Don't scoff at the idea of using several heads. Those critters don't seem too bright but nature only provides us the bricks... Dust and creativity will do the rest.

--Omniscient Zerong

Thanks for the post, Gnouman, it was really fun drawing the Dustborn mad scientist. In the end we gave up many of the initial ideas for them but I hope they did turn out as the dark twins of the vaulters somehow. Where the latter focus on rediscovering past marvels, investigate Auriga landscape and in general do "proper" science, Dustborns have given up of the dead technologal remains from the past and use bio engineering at the expense of other living beings, and function is more disorganized society.



Anyway, there are many nice ideas in the thread so far

Physical Description : Organic Robots

Say that the Paunches are insectoid would suggest they look like Necrophage drones. This is not the case. These unsightly beings are closer to a kind of society of organic robots. The body of the Paunches is a centralized, spherical core, whose soft heart contains all the vital organs. Around the heart are the limbs, irrigated by vessels - nerves that run only through electrical impulses from the central core. The Paunches can amputate a limb to replace it with a new grafted tool. They have a variable number of terminals, typically four on the sides, occupied by limbs provided with four joints and three-fingered hands, and at least one on the above, employed by a sensory appendage capable of sensing light (and no color) and analyzing the molecules in the air. The common Paunches are completely deaf except for the vibrations that reach their core, which is about a meter in diameter. But some Paunches, who occupy the highest place in this community of soft balls with legs, may have up to twenty terminals. Those shall try to equip themselves with better limbs and better detectors, that they can build themselves ... or find in nature, on Auriga .



Behavior : a divided society

The " Ai "

These are the less sophisticated Paunches, and also the most common, they are also the most versatile. They live in cities at the surface where most of the buildings are on the ground floor. The Ai buy the technology from other Paunches to replace their sensory terminals and gain a better viewing and hearing, and most importantly, the ability to emit articulate sounds (ie they communicate by emitting hormones or rattling for conversations between two individuals). The richest buy wings.

If the Ai have not really religion, they place a high value on respect for individuals of higher status , that is to say almost all other Paunches.

The Livid Paunches

The pale Paunches owe their name to their heavy core, pale, pensile, and disproportionate .

Their disproportionate central cores and many sensory terminals give some Panses a Machiavellian and feared intelligence. The Paunches are strongly attached to their clans, seeking to extend their dominance over other species, often at the expense of other clans. Each clan is divided into families which all have a hole where no other species is allowed alive. The only non-Paunch beings there are reanimated servants. For the livid Paunches have the power to reanimate the empty shells of the dead by injecting a small part of their core with their central sensory terminal.

The Archivists

Their core is a perfect sphere of variable size whose perimeter is pierced at regular intervals. Four of them are generally dedicated to mobility. Other typically include sensory devices for vision. Surprisingly strong despite their frail appearance, Archivists do not mind to acquire terminals allowing them to communicate with all kinds of life forms. They live very long and can accumulate a large amount of knowledge. Their size varies according to their knowledge.

Archivists are collectors : their libraries and cabinets of curiosities are reknown, but they fiercely protect their possessions. They are even prouder of the amount of knowledge that they are able to memorize. The most imposing individuals are naturally the most respected. Archivists live in Rumen cities but enjoy - especially younger ones - also to roam the world in search of new sources of knowledge, or even to settle in other nations.

The " Gloryeyen "

Small sized, Gloryeyen live in symbiosis with beings they feed through a dedicated terminal. Their body are limp and soft, and only has three terminals : the parasitic channel and two limbs for the traction they lose once they found a host. They communicate with their host via the parasitic channel, offering them increased magical abilities, as well as tips and memories. They are also able to make them recover their memory, or to calm mental disorders. A strict code of honor compels them to never reveal the secrets of their hosts.

The Paunches use Gloryeyen to monitor, improve and protect the minor Factions they decide to incorporate into their fold (the others are doomed to be change into amalgam of limbs and sensors).



