Why join factions?

[Barrier]

Hi everyone.

As we move nearer to an Official Faction rework, I thought it would be useful to get a sense of why people choose to join a faction. I've outlined a number of potential reasons that you could respond with, but I'd love to hear some others in your replies! I also hope that you can tell me whether you think some of these reasons are good or bad as incentives.

Also, this discussion is my own doing, but I'm sure devs will consider it when rolling out the OF changes

Options marked with TBD are faction features discussed HERE.

[Lolipop12]

In my case, joining a faction means you like enough the npc group in question and being in a faction would not necessary means you like the faction, but also, you can play less lonely than just being an indie.

I also believe that being in a faction, your RP has a certain weight compared to indies. Not better, not professional or anything, but I feel rather there are more possibilities to be done than alone.

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Rhodeia --- Unit-9467F --- K'Halaesh

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[Seapanda]

Honestly over the last few months there's barely any reason for me to join an OF. Especially when it comes to lawful factions, anything you can do in an OF, you can do as an indie, minus whatever rank restrictions they have internally set up. Other OF's like corporations and such have nice trading/mining bonuses, but that's about it.

Sure there are RP benefits to being in an OF, but that would require the faction to be actually active and relevant, which not that many are anymore.

[Emperor Tekagi]

It's been many years since I joined my first OF.
In fact, my first true OF experience was an immediate takeover as 1ic.

Over the years, I led three factions in total and was in a sheer ridiculous amount of HCs. OFs, all of them, are shadows of their former selves. Joining an OF is a trinket, a goodie, an illusionary feeling of being meaningful. Especially lawfuls got screwed several times by artificial rules and restrictions, rendering their status entirely meaningless in reality.

The sole reason I stay and join other OFs are legacy reasons. Countless people built these factions and put many hours of effort, sweat and passion into them. OFs have a meaning only through their legacy, their real and fictional weight.

An OF rework granting these additional tools I've heard about should really help making OFs interesting beyond the small benefits of perks and "weight" to their legacy.

I'm also looking forward to the overhauled activity system, differencing time, effort and even the instance of forum work and reflecting these points in staff judgment for OF suitability.

[Sombs]

I usually advise against joining factions. Hanging out in faction discords can often be fun, as doing anything non-Discovery related with Discovery people can barely go wrong. The moment it is about Discovery, opinions clash very strongly.

As for joining a faction: Few factions offer interesting gameplay concepts that motivate people to do more than the bare minimum or the meta gameplay types of mining, trading or logging to fight. A good faction acts as quest giver for both faction members and outsiders, as this is a sandbox game and people always look for reasons to play. Sometimes, people don't find goals for themselves, so a good faction can provide goals for others.

Factions are nice for a "we" feeling, which is cool for a while but usually results in a stagnating perspective and toxicity. I always thought that the best thing people can do is either not join any faction at all, or joining multiple factions to not get stuck with certain views. There is no faction that is pristine in conduct, but some are better and some are worse, and if you're part of the one that is worse, it's hard to see how the game can be when people care a bit more.

For all intents and purposes, I recommend joining faction discords, but not join the faction itself. You get the freedom of not being an extension to anyone's dictatorship, you're not bound to unwritten rules of the faction, and you still get to hang out with people for any intents and purposes. It's a game, and having fun should always be the priority.

It also helps a lot to get seen as individual, as opposed to a name that is mostly defined by the tag in front of it. Only few people pull that off successfully.

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[BobMacaroni]

Every faction I joined I did because of the community around the faction, not for any perks or anything. I joined because I saw it was a fun community of players who were interested in doing PVP and RP, rather than their mining bonuses, honestly I don't think theres much a difference between OFs and unofficial factions, as it's more about the players that attracts members than any special attention they might get for being official or not

[TheKusari]

Why join Official Factions...

Coming from someone who is a leader of one, first and foremost is that I'd like potential members to enjoy the roleplay and how that impacts the gameplay of said faction.

Of course, there are some that have benefits such as mining and/or trading bonuses. I tend to think of other such bonuses that aren't typically available to the standard indie. To differentiate us and to give incentives for people to join and earn the ability to utilize those bonuses.

Some look at the faction and gameplay, others look at the members and leadership, others again at the roleplay, it's not just a singular reason here. I will admit, I have only joined two OFs in my time playing Discovery. The reasons for both is that I like the roleplay of one, and the gameplay of the other (I'm not sharing which ones).

My viewpoint as a player is quite limited, though my perspective as an official faction leader may be valuable here. Just wanted to share that side of things.

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The Starfliers are the best faction.

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[Karst]

These questions are oriented towards "why to join an official faction", right? Not just any faction that's a group of players, since we're talking about the rework.

