My thoughts and impressions factionwise. (May contain spoilers.)

[Baldri]

Well this is mostly an overview about my experiences with factions. Also you may find some thoughts about them. What do you think about them? Playing on difficulty 2. It may have influenced my experience.

Humanists:
As a minorfaction they are fine. They aren't especially dangerous but aren't on the squishy side either. A good mix between the troops more often then not.

Spartans:
I am perfectly fine with the spartans as well. They fitting in just right. Lorewise, lootwise and so on. They are easy to beat but then again the loot isn't that great as well. But good in the early months. Also they are quiet destructive and beefy considering they are a minor-faction.

So thats it with the two early factions one most likely will fight. Lets continue with the more advanced / rare minor-factions. (At least from my POV)

Raiders:
Not to say much here either. Considering their place and role in the game they doing a good job in my opinion.

Reticulans:
Quiet squishy. Then again it just fits considering the lore of them. They are feeling right just as well.

Ratmen:
Uhh... I somehow hate these guys. They scare me. I do not know why. They aren't packing a punch but their numbers... their numbers. I tend to flee when I have to face them on a terrormission.
So I guess good job there. 

Demons:
Can't say too much about them. But they are quiet scary so far.

Deep ones:
Again. But I do meet them even less then the demons.

Government:
Uhh why are you reading this. You must not fight them.

Smugglers:
Free great loot. Nuff said.

Well, onward to the faction I have to deal with the most. Not a surprise, considering they are major-factions.

Mercs:
Not a major-faction lorewise but boy. These guys are scary. I do not want to mess with them early. So I guess they are fine.

Church:
A difficult faction too evaluate. On the one side their weaker units are a pushover. Things start to get nasty with beastmasters and the other highranked units.
Overall I think the weaker troops could need a buff ore a matron / priest more. The troopmix on better ships, especially if there are exalts, is scary enough. Then again a church is mostly civil though, isn't it?

Academy:
They are more squishy then the church but early on there are much more Osirion which aren't on the squishy side. I think they are more dangerous and their scaling (troopwise) is better.
Feeling right to me. Do not know. The high number of Osirion-Guards counter the squishy low and mid units quiet well.

Stargods:
In my opinion they are fine. The Stargods themself could be a little bit beefier though. Just a tad. A tiny bit.

Guild:
They are just of the chart. They are weak, squishy and well just way too soft. Sure they have Marsec but... Lets not talk about them for now. G.O., Rep and even security all share the same squishines. Do I have to mention the sailors and Engineers? Well Engineers are okay to be honest, considering they are Engineers. But Reps aren't. Then again they are Reps. And traders. So they should be fine. And they are lorewise, yes indeed. Also while on the squishy side you can argue: Thats what Marsec is for. And you are right. Operatives and especially Bodyguards are scary. But where are them? Where? Well to be fair: Bodyguards are fine and their numbers feeling right.

But where are the operatives? The lack of them on most Traderships make them total pushovers. There is almost no danger engaging this ships.

While beeing quiet satisfied with most, if not all, the factions I have one suggestion: Throw in more operatives every now and then to make the fights a little bit more interesting. Right now the guild are pushovers. If there isn't a rep on a tradeship at least. Which means Marsec.

I think some more operatives would make the fights a little bit more interesting. At least at difficulty 2.

Yeah you can argue that I should increase the difficulty but then again I would adapt. And Operatives would lack again on ships I consider mid-tier. Like Cargofreighters.

Just a few thoughts. What do YOU think about the factions? I am eager to read your opinion.

[ivandogovich]

Very nice breakdown. 

I'll chime in on the Traders. (I'm playing on middle difficulty).   These have been the mainstay of my campaign.  There are 5 guild bases scattered on the globe right now, and my vaults are constructed of guild captives holding items in an exponential matrix-like continuum. 

I really don't find a problem with their balance as they are one of the 2 primary early factions.  They have the greatest diversity of units of any faction.  Many are squishy, this is true.  Before the entrance of marsec, all Guild Security troops were sporting the same Security Carapace Armor.  Stepping down the Guild Security troopers to human body armor, made them a bit less problematic, and less grindy (essentially, missions can conclude faster, imo). 

