Faction subscriptions catalog

The Pirate DLC (x4ep1) introduced faction subscriptions — repeating mission feeds the player joins via a contact NPC. Vanilla ships 4 subscription scripts with content for specific faction pairs. This catalog lists who’s covered and where mod conflicts arise.

For the technical mission lifecycle see Game API → Subscription missions. This page is the content catalog.

At-a-glance

Subscription	Script	Faction context	Tier system
War	`x4ep1_war_subscriptions.xml` (17K lines)	5 war pairs (see below)	Yes (5 tiers per war)
Trade	`x4ep1_trade_subscriptions.xml` (6.5K lines)	Antigone Guild + Teladi Guild	Yes
Pirate	`x4ep1_pirates_subscriptions.xml` (3.8K lines)	Scaleplate Pirates	Yes
Mentor	`x4ep1_mentor_subscription.xml` (3K lines)	Personal mentor (RM_SETA)	Single tier

War subscriptions — 5 wars

Vanilla covers 5 distinct war fronts. The player can subscribe to each independently.

War pair	Theme	Contact NPC location
ARG_VS_XENON	Argon vs Xenon (main Xenon war)	Argon military rep
ARG_VS_HOL	Argon vs Holy Order	Argon political rep
PAR_VS_HOL	Godrealm Paranid vs Holy Order	Paranid (godrealm) military rep
HOL_VS_ARG	Holy Order vs Argon (mirror)	Holy Order officer
HOL_VS_PAR	Holy Order vs Godrealm	Holy Order officer

Each war is a state machine tracked per-player-save:

Subscribed: yes/no
Tier: 0-5
Mission count: integer
Cooldown timer: per-war

The threat report system (between-mission newsfeed) delivers status updates to the player even when no mission is active.

What each war offers

Generic war mission types per war flow:

Kill X ships of enemy faction
Destroy enemy station modules
Defend ally station from incoming attack
Escort ally fleet through contested space
Sabotage enemy supply lines
Hack enemy data panel

Higher tier unlocks larger/more dangerous targets + bigger rewards.

Mod conflict risks — war subscriptions

❌ Don’t make the warring factions allied at game start — Set_Subscription_Status checks faction.X.relationto.{faction.Y} to gate war activation; allied factions → subscription unavailable
❌ Don’t despawn faction war contact NPCs without re-establishing them
⚠ Custom factions can’t slot into vanilla wars without diff-ing DefineNonSubscriptionWars and adding contact-NPC infrastructure
⚠ Faction-deactivated path triggers cleanup — if your mod permanently destroys e.g. faction.holyorder, ARG_VS_HOL / PAR_VS_HOL / HOL_VS_PAR / HOL_VS_ARG all cleanup-self
⚠ Pirate DLC required

Trade subscriptions — 2 guilds

Guild	Theme	Activities
ANTIGONE_GUILD	Antigone Republic trade guild	Trade route protection, supply delivery, ware barter, ferrying
TELADI_GUILD	Teladi trade guild	Profit-themed missions, smuggling-adjacent, mineral trade

Each guild has tier progression. Higher tiers unlock:

Larger trade-cargo missions
Rare ware deliveries
Premium-route protection assignments
Access to specific cargo unlocks (e.g. luxury wares)

What trade missions look like

Deliver wares to X by Y (time-pressure)
Barter wares between stations (multi-leg)
Protect convoy through hostile space
Buy supply for faction at cost-plus (margin-based)

Mod conflict risks — trade subscriptions

❌ Don’t make Antigone or Teladi hostile at start — guild access requires non-hostile
❌ Don’t replace luxury ware macros (majadust, majasnails, etc.) without trade subscription registration
⚠ Economy mods that change ware values reshape trade reward math — vanilla calibrates ware values for sensible rewards; rebalances break that

Pirate subscriptions — Scaleplate Pirates

SCALEPLATE_PIRATES is the only Pirate guild script. Theme: raiding, smuggling, illegal cargo runs.

