David Braben Powerplay AMA

[TheThingIs]

I'm an 84'er. 30 years ago, as a teenager, you created something which shaped the rest of your life. Looking back, how does that make you feel and looking forward what more would you like to achieve?

And on a selfish note...can we please be allowed to name our ships with a plaque on the side of the ship for all those beautiful pictures now possible with the debug camera

 

[Mobius]

A question on group members in the galaxy map,

with players forming groups within powerplay will there be a feature to show group members within the galaxy map instead of just people on your friends list?

 

[David Braben]

Will the current ranks and reputations be adjusted? What about the people who are allied to all three powers, and hold top rank for both the Federal and Imperial navy? That seems like an impossible or at least undesirable situation.

That's not a problem. The Powers are separate from this, and not all Powers are linked to a Major Faction.

 

[Alex Merion-Turner]

David

Are the powers effectively the Tier 1 persistent NPCs that were discussed in the DDF way back.

Will we be seeing Tier 2 persistent NPCs in the mission overhaul as well?

 

[magillag]

Will players be required to be in 'Open Play' to participate in Powerplay?

 

[graham.reeds]

@David: When will commanders receive a 'Right On Commander' message when increasing in rank?

 

[bossbrigand]

Faction decals? Please?

 

[Marc Alexander]

Hi David,

A philosophical question:

Do you think Powerplay reflects wider society today, in the same way that the original Elite reflected a Thatcher inspired cultural focus on money and the individual way back in the 1980s?

 

[Calomiriel]

a) How will they balance the influence that solo and private group players have on the galaxy?
b) Any Options to take part of the Beta, i would pay for the Option
c) How many Systems do a minor Faction have to Control to get a Powerplay-Faction? are 3 enough?
d) How do you choose what sort of Faction a playergenerated Faction will be?
e) Will there be conflict zones with 3 or more factions and if so - how would this be handled with regards to the current instancing issue (max 32 players per instance)
f) What's the difference between player initiated & managed powers in ED and guilds in other MMO games?
g)Will players have to provide incentives for their power's goals themselves (filling the purses for community goals) or will there be something like income stemming from the power's standing, e.g. a percentage of the trade in the sector, sold ships etc.?
h) You mention that Players will be able to affect the decisions of their factions. Is this to include the Ethos that the factions live by? An example of this would be that if a player faction expanded far enough that the expansion trait was no longer a primary, could the faction "up vote" a Economical trait in it's place.

 

[David Braben]

From Rall:
Will there be independant powers to back, and can player backed minor factions become powers if deemed important enough. E.g. The Crimson state

Yes and yes. Powers can be independently aligned and minor factions can become Powers if they are successful enough (although this is no easy task!). There’ll be a chance at this for an Old World resurgence around the time of the Powerplay launch – if the players should choose to back them.

 

[Sean71596]

I'm going to be blunt here, apologies.

Combat logging, as you know, is a problem in the open community. I think it's often understated how big of a problem it is, and it's killing professions such as PvP bounty hunting and piracy. Months ago, a post from Sandro Sammarco stated that you are looking into solutions, and although there has been more talk and activity on the thread, we've heard nothing outside of "we're logging telemetry from everyone who combat logs"

Reporting someone rarely if ever results in punishment, and open is almost... a joke with combat logging's rampancy; people know they can get away with it; they are of the mindset that Frontier will not punish them, and so far, they have been true assumptions.
his intent
Take a look at this screenshot, for instance (not mine; from /u/Gunzbngbng on reddit). This user knows he can get away and even states his intentions.



There's even entire dedicated player groups that know combat logging is wrong but they do is as a group and even state on their public streams they know nothing will come of them

If you don't mind me linking an external source, http://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDanger...ranic_cartell_and_combat_logging_now_live_on/ this link shows one of these groups in question; go to 1 hour and 20 minutes in and you can even see them actively combat logging and calling Frontier names and the like because they fear no punishment.

So, my questions are -

- Is Frontier still planning on even fixing combat logging?
- If so, when will a potential fix be released?
- If we do see a fix, will it be an "active" fix, such as adapting the p2p network to allow some server-side entity to take over a player who combat logged's ship and keep it in space for a time, or perhaps destroying the ship; or will we see a "passive" solution like what was proposed before; logging telemetry and punishing abusers/exploiters retroactively?
ile
I ask at this moment because the issue is going to be a lot worse when PowerPlay is released if this issue is left unfixed; traders who are working for a trading goal for their power can just combat log every time a player from an opposing power instructed to pirate them does so, saving their ship, their cargo, and their progress for their power while starving out the other power.

 

[Star-Hunter]

If the Alliance is supposed to be equally represented with Powers in Power Play, will we finally get an alliance faction ship?

 

[Lucifer Hate]

This was originally posted in the other thread and several others have the same type of question there. I will post it here since this seems to be the thread being answered from

Originally Posted by Distance
This is going to be the biggest issue everyone will want to know :

How will powerplay affect the different "modes"?

If you have all the traders for one faction making a push in to a new system in solo how are the combat pilots from the opposing faction in open going to combat them?




This would be my question as well. It said in the newsletter that there would be opposing missions (like if 1 was a trading faction the opposing might be for destroying or looting their cargo). If they are able to do these faction missions in solo there is no need for opposing missions as they would be actually unopposed. We need to know how this will work please let us know?

 

[chagnampra]

Hi David. Will it be possible to be a double agent, or spy, bringing down a faction / power from within, while really supporting an opposing faction?

 

[cherbert]

Hi David,

Can you make one of the powers the "The Fierce Art Graduates"


P.S Please do more Q&A Videos. I miss them.

 

[Banos]

Hi David,

First I wanted to thank you and the team for this awesome game!

And the question: Will there be any change in ranks for major faction? Since we can progress in both the Federation and the Empire, I'd like to know if we will have to choose one or the other in the future and if yes if it's linked somehow to the Power feature.

 

[MikeSnos]

Just remembered the thought I had this morning...

What effect will PowerPlay have on Wings and Vice Versa? Will all members of a wing need to be aligned to the same faction or can people from different factions buddy up? It would seem odd, to me at least, to see a Fed and and Imp in the same Wing for example when they should really be blowing each other from the sky...

 

[TheSpaceTexan]

What's stopping say a group of factions from forming a large alliance and dominating us all? SOMEONE GET MY TIN FOIL HAT.

 

[Skyfury]

Will any of the alien races from Elite be returning at some point? For example, Diso's Black Furry Felines?

 

[David Braben]

Hi David,

A philosophical question:

Do you think Powerplay reflects wider society today, in the same way that the original Elite reflected a Thatcher inspired cultural focus on money and the individual way back in the 1980s?

Nice!

It's funny that many people have connected the original Elite and the Thatcherite world view from the time - but that is not why we made 'score' into money. Both Ian and I were not quite so politically savvy I think it would be fair to say, but were just frustrated about the rut games were in. I was annoyed that almost all games got a smart bomb (or equivalent) at 5000, and an extra life at 10,000. I wanted to be able to choose!

As for Powerplay, it is more of a way of broadening involvement in the story. It has been in the works long before the election fever in the UK started, and is more inspired by TV shows like the excellent "House of Cards" and "Game of Thrones" than current political battles.