It's something I've been half-thinking about, in the same context. Definitely no promises; there's a major piece of this that I'd like to see in action before deciding whether it "works" and/or is worth expanding on.
The UI stuff is indeed a major concern; this really goes hand-in-hand with the increased nuance - or, one might say, complexity. I guess it's the "if you're selling, it's a violin, if you're buying, it's a fiddle" thing :)
I wonder if it could work if you were nominally hostile - i.e. same as now - but the patrols just didn't hassle you if the patrol commander or the local military commander were friendly. That wouldn't capture the "you're only *hostile* locally" case, which is more involved, though - it's more important to be warned of unexpected hostility via the UI than it is of unexpected non-hostility.
It's something I've been half-thinking about, in the same context. Definitely no promises; there's a major piece of this that I'd like to see in action before deciding whether it "works" and/or is worth expanding on.
The UI stuff is indeed a major concern; this really goes hand-in-hand with the increased nuance - or, one might say, complexity. I guess it's the "if you're selling, it's a violin, if you're buying, it's a fiddle" thing :)
I wonder if it could work if you were nominally hostile - i.e. same as now - but the patrols just didn't hassle you if the patrol commander or the local military commander were friendly. That wouldn't capture the "you're only *hostile* locally" case, which is more involved, though - it's more important to be warned of unexpected hostility via the UI than it is of unexpected non-hostility.
When something happens in the Sector, odds are a major NPC is involved. The Hegemony doesn't simply besiege a planet - Space Marshal Baikul Daud orders the planet besieged. Given major NPCs' importance in their faction, I think the natural place for their intel is on the factions screen:Spoiler(https://i.imgur.com/kEtHuKk.png)[close]
A faction's major NPCs would only be shown when the faction is selected (or one of the NPCs, of course). An NPC's information should at least include their full name and title (e.g. "Diktat Executor Philip Andrada"), their full-size portrait, the player's reputation with them, a description/history/summary, and any personal allies or enemies they have. It is these personal allies and enemies that provide the nuance we desire.
Take the TT-Heg hostilities. Say they are Suspicious with each other instead of Hostile. Say Space Marshal Daud has fleets (with a distinguishing prefix) that are influenced by his relations. Say Daud is enemies with a TT NPC that also has loyal fleets (perhaps Kader from Forlorn Hope, who probably escaped disgrace and has climbed the ranks despite being part of the "head-on attack" crowd). Does it not make sense those two sets of fleets would attack each other?
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I like Alex's fixed pirate rep idea; a big "HOSTILE" in place of the usual faction's reputation bar would be fun. Warlords and other crime boss major NPCs would allow some pirates to be part of subfactions the player could make peace with (for a time at least). It might also make it possible for pirates to fight each other without it being incomprehensible ("X Gang Raider" vs "Y Gang Raider" instead of two "Pirate Raiders").
There are already fleets in vanilla that are hostile even though their faction may not be. Just fail a delivery mission and you'll meet one.That's a fair point. I definitely agree that hostile fleets could be more clearly communicated. I think there have been suggestions that if a fleet is pursuing you there should be some sort of alarm/UI color change. That sort of thing seems like a decent QOL change regardless of any changes to factions.
All of this non-monolithic factions stuff, in whatever form, would be much easier to do if the UI immediately communicated which fleets/markets are hostile/won't trade.
generally there's very little middle ground between 'nothing happens but you have to grind some rep' and 'the whole faction is trying to kill you'