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[JUDGE! slowpersun]

  This may have admittedly already been brought up, but why are all pirates considered the same faction (literally the topic heading)?  Admittedly, the game probably hasn't yet been coded to allow factions to ally, let alone merge or subsume each other... but since pirate "factions" may or may not get along, why are they all lumped together into a single faction (instead of say, 3 or 4)?  I'll admit that even broaching the topic of factionalization within different space "nations" brings only may draw parallels with a number of other space games, like Endless Space, or Stellaris, or Masters of who caares (not to mention the possibility of some mighty space pirate then also going full Khan and uniting the space pirates).  Whether the concepts of factionalization within each of already existing literal factions (honestly, calling them "space nations" is probably not the best terminology, but referring to such entities as factions implies they are all still part of something.  206 years of an interregnum may beg to differ...).  I'll admit this may not be something that can easily be addressed (this game ain't really about diplomacy), but since the possibility of colonization was added, should be at least given some consideration.

  Also, adding some sort of temporary extra placeholder pirate faction/nation would allow a player to kill dem randomly spawned pirate bases that are automatically generated without gumming up the relations with the "real" pirates (they haven't yet earned their place!).  And if this has already been brought up and I just didn't manage to search properly... c'est la vie.

[Embolism]

You could say the same of the Independents, or even the League.

For pirates, Alex had considered making them permanently hostile; because they're meant to be more of a game mechanic (i.e. low tier enemy) than a true faction; and subdividing them doesn't add anything to that.

Independents are similar in that they're meant to represent "others like you", though there are actually credible factions within the independents that could be divvied out (Nova Maxios for instance).

[Kriby]

I think it's an artifact of the game mechanics that are available right now to represent them. I haven't heard anything to suggest it's supposed to change, but there are lots of cool directions you could take with them in the future.

For example, you could track player reputation more along the lines of fame/infamy, tracking how players are behaving against neutrals around them to gain infamy, and similarly when the player wins unfavored battles against pirates they might also gain fame( or from the pirate perspective, infamy?). Your fame or infamy might invoke friendly/unfriendly responses from pirates. The player reputation could be tracked along more axes, lawful/unlawful etc.

Another thing you could do is model an internal power dynamic within the pirate faction where internally there is a pirate faction that systems/ships belong to, but layer sub-factions on top that fight each other and vie for control of other "core" faction space as well as the space/fleet production of other pirate sub-factions. Sub factions might be created spontaneously when there is room for them, or be destroyed as another sub-faction defeats them. When a sub-faction starts to control a large portion of the total pirate faction, you could start seeing larger, more well-funded and coordinated attacks from the pirates because the pirates are "wasting" less time fighting each other. This leads to other things like wanting to keep an eye on internal pirate politics and seeing that a sub-faction is gaining a lot of momentum. If one sub-faction is gaining an advantage you might want to dip in and destabilize that faction to keep things from escalating, or build defensive fleets to prepare for the inevitable assault.

[SonnaBanana]

Factions could use a unity stat.

The lower the unity, the more you have to do to gain or lose reputation with a faction. Factions with a low enough unity stat can have fleets attacking fleets from the same faction.

[Kriby]

-Guess you can't delete posts-

[Twilight Sentinel]

The other way to do it is scrapping a global pirate faction, and instead have gangs that emerge and are destroyed over time.  There's a sector wide pirate activity score increased by black market activity and hostilities between major factions (hiring mercenaries and funding privateers), which is used to spawn new pirate gangs and increase their power.  When a gang loses its last base, that pirate gang is gone for good.

A gang is something you deal with on its own.  Do missions and raise relations with them somehow?  You get reputation with that gang only.  That way you don't just instantly get hated by all pirates if you fight them at all and making friends with one gang doesn't remove all pirates as a foe.

Selling particular items on the black market can be bought by one of these gangs, so such an act can be 'undone' by eliminating that gang or stealing the item from them.  Successful raids could also lead to them having new blueprints in their possession that the player could get that way instead.  It also means that a particular pirate gang can become the scourge of the sector and taking them down is a huge moment for the player with big rewards.

