Quote:3) Factions & Influence
-- I know a lot of people already pointed out it forces people to be part of a faction, but really... How many people *aren't* part of a faction already? How many characters have *not* clicked on the Join Faction NPC in whatever settlement they want to be included/a part of. I don't think this would force people to be part of a faction but I also think if you want to utilize influence to purchase signatures -- very cool idea by the way -- the amount of influence you get for RPing in the faction should get a slight bump. As it stands right now, you can use influence to purchase spawns, keep your gear polished, and upgrade your settlement. Most of these things, people pile their influence together for! If now they need to save up for their own signatures, they'll be less inclined to assist.
Not too sure about this one in particular, I'll try to be as concise as possible when articulating my thoughts here, please feel free to criticise me or insert your own opinions, but from my perspective:
My character spends alot of time travelling across the Republic to different parts of it and territories, but their "Faction" is Fortune, technically. I spend most of my time rp'ing elsewhere, rather than the place which, I'm in their guild and I acquired alot of influence previously.
For other characters like my own, who aren't technically part of places like Gloomlight, Martyr's, but share allegiance to the collective efforts of the Republic, that's difficult. Because we are part of a faction, we do contribute to it's RP, but we're just not mechanically included, not because anyone is excluding us. But because the framework concerning the mechanics themselves doesn't accommodate us.
It's not really forcing anyone to be a part of a faction, but it's definitely forcing you to rp in one specific area, rather than venturing out, and knowing how hard people work on Sigs, while this is beneficial for the faction leader of that territory (cuz activity within ur settlement is great!) It ultimately kinda forces you into a specific way of playing, if you want to progress to the next point in your character's story (strength wise).
This can be fixed by mechanically joining all the guilds and asking for citizen or whatever their rank 2 is. But, if there isn't a way to pool all of the influence you have acquired? It kind of defeats the point of overarching allegiances like the Republic, or the West.
I know characters from the Frontier spend alot of time in Midpoint, this would rob them too if they're not rank 2 in the Midpoint guild, or splitting their time among Midpoint, the Frontier, etc etc, if Influence could not be pooled up.
That's my only concern here.