Mandates Refresh 2019

[Revenchent]

Holy Nation

Strengths: This major faction may designate a planet within their faction as a holy world for every five hexes it controls. Holy worlds are treated like secondary capital worlds, (10 defensive slots, must control an adjacent hex to invade, etc)

Weaknesses: If the Holy World is invaded and the invasion is won by the opposing faction, it becomes a desecrated world. The hexes adjacent to the desecrated world can be invaded with a maximum of twelve allies rather than five to reflect the faction's IC morale loss. This debuff remains until the desecrated world is reclaimed.

 

[Garza]

[member="Calico Tal'verda"], sounding like the Holy Roman Empire here.

 

[Gilamar Skirata]

Racial Supremacists Strengths: Characters belonging to the major faction's parent species have their posts count for twice as much in dominions, and have unlimited ally slots for members of the parent race in defending invasions. Weaknesses: Characters outside of the parent species must have their posts count for half a post in dominions, non-members of the parent species cannot be allies in invasions.

I would change this to culture just because almost every faction's "Parent species" is human

 

[Mellifluous Magenta]

Racial Supremacists

Strengths: Characters belonging to the major faction's parent species have their posts count for twice as much in dominions, and have unlimited ally slots for members of the parent race in defending invasions.

Weaknesses: Characters outside of the parent species must have their posts count for half a post in dominions, non-members of the parent species cannot be allies in invasions.

I like this one a lot, however we could run into issues if factions designate their parent species as 'humans'. There have been a lot of human supremacist factions in the past (including the First Order and a lot of old Imperial factions), and since humans make up over 80% of the characters on the board, that could become a massive problem. However, for a low-played species like the Chiss (for the Chiss Ascendancy) or the Sith, this would be very balanced. Perhaps there could be some kind of stipulation restricting the kinds of species that factions can label as their parent species?

 

[Revenchent]

[member="Immortal Cyan"], [member="Gilamar Skirata"] - You're both right. I thought the idea of human supremacists was cool, but then everyone plays them and I can see the potential for it being unfair. The idea was more meant to benefit factions like the Chiss, Echani, to give a rise to more unique factions. Perhaps changing it to either only alien races, or a singular culture would be a better plan.

 

[Darth Bellum]

Voidborne Crusaders

• Strength: This Major Faction has an infinite number of Requesting Aid slots when launching an Invasion of an Enemy Hex.
• Weakness: This Major Faction has no Requesting Aid slots when defending a Hex that they own.

Critique:

Infinite Request Aid when ATTACKING is currently seen as very overpowered. On defense, not so much. This is because most factions only attack when they know they have an upper hand. Also, I personally view it as much funner to be on offense here than it is to be on defense, because it happens so seldom due to reasons this would exacerbate. If everyone can join in on ONE invasion, other Invasions are much less likely to happen.

I would prefer MORE Invasions that are smaller, not less Invasions that are bigger. And again, Invaders likely already have the upper hand at Chaos.

[member="Lucius Varad"]

I've made a suggestion similar to this and the reverse for Defensive Stronghold [here], and it's simply put a hard cap on how many people can join in both the offensive and defensive. We already have a base of 5 ally slots per side given that they aren't using Defensive Stronghold which would grant them none if said faction tries to go on the offensive. I see no point in allowing entire Major factions come to the aid of another faction using either Voidborne Crusaders or Defensive Stronghold, and an additional 5 ally slots for each would be sufficient enough to make a clusterkark of a story. That'd either be 10 total ally slots for Voidborne Crusaders + whoever in the faction is participating (Which would also be a minimum of 5 to fulfill the invasion requirements) with no ally slots requested when defending, or 10 total ally slots for Defensive Stronghold + whoever in the faction is participating (Which would also have a minum of 5 to fulfill the invasion requirements) with no ally slots while attacking.

Given the state of how Ally slots work too and how horribly exploitable it is, a faction can theoretically still get an infinite number of allies without either of these mandates because of the loophole of "As long as I join a participating faction, I do not need to sign up for an ally slot because I am technically a part of the faction". Either fix that and introduce a system or set of guidelines that prevent this or start introducing hard caps on participants. I just in general think Defensive Stronghold needs to be better balanced because the weakness is honestly not even a weakness for how good its strength is.

