There are 30,000+ minor factions.....that's probably 29,000 too many IMO
Personally I don't care about any RNG organisation 'HIP 2597 Gold Foundation' is utterly meaningless to me.
I did try to fight a player faction (with a stupid name) that was dropped into my home system by the Devs (thanks for that btw) but I don't play enough to fight an entire group of dedicated players so I moved on.
The BGS and the sheer number of minor factions is another design decision that totally baffled me....I've written about this before.
But as one poster on here already stated, some have built communities around their factions and love the BGS gameplay, pushing their chosen faction into various states, fighting their wars, expanding their territory....so who am I to criticize.
I was under the impression that there are around 75,000 NPC minor factions. To be honest, I really do love this variety. In the context of the game, it means that each of the 20,000+ bubble systems each have their own things going on which may or may not be in direct conflict with the systems just next door. It means that there is not a single narrative where one minor faction can become overwhelmingly powerful and reach past a few systems without a hell of a lot of positive energy going on. Which is a really good thing. It would be a bit pants if a large group of players could leverage a minor faction to span a large the breadth of bubble, would it not. It keeps the impression that each player is a fairly insignificant part of the galaxy and not some all-conquering super-hero at the centre of the galaxy plot. Which is exactly square-on to FDev's intent.
Why would I support any NPC faction?
Well, I'm pretty nomadic as a player, with no real ties to any home system or even an adopted system. So dropping into any random system if I were to take any missions, they would need to be aligned to my personal tastes. Federation. Democratic. My CMDR is pledged to Winters because this was the one head of faction that aligned with personal standards. That said, my CMDR never invests in PowerPlay and has never cashed in a single MERIT (tbh I'm not even sure what MERITs are or how you achieve them, I've only really seen them typed on forum posts to know the term exists).
I also avoid illegal missions and massacres, etc.
That means I would gravitate towards any NPC faction by a process of elimination. If they kept spawning missions that I like, then I might continue to hang around that system to help them grow their faction, while also helping me out.
Many CMDRs just game the system and take any factions missions, provided they are the desired missions, or provided they give the right rewards, such as engineer materials. My CMDR is much more principled. Not massively fussed about engineering, so doesn't sell out on principles just to gather the wanted materials.
I'm often to be found in certain systems just to occasionally assist some well known player factions keep their influence levels up. (Mainly because other unsavoury CMDRs work against them ((and they do this mainly, it appears, for out-of-game reasons. Shame on them!!)) Hence my principled CMDR lending my efforts). In consequence, I'll drop into a system while running one of those missions and scan the mission boards for anything else I can do, and if one of the NPC factions appears to be aligned and has acceptable missions, I'll take them on...
And this is what I spend a lot of time doing in-game perhaps 1/3 of my game time. Faction hopping and running missions. I'm not super-focussed at ship optimisation, fleet building, engineering, grinding for superpower rank or materials or even for money or combat rank or trade rank. All of those things will take care of themselves, in time. I just enjoy playing the game...
The other main game themes for me are science and exploration - again about another 1/3 of my game time near the bubble has concentrated on guardians missions and exploration and puzzles and on the developing barnacle/UA/UP/crashed aliens science stuff leading to the Unknown Settlements and the puzzles therein. This has perhaps been the most enjoyable part of the game.
The remaining 1/3 has been in supporting CGs. Also very good fun, especially in the early days in Open when I was flying a Cobra and the CGs weren't being ganked and blockaded ((again - always for fake out-of-game reasons.)) Since moving to Mobius CGs are just as much fun as they used to be, although I continue to visit Open to see what is going on and I've never failed to witness gank-fests taking place ((again, mostly definitely for out-of-game reasons with the same CMDRs using contradictory "reasons" one week to the next)).
Both of the other 2/3 of gameplay can lead directly to the discovery of excellent new NPC faction opportunities, and this is why I mention them.
- Doing science-y stuff and visiting, for instance, Canonn can lead to some profitable NPC faction missions in adjacent systems.
- Doing combat CGs - dropping in for repairs at a station can have profitable missions to take on.
- Doing trade CGs - finding stations selling the required goods can lead to a bunch of aceptable NPC faction missions.
Having said all that, I don't tend to create myself a home with any of the NPC minor factions. I'm still nomadic and follow my gameplay nose with no particular hard goals in mind.
Yours Aye
Mark H
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