Don't Panic: BGS guides and help

[Nerix]

What isn't clear?

1. Bounty Hunting: "A drop of one or more bounties...". E.g. I have collected bounties from 10 different factions (each above the threshold value) and I click redeem all. Do I get 10 x 2 points or just 2?
a) if it's the latter, do I get each time 2 points if I hand it in by clicking each faction separately (not "redeem all")?
a2)... or do I really have to hand in all my bounties, get just 2 points (regardless of the number of factions I collected bounties for), and then have to start hunting again?

2. same as 1 for exploration (there it would be systems instead of factions).

3. What is BM Trade?

Tbh the system by transactions seems to be really counter intuitive (handing in 10 bounties with a total value of 10mln has the same effect as 10 bounties with total 100.000....). Hope that will be changed.

 

[Jane Turner]

If the bounties are for different factions, each drop will count as a +2 transaction for each faction you drop for (but the effect on the BGS will be fairly insignificant). If you want to push one faction only drop their bounties. BGS players only use KWS when trying to get bounties for factions that don't have any juridisction.

Exploration data gives a boost only to the faction owning the station

BM is black Market

 

[Jane Turner]

Max influence gainable by positive actions added to the 1st post

Spoiler

 

[Nerix]

Thanks, that helps. Just wondering: does handing in bounties at interstellar factors still count for the BGS as if I would hand them in at the issuing system?

 

[Jane Turner]

Thanks, that helps. Just wondering: does handing in bounties at interstellar factors still count for the BGS as if I would hand them in at the issuing system?

No. SAme for bonds, though it does help with your reputation

 

[CapitanAceRimmer]

Excellent work! Can't rep you any more, unfortunately.

 

[rekurzion]

thank you for doing this Jane Turner.

for information sharing and elevating everyone's understanding.

also, from the dev video: "players need to have progression, in order not to risk that we had to use transactions".

 

[Johnny Cyclops]

Hi Jane

I found the recent series of "current best thinking" posts were very useful but are now increasingly scattered on the sub-forum as they age. Might you be able to list their urls on the OP on this sticky thread please?

Many thanks
John

 

[Jane Turner]

They are! Or in the ones that lead from it - check the links in the state description page for example. I elected to keep the stickies low and the main pages less cluttered. Its should be no more than tha two clicks. If that doesn't work for you let me know and I'll do something different.

 

[Johnny Cyclops]

They are! Or in the ones that lead from it - check the links in the state description page for example. I elected to keep the stickies low and the main pages less cluttered. Its should be no more than tha two clicks. If that doesn't work for you let me know and I'll do something different.

Hi Jane, I understand it now, and see the links from the STATE page, thank you. I'm continually grateful for the efforts you put in.

 

[Trickylion]

One thing I don't get, how does a empty system get a new port and population. Surely the bubble expands and factions occupy empty systems on the fringe. The whole bgs seems to be taking over other factions assets, but if there is a ripe empty system close by wouldn't it be more natural to invade the empty space? Has the bubble expanded over the years? Were new ports always an artificial cg reward?
This question has been bugging me for some time.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

One thing I don't get, how does a empty system get a new port and population. Surely the bubble expands and factions occupy empty systems on the fringe. The whole bgs seems to be taking over other factions assets, but if there is a ripe empty system close by wouldn't it be more natural to invade the empty space? Has the bubble expanded over the years? Were new ports always an artificial cg reward?

There is no automatic mechanism for populating new systems or creating new stations - at the moment it's all manually done by Frontier.

There have been various expansions of the bubble over the years - the main ones being in 2.0 which added a lot of systems with only surface bases, and shortly before 2.4 when a lot of new systems were added to the Pleiades region. During 2.2 and 2.3 a lot of systems were added to Colonia and other deep-space locations. Other major releases have come with an extra system or two here and there.

 

[Trickylion]

ok good to know, but is not realistic
the vikings sailed westwards
columbus, magellan, cooke went into the unknown
musk is off to outer space (literally!)
the bubble is like a political ostrich, we really busy right now, cant see anything outside....

 

[Alec Turner]

To me it already stops at the yet unanswered question: "why would I want to defend/change/flip a system at all?" Give me a compelling reason and I'm in! "Just because you can" wouldn't cut it for me. Must be something clearly stronger than hanging on my freedom.

Say what you like about the recent assault on the Fuel Rats home system of Fuelum but it sure has got a lot of people interested in the BGS which I actually think is great. Ditto the recent altercations between Lave Radio Network and the AEDC.

