A Guide to Minor Factions and the Background Sim

Schembri

Schembri
Hi, I found this thread recently when after nearly 2 years I found out that I can play the background sim alone on small systems.
I started to experiment in two systems one with 20k and another 2M, I had the same effect with missions but one I reached second place in influence I'm getting stuck. I cannot lower the ruling faction below 45%, while my faction has maxed at about 25%.

These 2 systems have all stations owned by their respective ruling factions. No black markets and the ruler of the 20k system is miraculously in 3 other systems. I wonder how they can be so powerful, given their puny home system.

Is my only way to reduce ruler influence by killing civilians and system authority ships?
Am I missing some other way?
Problem is I'm lousy at fighting even interdiction, I easily spend 1 hr to kill just 2 ships, because of several failed escapes and waste of time. If I go to Nav beacon authorities turn against me because of my wanted status.

Are there other resources on background sim other than the op.?
 

jimbeau1571

J
OSchembri said:
Hi, I found this thread recently when after nearly 2 years I found out that I can play the background sim alone on small systems.
I started to experiment in two systems one with 20k and another 2M, I had the same effect with missions but one I reached second place in influence I'm getting stuck. I cannot lower the ruling faction below 45%, while my faction has maxed at about 25%.

These 2 systems have all stations owned by their respective ruling factions. No black markets and the ruler of the 20k system is miraculously in 3 other systems. I wonder how they can be so powerful, given their puny home system.

Is my only way to reduce ruler influence by killing civilians and system authority ships?
Am I missing some other way?
Problem is I'm lousy at fighting even interdiction, I easily spend 1 hr to kill just 2 ships, because of several failed escapes and waste of time. If I go to Nav beacon authorities turn against me because of my wanted status.

Are there other resources on background sim other than the op.?
Click to expand...

A few people on this thread have found that since 2.1 you have a real problem raising you factions influence if you are at War in another system.
Maybe you are, you just don't know it. System size has no bearing on Faction strength. So any faction can be in any number of systems. Yours included. And you may be, you just haven't found them yet. And if it is, that War can run for up to 28 days.
 

Schembri

Schembri
jimbeau1571 said:
you have a real problem raising you factions influence if you are at War in another system.
Click to expand...
The 2 factions I'm pushing in the two systems are limited only to those systems. when I stated on them they were less than 10% and now they are 20-25%.

My problem is that I'm getting the feel that the higher up you go i.e. >25% the harder it gets to push them through missions, and it seems that destroying ships is the viable way to reduce the ruler's influence.
I'm not sure if anyone knows this or can confirm: was it ever recorded that some one pushed a non ruling faction with no assets up to equivalence to the ruling faction doing only missions. If this is confirmed it gives me hope I can succeed by continuing to run missions but if this is impossible and beyond a certain % influence one has no choice but to destroy ruler's ships then it is better I improve my hunting skills.

_Flin_ said:
You can check out the AEDC BGS guide.
http://elitediplomats.com/?q=content/working-background-simulation-guide-turlorn
Edit: It's from 2.1 i think, but 90% or more are still valid.
Click to expand...

Hi Flin, o7.
Yes I read that already (CMDR Schembri in AEDC)
 

_Flin_

_Flin_
jimbeau1571 said:
A few people on this thread have found that since 2.1 you have a real problem raising you factions influence if you are at War in another system.
Maybe you are, you just don't know it. System size has no bearing on Faction strength. So any faction can be in any number of systems. Yours included. And you may be, you just haven't found them yet. And if it is, that War can run for up to 28 days.
Click to expand...

Or you can trigger a war for that faction in another system. If it is in 4 systems it might even be the pet faction of someone.
 

irongut

irongut
OSchembri said:
The 2 factions I'm pushing in the two systems are limited only to those systems. when I stated on them they were less than 10% and now they are 20-25%.

My problem is that I'm getting the feel that the higher up you go i.e. >25% the harder it gets to push them through missions, and it seems that destroying ships is the viable way to reduce the ruler's influence.
I'm not sure if anyone knows this or can confirm: was it ever recorded that some one pushed a non ruling faction with no assets up to equivalence to the ruling faction doing only missions. If this is confirmed it gives me hope I can succeed by continuing to run missions but if this is impossible and beyond a certain % influence one has no choice but to destroy ruler's ships then it is better I improve my hunting skills.
Click to expand...

