Am I just imagining a Imperial-favouring galaxy/developer?

[insanephoton]

Unofficially it has always been the stance pretty much from the Alpha. If you looked at the original single player missions, you start doing some jobs for a 'dodgy' Imperial corporation and a few missions in you are killing Federal fighters. Much more has been said about the Empire than all other factions combined. We've probably heard more about the Thargoids than the Alliance. To be honest I was surprised that the Damocles video ended with a Federation victory given the Imperial bias, but Michael Brookes gave it the spin that the Imperial ship wasn't part of the Imperial navy.
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We can argue aesthetics about the clipper and dropship but the original pricing and capabilities clearly favoured the Imperial side (that being said I find NPC dropships slightly more challenging than NPC clippers).
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Current state of play there is absolutely no reason to support the Alliance as it seems to be considered irrelevant to the point of almost being a joke. The Federation are now cast as incompetent authoritarian bureaucratic killjoys at best and heartless murderers at worst. Given the potential fault lines in the Empire, even anti-slavers can play Imperial in good conscience.

 

[Poseidal]

The Empire is the most interesting of the factions due to being furthest removed from what we are most used to. This for me was the most compelling reason to play as 'an Imperial' rather than the others.

To add to this, you get to roleplay flamboyantly and over the top.
But apart from this, Imperial Senators and nobles make more entertaining 'bread and circuses' as you watch them appear on the news; Aisling is a royal and a celebrity so she'll be heard more often - so often you'd think she was the Alliance president.

Kahina, who you hear from the news, was profiled as "Tactless, antagonising, self-assured, rude, arrogant, proud, scheming... A perfect Imperial daughter".

It's not that there aren't interesting politicking and characters in the Federation, but it is less set up to be newsworthy there. You don't hear about Shadow-president Hudson turning into a gorilla, for example.

 

[bossbrigand]

That's because Hudson's gorilla transformation occurred years ago.

 

[Lord_Crazy]

Yes. Bias towards Imperial, but, it's a UK company so that's not shocking at all.

Yep sure people in the UK necessarily favors a despotic and old school Empire. And people in some other countries will necessarily have a bias toward a corporate state. That sounds very cliché doesn't it?

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Current state of play there is absolutely no reason to support the Alliance as it seems to be considered irrelevant to the point of almost being a joke.

I am rather mitigated about the Alliance. On the one hand it is almost a joke as you said. On the other hand it is also nice to see a "faction" not being controlled by FD and rather left to the players. It is hard to tell whether it is a good thing right now or whether a story for the Alliance would be better. But at least players have a kind of a tool than control together and I like this idea.

But yeah Hail the Emperor

 

[Elementical]

Whining, right!
I'm glad the only one that feels like this. Whether you think of it as a genuine sandbox or not, FDEV have created something that really lends itself well to rallying behind a faction and making players feel like part of something distinct and special. I hope that, as time goes on, we have situations where at any given time players - whomever they support - sign in and think "I wonder what's going to have happened today?" as opposed to "I wonder if it will be my turn for a story today?"

Each day I log in I wonder what has happened to various influence levels, pending and active states. That level of anticipation you alluded to is already possible!

Flin mentioned the Alliance Elite Diplomatic Corps already, the background sim and the Alliance is our main focus. Despite the problems with the background sim it allows us to create our own story in the galaxy for the Alliance. We have our own short, medium and long term goals to work towards which evolve on a day-to-day basis as the galaxy changes. This is all player created content that adds more depth, entertainment and reward for the time we invest in the game as a group. We use the sandbox FDev has given us to build our own castles!

The Alliance has had a terraforming and exploration community goal so far. It seems the devs might use the Alliance as humanity's main driving force for new expansion, only time will tell!

 

[Beornfrið]

This might be fanciful thinking but I wonder if the Alliance-owned space is a precursor to formally-introduced player-controlled factions? Ie, where groups such as AEDC can wield literal influence over the systems? I guess that's a question of whether or not FD want to go down that route.

