Alvast wat info over de 'background sim' (over hoe we onze factie het beste kunnen helpen): [
link]
Introduction:
Hello all. I'm going to share all of my groups knowledge on the background simulator and minor factions (I answer enough private messages on the subject, this might actually save me some time ). When the game first started we chose the faction known as the "Dukes of Mikunn" and have been pushing that faction ever since. The background sim was a mess when we first started and we became a background sim bugtesting group. We have been relatively successful and our minor faction now spans seven systems. We would like to share all of our knowledge with you, and hopefully encourage other long time background simulator groups present in these forums to do the same.
Much has changed since 1.3, so some things put on here may need updating and I will change them as we learn more. The purpose of this is to help the new groups understand the background simulator which can be extremely confusing and fickle. People have been using my extremely out of date threads, which are quickly losing their purpose. I've been pushing for better background mechanics since 2014, and that goes hand in hand with trying to get more players interested in it. The more groups pushing factions each with their own individual lore and culture, the more the galaxy starts to feel alive.
Also note: Not everything in here is guaranteed to be 100% accurate, but it is what we believe and this knowledge has served us extremely well. Good luck!
Minor Factions Attributes:
Influence – Each minor faction has separate influence values for each system it is present in. Influence values can be used to trigger states like war, election, or expansion. Moreover the more influence a faction holds in a system, the more missions appear on the bulletin board from that faction. As of 1.4 it is easier to affect the influence of systems with smaller populations and vice versa. Influence values do not decay over time and are only moved by player action. NPC's cannot move influence by themselves and only move it by being killed by a player.
Reputation – Reputation is a value a minor faction has for each individual player and represents how much that faction trusts you as a pilot. The higher your reputation, the more missions you will be able to accept on the bulletin board. Being both allied and keeping influence values high in a system significantly increases your ability to affect that system.
States – Current States, Pending States, and Recovering States are shared across all systems owned by the minor faction. Each faction can only have one current state and that state applies to every system in which it is present. This begins to cause problems the more systems the faction is present in. For example, if a faction is present in 100 systems, and a group kills enough system authority in one of them, all one-hundred systems will be put into the Lockdown state, blocking other states like “Expansion”. States can last for several weeks and have a cooldown before they can reoccur.
Hidden Values – These include things like “Security”, or “Wealth”. When these factors hit a certain threshold, it triggers a state if no state is there to block it. High wealth would trigger a boom, low wealth would trigger a bust. Likewise, low security would trigger a lockdown. The system also shows a security value and this affects response time of system authority.
Detailed State Guide (Coming soon):
Expansion: The expansion state is the mechanism that allows your faction to enter other systems. We suspect that maximum expansion range is 30 LY. We have seen a system expand into another that was 30 LY away. At least seven factions can fit in a system. The cooldown timer as of 1.3 was somewhere between one and two months; however, as of 1.4 this is supposedly shortened.
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Faction Presence:
Stations/Outposts – Factions can capture stations and outposts in a system. This is done through civil war, war, or election, which is triggered by having your factions influence over 70% or equalizing influence values with your target. The victor claims the largest outpost/station of their opponent.
System – The system is controlled by the faction that owns the “Controlling Station/Outpost”. This is usually the largest population station. This can be difficult to determine; however, there are some obvious cases to demonstrate this where the station is orbiting the one earth-like. That would almost certainly be the controlling station.
NPC’s – By simply having presence in a system you will start seeing NPC’s. The more influence you have the more of yours appear. If you control the system, the system authority will also be yours. NPC’s do not help you raise influence values. The only way they can affect influence values is by dying.
Background Sim Playstyles:
There are multiple ways to push your chosen faction. Popular ways are below.
Missions – Historically, missions have proven to be by far the most effective means of pushing factions. Being allied, having high rankings in the pilots federation, and keeping your factions influence value high increases the speed at which you can do missions as more become available/accessible to you through the bulletin board. There is a common misconception that completing charity missions is bad for your faction. We have never been able to prove this.
