Boom may increase the effectiveness of trade actions to that faction. If they control stations it also increases their production of most goods, and their prices for mined goods.
Faction states are basically completely independent, so you can have as many factions in Boom as you want.
What do I do to make them go Boom? Besides shooting at them, of course
What do I do to make them go Boom? Besides shooting at them, of course
Ah, that explains it! I ran some gold for that system. It was just a single mission! I had no idea it would trigger a boom. Excellent! Many thanks.
That suggests the system isn't as inactive as you may have thought
Buying goods from a station doesn't directly affect anything, only selling. But if you find a nice round-trip route, then you may able to get both ends into Boom, which will for most goods improve the rate at which they generate new supply for you to buy.
It's complicated and has a bunch of anti-exploit measures. Like a lot of things it was adjusted in 3.3 and then probably fine-tuned a fair bit since, so I don't know if the exact formulae have been calculated. Broadly, more different types of good are good, more different systems the goods are sourced from are good, and both higher profit per tonne and higher tonnage are good.
USS are by-faction, so the faction's current state will affect what you might find inside them.
This must be a gameplay mechanic, because I'm friends with a business owner, and she much rather I buy things from her than sell things to her. Granted, if I'm part of her supply chain, then my reputation with her increases, but her 'influence' is based on her sales.
In the 1st page of the Status tab of your ship's right panel, you can see the economic and security bars with all of the states. In each is a small diamond-shaped indicator telling you where within the current state the faction is. For the faction you sold gold to, the indicator may have been almost to the Boom state in that bar. The indicator can be very difficult to see at times. Touch your nose to your screen (if not using VR) and you might see it.
This pointer, it only moves on the tick, correct? In other words, that status page is a snapshot that only updates once per day IIRC. Shame, that..In the 1st page of the Status tab of your ship's right panel, you can see the economic and security bars with all of the states. In each is a small diamond-shaped indicator telling you where within the current state the faction is. For the faction you sold gold to, the indicator may have been almost to the Boom state in that bar. The indicator can be very difficult to see at times. Touch your nose to your screen (if not using VR) and you might see it.
While I agree superficially, one of the problems is it would be highly exploitable and overpowered, due to not having to leave the station and undertake some activity to increase their influence, or an individual's rep. It's why the ability to sell stolen goods from the location you stole them was removed.
My original assumption was that selling faction wouldn't get the INF when you bought the commodities, but rather when you sold those commodities for a profit elsewhere. This would make it similar to a courier mission, in that both parties benefit when courier data is delivered. Not that this makes total sense for commodities outside of a mission, but at least it would still reward a faction for selling products at a good price while maintaining a fair gameplay loop.
Expansion and retreat are global states; the only ones though.
Because of the way market stuff works, it would still be very exploitable. Don't have time atm to explain though.
Okay, that explains why multiple states can coexist, if there's a global category and a local one. I wonder how these all intersect each other. For example, does a faction that's about to expand out of another system become weaker or stronger to a civil war in a different system?
I don't see it, but that's okay. I can roleplay that I'm supplying the colonies vital commodities to make the people happy. Does buying do anything at all, like increase economic status or even perhaps affect the items and prices of what is sold?
