Office of Galactic Statistics - Minor Faction Summary Report

[Sapyx]

OK, here we go again. It's somewhere between a quarterly and half-yearly report, but it's all I have (as I can only use "today's" statistics as reported by third-party sites, not those from two months ago). I'm using EDDB instead of EDSM for the Systems counts, because the 5000 LY search radius for systems on EDSM makes compiling the stats too cumbersome.

Total Factions as of 8/1/2020
	Federation	Empire	Alliance	Independent		TOTAL	Percentage
Democracy	4439	2	124	5013		9578	12.5
Confederacy	1935	0	14	680		2629	3.4
Corporate	6016	3674	239	13480		23409	30.5
Patronage	0	2940	169	366		3475	4.5
Dictatorship	0	1406	121	10200		11727	15.3
Feudal	0	564	69	3488		4121	5.4
Communist	0	0	34	2364		2398	3.1
Cooperative	0	0	57	3371		3428	4.5
Prison colony	0	47	0	138		185	0.2
Theocracy	8	0	6	135		149	0.2
Anarchy	12	13	38	15566		15629	20.4
TOTAL	12410	8646	871	54801		76728
Percentage	16.2	11.3	1.1	71.4

Changes - Factions - 8/1/2020
	Federation	Empire	Alliance	Independent		TOTAL
Democracy	9	0	1	13		23
Confederacy	3	0	0	4		7
Corporate	7	7	0	31		45
Patronage	0	10	0	3		13
Dictatorship	0	4	0	3		7
Feudal	0	4	0	1		5
Communist	0	0	0	4		4
Cooperative	0	0	0	17		17
Prison colony	0	0	0	0		0
Theocracy	0	0	0	0		0
Anarchy	2	0	0	10		12
TOTAL	21	25	1	86		133

There have been a net increase of 133 new factions added since August last year. Since we've been told that factions cannot actually be deleted from ED, the use of the word "net" is somewhat redundant. The overall pattern is much the same as in previous reports, with Indie Corporates the surprising leaders in new factions established. One notable difference: the almost complete lack of new Alliance factions. One measly All Dem added. C'mon, Alliance guys, you need to improve your recruitment!

Governing factions controlling systems as of 8/1/2020
	Federation	Empire	Alliance	Independent		TOTAL	Percentage
Democracy	1738	0	218	1362		3318	16.1
Confederacy	705	0	39	594		1338	6.5
Corporate	2321	1368	479	2173		6341	30.8
Patronage	0	2217	82	247		2546	12.4
Dictatorship	0	703	44	1041		1788	8.7
Feudal	0	435	12	817		1264	6.1
Communist	0	0	46	1172		1218	5.9
Cooperative	0	0	85	1423		1508	7.3
Prison colony	0	22	0	62		84	0.4
Theocracy	17	0	14	200		231	1.1
Anarchy	4	2	23	832		861	4.2
					Uncertain	117
TOTAL	4785	4747	1042	9923	117	20614
Percentage	23.2	23.0	5.1	48.1

Changes - Systems - 8/1/2020
	Federation	Empire	Alliance	Independent		TOTAL
Democracy	-23	0	5	105		87
Confederacy	-56	0	2	51		-3
Corporate	-117	-57	42	24		-108
Patronage	0	10	-15	1		-4
Dictatorship	0	-24	-3	-18		-45
Feudal	0	25	-4	-24		-3
Communist	0	0	0	49		49
Cooperative	0	0	4	125		129
Prison colony	0	-2	0	2		0
Theocracy	-2	0	0	15		13
Anarchy	-1	-11	-3	-82		-97
					Uncertain	4
TOTAL	-199	-59	28	248	4	22

22 new star systems have been added to the list since the last Report. This is surprisingly high as I'm not aware of any major new colonization initiatives since the Enclave, so I'm not sure where these are cropping up.

