Factions

There are several Factions in Starsector which the player can interact with.

These factions control multiple colonies in the Core Worlds, whether it be a planet, a station, or a planet with an associated station.

These colonies also features markets that the player can interact with. They would also spawn Independents fleets or fleets of the respective faction, mainly Trade convoys or Patrol fleets.

By default at the start of each playthrough, all factions are Neutral to the player except the Pirates and the Luddic Path, who start as Hostile.

Gameplay

Relationship Tiers

Each faction has a defined relationship with the player and other factions. The default, Neutral stance allows basic interactions such as trade with the faction.

A more positive relationship will give a range of bonuses including reduced chances of investigations into criminal activity, and access to military markets. Conversely, increasingly negative relations will result in hostile behaviour.

The breakpoints values need to be exceeded; e.g. a relation of 50 to be Friendly.

Relationship Tiers
Range	Tier	Effects
100 / 75	Cooperative
74 / 50	Friendly
49 / 25	Welcoming
24 / 10	Favourable	Player can access Military Markets belonging to the faction.
9 / -9	Neutral
-10 / -24	Suspicious
-25 / -49	Inhospitable	The faction's markets will not permit the player's fleet to dock with the Transponder on.
-50 / -74	Hostile	The faction's fleets will now engage the player or respective faction.
-75 / -100	Vengeful

Modifying Reputation

The following player actions will raise reputation:

• Trading with the faction.
• Joining ongoing battles on the faction's side.
• Completing missions posted by the faction (e.g. Survey Planet, Analyze Entity, etc.).
• Fulfilling bounties posted by the faction (includes commission 'standing' bounties, as detailed below).
• Turning over AI Cores (only for factions that will accept them).

The following player actions will lower reputation:

• Smuggling / Trading on the Black Market with Transponder on.
• Trading with the faction's enemies, in systems where the faction has a presence (exception: Pirates, you can trade with enemies of the pirates without penalty).
• Being caught with the Transponder off in enforced System space.
• Being caught tampering with a Comm Relay.
• Seizing or destroying any faction-owned equipment such as Comm Relays, Nav Buoys, or Sensor Arrays, if the faction has an active presence in the same system as that equipment (causes instant Hostile (-50) status).
• Destroying faction ships, harrying their fleets, or raiding their markets (causes instant Hostile (-50) status if player identity is known, has certain exceptions).
• Catching fleets belonging to the faction with Interdiction Pulses.
• Bombardments (causes instant Hostile (-50) status, Tactical will cause reputation loss only with the targeted faction, Saturation will cause massive reputation loss with multiple factions).
• Inflicting non-insignificant damage through friendly-fire during a battle you joined.

Note that some of these actions will not modify the player's reputation beyond a certain point.

Commissions

The Hegemony, Tri-Tachyon, Luddic Church, Persean League, and Sindrian Diktat offer faction commissions.

Commissions will be cancelled by the faction if player relations with them drop to Suspicious (-10) or lower reputation level, and may be Resigned which partially restores reputation with most currently hostile factions and drops reputation with the now former commissioned faction. The reputation penalty for resigning is lower if done in-person via the colony's contact list.

Factions that do not issue Commissions do not require one to make purchases on the military submarket.

Perks:

• Immediate +5 Reputation increase.
• Monthly Stipends of 20,000¢ + (player level * 1,500¢).
• A permanent standing bounty that awards credits for destroying ships that belong to their enemies factions.
  • The amount multiplies for larger vessels (2x for destroyer, 3x for cruisers, 5x for capitals & stations)
  • This includes pirates, and can stack with System Bounties.
• Access to higher tiers of the factions' military submarkets, with more valuable ships and equipment becoming available at higher relation levels.

Drawbacks:

• All of the faction's enemies will become Hostile at a maximum -50 rep you whenever they are at active hostilities.
• When hostilities end, reputation will return to its previous value but with additional -20 rep penalty.

Faction Hostilities

At times, factions will declare war on each other for six months to a year, attacking each others' fleets. If the player holds a commission with either faction, they will be automatically made Hostile (-50) to the other faction; their reputation with the enemy will be restored to Neutral (0) when hostilities ends.

Do note that this also applies for initial hostilities, e.g. between Hegemony & Persean League League.

This doesn't applies for Pirates or the Luddic Path, they will always remain hostile with their enemies.

Colony Crises

Main article: Colony Crises

If the player starts their own Colony and meets certain conditions, they will start facing aggression over certain issues from these various factions that can be resolved in various ways.

