A few questions regarding BGS

[Daniel Klimchuk]

Good morning!

I've got a few BGS related questions:

1. Does boom/bust/investment have any long term effects on the system? I know that each system has a hidden "wealth" value, and that it increases during the duration of a boom/investment and decreases during a bust. But does it stay increased after an economic state ends?

2. What does wealth and development of a system affect? Again, both are hidden values - but what exactly do they affect?

3. When does the outfitting of a station change? I have noticed several times that outfitting and the shipyard improved in stations over time. Is this directly related to the wealth of a system?

I know that BGS isn't documented in detail, so maybe none of my questions can be answered. Thanks in advance!

 

[Robert Maynard]

Paging @Ian Doncaster ....

 

[Ian Doncaster]

1. Does boom/bust/investment have any long term effects on the system? I know that each system has a hidden "wealth" value, and that it increases during the duration of a boom/investment and decreases during a bust. But does it stay increased after an economic state ends?

Noting that the answer to question 2 means it's really hard to tell ... it appears that the effects are just temporary.

2. What does wealth and development of a system affect? Again, both are hidden values - but what exactly do they affect?

Nothing obvious, at the moment.

The states themselves do have effects on market prices and quantities, which are more obvious, but those effects don't depend on the baseline wealth/development.

3. When does the outfitting of a station change? I have noticed several times that outfitting and the shipyard improved in stations over time. Is this directly related to the wealth of a system?

States like Boom or Investment will give access to more items, in general, while they last. And nowadays they can be semi-permanent in some systems, which can look like a persistent change in practice.

Changes in station ownership to another government or superpower may also change the outfitting available there.

The outfitting available in a station probably is related to the system wealth, but as we can't measure that directly it's hard to tell.

There have been reports of stations improving their offerings on a more persistent basis, but other than after obvious direct intervention by Frontier it's very hard to track down actual cases of this, or speculate on how it might have happened. No-one collects enough data on outfitting and shipyards to analyse this in detail.

 

[CMDR Quade]

There have been reports of stations improving their offerings on a more persistent basis, but other than after obvious direct intervention by Frontier it's very hard to track down actual cases of this, or speculate on how it might have happened. No-one collects enough data on outfitting and shipyards to analyse this in detail.

Can't emphasize this point enough! Even years into this game, I still encounter people claiming they can change a system's or station's economy type, usually arguing they go from extraction to refinery to industrial to high tech. Or they might say, "Oh, I traded x, y, and z, and we were in boom for a month and now there's every ship and module in the game at my station." They never show proof or give any data about the inputs. It's important to do BGS with as much data as you can! Beware people offering methods to change things that would dynamically alter game yet, somehow, nobody else has ever figured it out.

I guess that's a bit ranty, lol. I just wanted to hammer home Ian's excellent point.