Election State : Optimal Missions?

[Johnny Cyclops]

A minor faction I'm boosting is about to enter "Election" state in a neighbouring system. Yeehaa.

DAK are there optimal missions to:

a) advance from "Election Critical" to "Election"?
b) win the Election for my faction (and thus hopefully take control of one of the two outposts)?

GALNET has helpfully added a bunch of recent news posts on minor faction state changes, possibly for CMDRs like me studiously ignoring PP and sticking with minor factions, and in my case spreading my faction's control.

However, while GALNET lists optimal mission types to support systems at war, or those in famine/outbreak, it's silent on the elections page to describe what optimal missions are. Frustrating.

 

[Johnny Cyclops]

bumpety bump. Just curious if anyone else is nudging along minor factions, or get their thrills in PP.

 

[whipdiddywhip]

im still new to the game, does any of this (reputation/governments) actually have any sort of impact in the game? or is it all just for roleplaying purposes?

 

[Johnny Cyclops]

im still new to the game, does any of this (reputation/governments) actually have any sort of impact in the game? or is it all just for roleplaying purposes?

Yes, it does have game impact. In my case it allows the major faction, Federation, take control of more stations, outposts and ultimately more systems. "My" minor faction is now 90% in control of its home system, and has expanded into two neighbours, one where it's close to taking control (the "Election Critical" one) currently at 67% and another where it's more recently expanded and is in third place at 17%, but where I'll turn my attention next.

On the one hand, the minor faction status is a bit of fun, but could lead to a local 'power block', I suppose mostly in RP terms. The shift of control for the major faction is important. Why? Because instead of boosting a Fed minor faction I could have chosen an Indi minor faction, and be slowly pushing back the Fed (or Empire) minor factions. Instead I'm working to spread the control of the Feds. So far I've found one system with both Fed and Empire minor factions (I expect there will be more along the border) and it might be fun boosting the Feds and squeezing out Empire).

On the RP front, I do wish I could somehow join or be recognised by my minor faction; something that goes beyond 'Allied'.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

--- Deleted ---

 

[Johnny Cyclops]

In a civil war, Warzone Missions for your Faction make all the difference (just running into Conflict Zone and destroying Ships of the other side seems to do absolutely nothing to Influence).
How to boost/win an election while it's active.... frankly, I have no idea.

PS.
Influence is still extremely poorly documented.
Those random 10 out of x GALnet entries are the very first in-game attempts to explain something I've ever seen.

Too bad those explanations are so incredibly short and vastly incomplete - they're nearly useless.

Yes, that's my view, GALNET posts poorly structured, hard to read (no formatting it seems, just plain text) and only gives guidance on some State change types, not all of them. I did find an earlier thread by Micheal Brookes on States, listing most of them EXCEPT Election. Rightly or wrongly I'm supporting a Minor Faction with a Political bias, so their 'conflict' will be resolved in the ballot box not in the cockpit. https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=97577&page=42&p=1691696&viewfull=1#post1691696

I've been tracking mission influence change the last few days. As you say, v1.3 missions now show the influence impact, so I'm aiming mostly for Medium impacts, which seem to be the "Smuggle This to another system", which I've done.

It also seems the influence percentages update daily at 7am GMT currently 8am BST, so I'm waiting another 20 mins this Sunday morning to see what last night's missions did for me. Currently at 67%, so the largest by far (the controlling Indi entity at 20%, another Indi at 10% and a small Fed at 3% - the two outposts are controlled by the two Indi's, I'm hoping to grab one). "My" faction did fight a War (not Civil War, as it's an expansion/invader) soon after arrival, but was against the minor Fed faction, so didn't result in outpost change of control.

Your point about when influence percentages pass each other is interesting. I'd read elsewhere the same thing, but in my case that happened three weeks ago, when my faction became the largest, and nothing happened with the previous leading minor faction. I'm loath to go back and boost the faction I've been undermining. I'm now aiming for a 75+% figure, because I think that should trigger a change of control.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

--- Deleted ---

 

[smiths121]

Elections suck - what I am saying is do not celebrate democracy
They seem to take a fixed amount of time regardless of influence swings.
They have a 7 day cool down period afterwards compared to 3 days for civil war, war is preferable!

Having won three elections my advise would be (roughly in order):
1) Missions - any missions to support your faction.
2) Kill wanted of the other faction
3) If your faction owns a station with a commodity market, trade here (note the influence affects of trading have been reduced in 1.3).
4) Take missions for the opposing faction and seek out the alternative path (easier now), follow the alternative path reduces the sponsoring factions influence.
4) Kill civilians of the other faction if things are looking desperate.

Unlike war where a big enough influence swing ends the conflict, I think election is based on highest influence after the fixed length of time, could be highest swing, never had a scenario to determine this.

