Agreed, I think this is a likely scenario.
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What would a thread be without them.
A writer's thoughts on 'PowerPlay' - Drew Wagar
- Thread starter drew
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Agreed, I think this is a likely scenario.
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What would a thread be without them.
I guess its not much of a surprise that I would like to the game to go more in the direction you describe Drew.
Nice writeup. Although I like the idea of space politics, the superimposed way PP was implemented with all these overly complicated rules feels incredibly unorganic.
Signing up with a faction is a great idea, but imho FD should just have assigned a couple of minor factions to a power and let players work from there, based on the preexisting background simulations mechanics.
What I hoped for wasn't artificial and grindy merit, preparation, fortification, expansion and rank mechanics occurring in cycles but vast improvements to the background simulation and an option to sign up with a believable political faction within that background sim.
The current implementation of PP feels like it's working against the background simulation, which on its own leaves a lot to be desired. I wished FD had put their effort into improving the and had implemented PP working in an organic and synergistic manner with the .
I also agree on the last bit. During premium beta, I envisioned ED and exploration as a star trek simulator (a bit less utopian and darker), but my plan was to boldly go where no man has gone before. After having done my first (and only) exploration trip, I realized it's like watching ice flowers - sure - they're all unique and pretty, but after watching a few, I realized they're also completely repetitive at that. There's nothing happening and exploring feels awfully sterile.
Someone described the act of exploring in gameplay terms as "whack a mole on valium", which is spot on imho.
Shelved the idea of exploration until there are at least Thargoids and there's some danger in it, rather than having the feeling of endlessly walking an art gallery filled with 400 billion pretty paintings all made by the same artist.
Signing up with a faction is a great idea, but imho FD should just have assigned a couple of minor factions to a power and let players work from there, based on the preexisting background simulations mechanics.
What I hoped for wasn't artificial and grindy merit, preparation, fortification, expansion and rank mechanics occurring in cycles but vast improvements to the background simulation and an option to sign up with a believable political faction within that background sim.
The current implementation of PP feels like it's working against the background simulation, which on its own leaves a lot to be desired. I wished FD had put their effort into improving the and had implemented PP working in an organic and synergistic manner with the .
I also agree on the last bit. During premium beta, I envisioned ED and exploration as a star trek simulator (a bit less utopian and darker), but my plan was to boldly go where no man has gone before. After having done my first (and only) exploration trip, I realized it's like watching ice flowers - sure - they're all unique and pretty, but after watching a few, I realized they're also completely repetitive at that. There's nothing happening and exploring feels awfully sterile.
Someone described the act of exploring in gameplay terms as "whack a mole on valium", which is spot on imho.
Shelved the idea of exploration until there are at least Thargoids and there's some danger in it, rather than having the feeling of endlessly walking an art gallery filled with 400 billion pretty paintings all made by the same artist.
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To me, the things Drew is suggesting, are in fact no more than small mouthfuls of fun and excitement, not major extensions.
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Wow, that is blunt. But accurate and made me smile.
The forum won't let me rep you for this ... I must spread some love ... [shakes fist] Damn you forum!!!
Can you please stop lumping all of us 'old timers' in together, I play with 3 other 'old timers' all of which have no issue with PP and the 1.3 update as a whole. I hate to break it to you all but the original Elite also meant different things to different people.
I am also struggling to see how PP has been put in place to cater for the console market TBH, normally this would involve include stripping out functionality, simplicity and immediate action, none of which seem to be relevant to PP.
Just seems to be a recurring theme of the negative posts on here that they 1/ act as if they are speaking from a position of superiority by highlighting there 'experience' 2/ try to belittle the anyone who disagrees with them buy suggesting they belong to some sort of inferior 'casual' group
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It does indeed.
We have a 400 billion star system map, the largest gameworld in gaming history as FDev were proud to announce when touting for investment. Yet at this moment in time it feels like they implemented it purely as a sales gimmick. If you're going to sell us the concept of a 1:1 scale galaxy, then utilize it and make it the whole foundation that the game is built around. Fill it with mystery, intrigue, and put in place engaging gameplay mechanics that require imagination and out of the box thinking, and a semblance of skill to traverse and discover its wonders.. do that and the players will have an endless backdrop to go on to create their own content themselves. These are some of the things our imagination would run wild with back when playing Elite, Frontier, and First Encounters.
Frontier only need to look at the numerous polls throughout the fundraising phase pre-alpha to see the vast majority of players where by far the most excited by the prospect of exploring a 1:1 scale galaxy. Yet here we are 7 months into release and exploration is the most shallow, low-challenge, and empty gameplay mechanic you can imagine. Its borderline tragic what they gave us compared to what it could have been.
