Auto Warz — Win Conditions & Faction Allegiance¶

Document Type: Design Document Version: 0.5 Last Updated: 2026-09-05 Vault destination: 01_Design Documents Phase: Phase 1 — Launch release (the beats). Factions, wars and victory in the Phase 2 War Update Related Documents: [01_Master GDD](<../01_Master GDD.md>) · [08_Research Tree Design](<./08_Research Tree Design.md>) · [15_Ship & Army Points Design](<./15_Ship & Army Points Design.md>) · [05_World Generation & Planet Types](<./05_World Generation & Planet Types.md>) · [36_Progression Arc Design](<./36_Progression Arc Design.md>) Folder: 01_Design Documents

Philosophy — No Traditional Win Condition¶

Auto Warz does not have a traditional win condition. There is no end screen, no "you won" moment that stops the game. The session continues as long as the player wants to play.

The game has three major milestones that mark the progression arc. Reaching them feels significant — but the game never ends. Everything after Milestone 3 is open-ended play.

What This Means in Practice¶

No forced ends — reaching a milestone grants a major reward and continues the session
No losing — players cannot lose the session outright. Aliens can destroy buildings, factions can become hostile, but the session never ends against the player's will
In multiplayer — all players share the session. No player "beats" another player.

World Model¶

Persistent Worlds¶

Auto Warz worlds are persistent. When a player creates a world, it continues indefinitely across play sessions — exactly like a Factorio save. The player returns to the same world each time they sit down to play. Milestones, factory progress, territory, and relationships all accumulate over time.

Milestones do not reset between play sessions. They reset only if the player creates a brand new world.

Multiple Worlds Per Player¶

A player can create and maintain multiple worlds simultaneously. Each world is independent — its own planet, its own factory, its own progress in the galaxy. A player might have: - One world focused on supply chain and trade - Another experimenting with a different factory layout - Another in a PvP-flagged galaxy

All worlds are separate. Progress in one world does not affect another.

Worlds Are Private. Wars Are Shared.¶

⚠️ Corrected 2026-09-05. An earlier draft of this section said the galaxy was a persistent shared space that all player worlds plug into. It is not.

Worlds are private and parallel. A war is a separate shared instance, and it is the only shared place.

Many private worlds plug into one war through their gates. A gate is a large building in your own world that links it to a war, and it arrives at your faction's Forward Depot. One gate is one concurrent war, maximum three.

Nothing passes between worlds except the account: your level, cosmetics, Engineering Research, saved designs, faction reputation and motherships. Materials, research and credits never cross.

Consequence: the scale of a war is the scale of the server hosting it. A four-person listen session has small wars. A community headless server has large ones.

Full model: [32_The Gate & War Logistics](<../Systems/32_The Gate & War Logistics.md>) and [00_Canonical Design Facts](<../../04_Project Management/00_Canonical Design Facts.md>) §21, §22.

The Beat Ladder¶

⚠️ Superseded 2026-09-05. The three-milestone arc (First Ship Launch, First Territory Claimed, Master Rill) is replaced by the beat ladder in [36_Progression Arc Design](<./36_Progression Arc Design.md>), which owns progression pacing. Summarised here because factions and the endgame hang off it.

The test a beat has to pass: it must change what the player is optimising, not just how much.

Phase 1 — the planet layer¶

Beat	The bottleneck	Ceremony
First Assembly	You do not know the verbs	No
First Ascent	Ground space. The answer is rebuilding, not extending	Yes
First Blackout	Power is a system with priorities, not a number	No
First Restoration	Something outside your factory wants a bill of materials you did not plan for	No
First Launch 🚀	The hardest single bill of materials so far. The Phase 1 finale	Yes

First Launch uses a single prescribed hull built from a recipe, not the ship editor, which opens in Phase 2. The ship launches and is not followed. What is on the other side is Phase 2.

Phase 2 — above the planet¶

First Design · First Gate Powered · First Passage · First War Joined · Master Rill Launched 🛸

What changed, and why¶

Old milestone	Now
M1 — First Ship Launch	Kept, moved into Phase 1 as its finale
M2 — First Territory Claimed	Withdrawn. Territory is a faction war thing that exists inside a war instance only, and it does not persist into anyone's world. It is not a progression beat. Replaced by First Gate Powered, which is the real threshold: the moment your private world stops being sealed
M3 — Master Rill Launched	Demoted. It is the capstone of the war path, not the door to the whole endgame. See below

The Three Endgame Paths¶

Three paths, three different appetites. Gating all three behind the same object served none of them, so each opens when its prerequisite exists, at three different times.

