Powerplay Should we be Afraid of the prismatic princess?

[Anders Seclusive]

I was chatting about PP2.0 with some friends and the glorious release from CC and it occurred to me having hauled for Aisling back in the day, without their CC keeping them in check, will they begin to overrun us all?
Is it only a matter of time before the bubble is painted blue??

 

[Greasetrap42]

Some things I have certainty about.

1. No Power Faction will ever get wiped out.

• With the current PP ranking system, far too many players would be massively angered.
• Maybe a new mechanic could be added that transfers peoples pledge from one power to another. For example if one power absorbed another. But this would require a programming intervention of Frontier to enable transfer of cmdr's allegiance without rank loss.

2. Similar to Thargoid Invasion, It would take Decades.
- I haven't done the math, but I suspect fully taking over the bubble would take enormous time.

3. Frontier Will Ensure Some Balance.
- If I am wrong on point #2, I have certainty invisible intervention will happen.

What would happen if 95% of all players aligned themselves with a single power faction? Intervention? New incentives for other powers? Doesn't matter. It won't happen.

 

[Chrismasterski]

The AD players that aren't in their discord are already causing problems. Imperials and Yuri Grom have the ZYADA treaty to keep them all on friendly terms but some AD players are starting to push into friendly power's territories.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

1. No Power Faction will ever get wiped out.

Likely, certainly. I think the exception might be if a Power got knocked down to just its HQ (or something similarly pitiful) and Frontier's internal stats showed this was because it didn't have any active CMDRs to speak of. But I would hope in the long term the balance point is such that a Power with measurable active CMDRs could never find itself in that situation anyway - things like the distance affecting difficulty would be in their favour but against their opponent(s).

2. Similar to Thargoid Invasion, It would take Decades.
- I haven't done the math, but I suspect fully taking over the bubble would take enormous time.

Aisling Duval is doing better than the Thargoids, admittedly.

They're so far gaining about 75 net systems per week, which is as much as the Thargoids ever managed - but Duval is, unlike them, only focusing on the inhabited systems.
Time to takeover of entire bubble at that rate: about 250 weeks or five years.

Obviously at some point that should slow down a lot as they'll need to kick existing Powers out of systems rather than just picking up the easy ones ... but still, they're making a good start on it. It's nowhere as theoretical a possibility as it was for the Thargoids...

but some AD players are starting to push into friendly power's territories.

It says "Enemy" in-game and given Duval's position who else are they going to attack if they want more systems?

Those old treaties I very much doubt will last for long.

 

[Anders Seclusive]

Those old treaties I very much doubt will last for long.

As a former AD pledge now Grom pledge god I hope so. We could get some serious Dynamics going on. Plus shouldn't Arissa put her upstart niece in her place

 

[Mystler]

It says "Enemy" in-game and given Duval's position who else are they going to attack if they want more systems?

Those old treaties I very much doubt will last for long.

Just hopping in to comment on that. I cannot speak or control the notably high number of random CMDRs in AD that just go and do whatever FDev tells them to (and the bad design of the weeklies just being location-based and going to specific systems is destructive too) - nevertheless, in organized AD we are doing what we can to keep and spread awareness of ZYADA and leave alliances in place. As you already concluded logically yourself, things will slow down and I believe one power just taking over everything is completely unrealistic and, even if it really comes THAT far, a bridge to cross whenever we'd get there, lol.

As it stands, just like in early PP1, FDev wants Powerplay to be infighting and actively harmful to organized communities when a big chunk of the community doesn't. We fully intend to teach FDev again why.

 

[BDelacroix]

I find it odd that those in the empire are all for shooting on site. There should be a bit of decorum but this is digital justice where there is no concept of nuance.
Imagine, I was getting shot at by the leader of the imperial navy. I being an agent for the emperor. Its nonsensical.
I don't get shot at for driving by an army base IRL simply because I am not in the army.

 

[Rebel Yell]

Is it only a matter of time before the bubble is painted blue??

Better me dead than blue.

