A Guide to Minor Factions and the Background Sim

[MottiKhan]

BGS sub forum would be fantastic.

"BGS a valid game play element"? It's frankly what drives for me just about every game activity. It made me a daily player, for sure. I guess for me ED is "an inch wide, a mile deep"....

+1. Couldn't have said it better myself.

 

[jimbeau1571]

With an out of date op and almost 4,500 posts, most of them asking the same questions (or providing the same answers) over and over, we definitley need a BGS forum section with a bunch of relevant stickies. There are several mods who frequent this thread, I don't know how much influence they have with the devs but if they suggested a BGS forum section it couldn't hurt.

goemon?!

Just noticed too, and not before but in War in one system but over 75% in another, no Expansion pending. Didn't realise War stopped Expansion pending.

 

[Sentenza]

That would be most helpful. I'd suggest PMing Brett C. He has the admin rights to create such a sub-forum.

Good Idea. Will do tomorrow.

 

[Jmanis]

Smuggling increases lockdown, or at least it used to. But I had seen players mention that illegal weapons can increase civil unrest.

In the case of black market trading (as opposed to smuggling missions) neither of these is true. Also something that a sub-forum would help with is keeping a wrangle on what's true and what's not.

Black Market trading has the following effects:
- Causes Economic Bust
- Increases your reputation with the faction who owns the black market
- Decreases the influence of the faction who owns the black market

It's the single most powerful way to destroy a target faction's hold on a system. My best result was dropping a target faction (who had less than 50% influence initially) in a population 1m-ish system down 11%. I won't make the claim that black market dealings only cause economic bust and don't cause Unrest/Lockdown, but in the time I've done this (and obviously pushed vast amounts of black market goods over the line) I've never caused a lockdown or civil unrest through black market trading. I've also made a Boom state system enter Bust pending overnight.

On the other hand, I've caused Lockdown very easily by killing System Authorities, and caused Civil Unrest equally easily by killing civilian ships belonging to the target faction. Obviously not the only ways to do it, but ways nonetheless.

However, proof positive, Black Market dealing overwhelmingly causes economic bust.

 

[Sentenza]

Good Idea. Will do tomorrow.

Done.

 

[Sentenza]

In the case of black market trading (as opposed to smuggling missions) neither of these is true. Also something that a sub-forum would help with is keeping a wrangle on what's true and what's not.

Black Market trading has the following effects:
- Causes Economic Bust
- Increases your reputation with the faction who owns the black market
- Decreases the influence of the faction who owns the black market

It's the single most powerful way to destroy a target faction's hold on a system. My best result was dropping a target faction (who had less than 50% influence initially) in a population 1m-ish system down 11%. I won't make the claim that black market dealings only cause economic bust and don't cause Unrest/Lockdown, but in the time I've done this (and obviously pushed vast amounts of black market goods over the line) I've never caused a lockdown or civil unrest through black market trading. I've also made a Boom state system enter Bust pending overnight.

On the other hand, I've caused Lockdown very easily by killing System Authorities, and caused Civil Unrest equally easily by killing civilian ships belonging to the target faction. Obviously not the only ways to do it, but ways nonetheless.

However, proof positive, Black Market dealing overwhelmingly causes economic bust.

The Table - assuming that informations are still true - states that Illegal Trading in fact counts towards Lockdown, but not Bust. Piracy counts for Bust, but not Lockdown.
So, if the data is still correct, we have:

- smuggling illegal goods: lockdown
- selling stolen goods: bust

OTOH, your experimental evidence seems to go the opposite way...

 

[Gemai]

Selling stolen goods definetly causes bust, even for anarchy factions. We did that en masse during the dangerous games with the diamond wreck. It did not cause lockdowns. Half of the Cubeo region with Black Markets was in bust for weeks though.

 

[Sentenza]

Selling stolen goods definetly causes bust, even for anarchy factions. We did that en masse during the dangerous games with the diamond wreck. It did not cause lockdowns. Half of the Cubeo region with Black Markets was in bust for weeks though.

There's going to be fun in 2.2. If what I see in beta goes live, black markets are sprouting everywhere.

 

[Gemai]

black markets are sprouting everywhere.

Seems FD wants everyone to be open to UA bombing aside of the Empire Superpowers that shut blackmarkets down. Go figure!
​

 

[irongut]

Just noticed too, and not before but in War in one system but over 75% in another, no Expansion pending. Didn't realise War stopped Expansion pending.