Path	Opens at	Why there
Path C — Restoration	First Restoration, Phase 1	Wrecks are generated in the player's own world. Needs no space layer, no gate and no war
Path B — Supply Chain	First Gate Powered, Phase 2	The gate is the ability to supply someone else. Before it there is no channel
Path A — War Effort	First War Joined, Phase 2	Needs a mothership and a war to join

All three overlap, and all three are valid endings. A player can restore wrecks between wars, and supplying an ally is a way of fighting one.

Path A — War Effort¶

Engage directly in the war layer. Contest rival factions, hold forward positions for the duration of a war, contribute to the conflict. Playable as active RTS combat or autonomous fleet management, see War Layer below. The Master Rill sits at the far end of this path, as its capstone.

Path B — Supply Chain Provider¶

Become the backbone of other players' war efforts. Optimise your factory, feed the gate, ship materials to allied Forward Depots. A factory-focused player can have enormous influence on a war without firing a shot.

Path C — Restoration¶

Take a wrecked planet and bring it back. The peaceful path, and the one that uses systems that already exist rather than requiring new ones.

Wrecked planets are procedurally generated in the player's own world, discoverable by Scanner, with severity scaling by distance from the starting system. Paid in materials, contribution and reputation, never credits.

This path opens in Phase 1, which makes it Early Access's long tail: after the launch there is no space layer yet, so wrecks are what a Phase 1 player comes back for.

Full design: [28_Restoration - Third Endgame Path](<./28_Restoration - Third Endgame Path.md>).

Achievements Drive Continued Play¶

Achievements are a long-term progression driver alongside the paths. 25 achievements across six categories give factory-focused, combat-focused and social players goals to pursue.

Prototype Win Condition (Milestone 1.7 Placeholder)¶

⚠️ This section describes a temporary placeholder only. The real Phase 1 finale is First Launch, described above. This placeholder exists solely to give the prototype session loop a testable endpoint.

During early development (M1.7 prototype session loop), the win condition is simplified to:

Produce 10 Metal Plates → Victory screen appears.

This is configured via GameManager.session_config["win_target"] (default: 10) and tracked in WorldScene._metal_plates_produced. The Victory screen shows a "Back to Menu" button.

This will be replaced when the Shipyard building and ship launch system are implemented.

War Terms and Victory¶

A war is created with a terms sheet, agreed before it opens and visible to every participant: duration · location · victory condition · participating factions · who may join · Fleet Power cap · PvP flag · hardcore · the funding schedule.

Location being negotiated is deliberate. Fighting beside an asteroid field means local refining and cover; fighting in open space means clean supply and nowhere to hide. Choosing the battlefield is a strategic decision made before a shot is fired.

Victory conditions¶

Three, and every one of them requires someone to attack:

Condition	You win by	Why it forces combat
Hold	Holding the contested node for the agreed duration	The holder wins at expiry, so the other side must come and take it
Depot	Destroying or capturing the enemy Forward Depot	You have to reach and break it
Attrition	Pushing enemy Fleet Power below a threshold	You have to actually destroy ships

A Contribution victory was considered and rejected. If delivering alone wins, the dominant strategy is never to fight, and two factions farming quietly beside each other is not a war.

The builder still wins, but not by definition: they win by being the reason their side could keep fighting when the other side ran dry, and that shows in reputation and in the salvage they carry home.

Defeat is two different things¶

Personal defeat is withdrawal. Retreat doctrine fires, your mothership goes home, you lose the node and everything spent getting there. You keep your fleet. Faction defeat is the victory condition above.

Full detail: [31_War & Combat System Design](<../Systems/31_War & Combat System Design.md>).

War Layer¶

Overview¶

The war layer is part of Phase 2, the full release. It opens at First War Joined, which needs a gate and a mothership. Factions are contested inside war instances, against AI and optionally against other players.

