Don't know if this is intended or not but in my current beta game 2 factions are at war with each other right next to the core. One of them has a home sector in the core. The others home sector is -189, 188 (quite a distance from the core) The faction with the home sector far away is getting completely trashed. Many of their stations and ships right on the core border have no shields(not low 0) and are made of titanium.
It feels like faction strength is dependent on where their home faction is and not the current sectors distance from the center. Do not know if this is intended or not but it feels somewhat wrong to me.