Currently there are no player groups in the Colonia region; my original post concerned a NPC faction.
And the post I was responding to brought up the proposed special rules for Colonia which is no longer the case.
This is the source, but the emphasis is mine. There will be no PP and it is anticipated that none of the successful factions will carry political affiliations to their new homes; essentially, it is to be a BGS playground. There has been nothing on how this rule is to be enforced. If there are two or three factions with parent factions that have an adherence to one of the major power blocs, it would not be at all surprising if they worked together to take over other player-controlled systems - there's little else to do, and why else would you want your group to have a base in Greater Colonia? In other words, will it be possible for there to be a de facto Empire or Federation outpost? Will it be possible for a single group to dominate the region and become what will be a super power in all but name?
That is in fact the most accurate source of information as it appears to be taken from the actual initiative that is in place now. Your emphasis however has no bearing on the proposed new ruleset which was designed to actually eliminate factions from Colonia. The rule of "Factions cannot be forced into retreat in their home system and removed from the game permanently" was supposed to be suspended for player factions under the initiative.
It was not.
That will be something interesting to see and understandable since the rules of creating a player faction was that you had to be an established player group and only one Minor Faction was allowed per player group. So they have to be independent of their parent faction to be considered viable under the hard rules Frontier established for creating a Minor Faction in-game.
Whether or not these splinter groups are allowed to maintain their allegiance to a superpower is a question that can only be answered when Colonia is finally populated.
Because the rule of eliminating minor factions from the game was not suspended, I am certain a player group, no matter how large, will be hard pressed to maintain control of any large number of systems where another PMF is operating.
Also a smart player group would ask to be placed within range of Colonia but not directly connected by a single jump, allowing them to expand to empty systems that will likely be populated by NPC factions once the actual initiative will go live.
The mitigating factor is the Colonia Citizens Network, a non-political association of groups that have already started to populate the new region. It manages the Colonia system and the eight populated systems that are its near neighbours. The NPC factions will not be permitted to expand into the new systems (if this happens, the extension will not be supported and will be allowed to die) and no player group will be permitted to expand into the existing nine systems.
At this point I have to point out you're getting off topic. The purpose of the initiative was that Colonia is about to get populated by a lot of minor factions to reflect it's status as a successful colony. The current systems and factions were placed there at the behest of players so that they had the basic amenities to operate within the limits of the game which requires station services to keep their ships in working order.
The initiative was created so as to prevent the playerbase from feeling slighted and allow a sense of order in regards to populating Colonia with PMF's. There is likely to be an explosion of NPC minor factions and more then just 10 systems are likely to sudden find themselves with outposts and planetary bases once the first round of selections is completed. Colonia may find itself in the middle of 100 now populated systems following the first round of selections. This sphere may get bigger as consecutive selections happen. (The initiative is not going to stop at the first 10. They're going to keep a rolling system where new PMFs will be introduced to Colonia every month until they're satisfied with the population levels. Speculation: Once it reaches a certain point, they're going to do away with the initiative and re-institute the old rules of creating a PMF in Colonia space that apply in the Core.)
The CCN will not be able to mantain the status quo forever but they would be able to establish their own presence and maintain Colonia itself as their capital.
It must be remembered that SDC was one of the groups that applied to be one of the new factions.
Irrelevant and I am considering the subject closed to avoid getting any further off topic. There are no special exceptions to the 'cannot kill a faction permanently and force it form it's home system' rule in Colonia under the Initiative.
I consider the displacing of a Minor Faction and forcing it to retreat from it's home system to an expansion as hearsay and taking it with a grain of salt since I have no first hand experience to verify that. So I must accept the rule of 'cannot force a faction from it's home system' to be in effect.
If you can replicate the effect, then that calls that rule in question and I will have to seriously reconsider my stance. Secondhand one-off exceptions however, will not convince me.
