Aldari Posted September 7, 2020 Report Share Posted September 7, 2020 This thread will give you an overview of what Faction Services expects from factions, new or old, and how we would like factions to develop themselves. Meeting these expectations is crucial to developing an immersive faction and moving on to reaching official status. Before making your faction you should decide what type of faction you want it to be and what kind of roleplay experience you both want to experience and provide. Factions fall into two general categories: Legal Criminal What kind of faction you want to be will determine what kind of access to RP and scripts you have in game if you ever reach official status and it will also affect what kind of RP faction Services will expect from you. Legal factions tend to be of the following: Vehicle clubs Businesses/corporations Hobby groups Unions Cults (dependent) More... As a legal faction, if you gain official status, you will not have access to weapon imports, and you will be expected to stick to predominately legal RP. Criminal factions tend to be of the following: Street gangs Cartel Crime syndicates Crime families Motorcycle clubs (dependent) More... As a criminal faction, if you gain official status, you will have access to the following: Weapon imports Drug imports Warehouse HQ Turfs F4 menu, including ranks, rank specific powers and a treasury Ocasionally special RP scenarios that allow for the aquisition of otherwise unobtainable items. It is important that you decide what type of faction you want to be, as you will not be allowed to freely switch from legal to criminal or vice-versa without the proper RP development to back it up and you will have to re-apply for official status if you decide to switch. As an official faction, legal or criminal, you will be expected to represent the standard of what we expect from other factions that are up and coming. This means adhering to the expectations of this thread as your faction will be closely watched and there will be a bimonthly review of your faction to decide whether or not you should get to keep official status, meaning if you decide to let standards slip you may lose your position as an official faction and the priviledges that come with it. Once you have decided what type of faction you want to be it is time to create your faction lore. Your faction lore is what will distinguish you from other organizations on the server, drive your RP and determine largerly what kind of faction you will be and will become. When creating your faction lore you should consider the following: What are your factions origins? Who were the founders? What is your factions history? Why was your faction made? What purpose sparked its creation? What victories, failures, successes and tragedies have beset the faction historically? Where did your faction originate from? How has your faction operated historically? What culture, beliefs, mindset and backstory hold your members together? Do you have a common belief? Shared history? It is important when creating the lore that you capture the image of the faction you're trying to create. Cultures, beliefs and history can be very complex, so we do not expect people to be experts on what they're trying to mimic, but we do expect you to be able to realistically portray your faction, even if it is in a stereotypical fashion. Your faction can develop its lore further as you yourself understand more about the RP you're mimicking or as you get members who are more familiar what with to expect. If you're creating a wholly original concept you may struggle more to make your lore understandable at a glance, but as your presence on the server becomes more familiar people will eventually begin to understand. It's important that your lore is 1.) Possible and 2.) Makes sense. For example, you cannot RP that you originate from a band of superheroes with superpowers as this is neither possible or makes sense within the world lore. EXAMPLE - Hispanic Street Gang You have decided to create a Hispanic street gang, so we need to consider what makes a Hispanic street gang a Hispanic street gang. With the type of faction alone we get some clues on what the faction should be: The gang should originate from South America or has heritage there. It should be concerned with crime associated with street gangs With this two bits of information alone we should now ask ourselves two questions: "How would someone from South America be expected to behave?" and "what would a street gang look like". As your faction is from South American most of your members should speak Spanish or Portuguese (which they can do using the [Spanish]/[Portuguese] in game). South American culture should be a part of your cartel, such as Catholicism, local folklore holidays (such as the Day of the Dead), and you should be expected to utilize slang that is associated with Hispanic gangs in the USA. As a street gang you should be concerned with crime associated with street gangs: Drug trafficking Gun trafficking Muggings Disputes with rival street gangs Extortion So, we've got a few ideas of what our faction should look like: Should embrace Hispanic culture/slang/beliefs Should originate from South America or have heritage there Should be concerned with less organised/street crime. From this foundation you can begin to create your history and culture. For example, perhaps our street gang is returning from Mexico after being pushed out by a rival faction, your gang has now decided to set up shop in LS after crossing the border and desires to rebuild its extortion ring after it was taken over in Mexico. Once your faction lore is made it is time to consider how you will present that lore, history and identity to other players and factions. As a faction it is important that you present your faction to the server in a way that is: Believable Immersive You achieve this by presenting your faction in accordance with your lore and Roleplaying your character appropriately to the faction you're trying to portray. When deciding how you want to present your faction to the server you should consider the following: What is your factions identity? What beliefs does it have? Ideals? What culture does your faction have? What ethnicity is your faction? Where does your faction originate? What vehicles should your faction members drive and be seen in? Where would we be expected to find your faction? Where would they hang around? What type of clothing do your members wear? You should make sure that decisions you wear in terms of appearance, location, turf selection, vehicles and identity are all appropriate for your faction and are not picked for purposes of gain or for OOC motivations. Your factions identity is all the beliefs, aspects of your faction culture, traits of its members, quirks and ideals that make up the backbone of your faction. A nice way to think of it is simply: If you were to strip away your factions clothes and vehicles, would you still be recognizably your faction? For example, if you're a cult would I still recognise your members just simply by the way they behave? Or by the way your members speak? If you're a Asian crime syndicate, would I be able to recognise your members by the way they present themselves? By the mannerisms they exhibit and by the beliefs they hold? If the answer is no then your faction may not hold much identity beyond its colours. Creating an identity is difficult and comes with time, especially at first. However, you should consider what shared identity your members should hold, what behaviour they can be expected to exhibit, how your faction feels about other factions, authority figures, civilians. Once you have an idea you should try your best, as a faction leader, to make sure your members are upholding this image and behaving accordingly. It would not make much sense, for example, to have a member of a Motorcycle club who exhibits the behaviour and identity of a African American street gang. EXAMPLE - Italian Style Mafia You have decided to create a New York Italian Mafia style faction. So, what identity would we expect from the members of a faction like this? Stereotypically we might expect your faction to be heavily anti-drug, suspicious of cops but not openly hostile (i,e more interested in bribes and blackmail), critical of Mexican/Hispanic factions, perhaps religious (particularly if Italian), and take trust very seriously as well as be outraged by betrayals (stemming from the Omerta code). Internally you may have ceremonies for initiating people into the made-men ranks, which may include blood oaths and pacts and you may have a sponsorship program in which a made-man promotes a henchman to become a mad-man himself. Your faction might forbid drug trafficking, promote diplomacy and be hesitant to gather police attention. Let's run down what a Mafia might look like: Professional, especially in the higher ranks Religious, particularly if Italian Consist of induction ceremonies Critical, but not openly hostile to police Anti-drug trafficking With just these few traits alone you begin to compose a Mafia style faction, which gives you a nice foundation to work of. The next thing to consider is how do your members speak and behave? Lets run down some expectations: Your members would not be expected to say "clap", but rather "ice" or "whack". Your members would likely be professional and avoid foolish behaviour or silliness Your members would be religious conscious, and use expression such as "Thank God". Your faction members would look down severely on 'rats' and informants Your faction members would look down on people who are connected to lawmen or former cops that try to join. Your high rank members may be interested in politics. Your faction members would refer to your internal oath and customs Your faction members would avoid police attention and look towards more organised crime. It's the little details that make your faction what it is and will distinguish it from other factions. Faction Services considers identity to be very important, as it is what we will look at when we decide how different are you from the other factions and if we strip away your colours, your vehicles and decide we would not be able to really distinguish you from other factions based on behaviour, mannerism, language, culture, beliefs and actions alone then we might not consider you to yet be worthy of official. Your faction should be more than a colour and a uniform, though these are important. A vital aspect of your faction is hierachy. What ranking structure will your faction operate as? Will it be based on shares, such as a board of investors? More of a strict militaristic style of an organised crime sydicate, like a militia, or a more democratic broterhood such as a motorcycle club? The ranking structure is very important to the internal identity of your faction, as it is what, and should, drive a lot of internal RP. This in turn should effect your external RP with other factions. It will also decide, individually, what type of RP each member gets to participate in. If you're a Mafia the made-men of the faction shouldn't be seen participate in street crime, but rather should be overseeing operations and making decisions, the henchman would deal with the more street level crime. If you're an MC your rank might decide what responsibilities you hold within the faction, such as managing the treasury or club diplomacy. It should also effect how members treat each other. If you're the head of a crime syndicate it should be agregious for a low ranking member to disrespect you and the leader would be considered quite a high valued target by other enemy factions. This of course is RP dependant, perhaps if you're a poor leader your other members may conspire to push you out. Your rank should also be intertwined with your identity, for example a cult may hold their cult leader to be a God. Your rank should also go on to effect your external appeareance, members should not be seen to have a higher status than the leadership, for example, as that would not make much sense depending on what type of faction you are. When designing your faction you should decide what type of vehicles your faction will utilise. The type of vehicles you utilise should make sense for your factions lore and presentation, we do not want factions simply using the fastest vehicles. You should consider a few things when deciding what vehicles your faction should use: What kind of faction are you? If you're a mob you will want to use professional looking vehicles, a biker gang would utilise chopper style bikes, a racing faction may utilise sports vehicles, a street gang would use SUVs and low-riders, etc. How wealthy is your faction? If you're a street gang it would not make sense for you to drive a super car, if you're a wealthy faction it would not make sense for you to all drive RVs or trucks. Will there be a difference between what the low ranks drive and what the high command of your faction drives? Will there be a shared colour? You should consider these within the context of your identity. Whereas a street gang might all display same coloured vehicles, would this make sense for a more professional organisation? Likely not, as professional organisations do not aim to purposely draw attention to themselves, as such a variety of colours or more natural colours would be expected - such as blacks and greys. EXAMPLE - African American Street Gang EXAMPLE - Mob/Mafia The territory/turf that your faction occupies should make sense and be in accordance with your lore. If you're a a street gang we would expect to see you in the 'hood' areas, a Motorcycle club would be expected to be seen in poor areas in the desert, a crime snyndicate would be expected to be in upper-clas areas etc. There are a few general kind of areas to consider for your faction: Hoods/Ghetto areas - Appropriate for a hispanic/African American street gangs Industrial districts - Appropriate for a Mob/Crime syndicate or civilain industrial faction/business Upper class areas - Appropriate for a Mob/Crime syndicate/cults/Business Asian district - Approrpiate for a Asian ethnic gang or syndicate or business (such as a fast food place) Middle class areas - Appropriate for a mob/organised gang or businesses Lower class areas - Appropriate for motorcycle clubs/hillybilly type factions/cults Civilian/Government districts - Appropriate for businesses/Gov/Cults/Civilian It is important that the place you consider your territory reflects your identity and the type of faction you aimt to be. It would not make much sense for an Asian gang to make Paleto their home, nor a Mafia to make Grove Street their home. Some areas are a lot more ambiguous, particularly industrial areas, however you should attempt to choose a location reflective of your factions identity. If you're a cult it would not make much sense for you to be based around the dock yard, instead you should be focused in the upper class or desert areas. Faction Services will not approve of factions attempting to claim all turfs or trying to claim their faction has influence over the entire state of San Andras. Factions should remember that there are two jurisdictions and we roleplay that the state is much larger than it actually is. A faction based out of Grove should not act as though they have influence in Sandy Shore any more than a Sandy Shore faction should act as though they have influence in Grove. Faction Services will also expect to see you in your territory as well as build up an IC presence and story to connect you to the territory. We will not approve of factions attempting to conveniently claim they have a claim to an area that does not match their identity, lore or IC presence. We will expect to see your faction members at your claimed territories - regardless of whether there is a scripted turf there or not. Faction Services will also not approve of factions attempting to claim an area if that area contradicts the identity of your faction too strongly (e.g, a African American street gang claiming they own Vinewood hills or a Motorcycle club claiming they own Grove) regarless of how much IC lore and presence has been built up in that area, we want factions to put their lore and identity first and foremost and your turf should serve into that identity, not the other way around. Factions should remember that the scripted turfs are a game mechanic, their functions do not exist IC'ly. Referencing 'influence points', 'decay' or 'shipment power' IC'ly is metagaming, these are not functions or mechanics that really exist within the IC world, they are game mechanics intended to represent your factions presence and, by extension, your hold on an area. 'Attacking' another factions turf by significantly draining their influence is gaming the OOC mechanics for IC purposes, if you intend to take or attack another factions turf then you should have a valid IC reason to in accordance with the above. Simply having a lot of influence poins in an area does not mean faction Services will consider the turf to be legitimately yours if you do not meet the IC expectations above. Clothing is an important part of your factions identity, as such the kind of clothes your faction members wear will achieve two things: Represent your factions identity Represent the status of each member within a faction The importance of clothing will vary from faction to faction depending on the nature of said faction. A street gang should be more inclined to be concerned about colours than, say, a Mafia who would be more concerned about presentation. Where as one would expect to see purple clothing for the Ballas in GTA V, one would not expect to see a green three-piece suit to be worn by a Mafia, as it contradict with the identity of being a professional organisation. With that being said, one would expect to see the made-men of a Mafia in suits and dressed presentably, with the soldiers perhaps dressing more casually or wearing more street appropriate clothing such as tracksuits. Clothing should also be relevant to the ranking structure of your faction, again, dependent upon the nature of the faction. People in motorcycle clubs tend to dress quite similar, and wear the same kuttes, regardless of rank, so there would be less variety in their style, whereas the head of a crime syndicate would be expected to be noticeable and stand out to represent his status. Faction Services expects factions to not claim to 'own' a colour, and we will consider factions attempting to enforce their colours outside the immediate vercinity of your territory to be poor RP. A city based faction that sports the colour purple has no business telling people on the other side of the city or in the desert that they cannot sport purple, and this would not be considered realistic to claim your faction has a claim to that colour beyond the boundaries of your claimed territory. Factions impersonating your faction may be usual, this is why it is important that you're able to identify your faction members beyond their colours or outfit. If you find that you're unable to recognise your faction members via other means then your faction may be too large or too decentralised. EXAMPLE - Hispanic