A writer's thoughts on 'PowerPlay' - Drew Wagar

[FlaGuitars]

Awesome write-up !!! I read it with a bit of "trepidation". I am not much into politics so I have not gotten into PP as an activity but only studied it for educational purposes so I would not have read it at all except for the fact that it was written by the author of what I consider to be the best of the Elite novels that I have read so far ( I have read 7 of them). With my limited knowledge and experience with PP I can, still, definitely agree with the first point about "in-house" personalities. I am not a fan of The Empire but if Kahina was one of the powers I would have probably joined her side just to support her a bit.

 

[woodhouse]

I would have preferred politics done right, with real ways to sabotage your enemy, destroy their assets etc in game, in open play while other players defend.

What a poor perspective on politics.
When I hear the word Politics, I like to think about The West Wing, in which White House staff were admirable people who tried to do what they thought was best for their country. I loved that.

 

[jabokai]

I think as a sideshow attraction for "other people" to play and enjoy, Powerplay is fine. I can quite happily ignore it, which I am doing. The problem, as Drew alludes to in his final sentences, is that it means we're really not getting the stuff that the rest of us want (what makes Elite, Elite, to us) any time soon, if ever. We're getting stuff for the XBox crowd and I suspect that E3 will introduce more of the same. If we're lucky it will be Thargoids but even then, I suspect it will be done in a fairly crass way, rather than the piecemeal, evolving over some time, way some of us imagined.

 

[kvmetternich]

"Give us adventure, Frontier, not politics. That’s the essence of Elite."

"Space opera" genre has both adventure and politics....

I love that my actions, even if they are insignificant, takes part in a "great political game".
Fortunatelly this is not some sort of "sword and sorcery with ships"

 

[Adam Lusardi]

"We need mysterious wrecks, hard to find signals, distress calls, odd bits of space that you can’t navigate or that screw up your instruments, more weird artefacts and clues that when you put them together… ?"
-
And Tier 2 Npcs with mini plots to go on.

 

[Ixnatifual]

Power Play feels too abstract an addition to the game at a point where I felt they should have added more personal and immediate gameplay which I feel is still lacking.

 

[Elgered]

Thanks Drew, or your point of view!

There is only one thing to add from my perspective:

PowerPlay wouldn't do no harm if it was woven into the existing gameplay mechanics. But, we will probably never know why, it is not.

There are far too many inconsistencies where the gameplay mechanics collide.
For example:
I am allied with both the alliance and the federation (the empire as well). Based on the information given about the PP "Characters", I pledged for the Alliance, because it felt right to do, they seemed most democratic and honourable. Now I am seen as a hostile intruder to Fed-power controlled systems (independent and standing OUTSIDE of their major allegiance and jurisdiction). When I get pulled out of SC by "power-agents" they are shooting at me, because I have pledged to the alliance and are allowed to. So far so good. But when I hit them back I get a bounty on my head. NOT from their Power. No I get a bounty from my allies making my allies shoot at me too. Because the powers are standing above or at least outside the jurisdiction.

Another example:
We knew about some of the characters to exist and have some influence. We read about them in galnet. We also know there is a massive power, called the Pilots Federation, who has influence in all allegiances and jurisdictions around the galaxy. They do not participate in this game.

One more? Sure:
PowerPlay has influence on the economical background simulation. But the economy isn't part of PowerPlay. The (overhauled) missions are neither. I expected the systems would be woven together. So I could help my power (as described in the overview) by doing daily business. Supporting food for the alliance systems where needed, or doing trade in general (like you get your standings with the minor factions) or by doing missions, the agents of the powers offer, unlocked by pledging for them.

...


So with that, what we got along with 1.3 I am not really happy. The changes in the crime systems (bounties not payable) address mainly PvP, which doesn't interest me at all. For a peaceful trader and explorer they look really weird.

