Elite Dangerous | Ascendancy Update 1 - Thursday 21st November

[Mrc_NorthEast]

Why would powers in constant conflict with one another give any merits for cartography data of an irrelevant system 30K Lys away anyway?

Yes I noticed the smiley face, so I am assuming some level of sarcasm here.

However in my opinion, any science and tech discoveries would be helpful in standing or inf to the power at the highest level. They are making scientific first discoveries. These discoveries could be dark matter, nuclear fusion or fission break throughs, etc in those systems. We are not told the details but yeah, anything scientific or cultural related is a leap in role playing.

And who knows maybe those first discoveries could cure all disease and wars, but if stolen by the darker, seedier powers could make amazing, and all powerful new weapons to take over the galaxy with...

And keep grinding. I am only lvl 13, so I got a long ways to go yet

 

[Angus McSix]

If we are fixing ethos stuff, is there consideration that the Lavigny faction which is for law and order has a weekly task to go commit crimes, I mean a lot of crimes?

A servant of the Emperor is free to do as they will in foreign space. The Empire does not recognize the criminal codes of foreigners.

 

[iPeer]

So you already reduced the amount of rare goods in each system limiting us commanders that are not 100 yet from reaching 100 in this century.

They didn't reduce anything. Number of rare goods available is dependent on system state.

 

[HunterwithGreenScales]

Thank you so much. You heard us and the effort we put into communicating with you is proven worthwhile. We will happily continue providing feedback, and look forward to the continued refinement of PowerPlay 2.0.

Sincerely,
CMDR LuxSublima
Prismatic Imperium

Where is any mention of issues like galaxy map bugs? Or readjustments of existing Perks; such as re-buffing Antal's and LYR's Bio & Exp-data specifically, or buffing Delaine's smuggling perk to something much higher than +30%?
Seems to me like those are bigger concerns than what was changed so far. Where do we exactly post our concerns where Fdev is most likely to see it? Forums don't seem the best place imo

 

[Scienti5t]

When you've tasted caviar, it's difficult to go back to sausages.

Sausage is king.

After a spell in a reeducation facility you will understand.

 

[serakfalcon]

Where is any mention of issues like galaxy map bugs? Or readjustments of existing Perks; such as re-buffing Antal's and LYR's Bio & Exp-data specifically, or buffing Delaine's smuggling perk to something much higher than +30%?
Seems to me like those are bigger concerns than what was changed so far. Where do we exactly post our concerns where Fdev is most likely to see it? Forums don't seem the best place imo

frontier issue tracker... https://issues.frontierstore.net/reported-issues/elite-dangerous both AD and Delaine supporters raised tickets immediately... re-adjustment of perks is something else though

 

[DYSEQTA]

... that no activity feels significantly weaker than any other. We are continually closely monitoring for any activities which could be disproportionally more advantageous to undertake than any other, potentially creating a meta that players feel forced to play

OK sounds great, and obvious. So when you are done fixing this latest feature please go back and apply this paradigm to the entire game economy as it has been the victim of a diametrically opposite design paradigm over the last ten years.

You chose to switch to a live service monetization model. Time to do some service.

 

[CERB_TheDravend_PS4]

What about "Rare Goods"
No updates for that?!

 

[CERB_TheDravend_PS4]

Nothing against Explorers...
Your not in the BUBBLE.
You chose to live out there and not play other content.
I don't think Exploration data should give merits at all or rewarded for it in Power Play.
Play the game, in the bubble, for the power play to EARN merits.

 

[Tifu]

Yes I noticed the smiley face, so I am assuming some level of sarcasm here.



And who knows maybe those first discoveries could cure all disease and wars, but if stolen by the darker, seedier powers could make amazing, and all powerful new weapons to take over the galaxy with...

That would be wonderful if true. But the only such major discovery that I know of, which gave us the FSD & SCO technologies, was the encounter with the Thargoids. And that brought with it untold death & destruction.

 

[Tifu]

The normal ships around a power carrier gives at least double that. The SLFs are all Elite. It was a fun way to earn decent merits, and to nerf it by that much just felt like spoiling the party a bit too much. When you've tasted caviar, it's difficult to go back to sausages.

That single SLF is no match for the heavily armored and armed Anacondas I encounter in Power Wreckage sites which net me 64 merits after a tough fight. So no, it's definitely not worth 72 merits per kill, maybe 20 at the most - and that's being generous

 

[Schielman]

Our intent with our balancing is to ensure a diversity of gameplay activities are viable within Powerplay 2.0, and that no activity feels significantly weaker than any other. We are continually closely monitoring for any activities which could be disproportionally more advantageous to undertake than any other, potentially creating a meta that players feel forced to play in order to rank up or participate in the conflict.

I would advise caution around trying to balance things too much in order to avoid creating a meta, for two reasons. First, every goal in E has had a 'meta' way(s) of achieving it that was faster/more efficient than other methods available. There have been credit metas (which has changed over time), there are meta methods from acquiring engineering materials, meta routes for unlocking all of the engineers, meta methods for achieving Elite rank in the least amount of time, and in PP1.0 there were meta methods for acquiring merits. Unless every method is perfectly balanced, which, given the RNG involved in Elite and the fact that the various systems have different things in them, seems to me to be impossible, some methods of merit acquisition are going to be more effective than others. It's just a fact of the game.

The second reason is because metas are a set of widely held beliefs about the game and its mechanics, not a set objective facts about the game and its mechanics. This is an important distinction to make. For example, in PP1.0, the meta method for undermining was to jump back and forth across the Nav Beacon, spawning powerplay ships each time, but it took months/years for this to be discovered, so this wasn't the meta until then, despite the fact that this method existed in the game before then. This only became the meta once someone figured it out and then told other people. That 'telling other people' part is key. Plenty methods of making credits became meta methods because someone made a video demonstrating it. If a player or group of players figure out a new, fastest way of making credits but don't tell anyone about it, the meta will stay the same. Metas form because people ask people for advice and people share what they know. Unless you can prevent this from happening, you cannot prevent metas from forming. I just want you to be aware of this so the guys in back balancing things don't have expectations that cannot be met.