What pirate missions offer

Raid trade routes (kill Argon/Teladi traders)
Steal cargo from specific ships
Sabotage anti-pirate operations
Run contraband to specific stations
Capture ship for ransom

Mod conflict risks — pirate subscriptions

❌ Don’t make Scaleplate Pirates docile at start
⚠ Don’t disrupt the smuggler economy — pirate missions need viable smuggling targets
⚠ Custom pirate factions can’t reuse Scaleplate subscription infrastructure without diff’ing the cue tree
⚠ Pirate DLC required

Mentor subscription — RM_SETA

The Mentor subscription is the simplest — single-flow, personalized progression coaching. The contact NPC offers incremental skill-up missions tailored to player current capabilities.

What mentor missions are

Personal-progression missions — challenge level scales with player
Skill-specific tasks — combat skills, exploration, trade, building
Boss missions — culminating challenge

Mod conflict risks — mentor subscription

⚠ Mod-induced player power changes confuse calibration — mentor scales difficulty based on player stats; mods that 10× player damage trivialize all mentor missions
⚠ Single-flow simpler than war — good starting point if you’re writing your own subscription (see Subscription missions → Adding your own)

Subscription tier mechanics (universal)

All four subscription types share the tier-advancement pattern:

Tier 0 (starting): Easy missions, small rewards
Tier 1: Unlocked after 5 successful missions
Tier 2: Unlocked after 10 successful + relation milestone
Tier 3: Unlocked after specific story / scripted milestone
Tier 4: Unlocked after 25 missions + max relation tier
Tier 5: Endgame tier, locked behind significant progression

Tiers reset on unsubscribe.

Common mod-vs-subscription patterns

Faction mod adds new subscription

Two paths:

Use existing script as template — diff x4ep1_mentor_subscription.xml (simplest) and replace the contact + theme
Write standalone — copy the structure but new namespace; faction integration via your own MD scripts

In both cases you need:

Contact NPC (spawned + anchored)
Tier registry (md.YourMod.$tier.{faction.X})
Cooldown timer
Mission generator (often piggybacks on vanilla gm_*)
Save migration patches

Relation mod breaks subscription gating

Many subscription cooldowns check relation to target faction. If your mod sets relations:

<!-- Vanilla pattern -->
<conditions>
    <event_faction_relation_changed/>
    <check_value value="faction.argon.relationto.{faction.player}.uivalue ge 15"/>
</conditions>

…then your mod setting relation to 30 at game start fires this immediately, possibly out-of-order from intended subscription progression.

Economy mod breaks reward math

Subscription rewards route through LIB_Reward_Balancing. Your economy mod’s ware-value changes feed into reward calculation. Test: accept a subscription mission, check the offered reward feels sensible.

Code references

Concern	File
War subscription orchestration (most complex)	`x4ep1_war_subscriptions.xml` ARG_VS_XENON namespace
Trade subscription (Antigone guild)	`x4ep1_trade_subscriptions.xml` ANTIGONE_GUILD
Pirate subscription	`x4ep1_pirates_subscriptions.xml` SCALEPLATE_PIRATES
Mentor (simplest template)	`x4ep1_mentor_subscription.xml` RM_SETA
Subscription join hook	`gm_joinsubscription.xml`
Reusable join library	`rml_joinsubscription.xml`
Threat report system	`x4ep1_war_subscriptions.xml` GenerateThreatReports

Vanilla content index — landscape
Game API → Subscription missions — technical reference
Story arcs catalog — Paranid civil war affects HOL faction relations
Wiki: DLC handling — Pirate DLC required
Architectural overview: Reward calculation — LIB_Reward_Balancing

Vanilla subscriptions are the closest X4 has to repeating “guild quest” content. Your faction mod’s subscription needs to fit into this ecosystem, not parallel it — players expect the same UI + tier semantics.