its not the new year yet... besides, what about the chinese? they gotta wait a whole nother month. dont forget about them. =( JUST KIDDING! Happy New Year!
Dragon, when you go in a faction base, look at the very top of the trade screen. Occasionally it says "change faction to (faction name)". If you can blow 10k on it, just click on it.
security level is the concentration of ships of that faction in the area. so if you blow up a ship near a base with security 1 you won't get attacked as much as by a security 20 base. Baturinsky should add custom weapons, and maybe ship colors with a symbol to identify faction instead of making the whole ship look different.