We do utilise our bonus quite well, but at the same time it takes a lot of manpower that we do not have.
Powerplay Weekly Statistics
- Thread starter Ian Doncaster
- Start date
Ironically the PP1 system may have worked better with the colonization feature, or they should have let the power move along with faction when colonizing
Week 19 is fairly similar to Week 18, though Acquisition does pick up a bit again
A slight increase in the rate of Acquisition, though it's still outpaced by the conversion of existing Exploited systems to Fortified, so the number of Exploited systems falls again. Still, the general slowing of activity means that for now, the timescale to fortify everything stretches out a bit.
We're likely to hit the 4.5 billion mark for total system strength this week, and coming up fairly soon is the point where a full half of the Powers' strength is in Fortified and Stronghold systems.
| Current value | Change from last cycle | |
| Week | 20 | +1 |
| Total System Count | 10,369 | +31 |
| Stronghold Count | 636 | +12 |
| Fortified Count | 1,553 | +45 |
| Exploited Count | 8,180 | -26 |
| Total Estimated CP Value (approximate cost to build the current structure from nothing) | 4,486,800,000 | +46,720,000 |
| Cheapest Destruction Cost (i.e. cost to demote all current systems to Exploited) | 2,196,400,000 | +54,000,000 |
| Stronghold Completion Percentage (current systems, by CP value) | 28.85% | +0.17% |
| Number of Powers gaining systems | 10 | == |
| Projected weeks until all occupied systems are Fortified or better (using last four weeks to extrapolate, system count model) | 177 | +4 |
| Projected weeks until all occupied systems are Fortified or better (using last four weeks to extrapolate, control point model) | 72 | +5 |
We're likely to hit the 4.5 billion mark for total system strength this week, and coming up fairly soon is the point where a full half of the Powers' strength is in Fortified and Stronghold systems.
Again, not a lot happening in week 20.
As expected, 4.5 billion total estimated strength reached, and the number of Exploited systems continues to fall as they're reinforced faster than they're created.
But ... Frontier have added some undocumented Journal data which allows the exact strength - and the current reinforcement/undermining progress - for a system to be determined. So I'll be starting to record this data, and see if we can get more "official" estimates of the total CP value, the amount of each activity going on each week, and see how closely the estimates here match up to them for next time.
| Current value | Change from last cycle | |
| Week | 21 | +1 |
| Total System Count | 10,388 | +19 |
| Stronghold Count | 648 | +12 |
| Fortified Count | 1,585 | +32 |
| Exploited Count | 8,155 | -25 |
| Total Estimated CP Value (approximate cost to build the current structure from nothing) | 4,523,400,000 | +36,600,000 |
| Cheapest Destruction Cost (i.e. cost to demote all current systems to Exploited) | 2,240,000,000 | +43,600,000 |
| Stronghold Completion Percentage (current systems, by CP value) | 29.03% | +0.18% |
| Number of Powers gaining systems | 10 | == |
| Projected weeks until all occupied systems are Fortified or better (using last four weeks to extrapolate, system count model) | 182 | +5 |
| Projected weeks until all occupied systems are Fortified or better (using last four weeks to extrapolate, control point model) | 76 | +4 |
But ... Frontier have added some undocumented Journal data which allows the exact strength - and the current reinforcement/undermining progress - for a system to be determined. So I'll be starting to record this data, and see if we can get more "official" estimates of the total CP value, the amount of each activity going on each week, and see how closely the estimates here match up to them for next time.
Lots of changes in week 21 - to the report, at least. Actual activity does seem slightly up on previous weeks as some people move back from colonising new systems, but not all that different.
The new Journal data allows a better estimate to be gathered of the average merit strength of an Exploited, Fortified and Stronghold system - so the old estimates are shown this week for information, but I'll be using this approach in future. Something to note is that the majority of the error from the original estimates was in the Exploited systems - which means that the "cheapest destruction cost" doesn't shift all that much, but the "total estimated CP" drops by over 1.5 billion - far from just approaching 50% of CP in the stronger systems, we're actually getting closer to 2/3.
