Factions

There are three factions in Pardus: Federation, Empire, and Union. [TWOP:Faction Background]
Every player can join a faction on a planet or starbase which is controlled by it. [MECH:Planets & Starbases]. Most do so, because being member of a faction yields certain benefits. Not being member of a faction, or being neutral, is also a path one can choose - not only for role-playing reasons: Neutral players cannot be hacked in black markets; neutral players do not need to be involved in faction wars. [MECH:Hacking & Firewalls]

Benefits

However, joining a faction is recommended for the following reasons:

• Faction Missions
  NPC representatives of factions offer bulletin board missions in addition to the usual missions. Fulfilling these missions increases income and earned experience. [MECH:Missions]
  
  
• Faction Fleet
  Every faction has its own fleet of ships available to only their members, in addition to the standard ships. [TWOP:Standard Ships] [TWOP:Faction Ranks & Bonuses]
  
  
• Faction Specialization
  Certain pieces of advanced or stronger equipment are only available to faction members. [TWOP:Faction Ranks & Bonuses]
  
  
• Faction Reputation and Rank
  Every player has a reputation value towards each faction, indicating his/her diplomatic relation to it. A faction rank shows how high a player has advanced in the faction's career ladder. Both of these values indirectly protect from attacks of other players: Someone who kills a high-ranked faction member will lose more reputation towards that faction. A high reputation may give longer protection in case of faction war. [MECH:Reputation] [REF:Reputation]
  Current rank and reputation can be seen under Overview → Stats.
  
  
• Faction Territory
  The cluster in which you started belonged to one of the factions. They control certain clusters and give their members protection there.

Leaving a faction is as simple as joining one. [MECH:Planets & Starbases]
It is not possible to be member of more than one faction at the same time.
Joining a faction is only possible when the player's respective reputation is over -200. Also, one is kicked from the faction when reputation falls under this value. [MECH:Reputation]

Relations

Factions have one of the following diplomatic relations to each other.

Good Neutral Tensions War

The current status of the relations between all the three factions can be seen on top right of the news screen, in a relation triangle. [MECH:GNN & Special Events] A faction's relation determines how much reputation or rank someone will lose or gain when raiding or destroying a member of that faction. E.g. a member of a faction will always lose reputation when attacking a member of the same faction. During war between two factions one may gain rank by killing an opposing member. [REF:Reputation] In war it is also possible to earn war points and medals. [MECH:War]

Detailed Relations and Faction Command Structure

A detailed view of all current faction relations is given under Diplomacy → Faction Relations. Each relation type is divided into 100 points, with 0 being on the most "peaceful" side, and 99 on the hostile border. These relations are influenced by the following happenings, making an impact every day once:

• Player Actions
  The severity of hostile interfactional player actions in the last days and weeks influences a change in faction relation up to 2 points.
  
  
• Influence by Leadership and Lobbying
  Players in the faction ranks 10 to 14 constitute the faction's command structure. This leading circle is called "High Command" in the Federation, "High Council" in the Empire, and "Inner Assembly" in the Union, and is established once there are ten members with a rank of at least 10. Every member can choose a certain disposition on the Faction Relations screen towards each of the opposing factions: Amicable (), Indifferent (), or Hostile (). Every day once, the dispositions of all members are counted (and multiplied by their respective weights: 16 for rank 14, 8 for rank 13, 4 for rank 12, 2 for rank 11, 1 for rank 10) and put into relation, resulting in collective dispositions: Amicable (), Indifferent (), or Hostile ().
  
  This is how it is done: Only non-indifferent dispositions are counted. If there are at least two times as many dispositions from one side than from the other side (e.g. 57 vs. 19), the collective disposition will have the full influence of 2 points on the faction relation, marked with two icons (e.g. ). If there are more dispositions from one side than from the other side, but not twice as many (e.g. 57 vs. 34), there will be only an influence of 1 point, marked with one icon (e.g. ). If there is a tie between opposing dispositions, there will be no influence, marked by .
  
