Ideas for TerraTech faction relationships

[SUPER-TANK]

I came up with this after playing around with faction mechanics in Galaxy on Fire 2.

Each corporation has an individual reputation meter influenced by the player and their allies’ actions, whether directly or not. Reticule Research, being a faction exclusively committed to science, is not subject to this.
Scaling Effects:
Block costs can range from 5x to 0.25x of their standard value. These multipliers are half as effective against trading stations, or 3x if the station’s faction vendors said block.
Experience and money payout from non-static missions/delivery cannons can range from 0.1x to 4x, rounded down.
Crate rewards from missions can range from 2 blocks to 20 blocks, special blocks & guaranteed rewards notwithstanding.
The frequency of faction-based assassinations can scale from once per a few hours to never. They only occurs if your reputation is below 25%. After each assassination, the corp will remind your option to pay a bribe (via your payload terminals or trading station) in exchange for restoring your reputation (value is inversely proportional to your current rep). Assassinations will only end after all nearby allied techs have been destroyed OR if all the assassins are defeated.
If a corporation has a specified rival, destroying its opponents techs will improve your reputation with it while the converse occurs if you destroy theirs. There may be exceptions, and techs spawned during missions do not count. Reputation fluctuations are scaled on the EXP gains from destroyed techs (for example, when destroying a Tony Gang, only one of the cabs count. The rest do nothing when destroyed). Techs destroyed during missions and assassinations DO NOT account for this.

 

[SUPER-TANK]

Relationships:
GSO
The GSO is a government-based organization that doesn’t take attacks on their techs lightly, as everyone’s just a poor prospector no matter who they are. It mostly handles these by sending other poor recruits, though. GSO assassins and bribes start weak, but will strengthen after completing Charlie Watchtower and SAM Site Ridge.

GSO is hostile to Better Future due to their excessively luxury standards diverting potential clients from them. It remains neutral to all other corps since, well, it really has no valid reason to antagonize them anyway.

GeoCorp
Not selling resources to them can cause you reputation to drain exponentially, and this is also true for the converse, as well as the delay until rep loss. Additionally, it does not bother sending any assassins since that diverts valuable resources from mining - Something they’re better at compared to other corps on average. Hence, they are not hostile to many corps, although Venture is a major competitor over off-world clients due to its lightweight designs often forming a stark contrast with GeoCorp's heavy duty equipment (Their scrap cannon even fires venture blocks, so......).

Initially, GeoCorp will not condone attacks on their techs. If Rock Creek Bridge has been completed, you will receive an apology mail from them, with their representatives citing that Administrative Chaos and Internal Corruption has led to extensive misuse of their technology. They will then authorize you to destroy any hostile GeoCorp techs.

Venture
Valuing sportsmanship, Venture despises attacks on their techs, believing that its clients are far from evil. However, after completing “Mine Island Rescue”, where they requested external help to save Whimpy from Gruntle, Venture’s administration will apologize for their indifference and incompetence - Chance of reputation loss upon destroying Venture techs can now range from 98% to 60% and the actual loss itself is reduced by 60% if it happens.

Racing missions provide the best boost to your Venture reputation.

Venture opposes Hawkeye and Better Future ideals. Their hit squads are mediocre at best individually, barely beating GSO ones in terms of strength, but they come in extreme numbers, such as assassinations can last for days.

Hawkeye
Aware of its mercenaries’ ambitions, Hawkeye secretly encourages everyone to literally demolish each other and survive as the fittest, and will therefore condone these actions (Destroying Hawkeye Techs will not affect your rep with them). They dislike everything but Reticule Research, deeming them “Naive and Blind”.

Hawkeye’s hit squads are armed with bleeding edge weapons. Thankfully, they are only spawned randomly regardless of reputation. Surviving a Hawkeye assassination will result in your reputation increasing - Not only would they promise to cease calling hits on you for some time, they will also send down powerful allied techs to aid in defense if another corp ever tries. Your reputation can increase even further if all the operatives survive the onslaught and are withdrawn alive. However, this assassination immunity only lasts for a limited period before your name gets pushed to the bottom of the list. You do not pay any bribes to Hawkeye, but you can rent some mercs to accompany you for a while, and the cost scales also on your rep.

Some time after completing Crowntop Hill Fort, Hawkeye will establish a Black Market there. It vendors exclusively weapons at a discount. You can also meet Groundhog and other HE operatives there.

If you have completed “Bomber Command”, a Hawkeye airbase will be established near the Rocketmen Crew’s original SAM sites, where you can purchase discounted Flight Blocks.

Hawkeye prefers useful operatives. Therefore, you’ll often find yourself topping your rep up with missions. Their soft side shows when you’re assisting in a defense - Outwardly, HE does tolerate savagery, but this is effectively forged and maintained only by initial founder ideals and mercenaries joining it later on.

