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[oranoron]

Don't know if this came up before in this thread but did you take inspiration from the Foundation series of novels. There are a few key similarities.

[kazi]

Actually, yes. I love those books... mainly the first one. Although I had a little bit of a different idea when I started, I'm definitely moving in that direction. The end result will behave much like a hybrid between Asimov’s Foundation and the modern-day Islamic Republic of Iran.

Here's a bit more faction background story/slight lore rewrite for those interested. Probably way more than anyone asked for, but it will hopefully be useful as a guideline for other mods’ faction relationships and that kind of thing (since that is apparently happening waaayyy sooner than I thought). It might work its way into a story/plotline if it ever becomes possible to implement something like that… *cough* *cough*

Spoiler

The Mayorate is a society organized around a single long-term goal: the continuation of human life in the sector and by extent, the galaxy. Barring outside intervention or a major change in sector affairs, simulations predict the complete and total extinction of human life throughout the sector within less than 400 years. Known resource deposits are nearly depleted. The biospheres of most terraformed planets are slowly collapsing from overharvesting and a lack of Domain-era know how. Amidst it all, the sector’s various factions continue to war over token bits of power and technology – often not even understanding how their weapons continue to function in the first place. Drastic action is required to stave off the slow but inexorable decent into total anarchy.

The Mayorate leadership intends to forestall and prevent this collapse by any and all means at its disposal. All power will be concentrated in the hands of several all-powerful corporate monopolies, the Mayorate military establishment, and a state church that espouses the understanding of technology and unswerving loyalty to the greater good. Freedom of the press and most forms of political dissent are ruthlessly, ah… “discouraged.” If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. This attitude has ensured the Mayorate remains more or less a pariah in sector politics. Although many view the Mayorate as a destabilizing influence, it believes itself committed to advancing humanity’s best interests and is one of the few factions actively conducting new research and development in the sector. This hasn’t stopped them from attempting to eradicate anyone who disagrees with them, however.

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Relationships with other factions (core):

Spoiler

Hegemony: a long and very dirty war
Viewing it as a destabilizing influence (and rightly so), the Hegemony has tried to wipe out the Mayorate on a number of occasions. Mayorate warships occasionally slip through Hegemony defenses and glass a planet. It’s doubtful these two will stop shooting at each other anytime soon.

Tri-Tachyon: co-conspirators
The Tri-Tachyon Corporation actively arms the Mayorate as a means of waging a proxy war with the Hegemony. Mayorate agents and lobbyists have infiltrated the Tri-Tachyon Corporation and wield significant influence at its highest levels. It’s not entirely clear who’s using whom. 

Sindrian Diktat: neutral
The two factions share little contact beyond regular trade and the occasional cordial diplomatic exchange. Brutal, autocratic regimes have to stick together, right?

Independent worlds: intense distrust
It would be out of character if the Mayorate didn’t attempt the occasional coup or annexation of neighboring systems every once in a while.

Pirates: relatively friendly
The Mayorate funds “privateers” extensively to disrupt and weaken rival factions throughout the sector. Strangely enough, Mayorate-flagged vessels never seem to be targeted by pirates. Hmmmmm…

Church/Knights of Ludd: intense dislike/occasional shooting
They don’t like each other. Besides, “Ludd” is a silly name.

Path of Ludd: cooperation/conflict depending on the circumstances
Although they occupy opposite ends of the political spectrum, the Mayorate and Path of Ludd both claim to work towards humanity’s salvation. Occasionally they unite to destroy a common enemy. It’s a pity they still see each other as heretics.

[close]

Relationships with other modded factions (just UsS for now since there are so freaking many mods out there). Feel free to suggest a correction if you think one of these is out of line (I did my best to be faction lore-friendly). Factions not listed are neutral/neutral-hostile.

Spoiler

Exigency Incorporated: enigmatic
Like most factions in the sector, the Mayorate has no political or economic contact with Exigency at any level. They shoot each other on sight (just to be on the safe side).

Nomads: dislike
The Mayorate has little regard for this faction that flits from place to place, depleting local resources and then moving on. Nomad ships caught draining Mayorate planets or supplies will be fired upon.