 

[WhiteHaulerMan]

I dread the CG thats going to add 'Aisling Foot Pix' as a tradeable material on the market for PP Purposes.

 

[Easy]

Isn't it rather easy to nerf her rewards and buff other faction rewards to push people to other powers? Seems like the hand of FDEV embraces that sort of meta interference.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Isn't it rather easy to nerf her rewards and buff other faction rewards to push people to other powers? Seems like the hand of FDEV embraces that sort of meta interference.

Probably not, with how things are designed now.


Power modules ... yes, you get one of the better ones first with AD, but you can get it with anyone else at some point, and once you're with a power the strong incentive for modules is to stick with them. It's not going to encourage any defections from AD to make the Mahon Laser a bit better, especially not of anyone with significant rank (i.e. the people putting in most of the merits each week), and would take a very long time to even out numbers of new recruits. Some of the modules do need a bit of improvement but it's not going to make much difference to which powers people pick.


Rank rewards ... AD's +200% search and rescue is already pretty weak in most cases as a benefit to the player themselves, given how little most S&R cargo pays - you can get some of that already with the less popular Winters or Kaine and some other useful bonuses as well. AD comes somewhat pre-nerfed on that except for some very specific playstyles which are unlikely to be the concern of the majority of AD recruits. Rank rewards of any sort also generally only apply in the Power's own space, too, so a bigger Power is already somewhat better for that regardless of what it's offering.

 

[zimms]

Isn't Aisling's systems allowing slave trade already a nerf?

 

[Greasetrap42]

IMO a mechanism should exist to allow the defection of cmdrs.

• Perhaps power factions could offer a good incentive to attract defections.
• Perhaps get knocked down to rank 25, so its not worthwhile for module shopping.
• Perhaps rank 100 can defect with no penalty.

 

[[VR] Bulbulunufus]

The AD players that aren't in their discord are already causing problems. Imperials and Yuri Grom have the ZYADA treaty to keep them all on friendly terms but some AD players are starting to push into friendly power's territories.

Doesn't ZYADA make it even worse? If you're not overrun by AD you'll be overrun by "same beast different face" all in cartel together. It's a racket that makes powerplay less vibrant and lore-relevant. I don't think it does powerplay a service, on balance, even if there are always bound to be alliances and non-hostile agreements tacitly or explicitly.

 

[Anders Seclusive]

Isn't it rather easy to nerf her rewards and buff other faction rewards to push people to other powers? Seems like the hand of FDEV embraces that sort of meta interference.

Somewhat, but other than getting Prismos early the other rewards from Aisling aren't that good.
It was funny I thought we might see less Randos going to Aisling bu that doesn't seem to have happened.

Doesn't ZYADA make it even worse? If you're not overrun by AD you'll be overrun by "same beast different face" all in cartel together. It's a racket that makes powerplay less vibrant and lore-relevant. I don't think it does powerplay a service, on balance, even if there are always bound to be alliances and non-hostile agreements tacitly or explicitly.

I honestly agree with this. The formation of ZYADA was cool and a result of that "emergent gameplay", but now the rules of the game are literally different. I'm not saying I think the Imperial powers should start a civil war, though it would be cool to see the Aisling player base try and solidly depose Arissa and be like "c'mon FDEV it's emperor Aisling now".

Subverting it would be very difficult though.

 

[Leadfoot]

I dread the CG thats going to add 'Aisling Foot Pix' as a tradeable material on the market for PP Purposes.

Be glad that they're not going to offer Grom foot pix.

 

[SteveWithaD]

short answer, no, don't be worried.

 

[Anders Seclusive]

short answer, no, don't be worried.

Worry intensifies

 

[Rubbernuke]

We need a second House of Cards.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

There are no mechanics in game for a power's failure. All that would happen is they would expand, others would fall back, until the numbers of players defending can keep control of the remaining area, while the blue princess would have to keep up efforts just to remain in control of what they have.

While nowhere near as bad as PP1's mechanics for this sort of thing, Powers simply cannot die.

Unless, we as a whole community put this theory to the test, and focus on trying to wipe out a single power, taking all their systems and their primary system.