A Guide to Minor Factions and the Background Sim

[Jmanis]

I bet decent money its logarithmic.

1000-9999 = x, 100000-99999=x/2 100000-999999=x/3 etc

My line of (completely untested and unproven) thought is that it'll be a logarithmic effect, but one which, at some point dependent on the population, starts delivering exponentially less influence for missions. Not zero, just less (an S-curve). The two reasons I'm thinking along these lines is:
- (very anecdotally) my observation of 2% change for high influence systems actually came from looking at a system of pop 400-500m, not my 1400
- My understanding is the population based "cap" on change is designed to make big changes to big systems hard (probably so FD can stave off things like Sol becoming an anarchy), erring on small changes over a long period instead.

But a lot more testing needed.

 

[Walter2]

for the duration of the conflict the parties to the conflict can only take influence off each other.

That's the theory, but I think the methodology is currently flawed and one or both parties in a conflict can occasionally grab influence from another faction.

Unless anyone knows that this has been fixed.

 

[Schlack]

That's the theory, but I think the methodology is currently flawed and one or both parties in a conflict can occasionally grab influence from another faction.

Unless anyone knows that this has been fixed.

Agreed, there appears to be a bug where influence effects go weird where there is more than one conflict is active in the same system at one time. Or its a feature that we haven't figured out yet!

 

[CaptainKirby]

The devs are currently aware of this issue and it's something they're looking into!

(Though it's still not on the known-bugs list.)

 

[Walter2]

I think that should be:

We are currently aware of this issue and it's something we're looking into™

 

[Belthize]

Slightly different topic.

Is there any knowledge as to what trade goods impact wealth, standard of living and influence. All I've found are basic comments on trade in general (like trade helps influence) but I suspect there are some goods, probably those needed at all economy types that positively effect those characteristics. I know missions have more impact on influence but there are many times when there are no missions or there are missions that require minimal cargo space.

So far I've been buying the most expensive item my adopted faction makes and selling it off world so they gain money and on the return leg I've tried various strategies of bringing fancier food, clothes, consumer electronics etc. It's entirely possible that level of detail isn't coded but I suspect it is and I'm curious if anyone has insights as to what items help the most.

 

[RandomGun]

Test Report #1

System C, uncontrolled, population 33k, extraction
- Outpost A - Faction: Dominion
- Outpost B - Faction: Silver

Date 29/02 -- Traffic: Asp 2
35.3 % - Dominion (controlling) - State: NONE
26.8 % - Purple - State: NONE
15.1 % - Alliance - State: NONE
11.4 % - Silver - State: WAR
11.4 % - Mafia - State: WAR

Action: Sold exploration data for 80k at Outpost B (Silver)

Date 01/03 -- Traffic: Asp 3 (me), Cobra 1, Python 1
-- at 35.3 % / 26.8 % / 15.1 % no change for Dominion / Purple / Alliance
11.7 % - Silver - State: WAR
11.1 % - Mafia - State: WAR
-- cartography is a "combat action"?

Action: Bought 2,18M worth of primary products from Outpost B (Silver)

Date 02/03 -- Traffic: Asp 5 (me), Cobra 1
-- no change at all (buying is no "combat action"?)

Action: Sold exploration data for 174k at Outpost B (Silver) to confirm 01/03 effect

Date 03/03 -- Traffic: Asp 4 (me), Python 1
-- at 35.3 % / 26.8 % no change for Dominion / Purple
15.1 % - Alliance - State: EXPANSION
13.4 % - Silver - State: WAR
9.4 % - Mafia - State: WAR
-- cartography is really a "combat action"?

Action: Sold exploration data for 174k (again!) at Outpost B (Silver) to confirm 03/03 effect

Date 04/03 -- Traffic: ???-- at 35.3 % / 26.8 % / 15.1 % no change for Dominion / Purple / Alliance
16.4 % - Silver - State: WAR
6.4 % - Mafia - State: WAR
-- cartography really is a "combat action"!!!

 

[Jane Turner]

Slightly different topic.

Is there any knowledge as to what trade goods impact wealth, standard of living and influence. All I've found are basic comments on trade in general (like trade helps influence) but I suspect there are some goods, probably those needed at all economy types that positively effect those characteristics. I know missions have more impact on influence but there are many times when there are no missions or there are missions that require minimal cargo space.

