Navarch stances draft

Each Navarch carries a fleet stance that decides when the fleet picks fights on its own. Stances only ever apply to Navarchs of other factions — faction-mates are never targeted. There are four moments at which a stance can trigger an engagement; the matrix below shows which ones each stance reacts to.

There are four moments a stance can react to:

• Incoming — An unallied Navarch arrives at this fleet's system.
• Hostile action — An unallied Navarch starts a raid, looting, conquest, or colonization in this fleet's system.
• Arriving — This fleet arrives at a system that already has an unallied Navarch.
• Arriving on a busy fleet — This fleet arrives at a system where an unallied Navarch is busy with a hostile action.

Deserter

Passive. The fleet tries to flee whenever it gets caught arriving at a system that already has hostile defenders. It never picks fights on its own. Reacts to none of the four moments. When attacked, a Deserter rolls once: with a 0.5 chance it escapes to the nearest system, otherwise it fights.

Prudent

Passive. The fleet fights when directly attacked, but never initiates and never intervenes for an ally. Reacts to none of the four moments; it still fights when attacked.

Defender

Reacts to hostile actions inside its system — raids, looting, conquests, and colonization attempts. A Siderian taking control of a dominion is not a fleet action and never triggers an interception; another Navarch's conquest does. When a Defender fleet arrives at a system, it engages any unallied Navarch that is busy with one of those actions there; unallied Navarchs that are idle or building ships are left alone. Defenders also join in if a faction-mate's fleet is directly attacked here. Two Defender fleets from opposing factions can sit in the same system without firing (armed neutrality). Reacts to: hostile action, arriving on a busy fleet.

Interdiction

Watches the door. Intercepts any unallied Navarch arriving at its system, regardless of intent. Does NOT pick a fight when it is itself the arriving fleet. Note the asymmetry: an Interdiction fleet arriving at a system where an unallied Interdiction fleet already sits is intercepted by that sitter. Only two Interdiction fleets already sharing a system leave each other alone. Reacts to: incoming, hostile action.

Fury

Always hot. Engages any unallied Navarch in the same system — when an enemy arrives, when an enemy starts a hostile action, AND when the Fury fleet itself arrives at a system that already has an unallied Navarch. It cannot stop a Siderian taking control of a dominion; no stance can. The simplest setting if you want a fleet to always hit anything it sees. Reacts to: incoming, hostile action, arriving.

Notes

• Deserter and Prudent are purely reactive — they never appear in any of the engagement filters. A Prudent fleet still fights once attacked; a Deserter rolls to flee instead.
• Only idle or docking fleets intercept. A fleet already busy pillaging, bombarding, conquering, or colonizing never breaks off to intercept — but it can still be attacked: a Fury or Defender fleet arriving on it engages it, and it is pulled into any battle its faction-mates fight in that system. A fleet in transit or already in a battle is never engaged.
• "Unallied" today means "not the same faction." If formal alliances are added later, allied factions will be excluded from these triggers the same way faction-mates already are.