BGS – Guide

Small guide to BGS

This is a work in progress, and it is advised to share your experiences either in the page directly or in the comments below.

This guide is largely copied from a known google document devised from player collaboration. Original document is here.

The following are all the ways which a player may help increase a minor faction’s influence:

  • Completing missions for that faction from the Mission Board (MB)
  • Trading with stations or settlements owned by that faction
  • Turning in exploration data at stations or settlements owned by that faction
  • Turning in bounties to that faction (with a Kill Warrant Scanner faction specific bounties are revealed)

 

The following are all the ways which a player may help reduce a minor faction’s influence:

  • Smuggling to a Black Market in a station or settlement owned by that faction (does not damage anarchy factions)
  • Piracy of NPCs (civilian or military)
  • Destruction of NPCs (civilian or military) will damage the influence of their minor faction.
  • Completing Mission Board missions for other minor factions in the system
  • Trading with other factions in the system

 

What is a Controlling Faction?


When a faction gains enough influence it becomes the controlling faction of that system. The system authority will bear that faction’s name and the primary station will be in the hands of the controlling faction. Controlling Factions matter because their government types drive what is legal in the system economy, what kind of benefit to Power Play the system gives, and has meaning in game lore. The Controlling Faction is generally the minor faction which has the highest influence in a system and which controls that system’s primary starport. On occasion the controlling faction may own the starport but have less influence than a competing faction.

 

How to change the Controlling Faction?

Any players wishing to change the controlling faction in a system (sometimes called flipping a system) will have to work to create a conflict state between their preferred minor faction and the current Controlling Faction. Primarily, this happens it means that when the influence levels of the two factions are close to equal which will cause them they will go to war with each other. The winner takes control of a station or outpost owned by the loser. You do not get to pick which stations change hands, so if a faction owns multiple stations you may need to win multiple wars before you control the main station but recent wars have seen the most important assets changing hands first. There is no clear indicator in game about which station is the main station when a system has multiple large stations.

What are States?

A state is a status applied to a minor faction within a system. A minor faction can only be in one active state at a time, but it can have several pending states. Each minor faction within a system may have an active state. States are essential tools for players to use in determining how a minor faction is doing within a system. Combined with influence, states are how we manipulate the BGS to support or oppose minor factions. Pay close to the factions on the Mission Boards. Their descriptions will tell you a lot about that faction’s activities.

Current, Recovering, and Pending?

States move in cycles based on the various player activities. Based on extensive research after patch 2.1/1.6, there appears to be a hierarchy of states:

Conflict states > Movement states > Economic states > Conflict states > Movement states etc.

Wars and Civil wars will always interrupt any other state. Expansion will take priority over a Boom. These will be recorded in each faction’s summary. The current state is active now and its effects are working on the system. Completed states will enter the Recovering category and cannot begin again until they exit recovery. Pending states are upcoming states resulting from player actions. There may be multiple pending states with the one most supported by players being the first state to become active. Some pending states are inevitable. Pending expansion will always transition to an active expansion eventually.

 

Below are the states, their effects, and how to create or stop them:

 

  • Boom – Boom is a state of economic success for the minor faction. Booms occur when there is a large influx of money, valuable goods, or information which benefits a minor faction. You can create a Boom through large amounts of trade with a minor faction, Mission Board activities, or by selling exploration data to a station owned by a minor faction. During a Boom, certain missions pay more and commodity prices increase by about 10%. A Boom will last as long as there is money available to fund it. At outset, the game assigns an unknown credit value to the Boom which must be drained through trade or missions before the boom will end. Piracy will also shorten the duration of a Boom. Conflicts like War or Civil War can interrupt a Boom. Influence can go down during a Boom but trading appears to contribute more to influence while a boom lasts. Since 2.1/1.6 launched, Mission Boards now feature State specific missions during a Boom. Quality of Living increases during a Boom.

An example of a mission which spawns in the Boom state. Most frequent are Data and Trade missions.

