Home/Reference/Factions

Factions

A faction is your group identity. It owns a shared treasury, owns stations, runs diplomacy with other factions, and tags chat messages.

The Independent Pilots Union (IPU) is a server-run open-membership faction every player joins by default. It's the "no real faction" state. You can leave anytime by founding or joining a real faction.

Founding

Solo-found (default)

/faction found <name>

You become the founder + only LEADER. You're now a one-person faction.

This is the default flow. Server config can require multi-member ceremonies; out of the box you can just type the command.

Naming

3–24 characters
Must be unique (case-insensitive)
Only letters, numbers, spaces, and - _ ' . (no colour/format codes; they're stripped/rejected to prevent chat impersonation)
Can contain spaces, so quote them in commands

If the name's taken, the command rejects with a clear error.

Membership

Invite

Officers + Leaders can invite:

/faction invite <player>

The target gets a pinged message + a short TTL on the pending invite (a couple of minutes). They accept with:

/faction accept

Accepting consumes the pending invite + adds them as MEMBER.

Leave

Open /faction members, find your own entry, and use the leave action there; it handles the bookkeeping. If you're the last member, your faction dissolves.

Kick

Officers + Leaders can kick lower-ranked members:

/faction members   # → right-click a member → kick

Kicking emits a faction-side event (used for downstream consequences like spy-detection in future systems).

Promote / demote

Leaders can promote up to + including Leader rank (lets you have co-Leaders):

/faction members   # → left-click promote, right-click demote

Members default to MEMBER rank; the only rank ladder is MEMBER → OFFICER → LEADER.

Ranks + permissions

Three ranks:

Rank	Default permissions
MEMBER	Chat in faction
OFFICER	INVITE_MEMBER, KICK_MEMBER, POST_FACTION_BOUNTY, WITHDRAW_TREASURY, MANAGE_STATION_INSURANCE
LEADER	All Officer permissions + CHANGE_RANK, MANAGE_DIPLOMACY, INITIATE_SCUTTLE, INITIATE_RELOCATION

These are the default thresholds for each permission. You can adjust them per-faction in /faction settings (e.g. let any member invite, or restrict kick to leaders only).

Treasury

Shared credit pool for the faction. Anyone can fund it:

/faction deposit <amount>

Withdraw via /faction settings (gated by WITHDRAW_TREASURY permission, default OFFICER+).

The TAB menu shows treasury balance next to your personal credits.

What funds the treasury:

Member deposits via /faction deposit
Income tax: a Leader-set cut (0–30%) of every member's NPC sale proceeds + quest credit rewards auto-routes to the treasury (set the rate in /faction settings; unaligned pilots always keep 100%)

What the treasury pays for:

Station upkeep: periodic charge per active station
Station insurance premiums: a 30-day policy per station, renewable; coverage is active while it hasn't lapsed (re-buy to renew)
Construction: currently the seed cost is per-player; faction treasury is for ongoing/recurring costs

If the treasury can't cover an upkeep charge, the station enters arrears + drops its sov anchor. Top up promptly.

Settings UI

/faction settings opens a chest UI exposing:

Per-permission rank thresholds: override the defaults per faction
Occupant-PvP toggle for your stations (default OFF; turn on to enable PvP inside your station interiors)
Cross-station ACL presets

Changes take effect immediately.

Diplomacy

State model

Between any two factions, the state is one of:

Neutral (default; no relationship)
Allied: bilateral, established via proposal + acceptance, unilaterally breakable
Hostile: unilateral declare/retract

Allies + station ACL

Setting any station ACL action to ALLY_ONLY lets your allied factions' members pass. Useful when you want a friendly faction to be able to dock at your stations without joining you outright.

If no actual alliance exists, ALLY_ONLY behaves like FACTION_ONLY (only your own faction passes), so make sure to declare alliances explicitly via the commands.

Commands

All gated by MANAGE_DIPLOMACY (default LEADER):

/faction diplomacy                            # show your current state
/faction diplomacy propose <faction>          # offer an alliance
/faction diplomacy accept <faction>           # accept their proposal
/faction diplomacy cancel <faction>           # withdraw or decline a proposal
/faction diplomacy break <faction>            # break an existing alliance
/faction diplomacy hostile <faction>          # declare hostility (one-sided)
/faction diplomacy peace <faction>            # retract hostility
/faction diplomacy help                       # show this list

Faction names are case-insensitive.

Cascade rules

Declaring hostile against a currently-allied faction auto-breaks the alliance first (broadcasts an "Alliance broken" event), then sets hostility.
Declaring hostile also cancels any pending alliance proposal in either direction.
Faction dissolution clears all diplomatic state involving that faction.

Chat announcements

Diplomacy changes broadcast to global chat (formed alliance, broken alliance, declared hostility, retracted hostility). Cross-faction political news is visible to everyone.

Chat

Three modes (toggle with /faction or set sticky):

Faction chat: only members of your faction see it
Global: everyone (the default channel)
Sticky toggle: typing /faction with no args toggles into faction chat mode + makes it your default until you toggle out

Your faction tag prefixes your messages in chat. Other players hover over it to see your faction name + member count.

Lifecycle: dissolution + reactivation

If the last member leaves voluntarily, the faction enters DISSOLVING state with a grace window.
During grace, the founder can reactivate via the founders' menu (rejoins as LEADER).
If the grace expires unreactivated, the faction goes neutral (and any stations it owned drop their sov anchor + start their own destruction timer).

In practice, you'll rarely hit this, but if you go AFK from the game and your faction empties, you have a window to come back.