  Lobbying is an additional option for all faction pilots (not just ranks 10 to 14) to influence their faction's relations by paying credits. For each relation, a faction pilot may pay a lobbying fee of any amount towards either amicable or hostile relation. Spending credits for lobbying is an irreversible action, all spent credits are tallied up and compared daily: If the difference between credits spent for amicable and hostile relations is >= 100,000 credits it results in 0.5 points in that direction, if >= 1,000,000 credits: 1 point, if >= 5,000,000 credits: 1.5 points. After this procedure, all lobbying fees disappear and are reset for the next day's decision. Nobody except a player himself can see how much he has spent for lobbying.
  
  

  After collective dispositions are determined in all factions, they are put into relation. This way, influence by faction command and lobbying can be up to 7 (=3.5+3.5) points strong, displayed as e.g. . With one side striving towards war, and the other side towards peace, a nullification of influences is also possible.

  
  A faction's full command structure including all dispositions as well as the sums of all lobbying fees is only visible to their commanding members. Faction members with lower ranks see a summary of their faction's dispositions and the outcomes for lobbying. All displayed dispositions are from the time when the most recent shift of relations happened. The dispositions of all faction command members are reset to indifferent on the 1st and 14th of every month.
  
  
• Events
  There are several events and conditions which can influence faction relations gradually or with an unsteady transition:
  • When the limit between tensions and war is overstepped from below, 75 points are added. If from above, 65 points are subtracted.
    
  • Changes between other relations lead to an addition or subtraction of 10 points.
    
  • After some time of war, it gets harder and harder to uphold the war relation.
    
  • Holding a good relationship is difficult (i.e. up to 3 points are added when the relation is below neutral-60).
    
  • For a short time after a war, there is a tendency towards peace.
  
  
• Special Events
  The special events "Diplomatic Improvement" and "Diplomatic Decline" may be triggered randomly with certain restrictions. [MECH:GNN & Special Events] [REF:Special Events]
  
  
• Constant tendency towards war
  Besides all other factors, 1 point is added (but only if faction commands have been established on both sides).
  
  
• Random Value
  Additionally, a random value between -2.5 and 2.5 is added.
  
  

Outlaws

Faction Outlaws are players that amass a certain amount of foe-listings by the players in a faction's command structure. A player can be an Outlaw in any amount of factions at the same time.

Voting

Each day the total amount of weighted votes (consisting of possible foe-listings multiplied by their weight as displayed in section "Faction Command Structure") is calculated of all active* players in a faction's command structure (* players that were online within the last 5 days). If the weighted amount of foe-listings by active players in that faction's command structure against an individual matches or exceeds 1/2 of the total amount, that individual is declared an Outlaw in that faction and remains so until at least the next voting.

Repercussions

When speaking simply of "faction" in this section, it always refers to the faction the player is outlawed in.

• On planets and NPC starbases of the faction, and on faction starbases of players that have not friend-listed the Outlaw:
  • No protection
  • No docking rights
  • No ship repair
  • No trade
• No protection on wormholes in faction space
• No possibility to gain reputation/rank through attacks on players or player property [REF:Reputation]
• No possibility to gain points/medals during war [MECH:War]
• Not worth points/medals for others during war [MECH:War]
• Neither reputation/rank losses nor gains for any attacker if the Outlaw is member of the faction that outlawed him/her [REF:Reputation]
• No reputation/rank losses in the attacker's faction if the victim is outlawed in the attacker's faction [REF:Reputation]
• Possibility to defect to another faction (see next section)

Defection

An Outlaw in one faction he/she is also a member of can at any time defect to another faction, provided the usual requirements of joining a faction are fulfilled. The Outlaw's new faction recognizes the Outlaw's old faction rank depending on the amount of weighted friend-listings in relation to the total amount of weighted votes in the Outlaw's new faction's command structure. If the weighted amount of friend-listings by active players in that faction's command structure matches or exceeds 1/2 of the total amount of active weighted votes, the Outlaw's new rank will be one below his/her old rank - otherwise the formula is:
new_rank = floor((old_rank - 1) * weighted_friends / (weighted_total * 1/2))

Elite Rank

In every faction, there is the possibility for Premium Account holders to gain Elite Rank, rank 14, the highest rank in the game. Gaining this rank can not be achieved by the usual means of faction missions or war actions, but rather by a special promotion procedure:

Promotion Procedure

On the 15th of every month, the promotion procedure will be initiated automatically in each faction if the proper conditions are met. The necessary condition for initiation of the procedure is the existence of at least 1 qualified applicant, i.e. 1 or more Premium Account players belonging to the given faction with rank 13 (i.e.: 13.00 <= rank < 14.00).

