I mean, if you take out all the leaders but one, they will have effectively unified. The others no longer spawn, and the remaining faction will essentially own all the former Dust Bandit territory. No special effects around that though.

And no, after a leader is taken out his faction is gone for good. Only so complex the effects can get, and adding further layers like that just makes it worse and worse exponentially. Not worth it for a random bandit group. :P

Oh! So the territory is always split between the remaining leaders until all are eliminated?

Haa I get you! Are the upstart leaders pre-made or are they generated randomly?

Pre-made, unfortunately it's not possible to make them random AND trackable via world state.

Some tricks here and there to give the illusion of random generation though. For example, they have randomized appearances, weapons, and names. But that's all it is, an illusion.

Haa good point! I don't mod kenshi so I didnt know. It's not possible for an entity or a "caste" to have an assigned number? Just curious about this :P Like, the captain of a squad is the character 103702 everytime, no matter who he is? It would help but might be heavy to code perhaps? Would probably need a whole new library in the game's coding right?

However it's great as is that the appearance is randomnized, character will feel different everytime :)

That is essentially how it works actually. The problem is once Mr. 103702 is dead, he is dead. To replace him I'd need to manually make a Mr. 385691 to take his place under the condition that 103702 is dead, and another one after him, etc.

If the game had the ability to generated a new numbered NPC and the world state checks around him each time, as well as the overrides to use those checks, it would be possible. But under the current system, it all has to be set up in advance.

Haa that's too bad! Well, probably can't be change neither, has to be in the core mechanics of the game :) It's ok this way thought ^^ Thanks for answering my never-ending questions xD

A question on the "Elimination of the Dust Bandit Faction:" Is it really prevented from random group spawns? IIRC, if you take out the Dust King in vanilla, Dust Bandits can still spawn but they'll just be rarer. Do you use the same mechanic or do you actually remove them from the spawn table?

I'd still like to have them around, here and there, as random spawns to be honest.

If you take the king out, they splinter into 3 warring smaller dust bandit groups. The original faction completely stops spawning at that point, and the 3 splinter groups start spawning in their old territories. When the leader of any splinter group dies, their faction ceases to exist as well. Eventually leading to the complete removal of all dust bandits spawns.

This is not how all factions work though. Some of the larger ones, like the HN, UC, or Cannibals will always still exist in some form. With rarer and weaker spawns. I see them as far too large and deep rooted to completely wipe out. Dust bandits however are simply a small local bandit group, after taking out the splinter leaders I don't see the survivors sticking with the group. They'd integrate with other factions, or just become drifters.

So no, they will not stick around on their own. Unless you leave one or more leaders alive.

Originally posted by Shidan:

...Dust bandits however are simply a small local bandit group, after taking out the splinter leaders I don't see the survivors sticking with the group. They'd integrate with other factions, or just become drifters.

So no, they will not stick around on their own. Unless you leave one or more leaders alive.

It's only in the interest of keeping The Border Lands "lively." Aside from the Starving/Hungry groups, there's only Bonedogs and Garu packs. Dust Bandits make up a fairly significant number of spawns and the only dynamic "camps." And, of all the spawns, they offer the better "gameplay" fights up to a point. Good for training.

For my own private uses, would it be possible to bring them "back" after the last leader is killed? Perhaps just lowering their original spawn frequency? (I don't know the mechanics, but it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out if it's a mechanic I can trigger somehow. And, if a removed faction can be brought back without borking the game logic in the head, that is. :))

PS - On the Dust King mechanic: I've heard various reports that he can get "released" from jail if turned in for a bounty, possibly reestablishing himself. True? If so, then he must be very certainly "dead" to trigger the mechanics in your mod I assume. ie:I assume he's a "member" of the Dust Bandit Faction and would get wiped or bugged if it was rewritten/eliminated without being conveniently dead first...

Thanks in advance for your reply.

Originally posted by Morkonan:

PS - On the Dust King mechanic: I've heard various reports that he can get "released" from jail if turned in for a bounty, possibly reestablishing himself. True? If so, then he must be very certainly "dead" to trigger the mechanics in your mod I assume. ie:I assume he's a "member" of the Dust Bandit Faction and would get wiped or bugged if it was rewritten/eliminated without being conveniently dead first...

Thanks in advance for your reply.

The Dust King, Bugmaster, High Inquisitors, and Phoenix (that I know of, I've seen relatively little of what the game has to offer) do not get released from prison. Their sentences are "FOREVER" and if you go to the jail you turned them in to, they will persist in that location (unless you import. If you import without characters everyone will be back where they belong, if you import with characters, they'll disappear forever, as I understand it). Less important leaders will eventually be released, however, and when they do they do in fact re-establish their control over their faction, though not always at their former base (I found the Red Sabre leader and the Black Dragon Ninjas in random camps rather than their home bases in my game).

After killing the Dust King I still see Dust Bandits spawning (in addition to the splinter groups), would an import (with dead npcs) fix this?

Not likely, odd that they're still spawning though. I'll have to check the squads and world states, make sure everything is still good there.

Could also be a mod conflict, if another mod is adding dust bandit squads to the world or altering them.

Not seeing anything that could keep them spawning on my end. Not and have the splinter groups spawning.

Might try testing other mods, see if any of them are conflicting to cause it.

Thanks for looking into it. I know for sure that the Player Conquest mods are jacked, maybe the Dust Tower one, or the Dust King mod, is causing problems.

Out of curiousity, does the Dust King have to DIE for this splinter to occur, or can he be imprisoned with it happening?