Better Future
As a hedonist corporation focused on luxury and profit, Better Future harshly condemns any attacks on their techs. Their bribes cost the most out of all corps, and their hit squads are likewise powerful, comprising of mostly hovercrafts and airships with malevolent energy weapons.

Due to their extensive capitalist ideals, Better Future antagonizes all save for Reticule Research, as none of them consider Better Future a practicable opponent yet damage their sales somehow.

Buying BF blocks is, so far, the fastest way to increase your reputation. The more expensive it is, the more reputation you gain.

 

[Z_THETA_Z]

why is there so much space between the text

 

[SUPER-TANK]

why is there so much space between the text

Well it wasn't supposed to happen......

 

[Scallywag Mag]

I thoroughly enjoy this idea. It would force you to weigh in on your options regards which factions to keep in high regard, and diversify gameplay. Perhaps including added rep points depending on how many blocks of a certain faction are used on the tech you are using during interactions.

 

[Geocorp Jumper]

With our current xp system, I feel this would complicate things more than necessary. I had, in an unrelated thread, suggested a single xp bar, and with each level up you choose whether to unlock a new license or to upgrade a current license. If that were the xp system, I would feel much more comfortable about a reputation system in the game.

Also, the missions would need a rework so that you’re not attacking a corps techs (thus losing rep) to complete their mission (presumably to gain rep). Though I believe a mission rework is necessary regardless. It’s all the same flavors, just different corps: “kill these guys, catch the racer, save the dinky tech from raiders.”

Personally, I’d think that it would also be good if having a high reputation in a Corp would render techs of the same Corp as neutral or friendly to you.

 

[SUPER-TANK]

With our current xp system, I feel this would complicate things more than necessary. I had, in an unrelated thread, suggested a single xp bar, and with each level up you choose whether to unlock a new license or to upgrade a current license. If that were the xp system, I would feel much more comfortable about a reputation system in the game.

Also, the missions would need a rework so that you’re not attacking a corps techs (thus losing rep) to complete their mission (presumably to gain rep). Though I believe a mission rework is necessary regardless. It’s all the same flavors, just different corps: “kill these guys, catch the racer, save the dinky tech from raiders.”

Personally, I’d think that it would also be good if having a high reputation in a Corp would render techs of the same Corp as neutral or friendly to you.

I have explicitly stated in the description that enemy techs destroyed during missions would not affect your reputation.

As for an existing rep system they'll be separated from the corp XP.

 

[Cupholder]

I heavily support this idea as well, it would solve the problem of players getting bored after all the main missions have been completed. This would give TT a better rep too!

Although it would increase player activity, they shouldn't be stressed with keeping their rep up and not having any time to build or explore. Maybe having a maxed license would add certain perks like lowering the amount of rep lost when breaking an agreement. Or it could have the opposite effect, techs are disappointed in you when a guideline is broken, lowering your rep even more!

Building on Scally's idea, maybe having rival corps' blocks on you would give you lesser rewards and unfriendly interactions. This would make players explore the wide variety of blocks using each one to achieve the goal that another was used prior, and learning how each block has its certain specialties. Aside from the muddy dog wheel

This idea is certainly outstanding and I enjoy writing about this and would write more but I don't want to make your eyes bleed and let others post too.

 

[SUPER-TANK]

Reticule Research (Unavailable due to the lack of RR Techs)
A pragmatic, opportunistic organization with connections to GeoCorp and possibly Hawkeye, Reticule Research is a shady organization that prefers anything helping to cut costs.

As business partners are more valuable to them alive than dead and they want as many test subjects as possible, Reticule Research maintains open, mutual neutrality to all corporations, meaning no corrupt business dealings in the open. However, they are willing to exploit abnormally persistent test subjects as well as long-term partners if an agreement can be secured. This means while it openly condemns attacks on other techs, it will tolerate anything that isn't an attack on their facilities, which doesn't happen as their facilities are only occasionally accessible when they need a particularly serious errand for a limited amount of time.

As Reticule Research is an unauthorized organization that runs under the radar, they have few methods of legitimately procuring additional resources outside of their partners, which are often few and far between. To this end, any rare non-RR blocks donated to them directly or via destroying other techs will increase your reputation with them, as these can be reverse-engineered to accelerate research. Helping their grunt work in labs will yield similar rewards.

Their hit squads are relatively unpredictable in terms of frequency, as they can be sent at anytime without warning. They number few, but come with a wide variety of exotic equipment. You fight these techs for research data as needed, and RR allows you to keep whatever remains along with a reputation boost. Likewise, if you are considered disposable, they may attempt to send you on a suicide mission at your own expense.

 

[SUPER-TANK]

Space Junkers
Being survivalists from another obliterated civilization, Space Junkers despise invasive expansion, but otherwise will get by with whatever they're given. This makes them hostile to GeoCorp, Hawkeye, Better Future and to a lesser extent, Venture (aside from Venture, said corps are also hostile to Space Junkers as they get in their way of profiterring). They remain neutral to GSO and Reticule Research, as both are wary of the hazards these groups pose and explicitly desire no connections with them.