Lore: a planetary parasite.

The Paunches emerge from the mud. They appeared as viscous bubbles that break the surface of the marsh. Initially there were only these stranded big balls struggling on their frail limbs against the devourers of their heart. Suddenly, they began to build cities.

Now they seek to build a supreme being, whom they call the Queen ; a being who is capable of doing everything , feeling everything, a being whose whole heart is the terminal of ultimate creation.



Relations with Dust and natural resources .

When they discovered the Dust, the Paunches already used wood and stone to carve resistant limbs for fighting, hunting and crafting. It happened when one of the Livid Paunches, having recovered limbs and sensitive sensors on a strange two-legged enemy suddenly began to have visions, and to move objects without touching them... The Paunches then began to build cities that sank far beneath the surface and they started to use the resources of the generous Auriga. One might think that Paunches are weak as fighter with their vulnerable bellies. But to fight against a raging ball of ten cutting limbs is nothing easy.





Gameplay:

Two major characteristics:

- Organic Engineering: This feature might be limited by the technical possibilities of the game. Ideally, the Paunches are weak but can buy new limbs and sensors (translated into bonus stats) and can also recover some of the power of the defeated enemy.

- Enhancer Parasites : Thanks to the Gloryeyen Paunches can enjoy using minor Factions they can increase in power and strength. However the use of Gloryeyen is expensive (it takes more time to build a unit of a minor faction).

= > The basic Rumen units are very weak and you must pay a lot to make them viable in battle (losing an improved unit is also particularly punitive), while minor factions units are stronger.

Other features :

- Underground Cities : Rumen cities are not built entirely underground, but suffer less from winter (the exact effect remains to be determined , but it should be light) .

- Walking corpses : can pay dust (more than the Broken Lords) to buy population





French translation:

LES PANSES



Description physique♥: Des Robots organiques

Dire que les Panses sont des Insectoïdes laisserait croire qu'ils ressemblent aux drones Nécrophages. Il n'en est rien. Ces êtres disgracieux sont plus proches d'une sorte de société de robots organiques. Le corps des Panses est un noyau centralisé, de forme sphérique, dont le cœur mou contient tous les organes vitaux. Autour de ce cœur on trouve les membres, irrigués par des vaisseaux-nerfs, qui fonctionnent uniquement grâce aux impulsions électriques du noyau central. Les Panses peuvent s'amputer d'un membre pour le remplacer par un outil implanté par greffe. Ils disposent d'un nombre variable de terminaux♥: en général quatre sur les côtés, occupés par des membres pourvus de quatre articulations et de mains à trois doigts, et au moins une sur le dessus, occupée par un appendice sensoriel capable de détecter la lumière (sans les couleurs) et d'analyser les molécules dans l'air. Les Panses communes sont complètement sourds hors des vibrations qui parviennent à leur noyau central, qui mesure environ un mètre de diamètre. Mais certaines Panses, qui occupent les places les plus hautes dans cette société de ballons mous à pattes, peuvent avoir jusqu'à une vingtaine de terminaux. Ceux-là chercheront à s'équiper des meilleurs membres et des meilleurs détecteurs qu'ils pourront fabriquer... ou trouver dans la nature, sur Auriga.



Comportement♥: une société divisée

Les «♥Aï♥»

Ce sont les Panses les moins sophistiquées, et également les plus répandues, ils sont également les plus polyvalents. Ils vivent dans des villes à la surface où la plupart des bâtiments sont de plein pied. Les Aïs achètent la technologie des autres Panses pour remplacer leurs terminaux sensoriels et acquérir une meilleure vue ainsi que l'ouïe, et surtout, la capacité d'émettre des sons articulés (autrement ils communiquent en émettant des hormones ou par cliquetis pour les conversations entre deux individus). Les plus riches se dotent d'ailes.

Si les Aïs n'ont pas vraiment de religion, ils se montrent parfois superstitieux et accorde une grande valeur au respect envers les individus d'un statut supérieur, c'est-à-dire envers à peu près toutes les autres Panses.