So far I've been buying the most expensive item my adopted faction makes and selling it off world so they gain money and on the return leg I've tried various strategies of bringing fancier food, clothes, consumer electronics etc. It's entirely possible that level of detail isn't coded but I suspect it is and I'm curious if anyone has insights as to what items help the most.

We have lowered influences in the past by dropping loads of goods into a market. Not tried since horizons dropped though. Did anyone track changes though trade CGs recently. I know in the past host station had massive drops

 

[goemon]

We have lowered influences in the past by dropping loads of goods into a market. Not tried since horizons dropped though. Did anyone track changes though trade CGs recently. I know in the past host station had massive drops

the thing is, FD is now setting fix prices and sets demand without any value, so we can assume, CG's don't influence BGS in that way anymore - maybe. we plan on trading out boom in our system, if it gets active, and will bump a lot of low-demand high-value goods in smaller systems around, i will share influence effects for those systems.

 

[Jane Turner]

Re expansions once all >4's are filled. We have had 3 out of 3 1st expansions into a 5 faction system in the 27-29 LY range. 2 out of 2 second ones have been in the closest 3

 

[Patau82]

we reached expansion pending today on 75.1% influence, we had 75.0% yesterday and no expansion pending

 

[Patau82]

We have lowered influences in the past by dropping loads of goods into a market. Not tried since horizons dropped though. Did anyone track changes though trade CGs recently. I know in the past host station had massive drops

We sold lots of meta-alloys to our station for the few days between them being found and CG to fix obsidian orbital, this raised our factions influence a lot!

 

[CaptainKirby]

we reached expansion pending today on 75.1% influence, we had 75.0% yesterday and no expansion pending

The System Map rounds the influence to one decimal. You might have had an influence of 74.95% yesterday. You could have proved that with a look on the right panel faction states: The influence values stated there simply get cut off at the dot, so you might have seen a 74% there (despite the 75.0% on the System Map).

Confusing, I know.

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We have lowered influences in the past by dropping loads of goods into a market.

We just lost influence after dropping mining goods worth a few million into our market. Might be coincidence though.

 

[Patau82]

The System Map rounds the influence to one decimal. You might have had an influence of 74.95% yesterday. You could have proved that with a look on the right panel faction states: The influence values stated there simply get cut off at the dot, so you might have seen a 74% there (despite the 75.0% on the System Map).

Confusing, I know.

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We just lost influence after dropping mining goods worth a few million into our market. Might be coincidence though.

Yeah i checked Right panel showed 75%, had to check it to see if expansion was pending

 

[Desolate Fate]

I've skimmed over this thread many times, but I don't think I've ever seen this clarified.

Can a civil war interrupt lockdown, or is lockdown something that has to run its course?

 

[DaveC]

I've skimmed over this thread many times, but I don't think I've ever seen this clarified.

Can a civil war interrupt lockdown, or is lockdown something that has to run its course?

Conflicts (Election, Civil War, War) all take precedence over other states. End any non-conflict state with a conflict.

 

[Walt Kerman]

I've skimmed over this thread many times, but I don't think I've ever seen this clarified.

Can a civil war interrupt lockdown, or is lockdown something that has to run its course?

I have pulled the quote below directly from the first post of this thread:

Previously we had player groups harassing us by causing lockdowns, or civil unrest. With 1.4 we have successfully been able to end these states by interrupting them with a war.

 

[Desolate Fate]

Conflicts (Election, Civil War, War) all take precedence over other states. End any non-conflict state with a conflict.

Thank you.

I have pulled the quote below directly from the first post of this thread:

This makes me feel really stupid.

Thanks for the clarification.

 

[Sh1nyTh1ngs]

Quick question, at my home station I've noticed some outfitting items that were once available are now no longer in stock. Is this just a temporary 'out of stock' issue that will replenish in time, or is there some BGS manipulation that can (needs?) be done to restock? The controlling minor faction is not in lockdown / election / war etc however their influence has dropped slightly. Several non-controlling minor factions are pending civil war.

 

[Schlack]

Quick question, at my home station I've noticed some outfitting items that were once available are now no longer in stock. Is this just a temporary 'out of stock' issue that will replenish in time, or is there some BGS manipulation that can (needs?) be done to restock? The controlling minor faction is not in lockdown / election / war etc however their influence has dropped slightly. Several non-controlling minor factions are pending civil war.

Hi Sh1ny,

Did a boom just end?