I am considering Faction creation and have begun to organize. Can any Faction Leaders/owners out there give me any helpful advice. My faction will start small and poor. Any help would be appreciated.
Hello Mr. Pau, starting a faction seems to be easy, the difficult part is to keep it going and to actually offer something to all sentients on the galaxy. That is never easy, but if you provide a good service clients will come and for my experience they keep pretty loyal.
Also as important as that is the group you are, surround yourself of people you know you can trust is key to a good faction environment . Keep the members occupied it they will quite or go inactive.
Keep recruiting because we never know what can happen tomorrow.
So it's not easy being a faction owner/leader but can be a good experience if you have the correct attitude Mr. Pau.
That was my five cents, hope it can help you in some point :)
My best regards.
I'd advice start as Non-Faction Group. Its not easy to make it out as a faction. Obi Wan is right its not easy to keep it going, and even more so keep your people interested in working with/for you. If you do not have the funds, don't try to be a faction just for sake of being one, it can be costly to maintain the shell.
I don't know how long you have been playing, but I would consider gaining lots of experience first. Join an existing faction, work your way to the command positions, and I really mean work your way up, if someone just gives it to you, you won't learn anything. And then if you are still confident you can do a good job as a leader, make a faction. By that time you should have funds too to be independent.
Personally I waited almost three years before even considering running a faction myself. And I am glad I did, because I had the time to learn and see what people were doing wrong so I could avoid it.
I would also add that you should consider the "why" of creating a faction, as that might help you decide whether an NFG is a more appropriate choice. Why do you want to create the faction? What is it going to do for you, for the people it employs, and the people it sells to? If your faction is of a type that is very prolific (ie production/mining), do you have some kind of plan to gain enough of an income to make the Faction worth the expense and maintenance costs? Further, if the faction is not unique, are you entering a flooded market?
Like Lilith, I find, in general, if you're dedicated enough to run your own faction, you're dedicated enough to rise far in a larger faction that might need trustworthy leaders and active players. Perhaps consider taking your "small and poor" group and offering your services to another faction that has a mindset similar to your own, and in which you can flourish. You can often get all the experience of running a faction within a Nationalized faction of a larger group. It takes time to work your way up, as very few of the worthwhile groups to partner with will just Give you leadership roles off the bat, but I strongly believe it's worth it in the end.
As far as Practical advice when running a faction? Management and Organizational skills are key. I love my spreadsheets, and I hate that Inventory Export has lost its ProductionETA column. Learn to use the tools that the Devs have spent so much time coding for us, and make it as easy as possible for yourself to manage your faction and its assets. When designing systems to organize work, consider what works now AND what will work later when you grow.
Thanks for the response all. Against my better judgement I probably will go ahead with creation in the near future. Definitely some things to consider after reading your posts. I understand there is a degree of risk on several fronts when starting a faction but I think that is part of the attraction. Teetering on the edge of survival adds a bit of excitement!
While we are on the subject..I was reviewing the faction creation page and comparing the pro's and con's between the different faction types.
When reviewing the required capital for faction creation...
70M seems high for a Pirate faction when you consider a Smuggler faction requires 40M but has the ability to produce Ryl, Death sticks etc.. The only thing a pirate faction has is a Labor Camp where you can recruit slavers, which seems redundant when both factions already can construct Slave Markets.
Is the difference more for RP consideration.. i.e. you would expect Pirates to be more wealthy than smugglers?
This is where being a member of a faction for a while helps you. No one rally buys ryll and death sticks and such. Plus you need to learn about mats and why the are important. You also need to ask yourself how will you pay your faction members? What is going to be your services? Can you afford to float your company for a few months while producing whatever it is you are going to sale. Most ships and vehicles takes weeks and sometimes months just to produce one. Do you have land, factories...etc.
Point is if you just start a faction to be able to say hey I am a faction leader, then you will be broke and out of business with in a month maybe two. Just a little fyi for you.
dont forget the IC meaning in choice of faction type too. i mean pirates is pirates, dont be suprised if some people will not like your group by default etc etc.
The faction assets are sold to the market for their current market value, after a random delay between 7 and 31 days for each asset. Specific factions assets (see list in Factions: Faction Assets) will be destroyed after being sold. NPCs owned by the faction become owned by the supervisor, manager (if there is no supervisor) or become unowned if there is no manager and supervisor. The value of Raw Materials in the faction is not included. The money gathered with the selling is called the bankrupt capital. Each player owning some stocks of the faction will receive some money as follow. If one owns X stocks, then one will receive:
Equations
Money = (Bankrupt Capital * Owned Stocks) / Total Number of Stocks for that Faction
Each faction member will be notified of the faction dissolution and they will be listed as "neutral". Then the faction will be deleted and will disappear from the factions list. All associated factions privileges will be lost.
The faction's HQ(s) will be sent to the NPC populace.
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Tabty Haasza || CEO / Owner || Akheton Corporation
