The Paladin Handbook of Minor Factions

Updated March 2017

The following are the main points of what we currently understand about the minor factions and the background simulation. The handbook will be expanded and altered as we learn more and as things change, which they do with just about every update of the game, so it is very much a work in progress. However, this is what we think we know:

Minor faction: Reputation

Reputation is how much a minor faction trusts you. It starts at neutral, worst is hostile, best is allied. The more they trust you the more missions you will be able to accept from this faction. You raise your reputation by doing missions and fighting in conflict zones for the minor faction, and trading, cashing in bounties and selling exploration data at a station controlled by the minor faction.

Reputation does not decay but is changed on basis of your interactions with the minor faction. Reputation has a top limit after which you can gain no more reputation. However if you lose some reputation you can gain it back again.

Super power reputation

Gaining or losing reputation with minor factions aligned to a super power (Alliance, Federation or Empire) will correspondingly change your reputation with the aligned super power, though at a much smaller scale. As with minor factions you can be hostile, unfriendly, neutral, cordial, friendly or allied with a super power.

Being friendly or allied with a super power (Alliance, Federation or Empire) makes it easier to gain reputation with a minor faction aligned to that super power. Adversely being unfriendly or hostile with a super power makes it harder to gain reputation with aligned minor factions.

Super power reputation decays, but only until it reaches the thresholds of neutral (upwards or downwards decay) or friendly (downwards decay only), after which it can only be changed by your interactions with aligned minor factions.

Minor faction: Influence

Influence is a measure of how much power the minor faction has in each system, where it is present. Influence does not decay and can only be changed by player action. Influence determines which minor faction can challenge which minor faction for control of a station/outpost.

There is a cap on the amount a faction can change in influence per day, which is determined by: the size of population (the bigger the harder), the faction state, the amount of player activity that day, and any Power influence on that system. Influence is calculated on an approximately daily tick.

How to raise influence of a minor faction

Missions: Probably the most effective way of raising influence. Accept and complete a mission offered by the minor faction from the bulletin board of a station/outpost. This goes for all types of missions, including charity/donation missions and passenger missions. However, when doing passenger missions take note of all the factions gaining influence from each mission and avoid those you don't want to support.

Bounty hunting: Turn in bounties offered by the minor faction you wish to support. Turning in super power bounties, ie. Empire, Federation or Alliance issued bounties, benefits the minor faction controlling the station where you turn them in.

Beware that turning in bounties issued in another system than where you made the kill will harm the minor faction in the system where you made the kill, leading to civil unrest or lockdown.

Trading: Selling goods that give you a profit at a station controlled by a minor faction will raise the influence level of the faction somewhat. Trading only affects influence levels very little, but big volume bulk trading should at least make a visible impact on influence.

Selling exploration data: Only affects the influence of the minor faction controlling the station. Selling exploration data can have a large effect when selling in large batches, like when you return from a longer trip, but comparing time spent it is not as effective as other activites

Fighting in conflict zones: Turning in combat bonds for a minor faction raises its influence. Combat bonds does not decide outcome of civil war by itself, only raises influence. Combat bonds only influence the faction if turned in at a station in the system, where the war/civil war is taking place. 

To maximise your efforts during a war or civil war, remember to pick up missions asking to massacre opponent ships in conflict zones.

How to lower influence of a minor faction

Killing system authority: Reduces influence of the minor faction controlling the station that controls the system.

Killing civilians: Killing NPC’s in a system reduces the influence of the minor faction they belong to.

Both killing of wanted and not wanted npc's will lower the influence of the faction they belong to, but killing npc's that are not wanted will put a bounty on your head and damage the influence of the minor faction controlling the system.

Smuggling: Selling goods at a black market lowers the influence of the minor faction controlling the station. 

Trading: Selling goods for which there is little or no demand, so you have a negative profit, will hurt the influence of the minor faction controlling the station. 

When to raise and when to lower influence of a minor faction

High influence in a system is often to be preferred, but far from always. Only systems we want to expand from should be allowed to reach 75% influence, and in some systems we have treaties not to gain control. Other times we want to provoke a conflict with another faction, and then we will need to match influence levels. Also during certain states of our minor faction, we might need to think differently in order to overcome or benefit the most of the current or pending state. 

