Um... you can alter which Faction you're aligned with, in MP, when your character is created. I'll bet you could make it so that you could use an XML script to just alter this, and voila... any new character you created was aligned with whatever faction.

Then bases that were "owned" by your chosen Faction would be friendly to you by default, and bases you "bought" wouldn't necessarily be friendly to anybody who hadn't also "bought" that base. And, instead of using Bribes... make players take Missions to improve their relationship. That way, players who'd become friendly with the Faction owning the "private base" wouldn't be friendly with other groups' Bases... because the Base Factions could be set up to mutually hate one another, making being buddies with multiples of them, or Neutral to All very difficult, if not quite impossible... add that to making certain things only able to be bought if Friendliness was above some fairly high level, and you'd virtually ensure that players would have to make meaningful choices at some point. I did something like this with Warriors of the Sky, and it actually worked pretty well- people worked really hard to become friends with, say, the Proletariat of the Air... because they had special aircraft that nobody else got. Etc., etc., etc.

If I was to add factions using the generate xml thing (that you wouldn't usually use for factions), and set up, say 20 factions of various names. Then the server admin changes the generated name to whatever the clan wanted, would it show on the other players machines? Or, would it need the download of a new initial_world file for than server?

The way I'm thinking of it SP is do-able, I'd really like to give the clan players something very good to encourage them using my mod. MP-wise it would most likely need server admin to remove the means of buying a base and for them to edit the players rep manually. I'd expect them to set a limit to the amount of characters allowed by each player anyway.

The way i'm looking at at, there would be 24 new factions (taking it to around 54 extra in the mod), with each of them scattered throughout the systems. Buyable at the local base who's faction they are copies of.

I could have it that the bases aren't buyable, but they have a low negative empathy towards one of their enemies who I will set to attack the base. There will be that faction guarding the base anyway. So, the only way in is to attack their enemy. All of the other bases would have a high destruction reaction value. Not sure about the empathy though, if i make every other faction have a low negative empathy towards every other one, then a player could just attack one base and, in time, become friendly with all of the others.

Well, I think that buying bases is the kind of thing thats good for multiplayer and clan players. I can't see why anybody would want to buy one for SP. Nice gimick for around 5 mins, but how is it different to any other base?

But, for MP, It could be more. If I add the new factions and place them in the game as hostile to the player. The only way in is from server admin changing the players account rep values.

There will be 24 factions who just don't like you. You can't join them, you can't pay them off, sometimes people just don't like you..
ideas for faction names
Long - Wolfpack, short - [Wolf - Location - Tiacan (EW) - Faction - Jackals
Long - Sirius Police , short - [Police - Location - N Berlin - Faction - Rh Police
Long - Samurai, short - [Samurai - Location - Chugoku - Faction - B. Dragons
Long - ???????, short - [??????? - Location - Omega 41 - Faction - Corsair
Long - ???????, short - [??????? - Location -Leeds - Faction - Bowex
Long - Xeno separatists, short - [Xeno - Location - Texas - Faction - Xeno
Long - ???????, short - [??????? - Location - N Tokyo - Faction - Samura
Long - ???????, short - [Outcast - Location - Om Alpha - Faction - Outcasts
Long - ???????, short - [Gmg - Location - Sigma 17 - Faction - GMG
Long - Mercenaries, short - [Mercs - Location - Om Theta - Faction - B Hunters
Long - ???????, short - [INDGAS - Location - Cygnus-X (EW)- Faction - Ind Gas
Long - ???????, short - [Storm - Location - Riedquat (EW) - Faction - Raiders
Long - Imp Guard, short - [Imp - Location - Cemesis (EW) - Faction - Slave Tr.
Long - Federal Ops, short - [Fed - Location - Beta Hydri (EW) - Faction - Fed
Long - ???????, short - [??????? - Location - Procyon (EW) - Faction - West All.
Long - ???????, short - [Rogue - Location - Socanti (EW)- Faction - Sir Rogues
Long - ???????, short - [Pirate - Location - Lalande (EW)- Faction - Ind Pir.
Long - ???????, short - [Law - Location - Ross 154 (BW)- Faction - Fr Police
Long - Order Elite, short - [Order - Location - Prox Minor (FW) - Faction - Order
Long - ???????, short - [??????? - Location - Tau 37 - Faction - IMG
Long - ???????, short - [Altair - Location - Altair (EW)- Faction - Altair
Long - ???????, short - [Aymifa - Location - Aymifa (EW) - Faction - Aymifans
Long - ???????, short - [Edilaz - Location - Edilazie (EW) - Faction - Edilazians
Long - Trade guild, short - [Trade - Location - Tau Ceti (EW)- Faction - Sirius Trade Guild
(EW) and (BW) refer to the region, (FW) is the frontier worlds. Thats the toughest region with aliens everywhere. I think that would be most of the most popular of the original factions, with some that you won't have met yet. I don't want these to dominate the mod, they will be put away from the major pop regions and be given a small defending pop area. I could set up some trade patrols just to be a pain in the ass, as long as they are low possibility it shouldn't be too annoying. If any clan groups wanted their own names, let me know before I release. There isn't much else left to do.