Fractured Factions...argh.

[Legacy_Zejan the Wonder Monkey]

               While doing some final bug-testing, I've discovered that the last bugs I
need to clean up are really weird ones.  For instance, I had a shifty
NPC who attempts to talk to the player for a little bit before actually
turning hostile and attacking.  But during the actual test, he attacked my test character on
sight.  I had given him his own faction with the idea that only he and
his cronies, who would be set with the same faction, would jump in on the fight. 

After much trial and error, I discovered that the faction I'd set for this NPC was friendly to an NPC with a different faction.  I'd fought this previous NPC much earlier in the test and killed them, so the current NPC was immediately hostile before any chat could get started.  So, my question is this...

How, exactly, does the Global setting work with factions?  I think I recall asking this years ago, and I cannot for the life of me remember how it works.  Come to think of it, how do the factions relate to each other?  Isn't a Defender obliged to protect Commoners, or something like that?
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Lightfoot8]

               Hmm,  Well I have not messed with factions enough to give you a 100% answer. 

Even though it does not answer your question, it would not hurt to read or reread

• Factions, Shouts and Attacking My Enemy    I find it help to refresh my memory a little every time a question like this comes up.  
  
• My best guess is that your NPC is hearing one of the shouts from the NPCs that you are attacking.  To test that I would suggest modifing the OnConversation Event for the NPC that is going hostile to report the shouts that he is hearing.   Hopefully that will at least find when it is happening.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_henesua]

               I've been setting up all of my module's factions recently and digging into how they work. I'll keep you posted as I learn more. The article mentioned by lightfoot is a useful read. I also recommend it. As far as your questions go, this is my understanding:

A faction with the "global" setting will propagate reputation to all individuals across the module regardless of what area they are in. So if the PC attacks a faction with"global" set all members of that faction in all areas will go hostile.

To see how factions in your module relate to one another you should open the faction wizard, click the advanced tab, and then select all factions. You will see a matrix of how each faction reacts to every other faction. The factions listed from top down on the left side of the matrix are the key to each row. The factions across the top running from left to right identify each column.

So on the left look for "Defender" and then check the row from left to right one cell at a time to see what the Defender faction thinks of each other faction.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Zejan the Wonder Monkey]

               Lightfoot8, tx.  Never hurts to RTFM.  

Henesua, tx.  I never looked any deeper than the bar chart...tried looking at the matrix once a long, long time ago, it boggled me and I ran away.  Looks like I need to get a spine and take a better look.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Baragg]

               

Zejan the Wonder Monkey wrote...

Lightfoot8, tx.  Never hurts to RTFM.  

Henesua, tx.  I never looked any deeper than the bar chart...tried looking at the matrix once a long, long time ago, it boggled me and I ran away.  Looks like I need to get a spine and take a better look.

I think I have an extra starter spine somewhere. Let me see............