A Guide to Minor Factions and the Background Sim

[Dommarraa]

Does anyone know if the missions you take now increase a faction's influence regardless of the faction's current state? For example, prior to the December patch, non-combat missions had no impact on a faction's standing while said faction was engaged in war. In order to increase a faction during wartime, you had to turn in combat bonds or bounties. Can we now pull anything from the mission board at any time and expect an increase at the next tic?

During Conflict, you cannot purposefully change Influence AT ALL.
Now, all you can do is "win" each day. At the end of the week, the one with the most wins get +4%. Loser get -4%
In Election : Missions (maybe non-combat missions) help win the day
In War : Bonds and Bounties and CZ Battles count. Dav says Aggressive Combat based Missions count, but FD have always said that, and it was a lie. Dav never lies..... Error ! Paradox Detected ! Reboot Initiated !

No comment on Trade, Smuggling or Data in Elections, too much is still borked.

 

[Aasir Omondi]

Just wondering, is anyone seeing "little gains for Exploration" while the same faction is in a conflict in another system?

One of our pilots returned from a run to Sag A yesterday and started to sell the data around our systems, at our stations where we wanted to lift our standing, but also at other factions stations where we want to take the stations off them.

We were at War in one system, and that was ignored, bar the fighting.

All data was sold one system at a time, amounting to around 6m per system. About 80m credits in total.

We saw minimal increases in the systems we dropped for our benefit. Nothing major, and in the system we are currently Expanding from, a 5% drop!

However, where we have sold to push other factions up, we've seen them increase, and two wars and one election are now pending. None of these factions were in any conflicts yesterday.

As we're in the cool down from the last war now another 100m has been spread around using a similar pattern to see if we now do go up, or not.

From what I understand is A.) exploration data benefits the faction who owns the station, so if your faction does not, that would explain influence dropping; B.) I heard that FDev patched exploration data sometime recently so that we don't have to sell one system at a time; instead, selling a page at a time automatically calculates separate transactions per system (can someone verify this?)

And how are you guys pushing your systems nowadays, missions, trading, bounty hunting ?

The only sure way I have experienced is running faction missions and choosing INF as a payout. That option seems to be the only consistent way to elevate INF, as others seem to have unpredictable results. My faction have never lost INF by running missions, only gained.

Does anyone know if the missions you take now increase a faction's influence regardless of the faction's current state? For example, prior to the December patch, non-combat missions had no impact on a faction's standing while said faction was engaged in war. In order to increase a faction during wartime, you had to turn in combat bonds or bounties. Can we now pull anything from the mission board at any time and expect an increase at the next tic?

During the [Civil] War state, those engaged are on lockdown and their INF will not change at all. Turning in bonds are how you ensure victory but cannot elevate INf during a lockdown. Other factions, however, can elevate their INF. The BGS doesn't store INF to dish out after the cooldown, so running missions from the board whilst your faction is at war is a waste of time, from an INF prespective.

 

[CMDR Brax]

Thanks for the feedback, gents. Prior to the last patch I felt I had a good grasp of what moves to make to push my faction. Feels like I'm back to square one these days, re-learning the entire system.

 

[Aasir Omondi]

Thanks for the feedback, gents. Prior to the last patch I felt I had a good grasp of what moves to make to push my faction. Feels like I'm back to square one these days, re-learning the entire system.

You're not alone there. Even those who were wizards at this stuff are having to relearn everything. The person I normally go to for BGS advice now responds more with a shrug than an answer because he's at a complete loss with the 3.3 version. FDev made some sweeping changes and not all are working as intended. It's understandable, though, because the BGS would have to be set loose in the wild before they could truly understand the problems. There's just no way to test something so big in a test environment with a handful of staff members. The good news is that they're aware of the issues and are scrambling to repair what is broken. Hopefully, we'll receive some updates soon and get a handle on things.

 

[Ryan Murdoc]

Thanks for the feedback, gents. Prior to the last patch I felt I had a good grasp of what moves to make to push my faction. Feels like I'm back to square one these days, re-learning the entire system.

We once thought we knew how it worked. Since 11th December 2018, we've been cast back to the medieval ages...

 

[SciTrekker]

You're not alone there. Even those who were wizards at this stuff are having to relearn everything. The person I normally go to for BGS advice now responds more with a shrug than an answer because he's at a complete loss with the 3.3 version. FDev made some sweeping changes and not all are working as intended. It's understandable, though, because the BGS would have to be set loose in the wild before they could truly understand the problems. There's just no way to test something so big in a test environment with a handful of staff members. The good news is that they're aware of the issues and are scrambling to repair what is broken. Hopefully, we'll receive some updates soon and get a handle on things.

Automation? Simulation? Maybe. Maybe not. /s

 

[Dommarraa]

Now completing cz actually does decrease rep with the enemy.
No exact figures, but I just did 4 hcz and a massacre mission, and it took away about half my Allied bar.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Now completing cz actually does decrease rep with the enemy.
No exact figures, but I just did 4 hcz and a massacre mission, and it took away about half my Allied bar.

I'd expect a massacre mission to take half the Allied bar on its own, though.

 

[Dommarraa]

I'd expect a massacre mission to take half the Allied bar on its own, though.

Sorry if I was not clear, that was a cz massacre, so only the mission counts. I would expect a civilian massacre to be a lot more.

Ckear it's not likely to be a big issue. If the enemy own all the stations, a little bh handed in at another system would easily shore up any major grinding

 

[Jmanis]

Now completing cz actually does decrease rep with the enemy.
No exact figures, but I just did 4 hcz and a massacre mission, and it took away about half my Allied bar.

