Territory Management: A Tutorial

So - I recently went looking for a nice little summary of how territories work from a management perspective, and I was not able to find one.  Hence this guide was born.  Please note that it DOES NOT COVER TERRITORY WARFARE.  That is a large topic that I plan on covering in a separate guide. 

With that out of the way, let's get into it:

WHAT ARE TERRITORIES, ANYWAY?

The city map is split into thousands (yes, thousands) of individual zones called territories.  Specifically, This Article would indicate that there are 4,154 territories, split as follows: 

Sector	# of Territories
7	756
6	714
5	781
4	699
3	495
2	387
1	322
TOTAL	4154

Factions are able to claim these territories.  Once they hold them, each territory generates daily respect, based on a number of factors (to be covered later.

At this point in time, only faction Leaders or Co-Leaders can manage territories - there is no permission currently available to allow non-leaders to manage territories for you.

So awesome right?  My faction would like all the territories please!  But wait... there is a limit!  This leads us to the next topic:

HOW DO WE GET MORE TERRITORIES??

So - in order to claim territories, your faction first needs to upgrade their core tree.  Go to the faction page, and click on the upgrade tab at the top, and the first screen you'll see is your core tree.  The long row of wavy flay looking things near the bottom is the territory section.  It looks like this:

[image: snag.gy]

In order to start upgrading, you'll need to first upgrade your capacity to at least 10 members, and then you will be able to assign respect to Territory 1.  After that, each upgrade requires an increasing amount of respect, and the next upgrade always requires you to hold the maximum amount of territories for three days before you can upgrade to get another one. 

WARNING:  THESE ARE CORE UPGRADES THAT CANNOT BE RESET.  Once you select this upgrade, YOU CAN NOT unset it to get your respect back.  This is critically important to understand, because the upgrades start getting outrageously expensive: 

# Territories	Respect for Upgrade	Days to Recoup at 100 Daily Respect
1	1295	13
2	1678	17
3	2173	22
4	3067	31
5	3972	40
6	5144	51
7	6662	67
8	8628	86
9	12180	122
10	15773	158
11	20427	204
12	26453	265
13	37341	373
14	48358	484
15	62625	626
16	81100	811
17	105027	1050

You can see from the above chart that it starts to take YEARS to recoup your respect investment as you move up in number of territories.  In theory, territories could be upgraded all the way to 30, but I cannot select past 17, and I was not able to find any factions that have more than 16.  I also don't think that any faction in their right mind would upgrade past this anyway, so 17 appears to be the practical limit at this time.


HOW MUCH RESPECT ARE TERRITORIES WORTH, AND HOW IS THAT RESPECT DETERMINED?

Each territory held produces between 15 and 225 respect daily (depending on the modifiers below). This respect will be credited to factions every day at midnight (Credit to Chedburn for this information):

Base : 15 respect

Sector 7 multiplier : x1.00 (Outskirts) (Start Zone)
Sector 6 multiplier : x1.25
Sector 5 multiplier : x1.50
Sector 4 multiplier : x1.75
Sector 3 multiplier : x2.00
Sector 2 multiplier : x2.25
Sector 1 multiplier : x2.50 (Central)

Size 1 multiplier : x1.00 (Very small territory) (Smallest 5%)
Size 2 multiplier : x1.25 (Small territory) (Second smallest 20%)
Size 3 multiplier : x1.50 (Medium territory) (Middle sized 50%)
Size 4 multiplier : x1.75 (Large territory) (Second largest 20%)
Size 5 multiplier : x2.00 (Very large territory) (Largest 5%)

Density 1 multiplier : x1.00 (Empty fields)
Density 2 multiplier : x2.00 (Buildings)
Density 3 multiplier : x3.00 (Landmark)

This information as far as I can tell is still accurate.  It should be noted that a "Landmark" is not actually a city building (such as the auction house) - these cannot be owned.

Below is an example of a 15 respect territory:

[image: snag.gy]

And the below is an example of a 225 territory: 

[image: snag.gy]

So - does this mean that if you want good respect, you NEED to be in sector 1 or 2?  No!  I made the chart below to show the maximum possible respect for each sector.  Please note that doesn't mean these territories actually EXIST, just that it is possible. 

Sector	Maximum Possible Respect
7	90
6	113
5	135
4	158
3	180
2	203
1	225

So from this you can see that you don't necessarily need to move into sector 1 or 2 to get good respect, as long as you are careful about which spots you go after.

So great - now you have your first Territory unlocked, and you're ready to claim! Unfortunately, to move onto the map, you must start in Sector 7, which is all the way on the outskirts of the map!  This is critically important, because it means that factions cannot simply abandon their territories and jump into section 1 to start a fight - you need to brawl your way in towards the center.

So - How do you view territories so you can decide where to claim first?

