A Guide to Minor Factions and the Background Sim

[_trent_]

Just from our own recent experience since 2.2.02 came out.

7% minimum influence for conflict (had 2 factions equal on 6.8% that didn't go to war)

62-65% for triggering control war (non-controlling factions hit 60% & 61%without triggering one against a controlling faction not in conflict state, went pending next tick at 62.7%)

75% Expansion. Always seems to be 5 days pending in our experience. Expansion takes 5-7 days unless you shorten it using conflict state in another system.

That's how it's been for us, YMMV.

 

[_Flin_]

Just from our own recent experience since 2.2.02 came out.

7% minimum influence for conflict (had 2 factions equal on 6.8% that didn't go to war)

62-65% for triggering control war (non-controlling factions hit 60% & 61%without triggering one against a controlling faction not in conflict state, went pending next tick at 62.7%)

75% Expansion. Always seems to be 5 days pending in our experience. Expansion takes 5-7 days unless you shorten it using conflict state in another system.

That's how it's been for us, YMMV.

Can confirm. Matches our experience.

 

[Walter2]

I think it's 7% these days, but you've misunderstood it slightly. One of the factions has to be over that value - not both.

The rule was put in place to prevent conflicts among the bottom feeders with tiny differences between them. With a dominant faction in the system, it was pretty normal to find 4 or 5 factions with less than 5% each, equalising with each other constantly and going in to constant conflict. There was also the situation where there wasn't enough influence between the warring parties to actually gain a winning margin.

Just from our own recent experience since 2.2.02 came out.

7% minimum influence for conflict (had 2 factions equal on 6.8% that didn't go to war)

As DaveC says, the 5%/7% minimum threshold for at least one of the factions involved served a purpose in that the underdog could still win decisively by claiming points from the other party alone.

But the new rules/new bug that allow factions in conflict to gain points from other factions or lose points to them render this threshold irrelevant. I'm currently observing a conflict in the Colonia region in which neither side has gained any player support, so influence points have leached away to the mission takers, bounty hunters and traders. The two warring parties currently have influence levels of 2.4% and 1% having gone pending at 7.5% and starting at about 8.6%. Neither side can win under the old rule, but neither would they have got into this position.

 

[Schlack]

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...nclusion-and-immediately-matching-for-another

bug report for chain conflict and magic equalization.

 

[Moritz Norman]

I feel like I'm one day behind Jmanis, haha.

We passed the controlling faction without taking control of the system because they are at war elsewhere. Now, we have gone to pending expansion at 76% by accident.

Can we lower our influence to halt our expansion? Or are we locked in?

Also, if we are locked in to expanding, is my best bet to end the war for our competing faction and hope they end up in war with us, thus instant expanding and leaving us in the war state we want? Or will that not happen?

 

[goemon]

Also, if we are locked in to expanding, is my best bet to end the war for our competing faction and hope they end up in war with us, thus instant expanding and leaving us in the war state we want? Or will that not happen?

yes, that would be the way to go.

 

[Moritz Norman]

So I am locked in?

Or it's just more practical?

 

[Abil Midena]

Could someone remind me about black markets?

Does selling at a black market reduce the inf of the system owner, or the station owner (assuming they are different factions)?

Case: My faction's station has a black market, but are not the controlling faction. Would selling to that black market hurt my faction (station owner), or the controlling faction?

 

[Limoncello Lizard]

So I am locked in?

The expansion will definitely happen. I don't think the conflict for control will trigger in this case until the expansion has run its course. I've only seen this happen once, and I went off and did a couple of CGs while the system sorted itself out, so I' don't know if there's anything you can do to help.

 

[SaliVader]

Could someone remind me about black markets?

Does selling at a black market reduce the inf of the system owner, or the station owner (assuming they are different factions)?

Case: My faction's station has a black market, but are not the controlling faction. Would selling to that black market hurt my faction (station owner), or the controlling faction?

It would hurt the station owner, in this case your faction.

Speaking of black markets, is there any kind of consistency at all with them? I have two systems with a single outpost each, both controlled by the same federal confederacy, yet only one of them has a black market.

 

[goemon]

is this a normal full cycle of a war state (t=tick):

t1 war pending
t2 war pending
t3 war pending
t4 war active, cz spawn
t5 war active
t6 war active, assets change hands
t7 war recovering
t8 war cleared, state: none
t9 new conflict, expansion or other state can go pending

 

[Abil Midena]

It would hurt the station owner, in this case your faction.

