hmmm. no response.

I guess what I mean is, is it possible to shift the power balance in a system.

if you have a system that is overrun by corsairs or whoever, is it possible to drive them out of a system through sustained skirmishing and missions?

sorry to bug but there's no help in the manual and i don't want to keep hammering one system if it's not making any difference. The 'friendly' map seems to grow and diminish and i'm not sure what causes it

Sounds like you are early in the game. At the beginning, you are friendly with very few factions. As the game goes along, you get more -- or fewer -- friends. The friendly area of the systems maps change accordingly.

At least I think that's what is happening.

Ahh I see. okay then - that's a shame, I was hoping the game had a dynamic system control thing going on