Here's a cheat sheet on Colony Crises without going into too much details, for more information, seek out the main article:

Table of Colony Crises
Faction	Criteria	Aggression	Resolution	Rewards
Hegemony	AI Usage	AI Inspection Fleets	Defeat 3 sets of Fleets	Unfettered use of AI
Persean League	Player Colonies Size	System Blockade Fleet	Defeat the Fleet or join the Persean League	Reputation gain with the Hegemony & Independent (only by defeating the Blockade)
Luddic Church	Luddic Majority on Player Colony	Takeover Fleets	Defeat the Fleets	Luddic Majority Benefits Doubles
Tri-Tachyon	Commodities Competition	Mercenary Raid + Commerce Raiding	Deal with the Mercenaries + Destroy enough Tri-Tachyon assets	Possible Trade Agreement, increases Accessibility for both Tri-Tachyon & Player Colonies
Sindrian Diktat	Fuel Production Competition	Saturation Bombardment Fleets	Defeat the Fleets	25% Increased Fuel Export Income
Pirates	Player Colonies Exist	Raiding Fleets	Defeat the Fleets and/or make a deal with Jorien Kanta	10% / 20% Increased Accessibility (defeating the raid / making a deal with Kanta)
Luddic Path	Sufficient Tech Presence	Saturation Bombardment Fleets	Defeat the Fleets	All Luddic Path Cells are Disrupted for a while

Major Factions

Hegemony

Hegemony

Main article: Hegemony

The Hegemony is a militarized polity formed by the remnants of the Fourteenth Battlegroup that made their way to the Persean Sector after the Collapse. They consider themselves to be the stand-in representative of the Domain and all the other populated worlds to be part of it, until the day that the Gates open up again and the Domain returns.

Their worlds are located in the eastern portion of the Core Worlds. They primarily use low-tech ships, but special Fourteenth Battlegroup variants of the founding fleets' designs can also be found.

Persean League

Persean League

Main article: Persean League

The Persean League is a large alliance of planets founded to oppose the heavy hand of the Hegemony, united to maintain their own independence. Though each member is generally allowed their own internal independence, they are still at the beck & call of the upper class of Kazeron, whose vast Ship Hulls & Weapons production gives them significant politcal levarage over the other members.

Their worlds are mainly located in the northwestern portion of the Core Worlds, though also go out to the northeast. They primarily uses midline ships and utilize DEM missile.

Luddic Church

Luddic Church

Main article: Luddic Church

The Luddic Church is a religious movement consisting of various united sects that's founded shortly after the Collapse. They revere a figure by the name of Ludd and their teaching of pacifism, asceticism and rejection of technology usage for an idyllic agrarian lifestyle. Luddites believed that for their activism, Ludd was imprisoned and transferred through the Gate system, consequentually leading to the Collapse and thus, giving humanity a chance for redemption from their technological shackles.

Their worlds is located in the southwestern section of the Core Worlds. They primarily use low-tech ships separate from the Hegemony.

Tri-Tachyon

Tri-Tachyon

Main article: Tri-Tachyon

Tri-Tachyon is one of the few corporations that survived the Collapse in the Persean Sector and the only one with multi-planet holdings. They led AI Core research & development before the Collapse, of which the right over its usage led to the First & Second AI War.

Their worlds & stations is mainly located in the northern portion of the Core Worlds with a station to the south. They primarily use high-tech ships, and thus also use more phase ships than the other factions.

Sindrian Diktat

Sindrian Diktat

Main article: Sindrian Diktat

The Sindrian Diktat is a military dictatorship located entirely within the Askonia Star System and is the Persean Sector's biggest fuel producer. It is founded by former Hegemony admiral & hero, Philip Andrada, after an attempted intervention in the Askonia System went wrong with the complete destruction of its capital of Opis.

They is located in the centre of the Core Worlds, primarily use midline ships and also their own special variants with Special Modifications.

Independent

Independents

Main article: Independent

The Independents is a loose collection of the various neutral / independent polities of the Persean Sector and also consists of smugglers, independent trade convoys, mercenary fleets, prospectors & scavengers.

Their worlds are found all over the Core Worlds. Compared to the other factions, they utilize the entire tech spectrum of ships except for faction-specific variants.

Pirates

Pirates

Main article: Pirates

Pirates are a vague group of mercenaries, raiders & criminals encompassing the Underworld of the Persean Sector, attacking trade convoys opportunistically. They are hostile to almost all other factions (the somewhat exception is the Luddic Path), and are often the target of bounties. Most respect the Pirate Queen Jorien Kanta, who has built herself a dynasty within the Underworld and can generally be considered to be their "leader".