Aisling Duval's Powerplay systems now correctly flag Imperial Slaves & Narcotics as illegal. Crime does not pay.

As an Aisling Duval supporter of many years who initially chose to support her because of her politics, thank you. I love seeing this. Is this stated anywhere in any in-game documentation?

 

[Taneth]

Where is any mention of issues like galaxy map bugs? Or readjustments of existing Perks; such as re-buffing Antal's and LYR's Bio & Exp-data specifically, or buffing Delaine's smuggling perk to something much higher than +30%?
Seems to me like those are bigger concerns than what was changed so far. Where do we exactly post our concerns where Fdev is most likely to see it? Forums don't seem the best place imo

This. It seems like the entirety of LYR's ethos has been nerfed. All the major retractions of merits that were then reinstated at much, much lower merit acquisition rates were all of LYR's ethos (plus Antal's Exobio bonus). Trade is currently in a pretty bad spot for PP 2.0 and that's 2/3rds of LYR's ethos.

 

[Cluster Fox]

Significantly reducing the amount of time/effort required to earn early modules

Well, I'm curious to see how FDev will deliver on that. Right now, you've released an obviously un-QCed product and you basically disabled 80% of it... so yeah, players are mad.

As a mercenary, I am absolutely not interested in helping any power for free.

However I will 100% do powerplay, only to get Concord Cannons. And that's likely the only reason I will pledge and get merits. No shame admitting that.
I am certainly not the only one in this situation and by putting the modules so far up a grind-wall, you created a huge merit-farming problem.

Modules used to be a 4 week timer and then a painful clicking job. I'm hoping for about the same level of commitment, maybe in a more engaging manner.

 

[LuxSublima]

As an Aisling Duval supporter of many years who initially chose to support her because of her politics, thank you. I love seeing this. Is this stated anywhere in any in-game documentation?

It was mentioned in several places succinctly and prominently in the PP 1.0 interface. In PP 2.0, the only mention I could find is in the Codex entry on Aisling Duval. The PP 2.0 interface last I checked does not mention slavery at all for the Aisling Power. Hopefully it will be mentioned when the update that brings back the Aisling slavery ban is deployed. If not, hopefully in a future update.

Glad to meet a fellow pledge based on her politics. I also greatly appreciate the return of the Aisling-space slavery ban.

 

[Milady]

Did I miss something? As long as I can see, they did not mention to reactivate any of those three suspended excessively used actions.

 

[Alda1]

What about the Galaxymap . Settings are not staying ?????????

 

[Night Hawk]

What about the Galaxymap . Settings are not staying ?????????

Ageed - its very annoying for explorers, however as it doesn't affect PP merits, Im not hopefull for a fix anytime soon

 

[DemiserofD]

Greetings Commanders,

Powerplay 2.0 has been out for a few weeks now and we are really grateful for all the feedback and reported issues you have shared.

Our intent with our balancing is to ensure a diversity of gameplay activities are viable within Powerplay 2.0, and that no activity feels significantly weaker than any other. We are continually closely monitoring for any activities which could be disproportionally more advantageous to undertake than any other, potentially creating a meta that players feel forced to play in order to rank up or participate in the conflict.

Following prevention of several exploits we will now be in a position to improve balance on the overall experience of Powerplay 2.0. We will be closely looking into:

• Significantly reducing the amount of time/effort required to earn early modules
• Significantly reducing the amount of time/effort required to increase ranks

In the meantime we are releasing Ascendancy Update 1 (19.01) on Thursday 21 November.

Release Schedule (All times in UTC)​

• 07:00 - Servers offline for maintenance
• 11:00 Servers back online and Update available

Please note these are approximate times and are subject to change.

Update Notes​

Powerplay 2.0

• Fixed an exploit where Powerplay Data could be downloaded multiple times from the same Data Port (Issue ID: 67329)
• Aisling Duval's Powerplay systems now correctly flag Imperial Slaves & Narcotics as illegal. Crime does not pay.
• Archon Delain Powerplay systems now correctly open Black Markets if they are not already present. OK...here crime might pay.
• Pranav Antal now closes Black Markets in Fortified/Stronghold systems.
• Merit awards for destroying Ship Launched Fighters have been reduced.

Ships

• Adjustments made to Flight Tutorial combat drones reducing their damage output.
• Type-8's collision has been adjusted so that the "arms" now have correct collision.

Thank you for all your continued feedback and reports!

Is there any chance any thought has been given to buffing the underperforming powerplay modules, the Mining Lance especially? Torval is currently at something like 0.5% of the population, at least in some part due to the terrible module she possesses.

I think my idea from a few days ago would be very popular with miners; allowing it to mine indefinitely from asteroids, but at the C1 rate, would give it a unique niche, and giving it increased module damage and penetration depth would help make it relevant for combat as well, even for those not mining.

I hope you're at least considering it.

 

[Bestg86]

That single SLF is no match for the heavily armored and armed Anacondas I encounter in Power Wreckage sites which net me 64 merits after a tough fight. So no, it's definitely not worth 72 merits per kill, maybe 20 at the most - and that's being generous

Yes I did say how about meeting in the middle.. Fighting one Anaconda is not a tough fight for anyone who does a lot of combat, I'm sorry. Fighting 15 ships all hostile on you, 4 carriers and a load of SLF all at once is slightly more difficult. But yeah. 14 seems a little low to me. Carrier launched Taipains isn't like fighting a single SLF.