Some Thoughts and Ideas on AI Factions (Copy Post from Reddit)

[MixzremixzD]

I've recently been brainstorming my ideas on the things that I thought would be cool to see implemented and it all boiled down to improving the current AI factions. I honestly believe that is the only thing holding Avorion from becoming one of, if not the, best Space games out now.

Note the following suggestions and ideas are based on my observations through playing the game for a few weeks. Also, this may be a bit of a long read.

[What do AI Factions currently do?]

Nothing. The point is Avorion is a sandbox game with the Galaxy as your playground and yet the world feels so hollow and empty despite the amount of procedurally generated Factions and Pirates scattered around.

[Solutions]

The AI needs to do more than just sit idly by waiting for the Xostan or Pirate raiders. Firstly they need to be able to logically expand their territory on their own seeking sectors rich with ore over random deep space. This is doubly so if the player sells an asteroid to a Faction, they should capitalise on it and within a few hours you should see the AI building several minor stations and slowly growing from that point on.

How does the AI prioritise reinforcing their existing territory over expanding to new ones? also how often should the AI come to blows with each other?
The answer is simply down to whatever archetype that Faction is. The choice to expand/reinforce/invade/barter can be based on procedurally generated figures and percentages based on unique traits. I noticed on the diplomacy screen I believe that there was a list of traits for the Factions you encounter, it seems like the groundwork for this has already been set.

[Immersive Player Experience]

This is more of my personal wishlist than a concrete suggestion but here it is. The Player should have the option of joining a Faction they have achieved max loyalty with or becoming hired as a Privateer/Rogue Trader (wink for those who catch the reference).

[Joining A Faction.]
Joining a Faction is similar to joining or creating a Player Alliance wherein all your actions reflect on the Faction you joined for good or bad. This calls back to the traits for each Faction as they have different expectations for you and will reward/punish you accordingly.

[Rewards]
General rewards would be price discounts on goods/equipment (free?) use of any shipyard as a reconstruction point and any other idea you can think of. Further rewards there would be three skill 'Trees', Trad, Diplomacy and Combat.

Advancing a Factions goals of conquest will earn you certain faction points in the combat 'tree' which can be likened to gaining ranks in the navy. Each new rank grants you more influence of the military might of the Faction to the point where as an Admiral for instance you can; decide the number of patrols per sector, redesign the fleet to suit your combat needs, being able to request for a temporary patrol fleet to your sector when in a pinch, set the fleet size and composition when going into battle, set the amount of ships available on your standing fleet, choose which sectors to attack and defend with said fleet and being able to command ships during battle.

As for commanding ships I was thinking that all fleets would be grouped into 'squadrons' that you would have already designed the makeup of so in system they would appear as a singular icon similar to Fighters. By selecting the icon you can give commands to the whole squadron either with the same options as a secondary ship with a captain, thus allowing you to control multiple squadrons of ships without over complicating things.

[Immediate Limitation]
It's worth noting that as it stands now there is no boarding method implemented in the game which means that to take over an enemy system you'd have to systematically destroy everything in that sector then rebuild it again under your name....I don't think I need to stress how important and correctly applied boarding is for this to work.

Advancing the Factions goal of commerce follows a similar pattern but this time you gain more influence over the entire economic structure. With the Diplomatic route gaining more leverage over the actual traits and 'philosophy' of the Faction, essentially having a heavy-handed influence on the numeric that makes up the decision-making of the AI with regards to conquest, trade and foreign relations.

Players who successfully max out all three trees will pretty much become the ruler/emperor/dictator/pope of said Faction and have absolute reign as they see fit.

For now this is everything that I could come up with, as you can tell I left the Trade and Diplomacy side of things a little scant as I wanted to be aware of what the general consensus of those things are before I start brainstorming ideas/fantasies again.

P.S. With Regards to Pirates and Xostan I firmly believe the rate and location these units attack needs to factor in the actual location of the attack e.g. Pirates should raid newly acquired sectors and off the beaten paths as they do however, it would be in their best interests to stay away from largely populated and defended sectors ESPECIALLY the home system of the Faction. Attacking there should be a flat out no-no for Pirates. Xostan can do what they normally do as Aliens don't obey the rules but even they should recognise the difference in population density and only appear largely and infrequently at these high population sectors.