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22APR22 - Expanded Inter-faction Standings

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    Posted: 22 Apr 2022 at 17:54

Hello, Illyrians!


We’re pleased to announce that we’ve released a new bit of content for the upcoming Illyriad Faction AI launch. Effective immediately, we have substantially edited and added to the NPC factions’ “Inter-faction Standings” (IFS). Each faction profile contains an IFS section directly underneath the Default Racial Standing (DRS) section. 


Here’s an example, from the Council of Illyria:




Positive IFS standings are rendered in blue, while negative IFSs are in red. The vertical black line represents neutral zero on the ranking scale. If a faction has no IFS with other factions (and there are some factions with no other NPC faction relationships), this section will not appear.


We also put all of these IFS rankings in order from positive to negative on the NPC faction profile pages (previously they were in alphabetical order).


In addition to editing a few IFSs, we have added well over 100 unique, two-way IFS relationships that did not previously exist in the game. No new IFS was created arbitrarily. These new relationships are based primarily on cues from the factions’ own profile and lore, as well as other characteristics and geopolitical structures within the game. 


Here is just one example: The Overoad Traders are a dwarf faction, and dwarves historically have been at odds with the races of greenskin factions in Illyriad. However, we learn from the Overoad Traders’ profile that they have an unusually close relationship with the Goblins:


The Overoad Traders, he explained, needed others to help them. There just weren’t enough Dwarves to perform all the tasks required in all their trade missions. And the goblins were outstanding servants – or as he put it, partners. They were excellent scouts, cunning and swift, they could look after pack animals, they could learn any simple skill, and if needs be they could be merciless. And they ate only half what a Dwarf or Human would eat, “which means we carry and buy fewer provisions. So we’d rather work with them than with humans. Not that we don’t have human partners. Anyone can join up. But the goblins have always been our best friends.”


Therefore, the Overoad Traders have a +40 IFS with Sundog Gith, Illyria’s premier Goblin faction. (They also offer a +10 DRS with orcs, which is unusual for dwarves.)


We really tried our best to make as many connections like these as possible wherever we could, so that there is a nexus of logical relationships between most of the factions. There are likely even more to be unearthed as time goes on, and we may have additional IFS releases.


What are IFS rankings?

Simply put, IFS rankings are the numerical representations of relationships between factions. Just like players and alliance rankings, the IFS scale is -100 to +100, so you can get an immediate feel for how close or at odds factions are with one another. 


Currently, the IFS will remain fixed between factiions. However, as Faction AI develops and factions interact with one another, it is possible that these rankings will also fluctuate over time in the future.


Why are IFS rankings important?

If it is your desire to tap into the unique and powerful benefits of being very close with an NPC faction, you’ll need to do some fighting and make some enemies as well. While there will be plenty of passive ways to maintain and even improve rankings with factions, having rankings between +60 and +100 will require you to be aggressive with factions that your faction allies view negatively. Attacking a faction will decrease your ranking with them, but will have a reciprocal positive effect on other factions who have enmity towards them. The degree of positive effect will be proportional to how negative the IFS is, as well as other factors that the player base will need to deduce.



On the other hand, positive IFS standings are also likely to have cross-relational impacts on rankings as well, allowing players and alliances to identify and align with factional confederations.


The IFS standings, together with the DRS rankings, are yet one more piece of the puzzle towards bringing the factions to life. We hope this new content gives you some additional research to work on as we continue to develop the ranking and action systems for the upcoming Faction AI launch!


NPC Faction Action Radii

Additionally, we're also giving a first glance of faction hubs' "action radii." These are the invisible circles around hubs that define the boundaries for how far a faction unit from any given hub may travel to interact with a city or encampment of any kind. If your city or encampment is on the outside of an action radius, that faction will not interact with you. However, even if you are within the action radius, each faction and its hubs will have individualized characteristics for determining how tenacious they may be in engaging with players within their boundaries. Understanding these characteristics will be a process of experimentation and coming to understand the unique characteristics of each faction.

More on how to "see" these action radii below.

IFS and Action Radii in XML Data Feeds

We will be adding all of the new IFS data and the action radii into the XML data feeds. The IFS and action radii data should populate in the next data run and will be accessible in the Factions and Faction Hubs XML data feeds, respectively.

Working With the IFS Data

Down the line, we'll be enhancing features within the user interface to make faction-related data and insights more visibile and workable. In the meantime, we've partnered with Tensmoor to leverage his fantastic third-party tools to give you some extremely valuable interfaces for exploring faction relationships and beginning to plan your early Faction AI strategies.


Faction Relationships Tool


You can access this powerful tool at https://illystuff.uk/FactionStandings/. Be sure to bookmark it.


There are 4 tabs within this tool. I'll take you through all of them.