There is no such problem. I don't really notice diminishing returns until my faction is over 60% influence and then all methods have the same issue, in systems ranging from a few thousand to 43m pop. And that is just diminishing returns, provided there is no state that prevents it I'm still gaining influence from missions when over 80%.

If your faction has definitely stopped gaining influence from missions then somewhere they are in a state that causes that - War, Civil War, Bust or Lockdown. Even though you're sure they are not in any other system I'd double check because I've lost count of the number of times I've made that mistake myself.
 

Gemai

Gemai
OSchembri said:
These 2 systems have all stations owned by their respective ruling factions. No black markets and the ruler of the 20k system is miraculously in 3 other systems. I wonder how they can be so powerful, given their puny home system.
Click to expand...

So you attack a clearly expanded and FORTIFIED faction? Are you sure you aren't up against players that support the other side and that cripples your effort?

Factions might spread by BGS traffic by accident, even in borderlands. But consolidating them is most of the time a player effort, especially if this goes BEYOND their home system.
 

jimbeau1571

J
Another little indicator would be to if you told us how many stations are in the systems. If the controlling faction is in control of say 3 stations, then I would say that in all likelihood you up against another player/s as one NPC faction doesn't tend to own all stations in multi station systems.

Also, when Horizons came, some systems had factions inserted from nearby systems without going throught the 'Expansion' cycle, just to fill the systems with factions when planetary landing stations were added.
They may have remained untouched till now.
 

Cosmographer

Cosmographer
How does powerplay interact with me if I decide to adopt a minor faction as my own? Does it matter at all?

Really academic question though, since I'm way out in the black and likely won't return before the new year. :)
 

raeat

Banned
raeat
Well, not noticeably, but then I don't make a habit of checking the 10ths of %. I'll check again a little more closely. I'm sure to be in a war again soon. :)
 

_Flin_

_Flin_
Cosmographer said:
How does powerplay interact with me if I decide to adopt a minor faction as my own? Does it matter at all?

Really academic question though, since I'm way out in the black and likely won't return before the new year. :)
Click to expand...

You will get negative factors for ruling factions in control systems due to undermining efforts (=more criminal activity). And more traffic in control systems. You might want to check that you aren't promoting an adversial government type to the power in place, or you will run into opposition sooner or later.

Apart from that... nothing i am aware of right now.
 

jimbeau1571

J
raeat said:
Well, not noticeably, but then I don't make a habit of checking the 10ths of %. I'll check again a little more closely. I'm sure to be in a war again soon. :)
Click to expand...

So your not in War but suddenly stopped making progress, that just screams your in War somewhere else and just don't know it.
 

Schembri

Schembri
irongut said:
There is no such problem. I don't really notice diminishing returns until my faction is over 60% influence and then all methods have the same issue, in systems ranging from a few thousand to 43m pop. And that is just diminishing returns, provided there is no state that prevents it I'm still gaining influence from missions when over 80%.

If your faction has definitely stopped gaining influence from missions then somewhere they are in a state that causes that - War, Civil War, Bust or Lockdown. Even though you're sure they are not in any other system I'd double check because I've lost count of the number of times I've made that mistake myself.
Click to expand...

Thanks I'll have a careful look around...good to know I can grind missions.

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_Flin_ said:
..... If it is in 4 systems it might even be the pet faction of someone.
Click to expand...
:eek: oh true haven't thought of that! I'll dare a bit in Open to see who's around. good point!


.............I caught up with all posts, so thank you guys, you're great. It does appear that I stumbled into someone's area... I will play in Open and see if anyone is regular. One system has 1 outpost this is the home of the faction who is expanded in 3 other systems. The other system has a Coriolis, an outpost and two surface ports all owned by the ruling faction.
 
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Lee Ti

L
Sorry in advance, and great thread full of really useful info on the BGS. I've only recently started to take note of the BGS :( and I'm at the dangerous stage that I think I'm begining to understand the basics. Retreat is a state and very little seems to be said about it. As I understand it the top states are War, Civil War and Election which over-ride every other state. Then comes Expansion and retreat which also over-ride the "lesser" states. A fraction cannot retreat from its own system but what is the trigger that causes an external fraction to "retreat" ? I have seen retreat pending when a fraction still has ~7% influence - Thanks in advance
 
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