Criminal Enterprise
1. Once a month, sacrifice a hex, then choose one:
- Swap influence clouds with a faction that has fewer hexes.
OR
- Gain control of target Dominion thread by another Major Faction.
OR
- Join a Rebellion you would not normally be able to join.

This meme has a special place in my heart, but please [member="Tefka"], as much as I love you, don't try this. We all know that this would be the only thing people ever use.

Industrial Magnate

• Strength: When this faction completes an Invasion, a new Victory Condition is to be taken into consideration by the presiding Roleplay Judge:
  
  Factory Presence
  The addition and numerical value of player-created starships, vehicles, weapons and droids are to be taken into consideration and leverage in favor of all Industrial Magnate Factions when determining victory of an Invasion.
  
• Strength: Droid character posts in Dominions count for double when determining the completion of Dominions.

Sounds fairly neat, but when it comes down to it, then we end up with a faction potentially being able to upscale the production of stuff that were balanced due to their production limitations. Also the addition of Droid PC's buffing dominion progression would just result in factions who have significantly more droid characters (ie CIS) being able to pump out dominions while more or less telling other factions that they should only use droid characters for dominions. The artificial boosting of speed for a dominion is arbitrary and encourages nothing with no suitable weakness to balance it out.

New Spawn

• Strengths: This faction cannot be invaded or rebelled.
• Weaknesses: Only available as a first Mandate for newly minted Major Factions. Lasts only for the first 30 days of the Major Faction's existence. Cannot be re-used if Faction goes minor or gets recalled, and then becomes Major again. Faction cannot invade during the 30 day window.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

I'd like to think there is an unspoken rule on leaving the new Major factions alone for a short while so that we as the other map incumbents can respect that they too are trying to write and develop a story. We've seen what happens to Major factions that try too hastily to invade other people and be a dick about it (ie The Jen'ari), and we've seen what happens when a Major faction tries to hit a new one without thinking it through or even attempt to contact the other faction to write up a mutually beneficial story of some sort (ie The New Republic). I don't think this is necessary assuming the new Major faction was doing something stupid like trying to hit a larger faction and not expect to be hit back.

Population Control

• Strengths: Once every 60 days, this faction can choose to give up on of its hexes and hand the option to choose a hex to another faction.
• Weaknesses: Receiving faction is still limited to gaining 3 hexes total per month. Receiving faction must have a smaller amount of hexes than the giving faction. Received hex is open to rebellion for 10 days.

It's a neat idea, but at the same time, one has to ask the question of why? This would be under the assumption that the two factions have touching borders. At that point it would be a matter of why not just do diplomacy threads while having the benefits of a different mandate?

Contagious Assault

• Strengths: When this faction invades, it can choose an additional neighboring hex that will be included in the invasion.
• Weaknesses: When this faction gets invaded, the invading factions can automatically choose one additional neighboring hex that will be counted in the same manner.

This is not a bad idea, but this is very nice in my opinion. If you wanted to include a neighboring hex, what benefit does this provide apart from giving a more spread out invasion where there are less people delegated to a planet. There is no benefit in targeting another hex unless the stipulation is that the attacker if they win the invasion takes both hexes. This applies for the opposite as far as the weaknesses go. What benefit or point is there?

Passive Expansion

• Strengths: Every 3 months, gain a hex without needing to do a dominion for it.
• Weaknesses: You may gain the hex passively only if your faction did not participate in invasions, skirmishes, or fights against other factions within those three months (regardless of whether your faction is the aggressor or the defender).

As was demonstrated in some past suggestions, some people were not very receptive to the idea of passive hex gain. This just encourages turtling like no tomorrow for the addition of a single hex every 3 months key factor here being over 90 days just to get 1 hex while basically telling your entire faction they aren't allowed to write any stories with other factions. This needs extensive rework before even being remotely considered as useful or beneficial, not just to the map game, but to storytelling in general.