 

[Alec Turner]

For player groups it's understandable, but what's in for a solo player? And for once I'm pretty sure not being part of a minority...

Well that's what I mean really ... even people who aren't Fuel Rats are getting involved, rushing to the defence of something they like. Perhaps that's part of the problem, everywhere in the galaxy is largely the same so it's hard to care about most of it.

 

[MaxG10]

A week into the game, and I am glad I found that here. Thanks! Naturally, many questions on the model occur once you start thinking of it. What economical model is behind it and what are the limitations? Theoretically speaking, a faction has a simple goal, to have dominance over a ressource that is vital fro all other factions, and work towards it's domination. 3307 a dictatorship dominates the entire universe? Possible in this model, not possible?

What level of AI is perhaps involved in the BGS? Are scientists interdisciplinary involved in developing and feedback?

Many more questions of course.... now start to read....

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Note: due to changes in the recently released 3.3, a lot of the guides may no longer be totally accurate. It will take months to reanalyse all the data and research the new behaviour.

What economical model is behind it and what are the limitations?

The economic model is quite abstract but can still give interesting behaviour. I have a rough summary at
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...ets-supply-demand-and-relationship-to-the-BGS though a lot of the specific numbers are likely to have changed in 3.3

3307 a dictatorship dominates the entire universe? Possible in this model, not possible?

A single faction would only be able to spread to systems within expansion range, so it would need to hop no more than 40LY at a time. So it could dominate the main bubble and Pleiades [1], but not the deep space stations or some of the further out systems in the bubble's halo.

3307 would be too soon - the hard limiting factor is the speed at which a faction can expand to a system it's not yet present in, which is approximately one system every two weeks. That would therefore mean it would take around 750 years for a single faction to expand to be present in every reachable populated system, assuming no opposition and perfect management. But by 4307 it would be theoretically possible.

(That's for a single specific dictatorship. By 3307 assuming no opposition and perfect management it would certainly be possible to have every system in the primary bubble controlled by *a* dictatorship)

In practice of course other factions would have their own agendas and therefore would act against it. A single faction controlling 10 systems is large, a faction controlling 50 systems is extremely large.

What level of AI is perhaps involved in the BGS?

None, even by today's over-hyped standards of what counts as AI. It's all fairly simple at the micro-level, responding in various deterministic ways to player activity ... it's the emergent macro consequences of that which are complex.


[1] For an ultra-picky side point, there are also four key systems in the bubble which cannot be expanded into or taken over, so the faction would need to omit those.

 

[Jmanis]

None, even by today's over-hyped standards of what counts as AI. It's all fairly simple at the micro-level, responding in various deterministic ways to player activity ... it's the emergent macro consequences of that which are complex.

This one. People seem to assume the BGS is far more complicated than it actually is. Simple rules create complex scenarios though.

 

[MaxG10]

Very interesting read Ian, quite some detectve work involed, thanks much! - I wonder, who is CEO of the central bank in this BGS. LOL - So if I understood, a private faction, theoretically consisting of say 10.000 players, would still not be able to challange the NPC superpowers. Would that be roughly right?

Yes, I would have assumed neuronal networks and some AI aspects to be involved in the BSG part.

My mind wandered to far distant places... and I wondered, if an AI would control the game and would have total freedom of descision making, if and when at what stage it might take over the entire universe, for whatever reason.

May I ask, what do you mean when you refer to the bubble?

 

[Ian Doncaster]

So if I understood, a private faction, theoretically consisting of say 10.000 players, would still not be able to challange the NPC superpowers. Would that be roughly right?

It could, it would just take about as many centuries as it took in lore to establish those superpowers in the first place.

However, a coalition of 10,000 players manipulating a sufficient number of factions could dismantle an existing superpower in months - if unopposed and playing optimally - by transferring ownership of all its systems to other factions. It's occurring much more slowly due to opposition, lack of a single organisation, and so on ... but both the Federation and Empire have shrunk significantly since the start of the game as a result of this.

May I ask, what do you mean when you refer to the bubble?

The bubble is the region dense in inhabited systems approximately centred on Sol.

Opinions differ on exactly how big it is - certainly 200LY radius, but there are systems out to about 500LY radius where it's very hard to make a case for including one in "the bubble" but not the next one slightly further out. So people will all have slightly different definitions. In BGS terms, it's where almost all the action is.

May have got its name from the appearance of inhabited space in the Powerplay map mode (though the inhabited "bubble" is a bit larger than the area encompassed by the powerplay spheres)