A Guide to Minor Factions and the Background Sim

[Jmanis]

Ill have to check our records again but I don't recall an overshoot recently that could not be explained by pending/active/cooldown. not saying it hasn't happened, working from slightly hazy memory. If I recall correctly at one point a huge inf shift could overshoot. Either that mechanic is gone or we've got far better at managing our activities to prevent overshooting and wasted effort!

I would argue the latter for sure. I learned the hard way after over a year of BGS that equalization wars happened just higher than 60% and not at 70% like I believed so I could be entirely wrong still.

I personally never try to equalize. The most rational explanation in my mind is a bit of Column A and a bit of Column B...

That is... maybe there *is* an equalization mechanism, but only within a particular small range

i.e if you land within an "equalized" range, nothing happens. If you're outside that range after adjustment, but within a margin of error (a % point or two) maybe it kicks in.

When I overtake another faction, it's almost always by at least 5%.

 

[thelivingdeadguy]

you will either have to equalise after the conflicts cooldown, or - as there is only one starport to catch - push to ~65% for a system control conflict (be wry of the controlling faction not getting into a conflict elsewhere or with somebody else)

Goemon I always look out for your posts on this forum, you talk a lot of sense - appreciate it.

If we go over 65% after our election is over but the controlling faction is in conflict elsewhere have we missed our window and therefore need to equalise or will our conflict be 'queued' and come in after they've had their cooldown?

 

[Schlack]

Goemon I always look out for your posts on this forum, you talk a lot of sense - appreciate it.

If we go over 65% after our election is over but the controlling faction is in conflict elsewhere have we missed our window and therefore need to equalise or will our conflict be 'queued' and come in after they've had their cooldown?

If I understand you correctly that you wish to begin a conflict with the ruling faction who are in election elsewhere and you are above coup levels? In that case maintain your high influence and keep the ruling faction out of trouble elsewhere and the conflict should trigger.

 

[Schlack]

That is... maybe there *is* an equalization mechanism, but only within a particular small range

I can say for certain that there is an equalization mechanism. It occurs every time we trigger a non coup conflict. We are not that skilled or exact to ensure equalization by virtue of hitting the exact influence.

I do have a doubt about whether overshoot exists, and if so what the range is.

 

[Jmanis]

If I understand you correctly that you wish to begin a conflict with the ruling faction who are in election elsewhere and you are above coup levels? In that case maintain your high influence and keep the ruling faction out of trouble elsewhere and the conflict should trigger.

^^ This one

One thing to be careful of (although it may not be a bad thing) is that you can inadvertently trigger Expansion if the controlling faction doesn't leave conflict and you get over 70% influence. That happened once for me and it was awkward >.>

I can say for certain that there is an equalization mechanism. It occurs every time we trigger a non coup conflict. We are not that skilled or exact to ensure equalization by virtue of hitting the exact influence.

I do have a doubt about whether overshoot exists, and if so what the range is.

I'm trying to push an expansion out as we speak... I'll make sure to track influence once that happens. May take a while though.

 

[Jane Turner]

I can say for certain that there is an equalization mechanism. It occurs every time we trigger a non coup conflict. We are not that skilled or exact to ensure equalization by virtue of hitting the exact influence.

I do have a doubt about whether overshoot exists, and if so what the range is.

We are certain that influence will equalise exactly* as long as there is no conflict state for either party active pending OR in cooldown. We have at a rough guess 300 examples

*regardless of how much the potential influence increase could have been had the "catch" not occurred (basically you can't over cook it)

 

[MottiKhan]

We are certain that influence * will equalise as long as there is no conflict state for either party active pending OR in cooldown. We have at a rough guess 300 examples

* regardless of how much the potential influence increase could have been had the "catch" not occurred (basically you can't over cook it)

This has been our experience as well.

<edit> It can be easy to miss a faction's state. If it says "none", it's likely in a conflict or recovering from a conflict in another system. </edit>

 

[Perseus]

We are certain that influence will equalise exactly* as long as there is no conflict state for either party active pending OR in cooldown. We have at a rough guess 300 examples

*regardless of how much the potential influence increase could have been had the "catch" not occurred (basically you can't over cook it)

This is my experience too!
Got to watch out for conflicts and cooldowns in other systems.

 

[Mangal Oemie]

yeah, honestly, I'd love to see an occasion where any faction overshot another when neither were pending, in conflict, or in cool down (realize election cool down is 2 days!), because in well over a year of intensive BGS tracking and acting on it, I've never seen it, while we see the normal behavior... well, pretty much every week. It's pretty solid as a mechanism. Maybe it was possible in the first year, but we even sometimes leverage the "do more, and you pull both factions up on equalization" where that was beneficial.