Territory Exists Inside a War¶

⚠️ Rewritten 2026-09-05. This section previously described persistent node-and-zone territory with passive income, repair and refuel bases, and AI factions pressing while the player was offline. None of that survives the private-worlds architecture: there is no shared persistent galaxy to hold territory in. See [36_Progression Arc Design](<./36_Progression Arc Design.md>) §5.1.

Territory is a faction war thing. It exists inside a war instance, for the duration of that war, and it does not persist into anyone's world.

Within a war, a forward position is a real and contested thing:

Staging — a place to gather before pushing, inside the supply umbrella
Repair and refuel — reach for the Forward Depot's delivery ladder
Denial — holding it keeps the other faction's supply stretched

Holding one is worth fighting over for the length of that war. It is not a milestone, it is not owned afterwards, and it generates nothing between wars.

Passive accrual has exactly one source¶

The old model's passive income from held nodes is replaced by the Outpost trickle: the player plays Outpost Mode, which adds to the account's passive contribution. See [32_The Gate & War Logistics](<../Systems/32_The Gate & War Logistics.md>) and [04_Progression & Rewards](<../../06_Outpost/04_Progression & Rewards.md>).

Nothing else accrues while the player is away. Worlds do not run when logged out.

Who Can Contest a Forward Position¶

Enemy faction fleets, AI or player, inside the war instance only
Nobody, ever, in a player's own world. A private world cannot be raided. There is no such thing as losing your factory to another player

Combat Modes¶

Players choose how to engage in fleet combat:

Active RTS mode: - Direct real-time command of fleet units - Full micro-control — positioning, targeting, ability use - Higher potential effectiveness with skilled play

Autonomous mode: - Player sets fleet orders (patrol, attack, defend, escort) - AI executes the orders - Player can check back in between factory sessions - Suitable for supply chain focused players who want a fleet presence without active management

Both modes can be used interchangeably. A player might manage key battles in RTS mode and leave routine patrols to autonomous AI.

Session PvP Flag¶

When creating a session (world), the host sets a PvP flag:

PvE world — wars joined from this world are against AI factions only.
PvP world — wars joined from this world may include other players as opponents.

The flag is set at world creation and cannot be changed after. It governs which wars this world may enter, never the world itself: a private world is never contestable under either setting.

Trade Network — Contributing to the War Effort¶

Overview¶

The trade network is how players physically connect their factories to the war effort and to each other. It is not an abstract resource pool — it is a physical, player-directed system requiring infrastructure to operate.

Requirements to Contribute¶

To send materials to another player or to the war effort: 1. Trade Station — a buildable space structure. Constructed in the space layer once Milestone 1 is reached. 2. Transport ship — required to physically move materials between Trade Stations. No ship, no trade.

Both must be built before any contribution is possible.

How It Works¶

Player builds a Trade Station in the space layer.
Player builds a transport ship.
Player opens the Trade Station interface and selects:
Which materials to send
How much of each
Which player or destination to send to
Transport ship departs, travels to the destination Trade Station, delivers materials.
Recipient collects materials at their Trade Station next time they play.

Key Properties¶

Player-directed — nothing is automatic. The player chooses what to send, to whom, and when.
Physical movement — transport ships travel in the space layer. They can be intercepted in PvP sessions.
Async collection — the recipient does not need to be online. Materials wait at their Trade Station until collected.
No global pool — there is no shared war chest. All trade is player to player.

Contribution as a Playstyle¶

A dedicated supply chain player can run their factory specifically to feed other players' war efforts. This is a fully supported endgame path — logistical players have real influence on the galaxy without engaging in direct combat.

Faction System¶

There are 4 factions in the galaxy. Each has its own territory, playstyle, and relationship with the player. The player starts as a neutral independent and encounters factions organically through space exploration — factions do not announce themselves at ship launch.

The Four Factions¶

Faction	Badge Colour	Playstyle	Territory
The Salvagers	Orange `#E87820`	Opportunistic, trade-focused, pragmatic	Outer rim systems — resource-rich but dangerous
The Vanguard	Steel Blue `#3A5A8C`	Military, disciplined, expansionist	Core systems — well-defended, organised
The Cultivators	Forest Green `#3A7C3A`	Scientific, research-oriented, pacifist	Mid-ring systems — rare research resources
The Remnants	Dark Purple `#5A2A8C`	Mysterious, ancient tech, unpredictable	Deep space — hardest to reach, highest rewards

