Which Faction to join if any?

[Sevenperry]

I'm still in space dock. At last my copy of the game works! I'm still waiting arrival of my hotas before daring out into the dark. I've had quite sometime to scan through the various factions and I'm still none the wiser.....

Distrust the Fed's politicians, post election blues maybe. The Alliance seems just to be there to make up the numbers. I fancied the Empire quite strongly but they seem too strong all ready and people have given it a strong star wars bent, which is unpalatable to me as this is ELITE.

So I know I'm no catch for any faction being completely untrained and an owner of a Sidewinder with zero miles on the clock, so I guess I'm going to stay neutral for a bit?

 

[Snowdog]

I stayed neutral, I care little for politics in game and I detest career politicians in real life so the whole thing leave a bad taste in my mouth. Hopefully the next update wont be such a waste of developers time but I am starting to question my confidence in the management and direction of the game. I am still holding out hope for the game, time will tell.

 

[Omega Fighter]

Also neutral, more or less.

Dont like that zachary hudson guy so killing players that work for him.

 

[Hanako Seishin]

I'd say stay neutral for a start, on this stage taking part in Powerplay would only distract you from learning the game and grinding credits. Also, with time (as you keep reading galnet) you'll have better understanding of which power stands for what, so you'll be able to decide on your own.

 

[Rauminen]

Learn to dock. Do missions from the bulleting board. Not the assassinations just yet. Stay neutral until you have a combat or trade specific ship. Probably combat judging by the HOTAS

Anyhow, my 2cents

 

[TiberiuS]

Yep, definitely stay neutral until you know how to play the game and you have a decent ship.

Other than that pledging to an Empire power right from LHS3447 (or wherever you started) would - without piloting skills - be pretty much suicide (you're in Fed space)

 

[Araviel]

the bonuses they give is something that is worth fighting imho, so if you are unsure from a political or moral perspective i would wait until i figured out what kind of bonus means something to you.
personally i am not a big empire supporter, not really a supporter of anything, but i would defend the bounty bonus that Lavigny currently gives me whit my life.

there is also 10 more powers coming, we got no clue when though.

 

[TiberiuS]

there is also 10 more powers coming, we got no clue when though.

10 'more'? You have a link to that?
I thought we go with the initial 10 and when some power stays on last place (for some weeks or whatever) it gets removed and replaced by a new power... or something like that.

 

[Ism]

the bonuses they give is something that is worth fighting imho, so if you are unsure from a political or moral perspective i would wait until i figured out what kind of bonus means something to you.
personally i am not a big empire supporter, not really a supporter of anything, but i would defend the bounty bonus that Lavigny currently gives me whit my life.

there is also 10 more powers coming, we got no clue when though.

This is the exact and only reason I am with A.L Duval, "The bounty bonus". Other factions have different benefits, and some have none.

 

[Commander Starcloak]

I'm still in space dock. At last my copy of the game works! I'm still waiting arrival of my hotas before daring out into the dark. I've had quite sometime to scan through the various factions and I'm still none the wiser.....

Distrust the Fed's politicians, post election blues maybe. The Alliance seems just to be there to make up the numbers. I fancied the Empire quite strongly but they seem too strong all ready and people have given it a strong star wars bent, which is unpalatable to me as this is ELITE.

So I know I'm no catch for any faction being completely untrained and an owner of a Sidewinder with zero miles on the clock, so I guess I'm going to stay neutral for a bit?

If you want to stay neutral, stay neutral. Explore. Find your place in the galaxy. The right feeling will come to you... or maybe it never will and you will remain neutral.

What is your philosophy? What do you want to see in humanity's future and what are you dissastisfied with now? That may give you a clue.

 

[Araviel]

10 'more'? You have a link to that?
I thought we go with the initial 10 and when some power stays on last place (for some weeks or whatever) it gets removed and replaced by a new power... or something like that.

it was mentioned in a dev blog back in april that i can't find the link to atm.
but i got a quote saved

The feature will launch with an initial selection of factions, but this will rise to a maximum of 20 as minor local forces grow to become Powers."

there has also been some vague "hints" posted in gal net and dev comments on the forum that they have made some powers in "preperation" for this.
Kahina, the Dark wheel and the Mercs of Mikunn are some suspected candidates.

