Powerplay cycle is out a day early

[atlas974]

We'll update the server later today to correct some issues that have arisen from the cycle turnover. That will include a reduction in the decay to account for vouchers and goods that weren't delivered.

Cycles will take place on a Thursday morning during the maintenance shutdown to minimise disruption.


Michael

Thank you but sadly i guess that people like me who didn't handle the powerplay vouncher before the "surprise turnover" won't be eligible to a vouncher refund?
Reduction decay will only benefit a portion of the customer base... and the gap will be bigger than it would have been if the turnover was correctly advertise

 

[myrt]

The merits that you did not deliver do not carry over to the next cycle.

This could have happened at any time, e.g. late today.

That's the crux of my dissatisfaction. Why do they vanish? How was I to know? Where is this information in the interface? Heck, it's not even in the PDF manual (which, as an aerospace human factors guy, I can tell you SHOULD NOT BE NEEDED - and how do xbox players open a pdf anyway?)!

The user will look at the context - bounties and fines - and expect that another item in the list of transactions will work the same way (not disappear without warning). Powerplay credits should carry across cycles or their interface should be modified to clearly identify them as perishable.

 

[DangerousLarry]

Thank you but sadly i guess that people like me who didn't handle the powerplay vouncher before the "surprise turnover" won't be eligible to a vouncher refund?
Reduction decay will only benefit a portion of the customer base... and the gap will be bigger than it would have been if the turnover was correctly advertise

I took what was posted to mean players who lost all merits in transport to mean they'll decay as supposed to; You'll have half of the merits you had pre-cycle. Still, it sucks that the Thursday cycle was not communicated to us. I think we all presumed a cycle would be Friday to Friday?

 

[pdizzle]

That's the crux of my dissatisfaction. Why do they vanish? How was I to know? Where is this information in the interface? Heck, it's not even in the PDF manual (which, as an aerospace human factors guy, I can tell you SHOULD NOT BE NEEDED - and how do xbox players open a pdf anyway?)!

The user will look at the context - bounties and fines - and expect that another item in the list of transactions will work the same way (not disappear without warning). Powerplay credits should carry across cycles or their interface should be modified to clearly identify them as perishable.

My guess is that they don't want people stockpiling vouchers to do an insta rank 5. However, you are right. It wasn't advertised that they would disappear, which isn't OK.

 

[InfiniteGremlins]

Time left in cycle is important to know.

What might also help is a list of which actions took effect at the end of the last cycle. In some cases, people aren't sure why particular systems got marked for expansion and other systems seemingly didn't. Which might be a bug, but it'd still really clarify things to have a list of changes and effects or a news post or something.

 

[Zzredragon]

I had a good guess hurray !

I saw how thing went wrong for the whole 1.3 and decided not to involve in the PP before weeks.

Same mechanics every time , a release here is a BETA anywhere else. So if something comes out, dont use it, if a server restart dont play for 4 hours after the restart, and so on...

Just lost 10 commercial tracts because they were in cargo space ( marked as out of date stuff when i connected today ). I feel sorry for people who spent hours on it, so take my advice play only things that are stable for weeks/month.



FD, i hope players will be comprehensive with that bug, i wish you better luck on next patch.

Edit : Woot, server will get an update, log out for 2 days guys

 

[iAmLegion]

We'll update the server later today to correct some issues that have arisen from the cycle turnover. That will include a reduction in the decay to account for vouchers and goods that weren't delivered.

Cycles will take place on a Thursday morning during the maintenance shutdown to minimise disruption.


Michael

Will those fixes include the systems that where prepared for expansion actually going into expansion and also remove those that expanded in a wrong way? Such as one i know of that was ours (uncontested) being taken by another faction which that faction actually did not do any preparation for.

 

[WorldsaStage]

As long as the powers get the systems they worked for I'll be happy.

 

[Mengy]

You mean if everyone treats the live server as though it was a beta test?


I'm sure there must be some obvious alternative to this.

Sure, do what I'm doing, stay neutral and don't really take part in Power Play for now. Give them time to work the kinks out of it before thinking about trying it out. As it is now, I have no idea how the whole process will work, nor do we have any details on the special modules and such yet. I'm giving it time to simmer and settle and "come out of beta", after that I'll think about pledging to someone, maybe.


From the sound of what transpired this morning, not even FDev is entirely sure how Power Play will work yet...

 

[jgm]

That's the crux of my dissatisfaction. Why do they vanish? How was I to know? Where is this information in the interface? Heck, it's not even in the PDF manual (which, as an aerospace human factors guy, I can tell you SHOULD NOT BE NEEDED - and how do xbox players open a pdf anyway?)!

The user will look at the context - bounties and fines - and expect that another item in the list of transactions will work the same way (not disappear without warning). Powerplay credits should carry across cycles or their interface should be modified to clearly identify them as perishable.

Given that bounties show up with a timer attached to them would it be so hard to attach a similar timer to merits?

