Campaign (contains spoilers)

Introduction

1. The player builds a limited drone factory (Integrative URV (iURV) Forge) that, uniquely, only needs mined resources and ECs (details).
2. Four NPC CVs (HoA and RoC) appear and build stations only during the campaign, which the player can supply wares to for money (details)*.
3. One NPC station gains a different NPC owner during the campaign only (details). 

*This begins to occur around the time of a mission where you help some HoA ships travel to DV. After this point, the geographic/economic differences to the Campaign's universe compared to Freeplay starts occur. The CV diaspora appears to be triggered by starting (or maybe finishing) the first stage of the iURV Forge. These developments are consequences the Player's efforts to support the RoC and help HoA civilians find a new home.

Mission progression

Occasionally there will be Campaign missions that will advance on their own if we ignore them for too long, but these don't occur until after we've left the starting system (Albion) for the first time. For example, during the DV mining ship mission, and after we've started building the Campaign iURV forge. 

Faction relation changes

At an early stage during the Campaign, the PMC becomes hostile to the the player (-20 faction relations). For the duration of most of the campaign, standings with the PMC are hard-locked at -20. At -20, the PMC will attack the Player's ship (Albion Skunk) and the Player's Fight ships; however, the PMC will not attack the Player's Trade ships, Mine ships or stations if their Defence Officers (DOs) (if any) are set to Defend (otherwise <playerships> would start fights & PMC would retaliate); PMC will not allow the player's Trade or Mine ships to trade with their stations either. This doesn't prevent the player from building stations in Albion if they wish, but it makes it impractical to do things such as using Fight ships to patrol zones or to escort Trade/Mine ships.

At the end of the campaign, standing with the PMC is reduced to -17 and becomes unlocked. At this point it's up to the player to decide whether they wish to continue bad relations with PMC or repair relations (e.g. by killing pirates or Xenon near their stations). Once relations become -17, the PMC will not attack the Player and they won't attack the Player's Fight ships if their DOs are set to Defend. See here for further information on the effects of reputation.

Further repercussions of the PMC relation change

As soon as the PMC become hostile to the Player (upon first entering DV), a maximum of 5 capital ships owned by the player become impounded by PMC. Don't worry too much though: you'll get them back after further Campaign missions (see below). This situation doesn't prevent you acquiring more ships within DV or elsewhere & using them anywhere you have access to. Although the impounded ships (& therefore their cargo) won't be immediately available to build or supply/defend the Campaign station, they will be returned before we need to complete construction of the first stage (so it's more of a potential delay than a block). Any ship(s) that have been impounded may need their orders restarted (or to be reassigned to their previous commander) once regained; check their Engineers & DOs too!

Quirk with a gate transition

After you've discovered a new system called DeVries, you'll eventually be asked to return to Albion. If you are travelling/boosting very quickly while returning the game may not realise you did so, and ask you to go back to DeVries. Simply pop back and forth through the gate again and things should progress. 

Avoiding the loss of a unique item of equipment in Maelstrom

As soon as Maelstrom becomes open to the Player, it is a good idea to consider looking for the unique items that can be found in the system. The unique items in question are found in various specific points in the galaxy and are used for crafting Rare Shields. The reason for finding and collecting the Maelstrom items ASAP is because in one case the item is hidden within the geometry of a Xenon station that the Campaign asks us to destroy. Damage from the station explosion will open the lockbox, and subsequent explosions and weapon fire during the mission could potentially destroy the item (see further warning info here).

Avoiding a game-stopping issue during a Maelstrom mission

There is a campaign mission in Maelstrom system that asks you to collect 5 Xenon Components. Before embarking on that (e.g. before using a cloaking device), it is advisable to be carrying 2 Tojan URVs. Without going into too much detail, you'll be glad of a spare if one is lost!  

Building the Campaign station