Factions

Factions are the main groups in your roleplay server. Every player character belongs to one faction. Examples include Citizens, Police, Medical, etc.

Creating Factions

To create a faction for your schema, first create a factions folder in your gamemode's schema folder if it does not exist.

One faction corresponds to one file within the factions folder. The files in the factions folder should be named sh_<identifier>.lua where <identifier> is a string containing only alphanumeric characters and underscores. By convention, <identifier> should be lowercase as well.

When the file is loaded, a global table called FACTION is available. This is the table that contains information about your faction. The following keys are required:

FACTION.name = "Faction Name"
FACTION.desc = "A description of your faction"
FACTION.color = Color(255, 255, 255)

Then, you can add any other details you would like for your faction.

At the end of the file, you must include the following:

TEAM_EXAMPLE = FACTION.index

The FACTION.index is a numeric value that is the team ID for your faction. This is the ID that is used with the team library. So, here the ID is stored to a global variable for later use.

Now, your faction is done!

Player Models

You can specify a list of available player models for your faction using FACTION.models. This should be a table containing strings. For example:

FACTION.models = {
    "models/player/Group01/male_01.mdl",
    "models/player/Group01/female_01.mdl"
}

Skins

An entry in FACTION.models can have a specific skin set by using a table containing two values instead of a string. The first value in the table should be the model path as a string. The second value should be a number containing the skin number. For example:

FACTION.models = {
    -- Prisoner guard Combine soldier (red eyes).
    {"models/player/combine_soldier.mdl", 1},
    -- Normal Combine soldier (blue eyes).
    "models/player/combine_soldier.mdl"
}

Bodygroups

Similarly, an entry in FACTION.models can have certain bodygroups set. Instead of having a table with only two values, a table with 3 values is used. The third value is either string where the ith digit represents the value for the ith bodygroup, or a table where each key is the bodygroup id, and the value is the bodygroup value. For example:

With String

FACTION.models = {
    -- Metropolice with a manhack.
    {"models/police.mdl", 0, "01"},
    -- Normal metropolice without a manhack.
    "models/police.mdl"
}

With Table

FACTION.models = {
    -- Metropolice with a manhack.
    {"models/police.mdl", 0,
        {
            [1] = 0, -- Bodygroup 1 (visor) set to 0
            [2] = 1  -- Bodygroup 2 (manhack) set to 1
        }
    },
    -- Normal metropolice without a manhack.
    "models/police.mdl"
}

Salary

You can set a salary for your faction using FACTION.pay. This is the amount of money players in this faction will receive every paycheck. For example:

FACTION.pay = 100 -- $100 per paycheck

Default Weapons

You can give players default weapons when they spawn using FACTION.weapons. This should be a table containing strings of weapon class names. For example:

FACTION.weapons = {
    "weapon_pistol",
    "weapon_stunstick"
}

When do I _ when a player in my faction spawns?

You can use the PlayerLoadout hook to give players items when they spawn. This hook is called every time a player spawns. For example:

hook.Add("PlayerLoadout", "FactionLoadout", function(client)
    if (client:Team() == FACTION_CITIZEN) then
        client:Give("weapon_crowbar")
    end
end)

Whitelists

You can restrict access to factions using whitelists. Set FACTION.isDefault to false to make the faction require whitelist approval. Players can then be whitelisted using the admin panel or commands.

FACTION.isDefault = false -- Requires whitelist

Accessing Faction Data

You can access faction data using the lia.faction.get function. This returns the faction table for a given faction ID. For example:

local faction = lia.faction.get(TEAM_CITIZEN)
print(faction.name) -- "Citizens"

Faction Properties

Property	Purpose	Example
name	Display name	"Police Department"
desc	Description	"Law enforcement officers"
color	UI color	Color(0, 100, 255)
isDefault	Joinable by players	true or false
models	Player models	{"models/player/police.mdl"}
weapons	Starting weapons	{"weapon_pistol"}
pay	Salary amount	150
health	Max health	120
armor	Armor value	50

For more faction options, see the Faction Guide.