A Guide to Minor Factions and the Background Sim

[_trent_]

I have to agree, there is no hard "cap" on influence changes. There is a practical limit on the amount of activity a single cmdr, (or small group) can undertake in a tick. There is plenty evidence of 20-30% single tick swings - it just takes a hell of lot of activity.

I also have a strong suspicion that the amount of effort required to effect ever greater changes within one tick gets progressively greater. Far easier to make a 1% change than to make a 10% change. The precise formula eludes us for the moment.

Population also plays a major part in the amount of influence change. Our home system has over 10 billion population and rarely swings more than 2.5% one way or the other at each tick. We've caused 10-15% daily changes in nearby systems of 5 million putting in the same amount of effort. In systems with < 100k, we've swung the influence 20%+ in a single tick.

Since 2.2 came out, we've found it easier to lower influence than raise it, even after the single unit trading exploit (which we collectively agreed not to use) was patched. I'm hopeful that there might be a better balance in 2.3 but am not holding my breath...

 

[Schlack]

Population also plays a major part in the amount of influence change. Our home system has over 10 billion population and rarely swings more than 2.5% one way or the other at each tick. We've caused 10-15% daily changes in nearby systems of 5 million putting in the same amount of effort. In systems with < 100k, we've swung the influence 20%+ in a single tick.

Of course, I was limiting my response to the idea of a hard cap. Population is the key limiter in terms of the range of influence change possible. Will have to refresh my memory on how much is possible in a very high activity huge pop system. 2-5% sounds about right!

 

[mia389]

CZ massacre missions also cause lockdown, which are a the farming FOTM at the moment... are you sure nobody else could have been running them?

This happened to my faction a little while back, local traffic spiked by 20 combat ships a day when we went into war.

PS: Not trying to outright say "You're wrong", just that there's a lot of other factors to consider... basically it's why nobody has ever put together a complete chart of action-consequence, it's a pretty fraught path.

There was no war in the system. Sometimes there is no logic to the bgs is there. We have no idea what others were doing in the system though. Just sharing our results.

 

[Jane Turner]

Of course, I was limiting my response to the idea of a hard cap. Population is the key limiter in terms of the range of influence change possible. Will have to refresh my memory on how much is possible in a very high activity huge pop system. 2-5% sounds about right!

We use this as a rule of thumb...

 

[Jmanis]

There was no war in the system. Sometimes there is no logic to the bgs is there. We have no idea what others were doing in the system though. Just sharing our results.

Ah right, I misread the bit where you mentioned you were in a war, but in a different system i.e the faction you were attacking wasn't in a war state. Good data point

I'm intrigued by the whole lockdown/unrest thing... last time I did something like that I was targetting a relatively brand new system (one of the Pleiades sector bunnyhop systems) and the target faction went into lockdown *and* unrest pending after two days of fighting.

- - - Updated - - -

Population also plays a major part in the amount of influence change. Our home system has over 10 billion population and rarely swings more than 2.5% one way or the other at each tick. We've caused 10-15% daily changes in nearby systems of 5 million putting in the same amount of effort. In systems with < 100k, we've swung the influence 20%+ in a single tick.

Remember when someone messed up the BGS and we were seeing swings of over 40% in systems with over a billion people? Fun times...

 

[Yolanta Purpura]

Could anyone help me with a couple of questions, please?

First, should the system influence ratings always add up to 100%? I've noticed lists of faction influences totalling less than 100, which seems odd to me.

Second, is there a way of knowing a faction's home system without checking star by star on the Galmap?

 

[M. Grey]

Could anyone help me with a couple of questions, please?

First, should the system influence ratings always add up to 100%? I've noticed lists of faction influences totalling less than 100, which seems odd to me.

Yes, it might be less than 100%, the right UI might be less since the values here are rounded down.
Check SysMap for detailed vaules.

Second, is there a way of knowing a faction's home system without checking star by star on the Galmap?

MOST NPC factions have their "home" system in their name.
For player factions there is no way in ED/GalMap that I'm aware of.

 

[Lord_aNOOBis]

Could anyone help me with a couple of questions, please?

First, should the system influence ratings always add up to 100%? I've noticed lists of faction influences totalling less than 100, which seems odd to me.

Second, is there a way of knowing a faction's home system without checking star by star on the Galmap?

1) As mr.Gr3y already said, check the system map for more detailed values, but totals of 99.9% or 100.1% can happen sometimes due to rounded values.

2) If it's not in the Name already you could check the faction in EDDB (https://eddb.io/faction) maybe it's entered there.
Ingame, hmm...try to make them retreat from one of their systems. The news entry if successful should tell you where they went. If not...continue until only one is left

 

[CMDR Dozer.]

Hey,

Quick question. Does anyone know who gains the inf when using the Bounty hunter broker in low sec systems? Is it the port owner or who ever issued the bounty?

 

[Crazy_One]

Dozer, I believe the faction that owns the station you turn the bounties in gains he influence and you gain rep with the entities the bounties were for.

 

[CMDR Dozer.]

Dozer, I believe the faction that owns the station you turn the bounties in gains he influence and you gain rep with the entities the bounties were for.

Great thanks, I'm trying to avoid the issuing faction/s gaining inf whilst taking out their ships.

 

[M. Grey]

Hey,

Quick question. Does anyone know who gains the inf when using the Bounty hunter broker in low sec systems? Is it the port owner or who ever issued the bounty?

Not quite sure here. One definatly gains rep with the faction that issued the boutnies.
Hence I think that also the factions that issued these (in the system you earned them) will gain influence.

To be sure either wait for a state where combat actions do not contribute to influence or cash the bounties in other systems the faction is present.

 

[goemon]

Hey,

Quick question. Does anyone know who gains the inf when using the Bounty hunter broker in low sec systems? Is it the port owner or who ever issued the bounty?

some say: no effect, some say: superpower goes to faction owner via broker, but minor faction bounties have no effect, some say superpower bounties goes to station owner, and minor faction bonties go to home system via the broker.

I don't know a good and precise test on it, beside anecdotal evidence for any of the above.

 

[goemon]

Hence I think that also the factions that issued these (in the system you earned them) will gain influence.

i don't think, the system you earned them is stored with the bounty transaction, as you can gain reputation (via normal contacts) in any system the faction is present. so if, I'd opt for homesystem.

 

[goemon]

Dozer, I believe the faction that owns the station you turn the bounties in gains he influence and you gain rep with the entities the bounties were for.

nice. another option

 

[goemon]

Great thanks, I'm trying to avoid the issuing faction/s gaining inf whilst taking out their ships.

don't cash in their bounties?

 

[CMDR Dozer.]

don't cash in their bounties?

Yeah my thoughts but it clutters up the contact board.[big grin]

 

[Jmanis]

NPC factions have their "home" system in their name.
For player factions there is no way in ED/GalMap that I'm aware of.

Not actually true RE: NPC factions. For example, https://eddb.io/faction/4114

 

[M. Grey]

Not actually true RE: NPC factions. For example, https://eddb.io/faction/4114

There's always an exception to a rule.
Fixed/corrected, added "MOST" in my post.

 

[Limoncello Lizard]

Yeah my thoughts but it clutters up the contact board.[big grin]

There was some debate recently that shooting wanted ships doesn't change the BGS, other than via bounties. Testing described by others confirms this, I've also done some limited testing on this and so far agree.
So if you want to take down a faction via killing ships, you will have to resort to murder. Though the influence effect of murder is being reduced in 2.3.