NovaProtocol

Wiki / Factions

Factions

Sides in Nova Protocol are deliberately minimal - three states, no alliances or reputation. It is just enough to tell friend from foe from furniture.

The relation model

Every ship carries an allegiance - Player, Enemy or Neutral - and any two things resolve to one of three relations: Own, Hostile or Neutral.

The whole model in one grid: Player-Player and Enemy-Enemy resolve OWN, Player against Enemy resolves HOSTILE either way, and everything touching Neutral or an unmarked body (asteroids, debris, salvage) resolves NEUTRAL - even Neutral against Neutral. Non-combatants stay out of the fight by default.

Show explanation
  • Own - the same combatant side (Player-Player or Enemy-Enemy).
  • Hostile - opposing combatants (Player vs Enemy).
  • Neutral - everything else: anything marked Neutral, and any body without an allegiance at all (asteroids, debris, salvage). Neutral never relates strongly, not even to another neutral - two bystander haulers are not each other's "own" in any meaningful sense.

What allegiance drives

Relation is the switch behind most of combat:

  • Projectile allegiance - a round copies its shooter's side at launch and keeps it even if the shooter dies, so your torpedo stays yours and never hits your own hull.
  • Targeting - what you can lock and what the AI will attack keys off relation and radar signature.
  • AI hostility - enemy ships engage hostiles, remember who shot them, and raise their weapons only when they have a hostile target.

Reading it on the HUD

The HUD reads allegiance two ways. An allegiance marker - a small filled triangle above every ship - is coloured by side (green ally, red threat, grey neutral) so you can read a whole brawl at a glance; your own ship shows none. Up close, the target viewfinder's faction caption carries the same relation (hostile red, own green, neutral steel) rather than tinting the reticle itself. A player ship spawns Player and an AI ship spawns Enemy automatically - the allegiance rides along with the ship marker at spawn, and a ship re-aligned mid-scenario (a neutral provoked into a threat) recolours its marker on the spot.