with personal storage. The only real constant is creating a system that is tailored to the needs of the members.

 

[JinM]

Allright I just wrote on some faction rules and design. It's a wip. What do you guys think?

Spoiler: Short Rules for Newcommers

Ranks:
Newcommer (has access to shared storage),
Settler (can invite new players, has access to backup storage if the general is empty),
Citizen (station build access),
Trustee (promotes and kicks people)

Rules:
Look around the station and read displays, rules, reqruitment thread, and try answer questions for yourself. Get to know the faction and its members. Ask around if you want to know anything, ranging from rules, to ressources up to game-knowledge.

Help each other. Help other members so they can help you out in return.

Mine asteroids completely

Don't overflow the storages with minerals (e.g. Dolom), and don't refine dolom and stuff if you don't need it.

Turn off factories if you don't need them.

Don't leave abandoned shipcores flying around the station.

Be active. Members that are not online for 30 days will get kicked.

Set your permission to ships to rank 4 or higher. Ships can undock randomly, or sometimes we need to move stuff. You can loose your ships if you don't have your ships accessible.

Spoiler: Full Description

To get promoted you have to speak to the staff and ask for it.The staff then asks you if you agree to the rules and responsibilities for the new rank.


Rank 4 benefits:

Access to the general storage via an autopulling faction chest – autopulling is regulated and people get their own docked storages with their individual pulls if "communism fails"

Access to a manual factory if you need something special and the general factory is too slow for you. 3X3 Factories with 500 modules each that can be set up for your own liking.

Access to some miners and some shuttles.

(Access to Fighters below 5k mass.)

A own cargo container for storing your own goods.



Rank 3 benefits:

Invite new players

Access to the level 1 backup storage if the general storage is empty, only accessible for rank 3 members and higher. Get an own room (it is a docked incorporated ship) in the factions homebase that you can customize. It has a little hangar for your own shuttle and your private cargo.

Access our battleships below 10k mass.

Declare War and Peace

Post faction news


Rank 2 benefits:

Build on the station

Vote on build projects (station layout, colaborative ships, outpost theme) with one vote

Access to the level 2 backup storages if the general storage is empty, only accessible for rank 2 members and higher.



Rank 1 benefits:

Promote/Demote players

Vote on build projects with two votes



Promotion Requirements

Rank 4 Requirements:

Look around the station and read displays, rules, reqruitment thread, and try answer questions for yourself. Get to know the faction and its members. Ask around if you want to know anything, ranging from rules, to ressources up to game-knowledge.

Help each other. Help other members so they can help you out in return.

Mine asteroids completely

Don't overflow the storages with minerals (e.g. Dolom), and don't refine dolom and stuff if you don't need it.

Turn off factories if you don't need them.

Don't leave abandoned shipcores flying around the station.

Be active. Members that are not online for 30 days will get kicked.

Set your permission to ships to rank 4 or higher. Ships can undock randomly, or sometimes we need to move stuff. You can loose your ships if you don't have your ships accessible.



Rank 3 Requirements:

You spoke the staff and you affirm that you will obey the rules as stated for rank 4.

Reqruit and help new members. Be carefull on whom to reqruit, we want people that take care for each other. It's not important if they are new to the game or how good they can build. That's something they can learn.

You are online regularly (at least twice a week two hours) and we see that you interact with the faction and that you build/play the game.

People know you.

You supply outposts with backup ressources.



Rank 2 Requirements

We trust you.

You obeyed the rules and showed that you are able to take care of the people even if the staff is not around.

You are able to convey the factions ideas to new members: Everyone can join and learn. We don't limit creativity. We let everyone have its own playstyle by not telling every member what he can and can't do, example: "hey don't leave empty cores around". If a member ignores rules we take note and just don't promote him until he learns it for himself. Growing up happens if the individual wants it, not by forcing it.

You know the build project of the station and what it's going to be about. That means you asked how we are regulating the station build or read up the knowledge on the stations or the online descriptions on Starmadedock.

You built an alt-account outpost at least 5 sectors away from the main station. It has it's own theme and has at least a size of 50x50. You post the coords in the faction thread and on the homebase's meeting room. It doesn't have to be very pretty, even a little dome with some plants underneath it, or a simple 2 story high appartment, or a simple landing platform with some turrets to it is good enough. You can make other outposts at any time. We just want to know that: you are able to build with alt accounts and that you can set up homebases. Also we want to see a little effort. We don't require that you are a good builder.



Rank 1 Requirements

You know the outpost build project ideas and regulations

You take care and responsibility for a certain part of the faction, for example you control that the common outposts are stuffed with backup supplies if the main station falls, or another example you organise a themed build project at an outpost station, or another example you maintain the fighter fleet, or another example you take care for newcommers and their storage setups.

You maintain a secret outpost that has all neccessary backup supplies for one station restore.

 

[FlyingDebris]

Ranks never end well in Starmade factions, especially now. Best to give everybody equal permissions.

 

[EricBlank]

My favorite factions have been those with close friends to play alongside and an interesting goal to pursue. Least favorite experiences is a leader thats never around or doesnt give any other members authority to make even small decisions related to the faction, or doesnt listen to players advice on their decisions at all