Unconventional Warfare

• Strength: When invading another Major Faction, this Major Faction can designate up to 5 members of an opposing faction that cannot participate
• Weakness: This Major Faction is limited to TWO dominions per month. (and thus no SSD)

[member="Kaine Australis"]

No. Just no. This just screams default win against any faction that has an inactive member base by basically telling the best 5 (Or in some cases the only 5) to go kark themselves in a corner. Even against active factions, you essentially are telling 5 people who can potentially write the best stories or progression of invasions to sit it out. This is unfun, uninteresting, and poor sportsmanship.

Asymmetric Warfare
When invaded, a faction may refuse to meet their opponent in open battle, opting instead to use asymmetric or guerilla tactics to engage the enemy.

Strength: Allows faction to preserve fleet and troop strength on less vital worlds. Instead, they mobiliize indigenous forces to engage the enemy with ambush tactics, striking at weak points and fading away into the civilian population.

Weakness: Defending faction cedes the initiative, fighting without air or technological superiority.

[member="Eralam"]

Like the issue I have with some being from more of a fairness perspective, this one just makes no sense to me from an IC one. For the record, there is nothing stopping a faction from pursuing guerilla tactics to begin with, in some cases it is what some Major factions solely rely on. For example, if some faction comes along and sets up shop next to the Sith Empire and they have this mandate and the Sith Empire decides they want to go invade them, there is nothing stopping us from leveling the "civilian populace' that you've tacked on, and in some cases, Major factions just don't give a flying kark about civilian casualties whether it be dropping star destroyers on cities, burning them alive with Force Light, etc. As for the weakness, this is way too much micromanagement for the faction to have to deal with and basically tells allies that they cannot do anything apart from running around and having to deal with an invading faction coming along with their big old armies and fleets that will raze anything and everything to the ground. Again, it's a fun storytelling suggestion, but not one that needs to be made into a mandate form when any other mandate could provide better effects.

Racial Supremacists

Strengths: Characters belonging to the major faction's parent species have their posts count for twice as much in dominions, and have unlimited ally slots for members of the parent race in defending invasions.

Weaknesses: Characters outside of the parent species must have their posts count for half a post in dominions, non-members of the parent species cannot be allies in invasions.

[member="Calico Tal'Verda"]

Like the Industrial Magnate, I don't think the artificial boosting of post counts via doubling the worth of any specific trait/species is arbitrary. And again with having unlimited ally slots for defense, assuming that you take [member="Gilmar Skirata"]'s advice and change it to cultures instead of species, results in this being basically a better version of Defensive Stronghold for Mandalorians essentially where they can also just turn in 25 posts and call it a finished dominion. No.

Holy Nation

Strengths: This major faction may designate a planet within their faction as a holy world for every five hexes it controls. Holy worlds are treated like secondary capital worlds, (10 defensive slots, must control an adjacent hex to invade, etc)

Weaknesses: If the Holy World is invaded and the invasion is won by the opposing faction, it becomes a desecrated world. The hexes adjacent to the desecrated world can be invaded with a maximum of twelve allies rather than five to reflect the faction's IC morale loss. This debuff remains until the desecrated world is reclaimed.

This is more or less a suggestion I made back on this thread as far as the strength goes. A planet can be designated as a defensive stronghold and gains allies equal to the number of hexes it is connected to and effectively 'taunts' in MMO terms the invading faction into only being able to attack the stronghold hex, effectively giving you the chance to protect up to 7 total hexes, though this came at the expense of not being able to submit a Super Star Destroyer at the end of the month. The weakness for yours is also arbitrary because some factions can speed dom the 'desecrated world' faster than you can start and complete an invasion on a hex nearby it unless the invading faction is on an absolute warpath and cranking through invasions like there's no tomorrow.

Never Tell Me The Odds

• Strength: Being outnumbered when Invaded counts towards your defensive victory. (5% chance per person. D20 Discord roll by RPJ upon thread completion.)
• Weaknesses: If you don't field at least 10 writers within the a week of the start of your defense, you forfeit.
• Note: Drop outs mid-thread by your team don't count against your invader.