  • Bust – The opposite of boom. Trade and incomes have dried up. The faction is basically broke. Commodity prices will go down and missions will pay less. Piracy will increase the likelihood of a Bust and lengthen a Bust in progress. Seeking Goods signal sources will spawn during a Bust and delivering the goods they seek will help end the Bust. Additionally, commodity trade, trade missions, and exploration data deliveries will help end the Bust.   Influence will likely decrease for a faction in Bust. During a Bust, Quality of Living decreases.
  • Lockdown – Lockdowns occur when crime runs rampant. Murder contributes to a lockdown. During Lockdowns, checkpoints spawn with system security looking for criminals. These will lengthen the lockdown. During Lockdown any stations owned by the faction in Lockdown will close the commodity markets and no missions will be available from the mission board. System police presence is increased as a response to crime. Influence typically declines during Lockdown. A Lockdown may be ended in 3 ways:
    • Let it expire 3-10 days
    • Bounty Hunting will end lockdowns
    • Interrupt it with a conflict or movement state (War, Civil War, Election, or Retreat have been seen to interrupt a lockdown)

 

  • Civil Unrest – Is triggered by murder and by gaining fines or bounties. Similar to lockdown, checkpoints will spawn. However, NPC pirates become more common and system security more scarce. Commodity prices and missions pay less. During Civil Unrest bounty hunting influence rewards arecontributes doubled to influence and helps to end the state sooner. During Civil Unrest influence typically declines. During Civil Unrest, a system’s Security Level can drop and Quality of Living Decreases.
  • Outbreak – This is a disease state which has returned with 2.1/1.6. This state indicates a system is having some kind of plague or health problems. Commodity prices will go down but demand for medicines will go up. Only medicine trade missions and medicine delivered to the commodity markets will end an outbreak. Quality of Living declines significantly during Outbreak.
  • Famine – A starvation state about which relatively little is known. Deliver food and you’ll help end the famine. However, it’s not clear how to initiate a famine. There are many systems with very high food demand that probably don’t get any traffic, yet they are rarely in Famine. Quality of Living declines significantly during Famine.
  • Election, War, and Civil War – Two minor factions will enter a conflict state when their influence levels become very close. Wars occur between minor factions that did not originate in the same system. Civil Wars occur between minor faction from within the same system. Otherwise these two states are functionally the same. During War/Civil War Combat Zones will spawn and ships from both factions will be fighting within those zones. Players can select which side they fight for and will earn combat bonds which can be handed in to the respective factions. Turning in Combat Bonds helps your faction win a war. Missions will also appear for both sides at local Mission Boards. Wars always interrupt economic states. Wars always reduce the Quality of Living while they are active. An Election occurs when the two factions share a government type (for example, two Dictatorship governments will most likely enter an Election. No, it doesn’t exactly make sense). Elections can be won by helping your preferred faction to gain influence. All these conflict states are extremely important because the winner can capture property from the loser. This is the only way for a minor faction to take control of outposts and space stations!
    • Note: Aisling players have determined that Wars can be won without players firing a shot. They have repeatedly won Wars by trading intensely and completing numerous missions for the preferred minor faction. After the War’s conclusion, a station changed hands and the corresponding influence bump developed. This is still the case following 2.1/1.6 however combat bonds and missions are now very effective. Pick your favorite!

Civil Wars also create specific missions which will help that faction win the war. These are not always combat related.

 

  • Expansion – The Expansion state occurs when a controlling faction has gained a significant amount of influence within a system. Typically Expansion requires that the faction has above 70-75% influence. When this happens, a faction will begin to gather resources and money and will “leap” into a new system. Once the leap is made a portion of that influence will appear with the faction in the new system. Quality of Living temporarily declines in the originating system and commodities take a hit to indicate the massive shift in economic activity. An expansion will be pending for 4 days and then the Expansion state begins. The length of that state varies but whenever the Expansion state ends, the system is picked. It gives commanders time to manage where the expansion will go. Courtesy of CMDR Kraig Lane we have further knowledge of the Expansion mechanics:

 

The faction will arrive in the new system *4 days* after _*pending*_expansion is triggered.

Here is summary of Expansion Mechanism test results:

  •  – system expanding to is selected the last day of expansion
  •  – system expanding from is also selected the last day of expansion
  •  – conflict states will _block_ faction from achieving pending expansion state
  •  – conflict states will _*end*_ expansion process early after it has been triggered

What we know is that you can trigger a civil war, war, or (possible) election to rush the expansion. If you’re looking at a situation where there are two factions in contention for expansion to a particular system, then you could use a war to try and get one there first.

