opposing faction gets the station??

[Ian Doncaster]

And then there's 2 other factions - one in 2nd place and one in 4th place. I have no idea how the game decides who these factions will be. Did they come from the same station as my colonization contact?

They're drawn in from the local area - one is non-Anarchy and the other is Anarchy. I don't know if there's a maximum distance it'll look for them, but it certainly seems to prefer close systems without necessarily having them be from the origin system.

Now, I've been doing BGS work to raise my preferred faction to the top spot. And I'm almost there. It's very difficult to do, because there are no missions in the mission board (sidenote - why are there still no missions in the mission boards?)

Mission boards only seem to populate on the weekly reset.
(Also, it's really easy - especially if your system has a negative Security construction total - to get factions into Lockdown and kill the mission boards that way)

1) Make a new system claim (if there are any left to claim by this time) - my expectation is that my preferred faction, being in charge of the colonization contact, will be put in the top slot in the new system - am I wrong?

Yes - whoever the station owner is gets the primary slot in the new system.

2) start building out facilities and ports in my existing system. The one where my preferred faction is in charge. My expectation, before reading this thread, is that the faction in charge of the system would also be in charge of the newly constructed ports. - am I wrong? Does a random faction get placed into the new construction sites, ignoring the existing standing of the factions already in the system? If so, is it TOTALLY random? Will it be one of the factions already in the system, or can it be literally anyone? Where do these random factions come from?

The faction which gets new assets is random - but it seems to be weighted towards factions which already have more influence. Otherwise you'd end up with all assets piled up on the existing system controller and no real way to distribute them otherwise.

(Building some cheap assets now and hoping at least one goes to your preferred faction might give you more options to boost their influence! You can also - if it's a dockable non-Odyssey asset - immediately use its colonisation contact instead to claim your second system)

It will be one of the factions already in the system, definitely.

 

[Rat Catcher]

And then there's 2 other factions - one in 2nd place and one in 4th place. I have no idea how the game decides who these factions will be. Did they come from the same station as my colonization contact? Or are they random? Partially random? Anybody know?

In my system 3 of the factions came from the origin system, the 4th from a system nearby

1) Make a new system claim (if there are any left to claim by this time) - my expectation is that my preferred faction, being in charge of the colonization contact, will be put in the top slot in the new system - am I wrong?

The beacon will start the claim from the faction it was bought from, so you assumption should be correct, and your next system will have that faction in the top slot.

My expectation, before reading this thread, is that the faction in charge of the system would also be in charge of the newly constructed ports. - am I wrong?

Only built a single Coriolis so far, which belonged to our chosen faction (expanding out from them), another faction was put in as controller of a space installation, and I have heard it suggested that further spaceports may be allocated, on completion, to other factions present. (give me time & I'll find out myself!)

 

[Kaocraft]

(Also, it's really easy - especially if your system has a negative Security construction total - to get factions into Lockdown and kill the mission boards that way)

This is something I was wondering about, also. As you may have guessed, my system is in lockdown. Now, there weren't any missions on the mission board before lockdown started, either, and unlike the commodities market and the crew lounge, which are greyed out with a red padlock icon in them, the mission board and passenger lounge are both fully accessible. There just aren't any missions in there. Is this what happens during lockdown? Should I expect that there would be missions in there if not for the lockdown? It's incredibly unclear what is going on and why. Why wouldn't the game "lock down" the mission board the same as the other facilities?

If the lockdown is lifted (not sure how or when that happens) - should I expect to see missions appear on the board at that point? So far there has never been anything for the duration of the time the station has been active (2 weeks).

Thanks for all your info!

 

[BDelacroix]

Powerplay, npc groups, and other pmf's will all come and trounce your stations. And they won't as much say thank you for you spending X amount of days making it.
Next you need to fight for it in the cz'ds.
Flimley

Also, as the architect, you get a weekly dividend regardless of who owns what in the system.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

This is something I was wondering about, also. As you may have guessed, my system is in lockdown. Now, there weren't any missions on the mission board before lockdown started, either, and unlike the commodities market and the crew lounge, which are greyed out with a red padlock icon in them, the mission board and passenger lounge are both fully accessible. There just aren't any missions in there. Is this what happens during lockdown?

Yes - lockdown prevents missions being issued from the station, but the mission service stays available so that inbound missions can still be handed in normally.

If the lockdown is lifted (not sure how or when that happens) - should I expect to see missions appear on the board at that point? So far there has never been anything for the duration of the time the station has been active (2 weeks).

If it's been there two weeks it should generate missions normally once the lockdown is clear.

You can just wait it out but it might take quite a while. Your best approach is:
- build some sort of +security construction (Odyssey military settlements are cheap for the amount you get) so that your security total goes positive (doesn't have to be very positive, just above zero)
- this will stop your security state slider being a horrible mess (you'll probably have to wait for the next BGS tick after construction completes)
- then do a bunch of +security actions (a bit of bounty hunting is probably by far the easiest, since lockdown doesn't close the bounty contact)

 

[Archvillain]

A lot of people (maybe most people) engaged with the colonization mechanics do not know much about the BGS and how it can affect their work. @Ian Doncaster - I think it might be appreciated if you (or someone with a lot of BGS experience like you) posted a "System Architect's intro to BGS political effects" thread, giving an overview of what aspects of a System Architect's system can be changed by other players (and how, in case you want to DIY). Like how a port/installation's controlling faction can be changed, lockdowns, factions pushed in and out of system, etc.

You've already answered a ton of these questions, but in case it appeals to you, a pre-emptive FAQ/reference thread might be a nice way to put a bow on it

 

[Ian Doncaster]

It's probably a little bit early for it - there are some things to do with how system properties affect the BGS which need a bit more pinning down - but yes, the concerns of a system architect don't necessarily match those of a BGS faction supporter: it mostly doesn't matter to the architect who owns which asset, but there does appear to be some benefit from keeping whoever does own it in reasonable shape.

There are general BGS guides available for the "how to do things" side of things (including a modern one which is mostly accurate and actively maintained) but the specific weirdness of the state sliders in certain colonisation setups is potentially very important and not completely figured out yet.