Does it? I have run several CZ against a faction I'm full allied with, and I'm still full allied. One high, One Medium so far.

That massacre mission will have reduced your rep though, by that much.

 

[Dommarraa]

Does it? I have run several CZ against a faction I'm full allied with, and I'm still full allied. One high, One Medium so far.

That massacre mission will have reduced your rep though, by that much.

No it didn't.
Wish people would be a little less willing to claim people are wrong all the time just because you observe something different.

 

[Jmanis]

No it didn't.
Wish people would be a little less willing to claim people are wrong all the time just because you observe something different.

Settle down mate.

I didn't jump up and down screaming "NO U R WRONNNG!"... in fact I didn't say you were wrong at all. I literally just posted my observations from testing I'm doing right now... which is:

3 CZ's down. No change to rep with the enemy faction (100% allied), and I confirmed this after each CZ (as I dock to reload/refit each time)
One Massacre mission handed in, knocked down from 100% allied to high-Friendly with the enemy faction.

Maybe you observed something different, but you've observed a rep reduction as a result of "4 hcz and a massacre mission", and my test above shows separated observations of each event, with CZs having no impact, but rep damage caused by a mission.

Now, maybe there's a reason I'm not seeing a rep drop with completed CZs. Maybe it's a caching rep thing where the losses from CZs aren't being applied unless you log out or hand in a mission or some other trigger. Maybe rep loss doesn't happen if you're allied with both sides. These are all possibilities, which is why I *didn't* say you were wrong, I just said I'd observed differently. We may both be right...

Maybe revisit who is accusing who of being wrong right now...

 

[RaptorJesusss]

I seriously do not understand how an NPC faction with no squadron support can be gaining 3-7% daily.
https://elitebgs.app/system/59e8c41ad22c775be002ebf0

This system is not heavily trafficked, we are constantly doing missions for Tsohoda Jet Legal Co and we barely gain any influence at all while the NPS runs away with the system with no player support.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Most of the system influence is locked up in conflicts, so it seems to mainly be earning at the expense of the Anarchy faction. A couple of people bounty hunting regularly in the system would barely show up on the traffic reports ... what are the crime/bounty reports like? The controlling faction does also own a lot of stations, including the ones closest to the star, so it might not take a lot of passing trade traffic to boost it.

With Jet Legal Co having been in a Civil War for most of the last week, missions done for them will have had no impact on system influence levels at all. If you win that war you'll then be clear of all the other factions, and then you'll be in a good position to push towards the controller.

 

[RaptorJesusss]

Most of the system influence is locked up in conflicts, so it seems to mainly be earning at the expense of the Anarchy faction. A couple of people bounty hunting regularly in the system would barely show up on the traffic reports ... what are the crime/bounty reports like? The controlling faction does also own a lot of stations, including the ones closest to the star, so it might not take a lot of passing trade traffic to boost it.

With Jet Legal Co having been in a Civil War for most of the last week, missions done for them will have had no impact on system influence levels at all. If you win that war you'll then be clear of all the other factions, and then you'll be in a good position to push towards the controller.

Yeah the civil war is hampering our influecne till its over, but they just jumped 7% IN LESS THAN 12 HOURS, from 52.25% to 59.5%

There has to be something SERIOUSLY wrong with BGS right now

 

[Schlack]

Yeah the civil war is hampering our influecne till its over, but they just jumped 7% IN LESS THAN 12 HOURS, from 52.25% to 59.5%

There has to be something SERIOUSLY wrong with BGS right now

Factions dont get any influence during conflict at all - there are some edge cases in certain circumstances but not clear if bug or feature.

The BGS ticks once a day, currently around 1PM UK time and counts the previous 24 hours activity. 7% gain in one tick would not have been unusual in 3.2 for a system that size. No-one is quite sure what normal in 3.3 is yet

There are suspected bugs where in some systems, some factions seem to get the benefit of work for other factions. But i don't believe that's happening here. Imperial society is in Civil liberty and investment. That doesnt happen without cmdr activity. It looks like someone has been working for them. The most likely explanation is that you have some company.

 

[RaptorJesusss]

Factions dont get any influence during conflict at all - there are some edge cases in certain circumstances but not clear if bug or feature.

The BGS ticks once a day, currently around 1PM UK time and counts the previous 24 hours activity. 7% gain in one tick would not have been unusual in 3.2 for a system that size. No-one is quite sure what normal in 3.3 is yet

There are suspected bugs where in some systems, some factions seem to get the benefit of work for other factions. But i don't believe that's happening here. Imperial society is in Civil liberty and investment. That doesnt happen without cmdr activity. It looks like someone has been working for them. The most likely explanation is that you have some company.

I'll keep my eyes peeled but honestly I'm online nearly 3-5 hours a day and have yet to see another commander outside of my squadron here.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

I'll keep my eyes peeled but honestly I'm online nearly 3-5 hours a day and have yet to see another commander outside of my squadron here.

Check the Traffic Report in the station. That shows each hyperspace entrance to the system in the last 24 hours. Subtract the ones that are your squadron's activity and see what's left. If it's more than zero, you've definitely got some company ... even if it's zero people could be mining or bounty hunting without leaving the system, of course.

 

[VVI_RU52]

I'll keep my eyes peeled but honestly I'm online nearly 3-5 hours a day and have yet to see another commander outside of my squadron here.

Useless exercise. Commanders can fly in "solo" or "private group" mode. Such pilots you will not see, and affect the economy, politics within the system, they will!

 

[ApexWanderer]

Useless exercise. Commanders can fly in "solo" or "private group" mode. Such pilots you will not see, and affect the economy, politics within the system, they will!

Thanks Yoda.-)