Space Junkers have some of the most aggressive hit squads in the entire game and is able to compete toe-to-toe with their Hawkeye counterparts. They compensate their lack of quality with extreme quantity, making their mediocre weapons extremely destructive, not to mention large swarms of them spawn without warning.

As they are also isolationists that don't prefer any contact with the contemporary world, Space Junkers have a hard time differentiating your reputation standing (your reputation fluctuations are much slower than usual, but in exchange, Space Junker techs can spawn as an enemy in any combat mission, and will affect your reputation with them/other corps when destroyed to a much larger extent than random spawns because they care about their friends getting killed. Likewise, in the rare case where you protect Space Junkers in face of other intruders, you will gain a large reputation boost, while the attackers' association with you are strained), and their bribes are miniscule. It is often easier to avoid hit squads and by extension some prohibitively expensive combat. Your reputation with them has no effect on trading stations (being disorganized, Space Junkers subcontract missions and merchandise indirectly, meaning they have no idea who you are, and GSO is not obliged to obey their orders). Having a high standing with Space Junkers however does has its own merits, reducing the chances of hostile Space Junker spawns and replacing them with friendly/neutral techs (which in turn might convince hostiles to stop attacking you or provide useful services, such as limited offers of discounted blocks from other corps regardless of your reputation). If you contribute enough to their cause, Space Junkers will temporarily offer a protection racket service which effectively blocks off random enemy tech spawns (only applies to their enemies, and one corp at a time, so GSO/RR/other Space Junker techs can't be stopped, and if you pick Geo, you will still face other corps).

 

[SUPER-TANK]

Legion


A mix between Space Junkers, Reticule Research and Better Future, they can be considered TerraTech’s counterpart for occultists proficient at spamming convincing creepypasta and building relative tech with the amount of spare resources they have with the impractical desire of world domination. As the most secretive faction, Legion is openly hostile to all other corps, but with few appearances only Hawkeye (much like how HECU is designated to attack Xen aliens in HL) and RR would consider them a threat. After all, its proscribed ethics can disgust even the most corrupt governments.





As opposed to any other corporation, Legion devotes most of its resources to creating delicate bionic and prosthetic constructs. They discreetly hire other mercenaries as a substitute to hit squads (which can be from any other corp, as nobody knew who hired them, all they’re getting is payment or death at your weapons), and only at critical levels would they dispatch their own assassins. Their use of unconventional and alien tactics are threatening and will often be difficult to even hit, resulting in protracted fights. However, as sending these assassins essentially cost large portions of their research and can be impossible to sustain, they are an infrequent sight. As a result, their bribe values can vary - The quality of their mercenaries will alter the price, but their own tech can skyrocket to absurd numbers. To top this off, the longer you withhold their payment, the more desperate they get, sending near-endless hordes of assassins at you. The other tactic they have at hand is to sabotage a random allied tech with at least 1 AI cab and turn it against you (after all, licensed Legion associates know every tactic they have to offer - while brute force must be tackled, hacking fails with intervention on the receiving end) until you could deprive their control by shooting off all AI cabs, waiting it out, leading it out of range (if it moves) or bribe them.





With their mastery of information technology, the Legion’s espionage network is nearly omniscient. Your reputation with them is highly sensitive and can change at a moment’s notice. They drop faster than even GeoCorp if you don’t pay enough attention to them or nuke even one of their drones, but destroying even a weak GSO tech could patch that loss in a pinch. Legion does not sell its own tech or contracts through trading stations and have hidden outposts where these can occur exclusively. If they hack a random enemy tech and you bait it to them, they will generously reward your support, although you will lose all the loot that tech has. Hostile Legion techs going rogue returned to them this way will reward you with some of its blocks. At 50% reputation or above, you can hire Legion hackers to work for you to disrupt enemy techs with varying effects - power drain (all blocks consuming power cease functioning for some time and the tech loses some electricity), fuel clot (boosters will consume more fuel and fuel tanks do not regenerate temporarily, many flight and wheel blocks lose power), motion sickness (wheel and flight blocks have reversed control inputs), engineered defect (jams all weapons, which either refuse to function or damage itself) nanotech electrolysis (destroy a certain volume of random blocks outright, rounded up) and critical sabotage (destroy all control blocks on the tech). As your reputation escalates, the chances of success and more powerful effects increase, along with access to advanced tactics, but each tech can only be afflicted by up to two effects at once. You are able to use them at will, but you only have a set number of techs to cripple.

 

[Karl_Looked]

Interesting, although LK, GT, and OS are not official corp/ideas, I would like to see a post regarding their situation with other corporations. (especially LK)

 

[SUPER-TANK]

Interesting, although LK, GT, and OS are not official corp/ideas, I would like to see a post regarding their situation with other corporations. (especially LK)

Haven't played with mods though.

 

[Sho7ing_stars]

you are talking about conquering the enemie zones?