The Ausrintini system: Shield of the Empire, Silver Thrusters Inc and a possible eight-faction opportunity.

[Aleks Zuno]

Many advance apologies for knowing little about the Background Simulation and very likely misunderstanding it, and for suggesting actions which I have little means to help effect myself, although I hope the reason will become clear!

Ausrintini is one of my favourite systems for bounty-hunting; it is majority Imperial, has seven factions, has exactly one Pirate faction nearby with a hazardous RES in HIP 22006, and both powerplay are Arissa Lavigny-Duval. It is unfortunate that Shield of the Empire owns HIP 22006 and therefore does not offer pirate massacre missions there, but six is still great and I still love it.

I have just noticed that Shield of the Empire has achieved control of Ausrintini now, but that Silver Thrusters Inc is in retreat. The latter alarmed me a bit at first, but after thinking a bit more about the possible outcomes I think there are several good ones:

• Silver Thrusters Inc is saved from retreat and Ausrintini remains quite valuable.
• Another faction is pushed into retreat, of which 2–3 are very close, opening the possibility of an eighth faction expanding into Ausrintini followed by averting the retreats.
• Silver Thrusters Inc retreats from Ausrintini, another 1–2 factions are pushed into retreat to open room for expansions, then avert the retreats.

With its rare place among the top bounty-hunting systems in all of the non-faction aspects, I would like at least to see Silver Thrusters Inc saved, though achieving an eighth non-pirate faction would be great. Specifically for massacre missions, the only thing better than that would be for Shield of the Empire not to own HIP 22006!

I do not imagine I will be able to affect the situation meaningfully, although I am interested to know what sort of actions one might take—and the unlikely-but-possible chance of reaching Commanders who may be maintaining Shield of the Empire and Silver Thrusters Inc of course!

 

[Ned Flandalorian]

I think there's some confusion here. If you get eight factions in a system (triggered by the eighth invading) it isn't sustainable; there will be a conflict and the loser will be ejected from the system. Then you're back at the same situation as you started.
It's not the retreat state that triggers it either, just that when a nearby expanding faction has no vacancies in range they will choose the lowest nearby non-native influence to invade. They have to be ready to expand, and the timetable for expansions to happen is approximately double the time needed for a faction to retreat.
There are only two other non-native factions in that system (others cannot be retreated) and one is placed second. You'd have to upend the influence table to get them anywhere near retreating.

 

[Aleks Zuno]

Interesting; how does a system such as LTT 8181 seem to maintain eight factions? For a while now it has had eight factions with six Federation, all targeting a single pirate faction in 5 G. Capricorni without any owning the latter, all RESs present in the arena, and with the Yuri Grom bonus for bounty vouchers awarded.

I noticed how Achenar had eight factions for a while due to said factions being placed there administratively, although indeed it is now at seven with Free Marlinists of Carinae somehow in both retreat and expansion simultaneously (unless a faction expanding anywhere will report expansion everywhere?).

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Interesting; how does a system such as LTT 8181 seem to maintain eight factions? For a while now it has had eight factions with six Federation, all targeting a single pirate faction in 5 G. Capricorni without any owning the latter, all RESs present in the arena, and with the Yuri Grom bonus for bounty vouchers awarded.

For a few months about four years ago there was a bug where the losing faction in an invasion war didn't retreat automatically. More recently, if a PMF was added to a system which already had 7 factions it wouldn't automatically force one of the others out. So there were ways to get a stable eight in specific circumstances.

Once one of the eight retreats they cannot be permanently replaced, though.

I noticed how Achenar had eight factions for a while due to said factions being placed there administratively, although indeed it is now at seven with Free Marlinists of Carinae somehow in both retreat and expansion simultaneously (unless a faction expanding anywhere will report expansion everywhere?).

Yes - expansion is a global state to limit the speed at which factions can get bigger, so it shows up in every system (though has a specific source system for other calculations)

 

[Aleks Zuno]

Looks like this evening I will be docking at the outpost in Ausrintini periodically to give Silver Thrusters Inc a few donations if I can! Hopefully it will not be the worst problem if the retreat occurs:

• Presumably a new seventh faction could still arrive there—or does that also only happen by displacement?
• Some of my older Shop-Arena pairs seem to have returned to their former usefulness, such as Niu Lang O with HIP 17298.

If only there were a way to get the pirates in Vequess to compromise the Navigation Beacon...

 

[DragoCubX]

Once you have less than 7 factions in the system, other factions can expand into the system again without the need of an invasion war/kicking another faction out.

Compromised nav beacons are a topic that seems less well researched, but generally, the state of the nav beacon is dependent on system security. Which is a fixed value that can only temporarily, but not permanently, be heightened or lowered to change the nav beacon.

 

[Aleks Zuno]

Good to know that a seventh could enter easily enough; Silver Thrusters Inc retreated in the end, so I will be hoping for another nearby Imperial faction to take its place. House of Saga or Angeli Imperial Enterprises, perhaps?