VIEWING TERRITORIES

The best way to view territories is to go to the city map.  Here you will see the territories that your faction owns, and those immediately around it, but to save loading time, you will not see every faction's territories by default.  It looks like this - notice the button that says "OFF" on the bottom of the screenshot

[image: snag.gy]

If you click that button on - viola!  You can see all the territories on the entire map.  Be warned that this can take some time to load.  It looks like this below - this can be hard to see so I suggest you hit the button in the top right that the red arrow is pointing to - this expands the map

[image: snag.gy]

Each block of colors represents a factions holdings - you can see where your faction is since it's the only one with a flag pointed at it (L.T. in my case) - at least until you zoom in, or press the button in the top right that I talked about earlier...  then it looks like this:

[image: snag.gy]

Now we're talking!  You can now see who has what areas in one easy glance.  We'll talk about in depth looks at the map later, but for now, lets review the different views you can have.  

For a quick glance of what sectors are where on the map, you can click on the button that looks like a bullseye on the navigator bar (highlighted in the screenshot).  Higher respect sections are shaded red, going back to lower respect sectors which are green.  You can see that the highest respect areas are located in the bottom central part of the map, and the extremities are worth less.

[image: snag.gy]

To view the density of different territories, click the next button down - it looks like a little tree with a building next to it.  This gives the view below:

[image: snag.gy]

Like before, the highest density territories (with the highest multipliers) are in red, going down to the lowest density territories, shown in green.

The final view is block size.  That is the lowest button on the navigator bar and looks like three different sized circles.  This button gives the view below:

[image: snag.gy]

Again - the highest respect multipliers (this time, the largest territories) are in red, and the lowest respect multipliers are in green (the smallest territories).

So great - now that you know how the map works, pick the view of your choice and zoom on it using your mouse wheen or the +/- magnifying glasses on the map navigator bar.  Once you zoom in to where you are interest in, you can click on a factions flag, and it will highlight all of the territories that faction has, and display a box in the lower left corner that will tell you how many territories they own, and how much total respect it is worth

[image: snag.gy]

You can also click on individual zones, and it will tell you all of the information about that territory.  This looks like this:

[image: snag.gy] 

This tells you the unique territory identifier (in this case, ULC).  It also tells you what sector it is in, the size and the density, along with their corresponding respect multipliers (x1.75, etc).  Finally, it tells you the most important piece - the daily respect.  This is of course what it sounds like - it is the amount of respect you will get daily if you hold that territory.

Great!  You've looked at the map, and now you're ready to know about...

CLAIMING TERRITORIES

So - you have your eye on a juicy territory that you like to claim - but wait - you can't just claim any old territory.  The first issue that you should know is if you don't currently have any territories, you MUST START IN SECTOR 7!!!  You also must have at least 10 members.

But assuming you know that, or you already have territories, there are still several issues to contend with.  The first, of course, is that you can only claim up to the number of territories that your faction has upgraded to in their upgrade tree.  If you try to claim another one when you have no more spots available, you'll see this sad and disappointing message:

[image: snag.gy]

The other issue you might come up against, is the territory you want isn't actually next to one you already own.  A territory needs to border or touch corners with a territory you already own in order to lay claim to it  (unless you have 0 territories and are claiming one in section 7) - being close isn't good enough - see example below:

[image: snag.gy]

Notice also that it says "Your faction has no UNCONTESTED territories close enough to ICE".  This is important - it means that you cannot leap frog to a further away territory by simply assaulting/contesting a territory - you actually need to own it for it to count.

Now - lets say you don't run into one of these two issues - there are then two scenarios for claiming - the first, and by far the easiest, is that the territory is unclaimed.  In that case it will show up as grey on the map, and when you click on it, the title block will say it is unclaimed, and the button to claim will be clickable, like below.

[image: snag.gy]

The great news in this case is that you can claim that territory IMMEDIATELY!  There is no waiting period for abandoning territories OR claiming unclaimed territories.  Huzzah!

The other scenario of course is that another faction owns the territory, in which case you need to assault it.  In this case, the button will show up orange, like this:

[image: snag.gy]

I will cover territory wars in another guide as that is a huge topic in and of itself and I am not ready to make it yet!

OK - so now you have your maximum number of territories, and you want to claim another one... what to do.  You're ready to know about:

ABANDONING TERRITORIES

So... a few situations might arise that might make a faction want to leave a territory, but the primary reason is simple - you want to claim another territory, but you can't, because you already have the maximum number of territories that your faction can currently claim.  In this case - you must abandon one of your territories before you can claim another.

