What on earth is wrong with influence, and why does nobody care to ask?

[Taevus]

I've been trying to find out more about the influence system since the game came out. Trying to research any and all available information on the matter, and testing the expansion of a faction myself. I've done a lot of trading, missions, general good deeds and ANYTHING I can to try and bolster my chosen faction's control over the system. Nothing. Has. Happened.

I've scoured the game's Reddit, these forums, any wiki or tutorial information, everything. I CANNOT figure out how to have any sort of impact on ANY faction in ANY system..

Doing all sorts of missions? Nope.
Trading? Nope.
Bounty hunting? Nope.
Pirating other factions? Nope.
Inviting them over for dinner on your Anaconda? Nope.

I can only come to the conclusion that the influence system is broken right now or something like that? There needs to be some clarification on how you are able to affect factions in a system. Me and two friends have spent a good few DOZEN hours trying to attempt to even budge the influence of any faction by 0.1%...unsuccessfully.

I have barely seen any players ask about this and it's extremely perplexing - to me, this is by far one of the most interesting aspects of the game, players being able to affect what goes on and essentially help their chosen side progress, etc. Is it me? Am I missing something important? What's going on?

 

[CmdrKull]

Search the forum for Lugh. I'm pretty sure that's the influence you're referring to. It takes a lot of effort, more than 2 guys and a dozen hours worth, to budge a factions influence in a solar system. It is though, as is being demonstrated, possible to tip the balance.

 

[markgritter]

It's somewhat misleading for the mission reports to indicate a shift in influence when there's no actual shift visible on the systemwide page. That's part of what's frustrating, that "1% ^" seems like you're making progress, but it doesn't actually mean anything (not even a little blue up arrow on the system factions display.)

 

[fw190a8]

If you're trying to influence a faction by yourself, I think that should be regarded as a lost cause.

Imagine you were a single individual in the real world trying to influence say, a country. You'd have to be pretty important, like a prominent politician. I'm not going to influence the outcome of the UK on my own, but if I got enough people together I might be able to instigate change.

This is played out on the galaxy map. A number of player-generated conflicts have emerged, but only when players come together with a united cause.

This is anecdotal, but change seems to happen more quickly in systems with low population. It would be easier to infiltrate a small company and change it than a multinational.

The real measure for the individual will be your reputation with the factions. If you continually do positive things for one faction, you will become friendly and then allied with them. Your actions alone are unlikely to affect the faction's influence, but at least they'll like you!

 

[PillowTalk]

Come to 78 Ursae Majoris if you want to see what change players can actually do. Stations have actually flipped control out here. Systems haven't, but then again, even though we all want the Alliance to be fighting the Federation, they seem more interested in taking out the lesser, Independent factions first.

I think the real problem is, with the big, well known hot spots, is that you have a pretty even split between who's working for who, so change doesn't happen. Out here in the Alliance capital, there are at least 250 players working on a singular goal to make Alioth Independents the dominant faction in 78UM and make the Federation begone.

 

[Brujah]

If you're trying to influence a faction by yourself, I think that should be regarded as a lost cause.

Imagine you were a single individual in the real world trying to influence say, a country. You'd have to be pretty important, like a prominent politician. I'm not going to influence the outcome of the UK on my own, but if I got enough people together I might be able to instigate change.

This is played out on the galaxy map. A number of player-generated conflicts have emerged, but only when players come together with a united cause.

This is anecdotal, but change seems to happen more quickly in systems with low population. It would be easier to infiltrate a small company and change it than a multinational.

The real measure for the individual will be your reputation with the factions. If you continually do positive things for one faction, you will become friendly and then allied with them. Your actions alone are unlikely to affect the faction's influence, but at least they'll like you!

This is interesting, however. I wonder if you have a bigger influence depending on your pilot reputation? If you're Triple-Elite, then every action you take should shake the galaxy.

 

[supersane]

If you're trying to influence a faction by yourself, I think that should be regarded as a lost cause.

Imagine you were a single individual in the real world trying to influence say, a country. You'd have to be pretty important, like a prominent politician. I'm not going to influence the outcome of the UK on my own, but if I got enough people together I might be able to instigate change.

Energy bomb terrorists, where they sign up @?

 

[fw190a8]

This is interesting, however. I wonder if you have a bigger influence depending on your pilot reputation? If you're Triple-Elite, then every action you take should shake the galaxy.

Not sure about "shake the galaxy". I mean, Kim Kardashian is pretty famous but I doubt she'll ever shake the world.

Your pilot status might already affect your influence or reputation gains? If so it's likely to be a small effect. There are 100,000 inhabited systems or something, many with millions or billions of inhabitants, so getting them all to care about one commander would be a task!