Shadowyards Heavy Industries: distrust
SHI generally dislikes large, centrally organized, organizations who seek to dominate the sector. This includes the Mayorate. Scandal erupted recently when a prominent Mayorate official commented on how much nicer the sector map would look if Anar used the same color as the Mayorate.

ASP Syndicate: neutral
*SPOILER ALERT* The Mayorate has been known to ship packages from time to time. *SPOILER ALERT* (outrageous, I know… )

Blackrock Drive Yards: cold war
The Mayorate views Blackrock’s adoption of unknown and untested alien technology as a ticking bomb with unpleasant implications for the sector. The Blackrock Interstellar Authority frowns upon certain Mayorate practices (including but not limited to wiping out planets and the technological enslavement of minds). Borders remain tense.

Junk Pirates: ambivalent
Although the Junk Pirates and Mayorate dislike each other, they share many of the same enemies (and taste in fine liquor). They are fine with allowing each other to exist… for now^TM.

Ahriman Association: cooperative (as long as they’re not backstabbing one another)
The Mayorate pays well for samples of Exigency technology to dissect and analyze. Deals have been known to go bad from time to time (but they try not to let that get in the way of things).

The Pack: no contact
These two societies have had little contact and don’t have a reason to start shooting each other yet.

[close]

[MesoTroniK]

I like that post Kazi, thank you for making it. A couple of thoughts though, it would be more legit to refer to Exigency as the "Exigency Corporation", this also reminds me that I should add the Mayorate to the Ahriman Association's neutral list for the upcoming patch.

Also, I think it is time for some kind of more official mod embassy post; especially with .65 SS creeping up on us

[kazi]

Done! http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=8160.0

I was thinking of making that "open source art" thread I mentioned awhile back as well. 

[MesoTroniK]

Nice, thank you Kazi!

Also I hope to see you on Skype maybe sometime ever again

[kazi]

ah getting on in a second

[ValkyriaL]

Thinking of writing a few lines on that thread myself, just not sure what yet, my factions lore isn't really all that thought through. XD

and how come you don't speak with me anymore meso? its been 4 whole days! =(

[kazi]

New version soon(-ish).

DarkRevenant did a pretty serious overhaul of this mod's code and balance, adding SS+ compatibility in the process. The Mayorate will soon be faster, stronger (actually it got nerfed a bit), and better-looking than ever before!

A few new features as well, like material maps and normal maps. I thought I had the normals working before, but I was being an idiot and wasn't actually having ShaderLib read my texture data. 

[JDCollie]

New version soon(-ish).

DarkRevenant did a pretty serious overhaul of this mod's code and balance, adding SS+ compatibility in the process. The Mayorate will soon be faster, stronger (actually it got nerfed a bit), and better-looking than ever before!

A few new features as well, like material maps and normal maps. I thought I had the normals working before, but I was being an idiot and wasn't actually having ShaderLib read my texture data.  

I'm still holding out for a large weapon slot PPC. I vote for calling it the Asmodeus and having it be three chaingun style PPC receivers allowing it to purge the unclean in a hailstorm of purifying plasma!

I'm excited to see the balance changes, even if they did nerf the glorious Inquisiti-- I mean Mayorate, though beyond the obviously overpowered nukes, I'm not sure what really needed to be changed. (Then again, I don't know where the stock Mayorate differ from the UsS version)


Also, the Mayorate need a space flamethrower. Just sayin'.

( I love this mod, can you tell? )

[Dark.Revenant]

We buffed the Phoenix II, Light Graser, and Belial PPC (but made it more OP-expensive).  Inanna and Raad wings also got buffed with a smaller logistics hit.
Laserhead, Flux Torpedo, Graser PD, and Light TPC all got nerfed.  Graser was scaled down to be worth less OP, cost less flux, and deal proportionally less damage, so it didn't do things it wasn't supposed to (like trick the AI to lower shields and keel over dead).  Tornado AM was completely redesigned; it's more powerful than before on a direct hit but is now actually registered as a threat by the AI and won't kill three frigates at a time like it did before.  Cimeterre, Foraker, Safir, Safir B, Del Azarchel, and Ravana all have increased supplies/day.

