Sharing is Caring

[Dalen Rahn]

I'm an Independent Operator, if I gift any Faction, say, a turret. Does that 'gift' now become theirs? Is it used for their purpose? Or maybe extra housing or storage?

[Vice]

For storage and production modules, yes, what you build can benefit the sector by boosting the local econ/tech level in the same way a module built by a faction affiliated pilot would. Weapon turrets behave a bit differently though. They won't automatically fire at faction ships since they are technically neutral and not automatically opposed to either faction. If fired upon first, then they will fire back, but not until then. So if you want to build weapon turrets that protect a particular faction, you'll need to affiliate with that faction first before building them.

This way, you can prioritize building based on combat. For modules you build, if combat or combat plus trading/production/storage is of interest, then faction affiliation is important. If non-combat trading/storage/production is of interest, then no faction affiliation can be selected and there wouldn't really be a need to build weapon turrets, just the modules that would be of general purpose benefit.

[Dalen Rahn]

Thanks Vice! That finally cleared that up!

[Dalen Rahn]

Oh, one last thing about factions. If I switch to a faction, will all my previous stations I built, automatically convert from Independent to whatever faction I choose? Or does it take affect 'after' I switch?

[Vice]

Anything you build will remain consistent to its original faction affiliations. So if you build some modules that are IND and you switch to ALC, they will remain IND and behave as such. And that also means if you build FDN and switch to ALC, the station will then be hostile to you.

[Dalen Rahn]

Vice, do Independents contribute to the economy as well, or not. I want to do my part!

[Vice]

IND storage and production modules contribute the same ~3% boost each to the sector econ/tech level just like other faction affiliated modules of the same type. Likewise, shield and power modules also provide the same benefits. Only when it comes to combat does behavior differ (that is, docking/defense related to opposing factions for command modules and weapon turrets).