Newcomer / Intro Elite Dangerous - Galactic powers explained

[DerDzvero]

Elite Dangerous - Galactic powers, how to choose a side

So we have Federation (super Earth kind of) , Empire, Alliance and lots of other supporting or independent ruling fractions. But do we have more info on those, apart from "welcome commander, this station is under .. jurisdiction"? How can I chose a fraction to support in other words? Ok, Empire has slavery as legal activities, anything else as a political/ethical difference? It must be more in game with regards to powers if I have to choose side to work for. I saw some commanders "extended" the lore with some nice history and descriptions of a specific power, but not sure if those are by FD or themselves...So who stands for what in the Galaxy is the question. And is Horizons needed ib order to participate?

Apologies if it's posted somewhere on forums already -if that's the case just point me to the source.

P.S. Found very nice guides and explanations here, but not sure if that answers my question who-stands-for-what

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/175324-A-Lazy-Commander-s-Guide-to-Powerplay

Admins might move the post to power play forum, sorry if incorrectly posted.

 

[Para Handy]

You could start here:

http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Factions

... and then just nose around for more in depth background if you need it.

 

[Ian Skippy]

Superpowers:
Federal: neo-libertarian, free-market-dialed-up-to-11, democratic-in-name
Empire: Nobility, birthright, slavery, strict hierarchy, appearance-over-content
Independent: none of the above

The feds have two 'powers': the right-leaning militaristic Hudson, and the left-leaning Winters.
The imps have four powers, all various shades of evil
Pranav is a utopia-promising cult-leader
Li Yong-Rui is a business mogul
Mahon is the leader of the independents
Archon is the pirate lord
Yuri leads the first (originally Russian) player-created power

For local factions check the right-screen for info on their stances (democratic, theocracy etc).

 

[DerDzvero]

Thanks, Commanders, all makes sense now!
o7

 

[Deleted member 38366]

This is how much Influence they gained/lost since the launch of the Game :

(Data as of : Jan 2017, Source : BGS Livestream with Dav Stott 17/01/2017 - https://gaming.youtube.com/watch?v=YGqndJFKOfA )

 

[pipo zelvelder]

Glad it is clear to you, does not make any sense to me. I always thought that trading/doing missions for one of the powers very slightly helps them, so when I do a lot of missions for faction "Superlosers" they will slowly come on top of the station. Does it work like that?

 

[DerDzvero]

Glad it is clear to you, does not make any sense to me. I always thought that trading/doing missions for one of the powers very slightly helps them, so when I do a lot of missions for faction "Superlosers" they will slowly come on top of the station. Does it work like that?

It's clear who is who in the galactic power book and what do they stand for (and what professions they reward the most).

The rest..not that easy to grasp. I think we both are mixing powerplay with BGS. Correct me of I'm wrong here:
Powerplay is all about ranking after you sign for a specific power. It requires steady and consistent grind per week to keep the rank and progress. In return you get ℅ bonuses and you raise the power of the chosen fraction. You serve them by also hitting opponents. Choosing a side depends mostly on your profession since different powers request and reward different work. It's all about politicians in a way.

BGS is a bit different and in my noob's opinion is closer to what you explain. As far as I understand however, it depends what type of missions you're doing, at what time and what is the current political/economical state of the system and its neighbours. You can influence also positively by doing negative missions at opponent's fraction as well (kind of).. bit you can also harm your favorites if you do inappropriate missions at times.
Frankly all comes down to the same grind..but both are different things since one requires you to sign in and do specific work..

That's how i understand it.. might be wrong though.

 

[Sapyx]

There are three levels of government in the ED universe.

At the top are the Superpowers: Empire, Federation, Alliance. They issue permits and unlock ship access with ranking up within their auxiliary militaries (well, the first two do, anyway). The voices you hear from traffic control and from the inside-station announcer vary depending on the superpower in charge of the station, but otherwise, the Superpowers have very little direct influence on gameplay.

At the bottom are the Minor Factions. There are on average four minor factions present in each star system. Minor factions may be affiliated with one of the superpowers, or they may be Independent (unaffiliated). Minor factions own stations and other assets and also command the naval and system security units within their spheres of influence; all NPC ships are affiliated with a minor faction unless you encounter one in an uninhabited star system. They also issue fines and bounties for players who commit crimes against their ships or within their space. One of the minor factions (usually the one with the highest Influence) is considered by the game to be the "controlling faction"; they own the "controlling station" (usually the station that is orbiting the highest-population planet) and direct which superpower the system as a whole is aligned to as indicated on the Galaxy map.

Somewhere in the middle are the Powerplay Powers. They were inserted into the game when people complained that the Superpowers were kind of remote and didn't truly allow you to pledge your loyalty to them. Frankly, I think they'd have been better off scrapping the Superpowers entirely and putting the Powers as the top-level government, but we have what we have. Powers don't directly control space, navies or assets but exert "control" over their spheres of influence. The Powers are not truly "governments" in the modern sense; each one is aligned to a Superpower (or is Independent), but Power "control" has no direct influence over the Minor Factions in the system they control and therefore does not directly influence which Superpower controls the system, so it is entirely possible for a "Federation Power" like Hudson to control Imperial star systems, and vice-versa. The Powers have certain bonuses and other effects (such as shutting down or opening up Black Markets) as well as the right to issue Power-specific weapons and modules to players who have ranked up with them.

Finally, a quick note on reputation decay.

Your reputation with the Superpowers decays, at 2% per day, if your reputation is higher than 75% Friendly. This basically means it's impossible to remain Allied with all three Superpowers simultaneously, unless you're prepared to do nothing else in the game except running around trying to appease all three superpowers.

Your "reputation" or rank with the Powerplay powers decays even faster; you lose half of the merits you've gained each week.

Your reputation with the minor factions does not decay; once you are Allied with them, you stay Allied until and unless you actively start working against them.