Nationality

So I wanted to implement different colors in the minimap for ships which are friendly, part of your squadron, at war with, etc, but realized I need to fully implement the faction relation system first.  So I've started working on that at this point. 

The way you get assigned a faction, or referred to as "nationality" or "nation" in game, is when you create your character you choose your character's nationality.  Then there is the simple concept of "effective nationality" which is displayed in the Character Info window when viewing a character.  Basically, if you are a member of a trade company, your effective nationality is the trade company's nationality.  Otherwise it is your character's nationality.  So at any point you wish you align your character with another nationality, you just need to join a trade company of that nationality. 

The various nations though will have relations with each other, from friendly to at war.  Players will be able to attack any ship of a nationality they are at war with at any time, while attacking a ship of a friendly nationality will be more restricted (haven't decided on the specifics of this restriction yet, but most likely your cannonballs just will have no effect in some zones, like near major ports, but still debating whether to go Eve Online style and just have a mass of AI attack you or otherwise have some other negative effect). 

These relations will be set by the developers, and used as special events to stir the pot a bit to have a little fun with when they change.  Britain and France will often be at war, but this can periodically change.  Everyone will be at war with the pirates most of the time, but a nation could theoretically be at peace temporarily with the pirates, making even AI pirates no longer attack those players. 

After this system is fully implemented, then I can get back to my original task of the minimap colors :)