The general way to do this is simple - navigate to the territory you want to abandon (preferably the lowest respect once possible) - you can get to this through the faction tab or through the city map, select it, and click abandon.  Once you do this - the territory is instantly not yours, and can be claimed by any adjacent factions.  But can you just abandon any old territory?  As it turns out - the answer is no.  All of your territories must remain contiguous - they must be connected (or touching corners, at least).  If you try to abandon a territory that will leave one of your other territories out in no mans land, you will see this:

[image: snag.gy]

So in the case above, abandoning the highlighted zone would separate the territory to the left, so it does not allow you to do it.  If you really want to get rid of this, you would first need to get rid of the territory that it would separate, and THEN you can abandon it.

This also brings up one last interesting topic, which is:

SPLIT TERRITORIES

As we saw above, the game will lot let you split your own territory block into two non-connected pieces.  This is to prevent people from stringing themselves out and claiming only the most valuable spots on the map. 

However, it is possible for your territories to become split apart if someone assaults you.  A case of this can be seen below:

[image: snag.gy]

Here we see that the brown highlighted territories are no longer connected.  In this event - you must either reconnect your territories, or abandon pieces until you have one connected block again before you can assault or claim new territories.

VIEWING CONTESTED TERRITORIES

Contested territories on the map currently flash with red borders.  Clicking on them displays some basic information about the ongoing war.  As I said... I'll cover actual warfare more in another guide when I get around it.  Anyhow... it looks like the following:

[image: snag.gy]

FACTION TERRITORY PAGE

The final thing I will cover is your factions territory bar - the easiest way to see all the territories you own is to go to the faction page, and click on the territory tab up top (it looks like a map symbol).  There is also a tab on the bottom when you're on your main faction tab, but it gives you the same information without the map, so that ones pretty useless.  So click on that tab on the top and you'll see this:

[image: snag.gy]

On the bottom is a news feed about territory related items, and on the top is an overview map of just your holdings.  On the right side you can either view all of your territories, or any of the individual territories, along with their information.  I have no clue how these are organized - they are not listed by respect or alphabetized so your guess is as good as mine.

Other than providing a nice little summary though - this page is useless for management.  You cannot view any other factions territories, move the map, or abandon/claim territories from here - it is just an overview.

CREDITS AND REFERENCES

 A list of references regarding territories is below.  I'm sure it's incomplete.  If you have any other good ones, let me know.  I'd also like to credit Harley for answering some dumb questions of mine :)

Ched's Initial Territory Implementation Announcement

Ched's Preperation for Territory Release Bullitin

Ched's Territory Warfare Changed Bullitin

DA Takes lead in Territories Table Article

Who Will Own The Financial Sector Article

Sector 2 Key Faction and Fights Article

Torn Territories Remain Unclaimed Article

Faction Encroachment Threatens Torn Article

Torn Wiki on Territories

 

 

Reserved

You brilliant beautiful man! A++

I would prefer to see your references listed in Harvard style format ð but otherwise very good work Vlad

Bump

If you hold a gym as a territory do you get any kind of bonuses

Oh ok. I thought someone had told me if you held a gym you would get gym gains from it.

Thank you for clarifying

Bu dump 

Nice guide, random question, I noticed near the end of your guide you said clicking on the territory tab (map button) will show a screen with the map on it, problem is I can't find the map anywhere. I didn't even know you should be able to see a map since I've never seen it?

[image: i.gyazo.com]

That sounds like a bug, just went to double check and can't see it either, but it should definitely be there...

I've posted it in the bugs forums, Cheds already confirmed it

Very informative. I got a lot out of this. Thank you. 

This is missing a very big piece of information, kind of wrecked all the other excellent information for me.

I just switched 1295 of my tiny little factions 8k respect to allow us to claim one unclaimed territory in sector 7.

Seems simple enough but nowhere in this guide or elsewhere did i find mention that you need 10 members to claim or assault a territory. Not here or the wiki.

I eventually found the information in a ched announcement thread from two years ago. I definitely didn't think i needed to dig that far into historical announcements for gameplay info. Can you add that in this guide somewhere? New factions are so broken it's incredible but that's another topic. 

I want to R+ but kinda can't yet because.

I didn’t have it in here because I didn’t know it!  Good information, I’ll have to add it.

R+ now. This is really well done.

Guessing your 100 member faction never had to deal with the 10 member thing and it's really hard to find that info, even when you're looking for it.

Now we know clearly where is MMCP heading to LOL! 

So way out of the map >< 

Very informative and well put together, I look forward to your info on territory warring. R+

Hi

https://www.torn.com/city.php?p=MzRqMCUtMzdhZSU2

When we try to attack BFF, from NFF says we can´t, and gives us this msg:

Error! You can not take this territory (#10)

what does this mean? its because we are being attaked or its because we have already an attack from that territory, to other faction?

ty

A given territory can only be involved in one war - since NFF is already under attack, you can't initiate an assault on a territory that is bordered only by that territory.  If you bordered BFF from another one of your territories that was not currently under assault, you'd be able to declare.

At least that's what I assume is going on.