Factions
Following the war and the rise of the megacorps, several factions emerged as the new global superpowers. Several non-superpower factions also exist, such as refugees/wandering tribes, mutants, rogue androids, zombies, etc.
Faction list - superpowers
"Cybertech" corp
Came to power in 1+ cities after convincing the citizens that cybertechnology would be a solution to their post-war problems.
- They see the melding of man and machine as the next stage of evolution?
- High-tech society
- Rationale: Required for DeathDawn, otherwise it wouldn't be cyberpunk
"Genetics" corp
Came to power in 1+ cities after convincing the citizens that genetic engineering of humans, gene therapy, etc. would be a solution to their post-war problems.
- They think man kind should alter its genetic makeup to allow himself to survive in the harsh nuclear wasteland
- High-tech society, but technology used as a tool rather than to improve lifestyle.
- Don't like cybertech corp. Melding man with machine is blasphemous! Mother nature should reign supreme!
- Rationale: Required for DeathDawn, in order to provide cybertech corp with an obvious, recognisable enemy, and to cover the dangers of genetic engineering, SiN style mass-evolution, etc.
"Orthodoxtech" corp
Came to power in 1+ cities after convincing the citizens that industrialisation would be a solution to their post-war problems.
- Construct big bio domes, etc. where humans can continue to live away from the harsh climate outside. Basically a continuation of the megacity way of life.
- Rationale: Required for DeathDawn, as a neutral ground the player can start in. Can contain a few smaller cybertech/biotech corporations that can compete with each other, etc. - allows the big corporations to be reserved for the big cities.
"Caretaker" corp
Came to power in 1+ cities after convincing the citizens that looking after the Earth is important, and restoring the natural balance of the ecosystem is a solution to their post-war problems.
- Use big construction machines to reshape mountains and rivers; big filtering plants to clean the soil, air, and water to allow plants and animals to grow again; weather satellites to try and restore the old weather patterns; etc.
- Feel annoyed by the cybertech and genetics corps, since they only think about themselves and do nothing for the planet. Feel somewhat threatened by them too, because their mistakes (genetic engineering, etc.) could do more damage to the environment. Somewhat ambivolent of the orthodoxtech corp, unless pollution caused by their isolationist cities is a problem?
"Terraform" corp
Like the "caretaker" corp, but believe genetic engineering, nanotech air scrubbers, other autonomous roaming machines, etc. can bring around a much faster ecosystem revival.
- Focus on high-tech solutions to the Earth's problems, unlike the lowtech approach taken by the caretaker corp. Aren't so interested in preserving the old systems (species of plants, animals, etc) - they are allowed to take the risk of new life forms developing as a result of the rapid terraforming of the planet.
- Neutral to the cybertech and genetics corps, since to a certain extent their high-tech R&D is allowing the Earth to be recovered. Neutral to caretaker corp as well, since they are working towards the same goal; but caretaker corp don't like them, since they feel genetic engineering of plants and other dangerous technology will only result in more problems.
"Space" corp
Came to power after convincing the citizens of 1+ cities that Earth is fucked, and the best course of action is to expand into space.
- Will have a project to construct a mothership to allow them to leave Earth and go elsewhere (Moon? Mars? Other solar system?)
- Space on the mothership may be limited - they may try pulling a fast one and only transport their own corp members into space, leaving everyone else to die?
- Constructing the mothership will require a vast amount of resources to be drained from the Earth. This makes most of the other factions (e.g. orthodox tech, terraform corp, caretaker corp) angry with them.
- They don't have any strong feelings against the other factions, though - but they don't feel motivated to take any of the other factions with them into space should the choice arise - it's their fault if they don't see that the Earth is dieing. They benefit from trade relations with the high-tech factions, even though they don't support their views (cybertech, genetics corps)
- Rationale: Required for DeathDawn. Not only for the "extreme solution" aspect, but also because they are allies of cybertech/genetics - but cybertech/genetics hate each other, so will continue to play each other off in the hope of making the other out to be the bad guy and thus getting all the lucrative trade deals (and a promise of passage on the spaceship?) for themselves.
"God" movement
A religious state who believe that Earth should be looked after (like the "caretaker" corp), but without the use of high-tech tools.
- Believe that restoring the Earth through hard labour is the only way of appeasing God.
- Thus they live mostly in the countryside, instead of in megacities.
- Annoyed with most of the other factions, since technology = evil. However caretaker corp like them, since they are one of the few corps who are trying to repair the Earth instead of doing further harm.
"Military" movement
A heavily-militarized city that still holds grudges against the old war enemies, and views the nuclear war as a still ongoing conflict.
- Very paranoid and isolationist
- They lack the military strength to wipe out their enemies (i.e. most of the rest of the factions) in a full-frontal assault
- So mainly guerilla tactics?
- If they're openly attacking other factions, why haven't the other factions wiped them out yet? Do they have good defense systems for their cities (thus making an attack very costly for the attacker), or are they roaming squads which never stay in one place for too long? Would have a strong communications network, etc.