Most systems should be kept between 50% and 65% influence to make sure we don't get in an unwanted conflict and also not expand from there. 

The tick

The background simulation data are generated once a day, at the server tick. The tick can in theory happen at any tim during the day, but at present time (early 2017) the tick usually happens between 16:00 and 20:00 GMT.

During the server tick all player acitivity is counted in each system, and the effect on influence and states is calculated.

The tick is not instantaneous but rather a process, which seems to take about an hour. Groups of inhabited systems are calculated at about the same time, so usually the tick has happened in the system you're looking at, if it has happened in a neighboring system - but small delays have been observed. Also different parts of the the data are not calculated at the same time, so if you are in a system just as the tick is happening for that system, you may see that influence has changed but not states, or the other way around. So when gathering data, please make sure the tick is well over before you register the data.

Buckets

All player activity affecting the background simulation is calculated in "buckets". This means that there has to be a certain number of player actions (commodity transactions, kills, missions completed etc.) before it has any effect. The number of actions required, or you could say, the size of each bucket, varies between different aspects of the bgs.

The influence buckets are the most simple, as any interaction with a minor faction has some effect on the influence bucket of that faction. The size of the bucket depends mostly on population size of the system and player traffic in the system - the larger the population and the more player traffic per day, the harder it is to affect influence numbers of minor factions in that system.

State buckets are more complicated. Their sizes are determined by population and traffic, but the state buckets influence eachother, and only some types of player actions affect any specific state, as you can see below. Boom and bust buckets are so close they are considered opposite sides of the same bucket - though it is possible to have both boom and bust pending at the same time.

When a state occurs, it's bucket is either usually emptied but can be halved in some circumstances. Also some states will halve some the state buckets of other states when they occur. Certainly the states are intricately interconnected.

Minor faction: States

A minor faction can be in one of following states: Boom / Bust / Civil unrest / Civil War / Election / Expansion / Famine / Investment / Lockdown / Outbreak / Retreat / War, but a minor faction is not necessarily in a state, as there can be periods between states.

Conflict states (war/civil war/election) take priority over economic states and are triggered by the factions’ influence level relative to other factions in the system. Conflicts cannot end before their minimum duration. Conflicts that reach their maximum duration are considered to end in a ceasefire, and no assets change owners. A faction can only take part in a single conflict, no matter how many systems they are present in.

All States have a countdown before they trigger, a minimum and maximum duration, and a cool down before which the state cannot occur again, even if it has been interrupted.

Boom: 

Galnet description: When in boom the wealth of the system is increased for the duration and all trade missions have doubled effects on influence. It can also positively increase the minor faction’s influence. Boom can be entered by consistent trade profits and completed trade contracts. Booms tend to last until they run out or some other indicator takes precedence, such as famine.

Selling exploration data +1 towards a boom state. Piracy -1 towards a boom state.

Countdown: 2. Min. length: 3. Max. length: 28. Cooldown: 3.

Activities: Trade contributes double to influence during this state.

The lenght of a boom seems to be influenced by how much trading is done, so the more trading the shorter the boom state will last.

Bust:

Galnet description: The wealth of a system diminishes while in bust and the minor faction’s influence is also lessened. The effect of trade contracts and actions do not contribute to boom while a bust is active. A bust generally has to run its course before ending.

Selling exploration data -1 towards a bust state. Piracy +1 towards a bust state. 

Countdown: 2. Min. length: 3. Max. length: 28. Cooldown: 3.

Activities: The devs have said "Trade doubles reduction of boom but no influence" - which probably means that you can only trade your way out of a bust state.

Civil unrest: 

Galnet description: Civil unrest is caused by illegal activity within the system as well completing contracts from more nefarious sources. The wealth rating and standard of living will suffer when a system contains civil unrest. 

Combat missions and activities can be utilised to end civil unrest. 

Murder +1 towards civil unrest. Gaining bounties +2 towards civil unrest. Collecting bounties -2 towards civil unrest.

Countdown: 1. Min. length: 3. Max. length: 7. Cooldown: 3.