[sector_terror]

The other way to do it is scrapping a global pirate faction, and instead have gangs that emerge and are destroyed over time.  There's a sector wide pirate activity score increased by black market activity and hostilities between major factions (hiring mercenaries and funding privateers), which is used to spawn new pirate gangs and increase their power.  When a gang loses its last base, that pirate gang is gone for good.

A gang is something you deal with on its own.  Do missions and raise relations with them somehow?  You get reputation with that gang only.  That way you don't just instantly get hated by all pirates if you fight them at all and making friends with one gang doesn't remove all pirates as a foe.

Selling particular items on the black market can be bought by one of these gangs, so such an act can be 'undone' by eliminating that gang or stealing the item from them.  Successful raids could also lead to them having new blueprints in their possession that the player could get that way instead.  It also means that a particular pirate gang can become the scourge of the sector and taking them down is a huge moment for the player with big rewards.

A good idea, and a solution to blueprint selling. But, I think you may have forgotten the current .95 development. This works as we have it right now but contacts need a "permanent" faction to stick with far as we've seen. They might be able to swap over with the right proggraming, maybe, but it comes to deep concern if you can suddenly lose a major criminal contact. Though perhaps that only makes it mroe valuable, who knows.

[Toxo]

I think pirates should be split up or reworked, too.
It simply doesn't make sense that the same guys who raid planets and trade convoys are the same ppl that run big, sector-wide-known space stations that every military would just need to walk over and blast to smithereens, and are also the same guys that venture out into deep space to salvage ruins and ancient debris fields.

The ludic path f.e. is a good start for a ideology-driven, planet raiding terrorist faction, preying on the weak for profit, to fund their war against heretics. They are basically Cesars Legion in Space.
Pirates as a Faction however shouldn't be even in the game. Hear me out on this:
Mercenary fleets should just become an opportunistic wildcard, turning hostile when they see a fighting chance against you, and / or the potential profit you're hauling makes it too god of an opportunity to ignore. They also wouldn't want to straight attack you, since that easily would sour their profits with refits and repairs, but rather try to intimidate you and offering you to pay your way out of the situation. Who knows, they might even tug their tail between their legs, if you tell them "No" with some REALLY big barrels pointing their direction.
The rest of the time they just pose as neutral, law abiding mercs for hire, even offering you to hire them as escorts for yourself or your colonies. How you interact with them should only affect your reputation with the captain of that fleet. Got some favor with him? Don't get attacked by his fleet. If he likes your nose, he might offer his escort services for a discount.
Core Pirate stations should be handed over to the neutral Faction. Free ports that attract smugglers, mercs, and ludic path goons, which all come with the accompanying trouble and opportunities they offer. Attack these stations, and *** off everyone that likes free, unregulated trade.
Ludic path stations should still spawn and try to raid your colonies if they hate your guts, but spawning merc stations should just pop up, 1 station per stellar cluster over time, if there is a colony nearby, and make your life more difficult and/or interesting by the traffic and "customers" they attract.

Last but not least the 100% of the time hostile Scavangers. Corpse pickers that spend most of their time in some deep space debris field, or right off the sides of some mayor battles, to scrap whatever leftovers and escape pods they can find. If they see you, you're either to big to swallow, or up next on the platter. Usually spotted as small scraping fleets, that will occasionally stalk you and call on more / bigger fleets to overwhelm you, to put your head on pikes as trophies for their hulls. They don't trade, they don't negotiate. Either they flee, stalk, or attack.

Anyways, these a re my 2 cents on the matter.
Maybe also a good theme for a mod?

[Embolism]

The problem with making pirate stations part of the independents is that the pirate and independent factions are used in some places to simulate enmity between independent polities (well, really just Kanta's Den and Nova Maxios).

[Twilight Sentinel]

The problem with making pirate stations part of the independents is that the pirate and independent factions are used in some places to simulate enmity between independent polities (well, really just Kanta's Den and Nova Maxios).

Arguably the independents shouldn't be a single faction either.  Instead being a collection of minor factions with various platforms and relations with the major ones.  The player's relationship with independents could instead be their popular reputation in the sector or a particular system.

