Quick Questions

[Peter Pan]

Hey all,

As this is a game with a steep learning curve, and google retrieves answers from several years ago and could be outdated, I hope people can help me with my questions.

Q1. I am deciding which power to pledge allegiance to, and I wonder whether Ethos does anything.
Research suggest that Ethos is just fluff text and what missions you get is generally the same for all powers. Is this true?

Q2. What does government do? Is it also fluff?

Q3. I ranked up, and did not know that I could no longer return to my starting system. There was a new exploration mission where it wanted me to go to some place for 100,000 credits. But because I was still doing my own thing, I never took it when I left the system.

Is this mission critical?

Q4. Can someone explain to me the relationship between major factions, powers and minor factions?

I understand Powers are like politicians, but major factions, minor factions? What are those?

Q5. What is the difference between a Power that is aligned to a major faction, and one who is independent?

[Chro]

Ok here we go:

Q1 - The Ethos of each powerplay faction influence how you do the preparation, expansion and control tasks. Preparation and Control tasks are pretty much the same for every powerplay which is taking something from point A to point B however Expansion is different for some since some require you to win conflict zones while other may need you to deliver something to the expanding system or take down specific targets.

Q2 - The government of a faction determines if a conflict between 2 factions will be a civil war/war or an election, its also worth to note that there are 4 government ethos which is Autocrats, Social, Anarchists and Corporations.

Social governments are:
- Confederacy
- Democracy
- Cooperative
- Communism
- Sometimes Theocracy

Autocrat governments are:
- Patronage
- Sometimes Theocracy
- Dictatorship
- Feudal
- iirc Prison Colonies too

Corporations are:
- well Corporations :p

Anarchists:
- Anarchy lol

So to make it short, governments of the same Ethos will always go on Election during a conflict except for Anarchy (which will always go for War even with themselves) and War or Civil War with governments of a different Ethos. Also afaik the government type can also influence the commodity market, mission types and the availability of station services.

Q3 - No that mission is not critical, 100k credits is pocket change, u can do a lot more than that by exploring on ur own pace or doing missions at stations.

Q4 - There are 3 superpowers in human space which is the Federation, the Alliance and the Empire and minor factions as the name says are small factions that are present in a system and they can be alligned with those superpowers or be independent, when a faction is alligned with the Federation or the Empire doing missions for them will increase ur rank with either of these superpowers to unlock permits and ships, the Alliance does not have a rank system yet so its pretty much an "indie" superpower. Also only 1 minor faction can control the system, so thats why u see civil wars, wars and elections out there, thats other minor factions trying to gain control of the system and its assets such as stations, installations, planetary bases and ports.

Q5 - Well basically a powerplay power that is assigned to a superpower will works towards expanding the influence of that superpower in the galaxy, for example Zachary Hudson is a more combat oriented power for the Federation while Felicia Winters is more of a "trade" oriented power for the Federation aswell, both of them are the Federation but have their own territories and work to grow the Federation in different ways. The same goes for the Empire and the Alliance, and as for independent they have no ties with the Alliance, Federation or Empire but are still big enough to control their own regions of space.

Hope that answer ur questions, stay safe out there cmdr o7

[Peter Pan]

Q1. Wouldn't it be better to pledge your allegiance to a power that belongs to the Federation or Empire, seeing as you can unlock ships from those major factions?
Whereas a power belonging to the Alliance or an independent one doesn't have ranks for you to unlock stuff.

Q2. Do you have any recommendations on how to decide the best Power for me? What are the important factors?

[Chro]

Originally posted by Peter Pan:

Q1. Wouldn't it be better to pledge your allegiance to a power that belongs to the Federation or Empire, seeing as you can unlock ships from those major factions?
Whereas a power belonging to the Alliance or an independent one doesn't have ranks for you to unlock stuff.

Q2. Do you have any recommendations on how to decide the best Power for me? What are the important factors?

1 - What matters for ranking up with the Federation or the Empire is doing missions for the minor factions assigned to them, so you can still be pledged to the Alliance and still rank up both your Federation and Empire ranks for example.

2 - That totally depends on you and what you like doing in the game, if you like bounty hunting and combat in general consider joining A. Lavigny Duval or Zachary Hudson since they have bonuses that increase the bounties paid in their systems or if perhaps you want to be a pirate consider joining Archon Delaine since on his systems you can have bonuses on piracy activities and reduction in security and fines and bounties that u may eventually get or the Alliance if you enjoy trading.

You can see the passive and active bonuses that each galactic power gives you on their pages in the Pledge and Statistics tabs its also important to note that a galactic power can either control or exploit a system and it has different bonus or penalty stats depending on the minor faction allegiance (federal/imperial/alliance/indie) that controls the exploited system, all that info can be found in the Stats tab in the galactic powers session.

Also each powerplay will reward you with bonuses and a unique module or weapon once you have been pledged to them for a month and have the rank needed to access it, for example Aisling Duval will give you the Prismatic Shields which is the strongest shield in the game however it is very power hungry and takes a lot of time to regen or Archon Delaine will give you the Cytoscrambler which is a unique small burst laser that deals a lot of dmg to shields but has no dmg vs the hull.