Faction Relationship System¶

Two Scores Per Faction¶

Each faction tracks two independent scores for the player:

Reputation (0–1000) — builds through cooperation - Completing faction contracts - Supplying their requested resources - Defending their territory from aliens - Completing faction-specific research

Hostility (0–1000) — builds through conflict - Attacking faction ships or territory - Completing contracts for their rival faction - Stealing resources from faction-controlled planets - Ignoring distress calls

Relationship Tier — Derived from Both Scores¶

Tier	Condition	Faction Behaviour
Allied	Reputation 700+ AND Hostility below 200	Full benefits active
Friendly	Reputation 400–699 OR Hostility below 100	Partial benefits, no exclusive research
Neutral	Default state, Reputation below 400	No benefits, no hostility
Hostile	Hostility 400+ OR Reputation below 100 after previous Friendly	Faction attacks player ships, blocks territory
Enemy	Hostility 700+	Active war — faction hunts player fleets, blockades planets

The Rival System¶

Factions have rivals — helping one faction automatically increases Hostility with their rival:

Faction	Rival
The Salvagers	The Vanguard
The Cultivators	The Remnants

One Allied Faction at a Time¶

Only one faction can be Allied simultaneously. Reaching Allied status with a second faction automatically reduces the first to Friendly.

Faction Benefits¶

Supply Chain Contracts¶

Each faction posts contracts — deliver X of resource Y to location Z for a payment in rare materials and Reputation.

Military Support (Friendly tier+)¶

Faction sends patrol ships to orbit your planets. Scale in strength with Reputation score.

Exclusive Research (Allied only)¶

Each faction unlocks 3–5 unique research nodes unavailable elsewhere. Added as a Faction Research tab in the Research Tree.

Faction	Exclusive Research Theme
The Salvagers	Salvage efficiency
The Vanguard	Military doctrine and advanced weapons
The Cultivators	Advanced science and faster RP generation
The Remnants	Ancient tech — exotic buildings and recipes

Research loss on allegiance switch: nodes lock if Allied status is lost. Already-unlocked buildings continue to function.

Territory Access (Friendly tier+)¶

Friendly/Allied: free passage, safe colonisation of unclaimed planets in their space
Neutral: tolerated but monitored
Hostile/Enemy: blockades, patrol interdiction, no safe landing

Faction First Contact Narrative¶

Factions are encountered organically in the space layer through exploration. When the player first enters faction-controlled or faction-adjacent space, that faction makes contact.

The Salvagers¶

"New ship in the sector. Interesting. We don't care who you are or where you came from — we care what you can carry. We have a job. Pay is good. Come find us if you're not afraid of the outer rim."

The Vanguard¶

"Independent vessel, identify yourself. You are operating in a contested sector. The Vanguard maintains order here. Fall in line, contribute to the effort, and you'll find us... accommodating. Resistance is inefficient."

The Cultivators¶

"Oh wonderful — a new arrival! We've been watching your planet for some time. Remarkable factory output for a first landing. We have so many questions. And perhaps — if you're interested — some answers in return."

The Remnants¶

"..." (A set of coordinates. Nothing else.)

Factions Persist and Level¶

Factions are long-lived entities that grow from their members' fighting. Credits earned by destroying enemy ships split two ways: a faction share into an upgrade pool that persists across wars, and a personal share spent at settlement or forfeited.

Faction upgrades buy depot storage, umbrella radius, gate throughput, repair speed and faction research slots.

Faction upgrades improve capacity, never capability. Otherwise an established faction becomes unbeatable and a server closes to newcomers. Same rule as account research ([00_Canonical Design Facts](<../../04_Project Management/00_Canonical Design Facts.md>) §20).

This is the social spine of a community server, and the reason for loyalty.

Mercenary Path¶

Players who never commit to a faction remain independent mercenaries. Fully viable long-term playstyle.

A mercenary brings their own gate and fights for someone else's cause.

Corrected 2026-09-05: a mercenary is not a player without production. Everyone who joins a war has a world, a factory and a gate. What a mercenary sells is capability, not need.

Under free draw from the Forward Depot, supply costs a hired mercenary nothing, so pay is a share of the battlefield salvage plus reputation. The employer's incentive is sharp: a hired mercenary's kills upgrade your faction.

