Factions - General Discussion

[MKJoshA]

Introduce yourself, get to know your fellow players, and talk in general about the Factions game here.

The game will officially begin once the 6 factions have been introduced. We are still waiting for a few of our faction leaders to finish up some real-life stuff before they are ready. So in the meantime ask questions and start building! We should have all the factions announced next week.

[MKJoshA]

Hey guys, here's an upcoming MOC from me:

[WickNole]

The upcoming weeks will be very busy both due to LEGO and non-LEGO related things...

But the MOCs are coming nonetheless.

"This is, however, not the hive of scum and villainy you are looking for".

[Kwatchi]

This certainly looks promising. Kudos for putting things together.  I'm not sure my brick collection (and limited skill-set/time) makes this viable for me, but I am certainly give it a hard look once the rules get posted.

[MKJoshA]

Rules have been published! Information on the factions will be coming next week. In the meantime, read up and please ask questions here!

[Basiliscus]

A few immediate questions spring to mind:

1. There's nothing in the rules that explicitly prohibits force sensitive characters, what are the rules around that?
2. How will players have XP at the start of the game? Presumably this is carried over from SoNE 1?
3. The rules state that "Set-Up began by each faction choosing 1 planet to be their starting point.". However, the "Factions planet IP values" sheet shows 50 IP points on multiple planets per faction. Can you elaborate on this please?
4. In the FAQs it says you don't need to create a sig fig, but there is a character creation form and the character must have a speciality skill. This seems a bit contradictory?
5. For the character speciality skills are there levels within each skill, or is it simply a binary have it/don't have it? (e.g. can I reach Explorer level 5 or is it just Explorer or not?)

Thanks for clarifying!

[goatman461]

1 hour ago, Basiliscus said:

There's nothing in the rules that explicitly prohibits force sensitive characters, what are the rules around that?

Since you can build in any era and you don't have to use the same character, yes you could use a force sensitive character. I don't think we really want them playing a part in the post-Jakku era where most of the map/gameplay will be, at least for now. Be sure to discuss it with your Faction Leader and don't get carried away with it. 

1 hour ago, Basiliscus said:

Presumably this is carried over from SoNE 1?

yes

1 hour ago, Basiliscus said:

The rules state that "Set-Up began by each faction choosing 1 planet to be their starting point.". However, the "Factions planet IP values" sheet shows 50 IP points on multiple planets per faction. Can you elaborate on this please?

To set up, we gave all of the factions one planet as a freebie, then we converted their SoNE points into IP and let them choose how they allocated their points. I had 350 XP in SoNE, so I got to grab 7 planets at 50 IP each + 1 free planet. 

1 hour ago, Basiliscus said:

In the FAQs it says you don't need to create a sig fig, but there is a character creation form and the character must have a speciality skill. This seems a bit contradictory?

You do need some kind of character to be a member of a faction. But you don't have to include that character in any of your builds. You probably should include them in at least some post-Jakku builds, but it's not required for every build the way it was in SoNE. 

[Basiliscus]

12 hours ago, goatman461 said:

Since you can build in any era and you don't have to use the same character, yes you could use a force sensitive character. I don't think we really want them playing a part in the post-Jakku era where most of the map/gameplay will be, at least for now. Be sure to discuss it with your Faction Leader and don't get carried away with it. 

yes

To set up, we gave all of the factions one planet as a freebie, then we converted their SoNE points into IP and let them choose how they allocated their points. I had 350 XP in SoNE, so I got to grab 7 planets at 50 IP each + 1 free planet. 

You do need some kind of character to be a member of a faction. But you don't have to include that character in any of your builds. You probably should include them in at least some post-Jakku builds, but it's not required for every build the way it was in SoNE. 

Thanks for the clarifications!

So that brings me on to two further questions:

1. How will building in any era work with influence points? If the map exists in the present post-Battle of Jakku timeline, how are influence points created from builds in the past?
2. For the character speciality skills are there levels within each skill, or is it simply a binary have it/don't have it? (e.g. can I reach Explorer level 5 or is it just Explorer or not?)

Looking forward to the faction reveals!

[goatman461]

5 hours ago, Basiliscus said:

How will building in any era work with influence points? If the map exists in the present post-Battle of Jakku timeline, how are influence points created from builds in the past?

I think you're just looking at the timeline and gameplay too literally. The idea is that you are getting points by telling stories on the planet. There is not a one-for-one "bricks put on post-Jakku planet" = "gain more control of that planet." It's more like your faction wants to control a planet, so they build for that planet and help define it throughout whatever eras they choose.

We had to pin the points down to a specific era (Aftermath/post-Jakku) for the gameplay, but we didn't want to limit what eras you could build in, so there has to be some kind of disconnect on alternate era builds.