I think OFs (assuming you could just as well find or make a nonofficial group for the same faction) are primarily interesting if they follow a new course, pursue new diplomacy, and perhaps obtain new ID lines. Otherwise, you can simply work as unofficials, in a group or not.

That said I have absolutely no interest in actively participating in the new OF system on account of the fucktarded shared ship prohibitions, assuming they're implemented. To me, those completely kill any vague idea of pursuing officialdom.

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[sindroms]

From experience, the best factions I have been a part of were the ones that ticked off two very separate boxes. It is either completely mindless fun with friends, usually involving very... minimal roleplay and just an in-chat or in-voicechat ''vibe'' - see LSF/DSE/BHG/JM teamspeak squad in the 2015s, or a faction where I was allowed and encouraged to peruse my own RP and character-based diplomacy without having a leash on my throat - LH, LPI, LSF, 101st, Keepers.
I am not exactly saying that they are mutually exlusive, but from experience I have noticed that they tend to work best when they provide a focus on either of those things.
But the fact of the matter is that apart from very specific toys - such as nodock for LPI IDs and the extreme amount of internal gameplay mechanics of the LH, all of these could have been done without the official tag and ID.
At the end of the day, it was the players involved that kept me logging those characters. Be they the ones in my faction, or those I interacted with.


EDIT: Actually, climbing ranks. I really enjoyed doing that in the factions where I participated. LR, RM, LPI especially sticks to mind. Sadly, there is a bit of a lurch when you hit the ceiling and it is sometimes easier to scrap the character and try again.

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[Uknown]

It's been a lot since i joined a faction, instead, i remember join in into GMG| as one of the main official factions, that was true until i get my ship lost (hard disk drive) and went offline for almost 120 days, i forgot about it ...

At same time i was willing and joined briefly in KNF as secondary fleet if i am not wrong, till i commit error and well, they forced me pay for my transgressions to an IDF transport ha ha, it was really really fun, but still, is something i appreciate it, learned a lot of it, people who was afraid it, make me send public pardons and pay for repairs and another payment for my behaviour

Later i will be joining into IMG but leave cause school and IRL issues don't allowed to me join in ...

It was really really late of time, were it passess and want to bring into a new faction, the =CR= (Crayter Republic) ... men, i feel like god, welcomed there, make some friendlies, good people and still be proud to be joined into =CR=, they allow me develop my character as how i want, doing what i like, not something like a leashed restricted one ...

Later i joined HS> (The Outcast Hyperspace Starfleet) ... well, with them i had mixed feelings, my RP wasn't perfect, they were nicely, but really strict, even my participation in battles could say i excel it, it was really a mess ... i was taking the HS>Maltese and Stellaris as Sveta Susuki, while my RP was not the best (Sveta was born on Dragon Family) it was indeed a willing player who wanted to keep it nicely ...

What it ended? well, sometimes i could laugh or say "Corsair Dumb pilot, not even a fight worth of the Outcasts!" or some wording like it, for "Taunting" to the priority and worst criminals of Outcast Hispania the Corsairs, I considered i was a good pilot, not best skilled in RP, would say somewhat below-average to average when the heat of battle comes into, but when not heat of battle i could be a good player, they even test me, i pursued an Order ship, got an Outcast ship and even were told i did interesting RP talkative way ... but after a time even me being active player and so ... i received a letter from my superiors ...
"I am sorry Nano but we discuss it and we should say you have not followed orders to improve RP during battles, and since we only aim for OF we should prevent of you being kept on our player list" ...
Feel ashamed, depressed, but unwilling to even let my characters die ... having a leash, i just take whatever honor left on me, and just drop the HS>Maltese into Cologne system, renamed eventually and that is all ...

Well, players only wanted OF and not willing to help other players is what i dislike the most ... much different of the =CR= who i see really appreciate players...

After a while, i joined Rheinland Polizei with my KPR| tag, invited by my best friend, Tenshi, well, i kept it passive but when time reach, sometimes you will see a Geist vessel in there, it is more relaxed you know, people priorities, for her, have fun and lead a faction for first time in discovery, while trying to improve his RP skills in somewhat ...
Different minds, but there are some people who is willing to help and look for others, and other people who only wanna reach OF at all costs without even they being a helping hand to make other characters and players a better players, i was teached by GMG, KNF|, IMG, =CR=, KPR| and even [RM] giving some help for it, but i learn those are good people, good people should be willing to retain for a better future, instead of just HS> who deceive nothing as barely helped me to improve ... and only wanted me for what i belive was farming time and bring numbers.

Joined other indies like DTR, Order and GN/GNI, even those even i not being officially a member, where more helpful than those...

As long you being a good master to teach new players, i shall provide the best of me for your support on your faction! and even bring new members!

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✨ ⇝ Nanosinx#1541 ⇜ ✨