The time invested in PP could have gone on something people actually asked for and wanted. The whole game, seven months into release, still feels like a whole unconnected jumble of placeholders, and power play really adds little to make me feel any different. Its a nonsensical concept anyway - having ten 2D 'characters' squabbling over a pixels worth of the galactic map when they're surrounded by an infinite number of resources. Where are the great expeditions to go colonize beyond frontier borders. Where is the drive to build scientific outposts out at nearby astronomical phenomena, why hasn't the human desire to learn about the universe warranted an outpost at Sag-A*, a mere 10-hours flight time away, a supermassive blackhole that our best scientist would love to study up close?... instead we get a political pesudo-game, based on archaic philosophies of land-grabbing and money, when they have untapped and infinite resources mere hours away, and in all directions.
I dunno, maybe Power Play will act as the vehicle to move the game into more meaningful directions. Lets see where PP leads and how it evolves over the next few months. I really hope that after its been tweaked and balanced, that it isn't just left as another layer of grind gameplay masquerading as content while FD move onto the next bit of game concept totally detached from it. Its here now, and in place... a roadmap of what will be born out of it would go a long way to alleviate a lot players concerns on where FDev are taking ED.
Yep, +1 for most of that. A good read. Especially the background story part.
I don't believe PowerPlay is to be thrown out, but it could be sooo much better if we knew a bit more about the characters, had more different things to do with them, and if it was less repetitive. It needs life.
It was said in the blog post, there are hundreds of ways to do that.
Politics were needed for the kind of player who likes to be in a corporation, fight for something with his friends, etc... I understand that isn't every player in the game.
About the last sentence, my opinion is more of a "put adventure in politics, and add more adventure to the rest of the game.". It all comes down to what type of player you are.
After reading Drews blog post I wanted to add my point of view into this conversation.
Elite Dangerous is the first Elite game I play.
Background and depth
I started this game with no information about the galaxy. The first thing with every game I get interested in is the backstory - the "WHY" of the game - no matter if it is a FPS, a MMO or something else. Elite Dangerous has almost no backstory. Nothing to be found on the Elite Dangerous website, nothing within the game, nothing in the manual - beside the little story how I got my Sidewinder and 1000 cr. I like history and seeing a big galaxy with three super powers I wanted to know the history of those super powers - nothing. Just a few sentences about what the Empire, Federation and Alliance are now.
This had 2 effects. First i feel lost in a big galaxy, completely insignificant. This set my feeling for this game and I liked it. I started to read everything in GalNet. Second I started looking around the web for more informations about the Elite galaxy. What I found confused me - aliens? Not in ED, completely different organizations, things working completely different. I read "The Dark Wheel" and after that I decided to ignore all old lore of Elite as it obviously got ignored by the developers. I really hope that FD publishes a website with a lot of information about history, politics and well known cooperations, organizations and persons and they background (story). I really hope that FD publishes a website that describes what is accepted lore and what isn't.
For me the 10 characters of Power Play actually add story and background to the game. PowerPlay changed the galaxy from a thousands faceless and similar minor factions to a galaxy with 10 characters that are more than a 3 word description with an influence rating. Sure, I would like more, much more, but what PowerPlay gave me is much more than Elite Dangerous gave me at the beginning. I'm happy with every little bit of story, background and information I can get - information that I can consider official lore.
This might all sound strange for somebody who played all Elite games and has his own vision of the galaxy in his head. But for me it's strange to read someone complaining about the lack of background story and 2D characters in PowerPlay while the rest of the galaxy has even less story, background and depth.
PowerPlay as part of a game
This is where things get tricky. After playing Elite Dangerous for over 6 months I still think this game is a single player PvE game with a PvP/MMO part bolted on that doesn't really fit.
And this is exactly the reason why I think PowerPlay is a good addition to the game. It gives those interested in PvP and MMO a reason to do what they do without really affecting the "single player PvE"-part that much. Some (a lot?) player groups want to compete against other player groups. Before PP they invented their own little stories what they are and why they do what they do. That's nice and sometimes interesting, but for me it often simply didn't fit into the galaxy how I imagined it - that feeling insignificant and lost. Now they have an in-game reason to do this and in my opinion this affects the little (official ED) lore available less than what they did before. Without taking away the options and in-game mechanic influence from player groups PowerPlay took away the perceived influence of player groups in the game. They got moved to second tier below the powers. Their actions are now embedded into the game story - no matter how small or shallow the story part is.
Adventure
Yes FD, give us adventure and mysteries. Fill the galaxy with interesting things, with wrecks of generation ships or unlucky explorers, add NPC explorers and little stories, maybe even forgotten colonies far way form Sol.
Now that those interested in PvP and MMO guild politics have something to be entertained and distracted form PvE players the stage is ready for adventure.
