Newcomer / Intro Need Some Understanding Of Powers And Allegiances

[Wayward Goat]

I understand the powers, but I don't understand allegiance

Say if a station that is in a system owned by Aisling Duval, so it's Empire. But the system says allegiance is to Federation, or all of the stations in a system, they're in an Empire controlled system, but they're allegiance is to Federation, does that they follow Federation laws? Does that mean they're forced to be controlled by the Empire, but show allegiance to the Federation? I don't understand

Also, question about powers, Zachary Hudson and Felicia Winters are both Federation, and the two Duvals are Empire, does that mean they're both allies? Or just different empires and different Federations?

Probably a very stupid question, but it's confusing my little brain

Thank you in advance[smile]

 

[markkuk]

You need to stop confusing Powers (Duvals, Hudson, etc.) and Superpowers a.k.a major factions (Federation, Empire and Alliance). Powers are persons pushing their own political agendas, their superpower affiliation is less important. Powers affiliated with the same Superpower are not openly hostile to each other. Powers don't "own" systems but they can influence the systems in their control to some extent.

The laws of a system and its Superpower allegiance are determined by the minor faction owning the most important station in the system. Additionally each station is its own jurisdiction with rules determined by the minor faction that owns it.

 

[Wayward Goat]

You need to stop confusing Powers (Duvals, Hudson, etc.) and Superpowers a.k.a major factions (Federation, Empire and Alliance). Powers are persons pushing their own political agendas, their superpower affiliation is less important. Powers affiliated with the same Superpower are not openly hostile to each other. Powers don't "own" systems but they can influence the systems in their control to some extent.

The laws of a system and its Superpower allegiance are determined by the minor faction owning the most important station in the system. Additionally each station is its own jurisdiction with rules determined by the minor faction that owns it.

I see what you mean, thank you. But what exactly do Powers do? Zachary is "president" he's president of what exactly? And Duval, Empress. What exactly are they leading or why do they have such a large title but not able to do much with it? And expansion, if Zachary is expanding to a station that isnt Federation, how does that work? I don't think it should be confusing me

So the Superpowers, such as Empire and Federation, they're all one power to their own, there's one Federation, and one Empire, but two political figures? What leads the Superpowers if the political figures can only influence?

 

[Rob At Work]

It is important to remember that this part of the game is principally about influence, most other parts of the game are about effluence.

 

[aRottenKomquat]

The Powers are related to PowerPlay. Which power "controls" or "exploits" a system doesn't seem to have any effect on who the system is actually owned or governed by. I have never done PowerPlay and don't pretend to understand it.

 

[Wayward Goat]

The Powers are related to PowerPlay. Which power "controls" or "exploits" a system doesn't seem to have any effect on who the system is actually owned or governed by. I have never done PowerPlay and don't pretend to understand it.

Then what exactly does it mean when a Power expands to a system? Or fortifies it? Does that mean they're trying to influence that system? Or somehow are profiting from that system?

I think I kind of understand, I don't want to get into Powerplay, I just feel so wrong not understanding it, yet it's all around me. Is that why there is civil wars in systems? Two different allegiances/governments?

 

[aRottenKomquat]

I don't think that it means anything outside the mechanics of PowerPlay.

Civil Wars are a result of two minor factions (completely different than Powers) having a similar reputation but different governing style and going to war over control of the system. The minor faction which controls the system determines which empire the system belongs to.

 

[Wayward Goat]

I don't think that it means anything outside the mechanics of PowerPlay.

Civil Wars are a result of two minor factions (completely different than Powers) having a similar reputation but different governing style and going to war over control of the system. The minor faction which controls the system determines which empire the system belongs to.

I understand that the faction/station who has the most influence controls the system, so if the leading faction shows allegiance to the Federation, that means profit and such goes to the Federation?

Small question about the bubble, if the areas shown in different colours are Powers and their control, what does that mean? Just where they centre most of their acitivity or where they earn most profit?

I am very stupid [yesnod]

Thank you haha

 

[aRottenKomquat]

The colored areas in the map show PowerPlay status, which like I said before doesn't really have anything to do with the rest of the game. It doesn't make sense to you because the system doesn't make sense at all.

 

[Wayward Goat]

The colored areas in the map show PowerPlay status, which like I said before doesn't really have anything to do with the rest of the game. It doesn't make sense to you because the system doesn't make sense at all.

