The Three Corps
Before today’s update, Cultures of the Belt had factions, but they were abstractions — names on a standings panel, numbers that moved when you traded. We wanted factions that felt like neighbors. Organizations with agendas that existed whether you interacted with them or not.
So we rebuilt the faction layer from the ground up. When you start a new game, three human corporations are already in the belt, already competing, already forming opinions about your operation.
Terran Foundries
Industrial backbone. They were processing ore in the belt before you arrived and they’ll be processing it after you leave. Neutral disposition, transactional relationship. They care about throughput, not diplomacy.
Ares Water Authority
Water is life, and Ares controls the ice. They regulate extraction rights across the inner belt and they take that mandate seriously. Cooperative if you play by their rules. Less cooperative if you don’t.
Ceres Independent Exchange
The free market, belt-style. Ceres runs the commodity exchange and takes a position on everything that moves. They don’t mine, they don’t refine — they broker. Your trade volume is their livelihood, and they want more of it.
Dispositions That Move
Each corporation tracks a disposition score toward your colony. It shifts based on what you do — trade with them and they warm up, compete for the same claims and they cool down. The score affects commodity pricing, contract availability, and how their messages read in your inbox.
Disposition isn’t binary. A faction at +15 and a faction at +60 will both trade with you, but one of them is offering better rates. The gradient matters more than the label.
Why Human First
We could have launched with a full roster of exotic factions. We didn’t. The belt needed to feel human first — corporate, competitive, familiar. You need to understand normal before anything unusual has weight.
What comes next? Keep mining. ARIA will let you know.
Play it now at play.multiversestudios.xyz/cultures-of-the-belt/. Pay what you can.