[Suggestion] Faction Standings

[zanzal]

We really need a way for the player to assign standings to certain factions for use with MODs that set out to improve AI. I would propose the following:

1. Add menu option ''Set faction standing'

2. Underneath this option a menu item for each known faction and their current standing like 'HoA - Neutral'

3. For each known faction player has access to a menu to set the following values:

a. Hostile = Shoot without provocation
b. Neutral = Self defense - Will return fire on any ship but not if it takes damage, only if the enemy is actually targeted them and shooting them (no friendly fire mistaken for hostility).
c. Ignore = Like the current player ship AI
d. Protect = Will intervene to protect members of this faction

So one might set in the campaign:

Plutarch = Hostile
Heart of Albion = Protect
Republic of Cantera = Protect
Everyone else keep default (Neutral).

If one didn't want to risk losing any more faction with plutarch because they plan to make nice later then they might choose 'Neutral or ignore.'

This would be similar to the 2 state friend or foe of X3 only it really needs to have 4 states so that the player asset AI knows how to resolve more complex scenarios that might incur faction hits whether it not it should risk a faction hit to protect the property. There were cases in X3 where my traders would respond to hostile Argons that would irritate me since I was triyng to build Argon rep as a Terran. I would have set these to ignore if I had the option.

My suggestion would be that this mod should not implement any AI changes itself so that it reduces possible conflict with other mods, rather it should be an optional "base" mod for developers to add improved responses based on player preferences to their own scripts.

Unfortunately I don't have time right now or I might endeavor to learn modding to create such a mod. But it probably wouldn't be too hard for a vet modder as it would just a bunch of variables and a menu system to set those variables.

[csaba]

You can set relations in the save file editor:

http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=353553

factions wont go to each others territory unless their territories are the same Like HoA-PMC and HoA-RoC.

So for wars to happen between the 3 big factions RoC-AG-PMC you'll need something like OP promotes.

[zanzal]

Uhh.. Well perhaps my description was not clear. I was suggesting a mod for defining the player's standing towards NPC factions..

In X3 you had a way to set each ship you owned 'Friend' or 'Foe' to any of the major factions. That helped for scripts like patrol zone or whatever know what an enemy was for that ship. In Rebirth player ships are dumb right now, but modders are making mods to improve that.

But what good is it really if you say 'Order ships to attack enemies' when you really can't specify what factions are enemies.. This is not the same thing as the players current standing toward that faction. Since the factions themselves determine how they view the player, the player in turn needs a way to declare his or her view towards that particular faction, sometimes feelings are mutual, but not always. These views do not always coincide, since a player may decide he is hostile to heart of albion even if HoA likes him. Thats a player choice. It was an X3 choice, and I think it has a place in Rebirth, but I also propose expanding it to 4 (or atleast 2 friend or foe at minimum) settings and keeping it a seperate mod so that scripts and mods made by others can use these settings to be more in tune with the players overall objectives..

Anyway it is just an idea.. Until we have player defined Friend or Foe then we'll have to settle for scripts that think just because faction A is hostile to me that I am hostile to faction A...