Factions. What are they?

[RefocusedLight]

Maybe i'm crazy or the only one who cares about this but coming from AP there's literally no clue as to what the factions are and what they do - and nothing in game explains it either. I sort of wonder is there any way to be less clueless, e.g. understand what the differences between the 3 Paranid cults are or something?

[Bozz11]

Yeah I agree !! no explanation for any of the factions...

[Tomonor]

Egosoft most likely had to cut resources from the descriptions to make the game playable on release.

They will slowly fill out the descriptions. There are some plot elements that you can uncover if you play the game, for example the Encyclopedia's Timeline.

[Wou]

Agreed.
Like, The Antigone Republic, who are they? I guess a split faction from the Argons, but would be good to know a bit more.

Or the Hatikvah's guys. Are they Pirates? Their stations have a double cutlass logo, and their name i similar to a pirate sector from an earlier games, but on the other hand they seem to be all buddy buddy with the Argon Government.

Or why are Teladi split in two factions as well?

[mr.WHO]

Exactly! I didn't thought Encyclopedia descriptions would be so important!
I'm also bizzare about Hatikvah guys - should I shoot them or not?

OK, there is a civili war between Paranid - who are the both sides and which should I side with?
I even discovered third Paranid faction called ALI (Aliance of the World) - why they are separate entity?
Dunno, because nobody cared toput encyclopedia entry.

When Egosoft said "no plot" I though they meen "no missions", but aparently "no lore/encyclopedia" is also included in it.

This is so far the biggest MINUS of X4.

[Grudd]

Right!

I'm new to the series, and I have no idea who these factions are or what they are about.

The base game is fantastic, but the omission of this type of very foundational information is a pretty big indicator to me that they had to rush to get this thing out the door.
I love the gameplay right now, but I kind of want to hold off until I can know more about the world im flying through.

[RefocusedLight]

I had the lady explorer start in Alliance/Paranid space and i guess i worked out the nearby factions better:

Godrealm - the Paranid theocracy we know from X3. Now with leader offices properly Roman Catholic style decked out in gold - and more and stronger ritual wine.
Alliance - kind of peaceful, universalist, exploration-focused spinoff of the Paranid religious establishment which Godrealm tolerates because it gets them Spacebook likes from Argon and Teladi. Despite the posture of peace sell very decent light interceptors to anyone interested and give missions like: bring 900 weapon components and 320 antimatter to any of our wharfs for research purposes, come at night and alone.
Holy Order - Violent fundamentalists with a racist drift, how nice, i'm imagining them as a 3-eyed Westboro Baptist type closet cases who will always surprise you with the amount of sexual innuendo they can add to a discussion about crucifixion of the heretics.
Scale Plate Pact - Teladi Green Velociraptor movement, probably led by Malcomodos Tribalissos Dramaticos X, but whatever the stated cause, gravitating towards credit stick fraud and drug dealership just to keep things familiar.
Hatikvah - your garden variety Argon minarchists with drunken chaos, bar stabbings and a couple of lawless stations to show for it. If however someone from the in-crowd gets stabbed, they call Argon Fed police, ask for a military blockade of the entire system and in case the commander is inexperienced enough to agree, stand around, watch them and tell them they're doing it wrong.
Xenon - still annoying, spambots given physical vessels ...and plasma charges to distribute instead of mail.