You do make a good point about the current system of influence figures, though. The area I have been in lately has seen quite a turbulent set of %s and it's been interesting to follow them.

 

[Eloy]

Yes. Bias towards Imperial, but, it's a UK company so that's not shocking at all.

Uhm, as the UK stands to the US which are much like the feds ...
Empire is to me much more like the roman empire.

 

[Chazzie]

Good post! You're right - but for obvious reasons I had not noticed, but now you've pointed it out its obvious.

I've also noted a lack of Federation backed community goals as well, maybe as another poster pointed out that we're currently in a 'Empire chapter' and the Federal one will start later.

When I first started playing - I seriously thought of being an Alliance player, as being a huge Babylon 5 fan, it looked like the most interesting faction to play, then I noticed there were no ranks - ships or anything to set them apart, not even a collaboration style ship unique to the Alliance - which they really should have.

I'm happy with the Empire, although I do believe the other Factions need some attention - particularly the Alliance.

Long live the Emperor!

 

[Iori]

People mostly play Elite for escapism, and the Federation just sounds too much like the current United States, so if you want something new and interesting, the Empire is where its at.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

--- Deleted ---

 

[FederationNavyHQ]

The Dawn of the Federation

Federation Commanders,

For too long the the Federation has cowered in the shadow of the Empire. For too long we have stood by and watched as our systems have been conquered in the name of the Emperor. The Empire grows stronger day by day whilst we fly aimlessly through the galaxy. We are fractured and divided, we are lost.

Do not fear though commanders, our time is near.

in the coming days our orders will become clear, our purpose in this galaxy will be revealed. We will hear these orders and we will fight, we will fight for honour and glory, we will fight to defend the Federation.

Out of the ashes of this war, a new Federation will rise. A united Federation, one that will stand proud against the might of the Empire.

 

[insanephoton]

In the beginning, every Story seemed to focus around the Federation.

Shortly after that, the storyline attention shifted all the way to the Empire.

I was actually very surprised when I read about the Discovery Community Goal at Tsu some weeks ago. Basically was the first mention of the Alliance in GALnet I was aware of...
(also kinda explained the quite massive Player support for that Community Goal)

There was a brief mention of an Alliance diplomat constantly being delayed by the Federation during the Eranin conflict (may have been in Beta) other than that the only previous ones were the terra-forming goals that were completed very quickly. Even the Tsu CG is basically a rehash of the Sirius Corp CG at Lambda Andromadae. I'm not sure I'd take the player support as faction support though, I think it's more that it gave something back to explorers.

 

[Apos]

Alliance is great.
We do our own stuff.
We dont even need ships or ranks.
We have an ongoing plotline of a homeworld in danger, a pirate plague in our second capital area, numerous systems asking to join us...

It just isnt on Galnet.

If you want to take part, join the Alliance Elite Diplomatic Corps

I've been looking for an alliance party of people a lot lately. I'll give it a look.

True freedom!

 

[Nonya]

But you can join a group and feel "bigger" - it's called "The Empire".

You have to think a little more on it - all our life we've been inundated with "The Alliance" (Star Wars) and "The Federation" (Star Trek). They're old. They're boring.
They lose on community events most of the time.
Why?

Because for the first time Frontier has given players a third choice - the Empire. But not the Empire from Star Wars. The old-school Empire in the vein of a Chinese dynasty or perhaps even the once-mighty British Empire. Frontier is an English company after all. They do so love their little princesses and monarchies.
An Empire that digs honor and loyalty over pretty much everything else.
And from what I've seen (again, community events) most players dig that vibe.
Besides, if you rank up in the Federation then you can buy - gasp - a Dropship that pales in comparison to the Empire's equivalent, the Clipper.
Feds are bullies, Alliance are a bunch of knee-biters, the Empire is where it's at for the F-U-I-will-do-what-I-want attitude alone.