Some things remain the same, and some things have changed. The Federation's decline continues apace; they are now about the same size as the Empire. The Empire is falling too, but not as much. Corporations of both major superpowers are being hammered, while Alliance Corporates buck the trend - the Alliance continues to show small but steady growth, almost entirely due to growing Alliance Corporatism: nearly half of Alliance systems are now Corporate owned. And Anarchies are disappearing so fast we may need to declare them an endangered species soon.

All that collapse in Fed and Imp territory has to go somewhere, and it's mostly gone to the Indies once again. This has been a consistent trend since these Reports began, and is perhaps not surprising given that (according to Inara at least) over 90% of players are Indie-aligned, or at least not favouring one particualr superpower. Indies have gone from controling 40% of Human space to nearly 50% of Human space within the last couple of years.

Things that have changed since last Report: the collapse in Dicatorships is noteworthy; like Anarchies, they have fallen across the board in all allegiances that allow them. Indie Democracies, Co-Ops and Communists all show strong growth, but the rise in Indie Confederacies is entirely cancelled out by their collapse in the Federation. I've mentioned the collapse in Anarchies earlier, but of particular note is an apparent concerted effort to eradicate Imperial Anarchies as a ruling faction type, falling from 13 to 2; a surprising development, given that Imp Anarchies were unchanged in the previous quarter.

And finally, down in the wooden-spoon race, and before @Mrjupp points it out again, Theocracies continue to gain traction and pull ahead from their Prison Colony rivals: while they are still far behind Prison Colonies in terms of total number of factions, Theocracies now control three times as many systems as Prison Colonies.

 

[Mangal Oemie]

Nice work, again, Sapyx!

 

[Lee Taylor]

Thanks Sapyx. Your reports are as manna from heaven.

 

[Sapyx]

Hey now, it's time for the Quarterly Report once again.

First off, the Factions stats. First table is total numbers of factions, second table are the net changes.

Factions 5/4/20
	Federation	Empire	Alliance	Independent		TOTAL	Percentage
Democracy	4455	3	126	5032		9616	12.5
Confederacy	1941	0	14	685		2640	3.4
Corporate	6040	3688	239	13527		23494	30.5
Patronage	0	2954	169	370		3493	4.5
Dictatorship	0	1412	121	10215		11748	15.3
Feudal	0	570	69	3492		4131	5.4
Communist	0	0	34	2372		2406	3.1
Cooperative	0	0	57	3401		3458	4.5
Prison colony	0	47	0	138		185	0.2
Theocracy	8	0	6	136		150	0.2
Anarchy	15	13	38	15594		15660	20.3
TOTAL	12459	8687	873	54962		76981
Percentage	16.2	11.3	1.1	71.4

Faction changes 5/4/20
	Federation	Empire	Alliance	Independent		TOTAL	Percentage
Democracy	7	1	1	6		15
Confederacy	3	0	0	1		4
Corporate	17	7	0	16		40
Patronage	0	4	0	1		5
Dictatorship	0	2	0	12		14
Feudal	0	2	0	3		5
Communist	0	0	0	4		4
Cooperative	0	0	0	13		13
Prison colony	0	0	0	0		0
Theocracy	0	0	0	1		1
Anarchy	1	0	0	18		19
TOTAL	28	16	1	75		120
Percentage

Factions analysis: as usual, factions are only ever added, never deleted. The Bubble is indeed getting a crowded place. 120 new factions were added to the game in the past 3 months. As usual, most of the new factions were Indies. The most popular new faction type were Indie Anarchies - gluttons for punishment, I reckon - while the second-most popular were Federation Corporations. Corps generally remain the most popular government type; I can only assume this is for PowerPlay reasons. Prison Colonies remain the most unpopular choice - in fact, we haven't seen a new PC faction, of any allegiance, founded in nearly 2 years.

Now, for the system control statistics. Once again, first table is total systems, the second table is changes since the January report.

