How long before faction enters expansion state?

karamu

karamu
I've been supporting a faction (and damaging its rivals) in a system - after catching the previous controlling faction and a period of conflict it is now the current controlling faction.

I continued to build its influence and today finally hit 80% - I believe the threshold to trigger expansion into a neighbouring system is 75%?

So, like the title of the post says, how long is it likely to take before I see this expansion happen? The faction is still in boom state.

This is my first time working on the BGS so apologies if I'm asking an obvious question!
 

SteveWW57

SteveWW57
There is a list of possible systems, full (7 factions already present) being unlikely. Check Inara which will list the expansion possibilities.

Steve
 

Ian Doncaster

Ian Doncaster
karamu said:
So, do I have some say about the destination? From what I read it sounded like it "just happens".
Click to expand...
There's a fixed algorithm to determine the destination based on the state of the galaxy at the tick on which you expand.

You can't change the algorithm, but you can change the input conditions by doing things in potential destination systems to make them more or less attractive to it. In some circumstances with sufficient finesse this can let you effectively pick your destination ... but that takes a lot of practice and is very sensitive to other activity!

The algorithm appears to be:
- find all inhabited systems within 20 LY cube of the expansion source where the faction isn't already present, excluding permit systems and a few other special cases
- if possible, pick the closest system with <7 total factions that the faction has not previously retreated from (and use a conventional expansion)
- else if possible, pick the closest system with <7 total factions that the faction has previously retreated from (and use a conventional expansion)
- else if possible, pick the system with exactly 7 total factions with the lowest influence non-native non-controlling faction not already holding any sort of conflict state (and use an invasion expansion)
- else the expansion fails. Your next expansion will use a 30 LY cube instead (whether it needs it or not, and whether or not it's from the same system next time). If a 30 LY expansion also gets to this fail state, the faction may never again expand from this system (but can from others, if it has any)
 

karamu

karamu
Ah, OK, thanks again for the info guys - like I say, I'm new to this BGS lark so still got loads to learn!
 

karamu

karamu
OK, so this is day 4 since breaching the 75% threshold and nothing seems to have happened - faction state is still showing as boom.

I've continued to support them and it's now at 89% influence in the system, ie has maintained over the 75% every day since hitting it.

Am I missing something or should it have turned to expansion by now? Where would I see the "pending" bit?
 

Ned Flandalorian

N
Are you sure they have somewhere to expand to?
There are systems that don't have anywhere within range, or they may already be present in all systems within range, or the system may simply be in one of the areas where normal BGS rules don't apply e.g. Witch Head.
 

Ian Doncaster

Ian Doncaster
Ned Flandalorian said:
Are you sure they have somewhere to expand to?
There are systems that don't have anywhere within range, or they may already be present in all systems within range,
Click to expand...
These wouldn't in themselves stop expansion, though they might be a good sign that an extended range expansion had failed in the past.
Ned Flandalorian said:
or the system may simply be in one of the areas where normal BGS rules don't apply e.g. Witch Head
Click to expand...
Other than failed expansions banning a faction/system (which applies to one Witch Head faction only, and the area is under normal BGS rules) I'm not aware of any BGS restrictions which allow influence movement but don't allow outbound expansions. It'd be interesting to find one, of course.
 

karamu

karamu
Ned Flandalorian said:
Are you sure they have somewhere to expand to?
There are systems that don't have anywhere within range, or they may already be present in all systems within range, or the system may simply be in one of the areas where normal BGS rules don't apply e.g. Witch Head.
Click to expand...
I'm in the Witch Head - didn't realise that made a difference. How would I have known this? Ah, I see Ian's comment that he thinks it only affects failed expansions... Hmm.

As noted I have been able to support a non controlling faction to parity the controlling faction which triggered a conflict. I then fought the conflict, took control and continued to support through the 75% threshold.

One last point, not sure if it matters but I'm in Legacy, console in fact.
 

karamu

karamu
So, this is the status:
 

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karamu

karamu
The system is Evangelis - the nearest system ((that I expected to see expansion to) is Balchder, 13 lyrs away. My faction is definitely not already present in that system.
 

Dommarraa

Dommarraa
karamu said:
The system is Evangelis - the nearest system ((that I expected to see expansion to) is Balchder, 13 lyrs away. My faction is definitely not already present in that system.
Click to expand...
Looks like Expansion is disabled in that area (I can understand why FD did that, its a total shower of excrement in other islands). See Alliance Expeditionary Pact, they have 7 systems over 75% and are never get Expansion.
 

karamu

karamu
Dommarraa said:
Looks like Expansion is disabled in that area (I can understand why FD did that, its a total shower of excrement in other islands). See Alliance Expeditionary Pact, they have 7 systems over 75% and are never get Expansion.
Click to expand...
Ah, at least that explains it - annoying though cos I quite like hanging out in the Witch Head and thought working on the BGS would be a nice way to make missions / conflict etc a bit more engaging.
 

Ian Doncaster

Ian Doncaster
Dommarraa said:
Looks like Expansion is disabled in that area (I can understand why FD did that, its a total shower of excrement in other islands). See Alliance Expeditionary Pact, they have 7 systems over 75% and are never get Expansion.
Click to expand...
Interesting. Last successful expansion in Witch Head was April 3307. Last failed one seems to have been a month or so after that in the normal way.

Alliance Expeditionary Pact have at least been controlling Witch Head sufficiently long as to have burned out their expansion options naturally, but the Federal factions never got anywhere near that far.

Hmm... we've always assumed that the expansion blocking works on a faction+system basis, but what if it just blocks the system? I don't actually know of any previous case where it's happened and then a new system controller has tried to expand from there. If that was the case, the entire nebula would have ended up naturally blocked without any Frontier intervention required.

(Another argument there against Frontier intervention: it'd put almost the entire nebula under permanent irrevocable Alliance control, and even if they wanted to do that there wasn't anything going on in/around May 3307 or since that would seem to justify having done it, and they have California and Coalsack anyway to tell "Alliance nebula" stories with)


Anyone got an expansion-blocked system in a "normal" area of space that they'd be willing to test this with? Swap one of the local NPCs into control, try to expand them, swap back afterwards?
 
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