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Faction Penalties for Dummies
I think I've posted a thread like this before, but it's been a few years and apparently the newbs (and even some devs?) are now confused about how faction penalties work. So, here is the run-down:
* Firing a weapon inside the NFZ will trigger a red warning message about the NFZ, but doesn't trigger any penalty unless it hits somebody (see below).
* Damaging people who are inside the NFZ triggers Temp-KOS, leaving you Hated (-601) with the faction for fifteen minutes or until you die, whichever happens first. Neither person's standing influences this.
* Damaging people within a faction's monitored/guarded space (regardless of whether within an NFZ or not) will display a yellow warning that the person is protected, if that person has sufficient standing with the faction in question. No actual penalty occurs (unless in the NFZ, in which case see above).
* Killing people in a faction's monitored/guarded space (regardless of whether within an NFZ or not) triggers a permanent faction penalty if the victim had sufficient standing with the faction. The penalty does not necessarily make you KOS. Penalties from minor factions are significantly lower than penalties from the three nations. I don't know whether the standing of the victim impacts the size of the penalty.
* Killing people in monitored/guarded space can also result in the victim's nation (NOT the local faction) putting a bounty on your head. I don't know the particulars here, and it is also partially random. It can even happen for killing people outside of Corvus stations.
* Damaging and/or killing players in unmonitored space carries no penalties whatsoever.
* Damaging and/or killing NPCs in unmonitored space usually carries no faction penalties, but may aggro them or their friends (e.g. convoy escorts, ship turrets). Killing CTC convoys (Serco/Itani owned hive-bots) does carry a small permanent penalty everywhere, and may carry a bigger penalty within their faction's space (have not tested that). Killing ships that are part of a mission you are taking may also have penalties, depending on the mission in question.
* Note that faction-station sectors in greyspace count as guarded, not unmonitored. Conquerable stations do count as unmonitored. Also note that there are unmonitored sectors within nation space. When in doubt, check your HUD.
* Any faction bonuses or penalties you acquire while temp-KOS will still apply after the temp-KOS is lifted.
* Sufficient standing to be protected by the faction is generally Admired or better. For the three main nations, natural-born citizens who are Respected also command a penalty, but it's small. (Have not verified this for myself, but it sounds right.) Also, no standing is sufficient to be protected by Corvus (they do apply temp-KOS for NFZ violations though, just like everybody else).
* If you are Hated or KOS with a faction, for any reason, you will be unable to dock with that faction's stations. The one exception to this is Corvus, whose stations will always let you dock.
* If for any reason your standing drops low enough to prevent docking with your home station, your home station gets immediately and automatically reset to one of your nation's capital stations (regardless of your standing with your home nation). It does not automatically revert after the temp-KOS expires. This reset never kicks in with Corvus home stations, due to them always allowing you dock.
* If you manage to have your home station set to somewhere you are unable to dock with despite the above, and then die, your home-station will be reset to Odia M-14 and then you'll respawn there. The only way I'm aware of to cause that dissonance to happen is if you are already Hated or KOS with your home-nation when your home-station gets reset, because the game doesn't check your status with your home-nation when reassigning your home-station.
A few temp-KOS related bugs to currently be aware of:
* Being temp-KOS with any faction also makes you temp-KOS with the conquerable stations.
* You can only be temp-KOS with one faction at a time. Becoming temp-KOS with a second will reset the first.
* This one might not be a bug, not sure: Station bots tend to remain hostile after your temp-KOS is reset until they dock. There are probably some subtleties with this.
* Firing a weapon inside the NFZ will trigger a red warning message about the NFZ, but doesn't trigger any penalty unless it hits somebody (see below).
* Damaging people who are inside the NFZ triggers Temp-KOS, leaving you Hated (-601) with the faction for fifteen minutes or until you die, whichever happens first. Neither person's standing influences this.
* Damaging people within a faction's monitored/guarded space (regardless of whether within an NFZ or not) will display a yellow warning that the person is protected, if that person has sufficient standing with the faction in question. No actual penalty occurs (unless in the NFZ, in which case see above).
* Killing people in a faction's monitored/guarded space (regardless of whether within an NFZ or not) triggers a permanent faction penalty if the victim had sufficient standing with the faction. The penalty does not necessarily make you KOS. Penalties from minor factions are significantly lower than penalties from the three nations. I don't know whether the standing of the victim impacts the size of the penalty.