[member="Jay Scott Clark"]

Leaving invasion results up to chance or solely on the fact that your opponent is significantly bigger than you to doesn't make much sense. While it's neat in concept as we have stories of overcoming impossible odds all over the place, the results of an invasion are not based on who has done the most damage to the opposing faction, it comes down to quality of storytelling, sportsmanship, and lack of drama as well as participation. There is no dice rolling to decide who wins and who loses. Again, neat concept from an IC perspective as a storytelling element, but not a good enough execution to warrant it being a balanced mandate.

 

[Jsc]

[member="Kor Vexen"] - I've changed the post to better reflect my reasoning. The idea was that the invader either fields equal writer-to-writer ratio or takes a chance at dice. It's a mandate that actually leaves the opposing team in control of the consequences an keeps newer factions from being swarmed.

Nevermind. You're right, dice is dumb.

 

[Tefka]

Lets lay off the thesis papers, Kor. Critique others only if you’ve posted two or more ideas.

 

[Darth Bellum]

I have posted suggestions in the past [member="Tefka"] both of which were last month.

They are here and here.

The first suggested a rework to the current iteration of Defensive Stronghold entirely to make it still good, but not over the top by introducing a variable cap on how many participants it could have. The other one was a suggestion which would be suitable for being called Defensive Stronghold but instead gave ally slots for every adjacent hex it was in contact with. The latter was modified slightly in my critique of everyone's when I was talking about Calico's Holy Nation suggestion.

For clarity I'll reiterate both of them below.

Defensive Stronghold [Rework of the current one]

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Strength | This Major Faction can have X Additional Ally Slots (Up to a maximum of 5) in addition to the base 5.
Weakness | This Major Faction has reduced Ally Slots by X from the base 5.

The point of this was to nerf the existing Defensive Stronghold because it basically dictates an entire Major Faction can come to the aid of one defending. With this update it would still provide a decent amount of protection to the smaller factions that might use it without entirely robbing their ability to / feel intimidated by invading other factions. This would be something that is done once a month, but basically the faction decides on how many people they want to have for extra allies, and that number gets added to their defense while reduced when on the offensive. While people were not entirely receptive to this idea, I don't feel like mandates should be used as a crutch which is exactly what the current iteration of the Defensive Stronghold mandate is. As it stands, this particular mandate is used by 50% of the factions on the board, it's far too meta.


Defensive Stronghold [Completely new]

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Strength | Establish a Stronghold on a designated hex for every 3 Dominions completed in a month. Gain ally slots equal to the number of adjacent hexes connected to the Stronghold and the Stronghold hex can be the only one targeted for an Invasion and not any other hex connected to it.
Weakness | This Major Faction cannot submit a Super Star Destroyer for the month.

This was made in response to some ideas being tossed back and forth in the initial thread. Ultimately it made more sense to be called defensive stronghold because that's essentially what it did. This was made in order to introduce something new to the map game in the form of something that can be physically put on a map that also rewarded a faction with a permanent addition to the map that protected territory (Assuming they don't lose the invasion). This would not only take the ability to make Super Star Destroyers away but also losing an invasion would mean the loss of a month's worth of Dominions creating a stronghold, which I think is a fair addition to impact the loss of an invasion.


Edit : Since my third post seems to have gotten censored/deleted I will reiterate it here for Tefka. When you make a suggestion, you open yourself up to critique. You don't (or shouldn't) go into it expecting everyone to love it the way it is, or that the sun is flowing from your ass and everyone will like it. This is more to the benefit of the one suggesting so that they can take that information, do with it as they will, fix potential flaws and ultimately make it a more polished/refined end product. That is the point of a critique, which in the end would benefit you since you will get a much more cohesive and refined list that won't require much addition or tweaking. Whether or not I am staff should not dismiss the fact that I am suggesting as well for something that will affect everyone.

 

[Tefka]

That’s cool. But you’re not Staff, so lay off the thesis please. I need more suggestions than I do critiques.

 

[Jend-Ro Quill]

Just spitballing here, but...

Spectral Imperium

• Strength: This Major Faction can designate a Netherworld location as its capital. When invading, this Major Faction has an extra five ally slots reserved for spirits/undead.
• Weakness: When another faction invades the Netherworld capital, spirits and undead do not count toward the attacker's ally slots.

 

[Jend-Ro Quill]

Here's another one out of left field, play with it as you will.

