New Player Guide: Picking Your Faction
N E O C R O N _ C I T Y _ F A C T I O N S
CityAdmin (CA): This is the ruling faction of Neocron City; being CA means getting to claim that you work for the same people as the cops, the banks, the stock exchange, and so on. Their special loyalty "epic" reward is NCPD Power Armor, also called "the copbot suit," a piece of armor that makes you look a lot like a CopBot; because of its stats it's mostly only useful to private eyes. They're also the only source for level 3 and 4 spy power armor, and for the troop carrier ground vehicle. Their high security database has blueprints for the Special Forces CPU, a brain implant that all pistol and rifle users need, and an awesome upper-mid-level soldier weapon called the Special Forces Plasma Wave. Because of all of these advantages, CA is usually the second-biggest Neocron City faction, after Tangent.
BioTech Industries (BT): Their backstory is that they're the #2 high tech company in the City, the #1 company in cybernetic implants. Their epic reward is the MOVE-ON CPU chip, a brain implant that is absolutely essential to soldiers and street samurais, and useful to lots of other people. They're also the only source for level 3 brain implants (not counting the ones for psi monks), so everybody but psi monks needs stuff from them. Their high security database has blueprints for the Special Science CPU, a brain implant that all tradeskiller spies need. Unfortunately, what this all adds up to is a lot of people who are BT only for the equipment, which makes BT clans not especially powerful or large. With the right leadership, though, they have enough advantages that some day they could be really big, especially if Tangent falls out of style.
Diamond Real Estate (DRE): Poor Diamond. Their backstory is that they manage apartment buildings; now that they've lost their organized crime ties, how exciting is that? Their epic reward, a warehouse, is completely useless now that you can add cabinets to any apartment. They're the only source for the better apartments, and that creates a small niche for DRE barter specialists, but how often do people buy new apartments? Their high security database has the blueprints for a high level electroshocker (melee taser), but nobody uses electroshockers, they use the low level parashock spell instead. Diamond is the most screwed-over faction in the game, and because most people won't put up with that they're also the tiniest. They need help from Reakktor, and soon.
Neocron Exploration Technology (NEXT): NEXT are the ground-vehicle specialists, and it shows. Their epic reward may be the best in the game, a combat jeep with superior armor that can be repaired at any depot or even replaced if it gets blown up for only 28 credits, and it's an easy epic to complete. They're almost the only source for ground combat vehicles, and the only convenient source for vehicle construction parts. Their high security database includes the blueprint for the Rhino tank, the top level combat vehicle, and some other items very useful to drivers. NEXT rises and falls in popularity depending on how much people are willing to put up with the bugs in the vehicle code in the game, but it never drops very far because they're just too useful.
Proto Pharm (PP): Their backstory is that they're the #1 provider of non-psychic medical technology. Their epic reward is a brain implant called the ProtoPharm Resistor CPU, or PPR, which is popular with many PvP players, but the epic is a bear to complete. They're the only source for some chemicals used to make low-level drugs from scratch, but the drugs themselves are so cheap that mostly nobody bothers. (I'm not sure those recipes even work.) More importantly, though, they're the only source for experimental hearts, which are very popular and useful cybernetic implants. The only thing in their high security database is a blueprint for a specialty tool for high level recyclers -- all two or three of them per server, I think. So they don't have a lot of powerful advantages, but they do have some. A small to mid-sized faction.
Tangent Technologies (TT): Their backstory is that they're the #1 high tech company in Neocron, specializing in military hardware -- that's a backstory that has a lot of appeal to players in a PvP game, as is their motto, "In Guns We Trust." Their epic reward is an amazingly good mid-level laser pistol, laser rifle, or laser cannon; every soldier and every spy who isn't a rigger should have one. They're the only source for level 3 and 4 eye implants. Their high security database has nothing special, though, just a seldom-used drone and a rigger-specific brain implant that can't be built without a part from Tsunami. Tangent is the 900-pound gorilla of Neocron City, and has always been the biggest of the pro-CityAdmin factions.
