We already have a good start for this with the icepick and big green bases that populate wild and perilous space at the beginning of the universe, so here's the idea.

Make it so that The Majority (not all) of each specific type of ship groups in a specific part of perilous space. As you get nearer to the center of that area, the Danger Factor would increase, obviously leading to the higher leveled AI of that type, which would allow for the introduction of new types of AI for the forgone, reaver, and icepick factions. Scattered through these areas are faction bases and "bases", the "Bases" which can be destroyed for either missions or for commod drops.(for example, a mining drone near a fermium ring would be mining it, but if you blow up the drone, it drops like 500 promethium).

Furthermore, there are three separate levels of AI bases as you get closer, but each one requires that you fight your way in to reach it. Once there, you can take missions from that faction to fight the other factions, and in response, you get "faction points" from that particular faction. Essentially what Faction Points do is a hostility modifier; for each one, that faction is a certain percentage less likely to attack you. Get enough in the outer ring, and you can fly straight into the next closer ring without being attacked, and you can also use the AI as allies to help take down both enemy AI and enemy players that aren't on the same faction.

An example of the map lies below. An example of the mission text:

I wish i could dig up a suggestion i posted long ago. Essentially it was very similar:

-Divide up perilous into ever-fighting factions.
-Each faction is involved in a free for all.
-They constantly fight over territory, and faction outposts are placed on the edges of all of the space they control, as they gain or lose territory.
-You could do missions for factions which consisted of entering special DG's that only had AI from the other 'enemy' factions. So you would essentially be training to kill the factions enemies that you had accepted the mission from in the first place.
-You could build reputation with each faction, which influenced how aggressive towards you they were etc.
-Minimum faction zones would be hardcoded; forgones would always control at least 12 galaxies, and have permanent fortifications in those galaxies etc.
-AI would spawn randomly throughout the factions' controlled space.

I'm not sure if replacing perilous with this would be a desirable outcome, but i've always been a fan of the faction system in games. This could provide a lot of additional content at the cost of a few new AI packages.

I'm not sure which to say, so I'l post both;

Make the Reaver section larger due to the growing playerbase

OR

Make the Reaver section smaller due to powerlevelers.

I remember suggesting something similar in emp system topic where ai factions had territory in perilous ( besides basic ais, there were also Iq' Bana horde, Anatolia chancellor's loyalists and Pretenders fighting for the crown) and player would have to conquer them/ own their home gals which would be like to Bio, Emp bio/ in order to take emp.


Anyway, I like the idea.

Factions not fractions

Right xD