There are a lot more changes besides this but hopefully this clears something up.

Also, the Mayorate need a space flamethrower. Just sayin'.

Oh, that's coming to UsS anyway because I made one for SS+.

[JDCollie]

We buffed the Phoenix II, Light Graser, and Belial PPC (but made it more OP-expensive).  Inanna and Raad wings also got buffed with a smaller logistics hit.
Laserhead, Flux Torpedo, Graser PD, and Light TPC all got nerfed.  Graser was scaled down to be worth less OP, cost less flux, and deal proportionally less damage, so it didn't do things it wasn't supposed to (like trick the AI to lower shields and keel over dead).  Tornado AM was completely redesigned; it's more powerful than before on a direct hit but is now actually registered as a threat by the AI and won't kill three frigates at a time like it did before.  Cimeterre, Foraker, Safir, Safir B, Del Azarchel, and Ravana all have increased supplies/day.

There are a lot more changes besides this but hopefully this clears something up.

Those changes make sense, honestly. I'm sad about the graser, but I have seen the AI do just as you've said. I assume the RoF has remained the same given the OP cost decrease?

Also, the Mayorate need a space flamethrower. Just sayin'.

Oh, that's coming to UsS anyway because I made one for SS+.

[kazi]

That's adorable JD haha...

Yeah the changes make a lot of sense. After playing with them a bit (although I haven't really done any testing in campaign yet  ), things feel similar to before, although with a bit less effortless steamroll (which is a good thing). Probably my favorite feature is the updated Cimeterre sprite. I'm a bit of a graphics snob and stopped using that ship somewhat just because I didn't like the old rear wing area.

The graser is still quite powerful (if not more so now actually, b/c it got a bit of extra range). Although it still seems to cause the AI to drop shields. I think what's happening is that when targets reach max flux in a "soft" manner (like from a beam), they shields automatically drop to prevent an overload. I kind of think that's a "feature" rather than a bug (it's usually a lot better to tank the damage than have your ship disabled for like 10 seconds). It happens less now because the burst damage isn't quite so high, but I think it's just default shield behaviour when confronted with lots of beam damage.

I've been briefly sidetracked writing some more music for MesoTroniK, but am otherwise still making slow albeit steady progress.

[JDCollie]

The graser is still quite powerful (if not more so now actually, b/c it got a bit of extra range). Although it still seems to cause the AI to drop shields. I think what's happening is that when targets reach max flux in a "soft" manner (like from a beam), they shields automatically drop to prevent an overload. I kind of think that's a "feature" rather than a bug (it's usually a lot better to tank the damage than have your ship disabled for like 10 seconds). It happens less now because the burst damage isn't quite so high, but I think it's just default shield behaviour when confronted with lots of beam damage.

I've been playing the Daily Dev version of UsS, and I'm not sure why, but it feels like the AI is significantly more competent in flux management. Perhaps they won't be quite so susceptible to Graser blitzing anymore? 

[Uomoz]

The graser is still quite powerful (if not more so now actually, b/c it got a bit of extra range). Although it still seems to cause the AI to drop shields. I think what's happening is that when targets reach max flux in a "soft" manner (like from a beam), they shields automatically drop to prevent an overload. I kind of think that's a "feature" rather than a bug (it's usually a lot better to tank the damage than have your ship disabled for like 10 seconds). It happens less now because the burst damage isn't quite so high, but I think it's just default shield behaviour when confronted with lots of beam damage.

I've been playing the Daily Dev version of UsS, and I'm not sure why, but it feels like the AI is significantly more competent in flux management. Perhaps they won't be quite so susceptible to Graser blitzing anymore? 

That's part of the new vet AI from DR it works for all the AI ships in the game as well!

[JDCollie]

That's part of the new vet AI from DR it works for all the AI ships in the game as well!

Well, it works wonders; the AI feel a lot more dangerous now that they don't keeps such a Scrooge McDuck-like grip on their flux.