I pledged to the Alliance, because I wanted to see the benefits PP brings. But instead I got a very unrewarding system of ultra-boring micro-missions, where I can waste my time (I'd prefer to do that with interesting content) or money (there are so many things in this game, I would pay for - e.g. storage, cargo insurance, crew, ...). Having not pledged would at least bring me the advantage of a adopted and "living" price-politics in trading. But with most of my trade-network being hostile (and allied at the same time), it gives me no advantage.

I am missing the carrot on the stick, the motivation, the reason to participate in this "game of powers".

 

[Zulu Romeo]

I had some misgivings about Powerplay when it was revealed - it didn't bring what I had expected to the game. Also I strongly disagreed with some of the original mechanics, however most of the problem areas were changed during beta testing. I still feel that the design brief was too focused on creating an intricate and subtle game structure for its own sake, and the really important goal of fostering group play was somewhat secondary.

The only thing I'd add from my personal experience thus far is that the more I play it the more I like it, and it has definitely added something welcome to my experience of ED. Whether that "added something" could have been even better is a matter for conjecture.

Generally my feelings too. While not the most obvious addition I would have put into the game, the idea of increasing the roles of the background players and putting some of it in the players' hands would have been a logical development of the game. However, the execution of this still needs work in balancing out reward, gameplay interest, and penalties. It's still good that some players are taking to it like a duck to water - these may well have been the target audience of PowerPlay, those for whom the matters of the Federation, Empire, Alliance, whatever, are important.

For the rest of us, it's just added flavour and variations to the base game in which one can play a deeper role if one wishes, whie still undergoing the same old other types of gameplay that have kept thousands of players amused. Myself, I haven't pledged to a Power in this game, although I did pledge in Beta, and was immediately confronted with the new moral boundaries and dilemmas that come with pledging to a Power. Having already seen the heart of the Galaxy and seen across the arms of the Milky Way from above, they're all just handfuls of pale yellow dots as far as I'm concerned.

I see PowerPlay as a new axis of gameplay, and as such it really ought to cater more for other aspects of the existing game, integrating missions, exploration, mining, and other things - even community goals in the form of some kind of Power Project to work towards a unique Power reward type or benefit or perk, alongside rival attempts to undermine it - in the same way that a lack of PowerPlay was also all of these things. Once this occurs, some balance in the rise and fall of Powers is tweaked including the rounding-off and optimising and balancing of the technicalities of the grind, and more Powers come into play (thus offering more choice for the undecided and noncommittal player), then I can see this improving.

But a fair and honest write-up, Senator Wagar. Also, yes: agree completely with the need for more Senator Loren.

 

[EddyRockSteady]

A great read and I agree with most of what you said. ..and Frontier, please listen to this "Give us adventure, Frontier, not politics. That’s the essence of Elite."

I want Adventure and I want Politics. No reason why they cannot co-exist. For a first iteration I think Frontier are doing pretty damned well. Give it time and with constructive feedback, things will only get better.

 

[Huros]

I predict this will go full circle. FDev will pander to the money(Consoles etc) then when the profit hits the far side of their bell curve they will refocus on the longterm players and go back to their roots to maintain the interest for expansions. Old timer '84ers will be ignored for a couple of years, just hope they are not chased away permanently.

 

[Hacker#451563]

Pretty much it Sir.

With your kind of concise ellequence you could get a job as a writer, or something.

 

[Steve50]

I predict this will go full circle. FDev will pander to the money(Consoles etc) then when the profit hits the far side of their bell curve they will refocus on the longterm players and go back to their roots to maintain the interest for expansions. Old timer '84ers will be ignored for a couple of years, just hope they are not chased away permanently.

Sadly by the time they've finished pandering to the consoles, I and other original 84'ers will probably have washed our hands of the game and been long gone. I have a lot of mixed feelings right now, I can see a lot of great things in the game but some of their decisions of late have been in the opposite direction that Elite was and every step in the direction of realism and challenge is shouted down until they cave in and reverse it.

I'm both excited and nervous about the E3 announcements, it could be exciting but also it could be another step in the wrong direction and depressing.