So really I should just pretend it's not there and focus on understanding the minor factions. Will there be any change in how Powerplay works or will they explain it better for newer players? I'm assuming it'll just be left how it is haha

 

[aRottenKomquat]

I've never done PowerPlay, but I constantly see players talk about it like it's been mostly abandoned, both by players and the developers. It is very self-contained and as far as I know has zero impact on other areas of the game. It's pretty safe to ignore.

Minor factions and the Background Simulation (BGS) are what controls government types, allegiances, civil wars, etc. The stuff that actually matters. Read here for an in-depth guide. https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/193064-A-Guide-to-Minor-Factions-and-the-Background-Sim

 

[Para Handy]

I don't do powerpants, only ever did one stint to help an online mate out, never again.

There are sections in the manual and in the fora all about powerplay (and reams of stuff on reddit and 3rd party websites). Basically it boils down to areas that are under influence of a "power" produce a certain amount of "income" per period, maintaining those areas requires expending some of that income (and any "reserves"), seeking to extend your influence costs some of the income and if you want to expand into another "power's" area you need to expend some of your readies in "undermining" there. Conversely you might want to prevent another power from "undermining" you in a system and so you have to shell-out to "fortify".

Of course all this happens in the background simulation, you as a player don't do those things, all you do if you are pledged to a power is carry out tasks made available to put in effect the strategies the "power" wants to follow - these can be simple as carrying propaganda to target systems or attacking a target system faction's ships, etc.

I have no idea how activities and policies are decided, maybe one of the powerpants-involved commanders can elucidate there.

In the galaxy map "powerplay" option you see systems that are called "Control" systems, they have a spherical volume of influence around them, other systems within that bubble will be "exploited", when you mouse-over a Control system it's sphere of influence is highlighted. Elsewhere in the map as you look at the pop-up / mouse-over info on systems you will see if they are Controlled / Exploited / Contested.

Each "power" provides a reward for people who are pledged and carry out sufficient activities. These can include special weaponry etc.

You can see how each power is doing by looking at the info in your UI.

 

[Sapyx]

Powerplay was kind of "tacked onto the end of the game" back in version 1.3. Prior to that, all we had were the minor factions and the superpowers. People said they wanted to formally "join" or "pledge" to a superpower or a minor faction and form EVE-style clans and player groups around their choices; ED said no, but Powerplay was implemented for these people instead as a substitute.

The Powerplay powers operate on a separate plane to the superpowers and minor factions; they have a superpower they are affiliated with, but this affiliation does not directly control the "allegiance" of a system, nor do they directly alter the minor factions within a system. However, there is some interaction between the Powers and the other levels of government.

If two Powers are both affiliated to the same superpower, they are considered to be on the "same side", in the sense that violent attacks causing death are frowned upon, rather than rewarded. In other words, if Aisling Duval supporters attack Denton Petraeus ships and destroy them, they don't get merits or doing so, whereas they will get merits if they destroy ships of non-Imperial Powers. They can still work against each other (eg. by acts of piracy stealing their rival's powerplay materials), they're just not supposed to kill each other.

Powers do not directly alter the minor factions that are in charge of a system, but there is a consideration that makes Powerplayers want to change the factions that are in charge of systems. Each Power has "strengths" and "weaknesses", which mean that certain faction types are cheaper or more expensive for them to control. So, to increase their profitability, Powerplayers do try to flip systems over to governments which their Power can more easily control. Ironically, this can have the effect of Powerplayers wanting to flip systems away from the Allegiance that their Power is nominally aligned to.

For example: it's my understanding that Aisling Duval is actually weak against Dictatorships and Patronages, the two government types that are most commonly encountered in the Empire. So Aisling players tend to want to try to flip systems under their control away from Empire-aligned to Independent or even Federal-aligned factions.

Three of the Power leaders - namely, Arissa Lavigny-Duval, Zach Hudson and Ed Mahon, also happen to be the heads of state of the Superpowers they are aligned with. This does not directly influence the Superpower in question, or even mean that those particular powers are better or more favoured by the Superpower in any way. As stated above, Powerplay players aligned to one of these Powers can even directly oppose the interests of that Superpower. Another example: I believe Mahon favours Corporate factions, and the mechanism of Powerplay means he does not really care whether those Corporate factions are Alliance, Federation, Empire or Independent. Faced with a choice between an Alliance democracy and an Independent Corporate minor faction, Mahon powerplayers will choose to back the Indie Corporate.