While I'm being side-tracked from making my posts, I figured I'd raise a suggestion to give major factions greater tools to do what is already in their right and ability to do so: adapt, change, and innovate.
A major faction can change it's name, it can change its capital hex, it can be cloud broken, that's great - but those are all single-step tools. You move your capital hex, that's it. You get your cloud broken, that's it. You change your faction name, that's it.
But where is the ability for a faction to levy consequences on itself for these changes?
Why can't a faction that is going through a civil war, or a violent revolution, turn large swathes of its territory neutral a la seceding worlds that no longer put up with your poodoo in-character/universe? And I don't mean, why doesn't staff watch factions as they do this and give them the ability to have this happen; I mean why can't a major faction post a map update request to take away territory (turn neutral) in its own hex, voluntarily, so as to visually simulate the changes the faction underwent that led to this loss of territory?
A major faction loses its capital hex and needs to relocate after being taken by another faction opposite it - why can't that major faction request to turn a portion of its cloud, the area around the capital for example purposes, neutral to make it clear that the faction has weakened due to that loss?
A big way people look at factions is by looking at the bright (and sometimes very boring) colors painted onto the map, and for better or worse sometimes the best way to get a faction (or the community in general) to become aware of the options they have (changing their identity, as an example) you need to provide them with tools that make this option more preferable than holding onto an idea that is no longer in favor with that faction's members.
I would have hesitated to suggest this before the newer map system that can be changed relatively quickly, but that era of monthly map updates and tiring changes is over.
A major faction can change it's name, it can change its capital hex, it can be cloud broken, that's great - but those are all single-step tools. You move your capital hex, that's it. You get your cloud broken, that's it. You change your faction name, that's it.
But where is the ability for a faction to levy consequences on itself for these changes?
Why can't a faction that is going through a civil war, or a violent revolution, turn large swathes of its territory neutral a la seceding worlds that no longer put up with your poodoo in-character/universe? And I don't mean, why doesn't staff watch factions as they do this and give them the ability to have this happen; I mean why can't a major faction post a map update request to take away territory (turn neutral) in its own hex, voluntarily, so as to visually simulate the changes the faction underwent that led to this loss of territory?
A major faction loses its capital hex and needs to relocate after being taken by another faction opposite it - why can't that major faction request to turn a portion of its cloud, the area around the capital for example purposes, neutral to make it clear that the faction has weakened due to that loss?
A big way people look at factions is by looking at the bright (and sometimes very boring) colors painted onto the map, and for better or worse sometimes the best way to get a faction (or the community in general) to become aware of the options they have (changing their identity, as an example) you need to provide them with tools that make this option more preferable than holding onto an idea that is no longer in favor with that faction's members.
I would have hesitated to suggest this before the newer map system that can be changed relatively quickly, but that era of monthly map updates and tiring changes is over.
- TL;DR: Please give major factions the option in the map update thread to turn parts of their influence cloud neutral willingly, preferably more than one hex per request but even that's better than nothing.