Alien Invasion!

• Strength: Aliens (Twi'lek/Chiss and weirder) do not count toward this Major Faction's Requesting Aid slots when either attacking or defending.
• Weakness: To benefit from this Mandate's Strength in any given Invasion, this Major Faction cannot have human or nearly-human characters as participants or allies in that Invasion.

 

[Jend-Ro Quill]

More wonky ones in case something clicks for someone.

Summoned by Destiny

• Strength: This Major Faction will always appear in the Featured Factions scroll as long as the Major Faction has this Mandate.
• Weakness: No tangible benefits other than a potential +1 to recruitment.

The Burnout Special

• Strength: This Major Faction will automatically gain one random adjacent unclaimed hex each month, regardless of any Dominions it does or does not complete.
• Weakness: This Major Faction must launch an Invasion every month, except in months when other factions invade it.

 

[Jend-Ro Quill]

Voidborne Crusaders Strength: This Major Faction, if declared the Victor in an Invasion, gains an additional Hex [Must be Adjacent, and Non-Capital] of the Opponent's (or Site Administration's) choosing. Weaknesses: This Major Faction cannot turn in Dominion's to expand their territory.

[member="Lucius Varad"] - I think this could be incredibly cool. Major Factions that can ONLY grow via invasion, but get extra hexes for wins? I'm so down.

 

[Malok]

WAY OF THE SWORD

Strength: While invading, if the battle ends in a Draw, a fifth tiebreaker condition is applied. This condition will count PvP, Duels, and Objectives Taken in order to ultimately declare a clear winner/loser of the Invasion.

Weakness: While defending, total ally slots are halved (rounding down).

 

[Malok]

WAY OF THE EXOTIC

Strength: Select one type of Non-Human Character. (i.e. Droids, Chiss, etc.) Characters of the chosen type have their posts counted doubly in Dominions. Additionally, character of this type count as half an ally slot during invasions.

Weakness: Any Dominion which takes advantage of this perk can be rebelled. Any invasion that takes advantage of this perk will see any other character type count as double ally slots.

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Quote

New Spawn

• Strengths: This faction cannot be invaded or rebelled.
• Weaknesses: Only available as a first Mandate for newly minted Major Factions. Lasts only for the first 30 days of the Major Faction's existence. Cannot be re-used if Faction goes minor or gets recalled, and then becomes Major again. Faction cannot invade during the 30 day window.

Scherezade deWinterhttp://starwarsrp.net/user/17618-scherezade-dewinter/

I'd like to think there is an unspoken rule on leaving the new Major factions alone for a short while so that we as the other map incumbents can respect that they too are trying to write and develop a story. We've seen what happens to Majorfactions that try too hastily to invade other people and be a dick about it (ie The Jen'ari), and we've seen what happens when a Major faction tries to hit a new one without thinking it through or even attempt to contact the other faction to write up a mutually beneficial story of some sort (ie The New Republic). I don't think this is necessary assuming the new Major faction was doing something stupid like trying to hit a larger faction and not expect to be hit back.



That unwritten rule might exist, but we have seen it constantly ignored during the 2019 invasion season. For all we know, it may continue to get ignored in the future. This is a small and temporary protection that new Major Factions can choose to wield upon themselves.

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Population Control

• Strengths: Once every 60 days, this faction can choose to give up on of its hexes and hand the option to choose a hex to another faction.
• Weaknesses: Receiving faction is still limited to gaining 3 hexes total per month. Receiving faction must have a smaller amount of hexes than the giving faction. Received hex is open to rebellion for 10 days.

It's a neat idea, but at the same time, one has to ask the question of why? This would be under the assumption that the two factions have touching borders. At that point it would be a matter of why not just do diplomacy threads while having the benefits of a different mandate?



The assumption is incorrect; the actions do not have to border each other. I see this more as a strategic way to play the map game; a faction gains a hex, but the faction that is the reason they gave it can gently nudge people to go rebel it, for example.

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Contagious Assault

• Strengths: When this faction invades, it can choose an additional neighboring hex that will be included in the invasion.
• Weaknesses: When this faction gets invaded, the invading factions can automatically choose one additional neighboring hex that will be counted in the same manner.