6 hours ago, Basiliscus said:

For the character speciality skills are there levels within each skill, or is it simply a binary have it/don't have it? (e.g. can I reach Explorer level 5 or is it just Explorer or not?)

I'll let @LucasLaughing and @MKJoshA handle this one so I don't misstate it.

[Basiliscus]

Fair enough! Thank you for the clarifications @goatman461 and patiently answering my questions. I'll wait for @LucasLaughing or @MKJoshA to clarify the character specialisations and will eagerly await the faction reveals!

Good work gentlemen!

Edited November 29, 2018 by Basiliscus

[LucasLaughing]

On 11/28/2018 at 1:23 AM, Basiliscus said:

For the character speciality skills are there levels within each skill, or is it simply a binary have it/don't have it? (e.g. can I reach Explorer level 5 or is it just Explorer or not?)

It's just a binary - you either have the skill or you don't.  Thanks for the good questions!

[MKJoshA]

On 11/28/2018 at 9:38 AM, goatman461 said:

I'll let @LucasLaughing and @MKJoshA handle this one so I don't misstate it.

 

13 hours ago, Basiliscus said:

Fair enough! Thank you for the clarifications @goatman461 and patiently answering my questions. I'll wait for @LucasLaughing or @MKJoshA to clarify the character specialisations and will eagerly await the faction reveals!

Good work gentlemen!

There aren't levels for the specialty skills. What skill you choose is mostly for story telling purposes and we have a few game mechanics you'll see later that are affected by the specialty skills.

[Basiliscus]

19 hours ago, LucasLaughing said:

It's just a binary - you either have the skill or you don't.  Thanks for the good questions!

Thanks!

14 hours ago, MKJoshA said:

There aren't levels for the specialty skills. What skill you choose is mostly for story telling purposes and we have a few game mechanics you'll see later that are affected by the specialty skills.

Nice one, thanks for elaborating.

In that case, all my questions are answered! Look forward to seeing the faction reveals.

[mccoyed]

I'm cautiously interested in this. AG2 being effectively dead before arrival means there's a scifi RBG void and while I know SONE fulfilled some of those requirements. Factions feels more open and inviting.

Just wanted to state my interest and congratulate you guys on the hard work it must have took to put this together. Can't wait to see what you have planned for the factions.

[Jody Meyer]

What worries me is competency of builders, I for one am not a great builder like @goatman461  and @MKJoshA, @mccoyed as well as other's. How is the judging going to be fair and decisive.  Don't get me wrong I am chomping at the bit to getting started, and think that the people involved have done an excellent job to get it this far as well. sorry just putting in my two cents.

[JoeChu1980]

LEGO Star Wars is my favorite theme and so glad to have this opportunity and take part in. here I would like to learn some thing about " Customs/Third-Party/non-LEGO Parts "

what if I use LEGO parts but just wipe the original print?

Or what if I paint on the LEGO parts? e.g. 327th star corps on Felucia, LEGO released sw128 once, but the helmet tooling design limited its rotation, new phase 2 helmet is much better. I repainted some MF parts from 75036 set 212th troopers, and gain my 327th star corps squad.

[goatman461]

1 hour ago, Jody Meyer said:

What worries me is competency of builders, I for one am not a great builder like @goatman461  and @MKJoshA, @mccoyed as well as other's. How is the judging going to be fair and decisive.  Don't get me wrong I am chomping at the bit to getting started, and think that the people involved have done an excellent job to get it this far as well. sorry just putting in my two cents.

We tried to set up the game so all levels of builders can have fun and contribute to expanding the Star Wars universe through unique MOCs. The Faction structure partially is meant to provide guidance to newer builders and help them develop. 

It will be decisive, in that a pool of judges will independently assess the builds and post their scores to be averaged against each other. Once the score posts it will be final. 

As far as fairness, I think it’s self explanatory that poor MOCs will get lower scores and great MOCs will get high scores. But there are a lot of ways to contribute to a faction, regardless of building aptitude. Coming up with storylines to attract builders, studying the map to help with strategy, creating incentives within the faction to encourage builders, etc. 

That being said, IMO, the point of these games is to inspire great MOCs and help builders build great MOCs. Those builders will be rewarded the most, and I don’t know how that could be interpreted as unfair. 

Just now, JoeChu1980 said:

LEGO Star Wars is my favorite theme and so glad to have this opportunity and take part in. here I would like to learn some thing about " Customs/Third-Party/non-LEGO Parts "

what if I use LEGO parts but just wipe the original print?

Or what if I paint on the LEGO parts? e.g. 327th star corps on Felucia, LEGO released sw128 once, but the helmet tooling design limited its rotation, new phase 2 helmet is much better. I repainted some MF parts from 75036 set 212th troopers, and gain my 327th star corps squad.

That would be custom bricks, but I wouldn’t consider that overly customized, and the minifigs themselves should be fine. However, this kind of build may be too focused on the customized parts since there’s not much background and is pretty much a (custom) figbarf.