 

[Taevus]

I'm well aware that the influence generated by our actions should be miniscule, minimal, almost unnoticable. But we have put in a LOT of time trying to change anything and absolutely nothing has happened.

 

[Welp!]

Note that some systems have broken/stuck influence, and Frontier has yet to fix this bug.

 

[Connatic]

I'll worry about influence when Factions actually have a significance when it comes to game play.

 

[RoadRunner]

I've been trying to find out more about the influence system since the game came out. Trying to research any and all available information on the matter, and testing the expansion of a faction myself. I've done a lot of trading, missions, general good deeds and ANYTHING I can to try and bolster my chosen faction's control over the system. Nothing. Has. Happened.

I've scoured the game's Reddit, these forums, any wiki or tutorial information, everything. I CANNOT figure out how to have any sort of impact on ANY faction in ANY system..

Doing all sorts of missions? Nope.
Trading? Nope.
Bounty hunting? Nope.
Pirating other factions? Nope.
Inviting them over for dinner on your Anaconda? Nope.

I can only come to the conclusion that the influence system is broken right now or something like that? There needs to be some clarification on how you are able to affect factions in a system. Me and two friends have spent a good few DOZEN hours trying to attempt to even budge the influence of any faction by 0.1%...unsuccessfully.

I have barely seen any players ask about this and it's extremely perplexing - to me, this is by far one of the most interesting aspects of the game, players being able to affect what goes on and essentially help their chosen side progress, etc. Is it me? Am I missing something important? What's going on?

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=71327

 

[BigBadB]

This is interesting, however. I wonder if you have a bigger influence depending on your pilot reputation? If you're Triple-Elite, then every action you take should shake the galaxy.

I wouldn't put too much store in trip-Elite status. Right now it seems pretty cool, but eventually every single player who sticks with the game for long enough will get there.

 

[RoadRunner]

But we have put in a LOT of time trying to change anything ...

No you haven't. A couple of guys putting in a few hours work won't make any difference in the grand scheme of things.

 

[Lima]

I'm well aware that the influence generated by our actions should be miniscule, minimal, almost unnoticable. But we have put in a LOT of time trying to change anything and absolutely nothing has happened.

You are just one dude. Every Joe Random that does a mission in the same system for the other factions undermines what you're trying to do.
The group I'm in have spread a faction to a nearby system but we've run into the influence bug mentioned above as well.

 

[Zvanya]

I'm well aware that the influence generated by our actions should be miniscule, minimal, almost unnoticable. But we have put in a LOT of time trying to change anything and absolutely nothing has happened.

Your OP seemed to indicate that you were doing this alone but now you say "we have put a LOT of time...." How many is "we"?


The whole thing may not be working 100% as intended yet but Players have produced a visible, even dramatic effect. It's documented.

 

[ElectricZ]

I'll worry about influence when Factions actually have a significance when it comes to game play.

At the player level, I've read that standings with individual factions affect prices you'll see in the market and in outfitting. Friendlier status = better prices. Can anyone confirm or deny?

 

[JoshQuake]

No you haven't. A couple of guys putting in a few hours work won't make any difference in the grand scheme of things.

Friend of Taevus. He severely understated how much time we put into doing missions and everything for this faction. I played all day for a week doing nothing but missions and some bounty hunting (and continue to do so), and the influence hasn't moved even by .1%

 

[Taevus]

Note that some systems have broken/stuck influence, and Frontier has yet to fix this bug.

That makes everything even worse. If it's supposedly so much more difficult to influence factions like everybody in this thread has suggested to me, then I guess there isn't really a point in even trying right now (other than on systems already confirmed to work). Ah well.

 

[CMDRKNac]

Come to 78 Ursae Majoris if you want to see what change players can actually do. Stations have actually flipped control out here. Systems haven't, but then again, even though we all want the Alliance to be fighting the Federation, they seem more interested in taking out the lesser, Independent factions first.

I think the real problem is, with the big, well known hot spots, is that you have a pretty even split between who's working for who, so change doesn't happen. Out here in the Alliance capital, there are at least 250 players working on a singular goal to make Alioth Independents the dominant faction in 78UM and make the Federation begone.

Sorry but you are wrong, there are certainly some things that are either not working or not well explained. I know cause I've been from 78UM since gamma and was initially responsible for driving some efforts there: zero influence changes since then, the states are not pushing any changes in the system and stations have certainly NOT flipped there.

And now running a similar thing in other system and despite everything influence is stuck (we achieved lockdown and civil unrest for the 'enemy' faction). They need to do some explaining or address if some things are broken or not.