History Main / AllianceMeter

The simplest form of this is the KarmaMeter, in games with light- and dark-side factions. Story-based alliance changes don't count; it has to revolve around actions you might or might not choose to take. You may be able to become friendly with most of the factions present, but you can't please everyone.

** Similarly, ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' has one for major towns such as Freeside, and most factions. The way it's handled is quite unusual for most Alliance Meters, though: fame and infamy do not subtract from one another. If you do something that helps a faction, then do something that hurts it, you get a "mixed" reaction from its members and they'll comment they have no idea what you're up to; you're confusing. Your relationship with Mr. House is binary, however; he'll consider you a valued employee right up until the moment you oppose him.

* ''{{Tropico}}'' has political ideologies. Every citizen has certain political opinions which player must try to please to win elections. Assuming you hold elections, of course. (Though even if you don't, it's still a good idea to keep the various groups as happy as possible.)

Compare RelationshipValues for individuals, and KarmaMeter for when there are [[BlackAndWhiteMorality only]] [[AlwaysLawfulGood two]] [[AlwaysChaoticEvil sides]]. Factions that love you may give you a HundredPercentHeroismRating, while if you make everyone hate you, YouLoseAtZeroTrust. See also WithUsOrAgainstUs and EnemyMine.

* In the ''{{Geneforge}}'' games, you can end up on either side of the Shaper War, or in some cases [[OmnicidalNeutral destroy both]]. Note that that doesn't work in Geneforge 5, where YouLoseAtZeroTrust.

** Similarly, ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' has one for major towns such as Freeside, and most factions. Your relationship with Mr. House is binary, however; he'll consider you a valued employee right up until the moment you oppose him.

** ''[[{{Morrowind}} The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind]]'' has a similar system, with three main differences: the effect on an indidual NPC is greater, the number of factions are heavily reduced (no peasant faction, for instance), and very few of the quests impacting faction-relation could be done without joining a faction.

* The [=iOS=] game ''GalaxyOnFire II'' has two meters, which make it clear that it's an "either them or us" relationship. The first scale is between the [[PlanetTerra Terrans]] and the [[LizardFolk Vossk]]. This actually makes sense in-universe, as the Terrans and the Vossk have recently fought a war. Then there is the Midorian-Nivelian scale, shown the increased tensions between the Nivelian Republic and the breakaway Mido Confederation of Planets (there is no Midorian race; the Mido systems are populated by Nivelians and Terrans). Other races are present in the game (such the [[Cthulhumanoid Octopods]] and TheGreys), but you only meet a few individuals from them.

[[quoteright:219:[[{{Freelancer}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/alliance1_9399.png]]]]

* [[VideoGame/Bully]] tracks your allegiance with the five school cliques, as well as the townies. Each mission will gain or lose points with certain cliques, and your ranking will determine whether they attack you on sight or fight with you against other cliques.

** Similarly, New Vegas has one for major towns such as Freeside, and most factions. Your relationship with Mr. House is binary, however; he'll consider you a valued employee right up until the moment you oppose him.

* In ''{{Freelancer}}'', every mission you take affects your rep with everybody connected to either faction involved. Oddly, people pay a lot more attention to who you took the mission from that who it was against. So to continue the page example, Faction E, which is allied with both A and B, will be pleased and F, which hates both, will be angered. A Hostile faction will attack on sight and deny you landing permission on their bases; a Neutral faction will ignore you in space but might assist allies who hate you, and will let you land but might not sell you [[InfinityMinusOneSword their best stuff]]; and a [[HundredPercentHeroismRating Friendly]] faction will assist you in combat against anyone they're not allied with, stay out of the fight when they are, and will sell you their best stuff and offer you the best missions.

* In Shadow the Hedgehog you have three options in each level. The good path, neutral path, or bad path.
* ''VideoGame/InFamous''

* The [=iOS=] game ''GalaxyOnFire II'' has two meters, which make it clear that it's an "either them or us" relationship. The first scale is between the [[PlanetTerra Terrans]] and the [[LizardFolk Vossk]]. This actually makes sense in-universe, as the Terrans and the Vossk have recently fought a war. Then there is the Midorian-Nivelian scale, which makes less sense, as you know very little about either race. Other races are present in the game (such as a race of octopus-like creatures and the Greys), but you only meet a few individuals from them.

* ''[[GrandTheftAuto Grand Theft Auto 2]]'' has three meters, one for each gang in the city. Zaibatsu always has one, while other two change according to city. Higher the respect, more dangerous(and better paying) missions player can take.

