Newcomer / Intro Faction questions

[Pinkelton]

I have been playing about a week now the game is fun but I am at the point where if I progress I am earning faction rep. What are the benefits or draw backs for the big three?
Also is it just me or is the population really sparse I rarely run across any Human players.

 

[Matt Horner]

The main benefits are better missions (higher profits) from minor factions in the system where you're gaining rep and there are 2 ships that you could buy, which require a certain rank with the Federation and the Empire.

From the Federation you can get the Federal Dropship and from the Empire you can get the Imperial Clipper.

As for the player population, most of them are in the Lave cluster.

 

[Hellhawk666]

So far there is only progress for two of the "big three" - the Federation and the Empire - and the benefits are limited. Building rep with the Alliance doesn't give a rank increase or an associated benefit. This may change when the "Powerplay" update happens, we don't know.

You can build rep with all the factions with no downside, ie ranking up with the Feds doesn't make the Empire hate you.

Yes, the population is spread thinly - it's the nature of a game based in such an enormous sandbox.

 

[Elvo]

The main benefits are better missions (higher profits) from minor factions in the system where you're gaining rep and there are 2 ships that you could buy, which require a certain rank with the Federation and the Empire.

I can confirm this I went friendly with a minor faction, (trying to get Fed rep back from hostile), and I got a couple of hauling mission (bring us 7 tons of superconductors) for 92k, which is something that I hadn't seen before

 

[Xexexh]

There are likely to be more faction specific ships in future - the Imperial courier is expected to be part of the 1.3 update