[Toxo]

Well, if the Neutral Faction is unfit for hosting them, you could still set up a fitting faction for them. Like a freetrader league, Varying shade-of-grey merc companies, or just hand them over to tri tachion. They are as liberal as it gets in their trade policies anyways. You could also make them truly independent, by not tracking their faction reputation globally at all. Just another individual "captain" running that station, which tracks your reputation with each spawning station individually.
Don't like your new neighbors? blow them out of the water, if you can...

[Embolism]

I mean, if you want to have granularity then the best way to go about it would be to make every independent and pirate polity its own faction, with the majority of "independent" and "pirate" fleets  being faction-less and their behaviour towards you determined by your reputation towards the fleet's admiral (which would only work if NPC characters are persistent in some way... something I'd love to see!).

Could even take this a step further and make each Persean League system its own faction as well, with special mechanics to ensure they hold the same foreign policy (but allow intra-League disputes).

[Megas]

I would like to see the Indies less monolithic.  When I start sat bombing major factions (i.e., not the indies) as retribution for repeated war crimes against my faction, the entire Indie monolith effectively declares war against my faction and join with my enemies, sticking their noses in a conflict they cannot win.  They become targets to sat bomb and exterminate along with the major factions for getting in the way.  Some of the indies should act neutral and stay out of the fight unless attacked directly.

Currently, New Maxios in Magec feels like the capital world for all of the Indies and their seat of power.

As for Persean League, they feel like Hegemony #2, or the anti-Hegemony Hegemony.

As for pirates, I would not mind them being monolithic if they were changed into flesh-eating zombies that they act as.  In the current release, they behave more like zombies or demons than pirates.  Actually, it would be nice if pirates were split into two major pirate factions, the zombie/demon side that self-resurrects and care only about killing everything and behave as they do now (and change their monologues to craving brains, souls, or something insane, and bloody up their mugshots), and the robber side that behaves more like Luddic Path in demanding some tribute (but keep their current pirate-y monologues).

[intrinsic_parity]

I've brought up similar suggestions before (https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=17955.msg289323#msg289323). I personally think that there should be relationships with commanders at each planet/station that determine the behavior of patrols and access to markets, and then the characteristics of the faction determine how much those commander relationships are influenced by the central faction relationship. Pirates/independents could be nearly or entirely de-centralized in that system.

[JUDGE! slowpersun]

As for pirates, I would not mind them being monolithic if they were changed into flesh-eating zombies that they act as.  In the current release, they behave more like zombies or demons than pirates.  Actually, it would be nice if pirates were split into two major pirate factions, the zombie/demon side that self-resurrects and care only about killing everything and behave as they do now (and change their monologues to craving brains, souls, or something insane, and bloody up their mugshots), and the robber side that behaves more like Luddic Path in demanding some tribute (but keep their current pirate-y monologues).

At least splitting the pirate faction into regular pirates and a non-copyright infringement version of Firefly's Reavers could lead to interesting results, although I would still maintain that there should still be multiple regular pirate factions/gangs, but only one "Reaver" faction that is truly permanently hostile to all factions and really "Hostis humani generis," (not just Golden age of piracy pirates that would usually just take your stuff, and maybe enslave or murder you).   That would certainly at least delineate some of the rep loss issues, and add some additional flavor to the exploration side of the game.  Whether one or both types spawn those random pirate bases is still up for debate.

As for basing market access and patrol behavior on individual relationships with a planet or station commander instead of general faction rep score, I assume the current paradigm was implemented in order to reduce CPU check load (although could also just be a coding issue).  Whether the suggestion would be better prolly at least deserves testing, since player should start as essentially neutral to all commanders.  I also am assuming in your system that rep loss/gain with commanders would at least partially be pegged/influenced by rep loss/gain with that commander's subordinates, with overall faction rep loss/gain weighted more to commanders, but also still taking into account merchant missions etc. (ie, delivering heavy armaments to a station quartermaster would also slightly bump commander rep, and therefore add slightly more faction rep than dropping off volatiles with some merchant).  Doing any missions directly for a station commander would bump rep the most, while raiding/bombarding would still be crazy hostile (since kidnapping and ransom isn't yet an option).  However, since faction rep isn't decimalized, might lead to rounding issues.