Factions are unions of players fighting or working for the same goal. They can be governments, outlaws, companies, etc.

Factions can own ships, vehicles, buildings, datacards, etc. and have their own mailing list in the client software. They offer several advantages to their members.

Freelancers are players who are not the member of any faction. All new players start as freelancers and can then request membership in a faction.

A faction's leader can only be changed by the faction's owner, except for Paramilitary, Religious and Government factions. In these faction types, the current leader can appoint a new leader.

The fee to change a faction leader is equal to 5,000credits per active member.

The full list of all factions can be viewed here.

A faction leader can nominate a second-in-command (2IC).

The second-in-command has all privileges in the faction, and cannot be expelled by faction members.

The second-in-command cannot leave the faction unless explicitly removed from the position by the leader.

Clearly, naming a faction is a strategic process requiring careful consideration. And little wonder. A name that is well chosen should last forever. When it has to be changed, the switch can lead to a loss of goodwill and recognition and, in some cases, to anonymity. Changing a faction's name is also a very expensive process, involving legal fees and new stationery, packaging and signs. Yet these expenses are dwarfed by the credits required for advertising and marketing to re-educate the public. Therefore, changing a faction name costs 15,000,000credits.

Factions have their own asset inventories, similar to that of a regular player. However, access to the inventory can be shared by a number of players, determined by the privilege levels assigned to them by the faction leader. Those with appropriate privileges have the ability to assign, rename, or even make over any asset owned by their faction.

The faction capital is based on the server value of its owned assets. The following assets are counted in the faction capital:

• Ships: valued at 2x RMP
• Vehicles: valued at 2x RMP
• Facilities: valued at 2x RMP
• Space Stations: valued at 2x RMP
• Cities: valued at the unused percentage of their creation price (see Cities rules)
• Raw Materials: valued at their Mining rules
• Credits
• Stocks: valued as defined in section 3

Identify Friend;Foe rules. Just like characters, factions have an IFF list. It is used if members of the faction wish it so, and for faction owned assets in some future applications. You need Arrest & Execute level 2 to set your faction's IFF list. More info, see the section in rules on characters.

A faction can be dissolved for any of the 3 following reasons.

• The faction has 0 members.
• The faction may be victim of inactiveness.
• The faction is victim of bankruptcy.

If the number of members reaches 0, and there is no member to takes the leadership position upon the leaders death, the faction shall dissolve.

If the number of active members falls under the amount required, then a warning message is sent to the faction owner through the general events client and is shown in the faction events client, to the faction Leader, Second in Command, as well as the faction Owner. If this situation does not improve after 2 weeks, then the faction is disbanded.

The minimum limits are:

• For production factions: 5 active members.
• For services factions: 5 active members.
• For paramilitary factions: 5 active members.
• For governments: 25 active members.

If the capital falls below 75% of the initial capital (see capital amount by type in Factions: Faction Assets), then the faction owner and the faction leader are notified through the general events and faction events menus/clients respectively. If the capital falls under 50% of the initial capital, Bankruptcy is declared.

If bankruptcy is declared, the faction is disbanded automatically.

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:

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.

Currently there is no active stock market. So stocks are so far only a way to share ownership of a faction. Stock value is calculated as the total capital of the faction divided by the number of stocks. Once a stock market is opened, the rules for variation of stocks will be used

If it was not done previously, and if the faction is not a government, then its owner may decide to join the Stock Exchange (when available). The owner may not proceed if the faction is at risk of dissolution. There is no obligation to join the Stock Exchange.

When joining the exchange, the owner decides how many stocks he wants to represent his faction. The stock value will be calculated follow:

The faction capital is the current capital, calculated with all currently assets owned by the faction. Upon issuing stocks, the faction current capital will be used as new initial capital if it is greater than the original initial capital.

In case the faction is of the type Religious, Mercenary, Pirate or Bounty Hunter, the owner can only give out stocks to a maximum of initialMemberCount/5, rounded down.

The faction's owner may decide to sell all or part of the faction stocks. The owner may sell these either to the Stock Exchange for their Market value, or he may directly give them to another faction or character for the price they agree on together.

If a faction gives out stocks, this will automatically be announced on GNS.

Faction headquarters (HQ's) are protected by default and cannot be unprotected, meaning there will be no way for them to be made over. A faction will always have at least one HQ facility or one datacard.

If a faction does not have at least one HQ facility it will lose the following faction privileges:

• Salaries
• Accept new members
• Set Faction IFF
• View Faction IFF
• Set Infofields
• Authorizations for security service
• Issue new arrest or death warrants
• Send Mass message (will have to be done through other means)
• Add/View budgets
• View Factions you own (the half where it says what your faction owns, not what you personally own)
• View Memberlist
• Give privileges
• Cannot assign datacards
• Mining/recycling/production: should all pause and have to be restarted.
• Tax income
• Facility income, that is it cannot receive income of any facilities nor generate income for any facilities assigned to it.

Faction benefits you keep even without a HQ:

• Change leader
• Expel member
• Assign/unassign faction assets
• Transferring credits
• Make over faction assets.
• Unprotect faction assets.

A faction can choose to move its HQ to another location by recycling the old HQ. This is only valid if the faction has no remaining datacards. During this time the faction receives the same penalties as those who have no headquarters.

Within 24 hours of a faction HQ becoming a wreck, either via conversion in to a wreck by a recycling faction or due to weapons damage, the faction that owned the HQ will receive a new HQ datacard. Normal member requirements for a new datacard must still be met for this to take place.

Faction HQs act as starting locations for its members (to allow this, a player must pick a faction before picking a starting location).

Players who have already chosen their starting location can pick a faction HQ as destination as their first NPC transport destination.

Only HQs that are open-to-all or open-to-faction can be picked as a starting location. Factions with a HQ must have atleast one open HQ, otherwise all will be selectable.

Factions of a similiar type can be merged together. The ability to merge a faction relies on the following requirements.

• The owners of the factions wishing to merge must own atleast 95% of the faction's stock.
• Both Factions must be of the same type.
• Both Factions must accept the merger request.
• The faction being dissolved must have enough credits to pay the merger cost. (The Faction Registration Cost)

Once a merger has been accepted by both parties, the faction(AKA Faction A) sending the original request will merge into the receiving faction(AKA Faction B), dissolving Faction A.
Every asset owned by Faction A shall then be merged into Faction B, including unique datacards and members. However, when merging datacards, datacards only get merged if they match the production type of the group they are merging to.