Colonisation infill has put a lot of new Acquisition systems into range of the Powers - almost 13,000 detected so far - which will avoid any concerns about needing to attack anyone else, or even contest an Acquisition, to obtain more systems. Fortunate, when the underminers are outnumbered approximately 10:1 and actual successful undermining is so rare as to be a rounding error. But while we're looking at Colonisation, a couple of new measures as certain minor factions expand substantially through it. (At some point we may also need "Minor Factions larger than largest Power" as a measure, but not for a few months at least.) Winters narrowly misses out on also being smaller than the largest minor faction, and will probably be overtaken in the next few hours (likely already has, in fact, but until I get the data through EDDN I can't confirm that)
| Current value | Change from last cycle | |
| Week | 22 | +1 |
| Total System Count | 10,417 | +29 |
| Stronghold Count | 662 | +14 |
| Fortified Count | 1,624 | +39 |
| Exploited Count | 8,131 | -14 |
| Total Estimated CP Value (approximate cost to build the current structure from nothing) - old strength estimations (will be retired) | 4,568,880,000 | +45,480,000 |
| Total Estimated CP Value (approximate cost to build the current structure from nothing) - new strength estimations | 2,910,130,000 | new measure |
| Cheapest Destruction Cost (i.e. cost to demote all current systems to Exploited) - old strength estimations (will be retired) | 2,292,200,000 | +52,000,000 |
| Cheapest Destruction Cost (i.e. cost to demote all current systems to Exploited) - new strength estimations | 1,853,100,000 | new measure |
| Stronghold Completion Percentage (current systems, by CP value) | 19.27% | methodology updated |
| Number of Powers gaining systems | 11 | +1 |
| Projected weeks until all occupied systems are Fortified or better (using last four weeks to extrapolate, system count model) | 173 | -9 |
| Projected weeks until all occupied systems are Fortified or better (using last four weeks to extrapolate, control point model) | 60 | methodology updated |
| Reinforcement : Undermining ratio (CP) | 10.1 | new measure |
| Acquistion target estimate | 12,979 | new measure |
| Total net reinforcement estimate (CP) | 45,936,110 | new measure |
| Minor Factions larger than smallest Power | 2 | new measure |
| Powers smaller than largest Minor Faction | 1 | new measure |
The new Journal data allows a better estimate to be gathered of the average merit strength of an Exploited, Fortified and Stronghold system - so the old estimates are shown this week for information, but I'll be using this approach in future. Something to note is that the majority of the error from the original estimates was in the Exploited systems - which means that the "cheapest destruction cost" doesn't shift all that much, but the "total estimated CP" drops by over 1.5 billion - far from just approaching 50% of CP in the stronger systems, we're actually getting closer to 2/3.
Colonisation infill has put a lot of new Acquisition systems into range of the Powers - almost 13,000 detected so far - which will avoid any concerns about needing to attack anyone else, or even contest an Acquisition, to obtain more systems. Fortunate, when the underminers are outnumbered approximately 10:1 and actual successful undermining is so rare as to be a rounding error. But while we're looking at Colonisation, a couple of new measures as certain minor factions expand substantially through it. (At some point we may also need "Minor Factions larger than largest Power" as a measure, but not for a few months at least.) Winters narrowly misses out on also being smaller than the largest minor faction, and will probably be overtaken in the next few hours (likely already has, in fact, but until I get the data through EDDN I can't confirm that)
Week 22 gives the first cycle-on-cycle changes for some of the new measures.
There are some slight increases in activity - and unsurprisingly the total net reinforcement estimate is staying close to the total estimated CP value. Because of the effects of acquisitions and system losses, they wouldn't be expected to be identical even if there weren't measurement time differences involved - but nevertheless it suggests that the majority of activity is being accounted for, and late or secret snipes do not have a significant effect on the overall picture.
The largest minor faction [1] now exceeds the size of the three smallest powers - Kaine stays clear by one system at time of writing but both Kaine and Patreus may also have fallen below its expansion by the time you read this. Meanwhile a third faction gets to "bigger than Torval" size.
Another 2,300 systems come into Acquisition range of at least one Power, as further colonisation projects complete. The rate of gain here is expected to fall over time as infill is completed without a corresponding increase in the size of the powers. (Note that this increase in candidates is also after the 48 newly acquired systems come off the list)
[1] These numbers may vary from the ones you can find from other sources, as I'm only counting confirmed colonisation systems. Systems where the faction is sponsoring a claim but the first station has not been completed and therefore the four week window may expire are not counted in this measure.
| Current value | Change from last cycle | |
| Week | 23 | +1 |
| Total System Count | 10,465 | +48 |
| Stronghold Count | 686 | +14 |
| Fortified Count | 1,652 | +28 |
| Exploited Count | 8,127 | -4 |
| Total Estimated CP Value (approximate cost to build the current structure from nothing) - new strength estimations | 2,959,810,000 | +49,680,000 |
| Cheapest Destruction Cost (i.e. cost to demote all current systems to Exploited) - new strength estimations | 1,903,300,000 | +50,200,000 |
| Stronghold Completion Percentage (current systems, by CP value) | 19.51% | +0.24% |
| Number of Powers gaining systems | 12 | +1 |
| Projected weeks until all occupied systems are Fortified or better (using last four weeks to extrapolate, system count model) | 181 | +8 |
| Projected weeks until all occupied systems are Fortified or better (using last four weeks to extrapolate, control point model) | 60 | == |
| Reinforcement : Undermining ratio (CP) | 11.5 | +1.4 |
| Acquistion target estimate | 15,302 | +2,323 |
| Total net reinforcement estimate (CP) | 48,187,422 | +2,251,312 |
| Minor Factions larger than smallest Power | 3 | +1 |
| Powers smaller than largest Minor Faction | 3 | +2 |
There are some slight increases in activity - and unsurprisingly the total net reinforcement estimate is staying close to the total estimated CP value. Because of the effects of acquisitions and system losses, they wouldn't be expected to be identical even if there weren't measurement time differences involved - but nevertheless it suggests that the majority of activity is being accounted for, and late or secret snipes do not have a significant effect on the overall picture.
The largest minor faction [1] now exceeds the size of the three smallest powers - Kaine stays clear by one system at time of writing but both Kaine and Patreus may also have fallen below its expansion by the time you read this. Meanwhile a third faction gets to "bigger than Torval" size.
Another 2,300 systems come into Acquisition range of at least one Power, as further colonisation projects complete. The rate of gain here is expected to fall over time as infill is completed without a corresponding increase in the size of the powers. (Note that this increase in candidates is also after the 48 newly acquired systems come off the list)
[1] These numbers may vary from the ones you can find from other sources, as I'm only counting confirmed colonisation systems. Systems where the faction is sponsoring a claim but the first station has not been completed and therefore the four week window may expire are not counted in this measure.
Overall gains are somewhat muted for Week 23 - with a few more powers than usual losing net systems, including some Strongholds dropping to Fortified, and Patreus losing an unsupported Fortified system, more seriously. Still, the overall picture remains as gains.
As a result, overall net reinforcement falls to its lowest estimated value - and therefore fails to break 3 billion total CP value on the revised estimates this week. The expansion of minor factions through Colonisation continues, with the largest one now overtaking Archer in size, and closing rapidly on LYR. Expansion outside the top 3 MFs is a bit slower, with Torval staying comfortably ahead of the 4th-placed one for now.
Unfortunately a data collection error means that some measures are unavailable this week. Normal data availability should resume next week.
| Current value | Change from last cycle | |
| Week | 24 | +1 |
| Total System Count | 10,481 | +16 |
| Stronghold Count | 695 | +9 |
| Fortified Count | 1,678 | +26 |
| Exploited Count | 8,108 | -19 |
| Total Estimated CP Value (approximate cost to build the current structure from nothing) - new strength estimations | 2,984,960,000 | +24,880,000 |
| Cheapest Destruction Cost (i.e. cost to demote all current systems to Exploited) - new strength estimations | 1,930,650,000 | +27,350,000 |
| Stronghold Completion Percentage (current systems, by CP value) | 19.64% | +0.13% |
| Number of Powers gaining systems | 9 | -3 |
| Projected weeks until all occupied systems are Fortified or better (using last four weeks to extrapolate, system count model) | 202 | +19 |
| Projected weeks until all occupied systems are Fortified or better (using last four weeks to extrapolate, control point model) | 66 | +6 |
| Reinforcement : Undermining ratio (CP) | data error | n/a |
| Acquistion target estimate | data error | n/a |
| Total net reinforcement estimate (CP) | data error | n/a |
| Minor Factions larger than smallest Power | 3 | == |
| Powers smaller than largest Minor Faction | 7 | +4 |
Unfortunately a data collection error means that some measures are unavailable this week. Normal data availability should resume next week.
Week 24 sees things get back to general gains in position, with only Torval taking a net loss (and Patreus staying neutral)
That gets us back to a more normal total gain of 50 systems, and the total Stronghold count now goes above 700. The increased Acquisition has decreased the average strength of the remaining Exploited systems slightly, so the total estimated CP stays fairly stable this time and doesn't quite break 3 billion. There's a good chance of it going through this week, though. The estimate update also causes a slight decrease in the Stronghold Completion Percentage, though this is likely a correction for overestimates of the amount of increase in previous weeks rather than a genuine decrease.
Reinforcement outweighs undermining by an even larger ratio than in previous weeks - though this is mainly caused by a reduction in undermining, as total reinforcement is also down slightly.
Meanwhile, in Colonisation news, almost another 2000 systems are in reach for Acquisition. Torval continues to stay ahead of the 4th largest minor faction for now, even despite this week's losses ... but at the other side, LYR is unable to stay ahead of the largest minor faction as the Dukes of Mikunn cross the +1000Z coordinate line on their long way to Lagoon Nebula.
| Current value | Change from last cycle | |
| Week | 25 | +1 |
| Total System Count | 10,531 | +50 |
| Stronghold Count | 712 | +17 |
| Fortified Count | 1,706 | +28 |
| Exploited Count | 8,113 | +5 |
| Total Estimated CP Value (approximate cost to build the current structure from nothing) | 2,984,825,000 | ~~ |
| Cheapest Destruction Cost (i.e. cost to demote all current systems to Exploited) | 1,970,700,000 | +40,050,000 |
| Stronghold Completion Percentage (current systems, by CP value) | 19.55% | -0.08% |
| Number of Powers gaining systems | 10 | +1 |
| Projected weeks until all occupied systems are Fortified or better (using last four weeks to extrapolate, system count model) | 210 | +8 |
| Projected weeks until all occupied systems are Fortified or better (using last four weeks to extrapolate, control point model) | 67 | +1 |
| Reinforcement : Undermining ratio (CP) | 14.5 | +3.0 (on two weeks ago) |
| Acquistion target estimate | 17,234 | +1932 (on two weeks ago) |
| Total net reinforcement estimate (CP) | 44,864,343 | -3,323,079 (on two weeks ago) |
| Minor Factions larger than smallest Power | 3 | == |
| Powers smaller than largest Minor Faction | 8 | +1 |
Reinforcement outweighs undermining by an even larger ratio than in previous weeks - though this is mainly caused by a reduction in undermining, as total reinforcement is also down slightly.
Meanwhile, in Colonisation news, almost another 2000 systems are in reach for Acquisition. Torval continues to stay ahead of the 4th largest minor faction for now, even despite this week's losses ... but at the other side, LYR is unable to stay ahead of the largest minor faction as the Dukes of Mikunn cross the +1000Z coordinate line on their long way to Lagoon Nebula.
Week 25 sees a focus on creating new strongholds, with a higher net gain here than in exploited systems, and almost matching the new fortified count. Acquisition also sees a big focus with the largest gain in total systems since Week 16's.
As expected, total CP value now exceeds 3 billion, of which exceeding 2 billion (and exceeding 2/3) is above the "fortified" line.
There's an interesting excess of about 6.4 million CP of total reinforcement (as measured by system progress totals) over the increase in estimated CP strengths, which may be due to "spare" reinforcement of some popular strongholds. Despite this expansion, the reinforcement:undermining ratio fell back slightly to 12:1 - at these ratios, this is probably just random noise.
Colonisation brings another 700 systems into Acquisition range, though this will likely start to slow over time as the inner bubble gets fully inhabited, but Powerplay is slower to extend out further. Grom stays ahead of the largest faction for now, and Torval stays ahead of the 4th largest.
| Current value | Change from last cycle | |
| Week | 26 | +1 |
| Total System Count | 10,595 | +64 |
| Stronghold Count | 732 | +20 |
| Fortified Count | 1,731 | +25 |
| Exploited Count | 8,132 | +19 |
| Total Estimated CP Value (approximate cost to build the current structure from nothing) | 3,029,950,000 | +45,125,000 |
| Cheapest Destruction Cost (i.e. cost to demote all current systems to Exploited) | 2,013,450,000 | +42,750,000 |
| Stronghold Completion Percentage (current systems, by CP value) | 19.72% | 0.17% |
| Number of Powers gaining systems | 11 | +1 |
| Projected weeks until all occupied systems are Fortified or better (using last four weeks to extrapolate, system count model) | 236 | +26 |
| Projected weeks until all occupied systems are Fortified or better (using last four weeks to extrapolate, control point model) | 72 | +5 |
| Reinforcement : Undermining ratio (CP) | 12.0 | -2.5 |
| Acquistion target estimate | 17,966 | +732 |
| Total net reinforcement estimate (CP) | 51,268,400 | +6,404,057 |
| Minor Factions larger than smallest Power | 3 | == |
| Powers smaller than largest Minor Faction | 8 | == |
There's an interesting excess of about 6.4 million CP of total reinforcement (as measured by system progress totals) over the increase in estimated CP strengths, which may be due to "spare" reinforcement of some popular strongholds. Despite this expansion, the reinforcement:undermining ratio fell back slightly to 12:1 - at these ratios, this is probably just random noise.
Colonisation brings another 700 systems into Acquisition range, though this will likely start to slow over time as the inner bubble gets fully inhabited, but Powerplay is slower to extend out further. Grom stays ahead of the largest faction for now, and Torval stays ahead of the 4th largest.
Week 26 has a balance change and rare re-enabling at the end, though most of the impact of those changes will only be visible this coming week.
New Acquisitions are up significantly, at almost +100 net (even with some losses from another Patreus bubble collapsing) - not quite the highest ever, but still definitely the highest since rares were disabled. Reinforcement stays strong too, though, with a lot of new Strongholds appearing (to the extent that the net Fortified gain is actually smaller than the net Stronghold gain)
This brings the net CP gain up to 60 million - the highest since February - with another 55 million of it going into the stronger systems. This week, Reinforcement has stayed ahead of the pace of Acquisition - though Undermining has also accelerated, with the ratio down to 8.9 largely even before the impact of the recent rebalancing of undermining and reinforcement merit earning rates. Nonetheless, total net reinforcement does still rise on previous weeks.
On the colonisation side, Torval manages - by four systems - to stay ahead of the fourth largest minor faction this week, but Grom falls below the biggest one. Additional internal colonisation brings another 500 systems into reach for Acquisition too - just in time for that extra rares-powered pace to come in useful?
The question, of course, is how much the -35%/+5% rebalance and reappearance of rares will affect matters. A simple "no-one changes behaviour" extrapolation would give a 5.5 reinforcement:undermining ratio next week - but that's not all that likely. My guess is that:
- Acquisition will rise substantially (we saw +300 system weeks with rares before, that may well return)
- Undermining will not rise in general very much
- Reinforcement will be accelerated by rares too, and so we'll see (Reinforcement - Undermining) rise again, but (Reinforcement / Undermining) fall somewhat (though not as far as 5.5)
| Current value | Change from last cycle | |
| Week | 27 | +1 |
| Total System Count | 10,693 | +98 |
| Stronghold Count | 761 | +29 |
| Fortified Count | 1,754 | +26 |
| Exploited Count | 8,178 | +46 |
| Total Estimated CP Value (approximate cost to build the current structure from nothing) | 3,090,400,000 | +60,450,000 |
| Cheapest Destruction Cost (i.e. cost to demote all current systems to Exploited) | 2,068,150,000 | +54,700,000 |
| Stronghold Completion Percentage (current systems, by CP value) | 19.93% | 0.21% |
| Number of Powers gaining systems | 11 | == |
| Projected weeks until all occupied systems are Fortified or better (using last four weeks to extrapolate, system count model) | 259 | +23 |
| Projected weeks until all occupied systems are Fortified or better (using last four weeks to extrapolate, control point model) | 77 | +5 |
| Reinforcement : Undermining ratio (CP) | 8.9 | -3.1 |
| Acquistion target estimate | 18,519 | +553 |
| Total net reinforcement estimate (CP) | 56,472,235 | +5,203,835 |
| Minor Factions larger than smallest Power | 3 | == |
| Powers smaller than largest Minor Faction | 9 | +1 |
This brings the net CP gain up to 60 million - the highest since February - with another 55 million of it going into the stronger systems. This week, Reinforcement has stayed ahead of the pace of Acquisition - though Undermining has also accelerated, with the ratio down to 8.9 largely even before the impact of the recent rebalancing of undermining and reinforcement merit earning rates. Nonetheless, total net reinforcement does still rise on previous weeks.
On the colonisation side, Torval manages - by four systems - to stay ahead of the fourth largest minor faction this week, but Grom falls below the biggest one. Additional internal colonisation brings another 500 systems into reach for Acquisition too - just in time for that extra rares-powered pace to come in useful?
The question, of course, is how much the -35%/+5% rebalance and reappearance of rares will affect matters. A simple "no-one changes behaviour" extrapolation would give a 5.5 reinforcement:undermining ratio next week - but that's not all that likely. My guess is that:
- Acquisition will rise substantially (we saw +300 system weeks with rares before, that may well return)
- Undermining will not rise in general very much
- Reinforcement will be accelerated by rares too, and so we'll see (Reinforcement - Undermining) rise again, but (Reinforcement / Undermining) fall somewhat (though not as far as 5.5)
Week 27 is our first full week with the balance change, and it's definitely making a difference.
* estimator changed slightly due to adjustments in average Stronghold strength estimate; without methodology change would be around +45 million total and +30 million CDC, which is probably a better estimate of the week-to-week shift.
Acquisitions continue to rise with rares on the table again, and as a result the "weeks until everything is Fortified" estimator swings out substantially - though remains finite, so reinforcement does for now remain slightly ahead of acquisition pace. However, this is calculated on a four week rolling average, so if weeks like this continue I expect these measures to run to infinite (and "Stronghold Completion percentage" to start dropping).
So ... how did the prediction on reinforcement versus undermining go? Firstly, I hadn't realised that the bonus/penalty applied to merits only rather than CP when I made that. But as it happened, it did "fall somewhat though not as far as 5.5", so that must just have cancelled out some other mistake. The drop in the ratio is mostly driven by a drop in the number of reinforcement merits (either through complete discouragement or migration to the extensive acquisitions), rather than an increase in undermining (which is also down slightly)
Overall result: we're maybe moving from an era where Powers don't attack each other because they're too busy reinforcing to one where they don't attack each other because they're too busy claiming new uncontested/able systems.
As a result, all Powers gain net systems, but this isn't enough to stop two more minor factions getting to be bigger than Torval as lots of Colonisation completes its system claims. Meanwhile, the top 3 powers (with Duval overtaking Mahon for the top spot) remain clear of the biggest minor faction, for now.
| Current value | Change from last cycle | |
| Week | 28 | +1 |
| Total System Count | 10,832 | +139 |
| Stronghold Count | 773 | +12 |
| Fortified Count | 1,783 | +29 |
| Exploited Count | 8,276 | +98 |
| Total Estimated CP Value (approximate cost to build the current structure from nothing) | 3,097,350,000 | +6,950,000 * |
| Cheapest Destruction Cost (i.e. cost to demote all current systems to Exploited) | 2,062,850,000 | -5,300,000 * |
| Stronghold Completion Percentage (current systems, by CP value) | 20.42% | * |
| Number of Powers gaining systems | 12 | +1 |
| Projected weeks until all occupied systems are Fortified or better (using last four weeks to extrapolate, system count model) | 320 | +61 |
| Projected weeks until all occupied systems are Fortified or better (using last four weeks to extrapolate, control point model) | 93 | +16 |
| Reinforcement : Undermining ratio (CP) | 6.0 | -2.9 |
| Acquistion target estimate | 19,014 | +575 |
| Total net reinforcement estimate (CP) | 39,611,872 | -16,860,363 |
| Minor Factions larger than smallest Power | 5 | +2 |
| Powers smaller than largest Minor Faction | 9 | == |
Acquisitions continue to rise with rares on the table again, and as a result the "weeks until everything is Fortified" estimator swings out substantially - though remains finite, so reinforcement does for now remain slightly ahead of acquisition pace. However, this is calculated on a four week rolling average, so if weeks like this continue I expect these measures to run to infinite (and "Stronghold Completion percentage" to start dropping).
So ... how did the prediction on reinforcement versus undermining go? Firstly, I hadn't realised that the bonus/penalty applied to merits only rather than CP when I made that. But as it happened, it did "fall somewhat though not as far as 5.5", so that must just have cancelled out some other mistake. The drop in the ratio is mostly driven by a drop in the number of reinforcement merits (either through complete discouragement or migration to the extensive acquisitions), rather than an increase in undermining (which is also down slightly)
Overall result: we're maybe moving from an era where Powers don't attack each other because they're too busy reinforcing to one where they don't attack each other because they're too busy claiming new uncontested/able systems.
As a result, all Powers gain net systems, but this isn't enough to stop two more minor factions getting to be bigger than Torval as lots of Colonisation completes its system claims. Meanwhile, the top 3 powers (with Duval overtaking Mahon for the top spot) remain clear of the biggest minor faction, for now.
Well... we have also to consider that "attacking" in the current state is a cringe feature.
I'm fairly certain we are larger than all powers. We crossed the 1500 mark, passing duval.
I only count systems with a population for this, so ones currently having the first outpost under construction don't count on this measure - and that combined with limitations on EDDN data getting a ping for some systems maybe once every couple of months means that this will be lagging behind the in-game figures a bit.
But I don't think there's a more reliable way to do it at this stage without an impractical amount of manual data checking.
Makes sense!
1515 systems with a combined population less than that of earth...
Although its a bit silly at the same time it does partly fit EDs setting of humanity in the doldrums (much of its glory days of achievement were arguably 500 years before)- for example until now (i.e. SCO) technology really peaked when AI designed 'the best' ships before it was outlawed and that many of the designs are really, really old (Sidey, Eagle, Anaconda, Python etc).
Back on topic, I think its not as easy to compare BGS faction and PP2 power sizes, because they are aquired and lost at different rates, and that the transition from PP1 > 2 changed how size is measured (given prior you had control / exploited automatically set up). So when you compare MoM to Aisling or Mahon, how they got there and how they hold systems against enemies is quite different.
It will be interesting to see how many of the architects get around to moving their bags factiosn into first place
It will indeed.
I count 7,871,093,521 in Dukes-controlled systems, and there are still some missing from that or using old data, so probably slightly more by now.
Yes, definitely. I'm mainly using it as a way to highlight the difference between the rate of inhabited space expansion and the rate of Powerplay expansion (along with the Total Acquirable Systems number).
Those who have BGS factions probably will eventually. But looking at the new systems near me (fringes of the bubble not near any big projects, seems to be just individuals taking systems they liked the look of) quite a lot of them don't.