Hi all,
So, for the longest of times faction points have been almost completely useless in PS (beyond basically just being a count of how many quests you've done). Some factions maxed at about 40 some use to be able to reach 3000+ just due to the number of quests that award specific faction points. A few updates ago we started changing this by adding a hard limit to 200 or -200 for all factions. Which was a nice start as it at least allowed us have a fixed scale. But then we got stuck deciding a way to use the current faction system such that it would be balanced with quest progression and still an accurate representation of a character In Character (IC), and also not break each time we added new quests or made other adjustments.
We have now decided to actually change the way many factions should be looked at from an IC point of view, and this also means how they are awarded in quests. For the Magic Circles and Crafting Associations, factions will no longer be a representation of how much members of a Way or Association like you or not, but will be an indication of your IC rank in a specific Way or Association. For example, a faction level for Azure Order of 200 will mean that you are a Full Master and have gained the highest IC rank (you will automatically get the faction level associated with a rank no matter what your faction was before, if it was 155 or 195 both would move up to 200), whereas a level of 0 will mean you have not entered that Way at all. Equivalent ranks should slowly be created and added to all the Associations.
When you are in-between IC ranks you will still technically be able to gain faction, but you will never be able to exceed the next level associated with a rank. So assume Full adept gave you 100 faction, and the first master's rank gave you 120. If you did 50 other quests after gaining 100 faction which all awarded faction for that Way your faction would max at 115. It would only reach 120 once you completed the first master rank quest for that Way. For other factions like Guard or Nolthrir, factions will still be used as an IC indication of how much a race or group like you. It will take more time to make the necessary adjustments to these as they are inherently much more dynamic and will be much harder to balance and will take substantially more time to finish.
So then what do these changes mean?
Well, for those of you who have spent any time with Ferryd you may have heard him address you by your IC Red Way rank. It will make setting up AI systems like this easier for the other way masters, and for other member of a Circle. It should also make it easier to set up other NPC AI behaviours such as using faction points to decide how and when an NPC will or will not attack you. It also opens up the possibility of having quests accessible only if your faction reaches a certain point. Right now it is not really feasible due to how much work is still needed with factions.
