Which Faction to join if any?

[Fixius]

Good advice from all those suggesting you stay neutral until you become more experienced. There will be many and varied lessons you will learn en route to a better ship and more experience but do be aware that most of your learning will be done on this forum and that the only person you will be able to trust in space is yourself.

Good luck out there Commander.

 

[Ben Ryder]

I'm still in space dock. At last my copy of the game works! I'm still waiting arrival of my hotas before daring out into the dark. I've had quite sometime to scan through the various factions and I'm still none the wiser.....

Distrust the Fed's politicians, post election blues maybe. The Alliance seems just to be there to make up the numbers. I fancied the Empire quite strongly but they seem too strong all ready and people have given it a strong star wars bent, which is unpalatable to me as this is ELITE.

So I know I'm no catch for any faction being completely untrained and an owner of a Sidewinder with zero miles on the clock, so I guess I'm going to stay neutral for a bit?

Hello Captain Britain!

Might I suggest that you go for Antal because it's the smallest Power and you will see the impact of your actions easily as you get to learn power play. There's also a small community so if you speak up you voice wont get lost. There's a community goal at Antal too so you contribute in more ways that just CC at the moment. Antal has a nice mix of mission types, combat, delivery. Plus if you leave you lose nothing and can move up a step to the next biggest power and try them out and see if you like it.

 

[maddavo]

I have also remained neutral so far as I mostly do trading and can't see a power that really is good for that - they seem to be geared towards bounty hunting.

Also, I don't understand much about the consequences for pledging to a power. Do you just automatically get attacked/interdicted by NPCs in systems controlled by other powers? (Obviously players would attack you - but that just happens anyway). Can you still land at stations in systems controlled by other powers? Can you still trade? OR does it basically not change anything except for the rewards that you get at the various levels and the target on your back for players?

I am allied with Federation and Empire and have been ranking up in both. Does joining a power affect that? If I join an empire power, will I not be able to rank up anymore in Fed? If I join the alliance power or an independent, will both Fed and Empire ranks be locked out from ranking up?

 

[TiberiuS]

Also, I don't understand much about the consequences for pledging to a power. Do you just automatically get attacked/interdicted by NPCs in systems controlled by other powers? (Obviously players would attack you - but that just happens anyway). Can you still land at stations in systems controlled by other powers? Can you still trade?

Yes, you noticed NPC who belong to a power? Those will interdict and attempt to kill you.
Yes, you can still dock and trade. But you'll be marked as hostile there... not by the major factions or system authority. But when a player of the local PP faction attacks you you may not retaliate, or you'll get a bounty... THEN system authority will shoot you.
Yes, at higher risk, though

I am allied with Federation and Empire and have been ranking up in both. Does joining a power affect that? If I join an empire power, will I not be able to rank up anymore in Fed? If I join the alliance power or an independent, will both Fed and Empire ranks be locked out from ranking up?

No it has no effect at all to the major powers. except when you build up bounties by attacking other faction members in their territorry. (you loose rep then of course) But this is kind of the point of PP. It's combat. When you want to gain merits quickly, you have to do that.

PP is about combat. For traders it has no advantages; only disadvantages to pledge.

 

[Sevenperry]

Thanks to one and all, for your coherent advice. Neutral looks good! A power to wait for may be the old Dark Wheel. Ordered the hotas a week ago.......1 to 3 day delivery....if in stock, website said it was.......but helpline says its still in supplier's warehouse....expected around the 23 rd.

Once again thank you for taking the time to advise.

 

[AhabTheBad]

Thanks to one and all, for your coherent advice. Neutral looks good! A power to wait for may be the old Dark Wheel. Ordered the hotas a week ago.......1 to 3 day delivery....if in stock, website said it was.......but helpline says its still in supplier's warehouse....expected around the 23 rd.

Once again thank you for taking the time to advise.

I pledged support to Aisling. It was mainly for the faction specific module (shields) that become available after 4 weeks and at a certain rank.

Other reasons were because her area of control is in an unexplored area for me and I can keep my explorer rank ticking over mapping it out and her bonuses for high value goods are nice for my trading credit/rank.

Once I get those prismatic shields on my python I'll leave and see what else is around. If there is no other faction that appeals to me personally (politics, ideals) or materially (modules, bonuses on credits, etc) I'll just stay neutral.

When you visit another controlled area you get a "Hostile" marker in your HUD and you can be randomly interdicted by "Enemy" players who have pledged allegiance to another power. To be honest it's quite fun doing a run through another factions control area, adds a little excitement to an otherwise boring trek (I traveled over 200LY to Lembava to take advantage of the ship/module discount).

Hope your HOTAS arrives soon, what make/model are you getting?

 

[Ikari]

Back any Empire power none of the others really matter and will probably fall in the coming months. My advice is to play the game without it the rewards are not really worth the time involved.

If you really must have the power specific mod I would wait until others have already got them and reviewed there usefulness, there is every chance these new mods aren't all they're cracked up to be, and its going to be mighty annoying grinding merits to find those shields/Cannon aren't really any better than the stock models.

 

[Crash1099]

Stay neutral. If you want to chose a power make sure it has something you like. Combat or trading.

 

[Araviel]

I have also remained neutral so far as I mostly do trading and can't see a power that really is good for that - they seem to be geared towards bounty hunting.

Also, I don't understand much about the consequences for pledging to a power. Do you just automatically get attacked/interdicted by NPCs in systems controlled by other powers? (Obviously players would attack you - but that just happens anyway). Can you still land at stations in systems controlled by other powers? Can you still trade? OR does it basically not change anything except for the rewards that you get at the various levels and the target on your back for players?

I am allied with Federation and Empire and have been ranking up in both. Does joining a power affect that? If I join an empire power, will I not be able to rank up anymore in Fed? If I join the alliance power or an independent, will both Fed and Empire ranks be locked out from ranking up?

there are more powers that benefit trading than bounty hunting, only only 1 1/2 that benefit bounties (Hudson is a halfwit! )
and you can keep on trading all over the galaxy whitout restriction, unless you have a habit of shooting things whit your trader
just keep running and trucking.

and you can still gain faction rank whit all major factions.

 

[TiberiuS]

...and its going to be mighty annoying grinding merits to find those shields/Cannon aren't really any better than the stock models.

It has clearly been stated by FDev that they aren't 'better' they're just different. Prismatic shields may have more hitpoints, but maybe they consume more power or are heavyer than Standard-shields. The multi-shot railgun may build up quite a lot of heat and consume more power. There's always a trade-off

But I agree. Wait and see the stats of those gadgets before you go and pledge to a power for four weeks to get that bling.

 

[EddyRockSteady]

You serve at your Emperor's pleasure. Report for duty at your earliest convenience, which coincidentally coincides with the Emperor's convenience, ie yesterday!

All Hail the Emperor
Bask in his Greatness

 

[Witcherman]

I'm still in space dock...completely untrained and an owner of a Sidewinder with zero miles on the clock...

I've got one more piece of advice for you. Stay in that trusty Sidewinder for as long as you can. It's a great ship to learn all the different aspects of the Elite Dangerous universe in and it's very cheap to replace if (and when) you get all "blowed-up." Basically you'll only need to replace the parts, very cheap.

Once you get really comfortable with how things work, you can start to spend those hard earned credits on a more expensive ship. Also, read the forums!! Lots of really smart people (myself excluded) have poured a lot of their play-time wisdom into these forums, if you take the time to read up on their experiences it can really give you a leg-up in your first few months.

Welcome aboard and fly safe Commander!