One of the things I find a little strange in regard to minor factions is that in order to take over a system, sometimes you need to work against your own minor faction, in order to align the influence percentages in a system to trigger a civil war. This seems very counter-intuitive to expanding your minor faction and gaining popular support. It also seems that there are only negative ways to gain support within a system, not positive ones.
I would like to suggest the idea of forming (and breaking) alliances with other minor factions (in exchange for goods/favour/minor control). This sort of activity would fit well into the "Contacts" section of the UI when docked at a station. Performing good deeds for another local faction improves the relationship between the factions.
Once that relationship reaches a certain point, minor factions should be able to offer the hand of friendship to your minor faction to form alliances. These alliances can be achieved through local CGs, for example, where the minor faction can say "deliver X tonnes of food to our controlled station, and in return we will ally with you and support your efforts in the system". If the local CG is achieved by your local faction (only those members efforts count, so this would require FD to include a tag in the commander's profile indicating which minor faction he belongs), then you will take control of that station. These CGs could be auto generated by the acceptance of the approach to ally.
You can also offer an alliance with a existing minor faction, and they can propose a CG of this type to cement the relationship if they want it. Factions can also decline the invitation, in which case we then need to look to gain favour with them before trying again. This would involve assisting with some of their missions to improve inter-faction relations.
Doing missions for the newly allied minor faction will strengthen the bond with them, and their ships will appear green on scanners, etc. Failing to maintain the alliance will result in it's degredation to the point they will dissolve the alliance. An alliance can also be broken by continued activity against the other minor faction (missions against them, killing their members etc.). This would result in a civil war (the existing dynamic), and if they win, they can re-take control of a station.
Alliances can also be used to drive the direction of expansion. If members of a minor faction start helping out another faction in a local system, this can influence the direction of future expansions (where the helped faction invite you in for a piece of the action in a system, because you have helped them in the past). This would be a better expansion dynamic than the dice-roll we seem to have today.
I would like to suggest the idea of forming (and breaking) alliances with other minor factions (in exchange for goods/favour/minor control). This sort of activity would fit well into the "Contacts" section of the UI when docked at a station. Performing good deeds for another local faction improves the relationship between the factions.
Once that relationship reaches a certain point, minor factions should be able to offer the hand of friendship to your minor faction to form alliances. These alliances can be achieved through local CGs, for example, where the minor faction can say "deliver X tonnes of food to our controlled station, and in return we will ally with you and support your efforts in the system". If the local CG is achieved by your local faction (only those members efforts count, so this would require FD to include a tag in the commander's profile indicating which minor faction he belongs), then you will take control of that station. These CGs could be auto generated by the acceptance of the approach to ally.
You can also offer an alliance with a existing minor faction, and they can propose a CG of this type to cement the relationship if they want it. Factions can also decline the invitation, in which case we then need to look to gain favour with them before trying again. This would involve assisting with some of their missions to improve inter-faction relations.
Doing missions for the newly allied minor faction will strengthen the bond with them, and their ships will appear green on scanners, etc. Failing to maintain the alliance will result in it's degredation to the point they will dissolve the alliance. An alliance can also be broken by continued activity against the other minor faction (missions against them, killing their members etc.). This would result in a civil war (the existing dynamic), and if they win, they can re-take control of a station.
Alliances can also be used to drive the direction of expansion. If members of a minor faction start helping out another faction in a local system, this can influence the direction of future expansions (where the helped faction invite you in for a piece of the action in a system, because you have helped them in the past). This would be a better expansion dynamic than the dice-roll we seem to have today.