Activities: Collecting bounties have double effect on influence.

Civil war: 

Galnet description: Civil wars occur between minor factions in the same system over ownership of major assets such as starports. During civil wars, only combat missions and activities help bring the conflict to a resolution. Security, development level and standard of living indicators all drop for the duration of the civil war.

Countdown: 3. Min. length: 3. Max. length: 28. Cooldown: 0.

Activities: Only combat missions and actions contribute.

Civil war seems to always have an extra day of duration, where any station at play for takeover will be transferred to the winner, and conflict zones are not active.

A faction needs to have at least 3% higher influence than it's opponent to win a civil war.

Election: 

Galnet description: Elections occur when two minor factions are of a similar political structure resolve a conflict over ownership and influence within a system.

Countdown: 3. Min. length: 3. Max. length: 5. Cooldown: 2.

Activities: Combat actions and missions do not contribute to influence during election.

Expansion: 

Galnet description: Expansion occurs when a minor faction reaches a sufficient influence rating and there is a populated system within striking distance. The act of expansion is a costly one and the wealth and development rating suffers during the period of expansion.

Sufficient influence level is 75%.

Countdown: 5. Min. length: 3. Max. length: 5. Cooldown: 2.

Activities: All activites contribute.

Famine: 

Galnet description: Famines cause a massive drop in the standard of living for the systems inhabitants. Food trade and related contracts are essential to alleviate the suffering of the populace. Due to the state of emergency combat missions and activities provide no effect on influence.

Selling exploration data -1 towards famine. Food trade -2 towards famine. 

Countdown: 3. Min. length: 3. Max. length: 28. Cooldown: 25.

Activities: Combat actions and missions do not contribute, but Food commodities and missions have double the effect.

Investment:

Investment occurs when a minor faction fails an expansion because no suitable target systmes are found within 20 ly. After the investment state ends, the minor faction will be allowed to expand to suitable target systems up to 50 ly away.

Lockdown: 

Galnet description: Lockdowns increase the security rating for a system but also have a negative effect on the system’s wealth. Increased bounty hunting activity can reduce the lockdown period.

Illegal trading (smuggling) +1 towards lockdown. Murder +1 towards lockdown. Gaining bounties +1 towards lockdown. Collecting bounties -1 towards lockdown.

Countdown: 1. Min. length: 3. Max. length: 14. Cooldown: 1.

Activities: Activities have no effect for the duration.

Outbreak: 

Galnet description: Outbreaks cause a major disruption to the inhabitants’ standard of living. Resupply of medicines and related trade contracts are needed to end the outbreak. Due to the state of emergency combat missions and activities provide no effect on influence.

Selling exploration data -1 towards outbreak. Medicines trade -2 towards outbreak. 

Countdown: 4. Min. length: 3. Max. length: 28. Cooldown: 7.

Activities: Combat actions and missions do not contribute, but Medicine has double the effect.

In our experience outbreak can also be caused by selling large quantities of bio waste to a station in a system, where the minor faction is present.

Outbreak can be countered by doing medicine missions and selling medicine commodities.

Retreat:

Galnet description: Factions are considered to be in withdrawal if their level of influence within a system drops below a certain level. If the faction's influence remains low for a total of five days, the faction must leave the system entirely. If the faction manages to increase its level of influence, it remains in the system.

In our experience the "certain level" means below 3%. I we want to stop a retreat we should make the minor faction get to 3% influence or more. If we want the minor faction to retreat we should keep the influence level of the minor faction below 3% for the entire duration of the retreat state.

If a faction controlling a station retreats from a system, control of that sation will go to the minor faction with the highest influence level in that system.

War: 

Galnet description: Wars occur when a minor faction invades another star system. For the duration of the conflict standard of living, wealth and security are all severely impacted. Combat missions and activities determines who wins the war. If no winner emerges then the war will end in a ceasefire.

Countdown: 3. Min. length: 3. Max. length: 28. Cooldown: 0.

Activities: Only combat missions and actions contribute.

War seems to always have an extra day of duration, where any station at play for takeover will be transferred to the winner, and conflict zones are not active.

A faction needs to have at least 5% higher influence than it's opponent to win a war.