Systems - 5/4/20
	Federation	Empire	Alliance	Independent		TOTAL	Percentage
Democracy	1667	0	220	1437		3324	16.1
Confederacy	697	0	36	633		1366	6.6
Corporate	2242	1307	494	2246		6289	30.5
Patronage	0	2272	80	258		2610	12.7
Dictatorship	0	665	44	1006		1715	8.3
Feudal	0	438	11	783		1232	6.0
Communist	0	0	48	1201		1249	6.1
Cooperative	0	0	86	1476		1562	7.6
Prison colony	0	22	0	65		87	0.4
Theocracy	22	0	15	209		246	1.2
Anarchy	5	16	20	789		830	4.0
					Uncertain	115	0.6
TOTAL	4633	4720	1054	10103	115	20625
Percentage	22.5	22.9	5.1	49.0

System changes - 5/4/20
	Federation	Empire	Alliance	Independent		TOTAL
Democracy	-71	0	2	75		6
Confederacy	-8	0	-3	39		28
Corporate	-79	-61	15	73		-52
Patronage	0	55	-2	11		64
Dictatorship	0	-38	0	-35		-73
Feudal	0	3	-1	-34		-32
Communist	0	0	2	29		31
Cooperative	0	0	1	53		54
Prison colony	0	0	0	3		3
Theocracy	5	0	1	9		15
Anarchy	1	14	-3	-43		-31
					Uncertain	-2
TOTAL	-152	-27	12	180	-2	11

System analysis: Well, as expected and predicted, the Federation shrinkage has continued and the Empire is now, officially, larger than the Federation. The Federation has seen a net loss of 152 star systems for the quarter. Losses are primarily in the Corps and Democracies; there were only a few losses in Confederacies and even some gains in the Theocracy and Anarchy minority factions.

As usual, the Empire too has lost star systems, but with a net loss of only 27 systems, the Federation is clearly winning the race to the bottom. And once again, there's been a massive upswing in Patronages, with the direct Imperial system of government expanding to 55 systems, with the losses in Corporates and Dictatorships the main chains dragging back Imperial growth. The big surprise is the 700% growth in Imperial Anarchies, up from 2 to 16 systems. I suspect some new group or groups is backing this particular flavour of nefariousness.

Meanwhile over in the Alliance, the overall growth is small and measured. Once again, the trend of de-corporatization seen in the other two superpowers is mirror-reversed here, with growth in Alliance Corps providing the backbone of Alliance growth. The Authoritarian and Anarchy branches are down slightly, Confederacies are down slightly too. But overall, a good quarter for the Alliance, and another bad quarter for those Alliance RPers who keep saying, "at least the Alliance doesn't have the Corporate problems the Federation and Empire have". Because sorry, but now, it does: if the Alliance Parliament has one-system, one-vote, then the Corporations are now the ruling bloc, with 46.8% of the vote.

The Story with the Independents is much the same as always, with most of that collapse in Federation and Empire support going to the Indies. The trends reported last quarter are continuing: Indie Socials and Corporates are up, Indie Authoritarians and Anarchies are down. An interesting milestone has now almost been reached: there are currently 1667 Democratically-controlled systems in the Federation. There are 1657 democratically-controlled systems outside the Federation. So it won't be long now before there are more Democratic systems outside the Federation, than inside it.

An even more impressive statistical milestone is also upon us. The Federation Empire and Alliance, together, control slightly over half the galaxy: 10407 systems. The Indies control 10103 systems. So we are almost at the point where the Superpowers will have to lose their capital letter, or change their name, as "being owned by a Superpower" will become the minority status in the Galaxy.

 

[Lee Taylor]

Fascinating as always thanks Sapyx

 

[Misaniovent]

Prison Colonies remain the most unpopular choice - in fact, we haven't seen a new PC faction, of any allegiance, founded in nearly 2 years.

Time for Superjail?

 

[Cmdr Tel]

Thanks, great report as always.

 

[Schielman]

There was a hidden gem in that last update: there is a new Imperial Democracy. Anyone know where they are?

 

[graflex22]

There was a hidden gem in that last update: there is a new Imperial Democracy. Anyone know where they are?

that shouldn't be possible. how did that get by FDev?

 

[Sapyx]

EDDB reports it as being the Blue Ocean Shipping Company, no home system registered. That name doesn't turn up on Inara or EDSM. Not sure where EDDB is getting it from.