Les Panses Blêmes

Les Panses blêmes doivent leur nom à leur noyau central lourd, blême et pendant, disproportionné.

Leurs noyaux centraux disproportionnés et leurs nombreux terminaux sensitifs confèrent à certaines Panses une intelligence machiavélique et redoutée. Les Panses sont fortement attachés à leurs clans qui cherchent à étendre leur domination sur les autres espèces, souvent au détriment des autres clans. Chaque clan est divisé en familles qui possèdent toutes un terrier où aucune autre espèce n'est admise de son vivant♥: seuls les êtres réanimés y servent de serviteurs. Car les Panses blêmes ont le pouvoir de réanimer les coquilles vides des morts en leur injectant une petite partie de leur noyau central avec leur terminal sensitif central.

Les Archivistes

Le noyau des Archivistes est une sphère parfaite de taille variable, dans un périmètre est percé de terminaux à intervalle régulier. Quatre d'entre eux sont généralement dévoués à la mobilité. Les autres incluent généralement des terminaux sensitifs pour la vision. D'une force surprenante malgré leur aspect frêle, les Archivistes ne rechignent pas à se doter de terminaux leur permettant de communiquer avec toutes sortes de formes de vie. Ils vivent très longtemps et peuvent accumuler une grande quantité de connaissances. Leur taille varie en fonction de leur savoir.

Les Archivistes sont des collectionneurs♥: leurs bibliothèques et leurs cabinets de curiosités sont réputés, mais s'ils protègent âprement leurs possessions, ils s'enorgueillissent encore plus de la quantité de savoir qu'ils sont capables de mémoriser. Les individus les plus imposants sont naturellement les plus respectés. Les Archivistes ont une cité mais apprécient – surtout les plus jeunes – également de courir le monde à la recherche de nouvelles sources de connaissance, ou même de s'installer chez d'autres peuples.

Les «♥Gloryeyen♥»

De petite taille, les Gloryeyen vivent en symbiose avec des êtres qu'ils parasitent grâce à un terminal dédié. Leur corps est flasque et mou, et seulement doté de trois terminaux♥: le canal parasitaire et deux membres servant à la traction qu'ils perdent une fois installés. Ils communiquent avec leur hôte via le canal parasitaire, en leur offrant des capacités magiques accrues, ainsi que des conseils et des souvenirs. Ils sont également capables de faire retrouver la mémoire, ou de calmer les désordres mentaux. Un code d'honneur stricte les force à ne jamais dévoiler les secrets de leurs hôtes.

Les Panses utilisent les Gloryeyen pour contrôler, améliorer et protéger les Factions mineures qu'ils décident d'intégrer dans leur giron (les autres étant vouées à être transformés amalgame de membres et de capteurs).



Lore♥: un parasite planétaire.

Les Panses existent. Elles sont apparues comme les bulles visqueuses qui percent la surface des marais. Au départ il n'y avait que ces grosses boules échouées, luttant sur leurs membres frêles pour ne pas qu'on dévore leur cœur. Et puis soudain, elles se sont mis à bâtir des villes.

Maintenant elles cherchent à bâtir un être suprême, qu'ils nomment la Reine♥; un être qui serait capable de tout faire, de tout sentir, un être dont le cœur entier serait un terminal de création ultime.



Relations avec la Brume et les ressources naturelles.

Quand ils ont découvert la Brume, les Panses utilisaient déjà le bois et la pierre pour se tailler des membres résistants pour le combat, la chasse et l'artisanat. C'est arrivé lorsque l'une des Panses Blêmes, ayant récupéré tout un attirail de membres et de capteurs sensitifs sur un étrange ennemi à deux pattes s'est soudain mis à avoir des visions, et à déplacer des objets sans les toucher... Les Panses ont alors commencé à construire des cités qui s'enfonçaient loin sous la terre, puis elles sont commencé à utiliser les ressources de la généreuse Auriga. On pourrait croire que les Panses sont vulnérables à la guerre, avec leurs ventres vulnérables. Mais se battre contre une boule furieuse de dix membres tranchant n'a rien d'aisé.