Mercenary Advantage	Detail
Full contract access	Can take jobs from all 4 factions simultaneously
No rival penalty	No Hostility triggered by helping rival factions
Flexibility	No research to lose, no allegiance to maintain
Neutrality	Can pass through all territories without faction politics

Mercenary Disadvantage	Detail
No exclusive research	Faction Research tab never unlocks
No military support	No faction patrols orbit your planets
Lower contract rates	Neutral tier gets fewest contracts and lowest pay
No territory safety	Neutral in hostile space = fair target

World Progression Arc¶

⚠️ Superseded 2026-09-05 and renamed. The old Session Progression Arc diagram is replaced by the ladder in [36_Progression Arc Design](<./36_Progression Arc Design.md>) §3 and §5. It was also misnamed: it describes the world arc, and no game state belongs to a session ([04_Data Dictionary](<../../05_Reference/04_Data Dictionary.md>) §0).

PHASE 1 — PLANET
│
├── First Assembly          two chains meet
├── First Ascent            you build up, not out          ★ ceremony
├── First Blackout          power becomes a system
├── First Restoration       Path C opens
│
└── 🚀 FIRST LAUNCH — the Phase 1 finale                    ★ ceremony
        the prescribed ship goes, and is not followed

PHASE 2 — ABOVE THE PLANET
│
├── First Design            the editor opens
├── First Gate Powered      Path B opens; your world is no longer sealed
├── First Passage           another planet, another supply chain
├── First War Joined        Path A opens
│
└── 🛸 MASTER RILL LAUNCHED — capstone of Path A

OPEN ENDGAME  (paths overlap; all three are valid endings)

Host Session Options¶

Option	Values	Notes
PvP flag	PvE / PvP	Set at world creation, cannot be changed
Faction aggression	Passive / Normal / Aggressive	How quickly AI factions become hostile
Faction presence	All 4 / Random 2 / None	How many factions exist in the galaxy
Mercenary mode	Forced / Optional / Disabled	Forced = no Allied possible

Implementation Status¶

Feature	Status
Prototype win condition (10 Metal Plates)	✓ Implemented
Victory screen	✓ Implemented
Shipyard building	☐ Not implemented — Phase 2
Ship launch trigger + cinematic	☐ Not implemented — Phase 2
Space layer unlock	☐ Not implemented — Phase 2
Trade Station building	☐ Not implemented — Phase 2
Transport ship	☐ Not implemented — Phase 2
Territory system	☐ Not implemented — Phase 2
War layer — RTS combat	☐ Not implemented — Phase 2
War layer — autonomous fleets	☐ Not implemented — Phase 2
Faction encounter system	☐ Not implemented — Phase 2
Faction relationship system	☐ Not implemented — Phase 2
Master Rill ship	☐ Not implemented — Phase 2

Open items for this document are tracked in docs/open-items.md, area factions.

Revision History¶

Version	Date	Changes
0.5	2026-09-05	Progression handed to `36_Progression Arc Design`. The three-milestone arc is replaced by the beat ladder, summarised here. Milestone 2, First Territory Claimed, withdrawn: territory is a faction war thing that lives inside a war instance and does not persist, so the node-and-zone section is rewritten and passive income reassigned to the Outpost trickle. Master Rill demoted to the capstone of Path A rather than the door to the endgame. The three paths staggered, with Restoration opening in Phase 1. Session Progression Arc renamed and redrawn as the world arc. PvP flag reworded: it governs which wars a world may enter, never the world itself. Header version corrected, it had been left at 0.3 when the 0.4 row was added.
0.4	2026-09-05	World model corrected: worlds are private and parallel, wars are the only shared instances, gates are the link. War terms and three victory conditions added, with the Contribution victory recorded as considered and rejected. Factions persist and level from members' credits, capacity only. Path C — Restoration added to the endgame. Mercenary path corrected: everyone has a gate.
0.3	2026-03-31	Major update — three milestone arc added (Launch, Territory, Master Rill). Persistent world model documented. Multiple worlds per player. War layer full specification (node-and-zone territory, PvP/PvE flag, RTS + autonomous combat). Trade network specification (Trade Station + transport ship, player-to-player, async). Open endgame paths. Faction contact changed from launch-triggered to organic exploration encounter.
0.2	2026-03-31	Added prototype win condition section. Added fld_fuel note. Added implementation status table.
0.1	2026-02-28	Initial document