Can One Person Make A Difference?

Specifically, can I as a single player effect the state of a system or change who's in charge? I'm not talking about systems where groups of player are actively playing the BGS. I'm not even talking about systems that have player traffic, but rather those "outback" systems that might get one ship passing through every couple of days. If I were to work to support a lesser faction, can I eventually bring that faction to power, or will my single contributions just not be enough to make a difference?
 
yes. i just did this in a system with a population of 150,000.
an Anarchy faction was in charge and i flipped the system and put a Democratic PMF in charge. LHS 1167.

to my knowledge i was the only cmndr in the system. i'm on Xbox but did a few checks which convinced me that no other human players were messing with that system's BGS.

i did missions for the PMF that i was pushing to increase their influence and also at times shot up the Anarchy factions ships to lower their influence. then when the war started, i supported the PMF and in three short days the war was won and over.

i think that the low population is what made everything so easy. that and the fact that LHS 1167 gets no traffic.
 
The lower the population is, the easier it is to move influence in the system. There's also a kind of diminishing returns as your faction's influence increases: your faction's high influence makes it more difficult to add more.
 
You can affect any system of any size, the important part is general traffic and opposition with the modifiers of time and what methods you use.

As an example, the largest system I altered to suit me was 3 billion pop. I could do this as I picked the right method, experienced low traffic and had no opposition. It took me a week to get a war for control.
 
Okay, one more related question - is there advantage of two CMDRs doing 50 missions each over one CMDR doing 100 of those same missions?
 
Each commander has a cap on how much they can affect, so teamwork on larger systems makes life easier as this bypasses any limits.
 
Okay, one more related question - is there advantage of two CMDRs doing 50 missions each over one CMDR doing 100 of those same missions?

Its all about influence. One commander can only raise about 2% in a day. I am currently working on my pmf by myself in my home system and have taken control of 2 systems so far. Just remember that trade missions dont affect your factions influence that much.
 
Its all about influence. One commander can only raise about 2% in a day. I am currently working on my pmf by myself in my home system and have taken control of 2 systems so far. Just remember that trade missions dont affect your factions influence that much.
Each commander has a cap on how much they can affect, so teamwork on larger systems makes life easier as this bypasses any limits.

Let's say I'm doing missions with INF+++(++) rewards. Is there any way to gauge when CMDR Duck has reached his limit? At this point I could switch over to CMDR Jenny, thus doubling my effect on the system, correct?
 
Let's say I'm doing missions with INF+++(++) rewards. Is there any way to gauge when CMDR Duck has reached his limit? At this point I could switch over to CMDR Jenny, thus doubling my effect on the system, correct?
I dont think that there is a specific limit, I could be wrong though. Ive never raised mine more then 3% after only doing Inf+++++ missions.
 
Let's say I'm doing missions with INF+++(++) rewards. Is there any way to gauge when CMDR Duck has reached his limit? At this point I could switch over to CMDR Jenny, thus doubling my effect on the system, correct?

From a recent dev post FD hinted at a ceiling with missions, but with the new forum I can't check that, so take it with a pinch of salt. In game there is no indicator, its a case of doing it, checking and retesting, and getting a feel for the system as you work it.

However, if you are in a small system with little traffic even one 5+ mission will help. In a test system of 10,000 with just me one such mission made me jump nearly 5%.

Do remember though each activity can be done in isolation: so, you can mix bounty hunting, data dropping, mission running etc to triple the effects you have.

If I sound woolly and nebulous its because I am! The BGS is still a bit of a dark art sometimes and the best way is to learn as you go.
 

Jane Turner

Volunteer Moderator
Yes of course one commander can have an effect - and it's still easy for one commander to achieve as much as a squadron if there is no other traffic. Nothing much has changed in the BGS in this regard save for the amount of effort needed to hit the cap - c 2- 4x what it was in 3.2 currently depending on which activities are used. What isn't possible now is to move 10 systems a day as a solo commander - there is a need to focus.
 
The main reason I'm interested in systems with larger populations is because if this system is going to be my "home", it has to have a place to land my larger ships. Now I'm okay with that being down on a planet's surface, assuming I can keep multiple ships there. Do small colonies ever have facilities for landing larger ships? Do those facilities have shipyards? I'm guessing the answer is no.

So the next question is, just how much extra work is it to influence a system with a billion people vs. one with 15,000?
 
The main reason I'm interested in systems with larger populations is because if this system is going to be my "home", it has to have a place to land my larger ships. Now I'm okay with that being down on a planet's surface, assuming I can keep multiple ships there. Do small colonies ever have facilities for landing larger ships? Do those facilities have shipyards? I'm guessing the answer is no.
All dockable surface bases have large pads, and about 2,000 of them have shipyards as well - including some in systems with a sub-million population. So it may just be a case of looking for the right system.
 
Well, you don't have to do it all on your own.

I am an independent trader and if you want to invite me over to your chosen system, I'll be glad to do some trading missions for your chosen faction. And it is of course for my own financial benefit, too. No need to create a squadron or player faction for this.

I will go a long way for a good cup of tea :)
 
Okay, one more related question - is there advantage of two CMDRs doing 50 missions each over one CMDR doing 100 of those same missions?

I've been able to expand one minor faction across ~10 systems over perhaps 3 or 4 years. At times I suspect some other CMDR(s?) have also been actively supporting the same faction, but I've not yet detected them (I suspect it's just how INF moves at times in a seemingly deliberate manner that I would have perhaps chosen).

Actions - best to do a little bit of everying, not just Missions alone (but for Missions, focus on the higher INF ones, +++++ or ++++), but also Bounty Hunting (can gain bounties by using a Kill Warrant Scanner, even if your chosen faction doesn't control the system, you'll pick up some bounties too), Trading (only if the faction controls a Commodity Market), Exploration Data (only if the factions controls a Station). Each day/tick I try to do a little bit of each. Plus, that's better variety for me. Optimal ship? Well, each to their own, but for BGS I tend to prefer the Python. Can handle combat, land at outposts, complete all mission types, and haul 128T trading (in my fitout).

I hope that helps, and good luck with your BGS adventures.
 
I've expanded into and flipped a 2.8Bn population agri on my own, so yes. It's definitely possible.

The difference is time - you can reasonably expect to move very large systems by a few percent a day at most. A 1,000 population system will move if you look at it a bit funny.
 
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