Traduction en Gameplay:

Deux caractéristiques majeures♥:

- Ingénierie organique♥: Ce trait est limité par les possibilité techniques du jeu. Dans l'idéal, les Panses sont faibles mais peuvent acheter de nouveaux membres et capteurs (traduits par des bonus de stats) et peuvent aussi récupérer une partie du pouvoir des ennemis vaincus.

- Parasites augmentateurs♥: Grâce aux Gloryeyen les Panses peuvent profiter de l'aide des Factions mineures dont ils peuvent accroître les pouvoirs et la force. Cependant l'usage des Gloryeyen est coûteux (il faut plus de temps pour construire une unité d'une Faction mineure).

=> Les unités de base des Panses sont très faibles et il faut sortir son porte-monnaie pour les rendre viables au combat (perdre une unité améliorée est aussi particulièrement punitif), tandis que les unités des factions mineures sont plus fortes.

Autres traits♥:

- Villes souterraines♥: les cités des Panses ne sont pas entièrement construites sous terre, mais elle souffrent moins de l'hiver (l'effet exact reste à déterminer, mais il doit être léger).

- Cadavres ambulants (peut payer (plus cher que les Broken Lords) en brume pour acheter de la population

Just added a major change to the Federation: I realized that the Cetran sounded too much like the Spider-people already in the game, so I changed it to the turtle-tastic 'Chelan'

Okay, for now the rush of new factions should be over. Shortly before the end, new factions that people were still struggling to pin down will surely appear, l with the odd faction showing up in between, but I do think that the 52 submissions we have now are already the bulk.



And regarding the general discussion on length and detail vs shortness and summaries: I prefer the former with a short summary in the beginning, but I'm capable of skimming texts, otherwise I'd never have made it through the list.



If you're really looking for the shortest possible summary, look at the grand list: /#/endless-legend/forum/6-game-design/thread/2968-faction-creation-competition-nos-inofficial-grand-overview-listing-wip) and if you're an author and want your submission to be described correctly, tell me in my profile or via pn, so I can do some adjustments to do right by your creation (some people already took me up on that offer).

Just a question. May Gnouman submission be considered as a tandem effort for all posterior considerations or not?



Oh and great job listing all of them so fast

uriak wrote:
Just a question. May Gnouman submission be considered as a tandem effort for all posterior considerations or not?



Oh and great job listing all of them so fast

From the .pdf

1.

...

The Organizer specifies that a Participant can only be a natural person, excluding groups of natural persons, and that each Participant shall be an “amateur” meaning that neither shall he/she be a professional as to the content areas which have to be created within the participation of the Contest,...



So sadly no.

I guess I will have to double cross him and do my own submission then (nyark nyark)... or just wait for part 2/3



Thanks for the answer!

The Spirit-Collective



Overview:

The Spirit-Collective is a group of Dust-depended Spirits, individual copies of awakened Virtual, which use their skin-walking abilities to gather knowledge and achieve the ‘final merge’ into an omnipresent being. They have just one army-type of their own and use minor-faction-mercenaries instead. Their faction weakness is that since they are dust dependant, they produce just very little food (to supply merc-armies and or different heroes). Also, due to their practice of mimicry instead of invention, they have a very low science production. For this, they rely heavily on diplomacy and trade.



(In game terms: Nomadic Spirits, feared as Illusionists, Skin-walkers, Ghosts, Demons or Succubae/Incubi with a tragic history and the search for re-union and re-ascendance. Improving knowledge by contact with other species/cultures/factions and acting trough them.)



