Fleshing out the Factions

[Wolf King]

One way to really make this game be more immersive are backstories to the different factions and unique faction traits beyond sqaud types that are recruited. Like what the factions stand for, faction goals for the campaign, key figures and events that shaped the faction into what it is.

[Beebz!]

I've been reading through this thread and the ideas are excellent. A good place to get ideas for factions is real life. Have a look at this and you'll see the extraordinary number of factions involved.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_War_of_Independence
Some very interesting armies involved which future or existing factions could be based on:
>Black army
Anarchists
>Green Army
Primitivist Anarchists whos main concern was nature and the environment
>White Army
Foreign (Russian) army who viewed all independence movements as hostile
>Cossacks
Separatists wanting their own government
There's way more but that's some food for thought.

A mechanic which would be well suited to be added is a 'how likely will they ally with another faction'. For example, NS and Commies might be at peace but they will never ally. An anarchist army won't ally with anyone but there's a small chance that they will with communists, and they don't suffer bandit attacks. Monarchists and Government forces are likely to ally. Something like that.

[Fresh Prince of Gaellivare]

I am loving this thread and I see great ideas. I haven't read all pages though, but what I've read is pretty great. Gotta admit, because this game quite reminds me of Mount and Blade I can't help but look at some mechanics of that game.

Backstory
The country was a dictatorship. Officially a Republic, the head of state was the president (let's call him Ivan), but he ruled his country without any opposition. Ivan was a military officer and together with loyal troops he staged a coup (could also be a predecessor e.g. father of Ivan who took power, and when he died Ivan became president). After the coup, any opposition was quickly silenced. It was alright for a few years. There was peace, there was an economic boom and the country quickly modernised from the old monarchy to a modern autocratic state. Nonetheless, after a while some people wanted to voice their opinions, form an opposition, and make the state more democratic. Because of Ivan's authoritarian rule and thorough secret service it was difficult to voice discontent safely. How did the civil war break out? The president died unexpectedly, assassinated by a group of terrorists. They were quickly found, tortured and executed. The president's right hand, Dmitri, became the new president and he declared a state of emergency. The people lost many of their rights and the discontent only grew larger. People in the streets protested, even rioted, but riot police and the army reacted with violence. Different factions stood up amidst this chaos to stop the government once and for all, and create a better place for all of its people, or at least a portion.

-Pozna Battalion: The remnants of the former government. They should hold the capital, some villages/outposts and some other cities. It is led by a general or a president (Dmitri). Though nothing like it's former glory, it still has enough loyal soldiers to remain standing. The faction could also be a general who split from the government's troops in a bid for power. Technologically, this one should be the most powerful in the beginning, but also fielding many poorly armed and poorly trained recruits with low morale. If the Pozna Battalion is the government, they should be in control of an economically important place like a port.

-Atov Revolution Forces: Communists/Socialists, out to commence a revolution and create a communist state. For years the communists in the land tried peaceful tactics, tried to be elected during the dictatorship's fake elections, organised protests, some groups turned to small-scale acts of terror. Now that the government has fallen and the secret services are no longer capable of keeping an eye on the socialists, it is time to rise up and break the chains! Many of the members were secretly preparing for a violent revolution and have set up bases both in the countryside and the cities. While there is a lot of disagreement within the ranks of the ARF, they are currently united under one banner to bring down the government. Possibly they're also supported by some communist states, giving them the necessary supplies to fight the war.

-Free Cossacks Army: The FCA is nationalistic, comprised of different Cossack communities that have been in the country for ages. They used to be self-governing and of great importance, but under the former president's rule they lost their power, but not their self-esteem. As the government's fallen, the Cossacks can finally pick up their arms and reclaim their old land, once and for all. They can be monarchistic, with the goal to restore the old monarchy, before the republicans stole the power and shattered the crown.