 

  • Investment – This is a new state with 2.1/1.6. When a faction reaches Expansion but is unable to find a suitable location for expansion, that faction will invest the resources and money back into the local economy and try for expansion again later. The Investment state functions in the economy like a Boom but indicates that the faction will try expanding again soon. A good example of Investment can be seen in system that are very far from other populated systems. A faction in Sothis is not close enough to any other systems to expand so it’s top faction is continually in the Investment state.
  • Retreat – Minor factions that fail to secure a foothold in a new system will enter the Retreat state. Their influence is dropping and they are being outcompeted by the other factions. Therefore, the faction gathers up its remaining resources and heads back to the originating system. In some cases factions entering a system through Expansion will immediately enter into a war. Should they fail, they will enter the Retreat state. A retreat state will end if the minor faction is able to attain more than 3% influence. This way players can fight to stave off a retreat and maintain a foothold in their faction’s new system.

 

Development Level: Security, Wealth, and Quality of Life

 

Some variables of the BGS are hidden from players’ view. These include Security, Wealth, and Quality of Living. When combined with the states and influence, these hidden variables drive the background simulation. When combined, three hidden states are considered a system’s Development Level. Much of the Development Level is hidden from players’ view but the overall idea is that a well functioning system will be prosperous and safe. A government will provide security, the economy will drive trade, and those in turn will improve the quality of life within a system.

 

There are a few grey areas here. We know that Security is a measure applied to the entire system but the forces who provide that security come from the controlling faction in the system. Wealth seems like it should be a faction specific measure but it’s unclear. Quality of Living seems like it should be a system wide measure but it is influenced by the states of each minor faction.

 

Of these three, Security can be seen in the system description on the system map. It is either High, Medium, or Low. However, the system map does not seem to dynamically update the system Security value in accordance with the daily changes to the BGS. High Security means fewer pirates, fewer criminals, and more system security forces present in supercruise and at nav beacons. Additionally, system security forces will respond to crimes much faster in a high security system; often responses are less than 1 minute. Low Security means that there is an increased likelihood of pirates and other criminal NPCs along with almost no NPC Security presence away from the stations. Medium is somewhere in the middle. The activities which create bounties, especially murder, will drive Security down. Bounty Hunting appears to improve system security. It is speculated that the Security level is what creates states like Lockdown instead of Civil Unrest but, since the only available measure is from the system map and the map does not update effectively, nobody knows the exact trends behind the Security Level. Other factors that influence Security are government type and Power Play bonuses. ALD systems, for example, receive a bonus to system Security. Archon Delaine systems, on the other hand, have Security lowered.

 

Wealth is a completely invisible metric. It stands in for the effective monetary situation of a minor faction. Wealth is the contributing factor to states like Boom and Bust. Essentially, wealth is positive when trade is effectively moving in a system. Goods bought or sold generate either commerce (i.e. selling demand goods imported to the system’s people) or credits from the sale of supply items. Piracy obviously hinders trade and decreases commerce and incomes for a minor faction. Wealth is the measure which is used to determine the credit value of a Boom or the credit hole of a Bust. These numbers are hidden from a player’s view and can only be approximated by watching system states, commodity prices (high wealth pays more for high demand goods), and the Mission Board. Some states temporarily decrease wealth. For example, Expansion will decrease a faction’s wealth because substantial resources are being sent to a new system. Upkeep your faction’s wealth by trading regularly.
Quality of Life is the measure of the standard of living of a system’s populace. This is probably the foggiest of the three hidden metrics. Overall, if a system has high security, high wealth, and has many factions in a good state, the system probably has a high quality of life. Typically bad states like Bust, Famine, Outbreak, Civil Unrest, War, etc. will decrease quality of life for the duration of the state. Systems with frequent bad states will likely have continually lower Quality of Life. The effects of consistently low Quality of Life are unknown. It is possible that it creates more criminals and weakens commodity markets. It is possible it contributes to Famine or Bust. Like Wealth, ensure a good Quality of Life for your faction and system by maintaining healthy trade and ensuring system security.