Powerplay 2.0 : what we know from partners' streams

[Agony_Aunt]

Maybe actually having a think might help? Or that I'm trying to advance this endless circling of the issue?

PP2 has to be a feature that is an experience different to whats offered before you have pros and cons. What will it offer we don't have so far?

Don't know man. Feels like you're off your debate game today.

I never said it shouldn't offer a different experience from before. I'm all for a different experience. But that different experience can come in different ways. And regardless, as i said, it all depends on the pros and cons for each individual, and i don't see how that is even debatable. Its a simple statement of fact.

 

[Rubbernuke]

And the core is Powerplay is confrontational, and that it will impose on you. That 'con' is the whole reason it exists and lowering it to the same level as the BGS removes that uniqueness. Everything in PP2 flows from that premise, the sense of danger and urgency against self policing powers, not to mention PP2s place in the game itself (above unguided BGS play).

 

[Agony_Aunt]

And the core is Powerplay is confrontational, and that it will impose on you. That 'con' is the whole reason it exists and lowering it to the same level as the BGS removes that uniqueness. Everything in PP2 flows from that premise, the sense of danger and urgency, not to mention PP2s place in the game itself.

Well, that's certainly a point of view, one i more or less agree with. We just disagree on some aspects of what that should mean.

If you think some of my suggestions are bad ideas, feel free to specifically point out your issues with them: "pausing" allegiance, in-game power alliances, reputation with powers based on history.

Seem like good ideas to me. Maybe you disagree.

 

[Darkfyre99]

Don't forget option 4 "take the system for your Power so most of the NPCs are on your side"

whistles innocently

 

[Ian Doncaster]

An in-game alliance feature could be interesting, whereby alliances between powers could be made or broken, depending on a certain percentage of pledged commanders who have logged in that week voting for or against. (so there is a week of counting by the system, monitoring each pledged commander about a potential alliance/breakage of alliance, with a notification in their inbox about the vote). For that week, you don't get attacked in allied power systems, but likewise, no power activities can affect that power (undermining not possible, expansion into their territories not possible).

I really don't like that idea, primarily because it reopens "pledge to another power to hurt their interests" as an option (it's probably easier to swing an alliance vote based on headcount than it is to overcome a small number of dedicated players undermining your systems, especially if you stocked up on free Epic alts)

Secondarily, because there'd be a really strong "RP" tendency to permanently ally all same-superpower powers (regardless of the in-lore differences between their leaderships) against the "common enemy", and at that point Frontier might as well just scrap half of them as superfluous. Extending that, I really don't trust players [1] - defence-focused and risk-averse as they collectively are in other "influence the bubble" mechanisms - not to instantly create a 12-way alliance because every single axis of it has a majority of supporters [2] in both involved powers. After all, there's well over half the bubble going to be not under Power control, and no longer some CC-based reason that no-one wants it, so why bother fighting? It'll take years to capture all of those and reinforce them to Stronghold level before that's necessary.

[1] I'm absolutely fine with other players in my power preferring defence to attack, or wanting to focus on undermining Powers affiliated to other superpowers, to be clear! I have no interest in telling anyone else pledged to my power what to do - it's when they try to stop me undermining Mahon that we'll have a problem.
[2] Probably not the same people for each separate vote.

 

[Darkfyre99]

It will be ironic and a little pathetic if PP2 is nerfed into the floor because of racing.

Considering how many races have involved outright illegal activities, destruction of private property, and hostile fire from the poor souls at one of our waypoints, I doubt anyone’s going to be complaining too much about hostile PowerPlay NPCs. I’m just curious how many merits I’ll be gathering in the this race’s Open “Shenanigans” class. Besides the rares, I’m pretty sure a one of the shenanigans is on the undermining activity list.