Cargo might be trickier, mind...

 

[duanedibly]

We'll update the server later today to correct some issues that have arisen from the cycle turnover. That will include a reduction in the decay to account for vouchers and goods that weren't delivered.

Cycles will take place on a Thursday morning during the maintenance shutdown to minimise disruption.


Michael

little bit late to communicate with us mate. I am getting sick of these types of balls ups that are easy to communicate.

 

[TriumphANT]

I suggested in another thread that they add in a object in the Contracts tab whenever you have deliverables, so that you get "Trade Contracts for [POWER]: 5 days 21 hours" or whatever. A bunch of my PP cargo was marked "Out Of Date" this morning and had to be jettisoned. Also, this is a clear example of why the beta was too short. FD should have been getting feedback on these issues and incrementally updating the beta, rather than having the full game full of beta-like bugs. Something like a weekly "ping" like this should have been cast in concrete by release. [I'm a software developer, so (a) sympathise to an extent, but (b) don't want to be beta testing on my relaxation time either. I'd be paying for beta access if that's what I wanted!! ]

Michael et al. Use your beta tests more productively please. I don't want to end up in a furious IT tizzy over this. Bourbon Creams might get crushed under fist!

 

[xMAXIMUSx]

where is my 50,000,000? How many of my 10,100 merits will carry over to next week? Frontier ?


​After all the time i have invested I'm getting a little frustrated with this find out as you go nonsense

 

[Sly]

We already know that the cycle ended a day early and that the systems chosen for expansion were largely incorrect, and it also looks like expansion systems may be showing the wrong potential CC. Patreus' expansion systems of Dongzi and Vaka, for example, were showing as terrible targets before the server change (that's why they weren't at the top of our prep list, by the way). Now they both have a potential of over 100 CC, which is not only different but looks wrong based upon the fact they are both low-value systems that won't exploit any additional targets.

We need to know whether or not we should be pushing the expansion, as the systems could be a bonanza or practically worthless (one was actually negative before the server change). Also, are the cycle 2 expansion systems going to be changed to what they should be based on cycle 1 prep?

I'm very disappointed in the way PowerPlay's launch was handled, which is a shame because the content is good. It was clearly not ready to leave beta. Players are supposed to get attached to these Powers, but that's very difficult when their fate can easily be determined by bugs.

 

[johnUK]

Did everyone forget that the servers reset on Thursday mornings?
It was pretty obvious to me that was going to be the cycle threshold. I know because in NZ Thursday morning is actually Thursday night thus right in the middle of game time.

well obvious to me now!
laughs
john

PS, please lets have an obvious timer, only read to 2:20pm I'm hoping there's a dev statement to this effect I haven't got to yet

 

[JordanMillward_1]

Will those fixes include the systems that where prepared for expansion actually going into expansion and also remove those that expanded in a wrong way? Such as one i know of that was ours (uncontested) being taken by another faction which that faction actually did not do any preparation for.

100 times this. Otherwise what's the point in Powerplay if we put a lot of effort into it, and a bug means we get screwed over, but it doesn't get fixed and we just have to deal with all our plans being ruined outside of our control?

 

[Tar Stone]

I'll look forward to beta testing day for the planetary landings.

 

[Suicune]

where is my 50,000,000? How many of my 10,100 merits will carry over to next week? Frontier ?


​After all the time i have invested I'm getting a little frustrated with this find out as you go bullsh1t

It's your fault for not understanding how it works. You do not get paid up front. You get paid after the cycle ends.

It's like if you get a pay-raise at work, you get the raise on the next check, you don't get paid up front.

 

[jgm]

where is my 50,000,000? How many of my 10,100 merits will carry over to next week? Frontier ?


​After all the time i have invested I'm getting a little frustrated with this find out as you go bullsh1t

5,050 merits will carry over to next week.

Your 50 million will turn up at the end of the current cycle.

 

[SentineI]

2) fail to explain the impact of this decay feature on merits which not cashed in (ie you lose them, they are not even halved)

Can someone please explain what "cashing in merits" means? I had earned over 200 merits (a lot of grinding from my "casual player" POV). I assume this means I will be at rank 2 now. If I am at still at rank 1, because I had to do some not-explained-at-all thing then I shall be very annoyed (insert swear word here).

I also didn't learn about merits halving until recently, because it's not documented at all. That's such a stupid mechanic. I had assumed I'd be able to accumulate merits over several months to reach rank 5. How on earth is anyone supposed to earn 10,000 merits (rank 5) in a week (or 5.5 days or however long a cycle now is)?

Those two things combined is going to severely diminish my interest in PowerPlay. Maybe I'll come back to it in a month or two once they actually fix the bugs & make it work sensibly.

P.S. People loosing hundreds (or thousands) of merits, due to the cycle ending early, is completely not acceptable. If Frontier want people to invest themselves into Elite (and PP in particular) they need to treat such losses like they treat cash & reputation losses due to bugs.