One of the appeals of the BGS is its black box nature, figuring out how it works and applying that knowledge to achieve success in game. The downside is that this has resulted in a lot of misconceptions/disinformation. I thought it would be useful to gather together any theories that have been thoroughly disproven by the community (not just my own opinion!).
Please post candidates theories for highlighting here. Ill try to keep the first post updated and feel free to post clarifications.
To get the ball rolling:
1. War tax:
There was a "war tax" theory knocking about which sought to explain what was happening by suggesting that there was an automatic drain of faction influence across all systems during a conflicts. There is no such war tax.
What occurs is that the faction in a certain state does not have the benefit of certain actions during that state while the other factions have the benefit of all actions (assuming no state). For instance in a war, cmdrs running missions for all factions in pursuit of credits will boost all (non war) factions, any missions run for the war faction have zero effect for the duration. Without remedial action the war faction will drop and other factions will rise accordingly.
So any system where your faction is based that is afflicted with traffic will probably lose influence during conflict (depending on what activities are undertaken) best you can do is prepare through boosting inf in advance and keeping conflicts short.
2. NPCs affecting influence/automatic influence changes.
Some have posited that unexpected changes in influence levels result from some unspecified and undocumented mechanic usually attributed to modeling of NPC behavior in system. This is not correct. This general rule applies: Where there is no CMDR activity there are no influence changes. Exceptions include: Drop in influence in an active expansion source system. Changes due to a faction expanding into a system.
3. Missions during war/civil war.
Despite the flavor text in the mission descriptions, multiple batches of testing from many cmdrs and groups have shown that no missions have any influence effect during wartime. Only combat transactions have effect (Murder, Bonds & Bounties - Bonds effective in the war system only). There was some limited engagement with FDEV on the forum and the response was somewhat ambiguous suggesting that some missions should work - this may therefore be a bug. Whatever about should, our experience is that they do not work for influence. They still can fill/empty state "buckets"
4. Murder hurts the faction in whose jurisdiction the murder was committed.
In previous iterations of the BGS the jurisdiction in which the murder was committed determined who took the influence hit for the crime. This is no longer the case. the Murder effects the faction whose ships you are destroying.
h/t those who set me straight!
5. "You can't expand into a system if it already has 7 factions."
It's certainly *difficult* but it's not impossible. The following conditions must be met:
- no suitable system in expansion range with fewer than 7 factions
- no pending or active conflicts (as of 2.4, which makes it a lot tougher)
- suitable system with 7 factions is in range
If those conditions are met, expansion-by-invasion can take place. The faction enters the system and immediately sets up a War with a non-native faction already there. The losing faction is expelled from the system on conclusion of the war (if it ends in a draw, both stay). The conflict is a War even if the two factions would normally fight by Election.
h/t Ian Doncaster
Please post candidates theories for highlighting here. Ill try to keep the first post updated and feel free to post clarifications.
To get the ball rolling:
1. War tax:
There was a "war tax" theory knocking about which sought to explain what was happening by suggesting that there was an automatic drain of faction influence across all systems during a conflicts. There is no such war tax.
What occurs is that the faction in a certain state does not have the benefit of certain actions during that state while the other factions have the benefit of all actions (assuming no state). For instance in a war, cmdrs running missions for all factions in pursuit of credits will boost all (non war) factions, any missions run for the war faction have zero effect for the duration. Without remedial action the war faction will drop and other factions will rise accordingly.
So any system where your faction is based that is afflicted with traffic will probably lose influence during conflict (depending on what activities are undertaken) best you can do is prepare through boosting inf in advance and keeping conflicts short.
2. NPCs affecting influence/automatic influence changes.
Some have posited that unexpected changes in influence levels result from some unspecified and undocumented mechanic usually attributed to modeling of NPC behavior in system. This is not correct. This general rule applies: Where there is no CMDR activity there are no influence changes. Exceptions include: Drop in influence in an active expansion source system. Changes due to a faction expanding into a system.
3. Missions during war/civil war.
Despite the flavor text in the mission descriptions, multiple batches of testing from many cmdrs and groups have shown that no missions have any influence effect during wartime. Only combat transactions have effect (Murder, Bonds & Bounties - Bonds effective in the war system only). There was some limited engagement with FDEV on the forum and the response was somewhat ambiguous suggesting that some missions should work - this may therefore be a bug. Whatever about should, our experience is that they do not work for influence. They still can fill/empty state "buckets"
4. Murder hurts the faction in whose jurisdiction the murder was committed.
In previous iterations of the BGS the jurisdiction in which the murder was committed determined who took the influence hit for the crime. This is no longer the case. the Murder effects the faction whose ships you are destroying.
h/t those who set me straight!
5. "You can't expand into a system if it already has 7 factions."
It's certainly *difficult* but it's not impossible. The following conditions must be met:
- no suitable system in expansion range with fewer than 7 factions
- no pending or active conflicts (as of 2.4, which makes it a lot tougher)
- suitable system with 7 factions is in range
If those conditions are met, expansion-by-invasion can take place. The faction enters the system and immediately sets up a War with a non-native faction already there. The losing faction is expelled from the system on conclusion of the war (if it ends in a draw, both stay). The conflict is a War even if the two factions would normally fight by Election.
h/t Ian Doncaster
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