Since the introduction of the soviet machines there is something bugging me with the rival/region leveling system. Before it was pretty straightforward, you kill machines, the region thread level rises and rivals appear or level up occassionally. Now as the RU machines exists there are SE and RU rivals. You can have a fight only against RU machines and after the fight a SE rival starts leveling up. This happens also when you fight SE machines only, a RU rival can appear/level up.
This for me is not very convincing. SE and RU machines fight each other when they meet so basically they are each their own faction. We as a player are our own little but powerful faction. In my mind the region level should only be coupled to SE machines since we are on SE soil. So it should only advance when SE machines are defeated.
I don’t mind fighting RU rivals but there needs to be a different rival system here. I would suggest a thread level not restricted by SE regions but for the whole area. So if you fight and defeat RU machines the RU thread level rises and RU rivals can appear/level up at certain points. Since the RU machines are made for a more aggressive and conquering task they should actively hunt the player. Imagine you are in a fight against SE machines and all of a sudden a RU rival enters the area and starts to attack the player as well. In this case SE and RU machines should ignore each other and only fight the player. This should make for some awesome fights.
What do you think about the rival mechanics regarding SE and RU machines and rivals, the regional thread level and the leveling of them?
SE = swedish; RU = soviet