Factions


Based on Tensmoor's older tool that analyzed dipplomatic relationships between alliances, this is an incredible tool that lets you look at the IFS rankings between NPC factions. Select any number of factions from the list on the right and you will see how all of these factions' IFSs interact with one another.


You can mouse over the icons of factions to get their name, ticker symbol, and race. Positive and negative relationships are color-coded for easy analysis. This tool should help you to identify who you need to target in your Faction AI strategies.


Alliance


The Alliance tool is not active yet, but will eventually show alliances' standings with each of the factions. This will be an important tool for aiding players and alliances in their strategies to leverage factions against their enemies and create dynamic confederations between player and NPC forces. More to come on this!


Location


The location tool is one of a two ways that players can see which factions' action radii your cities (or any place on the map) fall within. Simply enter the coordinates and the tool will give you all of the factions' hubs' action radii. 


This tool will not only help you understand which hubs your cities will interact with, but also can help you understand which factions other players and alliances are exposed to.


Races


The races tool gives players a quick way of seeing how all of the factions feel about each of the 4 major races within Illyria. Select a race and it will return all of the relevent default racial standings (DRS) for all NPC factions.


Faction Ranges Tool


Tensmoor also created a faction ranges tool that lets you see the action radii by race of faction all over the map. You can access the tool here: https://illystuff.uk/FactionRanges/index.html


The smaller map view on the right can be used to focus in on specific areas in the map. Drag the transparent white pane across the map to select specific areas. You can also use the zoom functions:




Players can filter these action radiuses based on the factions' own races. Here's how to do it:


1. Click on "Factions" and "Hub Ranges" in the Data Selector on the right.

2. Click on "Filters."

3. In the pop-up, select the hubs and ranges of whichever faction races you want to looks at.

4. Click "Apply."




A vew of the elf factions in Elgea would yield a view like this:




We're still working on this tool and you can expect to see further enhancements in the future.


What's Next?

The dev team is almost done the first half of the ranking factors for Faction AI, which we will be testing in earnest while we work on building out the second half of that project. Once the second half of the ranking factors project is complete, we will test those factors while building out the faction behaviors.


In the meantime, I can tell you that there have been no changes to NPC faction behavior or the ability to change your rankings with factions. We will be sure to update you when those features go live.


We hope you enjoy this new content for the upcoming Faction AI system!





Edited by GM Jejune - 22 Apr 2022 at 18:06
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Bonemash Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Apr 2022 at 18:27
Fantastic work guys.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Tensmoor Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Apr 2022 at 19:14
I'm currently working on setting up new daily jobs to run on my server which will update the database used by the two pages that JJ mentioned above. In the meantime the tools will show some of the relationships. The full set will be available after the data files update tonight (or perhaps sooner if I get my finger out and finish writing the scripts).

Anyone has any problems with the two new pages please send me a PM on here and I'll get back to you ASAP.

Have fun!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Tensmoor Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Apr 2022 at 01:40
Well I'm going to head to bed for now. I'm just not used to these long days anymore and two 18 hour ones back to back has taken its toll. The faction datafile hasn't updated yet so I'll check again when I wake up.

Have fun folks
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Tensmoor Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Apr 2022 at 07:48
The two new pages should now be showing the full range of inter-faction relationships but some of the standings data may be slightly different to that displayed in game. Please bear with me while I work on this problem.

I will be adding both pages to the menu in IllyStuff as soon as I'm happy that everything is working ok.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (2) Thanks(2)   Quote Tensmoor Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Apr 2022 at 17:13
Update on the Faction Ranges and Faction Relationships pages. Both are now using the latest data available and will hopefully continue to do so. There is an issue at present with the factions and hubs datafiles not currently updating correctly but TC is working on it and I'm sure it won't be long.

In my opinion this represents a major opportunity for players to start getting a heads up of what factions they should perhaps be keeping an eye on. A chance to see which are perhaps not that friendly to other alliances/races etc.

I've made some cosmetic changes to the pages (most tables are now sortable) and I'd also like to point out that on the ranges page you can also move around the map using the arrow keys and zoom in using Page Down and zoom out with Page Up.

Please feel free to message me if you notice anything wrong with either page or think there is something that should be included.

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Edited by Tensmoor - 25 Apr 2022 at 17:14
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote demdigs Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 May 2022 at 11:27
Have all factions been updated with the new stuff or is that work in progress 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Tensmoor Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 May 2022 at 13:20
Originally posted by demdigs demdigs wrote:

Have all factions been updated with the new stuff or is that work in progress 

As far as I'm aware the in-game data has all been updated and should be the same as is shown in the two new pages I made (see links earlier from JJ). The updated info is not yet available for download but that is being worked on. I believe they are now testing various parts of the overall system for the interactions and updating of standings.
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