I know that most of the current NPC factions are hardly finished (or even implemented at all), but what I'm proposing is that there be secondary factions. There's already the Slavers, and there could be several more like them. I'm not sure if the number of factions you can join in the future will be increased, but these should be separate from those. So let's say you can only join one NPC faction (Raiders, VC, Enclave, etc.). You should also be able to join at least two of these, maybe more if they have high enough requirements for joining.
For all of them, the only real disadvantage would be rep change with factions, which should be semi-permanent stats (they decay until they're half, so as a slaver you get -2000 deducted from NCR, which would rise until it was a total of -1000) until you leave these factions.
SlaversUnder leadership of Metzger
Requirements- Join through the current quest
- 3 CH, assuming that's the minimum CH you need to have a slave
Benefits- Able to take slaves, ability to buy and sell in the Den, Vortis in NCR, and maybe a minor base/slave jail in between
- Opens up dialogue options similar to the effect of boosted speech (because you're a slaver. Nobody really wants to give you trouble)
- Basically, slave retrieval quests. Metzger/Vortis tells you what kind of slave he wants, you deliver for slightly more caps and some xp
Bounty HuntersUnder leadership of the head of Bounty Hunters (could be anyone)
Requirements- Neutral or better rep with bounty hunters
- At least one weapon skill better than 100%
- Complete a quest
Benefits- Can receive and take down marks (both players and randomly generated NPCs) from any bounty hunting station (I'm thinking we get rid of the sheriff/mayor issuing the bounty)
- Opens up dialogue in certain towns to track marks
- Doing work for a particular town raises your rep there
*There's a lot of good ideas in this thread.
http://fodev.net/forum/index.php?topic=6204.0 Especially the part where you receive a random mark to kill to prevent abuse.
--Cannot join both Bounty Hunters and Slavers
MechanicsUnder leadership of T-Ray
Requirements- Repair higher than 100%
- A quest
- Neutral or better reputation with someone, although I'm not sure who
Benefits- A boost to repair/if possible, just an increase in chance to fix things without adding to skills
- Discounted vehicles
- Discount on tools/toolkits
- Quests to retrieve broken items from point A, fix them, and return them to point B
*Reputation decrease could be with Gunrunners and other 'strong' factions because in their eyes you would be weak. Or if you have something better, let's hear it.
ScientistsUnder leadership of Festus (in charge of Gecko's power plant)
Requirements- A quest
- Science over 100%
- Neutral or better rep with Gecko
Benefits*Reputation changes could work in similar ways as Mechanic, but with -rep to VC and +rep to Gecko.
--Cannot join scientists and VC (although I'm thinking it shouldn't be associated with the town, so there's room for change here)
ThievesUnder leadership of Loxley (although I'm not sure if he's even ingame, but it couldn't hurt to add him)
Requirements- A quest
- Steal/Lockpick/Sneak any two of those skills total over 200%
- Must be caught stealing and then get away without being killed in that town (aka you steal, someone sees you, you run to Loxley and he offers you the quest), or a record of x number of successful steals from NPCs and y steals from players
Benefits- Access to Stealthboy (quest, crafting, whatever)
- Access to a glove that allows you to steal easier (I'm grabbing at straws here. Someone give me a better boost to steal)
- Quests that ask you to find a safe/locked room and retrieve an item/steal from an NPC
*My logic on this one is that if the thieves guild were as big a faction as any of the major ones, I think it would kinda defeat the mystery and secrecy of a thieves guild.
I have a few more, but I'll wait til morning to finish this. In the meantime, bring on the criticism.