This is not a bad idea, but this is very nice in my opinion. If you wanted to include a neighboring hex, what benefit does this provide apart from giving a more spread out invasion where there are less people delegated to a planet. There is no benefit in targeting another hex unless the stipulation is that the attacker if they win the invasion takes both hexes. This applies for the opposite as far as the weaknesses go. What benefit or point is there?

The map game, for better or worse, is incredibly slow. This is something small that can speed it up just a smidge if a faction chooses to make use of it, but the danger of doing so is tangible.

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Passive Expansion

• Strengths: Every 3 months, gain a hex without needing to do a dominion for it.
• Weaknesses: You may gain the hex passively only if your faction did not participate in invasions, skirmishes, or fights against other factions within those three months (regardless of whether your faction is the aggressor or the defender).

As was demonstrated in some past suggestions, some people were not very receptive to the idea of passive hex gain. This just encourages turtling like no tomorrow for the addition of a single hex every 3 months key factor here being over 90 days just to get 1 hex while basically telling your entire faction they aren't allowed to write any stories with other factions. This needs extensive rework before even being remotely considered as useful or beneficial, not just to the map game, but to storytelling in general.



Yes, and I was against the passive gain because of how people recommended to go about it. This is a small idea of how something like this might work for some people. It doesn't discourage inter-faction RP, but it does give a much stronger emphasis on diplomacy and friendly RP's rather than PvP.

I don't expect all of these to go through. Hell, if site staff accepts just one I'll call it a victory

[member="Kor Vexen"]

 

[Natalie LaForte]

Casino Royale (rework)

• Neutral: On the 1st of every month, 1d6 is rolled by staff for this faction.
• Strengths: On an even number, another 1d6 is rolled. The outcome of this divided by 2 (and rounded up if a decimal) equals the number of hexes they passively gain that month.
• Weaknesses: On an odd number, a hex owned by the faction (chosen by staff) is reverted to neutral. Passive hex gain is only possible if this faction has not participated in an invasion in the previous month. Passive hex gain does not contribute to SSD dominion requirements.

Droid Army (rework)

• Strengths: This faction has refined its droid production capabilities. Droids produced by this faction may utilize any restricted material at one production category higher than usual (Limited). Droid player characters do not contribute to this faction's requesting aid slots.
• Weaknesses: This faction's organics in its territory are especially wary of their droid overlords. A rebellion may be declared against this faction at any time in any hex apart from their capital by an organic PC.

Benevolent Dictator (rework)

• Strengths: This faction's dictator aims to provide its citizens with their every need. No hexes within this faction may be rebelled against. Any dominions completed by this faction cannot be rebelled against. This faction may have an additional 5 requesting aid slots when they are being invaded.
• Weaknesses: This faction's dictator is fixated on making their people happy that the its weapon's industry is non existent. This faction cannot declare invasions. Any combat focused technology (weapons, guns, missiles etc) cannot be produced at a level higher than 'Minor' within the factory when affiliated with this faction.

Vigilante Justice (rework) > Bounty hunter guilds

• Strengths: This faction offers exceptional privileges to bounty hunters it hires, and rewards them well. Bounty hunters may enter any thread created by this faction's members in order to hunt a target (but the target must not be a member of this faction). Any bounty hunters hired by this faction do not count towards this faction's requesting aid slots in an invasion.
• Weaknesses: This faction focuses its efforts on a private military. Any combat units produced in the codex affiliated with this faction directly have a maximum size of 'Medium' and a maximum deployment availability of 'Uncommon'

Hermit Kingdom (rework) > Inward Perfection

• Strengths: This faction focuses on the development of land it already owns. Once per month, a force nexus may be created without the need for a development thread. Restricted materials within this faction's borders may be utilized up to a maximum production value of 'Minor' when affiliated with this faction. The requirements in order to claim an SSD may be reduced by 1 dominion for every 3 (idk if that's balanced) codex submissions related to this faction being submitted.
• Weaknesses: This faction may only claim one dominion per month. This faction has no requesting aid slots when invading or being invaded.