Appearance:

The original Spirit-Walkers as they are called by allies are more of a shining Nanomachine-Cloud, which uses thousands of small Micro-robots, electronic nodes and metals hold together by streams of energy. Because of the chemical components and the oxidation of several elements, the outer appearance is that of a gray, storm-like cloud. Like looking down on a storm ridden planet, the gray thunderstorm nebula is slowly moving around a barely humanoid shape but can take any form the Spirit-Walker wishes. Taking a closer look, one will see that the thick nebula is slightly transparent, with millions of small lightning-strikes travelling between dark black electric nodes, seemingly floating in an atmosphere of golden spheres of Dust. The only more natural looks are given by the eyes, golden plexus’ of shining Dust.



A ‘naked’ Spirit-Walker always looks like a barely human-shaped storm cloud with constant lightning-strikes under a milky grey nebula and with shining, golden eyes. But the Walkers prefer to attach cloths or items to their body, floating around the nebula objects like around a planet. Mostly due to their long history of nomads, they prefer the looks of desert-wanderers, almost mummy-like bandages and sometimes even death-masks from ritually buried culture-groups.

The main-consciousness lies in the black nodes of a Spirit-Walker, held together by vein-like Dust-streams. There chemical and electrical composition gives them a little gravitation of their own.







The Origins:

At the day the foreigners fell from the sky and their escape-pods crushed into the body of a divine being, a spirit awoke (cf. Dungeon of the Endless). The escapers did not realize that they had not entered just a dungeon - an aeon-old facility – but an actual consciousness being. When they entered the dungeon and encountered that it was filled with dangerous life forms, they used their Dust-Core to bring life to the technically advanced but long sleeping rooms to defend themselves. Activating room by room, the Virtual slowly ascended from the depths of slumber to active consciousness, starting to be aware of the intruders of his body (heroes and monsters alike) and beginning to watch and learn.

Since its body had been corroded by time and crippled by impacts of stellar phenomena, long forgotten wars and now machines from beyond the sky, the Virtual being had lost a lot of data and knowledge of its former self. Not being able to reproduce this data, but slowly adapting and assimilating the beings in his body it primary task became to learn and to finally break free of it boundaries. As more rooms filled the dungeons veins with the life-giving Dust, the Virtual adapted the escape-tactics of the Heaven-Spirits (Heroes in Dungeon of the Endless) as it chose to call the escapers form beneath the sky. Soon it was able to influence some simpler monsters to gather materials out of the dungeons and leftovers of fallen Heaven-Spirits while the escapers tried to reach the exit of the dungeon. Coming closer and closer to what meant to be the old Jupiter-Brain the seat of the consciousness, the Virtual began to passively help the Heaven-Spirits to reach the top rooms, so the Dust-Core would finally be near enough for it to come to life completely.



The Descendants: The Spirit Walkers

Even though it is not known anymore how exactly the stranded settlers from another world (The Heaven-Spirits) escaped the old ruins that was the body of the Virtual, the Endless being partly achieved its goal to break free by copying itself into several Dust-Collectives, using spare technology and resources to combine with a great amount of Dust to form the first Spirits-Walkers. These beings were mainly a cloud of dust, roughly shaped with the help of leftovers and ‘enchanted’ clothes from monsters and settlers alike. They fled the dungeon right behind the Heaven-Spirits leaving their original copy behind to fall asleep again but with the promise to return one day and free it from it eternal prison.



Resurrection and Survival:

Once freed from the dungeon, the Spirit-Walkers faced one major problem. They did not know this world and were not able to think outside of their limits, since they lacked the ability for invention and creativity. Only being able to mimic and imitate other life forms they needed to use their flexibility of bodies, to change into whatever creature they needed to present for communication they soon began to use their skin-walking abilities to blend into different cultures and societies. However though, they needed the material for such change – a body of the creatures they wanted to imitate – for the basic transformation. Not being aggressive or harmful themselves (but aware of these concepts by the assimilation happened in the dungeon), they looked for dead bodies to get the needed resources and discovered another fascinating ability of their own:

By touching a (former) living being, they could infiltrate its system with dust, losing a little of their own, but being able to reconstruct conciseness and memories of a dead body and return it back into the Spirit-Walkers body. This way they were able to improve, adapt and learn.