 

[Tifu]

[1] I'm absolutely fine with other players in my power preferring defence to attack, or wanting to focus on undermining Powers affiliated to other superpowers, to be clear! I have no interest in telling anyone else pledged to my power what to do - it's when they try to stop me undermining Mahon that we'll have a problem.

See you on the PP2 three dimensional chess battlefield Watch your back while on Kaine's side - some of her possible hardcore supporters strike me as rigid & deterministic. One of several reasons I'll be ending up on Mahon's side of the Alliance fence.

 

[Wily Rites]

Considering how many races have involved outright illegal activities, destruction of private property, and hostile fire from the poor souls at one of our waypoints, I doubt anyone’s going to be complaining too much about hostile PowerPlay NPCs. I’m just curious how many merits I’ll be gathering in the this race’s Open “Shenanigans” class. Besides the rares, I’m pretty sure a one of the shenanigans is on the undermining activity list.

I'm now growing a Burt Reynolds cannonball moustache and getting ready to sign up for some of the fun!

 

[Mrc_NorthEast]

Very interesting read this one. I will wait to see what Fdev delivers to us and how it works. I plan to:

• Watch this one for a few weeks to see the level of harassment pp2.0 security forces will do to normal travel (cg's, mining, mats gathering, unlocks, ship and on foot engineering, etc)
• If pp2.0 means constant harassment by security forces I will pick a power I like (for the perks of course) and see if I can find systems to my liking for my favorite activities nearby, and use my ALT account
• If pp2.0 means only occasional harassment by security forces I will pick a power I like for all the above reasons and use my main account
• Since I have all the pp modules already except for the new one in storage (thanks pp1.0) I will wait to see if the new Concord Cannons are a worthy item to pursue or not

I do like the idea of randomly mucking about with powers I do and do not like to see if I can make a noticeable difference in PP2.0

 

[Agony_Aunt]

I really don't like that idea, primarily because it reopens "pledge to another power to hurt their interests" as an option (it's probably easier to swing an alliance vote based on headcount than it is to overcome a small number of dedicated players undermining your systems, especially if you stocked up on free Epic alts)

Secondarily, because there'd be a really strong "RP" tendency to permanently ally all same-superpower powers (regardless of the in-lore differences between their leaderships) against the "common enemy", and at that point Frontier might as well just scrap half of them as superfluous. Extending that, I really don't trust players [1] - defence-focused and risk-averse as they collectively are in other "influence the bubble" mechanisms - not to instantly create a 12-way alliance because every single axis of it has a majority of supporters [2] in both involved powers. After all, there's well over half the bubble going to be not under Power control, and no longer some CC-based reason that no-one wants it, so why bother fighting? It'll take years to capture all of those and reinforce them to Stronghold level before that's necessary.

[1] I'm absolutely fine with other players in my power preferring defence to attack, or wanting to focus on undermining Powers affiliated to other superpowers, to be clear! I have no interest in telling anyone else pledged to my power what to do - it's when they try to stop me undermining Mahon that we'll have a problem.
[2] Probably not the same people for each separate vote.

You raise some good points. Not so easy to manipulate, as long as enough people vote every week, but people could get complacent. Also there is now a stronger incentive to stick with a power with 100 ranks that don't degrade, as opposed to the old decay system.

There is definitely a consideration there with the superpower powers aligning, but that i don't think is a particularly bad thing. They kind of should be allied, and this would push the independents to ally to counter.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

One of the first things I’ll be doing, PowerPlay 2.0 wise, is see how it affects the latest Buckyball race. We’re hauling rare commodities this race, but I’m fairly certain that it won’t count as undermining unless one of the systems is eligible to be acquired. Either way, it’ll give me a good before and after impression of how aggressive NPCs are.

Hauling rare commodities was shown as an activity for Mahon in the latest Galnet News video on the topic. So it would definitely be considered a PP activity, even if you're not in an acquiring system.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

[Deleted - double post]

 

[Ian Doncaster]

There is definitely a consideration there with the superpower powers aligning, but that i don't think is a particularly bad thing. They kind of should be allied, and this would push the independents to ally to counter.

