What is the Background Simulation and how does it work?

Star systems differ in their forms of government, local laws and economies; both regular player activity, such as trading or piracy, and special missions, will affect how the ruling faction of the system develops over time.

Pirate activity, for example, will lower the security level in the system and prompt its government to issue missions to counter the pirate threat - in extreme circumstances this might prompt a visit from a capital ship.

Trading on the other hand, can affect the standard of living and wealth of the population, as well as prices which can depend on temporary gluts and shortages.

Minor factions are political entities within star systems. They vie against one another to control assets such as star ports, outposts, surface ports and surface installations. The strength of a faction's presence in a system is determined by its influence level.  The higher a faction's influence, the greater control it has over the assets mentioned aboce.

This influence level is increased, or reduced, by player activity such as missions, trading and bounty hunting.

Whichever minor faction controls the primary star port for the system, will be considered the controlling faction for the system. This controlling faction will determine the laws for the jurisdiction of that port. This is commonly dictated by the superpower allegiance of the minor faction, and its government type.

The current relationship between minor factions and powers, allow powers to influence certain aspects such as laws and markets within their dominion and grant state and influence bonuses to allied minor factions. Conversely, minor factions that are diametrically opposed to a power make that system more costly to control.

There is a cap on the amount a faction can change in influence per day, which is determined by the size of the population (the bigger, the more effective), the faction state, the amount of player activity that day, and any power influence on that system.

Influence is calculated via a daily tick.

As well as affecting influence, player actions also drive the state of that system; this can include a range of effects from famine, through to lockdowns.

The following actions have different strength effects on economic states:

When certain states are active, they can modify which which player activities can affect the faction's influence.

State	Effect
Expansion	All activities contribute
Investment	Triggered by a failed expansion and significantly increases development level for a short time and actions contribute to a longer range expansion next attempt.
War	Only combat missions and actions contribute.
Civil War	Only combat missions and actions contribute.
Elections	Combat actions and missions do not contribute.
Boom	Trade contributions double in this state.
Bust	Trade double reduction of boom but no influence.
Civil Unrest	Collecting bounties has double the effect and system security lowers.
Famine	Combat actions and missions do not contribute but food has double the effect.
Outbreak	Combat actions and missions do not contribute but Medicine has double the effect.
Lockdown	Activities have no effect for the duration and many station services are shut down.
Retreat	Triggered when a faction falls below 2.5% and owns no assets in any system other than their home. If the situation is not changed quickly they will leave the system.

Assets are elements such as ground ports/bases and space stations/outposts. These assets allow the owner faction to be affected by player actions outlined previously. One asset in every system will be the controlling asset whose owner will therefore control the system; setting the local laws and bounties.

Ownership of an asset can change at the conclusion of one of the following states:

• War (if a faction is invading from another star system)
• Civil War
• Elections

To trigger a conflict state, the two factions must either be at roughly equal influence or a non-controlling faction must get over 60% influence in a system to trigger a conflict with the system controller. No conflicts can happen below 7% influence.

 

These conflict states take priority over economic states and will block or end them early. 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.

Wars conclude when the gap in influence reaches 5%.

Civil wars and elections can conclude when the gap is 3%. They will remain active if there is significant action on the losing side up to the full duration of the state.

At the conclusion of a conflict state, the most valuable asset owned by the losing faction is transferred to the winning faction. This is always the asset which controls the system if the system controller loses the conflict.

What conflict state occurs depends on the type of factions involved:

It is also possible to skip a conflict state and have a "coup". This only occurs if a faction rises with excessively increased influence to dominate the system, and the rival faction controlling the system drops to a very low influence with no positive player activity. This event can lead to the changing of the controlling asset's ownership instantly.