David Braben Powerplay AMA - all of David's answers in one place

[David Braben]

From Sigon:
How do you plan to balance the player influence over different factions? Would it be acceptable for Frontier if by player choice one of the major factions (Alliance/Empire/Federation) is wiped out?

We will look at balance continuously, both during the beta and afterwards, but we want players to be changing the Galaxy.

It's possible a Major Faction gets brought down, but is very unlikely.

There’s already a player group trying to destroy the Alliance, for example.

 

[David Braben]

How much time do you get to play the game yourself? And have you ever done anything naughty like piracy??

Nowhere near as much as I'd like to... ;-)

 

[David Braben]

Hi David, thanks for taking the time to answer some of our questions!

Will the 1.3 update include more appropriate consequences ( currently a bounty that can be paid off within a few minutes ) for killing clean ( no bounty ) players?

Michael will be doing a 'crime special' in his next dev update... so I won't steal his thunder!

 

[David Braben]

Hi David,
Will there be an Exploration focused Faction in Powerplay?

There is no exploration oriented Power, but there is a Power with exploration-specific perks...

 

[David Braben]

Greetings CMDR Braben!

Thanks to all the hard work your team has done!

I have only one question.

Will President Vidar Vondell from the corporate faction in Eta Draconis "Gold Vision Co." be part of the original 20 factions first included?

We flipped the system, they expanded to eradicate pirates from BD+57 1692 and had a galnet article posted with him commenting on the capture of Eta Draconis. Just curious =)

Thanks again, wonderful game.

-LW

For a minor faction to become a Power will be a major achievement, involving many systems.

 

[David Braben]

Hello David!

Will some of the issues with Wings be addressed in 1.3? I love Wings, but it has some minor instancing issues from time to time. A lot of people have been reporting not seeing any other players except for their Wing members in Wings, but as soon as they drop out of the Wing they see lots of players.

There are some bug fixes to Wings in Powerplay coming, and we are continuing to look at all issues.

 

[David Braben]

From bobiroka:
Will Powerplay effectively replace the current Community Goals system?

Certainly not!

Community goals will still be used in game, and can connect with Powerplay – for example: a campaign of goals to elevate a minor faction to a Power.

 

[David Braben]

Is powerplay a way to determ who be next Federal President or Emperor in a roundabout way by players?
Its been long time since we heard any News about how the Emperors Health is currently. Or is this just a emperor plot to deside who he can trust or not? Paranoia seem to be a common trait in Emperors.

Yes, this could happen.

Medicine in 3301 is pretty good, so the Emperor may be in a coma for a while yet...

Also, just because you are paranoid doesn't mean they are not out to get you!

 

[David Braben]

How should we start for trying to get our independant faction in to the top 20 list of factions we can pledge with? Should be start now rapidly expanding them or will we be able to choose our faction out of the 20 you pick?

Firstly there won't be twenty to start with. It is likely to be ten when Powerplay first goes out. This gives room for more to come in later.

Currently there are no minor factions anywhere near being promoted to being a Power.

 

[David Braben]

When will there be non-celestial things to discover in deep space?

There already are... ;-)

 

[David Braben]

Are there plans to give people reasons to venture into dangerous anarchies and enemy held space in trade ships? My friends would love to do the whole "trade ship and escorts" convoy, but there aren't really many reasons for us to do that at the moment.

Yes. Powerplay should do this.

 

[David Braben]

Can i go pledge for the independant faction in Jotunheim and expand them with a group to become a major power? Can we start planning and working towards this before 1.3 or not?

You could start doing this now. We are not resetting the Galaxy or anything, and the current minor factions will carry over.

There is a slight wrinkle in that we are renaming some minor factions to ensure they have unique names. For the most part this is just adding the system name to make it unambiguous.

 

[David Braben]

From Mephane:
What is in it for pilot's who would prefer not to pledge allegiance to any of these galactic powers? Both in terms of gameplay opportunities, and in terms of perks and rewards, because the newsletter makes it seem like you miss out on everything if you remain neutral.

Joining powers is optional and you can continue to play the game as you do now if you don’t want to get involved. You do need to join a power to gain the perks, but changes to systems from being controlled by a power apply to anyone in that system.

In other words the markets and laws can change when the system Power changes.

 

[David Braben]

I did say "deep" space... Those probes are still in the sol system so I'm hoping he meant other things to find!

Yes. Other things... ;-)

 

[David Braben]

In the newsletter, it was mentioned that an intersection between a trading power and a military power will result in piracy missions.

Will this make NPC piracy more profitable or will we continue to need to focus on players?

It can be more profitable, and it will apply to both players and NPCs.

 

[David Braben]

Have they always been out there, or are they new additions??? This is important Mr Braben. Very important.

What I had in mind has been there since Wings...

 

[David Braben]

From _Dastardly_:
Will players be able to change factions? If they can will there be some kind of cooldown or will they be able to switch constantly?

Players can defect from a power to join another at any time, but if they're highly ranked within the power then there could be repercussions. So if you chop and change a good deal you will end up with a lot of repercussions!

 

[David Braben]

For fun

That said, it could be worth thinking about reducing the impact that solo & group players have on the political simulation.

Unlike community goals, Powerplay is a swinging balance - ie solo players are also balancing solo players.

 

[David Braben]

Are there any Douglas Adams references to be found in the game? (Besides mostly harmless-- edit)

I went to Betelgeuse, as a first stop, to check.

Quite a few real-life ones, like Barnard's Star.

 

[David Braben]

Mr Braben,

Are there any plans for 1.3 to have any new/improved/balanced weapon modules? Many of us are curious at to the future of weaponry in Elite: Dangerous

For some of the Powers we are looking at Power-specific modules and weapons. More info to come. <<< Announcement. ;-)