Their small ships, and civilian missions (hoppers and excavators) are just milk runs.  No doubt.  Grab cattle prods and go to town. Or train firing, reactions, throwing, etc.  The larger ships, give the guild the fire power to one-shot your gals up to mid game in my experience.  (This feels right to me).  Tons of gauss, and decent plasma and laser on cruisers give them teeth.  The plasmas are unknown to your gals, so you can't just turn their weapons back upon them.

Because of the Bodyguards and power armor, The Guild are viewed by quite a few players as a difficult faction.  The best counter is scavenged gauss.  There are others, but each encounter is a nice tactical puzzle.

I like that the guild was able to give me strong tech gates through the Rep/Engineer/Guildmaster Interrogation Secrets.  I'm not sure any other faction gives as much (this could be challenging in Academy centric campaigns).  Its possible that the Engineer Interrogations could become faction independent.  Any engineer from any faction could be interrogated, allowing for 2-3 (etc) Engineering Secrets to be revealed in a sequential manner until the last is discovered.

Overall, I really like the Traders as they are.  I can concede that in missions where there are 2-3 Guild Security, one could be exchanged for a Marsec Operative, but I wouldn't mess with their balance too much at this point.   Just think of them as a major revenue source and enjoy them.

[Baldri]

Just think of them as a major revenue source and enjoy them.

Fair enough 

[Yglorba]

Yeah.  I don't think the factions are intended to all be equally dangerous.  Traders are intended to be your main income source, so as long as you're careful with your targets, the majority of fights against them are not meant to be hugely risky.  Occasionally, of course, they bring along Marsec, but their more basic transports aren't intended to be a huge threat in combat, and making them one would risk making the game too frustrating (partially because you would have to spend much more time on every Trader mission in order to do them safely, even though you'd still have to do a lot of similar-feeling Trader fights early on.)

I mean, it's a pirate game, which does require some fights where you're (comparatively) curbstomping soft-bellied trader types.

[doctor medic]

I would really like if each faction specialised on some damage types.It would be more of a insentive to use diffirent kinds of armor.

[AncientSion]

I would really like if each faction specialised on some damage types.It would be more of a insentive to use diffirent kinds of armor.

Because you enjoy switching 8 to 14 Gal's armours with every other missions ?

[ivandogovich]

Because you enjoy switching 8 to 14 Gal's armours with every other missions ?

Yeah, even the thought of that has put me off of making a bunch of Mesh armor for those Big ship that tend to be plasma/laser heavy.

[Dioxine]

I like the idea of 'use special weapons' but indeed it should only happen on big, rare missions. Your bread-and-butter enemies should be more or less jacks of all trades, masters of none (the church is sort of an exception with their good res against laser throughout all warrior+ ranks.

[Eddie]

I wouldn't mind seeing more choking based weapons in enemy hands, like the reticulan spore launcher. So far I've found no incentive to research smokey armor because smoke is not really a problem. But if for example spartans where to use poison gas mortars on progroms...
(but the AI probably can't handle mortars)

[Mattdo]

I'd like it if there were more varied weapon focuses. For example, I met a Raider Cruiser - which is fairly unusual. I shot it down and attacked it, and most of the raiders were armed with plasma weapons - much the same as most other cruisers I've fought. This is odd from a lore perspective - I haven't unlocked plasma tech yet, so how did these guys manage it? - and means that most large battles are a bit samey. If they were all wandering around with RPGs, chem-bullet autocannons, and similar powerful but less frequently used weapons, I think that would be more interesting.

[Dioxine]

They were on a Crackdown mission, so they get paid & supplied weapons by whoever gave them the Cruiser for a spin. You wouldn't expect the Taliban to down Russian jets with bows and arrows, gotta supply them with Stingers to get the job done, right?

[Mattdo]

Heck, I'd do a crackdown for them on one of my own bases if they'd show me how to unlock plasma weapons in exchange...