* ''VideoGame/{{inFamous}}''

* ''WorldOfWarcraft'' features a reputation system, representing your character's current standing with various factions found in Azeroth and Outland. Each faction has eight different rankings, ranging from "hated" to "exalted", and {{NPC}}s react differently depending on your current rank. The higher your rank, the friendlier a faction becomes. Most capital cities of your own faction start as Friendly, while most other factions start as neutral or hostile. High reputation with a faction generally allows you to purchase goods only available from them.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'' had an individual opinion meter for each town the player entered, along with a KarmaMeter. Thus, a player can have negative karma for wiping out a town of innocents but still be loved by its neighboring town because they were at war with them.

* In ''{{Freelancer}}'', every mission you take affects your rep with everybody connected to either faction involved. Oddly, people pay a lot more attention to who you took the mission from that who it was against. So to continue the page example, Faction E, which is allied with both A and B, will be pleased and F, which hates both, will be angered. A Hostile faction will attack on sight and deny you landing permission on their bases; a Neutral faction will ignore you in space but might assist allies who hate you, and will let you land but might not sell you [[InfinityMinusOneSword their best stuff]]; and a [[HundredPercentHeroismRating Friendly]] faction will assist you in combat against anyone they're not allied with, stay out of the fight when they are, and will sell you their best stuff and offer you the best missions.

* ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall]]'' has a primitive system where your initial character build allowed you to adjust how friendly various segments of society from peasants to nobles would react to your player. In actuality, the effect was minimal. What had slightly more effect was the hidden in-play alliance meter that the character build modified, as the relation to a faction was one of the factors that decided when promotion in that faction could occur.

* ''{{VegaStrike}}'' has a lot of factions, some allied and some feuding. Not only legitimate ones, but [[DirtyCommunists ISO]] and [[SpacePirates Pirates]] are some people's "friends in low places" too. This leaves Luddites as the ButtMonkey: everyone either hates or barely tolerates them. Blow up a lot of their ships, and not only pirates think you're a pretty swell guy despite several hits against them, but even aggressive aliens at war with the humanity give you some benefit of doubt.

* ''{{X-Com}}: Apocalypse'' has a lot of organizations most of whom you want to be as friendly as possible, for various reasons. Which isn't easy, because alien infiltration and collateral damage to their property make them upset.
* ''{{Civilization}} V'' has city states that each have a meter with each of the full-sized civs. Raise the meter to "friendly" and they send bonuses. Keep raising to "ally" and they will join wars and vote for their ally for diplomatic victory. An angry city state isn't a direct danger; it just makes it harder to earn their favour later.

* In ''{{Thief}} 3'', there were two values representing Garrett's popularity with the Hammerites and the Pagans. They were pretty useless, however, since the only ways to manipulate them were three minor sidequests and the only effect they had on the gameplay was that Garrett's allies acted as meatshields for him during the final mission.

* DungeonsAndDragonsOnline has a "Favor" system where completing quests grants you a few points of hospitality from whatever patrons are in charge of that quest. The more points, the more you are favored by that patron, and each one has its own levels (typically 3 or 4 per patron) and leveling up your favor gets you rewards. It can't go back down, though, and they can't be played against each other.

* ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsTwoDaggerfall The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall]]'' has a primitive system where your initial character build allowed you to adjust how friendly various segments of society from peasants to nobles would react to your player. In actuality, the effect was minimal. What had slightly more effect was the hidden in-play alliance meter that the character build modified, as the relation to a faction was one of the factors that decided when promotion in that faction could occur.

* ''{{Fallout 2}}'' had an individual opinion meter for each town the player entered, along with a KarmaMeter. Thus, a player can have negative karma for wiping out a town of innocents but still be loved by its neighboring town because they were at war with them.

[[folder: MMORPGs]]

* ''{{X}}-Universe'' games have 5 basic races / factions (6 as of ''Terran Conflict''), with each side having different relations to each other. Killing hated enemies will give you a reputation to the sector owner and a hit to the victim, killing neutrals will give you a hit to both the victim and sector owner reputation, and killing an allied will give you a massive hit to the allied victim and the sector owner. It's possible to ally yourself with all the races, including the SpacePirates, by avoiding combat missions and not slaughtering random ships in sectors. Getting your reputation up will allow you to buy high power weaponry and ships, while low reputation will prevent you from entering their core sectors, docking at stations, all the way up to outright kill-on-sight orders.

* ''{{Tropico}}'' has political ideologies. Every citizen has certain political opinions which player must try to please to win elections. Unless you cheat in elections, of course. Or even hold them.

* ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion'' also has this. If someone is elected leader of the galaxy, and you don't accept him, everyone else will be as pissed off as possible and make war on you. (This even applies if ''you'' were elected and then opposed your own election for the lulz.)