Sorry for that long wall of text.
TL;DR: PP adds background and story to the official ED lore (that is basically non existent). PP distracts PvP players form PvE players.
Elite Dangerous is the first Elite game I play.
Background and depth
I started this game with no information about the galaxy. The first thing with every game I get interested in is the backstory - the "WHY" of the game - no matter if it is a FPS, a MMO or something else. Elite Dangerous has almost no backstory. Nothing to be found on the Elite Dangerous website, nothing within the game, nothing in the manual - beside the little story how I got my Sidewinder and 1000 cr. I like history and seeing a big galaxy with three super powers I wanted to know the history of those super powers - nothing. Just a few sentences about what the Empire, Federation and Alliance are now.
This had 2 effects. First i feel lost in a big galaxy, completely insignificant. This set my feeling for this game and I liked it. I started to read everything in GalNet. Second I started looking around the web for more informations about the Elite galaxy. What I found confused me - aliens? Not in ED, completely different organizations, things working completely different. I read "The Dark Wheel" and after that I decided to ignore all old lore of Elite as it obviously got ignored by the developers. I really hope that FD publishes a website with a lot of information about history, politics and well known cooperations, organizations and persons and they background (story). I really hope that FD publishes a website that describes what is accepted lore and what isn't.
For me the 10 characters of Power Play actually add story and background to the game. PowerPlay changed the galaxy from a thousands faceless and similar minor factions to a galaxy with 10 characters that are more than a 3 word description with an influence rating. Sure, I would like more, much more, but what PowerPlay gave me is much more than Elite Dangerous gave me at the beginning. I'm happy with every little bit of story, background and information I can get - information that I can consider official lore.
This might all sound strange for somebody who played all Elite games and has his own vision of the galaxy in his head. But for me it's strange to read someone complaining about the lack of background story and 2D characters in PowerPlay while the rest of the galaxy has even less story, background and depth.
PowerPlay as part of a game
This is where things get tricky. After playing Elite Dangerous for over 6 months I still think this game is a single player PvE game with a PvP/MMO part bolted on that doesn't really fit.
And this is exactly the reason why I think PowerPlay is a good addition to the game. It gives those interested in PvP and MMO a reason to do what they do without really affecting the "single player PvE"-part that much. Some (a lot?) player groups want to compete against other player groups. Before PP they invented their own little stories what they are and why they do what they do. That's nice and sometimes interesting, but for me it often simply didn't fit into the galaxy how I imagined it - that feeling insignificant and lost. Now they have an in-game reason to do this and in my opinion this affects the little (official ED) lore available less than what they did before. Without taking away the options and in-game mechanic influence from player groups PowerPlay took away the perceived influence of player groups in the game. They got moved to second tier below the powers. Their actions are now embedded into the game story - no matter how small or shallow the story part is.
Adventure
Yes FD, give us adventure and mysteries. Fill the galaxy with interesting things, with wrecks of generation ships or unlucky explorers, add NPC explorers and little stories, maybe even forgotten colonies far way form Sol.
Now that those interested in PvP and MMO guild politics have something to be entertained and distracted form PvE players the stage is ready for adventure.
Sorry for that long wall of text.
TL;DR: PP adds background and story to the official ED lore (that is basically non existent). PP distracts PvP players form PvE players.
No surprise that I agree with Drew, the focus should be on engaging adventure - which can include politics. For example, why does Winters not have an exploration mission to find the remains of Starship One, which turns into a mystery/detective mission to determine what really happened? Hudson could have a mission to impede the Winters exploration/investigation, creating some interesting PvE and PvP situations. Why doesn't the anti-slavery Imperial Power (can't even remember her name, that's how good the background of these characters are) have a mission to blockade Imperial systems selling Imperial slaves? Why doesn't one of the Imperial powers have clandestine missions that would support an assassination attempt against the Emperor? Why aren't there intelligence-gathering missions against and between all the Powers? Diplomatic missions that actually affect the diplomatic relations levels (which are currently non-existent, you are either hostile or not, which is silly) between Powers? Why aren't Kahina and the Garry clan and the Circle of Elite Independent Pilots or the Lave Revolutionaries and their allies and others from the new lore also Powers, with their own story-lines and missions? And why for the love of all that may or may not be holy, is there only one Alliance Power with the lamest background of all? Took me all of the time it took to devour a waffle to come up with the above, and they all mix politics with adventure, and can involve individuals working on behalf of their Powers, on their own or in, oh, lets call them "not-Guilds" based on the Powers, and against each other as well. And why isn't there a mission for the Geralt of Rivia Power to find Ciri!! <stampsFeet/>
I realize that ideas are a dime a dozen, and resources are limited, and it takes time to implement real engaging and immersive missions and story narrative, and it is easier to criticize than create, but please FD, get away from this focus on MMO grind mechanics and at least try to cover them up with engaging and immersive story content, if not replace them with it.