Their worlds & stations are located all over the Core Worlds, and sometimes in uninhabited systems with Pirate Bases for raiding organization. They primarily use low-tech ships, some of which have been modified into Pirate variants with varying differences from the original version, a majority of which are weaker 1-to-1 due to being a "Technicals" or lacking stronger weapons to outfit them.

Luddic Path

Luddic Path

Main article: Luddic Path

The Luddic Path is a radical Luddic splinter group from the Luddic Church that considers the main church to be too weak & compromising. They seek & attempt to destroy "ungodly" technology through violent means, setting up Pather Cells on planets with enough technological development to earn their ire. Though largely decentralized, they consider Livewell Cotton to be their greatest leading figure.

Their worlds are located in the centre of the Core Worlds, and like Pirates would also set-up Luddic Path Bases in uninhabited systems to support the Pather Cells. They primarily use low-tech ships, most of which have been modified into Luddic Path variants with significant differences, mainly due to the built-in Safety Overrides & Ill-Advised Modifications.

Other Factions

Derelicts

Domain Exploration Derelict

Main article: Domain Exploration Derelict

The Derelicts are the leftover drones from the Domain's efforts in exploring the Persean Sector, located in some of the uninhabited systems beyond the Core Worlds. They consist solely of low-tech drones, often with high amounts of D-mods due to the centuries spent in dormancy and sometimes have Gamma Core as an officer. They are usually found guarding Derelict probes, survey ships & motherships.

Remnants

Remnants

Main article: Remnants

The Remnants are the leftover "assets" from the 1st AI War originally created by Tri-Tachyon, located in some of the uninhabited systems beyond the Core Worlds, denoted by the warning beacon outside the system in Hyperspace. They consist solely of high-tech drones and can have all the different AI Cores as an officer, varying between sizes & different groups. They will actively patrol the systems they are located in, with the higher danger ones supported by a Remnant Nexus.

Omega

Main article: Omega

	"query. query. query target. is omega? omega? no. revert function."
– [REDACTED] over com link

Minor & Inactive Factions

The Domain

The Domain of Man

The Domain was a massive multi-system polity that spanned a good amount of the Orion Arm that started colonization efforts in the Persean Sector, until all contact was lost when the Gates shutdown during the Collapse. Almost all technology ~ whether ships, weapons, etc. ~ are either its legacy or built upon its remains.

The Domain as a faction doesn't appear in the game, as it's extinct in the Persean Sector, though the Hegemony can be considered its effective successor..

Corporations

Altair Exotech

Altair Exotech

Altair Exotect is a shipwright company and designed the "Cruiser School" ships like the Pegasus, Champion, Gryphon, Heron and Vigilance. Also licensed the Odyssey to frontier companies such as Eridani-Utopia. Has no surviving presence in the Persean Sector post-Collapse.

Altair is a medieval abbreviation for an Arabic phrase meaning the "flying eagle", and the name of the twelfth brightest star in the night sky.

From the color scheme and the similar function of being explorations vessels to the Odyssey it can reasonably assumed that the Apogee is also a product of Altair Exotech.

Bhilai Astra Group

Bhilai Astra Group (also known as the Bhilai Space Group or Bhilai Exospace) is a weapons manufacterer and was a key supplier to the 200th Legion. They were the original designers of both the Ion Pulser & Ion Beam. The fragments that survived the Collapse now serves the Hegemony Navy.

Bhilai is a city in eastern central India and is a major industrial center. Astra is the accusative plural of Astrum meaning star in Latin.

Eridani Utopia

Eridani-Utopia Terraforming Corporation

Eridani-Utopia is a terraforming megacorporation dedicated to transforming suitable planets into habitable worlds. They designed & created the Stellar Mirrors & Stellar Shades, Autonomous Mantle Bore & Soil Nanites. Defunct after the collapse, stranded elements of the corporation managed to terraform Qaras.

Known planets that Eridani-Utopia was developing/developed:

• Barad, Garnir Extraction Depot (Corvus). Built mass drivers to export volatiles to feed terraforming efforts on Asharu.
• Asharu (Corvus). In the process of terraforming before the Collapse using ice from Barad for water and Stellar Shades negate the heat.
• Kapteyn Starworks (Isirah). Built to serve the corporation's needs.
• Gilead (Canann). Successfully stabilized the climate and ecological processes after initial spore ship seeding. Was occupied by the Luddic Church after the Collapse.
• Ithaca (Penelope's Star). Intended to be terraformed before the Collapse threw the sector into chaos.
• Ogygia (Penelope's Star). Was to be terraformed with it's sibling Ithaca.
• Yama (Naraka). Was terraformed and colonized to support Nachiketa fuel refinement.
• Qaras (Yma). Terraformed Post-Collapse by remnants of the corporation.