 

[Kirk-Fu]

Like everyone said, stay neutral. You can't join powerplay until you get your combat rank up anyway, opens you up to attack from enemy agents, and that's a bad thing if you're still a "harmless" startwinder jock.
I briefly joined Princess Lavigny and worked towards getting my home system under her fold but since I do so much travelling for community goals it ended up being more of a nuisance to me, and I left powerplay completely after a week or so. Not to say it's completely useless though, I've moved my home port to Diaguandri just to take advantage of Li Yong Rui's outfitting discounts, and I made 10 million during that post-patch weekend of 8000cr/t black market routes in Archon Delaine's lands. Would have been more but I didn't think they'd patch that out so quickly or hamfistedly.

 

[Steve50]

I'm neutral, not picked one and I don't think I will.

..of course should a faction suddenly have a nice bonus for miners, I might change my mind.

 

[Iskariot]

I'm still in space dock. At last my copy of the game works! I'm still waiting arrival of my hotas before daring out into the dark. I've had quite sometime to scan through the various factions and I'm still none the wiser.....

Distrust the Fed's politicians, post election blues maybe. The Alliance seems just to be there to make up the numbers. I fancied the Empire quite strongly but they seem too strong all ready and people have given it a strong star wars bent, which is unpalatable to me as this is ELITE.

So I know I'm no catch for any faction being completely untrained and an owner of a Sidewinder with zero miles on the clock, so I guess I'm going to stay neutral for a bit?

Do not make the mistake to join a Power because you think you can 'trust' them or their political views.
Look at what a faction does to benefit you personally. You will find out that is very important because of the effort, time and credit investment required of you.
If you like to bounty hunt for example it might be nice to support a faction that increases your bounties.
Also the special faction module/weapon you are allowed to buy at tier 3 after 4 weeks might be of interest.

I am not at all a political type of guy and in general I am inclined to stay out of those things. But in this game I found that joining a Power changes what comes on your path. It pushed me out of my comfort zone and made me do things I would otherwise not have done. It has enriched the experience considerably.

 

[Bidermann]

join the alliance and Edmond we need more help

 

[Commander Jar-Jar Blinks]

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own, and you know what you know. And you are the guy who'll decide where to go.

Dr. Seuss

Fly safe commander

 

[Deleted member 38366]

--- Deleted ---

 

[Titler]

Right now, apart from players taking up sides for roleplay reasons (Empire seems to be preferred) or socially inept reasons ("Aisling is my waifu!") the only real reason to take a side is for the rewards they give. And the reason Lavigny-Duval got to the top is because of her Bounty bonus, which clearly is the most desirable for the majority. I'm certainly there now taking advantage of this, but only until I've either fully ranked up in the Imperial Navy or got enough money to buy and fit out a trading Ananconda; You see there's no other content at the moment than reputation grinds; If you don't grind both Naval ranks, it's grinding Combat, Exploration or Trading ranks, and if you don't do those, there's nothing much to see after the first couple of hours. I'm more sympathetic to the Federation, so will end my career there, but right now it makes much more sense to grind Imperial reputation and gain the massive increase in bounty hunting at the same time.
But I'm not doing Powerplay itself; all it does is add yet another grind on top of the same old 3 career grinds we've always had. And time gates the trading one too. I found getting to just 100 Merits boring enough (and even the combat missions give an insultingly inconsequential reward by themselves) and wouldn't keep involved except it eases the grind to the largest ships and financial security.
And as others have said, it will make flying around all of space much harder for you, the starter player, as you'll get freely attacked by the other factions. It's more for the dedicated roleplayers and focused end goal players.

 

[Hanako Seishin]

Just to clarify on the number of powers: the developers did say the maximum number of powers is 20, but they never said they were in any hurry to fill all the positions. It seems more like a reserve for the future.

 

[yyy]

Stay neutral. There is much to gain from selling things to various powers. It is economics that makes the galaxy spin, not politics.