Simon

 

[Johnny Cyclops]

Yeah, the Influence Updates seem to come more frequent now and at different times than before.

Used to be around 1200GMT daily if I remember correctly - now I think I'm seeing at least 2 Updates within a 24hr cycle. Could be even 3 or 4 updates per day using a 6hr cycle, at least I remember seeing such occasions (and I was quite surprised).

The critical 70% marker was bugged very often in the past, almost as if you'd have to nail 70.0% precisely to it to trigger or something.
I did manage to flip Konduwa after months or work and then winning the Conflict with help from Alliance friends. However, the Galaxy Map does not auto-update and still seems unconnected to such effects (Devs seem to have to manually edit it for the time being).

Oddly, often enough I also waited to some effect but nothing happened.
Only when I basically already abandoned it (thinking it'll never come), it usually popped up out of nowhere and with no visible explanation (?)

Overall, I think the Influence System is still bugged in many respects - and most importantly lacking a few connected dots along a line of effects and expected/intended consequences.

I checked just after 8am BST (7am GMT) and the Election state has happened although no further shift from yesterday in percentage influence terms for any of the four. We'll have to see how the Election plays out (quite apt, with Greece voting today for something approaching "control of their system" too ).

I did wonder if there's more than one update per day. I often check the game in the morning, but am usually playing in evenings, so a once-per day update probably suffices for me.

A pity about 'bugs' like no auto-update of the GalMap, or the percentages not triggering events. I think once a non-controlling minor faction gets enough headroom above the controlling faction this should increase the likelihood of a state change. My faction passed the system controller to become the largest faction on 22 June. There'd been a pending Election state for a week prior to that, but I didn't see any Election take place. Prior to 1.3 GalNet at stations often posted local news. This has seemed to dry up (I realise galaxy wide news is on the main GALNET page now, I'm taking about "there's an Outbreak on xxx", or "Civil War rages in the system", type posts.

Fingers crossed for the right result in the Election.

 

[Johnny Cyclops]

Elections suck - what I am saying is do not celebrate democracy
They seem to take a fixed amount of time regardless of influence swings.
They have a 7 day cool down period afterwards compared to 3 days for civil war, war is preferable!

Having won three elections my advise would be (roughly in order):
1) Missions - any missions to support your faction.
2) Kill wanted of the other faction
3) If your faction owns a station with a commodity market, trade here (note the influence affects of trading have been reduced in 1.3).
4) Take missions for the opposing faction and seek out the alternative path (easier now), follow the alternative path reduces the sponsoring factions influence.
4) Kill civilians of the other faction if things are looking desperate.

Unlike war where a big enough influence swing ends the conflict, I think election is based on highest influence after the fixed length of time, could be highest swing, never had a scenario to determine this.

Simon

Simon - very useful, thank you. I'm doing all that, although with opposing factions (if still offered missions) I take and abandon them, which (together with shooting down the local, mostly Wanteds!), has earned me a Hostile status. The War I started when the faction expanded then lasted 23 days. Hard to tell how it ended as it was against the existing Fed faction without a station/outpost. I racked up 260 war kills, but have since realised this is (stupidly!) irrelevant and I should have avoided CZs and been back at the outposts, running combat missions (counterintuitive, as was retaining Allied status with the opposing Fed faction despite popping 260 of their ships!!).

 

[smiths121]

Simon - very useful, thank you. I'm doing all that, although with opposing factions (if still offered missions) I take and abandon them, which (together with shooting down the local, mostly Wanteds!), has earned me a Hostile status. The War I started when the faction expanded then lasted 23 days. Hard to tell how it ended as it was against the existing Fed faction without a station/outpost. I racked up 260 war kills, but have since realised this is (stupidly!) irrelevant and I should have avoided CZs and been back at the outposts, running combat missions (counterintuitive, as was retaining Allied status with the opposing Fed faction despite popping 260 of their ships!!).

Not tested too much but the bible quote from Michael during war/civil war is "a faction can only take influence from the other side of a conflict.! This was abot 1.1 times though, and they do tweak. I think you did the right thing by killing in the conflict zones. To be honest it is just a time sink if the opposing faction has not station. When invading there will be factions that have no station that you need to bypas without forcing a conflict. We tried to get the owner of the 2nd station in a system to fight one of faction, did not care the outcome as we would have used missions to get beyond both of them, never got it work though, but valid tactic!

Recruit a friend, you need to kill thousands in a war or civil war I've killed about 300 so far this weekend, three others have dabled so we are onto 1000 killa for about 0.9% influence gain - which is a 1.8% swing, 5% swing is the objective to win a war.