[mccoyed]

Yeah, that example is literally just figs on a plate.

Anyway, I think goatman makes a strong point that the idea is to develop your skills. Like, I wasn't always a "great builder" and would argue I'm not one now. I'm like mid-tier at best. I started out pretty rough but have tried to experiment, copy the greats, and learn new skills as I go. I don't have the patience some great builders have. Others don't have the bricks or the time. We just work with what we're given and try not to be too lazy to change what we can. That can mean presentation (photography), story, and then actual LEGO moccing skills.

[MKJoshA]

@goatman461 @LucasLaughing and myself all experienced the judging for AG1. Most of the time the scores made sense, but every now and then there would be a head scratcher. So we've lived through that with you. We've also been judging the MOCs for SoNE for years now, so we also have experience. One thing that will help is the new XP range being 50XP instead of 5XP. This allows for a better range of scores for mid-tier builds that we'll probably see the most of. In AG the range for a mid-tier build was 2-4. I can't promise we'll get it right 100% of the time, but that's why there will always be 3 judges per score.

As for customs, this game is about building with Legos. If custom weapons or figs help you flesh out a build better then you are using them correctly! If you just want to display your custom army, then you'll probably not score too well. But the game is about having fun! So participate in whatever way allows you to have the most fun!

[Scorch93]

Hey there,
I read something in the rules, about scoring (with builds in challenges) and capturing "holocrons" - so consequently, when fraction one achieves a victory, what happens to the other one with the "defeat" in this "holocron affair"?
Do they get wiped out entirely from the game, or what are the consequences? Or aren't they allowed to keep building in that challenge, but later again when the challenge is over?  

Edited December 2, 2018 by Scorch93

[micaz]

So factiones control planets, and gain IP over them. The faction with the most IP controls that planet if muliple factions has IP over 50 on a given planet? So i guess if you want to control a planet another faction controls you'd have to build MOCs to out-influence them? Or will there eventually be any conflict mechanics? Or is it one and I read the rules poorly?

And also, this is great! Awsome work guys. 

[Basiliscus]

Glad to see a bit more action in this thread. If there are 6 factions it'll need as many players as possible to prevent some from going stagnant (like what happened to Nocturnus in GoH, and that was with 4 factions).

[Darnok]

On 12/1/2018 at 9:36 PM, mccoyed said:

I'm cautiously interested in this. AG2 being effectively dead before arrival means there's a scifi RBG void and while I know SONE fulfilled some of those requirements. Factions feels more open and inviting.

I am kind of in the same boat, and share these feelings.

On 12/1/2018 at 9:36 PM, mccoyed said:

Just wanted to state my interest and congratulate you guys on the hard work it must have took to put this together. Can't wait to see what you have planned for the factions.

What he said!

[goatman461]

3 hours ago, Scorch93 said:

Hey there,
I read something in the rules, about scoring (with builds in challenges) and capturing "holocrons" - so consequently, when fraction one achieves a victory, what happens to the other one with the "defeat" in this "holocron affair"?
Do they get wiped out entirely from the game, or what are the consequences? Or aren't they allowed to keep building in that challenge, but later again when the challenge is over?  

 

2 hours ago, micaz said:

So factiones control planets, and gain IP over them. The faction with the most IP controls that planet if muliple factions has IP over 50 on a given planet? So i guess if you want to control a planet another faction controls you'd have to build MOCs to out-influence them? Or will there eventually be any conflict mechanics? Or is it one and I read the rules poorly?

If you want to control a planet you have to be the first to 50 IP, or gain 25 IP more than any other faction on that planet. Right now, that is the only way to control planets.

2 hours ago, Basiliscus said:

Glad to see a bit more action in this thread. If there are 6 factions it'll need as many players as possible to prevent some from going stagnant (like what happened to Nocturnus in GoH, and that was with 4 factions).

I think a big difference is that the factions are not permanent, and builders are not forever tied to their initial faction. So we expect some factions to die off as other rise up from the more active builders. It should keep the best factions going and breathe new life into the game from time to time.

[mccoyed]

There are also a few with pre-existing lore behind them, meaning there's a lot of room for people to base stories off that and introduce big casts of NPCs to imply the faction. No one is waiting around for faction leaders or stepping on anyone's toes. Though I imagine there might be some Star Wars lore arguments in the future. :P In some RBGs it would seem like a faction just doesn't exist without members but in this it kinda seems like the Black Sun can chug along even if no one's building in it.

To be honest, I disagree with the decision at GoH to close Nocturnus. The scoring system that this decision seemed based on is archaic anyway and doesn't seem to do much to encourage GoH activity. I think it's worthwhile to see what happens when you've got a bunch of factions changing, growing, shrinking, etc over time. A more dynamic faction system doesn't seem to have been tried in any other RBG I know of.