First, I'll sum up how I expect factions to work, according to my Everquest experience.
Then, I'll try to push forward to additional features.
How faction worked in Everquest :
-You kill a mob. If this mob is linked to a faction, you lose faction points with this faction, and if this faction has enemy factions, you gain points with them.
-Faction values has thresholds. /consider a mob to see how it will act with you, call it "faction level".
-Faction levels determine the NPC behaviour : kill on sight (the mob is scowling at you, or looks at you threateningly), refuses to speak to you (dubiously), doesnt like you (apprehensively), is neutral (indifferent) or positive faction levels (amiably, kindly, warmly, ally).
-Quests can have faction level required. Some quests start working at dubious, some other quests require neutral, some other quests might require to have the best faction level (ally).
-Some faction "damage" cannot be reverted. Once you ruin your reputation with them, they will never forgive.
-Mobs of opposite factions will start fighting each other if they meet, if no player has aggro on them.
That's about it.
Not too complicated, but it works well, makes the game feel like a world of its own. Immersion and all.
Now, I'd expect Pantheon to have a similar system, plus some additional features.
IDEA #1 : Player-triggered missions (solo/group).
Traditionally, to work on a faction, we just go kill random mobs, solo or in group.
It's a mindless grind, it would be more interesting if it was a precise goal, a mission, with an extra reward for it.
It could be a mission such as "Set goblin huts on fire and kill the goblin named Gobuta".
Players would have to find those goblin huts, set them on fire, which would trigger waves of goblins attacking them, and at the end of the waves, the named Gobuta spawns.
Some missions could require low faction or high faction, have different difficulties and rewards accordingly, etc...
It would be similar to a simple quest, except it's a scripted mini-event.
These are always more fun than just bashing everything, because you feel involved... it's a mission !
IDEA #2 : Player-triggered faction war event (non-PvP raid).
For those who played Everquest in the Scars of Velious era, you might remember the armies of Giants and Coldains clashing together, as a result of a player turning-in the quest for his Coldain Ring in the zone Great Divide.
For those who are unfamiliar with it, imagine a series of faction-driven quests resulting in a scripted event of an army sieging the faction you are friendly with. Multiple waves of mobs popping all over the place, that you need to take down, wave after wave, until the boss shows up.
A triggered event for which you need a guild force to complete, with some very nice rewards at the end.
IDEA #3 : Weekly (or monthly) faction leaderboards (PvE competition).
The idea is to keep factions still revelant after hitting maximum faction status, also keeps players busy if they run out of content (hardcore players), helps to keep a healthy server/game.
Each week (or month), players compete to be the "champions" (top 10) for a faction.
Keep killing the enemies of the faction to gain faction points over the "maximum faction level" cap. Those extra points go directly into the leaderboard score, which resets weekly (or monthly).
As a reward for helping the faction, the NPCs would reward those players with some random money, consummables, special crafting materials (racial/cultural or faction-related), all according to the rank the player achieved on the leaderboards (the highest rank gets the highest rewards, obviously).
This would add another kind of PvE competition on a smaller scale, as PvE competition is usually just raid-boss killing.
That's it for now, I'm out of ideas, for now.
What about you guys ? What could make the faction system better ?
bobwinner said:-Some faction "damage" cannot be reverted. Once you ruin your reputation with them, they will never forgive.
I've always though that was a bad thing in Everquest.
Sometimes you ruin a faction because you simply do not know.
Having to reroll your character because of lack of knowledge shouldn't be a thing.
I think every faction should be fixable, though some of them would require alot more efforts to fix.
bobwinner said:bobwinner said:-Some faction "damage" cannot be reverted. Once you ruin your reputation with them, they will never forgive.
I've always though that was a bad thing in Everquest.
Sometimes you ruin a faction because you simply do not know.
Having to reroll your character because of lack of knowledge shouldn't be a thing.
I think every faction should be fixable, though some of them would require alot more efforts to fix.
I agree with this one; I once killed a mob to soon and was unable to complete the quest, or do it again.
Also, Bobwinner has a point of adding a small reward cycle to faction cap level a viable option ofr capped players. Not only that, if such requires grouping, then it's more likely for capped players to join in, where other players still have a need.
"-You kill a mob. If this mob is linked to a faction, you lose faction points with this faction, and if this faction has enemy factions, you gain points with them."
To add to this, The linked to a faction thing concerns me, My faction or even criminal status should only change if my actions were witnessed. The all seeing eye thing has always bothered me.
HemlockReaper said:"-You kill a mob. If this mob is linked to a faction, you lose faction points with this faction, and if this faction has enemy factions, you gain points with them."
To add to this, The linked to a faction thing concerns me, My faction or even criminal status should only change if my actions were witnessed. The all seeing eye thing has always bothered me.
Interresting point.. that could open up a whole lot of posibilities; good and bad..
Can you get away with it? is there a snitch, spies, bounty hunters or even a Palantir?
I thionk as good as a faction system could be, it's still mechanical and not really smart or anything. Any system with "witness" mechanic is easily abused, especially when the risk is very low and beeing a mass murderer is only a strict advantage.
I prefer for it to be more punishing for choices and greed, and not to be easy to circumvent around with safe spots, hills, or totally isolated outposts.
I think the everquest faction system was fine. It was very clear that killing faction related targets or doing quests for a member of a faction would effect your faction. Not much else seems needed outside of single player games. Most EQ intelligent beings, outside of wanderers or hermits, had one or more factions, which is great.
I liked how in Everquest you had some unfixable factions who would only attack you after you killed one of them, some that always attack you, some that almost always love you, and some for which you need to change your shape/faction magically before you can be friends.
As has been mentioned, being able to get rid of witnesses allows you to slaughter a faction, slowly, without penalty, which doesn't seem hardcore enough for my personal vision of Pantheon.
The only real issue for Pantheon is to make sure that any factions you can permanantly ruin aren't so big of a deal they ruin your end game potential, so people don't feel like they need to reroll for it. Consider that truly powerful factions would be atleast somewhat open minded to a powerful adventurer who wants to be friends with them.
I'd like to see religion playing a bigger role faction-wise with more characters though than it did in Everquest. Changing your religion, being judged based on your action-based devotion to it, and getting new friends would be a cool idea.