-Uman Brotherhood: The Brotherhood is an extremist religious group, aiming to restore the balance of ancient times. It is a cult, consisting of zealous worshippers, ready to throw away everything for eternal glory and peace. They want to cleanse the land, make it pure again. They have nationalist tendensies, as well as racist, as race-mixing is modern and not as the Gods have intended. Amidst the chaos of civil war and years of modernisation, some people wanted to move back to the past. Before the Cossacks were of any relevance. These people, who despise modern city life, are hardcore believers of the Ancient Gods. The faction's leader, the Head Uman, is said to be in direct contact with the Gods and his orders are of the Gods. He is not to be questioned. Members of the Uman Brotherhood (Brothers? Umanites?) are zealous, have high morale and unwavering strength because of their strange rituals and intake of "natural herbs, created by the Gods to help us win this war." They can have many small chapters all across the land, with one stronghold somewhere. They are hostile to every faction in the game.

-Chernivkan Front Rebels: A faction consisting of many smaller groups, all with a very similar goal: Being able to do their own thing in their part of the country. They want greater autonomy in the region of Chernivka and in general just live in peace. The Chernivkans have a shared history and are culturally very similar, so the people in the region are easy to unify under one banner. They don't feel much for the far-away capital nor the Cossacks due to past conflicts. The monarchy used to work together with the Cossack to pacify the Chernivkans, which often included massacres and the burning of villages. Though the Chernivkans don't care for what happens outside their region, they might want to eliminate all other factions to be able to live their life. By setting up their own, democratic, government in the capital, the Chernivkans are guaranteed to have a great level of autonomy.

-Bandits: Bandits are all small factions, which simply aren't relevant enough to know by name. There are criminal gangs, religious extremists, some bunch of nationalists, rogue deserters, small groups that split off from one of the major factions etc. It's up to the player to be remembered as a glorious leader, not just a mere bandit.



Game mechanics (there'll be some overlap):
-Urban guerrilla warfare. While rural guerrilla is of course important, most civil wars are fought in towns and villages. As you can see in the past 100 years, it is well possible for years of battles in just one city. I would love it if (some) towns consisted of multiple districts. That way it's possible to hold part of a city and have a lot of battles that aren't on a grass field. It shouldn't be easy to take a town in civil war. By dividing a place into districts you can also force the player to make strategic decisions: Take the port/industrial area, which is economically very important (assuming it's not destroyed by the war. It can cost a lot of money to repair it), but that district doesn't have many people living there so less people to recruit for your army. Take a district with more houses, and you can recruit tons of people, but it's not as important economically.

-Popular support. For guerrillas popular support is everything. You need them to get goods, to stay safe etc. Violent actions against civilians lower popular support, violent actions against violent groups raise popular support. Build a school, bring peace in an area, stabilise economy etc. will raise popular support. Maybe importing foreign goods (e.g. if you control a port you can allow/subside the import of goods for the people) will raise support too. Maybe nationalists will hate the import of goods, while neutral people will love it.

-Villages. These are the basis of popular support, and therefore the legitimacy and logistics of your faction's existence. Do quests for the people and they will like you, and your faction, much more. More popular support means you can recruit more people from the place and get goods etc., even if the village is officially under control of an enemy faction. You can also choose to attack villages and loot them. This will lower their opinion of you, but at least you'll have enough food, fuel and ammo to keep on going.

-Outposts. Military and faction bases outside towns. They can also be military checkpoints by roads. The garrison can range from anything between 5 and 50 troops, I guess. A firing group up to a large platoon. Attacking and looting these would give you some control over the area and it's a good way to get arms and ammo. I can imagine attacking these would be fun with small squads in sneak-mode, or just steamroll them later on.

-Moral/honor/karma points. No matter how you'll put it, it means the same. If you do good stuff to innocent people, they will like you more. If you do bad stuff, they will dislike you. Some may find it okay to loot enemy villages, some may hate it, but doing stuff like that will definitely change the way people look at you. If you besiege a town, it would be great if the number of armed citizens forming a garrison/militia is influenced by both popular support and your honor. Edit: Honor and popular support tie in very closely together, they can basically be the same thing. Let's just put this with popular support.

-Propaganda. Increase your popular support, decrease your enemy's. It costs a lot, it will not always be effective, but I think it'll be great to e.g. besiege a town and find barricades destroyed by people inside supporting your cause, or suddenly having an extra squad of people in the town who have decided to take up arms for you. Basically a fifth column, because of propaganda. It would be great that it could also backfire. If you, for example, spread leaflets saying "Surrender or we will kill you all", there's a 50/50 chance of the people surrendering or fighting till the end, changed by your honor. If you have a high honor, so never massacred innocent people, they might have a 70% of surrendering, whereas having done so before and afterwards killing the people, they'll be unlikely to surrender and you'll face a much larger garrison.

-International diplomacy, foreign powers etc. I am not a fan of this. Though more realistic, as civil wars hardly ever happen in a vacuum, I feel like it might distract from what is happening on a smaller scale. It can also just cause a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ by completely messing up the scale. Sure, it's more realistic if one faction suddenly gets help from a foreign country via arms shipments, airstrikes etc., it will make the game unbalanced and probably quite frustrating. Such mechanics are only okay when you can go full guerrilla and basically vanish from the map, being unable to target by aircraft of an enemy coalition. It would be annoying if one party has 'foreign aid' and is overpowered because of it. Having foreign support through money/supplies is better, but even there I'm afraid it might create an overpowered faction. I am okay with a neutral-to-all UN faction controlling some areas. The UN controlling a port and bringing emergency supplies to some areas is realistic, but even that can be complicated to implement. Attacking UN convoys could have some big real-life consequences, but I'm afraid the bot (or even the player) may be obliterated after attacking the UN. Also, if there is still a legitimate government accepted by the UN, it would have to accept UN intervention. Without the government's approval, isn't the UN not allowed to enter the country?

Anyway, that's some ideas I got after playing the game for some hours and reading this interesting thread.

[Gilly]

Free Cossacks: Capitalist Democratic Seperatists: making up a slim majority ethnic population on the island, fed up with the corrupt mismanagement of the island government, recent immigration of a foreign religion (uman brotherhood), a desire for a nation for their people, and a fear of a losing identity in this modern day have proclaimed their own independent democratic government. funded by Cossasks from the mainland and sympathetic nations they wish to establish their own island nation.

Pozna Battalion: Fascist leanings/Loyalist: Loyalists to the government (evacuated) who have organized their own well armed, well equiped soldiers with funding from the government and government allies have proclaimed the need to reestablish the mainland government on the island and the death of traitors to the motherland!

Uman Brotherhood: Radical Islamists: A small ethnic population who have migrated to the island and the mainland over the years from political persucation and war due to their onorthodox beliefs in Islam. After the proclamation of an illegitimate government by the Atov Revolutionary Forces and the following destabiliszation, capitulation of the local government, and threats of ethnic/religious elimination from other factions have organized well experienced troops (from fighting back in their homeland) to defend their communities. However, as the war continued a new found spirit in the rightousness of their relgion as radicalized them further into a great Jihad, the faithful come form the homeland and the mainland to the island. Now they push out from their communities and wish to establish their religion on the island and create a nation for the faithful!

Atov Revolutionary Forces: Socialist/Communist: local and international news organizations reported corruption,ballot stuffing, and political killings during the important trading hub island's election. Beleiving the election illegitimate and the real winners the Socialist party, the Atov Revolutionary Forces declared the time for the great revolution. Funding from international sympathizers, socialist nations, and voluteers have bolstered and armed their ranks quickly. Organized around local communes they are disorganized but in high spirit due to their rapid expansion and capitulation of the government.

[goblin]

I like basileus descriptions.

The Uman extremists should start small but with great capacity for expansion.
And there should be at least one separatist faction that is backed by western powers, and that use mainly western weapons.

Roaming paramilitary and mercenary troops should also be present apart from bandits.

Another thing that would add to the flavour of factions is squad size. Factions that are less equipped could come in greater squads, while western backed factions and loyalists could have good gear but smaller squads both in recruitment and in battle.

[mattbeck87]

FCA seems to me like the Remnant government of the territory. Traditional units, uniforms, reminds me of Eastern European/Soviet style troops, probably still backed by Eastern or regional allies like Russia

ATOZ clearly appears to me to the US/Western European backed, trained and equipped group. Think the Free Syrian Army, or the Euromaiden groups. Very possibly now turned into something more...extreme than what the West intended. More agressive, Nationalosts. They probably initiated the overthrow, with Western support, but eventually got radicalized past the point their international handlers intended (as per usual).

Pozna in my head is the real "People's army", sprung up after the FCA government fell into chaos, but as Atov became more extreme. Probably mostly unsupported internationally, but has the most local support. Possibly supported by some Moderate neighboring Baltic nation, who doesn't want to see a Russian puppet state, nor an Extreme Ultra-Nationalist government.

Merc are Mercs, pretty self explanatory.

Bandits are opportunistic looters, rioters or in some cases crappier Mercs, probably mixing with each of the factions as allies and enemies at various times, with various supfactions.

The Militia units should be pretty universal, basically the lower tier of each factions "real soldiers".


Uman appear to be a regional variant of generic religious fanatical terrorists, pick your flavor or make one up.



That's how I envision the factions, at least when I'm playing.

[TheGhastlyTuna]

According to the wiki, the island is a former Soviet territory, so I came up with a light backstory for the island and factions.

[Cyrus]

hey guys i was just wondering since this world is made up of prvate armies and sch maybe go for something similer to the setting of Metal Gear Solid 4 where PMC's are everywhere.

[3 Crab Fish Sauce]

TheGhastlyTuna님이 먼저 게시:

According to the wiki, the island is a former Soviet territory, so I came up with a light backstory for the island and factions.

Breddy gud

[K-Lamb]

mattbeck87님이 먼저 게시:

FCA seems to me like the Remnant government of the territory. Traditional units, uniforms, reminds me of Eastern European/Soviet style troops, probably still backed by Eastern or regional allies like Russia

ATOZ clearly appears to me to the US/Western European backed, trained and equipped group. Think the Free Syrian Army, or the Euromaiden groups. Very possibly now turned into something more...extreme than what the West intended. More agressive, Nationalosts. They probably initiated the overthrow, with Western support, but eventually got radicalized past the point their international handlers intended (as per usual).

Pozna in my head is the real "People's army", sprung up after the FCA government fell into chaos, but as Atov became more extreme. Probably mostly unsupported internationally, but has the most local support. Possibly supported by some Moderate neighboring Baltic nation, who doesn't want to see a Russian puppet state, nor an Extreme Ultra-Nationalist government.

Merc are Mercs, pretty self explanatory.

Bandits are opportunistic looters, rioters or in some cases crappier Mercs, probably mixing with each of the factions as allies and enemies at various times, with various supfactions.

The Militia units should be pretty universal, basically the lower tier of each factions "real soldiers".


Uman appear to be a regional variant of generic religious fanatical terrorists, pick your flavor or make one up.


That's how I envision the factions, at least when I'm playing.

I agree with most of this vision, now with the official wiki saying the island was formerly a soviet state before the start of the game.

The FCA looks like remnants of the "government" trying to hold their land, backed by Russia, so in a future victory become part of their territory. Even in future updates they could have more soviet heavy equipment, like BMPs.

Atov faction looks like really pro western, hell they even use """"SCARS"""". Maybe as backstory they are a paramilitary group funded by NATO in order to overthrown during the cold war the local government, but with the collapse of the URSS, many local warlords screw their plans of cutting the head of the snake, now they have to wage guerrilla warfare in order to accomplish their goal. Thats why they have the "Spec Ops" soldiers.

Pozna battalion, maybe they could be a counterpart of the FCA, their biggest nemesis. Why? Lets say FCA where divisions or garrisoned soviet forces in the island, and their officers are trying to return the lost land to their former masters, right? But maybe some of the officers right there didnt want to go back to the warm arms of the motherland, but say "hey this is MY chance to take the lead", specially with the HUUUUGE feeling of disappointing for their beloved nation. So this officers actually where in command of a battalion named Pozna, instead of following the FCA in their goal, this guys started their own agenda, in order to seize power of the island and create their own soviet paradise. Maybe if we consider the numbers of this faction, one of their best weapons is the propaganda, they can convince the locals with ideals of nationalism, regain former soviet glory, freedom against foreign intervention (be western powers or russia), etc etc etc. Of course the FCA didnt like this separatist scum so they splinter.