Eridanus is a constellation in the southern hemisphere, often depicted as a flowing river in ancient star maps. Its Greek name may have originated from the Kengir/Sumerian city of Nunki/Eridu, one of the earliest Mesopotamian cities. Utopia is a phrase coined by English writer Thomas Moore from Greek meaning "no place", and is commonly now used when describing impossibly perfect societies.

Exodyne Biotech

Exodyne Biotech is a corporation presumably for biological technology who created the Biofactory Embryo. Post-Collapse status in the Persean Section unknown, though presumably destroyed.

Fabrique Orbitale

Fabrique Orbitale is a manufacturing company and an old rival Tri-Tachyon. They created the Kite-class shuttle, the Fullerene Spool, the Plasma Dynamo, and the Terminator Drone's chassis and systems. No longer exists in the Persean Sector post-Collapse.

Fabrique is French and means a place where things are manufactured.

GA-X Industries

GA-X Industries is a corporation who manufactured the Assault Chaingun. Post-Collapse status in the Persean Section unknown, though presumably destroyed.

Interstellar Dynamics

A Domain-era corporation, only mentioned in the Timeline. Destroyed in the Persean Sector after the Collapse.

Ko-Combine

Ko Combine

Ko Combine is an industrial corporation with a post-Collapse presence in the Persean Sector. They are the creators of the civilian drone tender Shepherd, the experimental Monitor frigate, the Catalytic Core, and the Combat Drone Replicators. The Free Star Combine, a subsidiary of the Ko Combine, purchased the rediscovered Mark IX Autocannon blueprints and built a prototype.

Ko Combine has purchased administration rights to the Barren World Agreus in the Arcadia Star System, rebuilding their fortune on shipbreaking and reconstruction.

Mbaye-Gogol

Mbaye-Gogol Autofab (MGA)

Mbaye-Gogol Autofab is a manufacturing company that created the Dealmaker Holosuite, the MGA-440 Starliner, the MGA-430 Nebula and the MGA-220 Pegasus/Mudskipper and 2 models of Explorarium drones: the Defender and the Bastillon.

A portion of its directorate that was stranded in the Persean Sector survived the Collapse in uncertain ways and is rumored to rule over Nomios & its Cryosanctum in the Arcadia system.

Mbaye is a Senegalese given name that can also be a family name. Gogol was the last name of Nikolai Gogol, a Russian novelist of Ukrainian descent and was one of the first to use the technique of the grotesque.

Known in pre-0.95.1 versions as Huan-Gogel Autofab (HGA).

Orion Shipyards

Orion Shipyards

Orion Shipyard are a ship-manufacturing company that produced some of the heavier ships in the Domain navy. They designed the Drover and had a rivalry with Altair Exotech in naval procurement for the Domain navy. Post-Collapse status in the Persean Section unknown, though presumably destroyed.

Orion is a prominent constellation, named after the giant huntsman of Greek legend who was venerated as a hero.

Administrations

Askonian Polity

The Askonian Polity was the original polity that ruled the Askonia Star System from the capital moon of Opis which orbited the Gas Giant Salus. The Askonia Crisis started in c+180, a civil war over domestic issues, potential Persean League membership and various outside interference.

In c+181, the Hegemony deploys an intervention fleet led by admiral Philip Andrada to counteract any potential Persean League expansion. Opis was destroyed by a Planetkiller by unknown perpetrators, leading to immediate chaos, after which Andrada forms the Sindrian Diktat with the aid of most of the Hegemony intervention fleet.

Surviving remnants of the polity formed the Askonian Revolutionary Council based on Umbra, and have been actively fighting the Sindrian Diktat as freedom fighters or terrorists, depending on who you ask.

Maxios Charter

The original polity of Maxios in the Magec Star System that evacuated the world in c+5 as the terraforming project fails. The survivors settled a mining station in the Guayota Disk and re-organized as Nova Maxios.

Mayasuran Terraforming Cabal

The Mayasuran Terraforming Cabal was a once powerful polity that rules Mayasura of the Mayasura Star System. It was annihilated in c+82 when the Luddic Path sabotaged one of its 3 astropolis to drop on the planet, killing millions, after which the Hegemony victoriously attacks the Mayasurian navy & temporarily holds the system.

In response to this, the Persean League was formed in c+83 to protect its own independent sovereignty, which Mayasura later becomes part of.

Up to date for latest version, 0.97a.