To gain ranks with the galactic power you are pledged to you need to complete expansion, control and preparation tasks or undermine opposite galactic powers, its important to note that these merits decay every week, so to stay at a certain rank you need to keep doing powerplay activities each week. For example if you got 800 merits this week, on the next Thursday you will be assigned rank 3 and your merits will decay to 400, if you dont get enough merits to stay at rank 3 next week u will be assigned to rank 2 and your merits will decay to 200.
If i remember correctly the points needed for each rank and the payment you get each week are:
rank 1 - 0 merits - 1000
rank 2 - 100 merits - 50.000
rank 3 - 750 merits - 500.000
rank 4 - 1500 merits - 5.000.000
rank 5 - 10000 merits - 50.000.000 credits

The info regarding which bonus u get at each rank and etc can be found at the Pledge Tab

[Peter Pan]

Originally posted by Chro:

You can see the passive and active bonuses that each galactic power gives you on their pages in the Pledge and Statistics tabs its also important to note that a galactic power can either control or exploit a system and it has different bonus or penalty stats depending on the minor faction allegiance (federal/imperial/alliance/indie) that controls the exploited system, all that info can be found in the Stats tab in the galactic powers session.

This part is very confusing. Please help me out on this.

Let's say we pick Zemina Torval. Her allegiance is to the Empire.

Under Stats, Exploitation Impact.

Control Systems
Imperial slavery is legalised and Imperial slavery prices reduced by 10%
Imperial ships available in all shipyards
doubled production and consumption of mined materials
10% reduction in price of mined materials
In her domain, Empire aligned faction activity influence effects are boosted while Federation aligned are reduced.

She has 43 Control Systems, and 496 Exploited Systems.

Q1. Does the exploitation impact above apply only to the 43 Control Systems, or to all 496 Exploited Systems?


The rest of the exploitation impact:

Empire
Production and consumption of Imperial Slaves doubled

Federation
5% reduced price for mined materials due to the market flooding

Independent
5% reduced price for mined materials due to the market flooding

Alliance
5% reduced price for mined materials due to the market flooding

I may have an idea what's going on, but I require an in-depth explanation.

Q2. If Zemina Torval's allegiance is to the Empire, how can she have Federation systems, Independent systems, Alliance systems?

Q3. If Zemina Torval's allegiance is to the Empire, what is the difference between a Control System and an "Empire" system under her control?

[Chro]

Q1 - The Control System exploitation impact will only apply to the 43 control systems while the Exploited systems will only get the bonus depending on the allegiance of the minor faction that controls the exploited system.

Q2 - While yes, she is aligned to the Empire a system that is Exploited by her may be under the control of a Federation, Alliance or Independent minor faction, its not the ideal scenario since in that case there will be "debuffs" to the system but it can happen, the ideal scenario for Torval will always be exploiting an Imperial System.

Q3 - This is a tricky one, basically a Control System controls a "bubble" with a radius of 15 ly and every other system inside that bubble will be a Exploited System, a Control System bonus will always be the same regardless if a minor faction allied to a different superpower is under control of the system, but for Exploited systems it depends on that factor, so for example you can have an exploited system which is controlled by the empire so there will be a "buff" for that system that is exploited by Torval.

Also this is why you see many wars btw player minor factions and groups trying to get the ideal faction to rule a system so the power that exploits it can buff the system with the right minor faction controlling it. For example for an Mahon exploited system you want the controlling minor faction to be either Alliance or Independent, and for Torval you want it to be Imperial.

[Peter Pan]

Q1. Wouldn't it be more profitable to do things in Control Systems? They seem to have the most bonuses. Why would you do things in other systems with less bonuses?

Q2. I tried to fly to one of Aisling Duval's systems, but I ran out of fuel and had to self-destruct. Is it possible for a beginner like me to fly there straight away?

Or do I need something like fuel scoop?

[Chro]

Originally posted by Peter Pan:

Q1. Wouldn't it be more profitable to do things in Control Systems? They seem to have the most bonuses. Why would you do things in other systems with less bonuses?

Q2. I tried to fly to one of Aisling Duval's systems, but I ran out of fuel and had to self-destruct. Is it possible for a beginner like me to fly there straight away?

Or do I need something like fuel scoop?

Q1 - If you plan on doing background simulation stuff then sometimes u gotta operate in different systems, but since u just started playing the game try to stick to a single system and do missions there

Q2- A fuel scoop is a must have on any ship, and if u happen to be stranded out of fuel there is no need to self destruct, there is a player group in-game called Fuel Rats and they help cmdrs that ran out of fuel, next time that happens u should give them a call.

[Peter Pan]

Q1. Roughly how long do I have to play to be able to reach other Powers? Currently because I chose the beginner start, I am in Arissa Lavigny-Duval's territory.

[Chro]

You can reach any power HQ as soon as you can afford a A rated Frame Shift Drive and have a fuel scoop, with that it will take you anywhere in the galaxy :)

[Peter Pan]

Originally posted by Chro:

You can reach any power HQ as soon as you can afford a A rated Frame Shift Drive and have a fuel scoop, with that it will take you anywhere in the galaxy :)

Q1. So just to confirm, as a beginner that only has the free Sidewinder ship, I cannot reach all Powers? Because not every system has a station to refuel?

