"Date = always" is not nearly as useful as "I completed X mission for X faction on Xth of May".
Thanks for this thread, it's appreciated.
Although I understand why you're asking us to adhere to a specific format, I do think the following bears pointing out. If you want to remove it to keep the thread clean I understand and will repost in the anarchies thread Marchogion
linked above.
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There are clearly some bugs with how
INF is being awarded and distributed, the main issue we can identify is that Odyssey's content is heavily and fundamentally biased against Anarchies by design, regardless of activity or mission source.
We have established beyond reasonable doubt that
every hostile NPC at
every Odyssey-related POI in a system (not settlement) will be affiliated with a local anarchy. Pirates in RES sites, by comparison, are drawn from an interstellar catchment area. Here's just one player's findings over the course of an hour's Odyssey play as an example:
Surface PoI faction sample 09/06/21:
Wadjali:
Crash site threat 3 - Diamond Frogs
Minor Wreckage threat 3 - Diamond Frogs
Distress Signal threat 3 - Diamond Frogs
Shosha:
Minor Wreckage threat 2 - no hostiles
Minor Wreckage threat 3 - Partnership of Shosha (Native Anarchy)
Minor Wreckage threat 1 - Diamond Frogs
Minor Wreckage threat 1 - Diamond Frogs
BD-17 6172:
Minor Wreckage threat 2 - BD-17 6172 Silver Brothers (Native Anarchy)
Frigur:
Minor Wreckage threat 1 - Frigur Purple Drug Empire (Native Anarchy)
Irregular markers threat 1 - Diamond Frogs
Similarly, settlement missions have a chance to spawn antagonists as a wrinkle in addition to the native NPCs - which have in 100% of cases also been affiliated with local anarchy. This means that even taking a mission for the anarchy against a rival leads, worryingly frequently, to fighting the same anarchy that sent you there in the first place. You need several clicks through the menu wheel to check affiliation while on foot so many people probably won't even notice. This all seems to be regardless of context, with a chance for it to occur on every mission type.
As an example:
Here is a mission given by the Diamond Frogs on the 9th of June to sabotage a base controlled by Kremainn Corporation. Half-way through the mission a whole squad Diamond Frogs NPCs spawned in for no apparent reason, hostile to the native guards and player alike (green in this image because they weren't within engagement range).
In space this doesn't happen: for megaship, installation events or space USS the sides are drawn from all the factions present in the system (vs the controller in the former two cases) and you can choose which side to take. Bounties are also not awarded without a KWS in Anarchy control systems
in space, but they are for Odyssey content. Odyssey POIs and events leave you with no choice as to which faction you're fighting - it's
always us. On top of that bounties are shelled out despite anarchy control which compounds the issue further.
The following are screenshots from a POI in our home system 63 G. Capricorni:
DF NPC with bounty at a surface POI.
Killing DF then results in a bounty issued by DF.
So even when functioning correctly Odyssey's dice are loaded against us. Exacerbating this are the progression loops which then draw focused traffic to Anarchy control systems where it's much easier to collect materials. The best we've been able to do in these places, once the traffic ramps up, is slow the bleed a little. Senones and LTT 7786 were the most recent casualties and carrier traffic points to 63 G. Capricorni being the next on the chopping block.
We've had 18 wars since Odyssey launched, more than we'd usually have in a year, if players were banding together en masse specifically to remove us from control then fair play, but all the evidence points to this being regular CMDRs hanging out indiscriminately going about their business afoot - and as such shouldn't be applying such overwhelming negative pressure to one specific government type. In Horizons high traffic tends to be beneficial to controllers, if anything.
In short, Anarchy factions are to Odyssey what Barbarians are to Civilization games, just the blanket everywhere-enemy for everyone, including themselves. It seems doubtful that tweaking INF values and squashing bugs alone will solve this.