Once the procedure has been initiated, all qualified applicants have the option to apply for promotion on a planet's faction screen until the 1st of the next month, at which time the three most suitable applicants are promoted. The application costs 500 APs and a self-chosen arbitrary amount of credits (or no credits at all). When the procedure ends, every player who was already an existing elite member receives 2% of the sum of all donations; the rest of the donations are lost. Then, the fitness value of all applicants is calculated to choose the three most suitable candidates:
fitness = reputation of particular faction + ( donated credits / 5000 )


If the fitness of two or more applicants has the same value, the earliest application date decides the matter (e.g. application on 2008-09-15 beats application on 2008-09-21); if application days have the same value, higher rank decides (e.g. 13.99 > 13.03); if ranks have the same value, lower user-id decides (i.e. the older player wins).

Once the three best applicants have been determined, the order of insertion into the elite roster is decided: Applicants with an earlier application day get inserted later; if two or more applicants have applied on the same day, higher fitness value decides; if fitness values are the same, higher rank decides; if ranks are the same, lower user-id decides. The elite roster is a FIFO-queue (First-In-First-Out) consisting of 12 places: Whenever new applicants are promoted, they get inserted into the beginning of the queue (marked with high numbers: 12, 11, 10), while the surplus elite members at the end of the queue (marked with small numbers: 3, 2, 1) get honorably demoted. This way, the maximum amount of elite members at any time is 12.

Example

The current elite roster looks like this:


The following players have decided to apply:

Name	Application Date	Reputation	Donation	Rank
Alice	2008-09-15	3,000	0	13.36
Bob	2008-09-15	1,000	10,000,000	13.69
Carol	2008-09-15	2,000	0	13.99
Dave	2008-09-17	1,000	15,000,000	12.96
Eve	2008-09-21	1,000	5,000,000	13.03
Fred	2008-09-27	5,000	20,000,000	13.22
George	2008-09-27	6,000	0	13.10

Note: When Dave applied on 2008-09-17, his rank was 13.02. Due to dishonorable actions which he performed between 2008-09-17 and 2008-10-01, his rank has dropped below 13.00. Because of this, at the time of promotions, Dave has been dropped out of consideration because he is no longer qualified. All reputation and rank values shown in this example are from 2008-10-01, at which time these values become relevant in the final stage of the promotion procedure.

In the following tables, deciding values over the successing position are marked yellow.

1. Distribution of Donations
   Every one of the existing elite members (Justin, ..., Norbert) receives 2% of the sum of donations:
   50,000,000 * 0.02 = 1,000,000
   
   
2. Calculation of Fitness Values and Ordering
   

   Position	Name	Fitness	Application Date	Rank
   1	Fred	9,000	2008-09-27	13.22
   2	George	6,000	2008-09-27	13.10
   3	Bob	3,000	2008-09-15	13.69
   4	Alice	3,000	2008-09-15	13.36
   5	Carol	2,000	2008-09-15	13.99
   6	Eve	2,000	2008-09-21	13.03

   
   Promoted applicants: Fred, George, Bob
   
   
3. Deciding of Insertion Order
   

   Position	Name	Application Date	Fitness	Rank
   1	Bob	2008-09-15	3,000	13.69
   2	Fred	2008-09-27	9,000	13.22
   3	George	2008-09-27	6,000	13.10

   
   Order of insertion: George first, Fred second, Bob third
   
   
4. Promotions and Demotions
   George, Fred and Bob get inserted into the beginning of the queue and exactly one point is added to their ranks: 13.69 → 14.69, 13.22 → 14.22, 13.10 → 14.10. Their upper rank-boundary is now set to 14.99. Should their ranks ever fall below 14.00 (e.g. by dishonorable actions, leaving or being kicked out of the faction) they would instantly be dishonorably demoted, i.e. losing elite status, resetting of the upper rank-boundary to 13.99, and if still member of the faction: rank set to 13.00.
   
   Since now there would be 14 elite members, the oldest two existing ones, Steve and Norbert, have to go. They get honorably demoted, i.e. exactly one point is subtracted from their ranks, their upper rank-boundary is reset to 13.99.

The elite roster now looks like this:

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Last modification on this page: 2017-07-08