Fastest way for a player faction to take over a system?

[Drink!]

Greetings All!

My player group is trying to take over our system and it is very slow going. We normally do a combination of missions for our faction, smuggling to the controlling factions station and good old murder. I wanted to know if there is one thing we should focus on or if there is something else completely we can do. We currently sit at under 10% with the controlling faction over 70%.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Drink!]

Anyone?

 

[Ian Doncaster]

If there's another faction in the system which owns a station (don't forget to check surface stations), try to equalise influence with them first rather than going straight for the top ones - then you can fight a civil war or election with them, and it'll get easier to catch up with the top faction once you have a station of your own.

What's the system population? Changes in low-population systems are easy. Changes in high-population systems are extremely difficult.

Spreading your actions between a combination of things - trade, bounty hunting, missions, exploration data sales, etc. - can be more effective.

If the controlling faction is on 70% they've probably previously expanded to at least one other system, and may be on fairly low influence there. If you can find them, push them into a war in that system, and the effort of fighting the war will make it harder for them to retain influence in your system.

 

[Limoncello Lizard]

Do missions for the faction you want to increase. Earn bounties for your faction. If your faction controls a station, anything legal that earns you a profit will help your faction, except claiming bounties or bonds for the other factions.

 

[the100thmonkey]

There's a hard cap on how much influence an individual CMDR can push in any given tick, and cap on how much influence can be pushed in any given tick.

The size of the system determines how much influence you can push, basically, but if you're a small faction you might struggle to hit that cap.

 

[goemon]

it is really complicated to answer without more details. the most efficient strategy to take over a system depends on so many factors ... including distance of the stations to entry points, markets, how many factions are controlling a system, avalability of res/nav-beacons, whether you have other systems you are present etc. etc.

generally speaking:

Spreading your actions between a combination of things - trade, bounty hunting, missions, exploration data sales, etc. - can be more effective..

i can back this.

and - what's the population size?

how much cmdr traffic?

etc.

 

[DNA-Decay]

The BGS requires a lot of record keeping, a lot of coordination but mostly a LOT of time.

High population will slow you down.
Low influence will slow you down.
Not having a station or port will slow you down.
High CMDR traffic that are not your Player Group will slow you down.
In some states, certain actions have no effect, half effect normal effect, or double effect.

So to get help you need to post:
Population.
Current state and influence level of your faction.
Current state and influence level of ruling faction.
Traffic (just total numbers) and how much of that is your group.

Start reading Walt's BGS thread (it's epic):
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/193064-A-Guide-to-Minor-Factions-and-the-Background-Sim
Tulorn (AEDC) wrote a nice starter guide for the BGS: http://elitediplomats.com/?q=content/working-background-simulation-guide-turlorn

Good luck - Pretty soon your system will be under your control.

 

[Drink!]

The system is Zaragas. Pop is 10.8m and about 600+ ship passed through in the last 24 hours.
The controlling faction has control of everything.

 

[Zeeman]

That's a fairly big system, with basically 600+ players playing against you. Every trade being done currently, every bit of exploration data sold is working for the main faction. You're best hope is to go mission by mission, and, possibly a bit of piracy - you'll be wanted in the system, but it will lower the influence of the main power (no one likes criminals running amuck in a system, bad news for politicians).

Basically, you need boots on the ground, and doing missions only for the faction you are working for, as many as possible. Do not trade - it only helps the controlling faction. Do not sell exploration data for the same reason. Also, if you are bounty hunting, try only targeting those with a wanted status that are NOT from your own faction.

If you manage to take over a station or outpost on the way up, that will help, as trading/selling data at that station will help you - only if you own it, though.

Speaking of which, I need chemical manipulators.... If it's an independent system, I'll go hunt some T-9's in your system...
Z...

 

[Limoncello Lizard]

That's a fairly big system, with basically 600+ players playing against you

Depends where the system is. Many of these CMDRs could be just passing through. Or it could be one CMDR who is spending the whole day jumping in and out. Though both of these are unlikely.
It certainly sounds like a busy system.

I don't consider 10 million to be a big system, it's more of a medium. Big is in the billions. I just finished working a 3.6 billion system. It took a fair bit of effort (about 5 weeks), but can be done - even by one CMDR.

Also check the crime report and the bounty hunter report. These give an idea of what players are doing in the system.

 

[Zeeman]

Depends where the system is. Many of these CMDRs could be just passing through. Or it could be one CMDR who is spending the whole day jumping in and out. Though both of these are unlikely.
It certainly sounds like a busy system.