 

[FrogsFriend]

EDDB reports it as being the Blue Ocean Shipping Company, no home system registered. That name doesn't turn up on Inara or EDSM. Not sure where EDDB is getting it from.

From the Faction_ID in ROSS it's been there for quite a while.

 

[Jmanis]

From the Faction_ID in ROSS it's been there for quite a while.

Quite possibly a ghost faction, like the League of Reparation... might've been put in but torpedoed at the last minute when FD realised that Imperial Democracies weren't a thing.

Remember; apparently removing factions from the game is bad juju.

 

[FrogsFriend]

Quite possibly a ghost faction, like the League of Reparation... might've been put in but torpedoed at the last minute when FD realised that Imperial Democracies weren't a thing.

Remember; apparently removing factions from the game is bad juju.

True enough. There's also a few factions in the database that have been added directly into ROSS by players; with miss-spelled names and similar that means they weren't overwritten by the actual faction once it was detected by a data-tool.

 

[Sapyx]

It's been three months since last report, so I guess that makes it time for the next quarter. So here are the tables, in the usual order. First, the Factions:

Factions 5/7/20
	Federation	Empire	Alliance	Independent		TOTAL	Percentage
Democracy	4462	3	127	5038		9630	12.5
Confederacy	1945	0	14	687		2646	3.4
Corporate	6045	3696	241	13538		23520	30.5
Patronage	0	2959	170	371		3500	4.5
Dictatorship	0	1415	121	10220		11756	15.3
Feudal	0	573	69	3495		4137	5.4
Communist	0	0	34	2374		2408	3.1
Cooperative	0	0	58	3417		3475	4.5
Prison colony	0	47	0	138		185	0.2
Theocracy	11	0	6	137		154	0.2
Anarchy	15	15	39	15605		15674	20.3
TOTAL	12478	8708	879	55020		77085
Percentage	16.2	11.3	1.1	71.4

Faction changes 5/7/20
	Federation	Empire	Alliance	Independent		TOTAL
Democracy	7	0	1	6		14
Confederacy	4	0	0	2		6
Corporate	5	8	2	11		26
Patronage	0	5	1	1		7
Dictatorship	0	3	0	5		8
Feudal	0	3	0	3		6
Communist	0	0	0	2		2
Cooperative	0	0	1	16		17
Prison colony	0	0	0	0		0
Theocracy	3	0	0	1		4
Anarchy	0	2	1	11		14
TOTAL	19	21	6	58		104

Factions analysis: there were just over a hundred factions added this quarter, which is slightly less than the average for the recent quarters. I guess many folks are too distracted with fleet carriers to be petitioning for new factions. Or maybe it's just that "running out of space" thing I've been pushing, starting to come true. There's a higher proportion of Superpower-aligned factions in this quarter's drafting. just over half of the newcomers are Indie aligned; this figure is normally closer to 75%. The flavour of the month is Indie Co-operative, with 16 additions. Prison colonies remain unloved. with no new additions.

Now, for the overall system control stats:

Systems - 5/7/20
	Federation	Empire	Alliance	Independent		TOTAL	Percentage
Democracy	1617	0	226	1447		3290	16.0
Confederacy	679	0	37	669		1385	6.7
Corporate	2243	1267	518	2244		6272	30.4
Patronage	0	2269	73	266		2608	12.6
Dictatorship	0	650	42	991		1683	8.2
Feudal	0	427	8	783		1218	5.9
Communist	0	0	43	1225		1268	6.1
Cooperative	0	0	94	1520		1614	7.8
Prison colony	0	21	0	68		89	0.4
Theocracy	22	0	15	225		262	1.3
Anarchy	5	18	19	750		792	3.8
					Uncertain	87	0.4
TOTAL	4566	4652	1075	10188	87	20568
Percentage	22.2	22.6	5.2	49.5

