How do the AI factions work?

[jadenedaj on x]

I assumed the AI factions captured the regions and spread all over the map just like I do, but I've captured like half the map and the AI doesn't seem to of left where I set it to spawn ._.

Do I have to set it to 'factions always hostile' for them to take over the pirate land? They already fight the pirates but they don't leave their spawn squares..?

Are we meant to as players switch around factions and use them to take areas manually? That doesn't seem like much of a challenge.. But I guess if that AI captured areas then we could just hassle two of the other factions and let one faction take over the entire map and then switch to that faction..

IDK..
I guess I don't understand the point of capturing land in the first place too :s
I feel like there should be passive bonuses of capturing more cities or something, right now the only point is to have trade routes we manually do, leading me to think all I need to do is have a level 10 town in the highest zone and the lowest zone and go back and forth between the two trading loot for uber profit..?

[Justin]

Assuming you're the only player, the other factions will slowly expand like you do. (at least they should). You can and should switch factions in order to get the most experience gain from them (switch to Valiant if you do a lot of combat).

By default all the factions are neutral to each other, but hostile to the pirate faction. The enemy is not the other factions - the enemy is the pirates, unless you enable PvP (always at war setting on server creation).

The point in capturing land is, at least for now, to make money faster. The further a region is from a starting point (another faction's or your own) the higher its challenge level, and the higher the challenge level the higher the rewards.

[jadenedaj on x]

Hmm.. Come to think of it, I don't think the other factions can expand, I put the three other factions down the bottom and me just above them, so they have nowhere to go really since they can't fight me, I did that so there would be heaps of space far out so possibly higher level pirates at max, dunno if that works but I figured it might.

And yeah I started Valiant because combat is life, I see no real point of switching to the other factions, although I think the Corvette looks like the best pure combat ship (right?), so I might switch factions to Sojourn just for the discount then switch back.

[ArenMook]

Corvette is a glass cannon. Does a lot of damage, but folds quickly under pressure. Factions only expand if there are players in their regions. I'll make them grow a bit at some point, but right now player intervention is needed.

[Sharpe]

Please add an expansion rate slider for the factions soon. This would add another layer to the game: a faction vs faction gameplay style where you can help one faction to claim more regions than the other factions. Right now its basically you vs pirates. I am pretty sure that a lot of players would enjoy the faction vs faction dynamics which were also part of mount & blades huge success.

[King Maelstrom the Esoteric]

Originally posted by Sharpe:

Please add an expansion rate slider for the factions soon. This would add another layer to the game: a faction vs faction gameplay style where you can help one faction to claim more regions than the other factions. Right now its basically you vs pirates. I am pretty sure that a lot of players would enjoy the faction vs faction dynamics which were also part of mount & blades huge success.

That'd be awesome. I hope that gets added.