Bounty Hunting – By turning bounties into a station owned by your faction, you can increase a factions influence and “security”. You can technically turn your bounties in at any station or outpost in a system that has influence, but it is recommended that you turn in your bounties to stations or outposts owned by the faction you are trying to support. Back in 1.2 we proved that turning in your bounties had to a station owned by a different faction helped the station owner more than the faction that was paying you in the contact tab. This may have changed since 1.2 but better safe than sorry.
Trading – During trade CG’s as of 1.3 we noticed that the station owners of the host station would lose influence as massive amounts of goods were bought by the station. Later we were able to demonstrate that buying goods from a station raises influence (ever so slightly), and selling goods to a station hurts the owning factions influence (again slightly). We have seen this used successfully by an ally to lower influence in one war where a station only offered elite exploration missions (out of most players reach).
Exploration – You can turn your exploration data in to the station owned by the faction you want to boost. It used to have a nuke like effect, but it has since been nerfed. It would not be weird to see a month long trip resulting in a hundred million only result in a influence increase of around 25%. It barely time effective, but it can still give you a decent boost as your explorers return.
Kill System Authority – Killing system authority ships reduces influence of the controlling faction and lowers security causing lockdown.
Raiding – Killing civilians in a system reduces influence of the faction they belong to and causes civil unrest.
Smuggling – In 1.3, turning illegal goods into the blackmarket lowers security and reduces influence of the station owner. Therefore it is not beneficial to have a black market in your station; however, it may benefit anarchy/unfettered factions.
Advanced Strategies:
Directing Expansion – Expansion is not entirely random. It is dependent on range and number of factions in the nearby systems. Closer factions, and systems with fewer factions take priority as targets for expansion. This is how we were get our four adopted factions and no others into Mikunn. Let’s say you have a faction in 7 different systems. If you keep track of the local systems well, you will have a pretty good idea of where each system would expand to next. By keeping the influence down in all systems but the one you want to expand from, you can choose from several expansion targets. After we take the controlling station, the mercs keep our influence low in all systems but the one we want to expand from.
Breaking Useless Economic States – An additional benefit to keeping your influence low is that you can easily trigger what would normally be a “useless” war. Previously we had player groups harassing us by causing lockdowns, or civil unrest. With 1.4 we have successfully been able to end these states by interrupting them with a war. Even economic states like “boom” serve absolutely no purpose except to slow down expansion. Quickly cause the war and then end it. Boom and lockdown can last weeks. The point is – don’t get too caught up keeping our influence high. You can use lower levels to your advantage.
Capturing the Secondary Stations or Outposts: If you capture the controlling station and sit at a high level of influence you will never capture the other stations or outposts in the system. To capture the secondary stations/outposts you must lower your factions influence and equalize your influence values with your target, creatiing a conflict. Winning the subsequent war should gain you the secondary station/outpost.
Powerplay:
If a power is exploiting your systems this does not exclude you from becoming a power. If you became a power, in all likelyhood you would consume the current powers systems as your own. I would assume this would include some sort of civil war story line. Our current assumption is that the number of systems in which a faction is present is the primary factor considered for a minor faction to become a power. As Frontier decides how they want to operate a minor factions ascension to "power status", this area will be filled out.
Known/Suspected Bugs (Update 19/10/15):
(I will try to keep this section up to date):
Influence Nukes – There is one bug at the moment that allows you completely drop a system’s influence to 1%. Hopefully it will be patched out soon and if you do know what this is, please do not spread it around.
Missions – Influence granted at the moment is extremely unreliable and does not reflect effort. A reliable work around to boost your influence at the moment is bounty hunting. If you are an anarchy faction try exploration though we have not tested this yet in 1.4.
Factional Status Bar (Right Panel) – Reliably unreliable. Do not trust the influence trending arrows. Pending, recovering, and current states are accurate. Take for example the following photo (HERE). According to this, all factions are trending up, which is impossible. All seven cannot be gaining influence.
Galaxy Map Info Bugs: The galaxy map info when you click on a star, and the colors designating which major faction (empire, fed) they belong to is often incorrect. For example, systems flipped from fed or empire hands still appear as fed or empire on the galaxy map, and the government of Sefrys appears as a "Democracy" when no democracy faction exists in that system. These issues are fairly widespread. Open the system map for more reliable information.
Civil War Bug: Some civil wars are not transferring over control of the station after what appears to be a win.