System changes - 5/7/20
	Federation	Empire	Alliance	Independent		TOTAL
Democracy	-50	0	6	10		-34
Confederacy	-18	0	1	36		19
Corporate	1	-40	24	-2		-17
Patronage	0	-3	-7	8		-2
Dictatorship	0	-15	-2	-15		-32
Feudal	0	-11	-3	0		-14
Communist	0	0	-5	24		19
Cooperative	0	0	8	44		52
Prison colony	0	-1	0	3		2
Theocracy	0	0	0	16		16
Anarchy	0	2	-1	-39		-38
					Uncertain	-28
TOTAL	-67	-68	21	85	-28	-57

Systems analysis: the first thing to note is that EDDB (my data source for all data this quarter, and for the previous quarter) seems to have tightened up it's database, as there has been a net loss of 57 star systems. As far as I know, nobody's been going around blowing up suns or evacuating star systems, so it's a virtual purge rather than an actual one. Perhaps EDDB have had to restructure their database in order to portray Fleet Carriers properly, and have deleted a few glitches or duplicates. Unfortunately it means I can't guesstimate the number of new systems added, but I would assume it's low, since there have been no new colonies planted to my knowledge.

That being said, it seems there is a slight paradigm shift: both the Federation and Empire lost roughly the same number of systems this quarter. I suppose that's good news for the Federation, in not being the clear losers this time round. The Alliance continues to grow. I'm sure anyone psychohistorically inclined now has enough data points to be able to make a prediction about when the Alliance will become the largest superpower in human space. My "gut feeling" guess would be "twenty years".

Within the alignments, the biggest trend reversal on the Federal side is the halt in decline of the Corporates, even seeing the tiniest of gains. This trend is not being reflected in the Empire, which is continuing the trend of de-corporatization. Meanwhile in the Alliance, the Corporate takeover continues apace. Overall, "Socials up, Authoritarians down" is the continuing trend, with the obvious exception being Federation Democracies, dragging the Democracy total down into the negative for the quarter. The biggest losers, as usual, are the Anarchies, though thanks to the collapse in Imperial Corporate support, "Indie Anarchy" were not the worst performing government type - though only by 1 system.

 

[Cmdr Tel]

Thanks Sapyx. Nice to see Theocracies continue their steady rise, the policy of monastery or prison seems to be working nicely.

 

[Cmdr Tel]

Hey Sapyx, I won't mention that's it is the next quarter already.........but they'll notice soon. You know how some of these BGS folks are for their stats.

 

[Mrjupp]

Sapyx as ever you are doing a great job. Can I be pedantic now and point out that data is only as good as the information inputted. It gives a rough guide but not as you know, a definitive guide.

There's been a few groups establishing themselves towards our way either Corporate or one of the other Aisling positive Government types but not too close. Ironic they don't all work together. Makes for some fun BGS sniping when asked by one or another of them.

 

[Sapyx]

Sorry, fell down a Minecraft rabbit hole and got stuck for a few weeks, but I'm back out and doing the Summary for the next quarter.

Here's the Factions summaries:

Factions 30/10/20
	Federation	Empire	Alliance	Independent		TOTAL	Percentage
Democracy	4467​	3​	127​	5046​		9643​	12.5​
Confederacy	1947​	0​	14​	691​		2652​	3.4​
Corporate	6056​	3701​	242​	13554​		23553​	30.6​
Patronage	0​	2971​	170​	372​		3513​	4.6​
Dictatorship	0​	1415​	121​	10224​		11760​	15.3​
Feudal	0​	575​	69​	3497​		4141​	5.4​
Communist	0​	0​	34​	2375​		2409​	3.1​
Cooperative	0​	0​	58​	3421​		3479​	4.5​
Prison colony	0​	47​	0​	139​		186​	0.2​
Theocracy	11​	0​	6​	141​		158​	0.2​
Anarchy	15​	18​	39​	15610​		15682​	20.3​
TOTAL	12496​	8730​	880​	55070​		77176​
Percentage	16.2​	11.3​	1.1​	71.4​

