Retreat, Retreat!

[Johnny Cyclops]

I need to force out a non-native. I've let them (helped them) take an Outpost (its sole system assets) that has no Commodity Market but does have a Black Market. All the usual other elements are there (Missions, Passengers, Contacts, Universal Cartographers).

I've an inkling selling prohibited goods on its BM will hurt that MF's Inf. But will it also hurt the controlling MF (because 'bad things' are happening in its system)? It's a reasonable list of prohibited goods and I can source some of them readily locally, plus as an Outpost I'm less likely to be scanned and picked up by the system cops.

If I take a mission and let it expire incompleted does that also harm its Inf? I know taking and then abandoning doesn't.

Any other great ideas for forcing this MF out through Retreat? Currently at 8.5% Inf. It's a 1.6bn Agri pop system, so Inf changes take time.

I suppose I could get it into another War, and beat it so solidly (in both the pending stage, and then the war itself) it finishes <2.5%.

 

[MottiKhan]

Smuggling to the black market will only harm the station owner. So it's a valid tactic.

Failing missions is also valid, but it'll harm your rep with the faction. Too many and you'll no longer be able to dock there.

You could raise all other factions as well. Influence gained will leach from the one you don't help.

 

[Ryan Murdoc]

First things first: that Outpost you describe is ripe for a bug report. Since it doesn't have a Commodities facility it also should not retain a Black Market.

Aside of all the good ideas that MottiKhan described there probably would be another.

Since the MF is non-native in the System, check where they are otherwise. Any System with a low population that can be easily moved would be best.

Now get the MF into a pending Civil War or War, make sure that the % stay relatively close to each other until it goes live. Then simply do nothing and watch the armed conflict slowly degrade.

This in turn will make the MF in your target System not gain any % from Trading, Missions / Passenger missions / Exploration data. The % drop per day might not be big but steady.

Rinse repeat until the MF is well under 2.5%.

Then again produce a pending conflict in the other System(s) and both the Retreat and the conflict will go pending on the same day.

Meaning you only need to keep the MF in the target System under 2.5% for 3 days (1 pending, 2 live) contrary to 6 (1 pending, 5 live) and thus having a bigger chance to remove it.

Worked this way for us opening up a 12.76bil System.

 

[Sentenza]

Smuggling to the black market will only harm the station owner. So it's a valid tactic.

Failing missions is also valid, but it'll harm your rep with the faction. Too many and you'll no longer be able to dock there.

You could raise all other factions as well. Influence gained will leach from the one you don't help.

Raising all other factions does not quite work as expected. Influence gained from the lower factions detracts primarily from the lead so you have to push the lead more than you push the lower factions to compensate, and the balance must be exactly right. In fact I very recently tried that and the outcome was quite the opposite - the faction designated to retreat was the only one not to move a single decimal :O

Failing missions definitely works. The quickest way is fail VIP passenger missions, you can fail an entire stack of them in a minute just by bashing the hull against the station a few times and since the target is a non native faction, you can restore your reputation working for it in its own system then come back again for more.

 

[Johnny Cyclops]

Many thanks all for the kind replies.

No idea why there's a BM and no Commodity Market. I don't think I'll be ticketing it just yet

It's actually 'my' own MF I'm trying to Retreat, becuase I don't want to grow in this system it's in and I'm friendly with the CMDR who's supporting the controlling MF. For my MF it was an expansion too far, but the MF there keeps going above 7% and getting into Wars and Elections I could well do without. So, if I do let missions expire and lose Rep I can always rebuild Rep in one of the other systems it's active in.

For that reason, starting a protracted War/CW in another system, just to grind down the Inf in this current system, isn't attractive as it will ding the MF in the systems it does control too. That said, there's a War in the offing for another system, so for a few days at least the one in the system I'm trying to Retreat them from will suffer.

I too have noticed that in trying to push the Inf of all other MF it often doesn't work out, so instead I usually focus on the controlling MF and maybe the second place one too.