Why does the BGS matter?

[Boots of Doom]

"Mile wide, inch deep," say some people.

"No no no," say others. "Look at the background simulation (BGS). Look how complex and huge it is. Look how much influence you can have over ... stuff."

But what's the point?

Why does it matter if I get my missions from a cardboard cut-out lady who works for the Pink Pirates of Pollux-XVII, or a cardboard cut-out bloke who works for the Pretty Police of Pollux-XVII? It's the same six or seven kinds of RNG mission no matter what their RNG name is. OK, maybe I'm a role-player and I only work for democracies. Let's say I grind for a million years until the Pretty Police of Pollux-XVII have a stellar empire. What actual difference would that make?

So sometimes a system goes into a State. Some things get less profitable, other things get more, some things become more common, other things disappear. Why does it matter that this may or may not have happened because of the accumulated averaged-out actions of a handful of players that I've never even met and can't meet because I have no reliable way to communicate with them within the game or find out who they are?

Wouldn't it all be more or less exactly the same if it was all just RNG fortunes/misfortunes?

Let's say ten players grind out missions for a minor faction with the result that a fortnight later, another minor faction loses control of my home station. So what? The station looks the same, sells the same stuff, stocks the same ships. The missions look the same, etc. I just have to re-grind for the new owners, which is the same grind I'd have to do for any other minor faction anywhere else at any other time.

In short, would anyone notice if the BGS just disappeared?

[Sapyx]

You say things like "the station looks the same", but that's not entirely true. There are differences, but they're subtle. For example, when a station is under Federal control, the Federal StarPort number is prominently displayed on the outside, while the station's actual name is in tiny print near the mailslot; for Imperial and Independent starports, the station name is in huge font, and the small lettering near the door says "welcome". The voiceovers for ATC and station announcer also change with superpower allegiance.

If the Pink Pirates of Pollux take over, then the system becomes an Anarchy, and the differences become much less subtle. Anarchies have no patrol ships near stations (therefore no-one scans you entering them; your criminally-inclined passengers are much happier). And crimes like assault and murder no longer attract bounties, so they're great for PvPers looking for somewhere to do some general death-dealing without having to worry about C&P consequences.

The BGS also feeds back into PowerPlay. Yes, I know, you're probably thinking PowerPlay is equally useless, and you wouldn't be alone in thinking that, but let's assume for the moment that you care about a specific PowerPlay faction. How easily your Power expands into and maintains control over certain systems and areas is heavily modified by the type of government present in the area. And government type is controlled by the BGS. PowerPlayers therefore go in and use the BGS to change the governments of systems under their control, to make them more profitable for their Power.

Finally, the BGS is one of only two ways that players can make any kind of impact or leave their mark on the galaxy in a way that other players can notice. The only other way is claiming a First Discoverer tag on an unexplored star or planet, and let's face it, unless the planet is particularly interesting or noteworthy enough to attract visitors, no-one else is ever likely to visit that system and see your "mark". The BGS is much more visible, even if it is less permanent.

For example, I've just spent the past month overthrowing an Indie corporation and putting a Fed democracy in charge of a medium-sized, out-of-the-way system. I can point to the galaxy map and say "See that Fed system there? The reason it's Fed is because I made it Fed". Sure, some player group can come along tomorrow and overthrow my good work, but even if they did, my legacy will live on in a blip on the INARA report for that system.

[Dolphin Bottlenose]

The BGS only matters to those, who want to use it. If your gaming activity doesn't revolve around it, then you definitely wouldn't notice it being gone. But those who use it - will.

[the smoking mค็็็็็n]

i don't bother actually trying to influence the BGS in any way, but i do exploit it
you need certain BGS states to line up to get certain types of jobs, that is how you find what you are looking for, be that money or mats

[Salt_Extractor]

Why do we get up in the morning?
Why do we try to build communities, when we're all gonna die in the end...

Some people find it fun, that doesn't mean you should. Another classic "Do whatever you want"
If you don't like it, it doesn't influance you 80% of the time.
A lot of players find it fun to see their faction grow, to enforce their rules and their ideology.
There is no need to make a page long threads for things you don't care about, but is a reason some players play the game.

[Eddo]

BGS isn't vital for the game, no. But it is in a way, FD's way of making sure not every system is exactly the same and more dynamic. How well they did it, well, is for you to decide.


I think what BGS has failed is that apart from a few states/government like Lockdown, boom, (civil) war and anarchy, no state really matters. The game's lack of meaningful allegiance and lack of consequence (beyond PP) means in a way BGS doesn't really do much for players. Yes, I feel the implementation of BGS is a bit of a loss opportunity, but is another issue.