It probably would. But then, why have 12 powers rather than four at that point?

(Or alternatively, there'd be a need to find two more Federal and Alliance figureheads that anyone's heard of so that none of the four sides were disadvantaged by having fewer HQs to provide unassailable Strongholds, distance bonuses, etc.)

 

[Agony_Aunt]

It probably would. But then, why have 12 powers rather than four at that point?

(Or alternatively, there'd be a need to find two more Federal and Alliance figureheads that anyone's heard of so that none of the four sides were disadvantaged by having fewer HQs to provide unassailable Strongholds, distance bonuses, etc.)

Flavour i guess. Different powers with rewards at different tiers, and as i understand, different weekly activities.

Funny thing is, I can imagine the Fed powers allying, but can only imagine the imperial powers being at each others' throats

 

[Rubbernuke]

Well, that's certainly a point of view, one i more or less agree with. We just disagree on some aspects of what that should mean.

If you think some of my suggestions are bad ideas, feel free to specifically point out your issues with them: "pausing" allegiance, in-game power alliances, reputation with powers based on history.

Seem like good ideas to me. Maybe you disagree.

I have no problem at all having a pause for pledges- I said as much when Alec suggested it a while back. My own suggestion is similar to yours too where effort for the week is met with a corresponding NPC push (so a power identifies the aces of a rival, dovetailing into the internal pledge ranking system).

I'm also fine having all that along with NPC spawn rates according to distance from stations / strongholds.

 

[DSS Lev]

I wonder it's possible to unlock first powerplay 2.0 module right after update if we stack 20000 rare goods in FC before update.

Based on my calculation (1 merit per ~1054 CR SELL price), if you stocked on Kongga Ale the 20,000 units would get you roughly halfway there: 320-350k merits. But, just a guess!

 

[Agony_Aunt]

I have no problem at all having a pause for pledges- I said as much when Alec suggested it a while back. My own suggestion is similar to yours too where effort for the week is met with a corresponding NPC push (so a power identifies the aces of a rival, dovetailing into the internal pledge ranking system).

I'm also fine having all that along with NPC spawn rates according to distance from stations / strongholds.

Nice. We are in agreement then, and no one is suggesting things are dumbed down. I like your idea about the more people hurt a power the more they are hunted.

 

[Rubbernuke]

Nice. We are in agreement then, and no one is suggesting things are dumbed down. I like your idea about the more people hurt a power the more they are hunted.

The reason why I like these ideas is that it allows the bum spankingly hard NPCs while allowing graded NPCs for others. What bothers me (which is prevalent in the human BGS part of ED) is that things plateau far too early, and that nothing really pushes you or presents interesting RNG like situations that you can't predict ahead of time.

PP is an opportunity to sidestep overhauling the whole game (which really would be disruptive).

 

[Darkfyre99]

I'm now growing a Burt Reynolds cannonball moustache and getting ready to sign up for some of the fun!

Current Race thread is here:

Community Event / Creation - The Buckyball Racing Club presents: Once Upon a Time in Leesti (Triple Eight Championship, Race 7)

Buckyball Racing Club presents: Once Upon a Time in Leesti (Triple Eight Championship, Race 7) George Lucas (Leesti) 24-OCT-3310 to 04-NOV-3310 Race starts and finishes at 12:00 UTC >CLICK HERE FOR THE SUBMISSION FORM< Important Updates: While the rule is to land at least 2.25km from the...

forums.frontier.co.uk

 

[Darrack]

Having been away for a week or so (last minute trip to Kings Landing) ive just read through this lot.
Really pleased at the amount of stuff we will be able to do and that its not PvP related.
Happy also that Utopia has an exploration theme, completely suits my play style.

Overall its looking good
The no merit decay is awesome for those of us that spend lots of time in the Black

O7