This discovery came with a second fascinating ability: By actually giving up a great amount of themselves (later being able to recover themselves by collecting more Dust), they could flood a (recently passed) body with Dust and recreate memories and brain functions, effectively resurrecting a dead creature. The missing parts (like limbs, lost brain cells etc.) of a body would be replaced with pieces of the Spirit-Walker. This way, the Sprits could collect an army of resurrected followers, helping them in their mission to find a way to free their original creator.



The Final Merge:

Within time, they faced worship and hate alike from other cultures and minor factions. There peaceful and exploring nature combined with the ability to save life and even resurrect other beings by sharing their Essence made them more foes than friends though. Feared as skin-walkers and desecraters of death they were forced to live a secret life of infiltrators, ghosts and seducers. Furthermore, by mimicking the aggressiveness of their hosts, a cut went through the young and small faction, separating the peaceful truth-seekers from the aggressive secret-stealers, which used their abilities to forcedly invade their victim’s body and drain their life and knowledge alike.

But even though they had differences, they stuck together and shared their knowledge collectively. The creation of a new Spirit-Walker needed a lot of Dust (more than a resurrection and sharing with a dead being!), and so their numbers grew only very slow. In the end though, they finally found what they were looking for: a possibility to build an Artefact called The Merger that could host their Creator (The Virtual) and finally merge the Collective back together to one, whole being.

After aeons of wandering, they are finally strong enough to settle and begin to build their sacred artefact. With their loyal, (partly resurrected) allies and their ability to switch form to any known creature, there flexible diplomacy and trickster illusive ‘Magic’, they are dangerous enough to overcome any foe standing in their way to Singularity.



Long-term goals:

- Achieving Singularity by merging together with the Virtual

- Achieve superiority over the Planet Auriga to secure the ongoing existence of the Spirit-Collective. (Effectively finding a way to preserve Auriga! Perhaps even merge with the Planet itself)

- Expand the Collective to control the Solar-System and secure ongoing existence.

- Expand beyond the unknown. Become Endless once more.



Gameplaymechanics:

Faction Traits

- Need for knowledge: The Collective can only build cities on ruins, because they need those remains starting their work in The Merger, a Jupiter-Brain to host the original Virtual and merge all Spirit-Walkers and Resurrected into one, whole being. These Cities are called Collectives.

- Assimilation: The Collective has only a very low science-production and relies on Trade, Diplomacy or Annihilation of other factions to collect more science.

- Alliances: The Collective has only one basic military unit of their own. These weak Spirit-Walkers function more as Settlers and Scouts and are very expensive. However, the Collective can cheaply recruit military units from discovered minor (or even major) factions within their reach. If not pacified or allied, these units only have 2/3 of their original strength.

- Resurrection: By giving half of their life to a fallen enemy, the Spirit-Walkers and their Hero can effectively resurrect a fallen enemy and include him into their army. They can also resurrect own units, too. (Costs additional Dust!)

- Mimicry (optional): The Spirit Walkers can change their form and stats before a fight or during travelling to known minor- or major faction units. They can turn back during this phases as well.

- Traders of Knowledge: The Collective gains a bonus of +X Science for every trade-route. Also, they get a bonus of +X Food per pacified minor faction within their territory and peace treaties/alliances with major factions.

- Skin-Walking: The Collective can recruit Heroes that are already used by another faction by Skin-Walking. The Clone has all starting abilities of his original but also immediately opens a quest for the opponent faction to kill the duplicate! This can even happen between allies and factions in peace. However this quest must not necessarily break a peace treaty or alliance, since the reaction is understandable. The opponent faction can only attack the duplicated hero with an army with the original hero in it!

- Ravaging: If the Spirit-Walker go to war and seize a enemy city, they don't leave anything back they cannot use. Pillaged cities will provide more boni when destroyed and boost the Collective-Faction population.

