I decided to write this article since there is obviously a lot of interest in the factions of Sins of the Sirius Sector; so here is something to tide you over while you wait for the next alpha update!
The four houses of the Sirius Sector are the biggest kids on the block so to speak. While other groups are quite skilled or powerful the four houses are the space equivalent of 'super power' countries.
So let me detail a little about their strengths, weaknesses and unique approaches to war. Also, since Sins is unable to have shields operate like they did in Freelancer (inherent strengths and weaknesses) I've planned other ways to set each factions shielding tech apart.
LIBERTY:
As a Democratic Republic, Liberty has a lot of individual freedom and promotes capitalism ideals. Liberty will have a fairly strong economy, especially with trade-ports.
Their Graviton Shields reduce the damage of physical weapons (kinetic and missiles/torpedoes)
Liberty's Fleet will be a fairly balanced and adaptable fleet, able to be tailored for different roles as a sort of jack of all trades.
They will also have access to many special weapons and abilities (like the Independence cruiser's main gun)
Liberty also has a strong focus on diplomacy being a democratic nation
Their weaknesses will include slower ship and orbital station building time (due to red tape) and their Battleships being slightly less combat orientated than other factions.
Liberty is designed to be the baseline faction featuring a balanced lineup and good economy
Rheinland:
Rheinland is an industry powerhouse. They are also technically a Democratic Republic, but is more militant in focus than Liberty.
They gain increases to material production (metal) and can build ships and orbital stations faster than other factions due to their excellent engineering prowess.
They have the strongest hull and the best armor of all factions.
Their fleet is very firepower heavy and their Battleships are beasts in close combat.
Their weaknesses are slow heavy ships, their ships are quite expensive (in credits and resources) they also have fairly weak shields.
Rheinland is designed as the powerful elite type faction.
Bretonia:
Bretonia remains a Constitutional monarchy like it's ancestor nation.
They have a decent economy for credits and material.
Their ships are built for tanking, having good hull and armor (though not the Rheinland standards) and good shields (again not to Kusari standards)
Their capitals focus on heavy forward facing guns.
Bretonian molecular conversion shields absorb a percentage of energy based attacks
Their weaknesses involve expensive capital ships, slow H-Fuel collection, slightly less agile ships
Bretonia is designed to be a defensive type faction
Kusari:
Kusari has the best H-Fuel extraction of any faction due to their annexing of the Gas Miners Guild.
Kusari has plentiful, cheap fighters, the best shields and fastest ships.
Their ships regen energy faster when orbiting stars due to solar sail technology.
Kusari shields have a penetration % block (phase block) by default
Their weaknesses include having the weakest hull/armor, the plentiful+cheap fighters are also fairly weak. Samurai Retainers (Kusari ACE Pilots) are randomly chosen when built (Samurai are levied to action)
Kusari is designed as the hit and run faction with a little splash of swarming with their regular lower-class fighters.
This is just a basic outline and elements are subject to change.
Also the other factions like the BHG and Corsairs will shake things up a bit =P
If any of you have questions feel free to fire away!
Let the Corsairs and Outcasts be able to make alliance with pirates.
Also, Kusari as a spam-like faction? I honestly was expecting that Rheinland industrial powerhorse will be the "spammers", while Kusari will be a hi-tech elite guys.
I thought that Bretonia will be the agile hit-and-run guys with thier forward superguns. You know, they come, they see, they anihilate anything with opening salvo of particle guns. But, I know that forward guns are rather heavy, so it's good idea to use them in defense.
But honestly, Kusarians can't be the spammer guys. It just doesn't fit with them in any way. Rheinland is industrial giant, they can produce whole fleets like mad. I think they should be like a armor-based spammers, while Kusari should be expensive, high-tech guys who rely on thier powerful abilities rather that sheer numbers or brute force.
edit: FIRST! :D
But Rheinland's top officials are aliens, shouldn't that give them the technology advantage? :P
They are no longer. This mod is set 10 years after the end of Freelancer. =P
Rheinland is an industrial powerhouse yes, but their ships are too powerful to allow them spam tactics =P
They are quality over quantity, their ships use a lot of resources to build (due to extra armor, better reactors and heavy weaponry etc.) Rheinland ships will more than likely use more supply than other factions ships due to their aggressive power.
I've tested quite a bit with Valkyries vs Defenders (both MkI and MkII) and in even numbers the Valkyries win ~90% of the time despite their weak shields and sluggish movement.
Kusari is only spam-lite with their cheap regular fighters. They have good shields but weak armor so they will likely go down fast under sustained fire.
Their ACE pilots and larger ships will be quite technologically advanced and powerful, so they're not zerg-like at all.
Kusari is more so hit and run tactics due to having fast ships and relying on shielding as their main defence. Shields Regen faster and in combat unlike fighter nano-bot hull repair, and it is free unlike larger ship repairing will be.
Combined with long range Photon cannons and powerful close range Neutron guns makes Kusari perfectly equipped for skirmishing type engagements.
The idea of the cheap regular fighters is they are lower class pilots and considered 'disposable' (they will also probably use less supply than equivalent class fighters)
The ACE pilots and Capital Ship captains are drawn from the upper classes and so are given better resources.
Bretonia can definitely jump into a grav well and unleash a powerful salvo with their capital ships.
They need to be careful though as very few of them have any broadside weapons.
They also have a powerful weapons platform orbital that is basically the lower section of their Destroyer class =P
"They also have a powerful weapons platform orbital that is basically the lower section of their Destroyer class =P"
I guess that's the part where front gun is mounted? :D
I uploaded a picture of it =P
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