The Problem with"Powerplay"

[Echoes]

Hey all,

Just want to have something cleared up which I spotted in the new "manual" which FD released for PowerPlay.


It says in the manual that a power cannot directly make a play at a rival power's border systems.

Any system may be prepared for expansion with the following caveats:
 The system must be inhabited
 The system must not be a control system for a power
 The system must not be an exploited system for a different power or under expansion

This of course means that Powerplay is not a competition between powers at all!
It is just a means of expanding human space on a power by power basis...`

This is further supported since a power cannot even PERMANANTLY undermine the efforts of their rivals, the benefits disappear on a weekly basis and must be re-acheived:

Like fortification, undermining is temporary; once the CC upkeep penalty has been applied at the end of a cycleand the next cycle begins all undermining is removed and must be re-applied to retain the effect.

And this brings me to the collapse mechanism. Because a system cannot be stolen from another power, a ranking system has been introduced into the game. If a power is within the bottom 3 on the list, it is in danger of collapse. The problem with this is that the ranking is not dependent on the current strength of a power, only the GROWTH.

So theoretically, if the Empire is placed last on GROWTH frequently... it may straight up collapse!

added to this is since there are only like 10 powers at the moment, a third of them are always going to be in risk.

A power that is in the bottom three ranks of the galactic standing list is at risk of collapsing and vanishing altogether. Simply being in the bottom three ranks does not automatically put the power at risk. It also has to fail to achieve any expansion during the cycle. The more cycles a power is ranked in the bottom three and fails to expand, the more likely it will collapse. Supporters of a collapsed power are freed from service; once they have come to terms with the ignominy of failing to save their power they are free to pledge to a new power.

Personally I believe that a better mechanic can be implemented, one where direct conflicts between powers would be possible. This would make power play feel like more of a "Tug of war" over systems rather than the endless expansion which it is currently. It would also create more friction between powers... adding to the IMMERSION and competitiveness which comes with it.

Also from a realistic standpoint, it would make sense that faction collapse would come from being unable to hold on to their systems... rather than just achieving the least expansion for that week.


Thats my opinion / suggestion anyway... what do you guys think?

 

[Teklow82]

You forgot .. power play tool doesnt provide information witch factions provide what faction upgrades anymore.. not sure who i want to go with now cause i do trading ,, bounty hunting and war stuff. so ... yeah lil lost..

 

[Teklow82]

I wouldn't get too excited. Remember they only *just* released it. I betcha there's a 1.3.1 no later than next week.

well yeah but still.. those upgrades would of been a major factor in witch i would pledge to... hence PP doesnt mean Jack squat to me untill i know what im working for

 

[Echoes]

well yeah but still.. those upgrades would of been a major factor in witch i would pledge to... hence PP doesnt mean Jack squat to me untill i know what im working for

I agree.



The manual also neglects to mention just how merits are won...

 

[Stodgy]

It's not a direct competition between powers as none of them are in open warfare.

A power can premanantly undermine a rival, just not directly. Expanding to a system on a rivals border will turn some of her/his exploited systems into contested systems, lowering the CC value.
If there's a large difference in the strength of two powers this could even be used, over several weeks, to surround the weaker power and send it into termoil.

And even a popular power can not expand indefinitely. It will eventualy reach a point where it's too big for it's pledges to fortify every week and then it's on the brink of termoil. The systems on the border with other powers will probably go first. They will have lower CC value because of the contested systems.

I would give it some time (8+ weeks) before speculating on how it will play out in the long run. But I'm currently thinking that all the powers will expand outwards until they reach their limit, then it's a game of constantly shifting boarders.

 

[Commander Silex]

I agree.



The manual also neglects to mention just how merits are won...

Having pledged for Arissa Lavigny Duval (On the basis she has lots of Bounty hunting perks and seems to give merc type missions for expansion) I have to say this aspect worries me. In her case merits are given on a 1:1 basis of the token you get for each kill in the relevant Crime locations. This seems straightforward enough, but as a primarily combat focused player I'm a little taken aback that to achieve rank 5, I apparently need to collect 10000 of these merits for a 50 million credit weekly reward. Thats 10000 kills in a cycle. That's 1 week? The rewards for rank 1 at 100 merits are paltry. At the lower end, although a 50000 credit weekly reward is 'ok', considering you only get paid 100 credits per kill token the overall reward for time put in is laughable compared to what I was making at a RES zone in 1.2. I did a bit of napkin maths and it looks like it would take me somewhere around 4-500 hours to get 10K. I feel like I am missing something, or is there really no other way to gain merits without becoming a hauler, which seems to be the only reasonable way I might achieve this sort of merit rating.

 

[Stodgy]

So at last we get something in the game that is not about grinding for credits. And the first thing that some people do is complain that they can't use it to grind for credits!

 

[Commander Silex]

So at last we get something in the game that is not about grinding for credits. And the first thing that some people do is complain that they can't use it to grind for credits cos it doesn't pay enouth!

Don't be absurd.

It doesn't have to pay as much as the other options but ultimately the faction presents itself as one promoting and requiring mercenaries and an enlisted security force as one of its primary methods of expansion. The fact is there ARE financial rewards there. However the issue I have here is there seems to be no feasible way that a player taking that primary route of expansion to achieve anything but the lowest tier of rewards with quite a considerable sacrifice of their real life time. I'm sure if I could build a time machine and thereby magic up 400 hours in a week, whilst also holding down a full time job, eating, sleeping and maybe shaving at some point I'd be absolutely overjoyed . But I'm having trouble figuring out how I'm supposed to do this in the real world where 1 week= 168 hours.