 

[Yularen Nova]

Droid Army (rework) Strengths: This faction has refined its droid production capabilities. Droids produced by this faction may utilize any restricted material at one production category higher than usual (Limited). Droid player characters do not contribute to this faction's requesting aid slots.
Weaknesses: This faction's organics in its territory are especially wary of their droid overlords. A rebellion may be declared against this faction at any time in any hex apart from their capital by an organic PC.

I would change this weakness just a little bit. Its slightly unbalanced as its +2 -1.

I would change the weakness from rebel at any time to lowering the rebellion requirement of this faction to two doms while leaving the ability for rebellions to happen anywhere and adding that organic allies take up two ally slots rather than 1 so that you get a good +2 -2 balance there.

Neutral: On the 1st of every month, 1d6 is rolled by staff for this faction. Strengths: On an even number, another 1d6 is rolled. The outcome of this divided by 2 (and rounded up if a decimal) equals the number of hexes they passively gain that month.
Weaknesses: On an odd number, a hex owned by the faction (chosen by staff) is reverted to neutral. Passive hex gain is only possible if this faction has not participated in an invasion in the previous month. Passive hex gain does not contribute to SSD dominion requirements.

I really like this one, but I feel like the weakness here is too insignificant for a mandate that that could potentially net a faction 6 hexes passively, not including the 3 dominions they could do on top. I would maybe tweak the strength to that it is a choice whether or not the faction rolls the dice and if they do add the weakness that they cannot complete any dom that month if they roll even and if they roll odd they take the number they rolled, divide by 2 and they loose that many dominions that month.

Benevolent Dictator (rework) Strengths: This faction's dictator aims to provide its citizens with their every need. No hexes within this faction may be rebelled against. Any dominions completed by this faction cannot be rebelled against. This faction may have an additional 5 requesting aid slots when they are being invaded.
Weaknesses: This faction's dictator is fixated on making their people happy that the its weapon's industry is non existent. This faction cannot declare invasions. Any combat focused technology (weapons, guns, missiles etc) cannot be produced at a level higher than 'Minor' within the factory when affiliated with this faction.

Vigilante Justice (rework) > Bounty hunter guilds Strengths: This faction offers exceptional privileges to bounty hunters it hires, and rewards them well. Bounty hunters may enter any thread created by this faction's members in order to hunt a target (but the target must not be a member of this faction). Any bounty hunters hired by this faction do not count towards this faction's requesting aid slots in an invasion.
Weaknesses: This faction focuses its efforts on a private military. Any combat units produced in the codex affiliated with this faction directly have a maximum size of 'Medium' and a maximum deployment availability of 'Uncommon'

These two have the same issue in my mind in that they require too much extra policing of the factory/codex. I can't think of any solid weaknesses to suggest, but I like that you took two mandates and rolled them into one for your Dictator rework.

Hermit Kingdom (rework) > Inward Perfection Strengths: This faction focuses on the development of land it already owns. Once per month, a force nexus may be created without the need for a development thread. Restricted materials within this faction's borders may be utilized up to a maximum production value of 'Minor' when affiliated with this faction. The requirements in order to claim an SSD may be reduced by 1 dominion for every 3 (idk if that's balanced) codex submissions related to this faction being submitted.

Weaknesses: This faction may only claim one dominion per month. This faction has no requesting aid slots when invading or being invaded.

You're right! The codex buff is a little too strong. If this mandate had been written like this when I wrote for the Mandos we'd have an SSD every month easy. I think part of the appeal as far as weaknesses go for this one originally was that they CAN'T get an SSD. I like the restricted materials and the focus on creating lore here though. Maybe, instead of codex subs towards an SSD you do codex subs towards one passive hex gain. I think here 5 would be the appropriate number and each sub would have to be from a different writer (the logic here being it takes 5 writers to start a major faction with a single hex) and instead of 'Minor' production Restricted Materials, just bring it to limited

 

[Matt the Radar Tech]

Cunning Subterfuge

• Strengths: A faction that launches an invasion decides a single opposing faction's force type - fleet or ground forces - that are hindered via subterfuge and no defending allies can participate in that hindered force type.
• Weaknesses: The attacking faction cannot field allies, due to utilizing them prior to sabotage their enemy's fleet or armies.