Im pretty sure Famine now is a state that comes after bust - opposite of investment. OH, speaking of bust, i dont think i've seen that state since the update either... :thinking:
This one. And you're correct, no system is in Bust either, coz as I'll mention later, it's very difficult to hurt a faction's economy.
Lowest to highest:
Security scale goes: Lockdown, Civil Unrest, None, Civil Liberty
Economic scale goes: Famine, Bust, None, Boom, Investment
So, it doesn't occur the same way as it used to (which was the same as outbreak, which occured as a result of a natural downtick if players weren't active, and specific missions which cause that state[1]). If you want a Famine, trash a system's economy (have fun with that, since there's minimal activities you can actively do which hurt a faction's economy). Comparatively, it's much easier to negatively affect system security, but even then, it's harder than maintaining it positively, so there's only a handful of systems in Civil Unrest/Lockdown.
Other states which can occur, which are entirely unrelated to those scales, and you'll find occurring are:
- Conflicts: War, Civil War, Election
- Expansion/Retreat
- Outbreak, Pirate Attack, Incursion, which are seemingly random at this point.
There *is* a problem with some factions which are stuck in an expansion/conflict etc. but there's also a lot of FUD with people thinking some factions are "stuck" in Boom/Investment etc.. This is not a problem, as they'll maintain that state as long as the slider is in that zone.
So, Famine/Bust aren't bugged, they're just difficult to deliberately cause. One of the only ways which *might* work is deliberately selling for a loss, or doing Skimmer Missions (unverified, used to cause Famine for the target faction in old BGS, so may cause a drop on the economic slider reported as "Causing Famine"). Black market trading at a non-anarchy-owned station may also hurt that factions economy (that's how you used to cause a bust).
[1] Such missions were delivering Biowaste (specifically the mission, not just generally doing it on the market) for Outbreak, and skimmer kill missions for famine. Again, even in the old system there was a lot of FUD and incorrect knowledge going on.
Last edited: