Recent BGS convert

[JackStarfield]

I have in, theory, been supporting a Player Faction for a long time as a squadron member, but only this last weekend dipped my toes into the BGS when I saw that a system was in retreat, and I decide to see if I could do something about it, now I'm hooked, given me a purpose instead of the endless grind for the mighty meta credit. So far, I have pulled two systems out of retreat and helped win a war, unfortunately one of those retreat systems now has a pending war, cant win them all.....

My question is, Is there a way to tell if I am getting any player support or opposition, it seems that my squadron in mainly defunct.

 

[Shadowsnog]

I have in, theory, been supporting a Player Faction for a long time as a squadron member, but only this last weekend dipped my toes into the BGS when I saw that a system was in retreat, and I decide to see if I could do something about it, now I'm hooked, given me a purpose instead of the endless grind for the mighty meta credit. So far, I have pulled two systems out of retreat and helped win a war, unfortunately one of those retreat systems now has a pending war, cant win them all.....

My question is, Is there a way to tell if I am getting any player support or opposition, it seems that my squadron in mainly defunct.

to some extent. you can try to siphon some knowledge about activity in a system from some sources, but generally there really isnt a way how to exactly track player activity.
you can check inara for a system and see how many inara active commanders have been in a system.
you can look at the news in station menu (at the bottom of the main station menu screen) to see some traffic information.
you can try and trace carrier movement in/around systems you are active in.
if you are really determined you can dock at a station and let the game running for a day or two and check logs if you met anyone. given you are both in open.

 

[Mrjupp]

I have in, theory, been supporting a Player Faction for a long time as a squadron member, but only this last weekend dipped my toes into the BGS when I saw that a system was in retreat, and I decide to see if I could do something about it, now I'm hooked, given me a purpose instead of the endless grind for the mighty meta credit. So far, I have pulled two systems out of retreat and helped win a war, unfortunately one of those retreat systems now has a pending war, cant win them all.....

My question is, Is there a way to tell if I am getting any player support or opposition, it seems that my squadron in mainly defunct.

There are a few ways and welcome to the BGS, glad you are scratching the surface, Sorry to read of the demise of your squadron. Feel free to ask around regarding your question and maybe us if you are interested.

 

[Jmanis]

I have in, theory, been supporting a Player Faction for a long time as a squadron member, but only this last weekend dipped my toes into the BGS when I saw that a system was in retreat, and I decide to see if I could do something about it, now I'm hooked, given me a purpose instead of the endless grind for the mighty meta credit. So far, I have pulled two systems out of retreat and helped win a war, unfortunately one of those retreat systems now has a pending war, cant win them all.....

My question is, Is there a way to tell if I am getting any player support or opposition, it seems that my squadron in mainly defunct.

Mainly, just watch the variations to factions in- system each tick. I break apart activity into several interpretations, some of which can be combined:
- no changes/ very small changes to 1 or 2 factions: likely no activity or just incidental activity within that system... "low environmental activity"

- broad change across all factions, but nothing substantial: the system currently has casual, non-bgs focused activity... "high environmental activity"

- significant activity for a faction: said faction is in a particularly useful state. This might not necessaeily translate into explicit support, but say a faction is in outbreak... that will cause a lot of easily- achieved missions to spawn for that faction, and likewise, surrounding relevant systems will target this state (nearby agri's would more likely target a neighbour factio in famine with food deliveries). A more common one is conflict czs which don't hurt influence but may affect conflict progress when talking rank grinding.

- significant activity for one faction, no supporting state... you need to consider if it's persistent or not... it could just be one person dumping their explo data... but if it's repeated, that's someone trying to deliver an effect.


You also have to think about context... if a system only has one station, and that station is owned by a faction, that faction gets 100% of trade in that system. So if there's common casual trade activity, it will usually be supporting that faction only, so that's not really a sign of support.

But if there's a situation where you

• run a lot of missions for one faction
• don't fail any missions or accidentally support anyone else; and
• you still lose influence at the tick

... that's a strong sign of counter- activity... end of the day, you don't just look at a system on one day and work out what's normal and what's not... it's about identifying the trends over time.

 

[Jmanis]

Take this for example:

I know a few things here:

• the yellow line is system controller, but only owns the controlling station. It's also a player faction and actively supported.
• the orange line is another more inactive player faction, but they own lots of stations
• the controlling station is not the most convenient or useful station.
• there's a medium amount of background activity, and it's low->mid pop

So, periodically, the yellow sees a dropoff, with orange threatening a conflict for control, so they come in and do stuff to bolster things again.

But orange never tips things over, because of inactivity. That's because the main passive activity in this system is trade... and because orange owns more convenient ports, they see more of the influence gains.

So what looks like orange constantly harassing yellow in a faction vs faction conflict is actually just passive activity pushing the natural equilibrium for a control faction that only works that system when they look to lose it. I.e no opposition, just status quo.