Q2. I reached one of the Control Systems, but it has a lot of stations.
For the Exploitation Impact of Control System, does it affect all planets and stations in the system?
Or just the station of the dominant faction?

[Chro]

Originally posted by Peter Pan:

Originally posted by Chro:

You can reach any power HQ as soon as you can afford a A rated Frame Shift Drive and have a fuel scoop, with that it will take you anywhere in the galaxy :)

Q1. So just to confirm, as a beginner that only has the free Sidewinder ship, I cannot reach all Powers? Because not every system has a station to refuel?

Q2. I reached one of the Control Systems, but it has a lot of stations.
For the Exploitation Impact of Control System, does it affect all planets and stations in the system?
Or just the station of the dominant faction?

1- you can reach it in a sidewinder but you will need a fuel scoop and a decent frame shift drive

2- it affects all the stations, outposts and planetary ports in the system

[Witcher]

PowerPlay is not significant for an average game play unless you want to unlock a weapon or module behind each PP OR join a squadron who supports a PP. Both reasons are too early for you as a newbie tbh. If you pledge to a PP, you will be hostile in some systems and other players can kill you without any punishment.

Government types are primarily important for PP but again not so much for newbies. It's quite complicated to explain and they tie in with the game's BGS (Background Simulation) which changes the game's system, factions, etc. every 24 hours. Again this is more relavant to squadrons who support either a PP or Player Minor Faction (PMF).

[Peter Pan]

Originally posted by Witcher:

PowerPlay is not significant for an average game play unless you want to unlock a weapon or module behind each PP OR join a squadron who supports a PP. Both reasons are too early for you as a newbie tbh. If you pledge to a PP, you will be hostile in some systems and other players can kill you without any punishment.

Government types are primarily important for PP but again not so much for newbies. It's quite complicated to explain and they tie in with the game's BGS (Background Simulation) which changes the game's system, factions, etc. every 24 hours. Again this is more relavant to squadrons who support either a PP or Player Minor Faction (PMF).

You see, I thought I could do whatever I want, whenever I want, and space is my playground. I didn't know PowerPlay was end-game stuff.

So what do you recommend I do as a beginner? I don't like Zemina Torval because she legalizes slaves, but I am in her domain.

Currently I went to one of her control systems for profit. Is this a good start?

[Witcher]

Originally posted by Peter Pan:

You see, I thought I could do whatever I want, whenever I want, and space is my playground. I didn't know PowerPlay was end-game stuff.

So what do you recommend I do as a beginner? I don't like Zemina Torval because she legalizes slaves, but I am in her domain.

Currently I went to one of her control systems for profit. Is this a good start?

Yes, you can do anything in theory but like other games, upgrading your character or ship in ED's case will make it easier to attain other goals especially there is no plot to guide you. PP is not end game and is optional. There is no end game for ED - some players have clocked up > 6,000 hours.

When I started, I did data delivery missions for a couple of minor factions with presence in nearby systems - use inara.cz or eddb.io to look up some near you. You gain Reputation with them when you complete missions for them and mission rewards go up, plus you get follow up mission that will also help you gain Pilot's Fed and a superpower (Fed, Empire or Alliance) rank. Your first priority is to gain CR$ and Fed/Empire rank to get better ships which will in turn help you grind for other things easier.

Some would recommend mining for void opals to earn fast CR$ except I find it boring and may not gain Fed/Empire rank as fast (don't quote me).

When get a better ship like an Asp Explorer or a combat ship, you can do other things like Road 2 Riches or bounty hunting in High Resource Extraction Sites (RES) leveraging on authority ships' support. If you have Horizons, you should also look at unlocking some engineers like Felicity, Dweller, Tod, etc. to enhance your ship for exploring or combat.

Don't worry about any PP for now unless you join a squadron with members who are willing to help you out with wing missions to earn CR$ faster except you don't get free lunches as in real world. They will want you to do things for them to help their SQ's efforts.

[Peter Pan]

Originally posted by Witcher:

When I started, I did data delivery missions for a couple of minor factions with presence in nearby systems - use inara.cz or eddb.io to look up some near you. You gain Reputation with them when you complete missions for them and mission rewards go up, plus you get follow up mission that will also help you gain Pilot's Fed and a superpower (Fed, Empire or Alliance) rank. Your first priority is to gain CR$ and Fed/Empire rank to get better ships which will in turn help you grind for other things easier.

Q1. Zachary Hudson stocks Vulture Eagle and Federal Dropship for Control Systems in his domain.

Is this different from the Federation ships?

So Powers can provide unique ships, and Federation also provide another set of ships?

Q2. As I look through the Exploitation Impact of systems under powers, I notice some of them have something like this:

Production and consumption of ___ is doubled.

What does this mean? Does it mean supply and demand is doubled?
So export prices are lower, and import prices are higher? And that means more profit if you trade in it?
What other consequences are there for systems with increased production and consumption of something?