Elections may suit you better if it is just your good self. Remeber "alternative path" not abandon. If you are hostile repair the station in the name of your enemy. High reputation gain low influence modifier. If possible do it for both sides to null the influence swing, but gain rep with your opponent so you can take missions and follow the alternaitve path.

Simon

 

[smiths121]

In our experience forrced war or election for control of a system goes "crtitcal" at 75, and you still have to pump the influence to get it to happen.

Yeah, the Influence Updates seem to come more frequent now and at different times than before.

Used to be around 1200GMT daily if I remember correctly - now I think I'm seeing at least 2 Updates within a 24hr cycle. Could be even 3 or 4 updates per day using a 6hr cycle, at least I remember seeing such occasions (and I was quite surprised).

The critical 70% marker was bugged very often in the past, almost as if you'd have to nail 70.0% precisely to it to trigger or something.
I did manage to flip Konduwa after months or work and then winning the Conflict with help from Alliance friends. However, the Galaxy Map does not auto-update and still seems unconnected to such effects (Devs seem to have to manually edit it for the time being).

Oddly, often enough I also waited to some effect but nothing happened.
Only when I basically already abandoned it (thinking it'll never come), it usually popped up out of nowhere and with no visible explanation (?)

Overall, I think the Influence System is still bugged in many respects - and most importantly lacking a few connected dots along a line of effects and expected/intended consequences.

 

[Johnny Cyclops]

The election happened and 'my' local faction won, thus taking control of the system and of one of the two outposts. I finished out with a few general missions that saw influence move from 71.4% to 75.6% over the three days of the election. So I'm not fully sure what swung it. The relative gap between this faction and the incumbant increased by 8.4% over the three days.

I think the upshot, from what I've seen here, and read on the boards, is that simply getting the largest influence does not force a state-shift. It's when two factions' influence levels pass each other. Which requires a different style of play, and (as some other have posted) to actually 'boost' the rival faction to get it to trigger a war/election state, and then get behind the one I really want to win.

The other two minor factions in this system are an Indi (8%) and a Fed (3%), with that Indi controlling the second outpost. So my plan now is to boost the Fed to get them on par on influence, and hopefully trigger a civil war, then win that and grab the second outpost for the Feds. I think I can relax a little with the new system-controlling Fed faction, sitting at 75%, in that until/unless the deposed original controlling faction gets back off its knees from just 11%, then 'my' faction is at no threat of losing the system or outpost, so all I need are a few maintenance missions, plus now with an outpost of its own, I can trade to keep up influence. I just need to keep an eye on an expansion/invading faction, and avoid an economic 'bust' or health 'outbreak' etc, to maintain control.

DAK, in another system I'm boosting the one Fed faction against the controlling Indi. The Indi has control of 4 out of 7 stations (two stations, two outposts). It's now in Civil War, as the Fed reached par influence with the Indi. If my backed Fed faction wins and takes control of the system, does it get all four stations, or just one of them, and if just one, which one, and how would it be able to grab the other three, if it's then got the best Influence in the system. I presume I need to let the Fed's Influence drift back down again, to be on par with the Indi, trigger another war & win it, and grab the 2nd station. Rinse & repeat.

 

[excalibus]

I recently had an election in a system I have expanded my minor faction into...

Niether faction has station / outpost control yet.

in 2 days I took my minor faction to 62% while reducing the opposing election faction to 1%, after day 3 my faction was at 70% and the closest other faction is the station controlling faction at 15%...

We won the election but because neither minor faction had outpost control in the system there is no real difference, all I did notice was my minor faction dropped a few % after the election ended but I have since pushed it back up to 77% and will continue to keep it up over 75% so that as soon as the election cooldown has counted down (does anyone know how long that takes?) it should by rights go to civil war with the controlling faction and hopefully I will then gain control of one of the 2 outposts in the system


I found that basically doing the delivery missions, find illegal salvage missions and combat missions for my faction gave good influence gains, I also did subversive alternate endings for the opposing faction and that really seemed to drop their influence like a sack of spuds...

 

[glojo]

I see that this is an old thread but I have spent hours looking for information so please help.

We are a new minor faction that has only recently started this interesting side of the game.

We have knocked the controlling faction of our system down to 1%. We are up at 64.8 (we did try provoking a civil war when we were both within 2% of each other but our opponents were committed in another system with an election)

This election m'larky' has reared its ugly face once more. Our adversary is once more in an election and my question is...

Can we get involved with the two factions involved in that election?

Can we choose a side and help them out to hopefully end the election quicker than it would normally and if so how?

 

[Limoncello Lizard]

The best resource for playing with the BGS is A Guide to Minor Factions and the Background Sim.
A table in the first post there suggests that missions don't count towards an election.
.
I know that smuggling illegal goods does, lowering the influence of the faction with the station.
Proof: