Territorial Ownership

Territory contains an overview of all territory and buildings owned by factions. From here, faction members with permissions can set laws, permit buildings etc. within faction treaty (to be fleshed out). Territory can transfer hands during war, either through outright conquest or by being ceded in a peace treaty.

Control Buildings

Control buildings are also known as defensive buildings and typically consist of anything from a bastion to a castle. All control buildings project a sphere of influence (see below) and buildings within their sphere of influence are tied to the control building. If the control building changes hands, so does control of its sphere of influence. Control buildings can be upgraded and larger control buildings have a correspondingly larger sphere of influence.

Sphere of Influence

The sphere of influence determines what territory your faction can call yours. It is created by control buildings and has a number of effects. Firstly, it determines who can build within it: Only those with permission from the owners of the sphere of influence can build buildings, ships, etc within it and the owners can decide to charge fees and rents for such a privilege. Secondly, a faction can set laws within its spheres of influence (see below). Finally, the sphere of influence determines what buildings are considered under the protection of a faction, and thus what its guards will actively try to defend.

Laws

A faction has the ability to set laws within its sphere of influence, for instance creating penalties in the forms of fines or exile for assault, murder, theft, harvesting the local resources without permission, etc. A player can always choose not to pay fines owed to a faction but doing so will result in exile – meaning that the player will be attacked by any guards in the area, NPCs will refuse to deal with him and he will be unable to build within land controlled by the faction. To avoid unintentionally breaking the law or factions switching laws around to attempt entrapment, a warning window will appear whenever a player is about to break the law.

Guards

NPC Guards can be recruited in control buildings and require upkeep in the form of money and food. They will defend a building or set of buildings as specified by the faction they owe allegiance to, and will typically be tough opponents that can call on other nearby guards for help if the situation is more than they can handle. The number of guards a control building can manage is limited by its size, and if the stores at your control building run out of money or food, its guards will desert. NPC Guards can be given any piece of equipment and will use it assuming it is better than what they are currently wearing. If an NPC guard falls in combat, it is gone – a new one has to be recruited.

Treaties & Diplomacy

Diplomacy

Diplomacy is an important part of faction life in Dawntide and is managed primarily through treaties. Through these treaties, factions will be able to resolve disputes and create meaningful relationships and alliance blocks with other factions.

Forming Treaties

Treaties are wide-ranging agreements between factions that can contain any of a large number of diplomatic agreements, ranging from ceasefires and truces, trade agreements that allow factions to take a specific number of goods from the others' warehouses and free access and land use agreements to full-blown military alliances that call on factions to defend each other in the case war breaks out. These treaties are meant to be able to simulate anything from simple trade partners to alliances between equal parts to protectorates giving up part of their independence and wealth for the protection of a stronger faction. It is entirely possible to break treaties, for instance by refusing to honor a military alliance, not delivering the agreed-on trade goods or otherwise failing to live up to the terms of your treaty. The faction on the receiving end of a broken treaty can opt to report this break of treaty in which case anyone will be able to see that your faction has broken treaties in the past (through the global log) and may be less willing to enter into future agreements.