As usual, there's no in-game way. There are folks who watch for it every day, and post here on the BGS subforum in this thread when they notice oddities or changes.
Note that, as far as we can tell, "the tick" is a bit of a misnomer as it implies a single galaxy-wide event. It actually progresses through the galaxy system by system, meaning it can occur in diferent systems at slightly different times. The whole galaxy is done in a couple of minutes, usually.
Note that, as far as we can tell, "the tick" is a bit of a misnomer as it implies a single galaxy-wide event. It actually progresses through the galaxy system by system, meaning it can occur in diferent systems at slightly different times. The whole galaxy is done in a couple of minutes, usually.
Of note, once the tick "starts", even if your system hasn't ticked, actions you take between the tick starting and it's application won't count for that tick... that is they'll still count, but for the next tick.
When actions stop counting has previously been observed to be as far out as an hour before the tick "happens"... so there's likely a fair bit of leadup to the tick actually happening, before it's observed in the game.
At the moment for my TZ it's roughly 3am GMT+11, whatever that is, but like Sapyx says, there's no hard and fast rule on it. FD are very savvy to say "about every 24 hours", because it isn't every 24 hours, and historically it has "shifted", though the last shift hasn't been for a while.
When actions stop counting has previously been observed to be as far out as an hour before the tick "happens"... so there's likely a fair bit of leadup to the tick actually happening, before it's observed in the game.
At the moment for my TZ it's roughly 3am GMT+11, whatever that is, but like Sapyx says, there's no hard and fast rule on it. FD are very savvy to say "about every 24 hours", because it isn't every 24 hours, and historically it has "shifted", though the last shift hasn't been for a while.
other than logging on/off and restarting the game.
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When and what is the tick?
The influence of minor factions is updated approximately once every 24 hours as a result of actions taken in that period. So its the equivalent of the Thursday morning Power Play update... it just happens more often. it is currently approximately 14:26 ish Server time - check here for the...
There's also this chart that's updated daily. While a graph implies precision, the recorded times are spread over ten minutes for the last ten days, which suggests a reasonable approximation given that it's a rolling event with an undeterminable start. In the distant past it was thought to be a two-pass system but that may have changed.
I have occasionally thought that the system I was in was not updated if I was logged in during the tick - logging off or changing location seems to resolves this - but that may be down to carelessness on my part and needs to be confirmed.
I have occasionally thought that the system I was in was not updated if I was logged in during the tick - logging off or changing location seems to resolves this - but that may be down to carelessness on my part and needs to be confirmed.
I tend to see the infl %ages change in the station news reports even without a restart - those shown in the HUD tend to not update, so I wait until I see the station change before assuming it's happened. Others will be along shortly to say the opposite 
There are lots of times where this is also what I do and then see, but for the most part I try very hard to track my bgs moves as accurately as possible and so because I am never 100% sure of when the tick cutoff is, I usually try to be 'done' for the day at least 1 hour before the roughly known tick time.I tend to see the infl %ages change in the station news reports even without a restart - those shown in the HUD tend to not update, so I wait until I see the station change before assuming it's happened. Others will be along shortly to say the opposite
Not doing that seems to all too often contribute to inaccurate measurements in some systems.
I've seen the right panel's Status bars in a conflict (war/Civil War/Election) update at a different time than the Station Services' Faction Summaries info. Don't recall which comes first, but they're not at the same time.I tend to see the infl %ages change in the station news reports even without a restart - those shown in the HUD tend to not update, so I wait until I see the station change before assuming it's happened. Others will be along shortly to say the opposite