Speaking of black markets, is there any kind of consistency at all with them? I have two systems with a single outpost each, both controlled by the same federal confederacy, yet only one of them has a black market.

It's possible one of them is controlled/owned by a power play faction that closes black markets. I think ALD is one of them. I'm not sure what else impacts bm's.

 

[raeat]

"Hello [Raeat],

Thanks for holding on.

We've reviewed the situation in [the system in question] and have some additional information for you, which we hope will clear up what has happened in recent days.

- We agree that the something odd happened to trigger a second Civil War in that system so soon after the first. What we've discovered is the possible presence of a rather rare bug in how conflicts are triggered. To summarise: If one faction wins a civil war and overtakes another (separate) faction in the same tick, it can bypass the 'Pending' status and immediately trigger a new conflict. We should be able to get this fixed rather quickly, hopefully by the end of the week.

- For now, as the second Civil War shouldn't have triggered so quickly, we have decided to return the lost asset to [the faction in question]."

Well, would you look at that? And all I got from the "helpful" in this thread was vitriol.

I am actually quite nice to people who are actually helpful and not by the "you suck, git gud" definition of helpful. People who are just being don't get much sympathy from me.

For my persistence and service to the players, I have received sanctimonious vitriol and have been stifled twice. But, you're welcome.

 

[Walter2]

It would hurt the station owner, in this case your faction.

Speaking of black markets, is there any kind of consistency at all with them? I have two systems with a single outpost each, both controlled by the same federal confederacy, yet only one of them has a black market.

It's possible that the faction was in control of one station and only later took control of the second. The BM was generated on the change of ownership.

 

[SaliVader]

It's possible one of them is controlled/owned by a power play faction that closes black markets. I think ALD is one of them. I'm not sure what else impacts bm's.

Both systems are uncontrolled.

 

[CMDR Endincite]

They seem to be a preset of stations, which are disabled or enabled by a given faction type but never created or destroyed.

We've noted that the entire "authoritarian" line of factions (dictatorship, feudal, patronage, prison colony) disables black markets, as well as certain Power effects (ALD). Anarchy obviously enables them, and probably the whole social line (democracy, cooperative, communist, republic, theocracy). Not sure about corporate, but the point is that stations don't gain black markets if they've never had one under any faction.

That last is taken from limited evidence. Happy to be wrong.

 

[goemon]

Speaking of black markets, is there any kind of consistency at all with them? I have two systems with a single outpost each, both controlled by the same federal confederacy, yet only one of them has a black market.

in my opinion, black markets are a service and "hardcoded" into a station. BGS can block, unblock or overwrite this service (as powerplay). for exampel: anarchies always have a black market.

why do i think it is a "hardcoded" service? a) community goals. they have that service as a seperate tier b) outpost models. outpost with a "hardcoded" black market have the jolly roger, whether that black market is "active"/unblocked or not.

 

[Limoncello Lizard]

in my opinion, black markets are a service and "hardcoded" into a station. BGS can block, unblock or overwrite this service (as powerplay). for exampel: anarchies always have a black market.

why do i think it is a "hardcoded" service? a) community goals. they have that service as a seperate tier b) outpost models. outpost with a black "hardcoded" black market have the jolly roger, whether that black market is "active"/unblocked or not.

That makes sense. It's more apparent now that the disabled blackmarket is displayed on the station description. This, I think, is new from 2.2.

 

[SaliVader]

in my opinion, black markets are a service and "hardcoded" into a station. BGS can block, unblock or overwrite this service (as powerplay). for exampel: anarchies always have a black market.

why do i think it is a "hardcoded" service? a) community goals. they have that service as a seperate tier b) outpost models. outpost with a "hardcoded" black market have the jolly roger, whether that black market is "active"/unblocked or not.

So basically, if the station doesn't have a black market hardcoded, even if I get an anarchy to control the station it won't open a black market?

 

[goemon]

So basically, if the station doesn't have a black market hardcoded, even if I get an anarchy to control the station it won't open a black market?

basically yes and no :-D

afaik anarchies ALWAYS have a black market. they overwrite the hardcoded service list imho.

please correct me if you see one without.

but beside that, there are faction types which disable a black market. there is no other way than to get an anarchy or one of those powers opening black markets everywhere into control, if a station has not a "disabled" black market (which is blocked/disabled by the goverment type or not).