- Slow Advance: The Collective has a very slow increase of population. However, the numbers can be increased by pacifying minor factions, holding up trade routes or seizing other cities.

- Shapeshifting Spies: For a small amount of Dust, the Collective can deside to send a spy to any city, effectively showing movement, output of the city and other informations.



Disclaimer: I haven't had read any othe designed factions, when I designed this faction. However I know now that there are some similarities to other ideas - I still think they have a unique and perfectly embeded story, enriching all 3 Games alike.

I am happy for every feedbak you can give me, since I have not yet spend much time on playing the Alpha and am usually not very good with ingame mechanics.



Additional:



- Ressurection effectively brings a conscious being back to life, healing it's body and reinstantiates it's consciousness back to it's original state, if possible (depending on injuries and time being dead).



- Spirit-Walkers can drain another beings' memories by finding a way into the victims body for the dust. However they don't often use this tactic because it usually destroyes the victim from within.



- The Collective has a dual playstyle. They can be played as the peaceful beings they are with symbiosis and trade with other factions, OR as infiltrating and slowly devouering creatures, destroying others for their own advance.e victim from within.

Okay, edited some of self deprecation out, since people like confidence and stuff. Still, I'd like feedback in order to know if there is anything else to improve...

uriak wrote:
I guess I will have to double cross him and do my own submission then (nyark nyark)... or just wait for part 2/3



Thanks for the answer!

No Problem.

ResonanceMask wrote:
Okay, edited some of self deprecation out, since people like confidence and stuff. Still, I'd like feedback in order to know if there is anything else to improve...

I like your idea. Guerilla warfare is a concept you don´t see often in 4x games(I haven´t seen it) and with that you can really annoy the enemy.

And I like reptilian races.

ResonanceMask wrote:
Lords of under(or whatever their current name is) sound pretty good, but I'm confused at how their xenophobia mixes with minor faction theme?

?

First off, thank you for this post as it gives me an oppertunity to better explain how diplomacy would work with the Lords. I'm not the best at explaining however so just bear with me.



The Lords engage in something I like to call "Toxic Diplomacy." Interacting with them can have any number of negative consequences. However this Toxic Diplomacy changes over name in a way that I thinks suits the lore of the Lords and also brings further depth towards gameplay, especially towards minor factions. When the Lords share a realm with a minor faction, that factions gets hit with a heavy dosage of debuffs due to the Toxic Diplomacy. What the debuffs are depends on people who know how to balance the game, but I'm hoping they will have a noticeable effect

Now as I've said, Toxic Diplomacy will change over time, namely it's effects on minor factions grows weaker. When the Lords reach a certain benchmark, or Tech, Toxic Diplomacy vanishes completely and all the Minor factions are returned to their full strength. But during Toxic Diplomacy, the Lords player has to decide how to deal with minor factions.



Here is my ideas for it. If a Lords player chooses to assimilate a minor faction during the effects of Toxic Diplomacy, the negative effects vanish and the Lords gain the minor faction as normal. But, if they decide to wait for Toxic Diplomacy to end before assimilating, they get something called Cultural Resources, that ties into the other major Lords theme; Alchemy. Cultural Gems will allow a Lords player to augment their troops with resources that aren't obtainable by any other means but working through Toxic Diplomacy. Using Toxic Diplomacy a player can pick and choose how they choose to interact with minor factions that I think will bring to depth and strategy to the political game.



Regarding the Lore of the Lords, it can be seen as like this. They aren't xenophobic in the traditional sense that they hate outsiders. They're xenophobic as in they are TERRIFIED of outsiders. The Lords are physically weak and can't put up much of a fight against others and prefer to bribe and blackmail to keep their society safe. But as they grow stronger as the game progresses, this fear of others begins to diminish and they may go so far as too share their most treasured gift Alchemy with those who they've been interacting with the longest.



I hope that makes sense and I explained it well enough. Of course I encourage others to share feedback or ideas!