Would it be the same if is RNG? MMmm, I won't say so, but in a way, the difference is inconsequential. If is completely random and stateless, then is not very different to players flying randomly and doing random missions. Whereas if the state is RNG controlled, the difference is that you can't change it. The way the BGS is implemented gives us a reason to stick with a system/faction, because in a very simplistic way, doing missions for a given faction helps it. Which in turn gives you more income from their missions, and further help allows the faction to stay that way.

[Agony_Aunt]

Originally posted by Deadlock:

In short, would anyone notice if the BGS just disappeared?

Many player groups would indeed notice. So would traders as prices would become static and there would be no system states to take advantage of. Combat pilots because there would be no CZ. Mission runners because there would be no system states, therefore no boom, famine, outbreak missions.

[Boots of Doom]

Just make the prices and states fluctuate randomly. Leave the CZs there permanently instead of having them pointlessly move around, or have them appear in the random war states. I never suggested that system states disappear, just the BGS, i.e. I'm questioning whether it would make any real difference to the player experience if the BGS were just random fluctuations.

Sure, helping a faction helps you (very, very slowly) by increasing their influence in a system. But if it didn't, or if you couldn't be bothered to do that grind, you could just go to a neighbouring system and work the exact same missions for another RNG-named faction that already had more influence.

Every faction is effectively the same, just a random string of nouns and adjectives and character-sheet stats that very, very slightly affect the probabilities of which of the six or seven mission types are available and what goods are available to buy.

It would make offline mode a hell of a lot easier, too.

[Salt_Extractor]

Originally posted by Deadlock:

Just make the prices and states fluctuate randomly. Leave the CZs there permanently instead of having them pointlessly move around, or have them appear in the random war states. I never suggested that system states disappear, just the BGS, i.e. I'm questioning whether it would make any real difference to the player experience if the BGS were just random fluctuations.

Sure, helping a faction helps you (very, very slowly) by increasing their influence in a system. But if it didn't, or if you couldn't be bothered to do that grind, you could just go to a neighbouring system and work the exact same missions for another RNG-named faction that already had more influence.

Every faction is effectively the same, just a random string of nouns and adjectives and character-sheet stats that very, very slightly affect the probabilities of which of the six or seven mission types are available and what goods are available to buy.

It would make offline mode a hell of a lot easier, too.

That's the way YOU see it.
Some people like it, so don't try to remove other folks fun.

[Boots of Doom]

Do you really think that if I did want to "try and remove other folks fun", which I don't, I would think that a thread on a Steam discussion group would be the best way to go about achieving that?

It's a point of view, chum, no need to get your knickers in a twist.

[Salt_Extractor]

LMAO, than why even post if you know there are people that like it

[Boots of Doom]

LMAO no idea lol

[Purity+Control<]

It doesnt. You cant pledge to a minor faction, you can only pledge to a power. And even then, it doesnt matter, since you do not have any real advantages to being pledged to anyone. You only get in trouble with other CMDRs that hunt down your power's players and spend a ridiculous amount of money "fortifying" systems for no reason at all.

BGS and PP need to have real, tangible advantages to engage players into them, they need to be so good that being unpledged becomes what it is today: a gameplay advantage.

[Agony_Aunt]

Originally posted by Deadlock:

Just make the prices and states fluctuate randomly. Leave the CZs there permanently instead of having them pointlessly move around, or have them appear in the random war states. I never suggested that system states disappear, just the BGS, i.e. I'm questioning whether it would make any real difference to the player experience if the BGS were just random fluctuations.

Sure, helping a faction helps you (very, very slowly) by increasing their influence in a system. But if it didn't, or if you couldn't be bothered to do that grind, you could just go to a neighbouring system and work the exact same missions for another RNG-named faction that already had more influence.

Every faction is effectively the same, just a random string of nouns and adjectives and character-sheet stats that very, very slightly affect the probabilities of which of the six or seven mission types are available and what goods are available to buy.

It would make offline mode a hell of a lot easier, too.

That would take so much that is good away from the game.

You might need to understand that just because you don't like something doesn't mean that others don't enjoy it.

I mean, take Powerplay for example. To my mind its a steaming pile of doo doo, but some people actually enjoy it.

The BGS on the other hand is widely utilized by a large % of the community for various reasons.

[Boots of Doom]

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

That would take so much that is good away from the game.

What, exactly? I don't understand. Doing missions for any faction in any state is the same as doing missions for any other faction in the same state. Isn't it? What am I missing? Is this one of those things I need to add my own imagination to?

[Wylie28]

Why does any part of the game matter? It's a video game! This entire standpoint is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ stupid.