 

[CMDR pollycough]

It changed about September 3302. Can't find any examples in my records before 28/09/02.
Before then IIRC you could pass them but by no more than 5%

 

[Jane Turner]

actually its been the same since the game began*

* well to be fair since we tried to flip our 1st system.... which was 29th Jan 2015

 

[Jmanis]

Various quotes

Hmmm.. Sounds like I know exactly what I'm trying this weekend then.

Over two years of doing the BGS and the only time I've had an equalization war was when I had a faction that was "close" and I just left them alone.

It's just hard to believe that over those two years I've never had this occur even inadvertently, ever. You have to admit the chances that, when I've been pushing up a faction, that *every* faction I've ever overtaken has been conflict pending/active/recovery, is pretty slim.

So just for the record, if I find two factions, one with, say, 5% influence (A), the other with 10% influence (B), and neither are in a state of war/civil war/election pending/active/recovery, and work the BGS for (A) the night before, I can *only* make them equalize to <some figure>, and not wind up in the situation of 10+% influence for (A), 5% influence for (B) and *not* have a conflict trigger?

 

[Jane Turner]

yes... if you check them on the very next tick

 

[Starwolfe]

Ill have to check our records again but I don't recall an overshoot recently that could not be explained by pending/active/cooldown. not saying it hasn't happened, working from slightly hazy memory. If I recall correctly at one point a huge inf shift could overshoot. Either that mechanic is gone or we've got far better at managing our activities to prevent overshooting and wasted effort!

I can confirm the same along with the others - its a set lock if it is possible, you can't escape it if it is an option.

The only times I ever overshot was by doing so on the pending/recovering or active days with a conflict for another faction. I have gotten a lock the direct day after a recovery, but that's within the rules.

Every other time - regardless of how much work went it - the influence will lock once it passes the potential opposition.

It has resulted in some interesting influence changes, but the rule has remained constant for me.

 

[mia389]

Is there a way to retreat? We expanded into a system we dont want to be in. Whats the best way to get a faction into retreat?

I was thinking of doing missions for all other factions except mine. Would this work or any other better way?

 

[Limoncello Lizard]

Is there a way to retreat? We expanded into a system we dont want to be in. Whats the best way to get a faction into retreat?

I was thinking of doing missions for all other factions except mine. Would this work or any other better way?

The most effective way is to get your faction above 7% and get into a war. Then fight for the other faction. It should push your faction down to 1%.

 

[Jane Turner]

Agreed - raise the closest faction to them up to their influence then lose the war/election that ensues

 

[Schlack]

Agreed - raise the closest faction to them up to their influence then lose the war/election that ensues

lose it badly!

 

[Deleted member 38366]

Is there a way to retreat? We expanded into a system we dont want to be in. Whats the best way to get a faction into retreat?

I was thinking of doing missions for all other factions except mine. Would this work or any other better way?

Especially when there's Independent Traffic pushing your Faction up (or worst-case someone intentionally acting to sabotage your intentions) and working against your planned Retreat, there's another and more effective Option :

Fail stacks of VIP Passenger Missions (need to be type : does not react well to danger or Secretive).
Fill up a suitable Ship loaded full with Missions and depart the Outpost/Station.

Either dangle the Ship carefully against the Outpost/Station until it reaches ~70% Hull or less (makes PAX unhappy) - or hop into a RES/Signal Sources and repeatedly get scanned (makes the Secretive PAX unhappy).
When all Missions have failed, return to dock.

Result : all Missions properly failed (full BGS effect) and there's no fines involved. Time needed : a few Minutes. It's AFAIK the only way to properly (full effect) fail Missions within this short time.
Caviat : this will cost quite a bit of Reputation, but that's typically recovered with handing in a single bigger Bounty Voucher. Just needs that little preparation to compensate for the Reputation issue.

Bug notice : directly after failing all PAX Missions, there's an issue where no more Passenger Missions can be accepted (will cause a Mission Board Server error) and the Game needs to be quit once to clear the issue.

I remember retreating a Faction against upwards pressure that way, worked like a charm and kept it below Retreat-Cancel levels.
2 full PAX Stacks failed per Day (Python/Beluga/Anaconda) typically create a > -5% BGS Input for most average Systems (low/medium Pop), nicely compressing a Retreat Faction to the floor and this can stem at least mild to moderate pressure working against you.
If it's a very busy System, it might require more Inputs though, as it only can do so much. As usual, any such Inputs can be overcome with sufficient upward pressure.

Above method is purely aimed at the critical Days (Pending : Retreat to Retreat complete), where the Faction must remain below 2.5% at all times.

 

[goemon]

Is there a way to retreat? We expanded into a system we dont want to be in. Whats the best way to get a faction into retreat?

I was thinking of doing missions for all other factions except mine. Would this work or any other better way?

have in mind you most likely gonna expand into the system again after a retreat, if you expand from the same system.