The truth is, they are completely useless the way they are right now.
Current quests should be fixed/finished, and new quests should be added for every NPC faction, allowing players to advance in ranks and get access to better equipment (I like the idea what they started to do with the Brotherhood faction, too bad it never got finished, it should be completed, and something similar should be made for VC, NCR, Raiders, Slavers, Reno and Enclave as well)
The second problem is that these factions don't affect the game at all, its like the are content the way things are, and don't want to move a finger on changing the territorial outlines.
This is a more difficult problem that requires a more difficult solution (but hey, I'm brainstorming so maybe someone will get an idea how to fix it better, Ill just write down whats on my mind).
I think player factions should get the option to ally themselves with the NPC factions.
- Allied factions would be automatically enemies with the enemies of their allied faction, and the PC factions that are allied with their enemies. (I hope I'm making sense here
)
- When allied with an NPC faction, PC factions should complete quests for the NPC faction to make their alliance last (something like reputation, you do quests, your reputation gets higher -> your faction receives more support from the NPC faction (items, ammo, caps... etc); you don't do quests, your reputation drops to the point where you are no longer considered to be allies and don't receive anything)
- GMs should also have the option to announce randomly when an NPC faction prepares to do TC (allies and members should be able to participate of course. If not many people from the faction are online than they should receive help from NPC faction members)
-Ally control: (To avoid one faction becoming super powerful) When requesting an alliance from the NPC faction it should automatically check the number of people in every allied faction it has, compared to their enemy NPC faction, and if the difference is too great it should simply state "we already have enough allies, sorry"
- Random events for the allies: anything that pops into a GMs mind, for example: create a random area between two enemy factions, then get the factions and allies to fight a territorial war.
That`s it so far, will write more if it comes to mind.
Ideas, suggestions?