Faction changes 30/10/20
	Federation	Empire	Alliance	Independent		TOTAL
Democracy	5	0	0	8		13
Confederacy	2	0	0	4		6
Corporate	11	5	1	16		33
Patronage	0	12	0	1		13
Dictatorship	0	0	0	4		4
Feudal	0	2	0	2		4
Communist	0	0	0	1		1
Cooperative	0	0	0	4		4
Prison colony	0	0	0	1		1
Theocracy	0	0	0	4		4
Anarchy	0	3	0	5		8
TOTAL	18	22	1	50		91

Summary: not too much difference here comaprd with previous quarters. There were 91 factions added for the quarter. Perhaps the most interesting: someone seems to have taken us up on our challenge to start a new Prison Colony PMF; it's an Indie one. There were 91 new factions added to the game in total.

Systems - 30/10/20
	Federation	Empire	Alliance	Independent		TOTAL	Percentage ​
Democracy	1568​	0​	217​	1561​		3346​	16.3​
Confederacy	643​	0​	43​	724​		1410​	6.9​
Corporate	2173​	1188​	541​	2281​		6183​	30.1​
Patronage	0​	2281​	69​	280​		2630​	12.8​
Dictatorship	0​	593​	47​	977​		1617​	7.9​
Feudal	0​	449​	7​	766​		1222​	5.9​
Communist	0​	0​	34​	1271​		1305​	6.3​
Cooperative	0​	0​	98​	1586​		1684​	8.2​
Prison colony	0​	22​	0​	75​		97​	0.5​
Theocracy	22​	0​	13​	240​		275​	1.3​
Anarchy	7​	23​	19​	693​		742​	3.6​
					Uncertain	58​	0.3​
TOTAL	4413​	4556​	1088​	10454​	58​	20569​
Percentage	21.5​	22.1​	5.3​	50.8​

System changes - 30/10/20
	Federation	Empire	Alliance	Independent	TOTAL
Democracy	-49​	0​	-9​	114​		56​
Confederacy	-36​	0​	6​	55​		25​
Corporate	-70​	-79​	23​	37​		-89​
Patronage	0​	12​	-4​	14​		22​
Dictatorship	0​	-57​	5​	-14​		-66​
Feudal	0​	22​	-1​	-17​		4​
Communist	0​	0​	-9​	46​		37​
Cooperative	0​	0​	4​	66​		70​
Prison colony	0​	1​	0​	7​		8​
Theocracy	0​	0​	-2​	15​		13​
Anarchy	2​	5​	0​	-57​		-50​
					Uncertain	-29​
TOTAL	-153​	-96​	13​	266​	-29​	1​

Again, galactic politics is largely a continuation of recent trends. The Federation and Empire are both even smaller, and again the Empire's shrinkage rate is smaller than the Federation. The Corporate takeover of the Alliance is also continuing, bucking the trend of de-Corporatization in the other SUperpowers and the galaxy as a whole. Indie Anarchies are, as usual, the biggsest losers ont he Indie front, though Dictatorships and Feudals are also declining. One imagines tha, witht he decline of these thre governments, locating certain commodities legally (eg. narcotics and weaponry) is becoming a lot harder.

 

[Cmdr Tel]

Many thanks Sapyx. It looks like Theocracies are still the fastest growing by percentage if my poor math skills are correct. Perhaps someone better than I can confirm that.

 

[hangfireflip]

As to Prison Colony government I'd love to hear the explanation (RP or Lore wise) why a Wing would choose this particular government type and then try to expand and take on more Systems / Stations.

The EDA Kunti League is a independent Prision Colony operated by the ED Australia and New Zealand facebook group (now Squadron).

The original premise was that Australia became overrun by a violent variant of the koala, called a "dropbear", and forced to flee into space. We came to be known as a 'hive of rogues' within the Empire and were imprisioned in the Imperial Prison in Kunti system on the border of Imperial and Federation space.

Eventually, we over threw the guards of the prision and established an independent colony. Under warrant from the Imperials, we agreed to operate the Imperial prision while remaining idependent.

This RP lore was to reflect the founding and establishment of the nation of Australia. While New Zealand does not have a similar backstory, they too were a former colony of the UK ( the standin for the Empire in our backstory).