N E U T R A L _ F A C T I O N
CityMercs (CM): Their backstory is that they're a small independent mercernary company that's been at war with the Twilight Guardians forever. Their epic reward is an absolutely amazing gatling cannon; every soldier needs one. They are the only source for camo-pattern level 3 power armor for tanks. Their high security database has only rocket launcher blueprints. They have some very specific advantages and disadvantages as well. Advantages: Their neutrality lets them go basically everywhere without being attacked by non-player character guards. They have very convenient access to the mid-level hunting areas, and very convenient equipment shopping. Disadvantages: Their HQ is not a safe zone. They have almost no low-level leveling areas inside the base, and the minute you leave the base you risk being surprised by a level 85 Warbot Titan. And that same neutrality means that if a CM clan gets into a war with anybody except the Twilight Guardians, and that fighting spills over into any area but a registered war zone, they get branded as terrorists and risk losing extra equipment when they fight. The CityMercs are a hard faction to have your first character in, but their advantages have made them pretty powerful.
A N T I - N E O C R O N - C I T Y _ F A C T I O N S
Black Dragon Society (BD): Their backstory is that they're an exiled gang of drug dealers who also used to run an extortion racket out of Pepper Park; now they provide much of what passes for medical care in the ruins of the Dome of York. Their epic reward is your own nightclub; completing the epic also unlocks the vendor to sell you some very powerful (and illegal) drugs that grant defensive bonuses. They are the only source of the +5 primary skill bonus illegal drugs, and for level 3 and 4 private eye power armor. Their highest security database has blueprints for an extremely deadly flamethrower. Their image appeals especially to party people, which makes them a small to mid-sized Dome faction.
Brotherhood of Crahn (aka the Crahn Sect, CS): Their backstory is that they were the government before CityAdmin, then they claimed to be a religious order before getting exiled to the ruins of the Dome; now they plot revenge with the other exiles. Their epic reward is an upgraded psi power gauntlet that's extremely useful to psi monks. The only vendor that sells mid-level psi spells is inside their HQ, so their enemies have a hard time getting mid level equipment, and they are the only source for the highest level psi-enhancing cybernetic implants and the level 3 and 4 psi monk power armor. Their highest security database has the blueprints for a brain implant that all psi monks need. Given all of that, it will not surprise you that an awful lot of psi monks and their friends belong to the Crahn Sect, making them a force to be reckoned with and usually the second-biggest Dome faction.
Fallen Angels (FA): Their backstory is that they're a club for scientists and hackers, exiled to the ruins of the Dome because their leaders conspired against CityAdmin. Their epic reward is a brain implant that all tradeskillers need, period. They're the only source for some bone replacements that are only moderately popular and only for private eyes and tanks; they also are the primary source for freezer cannons, not that anybody cares because hardly anybody uses freezer cannons. Their highest security database has blueprints for some tools that are absolutely essential to engineers and scientists (constructors and researchers). So it shouldn't surprise you that the FA is an almost all-tradeskiller faction.
Tsunami Syndicate (TS): Their backstory is that they used to be the strip club, pornography, prostitution, gambling, and blackmail syndicate that ran Pepper Park before they were exiled to the ruins of the Dome of York. Now they're mostly out of the vice business, and concentrate on gun running and schemes to get revenge on CityAdmin; this move out of the vice business caused a lot of Tsunami player characters to defect to the Black Dragons or quit the game. Their epic reward is a great mid-level assault rifle. There is absolutely nothing that they are the only source for. Their highest security database has a very high level drone and a brain implant that all droners need. The Tsunamis are the smallest of the Dome factions, and usually the second smallest faction on the whole server.
Twilight Guardians (TG): Their backstory is that they helped overthrow the Crahn Sect back in the day, but were betrayed by their CityAdmin partners and became the leaders of the resistance; they retreated to the ruins of the Dome after their Old Canyon HQ was nuked. (The irony of this is that they're now semi-allied with their old CS enemies.) Their epic reward is absolutely ridiculously useless, a supply of hand grenades. They are, however, the only source for the highest level combat aircraft and for level 3 and 4 tank power armor (not counting the level 3 camo power armor the CityMercs supply). Their highest security database has blueprints for a brain implant that all soldiers need, period, and a moderately useful upper-mid-level raygun cannon that is locked so that only TGs can use it. Their image as resistance fighters has always had a strong appeal to PvP gamers, and the Twilight Guardians have always been one of the largest factions in Neocron, and always the deadliest.