 

[Cody]

[distant howls]

 

[Deyu]

I predict this will go full circle. FDev will pander to the money(Consoles etc) then when the profit hits the far side of their bell curve they will refocus on the longterm players and go back to their roots to maintain the interest for expansions. Old timer '84ers will be ignored for a couple of years, just hope they are not chased away permanently.

I agree. What's happening now it's pretty similar to what happened with MechWarrior Online and Piranha. "All this has happened before, and all of it will happen again." If any of you aren't familiar with MWO here is what's happened, in short: Piranha promised many cool things for MWO. They didn't deliver, the community lost faith, stopped spending money and left altogether. Piranha woke up when they started losing money, coupled with basically noone giving a cent to their crowdfunding project "Transverse". The red flags were up and so they started to fulfill some of their promises. Hell, they even have a roadmap. To be honest, I left MWO and I don't know it's current state, but it seems to be somewhat improving. I just hope that it won't be to late for ED.

 

[Adam Lusardi]

I wonder if PP had been announced as a KS extended goal if it would have been funded.

 

[Hacker#451563]

I want Adventure and I want Politics. No reason why they cannot co-exist. For a first iteration I think Frontier are doing pretty damned well. Give it time and with constructive feedback, things will only get better.

The point is we shouldn't have to wait for things to get better.

FD knows what we want and if they don't want to give it to us because they think they can make more money with the console crew then so be it. In time games like Star Citizen and No Mans Space will be fully launched and unless they are pandering to some new sub-set of potentual fiscal oppertunities people who want a space sim experiance will be with them.

FD has had time and massive, MASSIVE player input from a mature and for the most part intellegent player base with some great ideas that I wish I'd come up with (and I think I'm pretty smart) which has been mostly ignored.

It's almost like they want the origonal player base to leave so they can get rid of the pesky folks that keep lipping-up about changes that might stop them grabbing a few more quid while the run is still good.

And as far as constructive feedback goes...The beta test phase for this update was so short that none of the problems that the testers where highlighting could have had a chance to be fixed.
Why?
Well, then they might have had to have a good long look at the mess they had made and do something about it.

 

[Jack Schitt]

+1 given. I was in almost full agreement with Drew when he appeared on Lave Radio and the blog post is even more succinct and accurate. Listen to this man, FD. He may not speak for all current and future potential players but he speaks for a very hardcore bunch of fans who've been around for a long time.

It should be more than possible to update the mechanics of Elite without destroying its soul. To me, ED in its current form is to Elite and Frontier what the Star Wars prequels are to the original trilogy. Slicker, glossier, broader in scope, but with much of the spirit sadly gone.

Bring back the spirit of Elite, please. It's nothing that can be easily defined, but look to your fiction authors both official and fanfic for inspiration. Those people got Elite and kept it alive for 20 years. A lot of what's happening with ED is impressive, but it's in danger of burying the very foundations on which it's building.

 

[EddyRockSteady]

The point is we shouldn't have to wait for things to get better.

Small development studio, massive bills to pay at the end of each month.......priorities. Things take time if you have a handful of people trying to consume an entire Elephant - cannot be done in one sitting. Have to take it one mouthful at a time.

 

[Cmdr Esteban]

Great blog post Drew. Agree with every point. I pledged to a leader (won’t say who), flew one delivery mission, said to myself “This doesn’t feel like Elite”, and then immediately ‘unpledged’ (yes, I know that’s not actually a word).

Still having fun in 1.3 though. Like you, my ship (my only ship) is a Cobra, A-fitted for trade and bounty hunting. For me it’s really “one pilot and his/her ship against the galaxy”, as you alluded to in your post.

 

[Derath]

I think the power play system is adventure, my only real issue with it is its shallow, there are basically 7 missions and you repeat them ad infinitum, thats really bad - like really really bad IMO. They aren't even 7 good missions, its take this to there, brap brap at identical CZ, take there to here and brap brap in SC