Street Gang You would expect to see an hispanic street gang to wear baggy clothing, such as baggy jeans/trousers and flannel shirts, often using bandannas. On top of that a hispanic street gang might regularly flash their colours, particularly within their turfs, as such you expect to see them representing their colours in their clothing and their cars as this plays into the street gang identity. VAGOS WITHIN GTA V One such example within the GTA V lore is the Vagos, who can be seen representing their colour (yellow) through their clothes and vehicles. Their clothing tends to be street clothing, with vest, baseball caps, baggy trousers, baseball shoes. As you can see the representation of colours is, however, not over the top and sometimes is as little as the logo on the cap being yellow, nobody is dressed head to toe in full yellow - this is a realistic depiction and will allow you add variety into your factions identity while also allowing you to represent your colours. EXAMPLE - Mafia A Mafia is less likely to represent a colour in the same way a street gang would, instead their clothing is a mark of status and presentation. Suits would be common among the made-men of the faction, with casual wear and street wear being common among the mid/low tier ranks. Representation of colour would be less relevant to a Mafia, as discretion is more important as they deal more in organised crime than tit-for-tat street warfare. An important aspect of your factions lore, identity and story is limiting yourself. No one faction has a claim to the entire state of San Andreas, nor does any one faction have a monopoly claim on everything. In building a believeable faction you should aim to impose limitations on your faction that make sense in accordance with your lore and identity. Limitations include the type of vehicles and weapons your faction is often seen using, your black market focuses, the places you consider your turf and what your faction produces. Faction Services will not be happy with factions that attempt to claim everything in sight or profess to have a claim on things that make no sense for their lore, self-imposed limitations are an important aspect of RP, as it makes factions dependent upon each other and prevents any one faction from pushing everybody else out. Faction Services will also not look kindly on factions sacrificing their identity or lore for a 'play to win' mentality (e.g, using a super car or high speed bike, such as a Hakuchou drag, despite it having no place in your lore). It is also important that factions are aware they should not be playing to maximise material gain or breaking character or their faction lore to maximise personal gain. Roleplay should always come first, and factions should behave first and foremost as would be expected from their faction, even if it means less profit or less gain or less influence etc. Roleplay arises from factions imposing limitations on themselves and staying true to both their characters and their factions, not attempting to eliminate all competition, monopolise everything, win every situation and making exceptions to your identity and characters for convenience. Such limitations may mean that you drive vehicles which are not fast or as easily able to get away from the police, or it may mean limiting your profits by focusing faction production of a drug that makes sense for your faction (such as meth for an MC or marijuanna for a Cartel) or it may mean your faction specialising in the sale of certain weapons rather than all or it may mean letting certain turfs go or not expanding into a turf because it breaks your factions identity and lore to be there or it may mean breaking an alliance with a faction, because it makes little sense for your faction to be on such good terms with them. One of your main priorities as a faction leader is maintaining your faction image and assuring that your faction is continuing to provide an immersive representation of what you aim to depict, even if that may be convenient to your OOC motivations to maximise gain, staying true to your character, and therefore your faction, is vital. As a leader or a member of a faction it is vital that you behave in a way that is respectful, cordial and take measures to avoid drama and feuds. Leaders have a particular responsibility to make sure that they are taking measures to ensure that their faction member are avoiding any participation in drama and use the correct channels and methods to report any issues they may have, be it rulebreaks or questions. It is also vital that as a leader of a faction that you yourself do not stoke drama and always remember that as a faction leader you are in particularly powerful positions to affects others time and enjoyment of the server and how you behave is likely to reflect how your faction will behave. Faction Services will not tolerate leaders or the leadership of a faction: Encouraging drama within their faction Ignoring toxicity or drama within their factions or caused by their factions Using their position to provide a poor experience for others on the server Using their position to target others on the server Members have a responsibility to both their factions and the server to make sure that their behaviour does not reflect poorly on their respective factions or on themselves. Behave is taken into consideration both IC'ly and OOC'ly, this includes how members behave within ECRP associate platforms - including your respect faction discords. Faction leaders and members MUST remember that as faction members they are in particularly influencial positions when it comes to representing the server and as such are not entitled to represent the server in a negative way, this includes: Toxicity within discords Poor RP standards Encoraging or supporting rulebreaking Showing support to those banned from the community Faction Services spotting any of these behaviours may result in consequences, such as dismissing applications to removal from official status. It is the job of all factions to make sure they're providing a positive experience accross all ECLIPSE platforms, be it in game, on discord or on the associated websites. 27 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aldari Posted October 4, 2020 Author Report Share Posted October 4, 2020 [04/10/2020] - Added "LEADERS AND MEMBERS" section. 3 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
