When can we expect the leather bound gold leaf autographed edition of the BGS Guide? But this is not my actual question. I did not find it in the guide, so: Conflicts. How is it determined what assets will be put at risk when two factions go into conflict? Is it predictable, or just random?
BGS Question
- Thread starter Don Alvarez
- Start date
It goes in order of value and from space to ground.
- Starports
- In systems with multiple starports, the one orbiting the most populous planet is considered the primary.
- Orbital outposts
- As above.
- Ground bases (with a bar/Pioneer/Frontline, etc.)
- Odyssey settlements.
- I don't know how the Odyssey bases being attacked are determined. There may be a hidden variable like "base population" or "base value" that determines this.
If the opposing faction is the system controlling faction, what scenario would cause an asset that's NOT the system's main station to be put in play?
Edit: NM. It seems the controlling station is not the one I expected it to be. Controlling faction holds a coriolis and two outposts, but for some reason it seems one of the outposts is actually the primary station.
Edit: NM. It seems the controlling station is not the one I expected it to be. Controlling faction holds a coriolis and two outposts, but for some reason it seems one of the outposts is actually the primary station.
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It's a lot more complicated than that. For example you can deliberately lose a war and the station you were set to lose, yet win plenty of Odyssey settlements as part of the war by concentrating on specific CZ closest to the Odyssey settlement(s) you wish to capture.
None - the controlling station is always staked if available
From tests on stations where these hidden values are either known or closely estimatable - the order is technically simple and entirely deterministic ... but it relies on a hidden variable so figuring out what it will be in practice can be somewhat unreliable:
1) Controlling station first
2) Dockable stations, highest population first (population order can be estimated from the Hydrogen Fuel supply on the market, for stations with markets). The hull design and location of the station does not directly matter, but obviously has a moderate correlation with population, so might be all you have to guess with for stations without markets.
3) Non-dockable assets (Horizons settlements and space installations), order unknown
Under normal circumstances, the controlling station is the one first added to the system; for those systems populated since the start of the game it normally is the largest population of the original stations. Frontier can change which station is the controlling station manually after the fact, though this is exceptionally rare.
It is also possible though again extremely rare for Frontier to lock specific assets to a named faction; these will never be staked in a conflict, and if a faction with only locked assets crosses a faction with no assets, no conflict will occur.
Thanks I was wondering how to determine that, and it actually checks out in the system I am working in. The outpost that came in play does in fact have almost twice the hydrogen fuel available on the market than the coriolis station. Since the coriolis was the only one in the system, I naturally assumed it would be the control station.
You do occasionally have to be careful with stations Frontier has hand-placed, as "economy size" and "population" are independent variables, and the Hydrogen Fuel test measures economy size. But for almost all stations there's a strong direct correlation between the two.
I know this. It's not complicated at all.
However, it wasn't the OP's question, so it wasn't relevant to include beyond "I don't know how these are selected" when referring to how GCZs are chosen. If you are suggesting that you can flip an Odyssey settlement by fighting in a space CZ close to it, it's still not complicated - you expressed the idea in a single sentence.
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So, more questions, as is seems alot of my BGS knowledge predates the last major update. So no one points me to it, yes I reference the latest published BGS guide before asking.
1) I seem to recall previously there was a cap on individual efforts to move the BGS. For example a player could run 50 courier missions a day, or turn in 100 millon worth of bounties, but past a certain point they have diminished or no effect. Is this still a thing? If it is, does anyone know if it counts towards CZ victories in a war?
2) pursuant to the question above, the BGS guide seems to recommend winging up to do CZ's to get them done faster. Say a wing of 4 enters a CZ and wins it, does that count as just one CZ victory, or one victory for each wing member present at the victory? Because in my mind, if its the former it would be more effective to split up to multiply your efforts. You really can complete CZ's only so fast even in a wing.
1) I seem to recall previously there was a cap on individual efforts to move the BGS. For example a player could run 50 courier missions a day, or turn in 100 millon worth of bounties, but past a certain point they have diminished or no effect. Is this still a thing? If it is, does anyone know if it counts towards CZ victories in a war?
2) pursuant to the question above, the BGS guide seems to recommend winging up to do CZ's to get them done faster. Say a wing of 4 enters a CZ and wins it, does that count as just one CZ victory, or one victory for each wing member present at the victory? Because in my mind, if its the former it would be more effective to split up to multiply your efforts. You really can complete CZ's only so fast even in a wing.
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1) There is a general diminishing returns on any particular type of action for influence gain - this is per faction per system, rather than per player, so it doesn't matter if one person runs 50 missions or ten people run 5 each. Common modelling has four "types" of positive action - trade, bounty, exploration and mission - this may not be entirely accurate around the edges but "1 trade + 1 bounty" will generally outdo "2 bounty" all else equal. What exactly "1 trade" and "1 bounty" are I'm not entirely sure of; it's not as simple as the credit values matching up!
If you're unopposed in a system, there's therefore a (fairly low) limit on how much of each type of action it's worth doing before you essentially max out your influence gain anyway. If you're opposed ... yes, there are diminishing returns, but you still need to be further along that curve than your opponent is, so it's more about keeping your types balanced than worrying about exactly where you are on the curve itself.
For CZs specifically, it doesn't really matter it it works that way or not, because it's a simple two-way win-or-lose contest against your opponent, rather than something where your margin relative to six other factions matters. Whether 10 CZ wins counts as "10 points" or "3.77 points" you still need to win 10 if your opponent wins 9. (Different CZ intensities count differently, of course, and the bond hand-ins also have an effect, but simplifying here)
(And of course, if you don't have any opposition, 1 CZ win one day, then hand the bonds in the next day, and you're 2-0 up)
2) One victory per participant would be more consistent with other bits of the game but I don't recall seeing this one tested recently to be sure either way.
It depends of course on how good your combat pilots are, too. If you have people who can speedily complete High CZs solo, then sure, they may as well start doing that at four different ones; if you have people who struggle to complete a Medium unless in a full wing, any victory is better than nothing.
If you're unopposed in a system, there's therefore a (fairly low) limit on how much of each type of action it's worth doing before you essentially max out your influence gain anyway. If you're opposed ... yes, there are diminishing returns, but you still need to be further along that curve than your opponent is, so it's more about keeping your types balanced than worrying about exactly where you are on the curve itself.
For CZs specifically, it doesn't really matter it it works that way or not, because it's a simple two-way win-or-lose contest against your opponent, rather than something where your margin relative to six other factions matters. Whether 10 CZ wins counts as "10 points" or "3.77 points" you still need to win 10 if your opponent wins 9. (Different CZ intensities count differently, of course, and the bond hand-ins also have an effect, but simplifying here)
(And of course, if you don't have any opposition, 1 CZ win one day, then hand the bonds in the next day, and you're 2-0 up)
2) One victory per participant would be more consistent with other bits of the game but I don't recall seeing this one tested recently to be sure either way.
It depends of course on how good your combat pilots are, too. If you have people who can speedily complete High CZs solo, then sure, they may as well start doing that at four different ones; if you have people who struggle to complete a Medium unless in a full wing, any victory is better than nothing.