I tend to not care about the BGS, MPFs or territory at all and just play my game. The only time I get motivated to do dedicated BGS is when a PMF representative comes here crying about "something something territory" or if larger PMFs obviously bully smaller ones because "their space". Then I'm like "You earned it mate, let's go". But nobody knows or will ever notice, because a) I never tell anyone and b) I don't have the stamina to actually pull it through to the end. BGS is boring. Bucket filling is not my gameplay.
For me, it wasn't even motivated by Imperial factions... only working for the Empire writ-large... that was most effectively done by working for a single faction.... but it was driven by want to do the activities... not to support the faction optimally (something else that is grossly imbalanced in the current BGS)
When I started the game, I was initially under the impression that it was for one beneficial and also kind of... not really required, but let's say "encouraged" to align with some kind of faction, be it PMF or otherwise. But pretty soon I realized that I didn't need that to progress with my game. My CMDR has always been the "lone wolf mercenary, ideally for a good cause (but not really required)" type CMDR, so he as well as I did not and never will care about anyone's "territory".
That's why T2 NPCs matter so much.
Interactions with the factions needs to be at a personal player level with the individuals representing that faction, with good reputation and doing them favours (without necessarily influencing the political situation for the faction) results in access to procedurally generated services which are otherwise unavailable... and then you can preferentially work for a major faction (at the detriment of your reputation with another major faction) in order to access those services.
Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, A tale of a fateful trip,
That happened to my little home system some time ago. I was happy to support the local factions (all native to the system, no PMFs) and play the role of sheriff, keeping law and order by protecting installations and megaships in the area. Then one day, I noticed the arrival of PMF fleet carriers and saw their faction gain a foothold in that system. Concerned, I joined their Discord and asked them about it, and they pretty much said that they are moving in and taking over... I was not impressed. It changed the entire feel of the system when they took over, flipping superpower allegiances (I roleplay a strict member of the Federation) and government type. It also forced me to support them if I wanted to continue doing the gameplay I was previously enjoying, and I do not like supporting imperialistic "We're taking over the galaxy, like it or not" factions!
These days the BGS is what gives Elite a sense of purpose for me. It gives meaning to missions, which otherwise just feel like empty, repetitive game loops. I do enjoy slowly influencing a system over time by doing my daily "endeavors", which is possible when a system's BGS is truly in "background" simulation mode, where I'm the only one focusing on it. But unlike PMFs, I'm happy with just having a single, remote home system. The system I chose sees very little traffic and really is not of any great importance, especially now in Legacy, but PMFs don't care about that - they just want more and more systems, never satisfied, always hungry..
If you were playing Legacy, I'd give you a target, as I could use all the help I can get!
I just hit this wall today.
Thing is, it's really not boring IMO. It adds depth to gameplay that's otherwise meaningless, especially when one has all the credits they need. INF is the currency of the BGS.
I don't mind filling a bucket or two a day, because in the right balance, it works. For example, winning a war by fighting a couple of battles in a CZ each day is enjoyable to me. However, once it becomes a game of "I need to win a HUNDRED battles a day, every day", that just ruins the game for me. That takes something fun and turns it into a grind. And there's no clever strategy or way that a small Navy (me) can outwit a large Navy (PMF) using tactics or strategy. It's purely an endurance game, and like you, I don't have the stamina to fight a PMF that has dozens of players who have made the BGS their full-time job (I used to belong to a PMF, and it literally is a job, minus the paycheck).
My hope was that the PMFs had abandoned Legacy, and for awhile it seemed like this was actually the case. That's why I was enjoying the BGS so much, because I could just do my thing unharassed. But much to my sorrow, PMFs are still alive and well in Legacy, and they DO take notice when you upset one of their many dozens of systems.
My biggest complaint about BGS mechanics regarding factions is how easy it is for a faction to expand from its native system to other systems. I'd be okay if factions fought for dominance in their own systems, but this idea that a faction can easily spread to and control over 50 systems without any real cost, that bothers me, especially when factions bring along their superpower allegiances and government types. Just because a US President wins an election in America doesn't result his political party taking over Canada and Mexico the next day. Add to it this Eve-like "You need our permission to do XYZ" that the one poster exuded, and I've become downright hostile to PMFs, hence my original post in this thread.
EDIT - my TLDR wasn't worded quite right, so I deleted it.
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I might have phrased that a bit wrong. What I really meant with "I don't care about the BGS" is: I don't care what my actions do to a PMF's precious BGS. I do what I deem fitting to the circumstances, my head canon, whatever. I don't care if the local neighbourhood gang likes it or not.
At the end of the day you buying the game entitles you to absolutely nothing. FDev adding your PMF to the game entitles you to nothing. We all share the game space so we either talk issues over or we ruin each other's game experience with attacks. Just the way things go. I just personally like to take the nice approach and try to resolve issues before it turns into "Die now you aren't allowed on this game anymore." Human beings are crappy enough as is so we don't need to add to it lol.
You're more honorable than I. I purposefully side against the PMFs these days. Let Rome burn, I'll bring the marshmallows! I'll always work for the native factions whose home systems have been stolen from them.
The one exception has been The Dark Wheel, which technically is not a PMF but a PBF, because I used to be quite interested in Raxxla back in the day.
I might not necessarily be
. As hinted above, if a representative of a PMF misbehaves publicly (as happens from time to time), I do actively work against them for a few days until I get bored.Also I admit that when browsing the Odyssey mission board and find that the mission with that juicy reward targets a PMF, I briefly remember what keeps getting said here and elsewhere: "Don't target the local anarchy PMF". And then I think " frack that, why not? Let's go!".
Really, I hate PMFs.
I'd say there is that problem that a player backend minor faction can't avoid expanding without actively working against itself. at least at the edge of the bubble, not that much random traffic to counter etc - they are doomed to expand every ~14 days. a cost to expand into systems far from homesystem, or a mechanic to prepare a system especially for expansion would ahve made things better.
but as others i share the opinion that player named minor factions were a mistake - the squadron mechanic is much better.
That's a good point. I guess my calling PMF "cancer" was accurate! I thought of this myself if I had won the freedom of a single system I'm interested in - I was going to be careful not to make the faction I'm backing too powerful, because I didn't want to expand into other systems. The good thing about not being loyal to a single faction is that I could rotate support between two or three native factions in the system to keep them even. I was already doing this as part of my strategy to lower the PMF's INF.
However, in my case the PMF is actively and aggressively targeting and holding onto systems, so I feel no sorrow for them (that and the fact they are now winning and I'm about to be crushed, LOL).
The thing is there is no need to be in charge of every system they could accept 2nd place which sometimes is better as knocking the top faction is fairly easy . Just work for all the bottom factions ?? In the PMFs systems . 2 or 3 inf missions is all that's needed per system . The work required for them is double or triple what they would normally have to do.
as someone having experience trying that (staying 2nd) - it is quite some work against "your" faction, especially if random traffic imports bounties from neighbouring systems or states increase profits or make interesting missions available. if the "other side" puts in regular work it is possible, but that regularity is most often not possible for solo-players or small groups on the long run.
once asked a powerplay group to keep their systems filled with 7 factions to avoid expansion into "their" powerplay bubble, after they asked to avoid expanding there. they couldn't due to the amount of work.
that is one of the problems how the expansion-game is set up. no mechanic available not to expand, and at a certain point it is simply snowballing.
(if someone wants to give it a try, there are serveral dozend of systems over 75% which would be nice to get down for targeted expansions of others)
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That's why powerplay mechanics should have been left detached from BGS... the convoluted mechanic requires a lot of micro-management to powerplay groups.