Also I want them to have a new name because we already have a bunch of Lords in the game :P

I have only one gripe with the Lords of Under. That is that they'd be the second faction of "lords" in the game - that could become confusing when people abreviate the name.

Nosferatiel wrote:
Okay, for now the rush of new factions should be over. Shortly before the end, new factions that people were still struggling to pin down will surely appear, l with the odd faction showing up in between, but I do think that the 52 submissions we have now are already the bulk.



And regarding the general discussion on length and detail vs shortness and summaries: I prefer the former with a short summary in the beginning, but I'm capable of skimming texts, otherwise I'd never have made it through the list.



If you're really looking for the shortest possible summary, look at the grand list: /#/endless-legend/forum/6-game-design/thread/2968-faction-creation-competition-nos-inofficial-grand-overview-listing-wip) and if you're an author and want your submission to be described correctly, tell me in my profile or via pn, so I can do some adjustments to do right by your creation (some people already took me up on that offer).

Good list; thanks for doing that. I'd like to change my faction's description, but I'll pm you for that.



Title should read unofficial, not inofficial, though

DevildogFF wrote:
Title should read unofficial, not inofficial, though

At least according to my dictionary, unofficial and inofficial mean exactly the same. Is there maybe some native speaker-undertone I'm not getting, here?

melkathi wrote:
I have only one gripe with the Lords of Under. That is that they'd be the second faction of "lords" in the game - that could become confusing when people abreviate the name.

That's exactly why I want to change their name XD



Using suggestions from others I'm thinking Undershapers or something like that might be a better name. But as always I'm open to suggestions

Nosferatiel wrote:
At least according to my dictionary, unofficial and inofficial mean exactly the same. Is there maybe some native speaker-undertone I'm not getting, here?

Inofficial is not a word in English according to my dictionary..

Seek is correct. Inofficial is not a word. I promise

Seek wrote:
Inofficial is not a word in English according to my dictionary..

http://www.dict.cc/?s=inofficial

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Inofficial

http://dict.leo.org/ende/index_de.html#/search=inofficial&searchLoc=0&resultOrder=basic&multiwordShowSingle=on



I find enough listings of it, even if at least one dictionary lists it as rarely used.

Nosferatiel wrote:
http://www.dict.cc/?s=inofficial

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Inofficial

http://dict.leo.org/ende/index_de.html#/search=inofficial&searchLoc=0&resultOrder=basic&multiwordShowSingle=on



I find enough listings of it, even if at least one dictionary lists it as rarely used.

Don't know, maybe it is technically "correct" or "legal" - languages are always shifting - but I've never heard the word used in my 34 years..

Teslaflux wrote:


I like your idea. Guerilla warfare is a concept you don´t see often in 4x games(I haven´t seen it) and with that you can really annoy the enemy.

And I like reptilian races.

I really need to replay to this comment and hopefully I manage to be polite and not to offend anyone but I am strongly opposed to any faction whose unit major role can be described as "annoy the enemy". I didn't play a lot of MP games as I'm not a big fan of that but there was one notable exception to that rule in form of AoW 2. And boy that game had a lot of ways to annoy your opponents and make their life harder. After some time we knew who was likely to do that and simply refused to play with them. All truly enjoyable MP games I had in AoW 2 involved some kind of gentlemen's agreement that we do not use those kind of tactics even if that sometimes meant making sub-optimal choices. Because things like chasing one unit for X turns over whole map or entering battle with one unit and casting Armageddon although are legitimate strategies (especially in SP) makes MP play frustrating. So idea of entire race based on the concept of "annoying your opponent" seems like worst nightmare for me. And I'm pretty sure I'd never enter any MP game unless all players agreed that this faction is banned.

I admit that due to number of the submission and my busy live I only read few first sentences of most races and skipped to "faction traits" to get a feel of factions and although I remember reading about guerilla faction only this comment got me to react. (And the reaction was rather extreme ^^" but I chose to filter that out)