I had an Election prevent Expansion going pending a week or two ago, first time I'd seen that too.

Speaking of Expansion... I managed to get a 0 days active successful expansion yesterday; went straight from pending to recovery, expanded to new system and no influence lost in the system I expanded from. I had been trying to queue up an Election to interrupt my Expansion after 1 day active but due to 2 days spent fixing my gaming pc after a drive failure I didn't know exactly when the Expansion went pending and my guess was wrong, or perfect depending on point of view.

 

[Schlack]

There's going to be fun in 2.2. If what I see in beta goes live, black markets are sprouting everywhere.

Ohh missed that one. What's the cause?

 

[Sentenza]

Ohh missed that one. What's the cause?

I think it's related to Powerplay. For example I saw them pop up everywhere in Torval systems. But I don't see anything in the notes.

 

[Henkka77]

Just found out today that my group has been implemented in game.

For starters, we are now in civil war with another faction with same influence.
But how is it determined which side wins? What is the dealbreaker here, what is needed for a win?

 

[Sentenza]

Just found out today that my group has been implemented in game.

For starters, we are now in civil war with another faction with same influence.
But how is it determined which side wins? What is the dealbreaker here, what is needed for a win?

The one with more influence wins in CW you need to go at least +3%.

 

[raeat]

Hey there.

Now, once the control station of a system has changed hands, is it possible for it to change hands again in the same Civil War?

 

[MottiKhan]

Hey there.

Now, once the control station of a system has changed hands, is it possible for it to change hands again in the same Civil War?

No. The asset will change hands the day before the conflict ends. The actual conflict is over, even though the state is still echoed.

 

[Jmanis]

Selling stolen goods definetly causes bust, even for anarchy factions. We did that en masse during the dangerous games with the diamond wreck. It did not cause lockdowns. Half of the Cubeo region with Black Markets was in bust for weeks though.

Yup. Regardless of if it's stolen or illegal (or both), black market sales cause economic bust (even for anarchies). It's kinda cute how a lot of player-factions have decided to be Anarchies, meanwhile it's one of the easiest (and most profitable) types of government to overthrow (I'm yet to see an anarchy without a black market).

Others have mentioned previously that the table is out of date... I believe it was posted pre-Horizons? It certainly doesn't mention states like retreat or investment, so it's older than them.

 

[_Flin_]

Just found out today that my group has been implemented in game.

For starters, we are now in civil war with another faction with same influence.
But how is it determined which side wins? What is the dealbreaker here, what is needed for a win?

Really, dont want to sound condescending, but this information is neither new or needs to be asked about, because you can read about it everywhere.

Here is our guide
http://elitediplomats.com/?q=content/working-background-simulation-guide-turlorn

Then there is this thread.

Read it. Asking "how can i win a civil war" feels a bit .... respectless and insulting.

 

[Henkka77]

Really, dont want to sound condescending, but this information is neither new or needs to be asked about, because you can read about it everywhere.

Here is our guide
http://elitediplomats.com/?q=content/working-background-simulation-guide-turlorn

Then there is this thread.

Read it. Asking "how can i win a civil war" feels a bit .... respectless and insulting.

Thanks for the link.

And sorry for asking a "dumb" question, but all of this is new for me and i was just super excited that we have our own minor faction now, so i didnt bother to google it around as i thought this is the place to ask.

 

[_trent_]

Just found out today that my group has been implemented in game.

For starters, we are now in civil war with another faction with same influence.
But how is it determined which side wins? What is the dealbreaker here, what is needed for a win?

Congratulations on the new faction. [up]

Hope you didn't have any important real-life stuff planned for the next few weeks.

Really, dont want to sound condescending, but this information is neither new or needs to be asked about, because you can read about it everywhere.

Here is our guide
http://elitediplomats.com/?q=content/working-background-simulation-guide-turlorn

Then there is this thread.

Read it. Asking "how can i win a civil war" feels a bit .... respectless and insulting.

Is your Elite Diplomatic Corp signature meant to be ironic or something?

Also, in the spirit of bluntness that you brought to the thread, your guide is a little out of date, perhaps you should update it before linking to it on this much more up-to-date source. A few examples: Doesn't mention retreat state at all. Still has war duration listed as 3 days minimum, not 4 as it is now. Says war and civil war have 0 day cooldown, not 1 day as observed and repeatedly mentioned here.