I don't consider 10 million to be a big system, it's more of a medium. Big is in the billions. I just finished working a 3.6 billion system. It took a fair bit of effort (about 5 weeks), but can be done - even by one CMDR.

Also check the crime report and the bounty hunter report. These give an idea of what players are doing in the system.

Well caught, I mis-read the figure (confused m for b, don't ask how, I have no clue!).

That should help a bit. As you pointed out, a si gle CMDr can do it, but needs a fair amount of time.

Z....

 

[Red Fox Four]

Do not trade - it only helps the controlling faction. Do not sell exploration data for the same reason. Also, if you are bounty hunting, try only targeting those with a wanted status that are NOT from your own faction.

Well, this information needs to have something added to it.

If you (the minor faction you are trying to boost) own no stations then any trade you do, vouchers you claim and exploration data you sell will be sold to a station already controlled by not-your faction (that is, either controlling faction or any of the other minor factions).

However if you DO own a station in the system you SHOULD do trade with the commodity market there as well as deliver exploration data. Additionally you should deliver / claim bounty vouchers there (e.g. superpower bounties such as Federation vouchers as opposed to minor faction ones).

Also, even if you own a station in the system you do NOT want to do ANY bounty hunting in that system. All bounty hunting helps reduce piracy which helps the currently controlling faction maintain power, regardless of which faction the pirates belong to. Only thing you are changing by targetting pirates from the controlling faction is reducing your personal standing with the controlling faction but not the influence they have in the system (this is my understanding of the system at least).

To 'undermine' the controlling faction you want to do crimes... such as piracy, murder, attacking the authority ships and so forth. That will help reduce the influence (but also paints a target on your own back).

I'm currently boosting a faction in my own system where they own a single surface station. Started out at 12% influence and pushed them up to 30% now... however controlling faction is at 40%. I am hoping to boost the influence up to be on-par with the controlling faction this week and then, hopefully, trigger an election or civil war to wrestle control from them.

Will be an exciting week

 

[drzdeano]

or you can just go around killing the cops. Its a risky strategy that will make you wanted. But it will decrease the controlling factions influence significantly.

 

[Red Fox Four]

or you can just go around killing the cops. Its a risky strategy that will make you wanted. But it will decrease the controlling factions influence significantly.

If you interdict and pirate a ship, and cops join, and you then kill the cops... will more cops spawn or do they only send 1 wave of ships to help someone who is getting pirated?

I'm reluctant to go criminal and full aggro, but that might be exactly what is needed at this point

 

[drzdeano]

Not sure about interdiction response, but when I did this we hit high res sites(before haz).

You really need a wing to help with this, it's very hard to fight off multiple ships alone.

Also keep in mind this doesn't help your faction just weakens theirs, I would perhaps wait until you are the second highest faction before committing to this.

 

[Cmdr Alison]

600 players in 24 h is a lot. If only 10 or 20 % of them do something random in the system it becomes difficult. BGS is good but works best in a quiet area. And please consider in PP areas what "politic correct" is. You will be spotted sooner or later.

 

[Red Fox Four]

600 players in 24 h is a lot. If only 10 or 20 % of them do something random in the system it becomes difficult. BGS is good but works best in a quiet area. And please consider in PP areas what "politic correct" is. You will be spotted sooner or later.

Does the "Traffic in system" report show only CMDR (players) or all ships including NPCs ?

Also, do NPC ships affect the influence of factions by doing trade etc?

 

[drzdeano]

The Bgs simulates npc traffic, not sure if that has anything to do with the npcs we see

 

[Jane Turner]

Sorry, I should have been clearer - that's through missions.

That information came from CMDR Jane Turner, whom I basically consider one of the most knowledgeable players about the BGS, at least among the players I know. I trust her knowledge.

That said, it seems that she (and therefore I am) wrong about it. Funny - I watched the livestream but don't recall seeing that question asked. Maybe I was in the loo at the time.

Perhaps there is no individual cap for one player until they hit the influence cap for the system - which is in turn linked to population size is more accurate

- - - Updated - - -

Does the "Traffic in system" report show only CMDR (players) or all ships including NPCs ?

Also, do NPC ships affect the influence of factions by doing trade etc?

Traffic is all human traffic across different platforms

 

[Cmdr Alison]

600+ players look like you are still in the vicinity of a starter system.
CG areas are temporary. I think there are well known trade/mission/ranking systems due to internet tools like Inara, EDDB or forums.

EDIT: Zaragas is only about 30 LY from LHS 3447.