Mercs, yeah....they dont even need to explain themselves. Maybe in future updates adding more flavor to them, like skins-hair colors. Perhaps adding some sort of mercs organizat.....*cof cof* i mean """"""private security company"""""" beyond the freelancers, just to add flavor.

Uman brotherhood, yes they are religious fanatics of some sort....in my experience i find them kinda creepy with their cultist mask o.o ( thats a cool effect!) . So the freedom to think they are some judgement day cult could work, crazy people with guns who wear bright red in a woodland territory who preaches to whoever death/war/savior god/goddess they have. Maybe even lets think them like the cult of Far Cry 5, the edenists have a cult of personality more than a God itself. Maybe the Uman follow some charismatic/sadist leader who manipulates people through religion. Its a dark time for the island, "everyone seeks some ways of salvation, and the brotherhood may be the answer to be saved". Or instead a cult of personality, maybe some very old religion that existed before the URSS creation, so when the soviets arrived they smashed any organized cult, forcing them to go underground, until today there is no more soviets "and everyone is a sinner" o.o

Now with the adding of the Chernivkan faction idk too much, i havent had the chance to properly fight them in a big gud fight. But what i have seen there is a town called Chernivka, under control of the FCA or the Atov, i dont remember right now, and nearby there is the town controlled by the chernivkan front. Maybe Chernivka was the capital of the island government? or perhaps they are a ethnic group of highly opressed people during soviet rule, and now they have the chance to obtain independece.?

Bandits are bandits. Maybe some warlords who dont care of territory but only looting and pillaging. As far I have seen there are many named bandit armies like "Thief King" "Deserters" etc.

[Gilly]

goblin님이 먼저 게시:

I like basileus descriptions.

thanks Goblin

@K-Lambanal
The red uniforms could signal an inention to have them as like a fanatic branch of communism. however, the masks are creepy so idk if the devs want an alignment with a political ideology. great bios of the Atov factions and the Pozna, great comparison of ai equipment with the faction backstory.

[nephilimnexus]

My 2 Pesos: Just make a custom faction builder ala Stellaris or any other good 4X game. Players hit "create faction" and then pick flag symbol, colors, basic uniform, playstyle, tactics, gear and maybe even upgrade lists. Then they save them to their own personal faction pool.

Start with existing factions in the pool as examples. Once done, when starting a new game, players pick one of these custom factions to play, as well picking which ones to appear in the game as well.

This would let people create whatever scenario they want.

[ChaosCrash13]

nephilimnexus님이 먼저 게시:

My 2 Pesos: Just make a custom faction builder ala Stellaris or any other good 4X game. Players hit "create faction" and then pick flag symbol, colors, basic uniform, playstyle, tactics, gear and maybe even upgrade lists. Then they save them to their own personal faction pool.

Start with existing factions in the pool as examples. Once done, when starting a new game, players pick one of these custom factions to play, as well picking which ones to appear in the game as well.

This would let people create whatever scenario they want.

Хорошая идея)
Кстати, создавать список войск можно не сразу, а, как в глобальных стратегиях, постепенно - по мере развития фракции)

[tyroneemail]

Hey Just heard an amazing idea, what about a jagged alliance like storyline... That would be amazing. with a laptop to recruit special mercs too!!!

[Adolf Stalin]

different ideologies for each group

[beepboop44]

You should have a faction editor and map editor so players can make their own scenarios.

I for one would love to copy and paste the factions from the Spanish Civil War. That war had pretty much everything.

Anarchists, Communists, Socialists, Social-Democrats, Fascists. Throw in some Right-Liberals, a Corporate Faction and maybe two conflicting factions of Religious Fundamentalists for some added variety.