* Killing people in monitored/guarded space can also result in the victim's nation (NOT the local faction) putting a bounty on your head. I don't know the particulars here, and it is also partially random. It can even happen for killing people outside of Corvus stations.
* Damaging and/or killing players in unmonitored space carries no penalties whatsoever.
* Damaging and/or killing NPCs in unmonitored space usually carries no faction penalties, but may aggro them or their friends (e.g. convoy escorts, ship turrets). Killing CTC convoys (Serco/Itani owned hive-bots) does carry a small permanent penalty everywhere, and may carry a bigger penalty within their faction's space (have not tested that). Killing ships that are part of a mission you are taking may also have penalties, depending on the mission in question.
* Note that faction-station sectors in greyspace count as guarded, not unmonitored. Conquerable stations do count as unmonitored. Also note that there are unmonitored sectors within nation space. When in doubt, check your HUD.
* Any faction bonuses or penalties you acquire while temp-KOS will still apply after the temp-KOS is lifted.
* Sufficient standing to be protected by the faction is generally Admired or better. For the three main nations, natural-born citizens who are Respected also command a penalty, but it's small. (Have not verified this for myself, but it sounds right.) Also, no standing is sufficient to be protected by Corvus (they do apply temp-KOS for NFZ violations though, just like everybody else).
* If you are Hated or KOS with a faction, for any reason, you will be unable to dock with that faction's stations. The one exception to this is Corvus, whose stations will always let you dock.
* If for any reason your standing drops low enough to prevent docking with your home station, your home station gets immediately and automatically reset to one of your nation's capital stations (regardless of your standing with your home nation). It does not automatically revert after the temp-KOS expires. This reset never kicks in with Corvus home stations, due to them always allowing you dock.
* If you manage to have your home station set to somewhere you are unable to dock with despite the above, and then die, your home-station will be reset to Odia M-14 and then you'll respawn there. The only way I'm aware of to cause that dissonance to happen is if you are already Hated or KOS with your home-nation when your home-station gets reset, because the game doesn't check your status with your home-nation when reassigning your home-station.
A few temp-KOS related bugs to currently be aware of:
* Being temp-KOS with any faction also makes you temp-KOS with the conquerable stations.
* You can only be temp-KOS with one faction at a time. Becoming temp-KOS with a second will reset the first.
* This one might not be a bug, not sure: Station bots tend to remain hostile after your temp-KOS is reset until they dock. There are probably some subtleties with this.
There are other bugs in the faction system that have been exploited, but since this is primarily about how it works as opposed to doesn't work, I would add the following:
* There is no permanent faction penalty for violations in corvus sectors.
* There is no permanent faction penalty for violations in corvus sectors.
* Firing a weapon inside the NFZ will trigger a red warning message about the NFZ,
It's also worth noting that the message only appears ONCE. Subsequent shots won't make it appear again.
Killing CTC convoys (Serco/Itani owned hive-bots) does carry a small permanent penalty everywhere, and may carry a bigger penalty within their faction's space (have not tested that).
As far as I've seen: In their own nation space, It's the same as killing a bot with their standing in monitored/guarded space plus the penalty for killing the CtC bot in unmonitored space.
It's also worth noting that the message only appears ONCE. Subsequent shots won't make it appear again.
Killing CTC convoys (Serco/Itani owned hive-bots) does carry a small permanent penalty everywhere, and may carry a bigger penalty within their faction's space (have not tested that).
As far as I've seen: In their own nation space, It's the same as killing a bot with their standing in monitored/guarded space plus the penalty for killing the CtC bot in unmonitored space.
Killing a player admired in a nation monitored sector of this nation gets you a penalty pf -1000 if your standing is admired or less with this nation and -1100 if you are pillar of society
Killing a player in minor faction monitored sector admired with this faction gets you a penalty of -300 if your standing is admired or less with this faction.
Well, this is how it was working before mutual exclusion faction reddux, now who knows :p
PS Then if someone knows about how bounty works for killing someone, shoot here on the forum.
Killing a player in their Home Nation space while you are a different home nation results in faction penalties regardless of your standing or theirs. For instance: Let's say that I am Serco flying around in UIT space and my UIT standings is Respected. At this point I come across a player whose nation is UIT, but his faction standing is Disliked with the UIT. If I kill this newb in UIT monitored space I will get a faction penalty. However this usually isn't the case with the minor factions. Killing someone in a minor factions monitored sector will not penalize you as long as they are neutral or below.
This seems like a good subject for the VO Wiki.
This should be stickied.
Can I steal this for our wiki?
Sure