Picking Fights With Factions

[KWexoo]

As I've wandered the wastelands, I've seen quite a few Comitati out there belonging to this faction or another when I travel on the roads. Plus, there's all the various combat missions that involve fighting (and therefore angering) another faction.

With that in mind, is it worth it making some factions go into the negative relations by fighting them? And if so, which factions can I most afford to do that with without missing out on some very good bonuses? And what are the major consequences of having one of the factions be hostile that I need to look out for?

[Kaysoky]

I think this differs based on your playstyle.

When I started out, I tried to keep all the factions happy. But doing this means slow progress towards high relations.

At the same time, I decided early on to not use Slaves. So, I could basically ignore House Darius without losing much. If you use Slaves exclusively, rather than workers, you could probably ignore House Ooqo and the Abolitionists.

In terms of factions you probably never want to anger, keeping the churches on your side gives nice all-around bonuses.

That said, all factions give you quests at different reputation levels, in addition to the random trade/mercenary tasks. So it could be worthwhile to get all factions to level 1 to get the easiest-to-access quest before you go into the negatives. For most factions, getting from negative reputation to 0 is almost impossible.

I don't know what happens at more negative levels, since I only have 1 faction at -1 (House Darius).

[Mikeavelli]

Near the end of the Outpost (wealth ambition) you want to have high faction rep with just about every faction, since it makes finishing the ambition much easier.

The outpost also unlocks a way to rapidly improve faction rep, But you want to avoid going down to like -100 or more, which can happen if you're raiding comitati.

[sanahtlig]

I'd recommend raising 2-3 trading factions, one Underworld faction (note you may need Loaders 2 to recruit one of the companions), and either a religious faction or abolitionists. Others you should be able to push deeply negative without serious repercussions. Having many trading factions 2+ is useful for the Wealth ambition but not required; I got by just fine with 3/5.

Also, note that while negative relation with factions is ok, high criminal rating has extremely bad repercussions and should be avoided.

[KWexoo]

Thanks. While we're on the subject, where can I check my criminal rating? I had one for a while, then I think I paid it off, but I couldn't find where to check my exact criminal rating at the time, if there's a place to see that.

[Kaysoky]

There is no way to check, other than to try to enter/exit the major cities. If they stop you (or bar you from entry entirely) then your criminality is too high.

[MoreEvilSquid]

Originally posted by KWexoo:

Thanks. While we're on the subject, where can I check my criminal rating? I had one for a while, then I think I paid it off, but I couldn't find where to check my exact criminal rating at the time, if there's a place to see that.

In major citiies, visit the authorities (exact location/wording varies, but should be the same general area as the bounty office). Somewhere in the menus there should be an option to "pay fines for your crimes" or something. If this option is grayed out or non-existent then you have no (or very low) criminal rating and nothing to worry about - if there's an option to "pay for your crimes" then you have a criminal rating and should probably do something about it (such as paying the fine here).

Note however that it's generally only possible to "pay the fine" using one of the options in this menu within a certain time period, so if you've paid a fine recently using this very menu (and in this location) then it gets trickier (as in, option could be grayed out due to time, but you're still a criminal). But in that case you will most likely be notified as you try to leave the town (and will usually have the option to pay a fine then and there).