Player owned factions...discuss

[Ian Doncaster]

And I don't think you need an alternate universe to prove this, just look at the game before PMFs came along. There weren't a few factions steamrolling across the bubble like a few PMFs are doing now.

The very first PMFs were introduced only a few months after people had figured out that the BGS could be intentionally manipulated at all. Obviously there weren't individual steamroller factions before then - there hadn't been sufficient time to push any individual faction beyond a few systems present - but people had certainly expanded adopted factions to noticeable sizes.

The main cause of the steamroller for both PMFs and adopted factions is the BGS changes in 3.3 - by preventing states interfering with each other and allowing systems owned by the same faction to behave independently, Frontier sorted out some background problems with very large factions ... at the cost of allowing them to get even larger even faster.

At the very least, expand the PMF rules such that systems where a supported faction is present are also considered invalid targets for placing a PMF, since the intent of that rule is to prevent new groups from plopping their new faction on top of someone else's home.

That would be effectively equivalent to ending new PMF placement, since people would just use spare alt accounts to claim factions in the remaining systems.

 

[Vardaugas]

Worst thing about faction blobbing of systems is that you will have to go somewhere far out to get any bounties cleared as any near systems are part of the blob.

 

[Jmanis]

Worst thing about faction blobbing of systems is that you will have to go somewhere far out to get any bounties cleared as any near systems are part of the blob.

Why? Any IF will clear any bounties. (except in Odyssey, which is a bug)

 

[Vardaugas]

Why? Any IF will clear any bounties. (except in Odyssey, which is a bug)

That confirmed a bug?

 

[Jmanis]

That confirmed a bug?

Depends on your definition of confirmed I guess. Plenty of people reporting the issue, but there's bizzarro stuff going on the issue tracker like this issue, where FD acknowledge the bug, but closed the ticket as a duplicate of... itself...

Addtionally, if you weren't aware, it's impossible to pay off interstellar bounties at all. If that's not blatantly a bug, I don't know what is.

Issue Tracker

issues.frontierstore.net

On top of that, the workaround for the issue in Odyssey is "log out and in to Horizons, and pay off your bounty at the IF there". The fact there's different rules between the two is clearly not intentional.

 

[Witcher 7]

Our Anarchy PMF has been at War and retreated from 4 systems since Odyssey dropped. Today first time I have a system gone -1 in Influence at Wardal

 

[Moritz Norman]

I'm split on this. I was an early leader of our faction's BGS and it was a blast expanding it past one system and establishing our little corner in space (now after years of others' work, it's a big corner in space).

That said, many PMF have blobbed out so much it makes space much more boring. I revisited an old secondary home that I used to use for Engineer mat collection in early 2.0 because of the variety of system states in the area. Long gone was the anarchy system and factions. A PMF had taken over and expanded into the entire neighborhood, resulting in vanilla blah.

 

[Frankymole]

That said, many PMF have blobbed out so much it makes space much more boring. I revisited an old secondary home that I used to use for Engineer mat collection in early 2.0 because of the variety of system states in the area. Long gone was the anarchy system and factions. A PMF had taken over and expanded into the entire neighborhood, resulting in vanilla blah.

Which is why there are lots of people fighting for Anarchy factions in Colonia - not least to get the full range of ships back to purchase. If you want different governments and states you have to work for them.

 

[SouthernGorilla]

If you want different governments and states you have to work for them.

That'd be fine if it was clear just how to do that. I'm not even sure why I'd want to bother. Other than the silliness of only being able to find certain materials in systems with certain governments.

 

[Q GT70]

and you don't see that as important?

Anarchy systems have proto mats for starters
they sell useful ships.

that aside, I have said many times economics 101. and it is important in this game.
a label such as confederacy or dictatorship or democracy..they do have relevance.
BUT, if every system in a circle or whatever pattern is all owned and 100% controlled by 1 faction...it is a dead dictatorship. with zero variety.
government is nothing more than one mans variation of laws forced onto others or agreed upon by a group and adhered to.
a real government or 'alliance' is one that allows all government types to thrive and work together.
keep your friends close and your enemy closer.
crime pays, and all governments commit crimes, endorse crimes and have lots of criminals.
making them work together and allowing the variety actually has a huge effect of finding materials of all kinds..


put it this way, if all systems became 100% democracy overnight, there are a number of things you would hardly ever see again in the game.
profit from anything being just 1.

but as anarchy is and is intended to be, if they get removed from too many systems, democracy is on the way.
you can't have a real economy or a real peace by suppressing, you have to allow freedom and control that.
call it whatever you want.

not intended as an ad for anarchy, just that they are a good example, and they never beg.

 

[Moritz Norman]

Which is why there are lots of people fighting for Anarchy factions in Colonia - not least to get the full range of ships back to purchase. If you want different governments and states you have to work for them.

I support the initiative and followed it from afar, but how is it going? And wouldn’t mind helping any similar BGS efforts, but I’m currently in the bubble

 

[Frankymole]

I support the initiative and followed it from afar, but how is it going? And wouldn’t mind helping any similar BGS efforts, but I’m currently in the bubble

Due to the nature of the player-base working against them, the anarchy supporters there tend to be very tight-lipped about their operations. The best bet to find out where they're succeeding or failing is to join one of their groups, though it usually requires a record of support for them, and some trust to be built up.