Hello,
I love the idea of factions being in game but this needs to be done right. First up the most serious challenge with factions is for the Devs and the GMs they employ to deal with.
Some people will troll others and block their fellow faction members or cause misfortune through any opportunity. From shielding enemy faction members from alliance attacks with their bodies or boats to wasting critical resources/options. If you bring factions in you need to wield that ban hammer hard and fast for those with proof of this B.S or just don't add factions at all.
Also on the PVP servers having too many factions will split the player base into OP vs weak groups or simply make it harder to find and enjoy the fun elements of the game if you are on the wrong side if implemented poorly. That said here is my idea and please read it all as it's not as simple as you may first assume.
Pirates Vs Privateers
Players remain able to spawn in all free ports until they select a side. Then and only then are they limited to the free ports of their faction which can be abandoned at any time though it resets all reputation.
Pirate and Privateers can access each others free ports as normal however no faction privileges will apply outside their own factions ports.
Players join a faction via an NPC in the freeports. I recommend 8 out of 16 free ports will be converted to "Pirate Havens" These areas will essentially be the free ports that pirates may use.
Alliance system should be renamed to friends. As alliances should become faction based if factions are in game.
If you are not in a faction you are able to make a clan and are limited to becoming friends with individual clans/crews. Also clans should be renamed to Crews IMO.
Ships from each faction can access each others freeports. However only in their faction ports will privileges apply.
The system I am suggesting moves the alliance system into factions for events and missions. Privateers will be forced into auto allying all other faction members all the time creating a more new player friendly faction which this game truly needs IMO. While the Pirates are forced to co-operate for missions and events but can remain as cut throat as they want to be outside of these event areas.
Alliance chat should be renamed to friends and a new faction chat should be created (definitely will need a block/mute specific individual system).
Factions
Pirates:
Pirates are marked by the jolly roger flag flying attached to the tip of the highest mast.
Pirates are essentially the same as current system. Free from all ties and obligations. Free to be friendly with any non privateer or kill and loot any neutral, privateer or pirate crew they choose to attack (The pirate faction is able to attack each other outside grids assigned to missions / events) No alliance cap to be as diplomatic or non diplomatic as each pirate crew wants to be.
However in zones marked as faction mission/event areas Killing , Stealing etc aimed at faction members should be punished severely with Banishment.
Mission/event rules should be applied to all 9 grids centered around the event. To prevent easy grid line camping/ambushes among pirate faction members.
Pirates only share their isle with those on their friend list if permissions are given. All others are treated as hostile.
Friendship is needed to safely use the protection zone around a pirates clan/crew claimed isle.
Banished players are unable to rejoin the faction unless they pay a very large fine. I'm talking 10-20 thousand gold per person would be the range I would aim for. Can't pay the fine? Don't do the crime or go join the other faction but don't get banished over there too
Privateers:
Privateers are marked by a different flag flying attached to the tip of the highest mast. (May I suggest a community flag design contest?)
As the more inclusive group privateers are expected to work together but I believe permission should be needed to build on any claimed islands regardless.
Privateers should be able to safely anchor down at any isle owned by a fellow privateer clan/crew. Still vulnerable to others during their vulnerability window on pvp servers.
Killing , Stealing etc aimed at faction members OR NEUTRALS should be punished severely with Banishment. (This is the new player friendly faction)
Neutral:
The current situation and the status quo for all new players.
Can ally individual pirate & privateer crews/clans.
No access to faction reputation systems or rewards (Punishment enough)
* Create a Faction chat system to overlay and keep alliance/friend separate.
Reputation
Missions:
Missions earn reputation points. Points to unlock Reputation levels which unlock privileges.
The deal maker for this is a certain level unlocks no decay/damage for 1 anchored ship in their factions free port tied to the owner or create a way to mark the vessel while offline. Have it tied to players reputation level. Reputation should slowly bleed points however with more reputation ranks should come greater leeway. Higher ranks could safely store bigger boats but be careful with that concept.
Missions should be varied but both peaceful and violent options should be available IMO. Peaceful should earn far less points but involve less risk and take more time. Reputation loss over time should be much slower than a casual rate of peaceful gathering as a ratio.
The idea being casuals should make rep rank progression slowly however what they have worked to gain should not be lost too easily. This is important for new player retention purposes. Most won't be able to fly into combat immediately and some just won't want to. I've seen pacifists on pvp servers because they love the element of danger yet don't seek fights. They usually don't last too long yet it's those types that help the world feel alive.
Scheduled battle events would be ideal. 1 Land and Naval based event activating once a day during primetime NA or EU depending on the server rewarding rep for all participants with harder to get crafting materials for the winners would be my suggestion. A large weekend naval battle during prime time once every 2 weeks for huge rewards would be a crowd pleaser
If you play enough actively you have a safe place to overnight or even leave for days or weeks (In theory) if you had the reputation banked.. Rep which will decay and the boat will sink if you ignore it completely or don't play enough for rep upkeep. While we would still have our isles and bases this would create great strides for people to roam around and the freedom to logout somewhere other than their claimed islands without worrying about their boats which will only become more important from what I read on the roadmap.
Reputation Privileges:
As mentioned the best IMO would be safe docking options for our active players.
Otherwise options such as lowering the price to hire NPCs, Hiring better NPCs from factions than default ones, Cheaper Cosmetics, Special snack foods to tame non special animals faster and maybe just possibly a flat gold cost to full repair your boat instantly (24hr Cooldown?) at the freeport are some ideas.
Potentially making some factions more aimed toward certain things. Pirates may steal ships faster or cost less gold to upkeep islands or NPCs with the right faction privileges. Privateers may use less resources to repair/craft or can carry more crew on their boats as examples.
That's essentially my main concept.
Otherwise for missions / events it would be awesome if you reskinned some ship of the damned galleons/brigs turned god mode for each faction to guard certain shorelines for land events to prevent enemy ships from harassing those gathering or participating in the event and gathering areas for naval events.
Done right and that would inspire more people to try out these events IMO. Sure it would be schooners and naked skirmishes for abit. With the right rewards and incentives you'd get geared fighters and battle fleets crushing each other to dust which would be amazing fun for those involved. Food for thought
While I think the Offline raids are cancerous as always you should not have all the benefits of owning a isle with none of the negatives. You wouldn't have to pay upkeep for the isle or risk declaiming flags or war declarations. Lawless could use some love but I entirely disagree about any 100% safe peace timers for lawless. As for making attackers tagged to their peace timer that is even worse as only those who are NA could attack NA players and the Asian/Russian/Euro/Other players wouldn't be able to raid or attack those outside their time zones at all. Which is a major part of the politics and wars in the PvP servers. Please don't castrate the PvP Server wars. At most I could potentially argue a "Peace Phase Timer" that instead of making your stuff invulnerable like claimed isles does. Instead as an example it increases resistance or straight health by say 100%. So 10,000 health stone pieces have 20k Health when your peace timers are active. Or increased resistances for half incoming damage done. Nonetheless if you don't fight for and defend a claimable isle I don't believe you should have 100% safety. It's a lawless zone and you can always fight for an isle or join a smaller alliance / trade to gain possession of an isle. Take this post with a grain of salt. I personally always thought lawless was for newer players to get their bearings before joining the rest of the game. Otherwise they'd have no safe place to learn/develop as most would immediately burn the randoms off their claimed isles ASAP. The island claim system is how the game is suppose to be. The system isn't meant to be pvp balanced cause you weren't suppose to permanently live there afaik. It's a literal stop gap area for new groups/new people coming into the game. Otherwise they'd be stuck in freeport until they joined a crew/alliance who owned an isle.