Faction Expansion Challenge - Phase 1: Setup

1

Welcome to the Faction Expansion Challenge!

In the recent past, we were contacted by several players asking when player-built commodity exchanges are going to be introduced to the game. These players wanted to expand beyond the faction space and the nearby systems in order to start a new buzzing hub in the great beyond. For new hubs to really take off, commodity exchanges are a necessity since even a dense network of Local Markets cannot completely replace a CX.

Unfortunately player-built commodity exchanges are not on the immediate todo list. When Fabian and I met last week, we had the idea that while player-built CXs are not an option, developer-built ones actually are! So we came up with the idea of the Faction Expansion Challenge. Here is how it works:

The challengeā€™s premise is to create settlements outside the usual faction space, planets, and systems. Sufficiently regions will then eventually be rewarded with a commodity exchange in the system they selected beforehand.

Once we announce the contest, there will be four phases: setup, registration, development and scoring

Setup

During setup (this phase) we will present the idea to the players, collect feedback on it and adjust the goals, rules etc until we think it is ready to be started.

Registration

Registrations have to be posted in the forums in a separate topic for each participant. Registrations need to be handed in within two weeks. They will have to contain at least this information:

  • Participants: A list of the participants. Participants can be companies or corporations. There is no upper limit to the amount of participants.
  • Focus system: The registration has to specify the system where the expansion strategy is centered around. That system will later receive the commodity exchange.
  • Focus planets: The registration should entail a few planets that will be part of the endeavor. The planets should be close (think up to three jumps) to the focus system, but outliers (like gas station planets on the way towards the focus system) are okay as well.
  • Faction: The registration must state the responsible faction, as the resulting Commodity Exchange will belong to that faction.

If another party wants to focus on the same system, they can post in the respective topic. Ideally all participants will form a coherent plan.

We will keep track of the infrastructure & population of the planets for each registration at the time of the registration.

Development

Once the registration phase is complete, players can start to work on their goals. The development phase will be roughly three months long.
Each group is encouraged to create a development log in the forums where they keep track of their progress and share the latest developments.

Scoring

At the end of the development phase, scoring will take place. We, the devs, will be using a non-public scoring system to determine the winner.

Of course there are a few things to optimize for:

  • Ideally one (or more) focus planets could become a starting planet for new players. That can only work for T1 planets
  • The new planets should be newcomer friendly and encourage trade with the existing regions, so they should have available workforce, local markets, warehouses, ā€¦
  • A working government is also a plus

For now, the resulting system and planets will not automatically have a faction affinity.

Rules

There are some rules:

  • The focus system or planets do not need to be completely empty in the beginning.
  • At least one focus planet must lie in the focus system.
  • The focus system has to be at least 5 jumps away from the closest faction system or planet.
  • The focus planets should not be further than 3 jumps away from the focus system.
  • In order for nearby tier 1 planets to become starter planets they have to have at least:
    • Meaningful resource deposits
    • A Local Market
    • A population of 7500 pioneers

Prizes

  • A Commodity Exchange will be placed in the focus system (as defined in the registration) of sufficiently developed regions
  • The corresponding party will be able to name two systems and three planets
  • Tier 1 planets within the sphere of influence of the focus system will become starting planets (at the devsā€™ discretion)
6 Likes
3

Would we be allowed to register the faction as being the Exodus Council?

4

No, only the existing factions are allowed

5

3 Months for the Development is really a long time.

Its not really tempting to do it under these conditions, even more when the scoring system is not public.

6

What do the other think? Originally I had two months in mind, but given that populations develop rather slowly we went with three.

7

Honestly. 3 months is allmost too short, if you are a new player/a player with only 1 base.
It might be more then enough if you are a coorp or a lot of players with satureated cash reserves.

If the time is too short players might not feel ready to participate and only those (ā€œrichā€) that would take part anyway may do so.

Maybe we should wait who (to develope where) is interessted at all. If its only a few players, with enough ressources, 2 months might be enough.
But if it is like 5 or 6 groups and I encourage also new companies (younger then 80 days) to participate, it might be worth waiting a bit more.
In case a group is stuck out there, we still have the option to demolish our bases again.

Sum up: Wait for the registration and what regions (+ players) are interessted at all.

8

Really glad to see weā€™re not competing with one another, but that any sufficiently developed region can achieve a CX. All the rules look good to me. Though there may need to be a bit of fudging on a case by case basis (in Outer Haven/Saladinā€™s case, the best focus system has all of the T1 planets 2-3 jumps away, but contains a good T2 SEA planet).

There arenā€™t that many good regions for building a CX in this universe. Weā€™ll likely see all of them settled by the end of this contest.

9

Molp u know what woud be a cool prize aswel . like all the peeps that ā€˜ā€˜won a cxā€™ā€™ coud we get a Cool ass Badge or something that woud be amazing :stuck_out_tongue: ( for ure ingame profile)

10

I am wondering about popi. . on new empty planets the population starts slowerā€¦ on already developed planets the population is already thereā€¦ If points are done by population , does that not give starting on an already populated planet a big boost ?? Asking cause i know nothing about popi stuff, and i plopped a full base down , first person on the planet to find out that I chave only 200 out of the 100 pioneers I needā€¦ Did I crew it up or everyone else ??

11

Which planet did you settle on?

There has been an ongoing discussing in discord if it would be easier to start on an empty planet and having the explorerā€™s grace bonus or on an already settled planet with existing population. But since we are not only going to score by points it shouldnā€™t really matter much for the participants of the challenge.

12

Kinza I was the first person to build a base ā€¦

13

Hey Molp, is there an official scoring sheet available? Iā€™m trying to figure out how many points weā€™ll get for various pieces of infrastructure.

Thanks!