- If they have a roaming nature, it would be very hard to know exactly how many of them there are, and therefore whether an assault on their forces would be successful (i.e. another group of theirs could assault their attacker's city while their military is out)
- Maybe they have a few nukes hidden somewhere, or claim to have some, and are able to use the threat of nuclear war to prevent attacks on themselves? Cold war scenario, etc.
"Aqua" movement
Want to develop a city under the sea? Or a floating city? But why? Game engine won't really do it justice, either.
- Rationale: Seperationalist group that the game engine can't really support (unless it was a floating city, I guess. But why would they want to do that?)
"Morlock" movement
A group that hid themselves under the ground during the war, and are going to continue to live there until the nuclear winter (real or imagined) is over?
"Laputan" movement
A group that wants to build a flying city... because they can? Or to escape the troubles of surface life?
Old countries
Some of these may have survived somewhat intact, and will continue to operate as they did before (same political motivations, etc.). But which countries? England, at request of richcheng, but who else?
Faction list - non-superpower
"friendly mutant" movement
A banding together of all mutants and outcasts of society.
- Live in the wilderness areas, since few megacorps will allow them to live in their cities.
- May be looked after by the "God" movement, as they are the innocent victims of the evils of technology? Would therefore have some respect for them and help them in caring for the Earth, but may have a more criminal/terrorist mentality due to their outcast nature and hatred.
"Terrorist" movement
How does this differ from the "military" movement? Are they more daring, and willing to attack innocent civilians? Are they following the same political motivations as the military movement? (i.e. they are the extreme terrorist offshoot of them)
- Rationale: Superfluous to DeathDawn; they can be embodied by the Tribe movement instead
"Zombie" movement
Nuke + mega city = zombies!
- Undecided if an explanation should be given for the cause of the zombification (radiation, chemical lab + research + nuke = zombie formula, etc.)
- Basic premise is that there are some cities/areas that are full of zombies, or some areas which the zombies reach and spread their plague
- Also, cyborg + nuke = cyberzombie? Although if cybertechnology was only introduced after the war, there shouldn't had been any cyborgs around to zombify (but could this be the first game to introduce the cyberzombie? apart from halloween harry, it seems - but those were cyberised afterwards, not before...)
- Rationale: Required for DeathDawn, for the hordes of zombies to kill.
"Terminator" movement
Rogue military hardware that is operating autonomously - or under the control of some (malfunctioning?) AI
- Basic premise is that there are some cities where humans are being decimated by robots, ala Terminator future war.
- But what are the motivations of the robots? Mindless "kill all humans", or more calculated "Kill humans to protect them from themselves", or "Kill humans to protect earth", or are they operating under the control of a faction? Or are they rogue AI who want to get rid of all biological life and develop their own civilisation? Need to really find an answer to this, as there are lots of different directions which can be taken, each with their own consequences on the game world. Or can it all be kept as some big mystery without having detrimental effects?
- Maybe their are brain-bots which can be captured and reprogrammed, and the factions use them to command armies of robots to do their bidding, without anyone being able to work out who sent them
- Rationale: Required for DeathDawn, for the Terminator-style future-war wartorn city
"AI" movement
Androids that have gained independence, but want to peacefully coexist with humans?
- Try to be friendly to the other factions (Still guided by Asimov's laws to a certain extent, etc.)
- Rationale: Superfluous to DeathDawn, they are a relatively neutral, seperationalist group. DeathDawn is focusing on mans problems as caused by man, not on aliens or AI entering man's world
"Tribe" movement
Bands of travellers wandering the Earth, moving from city to city, trying to survive.
- Maybe trying to achieve the dream of freedom, seeing the post-war world as the new frontier, wild west, etc.
- No centralised government; each tribe has its own leader(s), etc. Thus very different political opinions between tribes; some may be peaceful, some may be road warrior survivalists, some outright murderers, etc.
- Rationale: Required for DeathDawn, for the Mad Max road warrior/wandering tribe aspect
"Hippies" movement
Like the "God" movement, but they don't believe in God. Just want to live at peace with the Earth, in environmentaly friendly ways.
"Freedom" movement
Aren't obsessed with survival as such - just with bringing down the reign of the tyrannical megacorps.
- They see the megacorps for what they are, and want to bring justice to the world, etc.
- Although they are unlikely to control any territory inside the cities or openly drive gang-coloured cars, etc., they will be contactable in certain areas of cities.
- In particular, they may know of secret entrances into/out of the city that the player can use if he appeases them
- Rationale: Important for DeathDawn, although they obviously aren't going to have a city of their own (unless they reclaim an abandoned one?)
Faction relationships
Respect matrix
There are 4 basic relationships in the matrix:
- Positive (+) relations - i.e. they share the same goals and are willing to work together
- Neutral (neut) relations - They may share the same goals, but they don't feel strongly enough about each other to openly work together
- Ambivolant (ambiv) - They don't really care about each other, and don't mind blocking each other's progress - just not all-out war.
- Negative (-) relations - They are enemies, and will happily wipe each other out.
TODO:
MUST-DOCS: UNKNOWN: Finish fleshing out factions
MUST-CODE: LONG: Implement it all!
MUST-DOCS: UNKNOWN: Visual styles - only 4 needed? hightech, lowtech, regulartech, ramshackle
???
Profit!