And sure, FD or Braben will say that all those things are coming with the new mission framework and the Powerplay mechanics. Unfortunately, a) we have heard all that repeatedly, and b) if you build up expectations, and then c) release something that is badly flawed, the problem with not doing something right the first time, is you find that you will never have the time to make it right after the fact, and your playerbase will start to dwindle. And sadly we have seen that time after time after time with features , both minor and major, in Elite Dangerous.
PS And why does one of the Powers not have a mission to find out what the UAs are? Ye gods, does someone have to hit them over the head repeatedly with a rubber chicken in Cambridge? If I see one more new mission introduced that is simply space trucking or pew-pew, my head will explode. And that won't be pretty.
I realize that ideas are a dime a dozen, and resources are limited, and it takes time to implement real engaging and immersive missions and story narrative, and it is easier to criticize than create, but please FD, get away from this focus on MMO grind mechanics and at least try to cover them up with engaging and immersive story content, if not replace them with it.
And sure, FD or Braben will say that all those things are coming with the new mission framework and the Powerplay mechanics. Unfortunately, a) we have heard all that repeatedly, and b) if you build up expectations, and then c) release something that is badly flawed, the problem with not doing something right the first time, is you find that you will never have the time to make it right after the fact, and your playerbase will start to dwindle. And sadly we have seen that time after time after time with features , both minor and major, in Elite Dangerous.
PS And why does one of the Powers not have a mission to find out what the UAs are? Ye gods, does someone have to hit them over the head repeatedly with a rubber chicken in Cambridge? If I see one more new mission introduced that is simply space trucking or pew-pew, my head will explode. And that won't be pretty.
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Drew, your thoughts echo my own.
Forgive the stream of conciousness post I'm short on time and wont't have time to edit.
Not an 84'er as I was only two years old at the time, I was more of a Frontier: Elite II kinda guy. PowerPlay is a random mess, something that Frontier are becoming quite good at despite being a 'professional' game development company. It's just too disconnected from everything else and now more than ever I believe that making Elite with a focus on multiplayer was the single worst design decision for this game, I would have been fine with a drop in- drop out co-operative style gameplay with friends while having the galaxy generated locally on your computer rather than a server. The game itself will only last as long as Frontier as a company last, which means the game has no longevity whatsover. I'm not sure how well Frontier are doing financially but several have commented that their shares in Frontier are the worst performing shares that they own.
my fear is that they have fluffed their sequel, something that I never thought would have been possible. i can remember searching elite 4 on the internet every year for about 10 years to see if any news would pop up about it. my mind filled with how awesome planetary landings would look in 2015. I never thought it would end up like this.
Jaded fan /out
Forgive the stream of conciousness post I'm short on time and wont't have time to edit.
Not an 84'er as I was only two years old at the time, I was more of a Frontier: Elite II kinda guy. PowerPlay is a random mess, something that Frontier are becoming quite good at despite being a 'professional' game development company. It's just too disconnected from everything else and now more than ever I believe that making Elite with a focus on multiplayer was the single worst design decision for this game, I would have been fine with a drop in- drop out co-operative style gameplay with friends while having the galaxy generated locally on your computer rather than a server. The game itself will only last as long as Frontier as a company last, which means the game has no longevity whatsover. I'm not sure how well Frontier are doing financially but several have commented that their shares in Frontier are the worst performing shares that they own.
my fear is that they have fluffed their sequel, something that I never thought would have been possible. i can remember searching elite 4 on the internet every year for about 10 years to see if any news would pop up about it. my mind filled with how awesome planetary landings would look in 2015. I never thought it would end up like this.
Jaded fan /out
I am Totally with you there, Drew. espeecially the "Give us adventure, Frontier, not politics. That’s the essence of Elite." part.
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This is the key problem with it for me, I think. The powerplay mechanics aren't particularly interesting but I'm happy to let other people get on with them and I'll just watch the political landscape slowly change.
There was a comparison earlier to the Alpha Centauri leaders - and I can see the resemblance - but the Alpha Centauri leaders, despite you only learning about them from some excerpts from speeches and their in-game actions and preferred strategies, felt much more like fully-realised characters. Some of them looked "good" or "bad" at first impressions, but it quickly became obvious that it wasn't that simple - the anti-technological religious fundamentalist is hard to sympathise with (especially in a Civ game where "research tech, use to gain overwhelming superiority" is a major strategy and their research penalty hurts a lot if you play as them) but then when you start getting some of the later techs a lot of their "are you really sure this is a direction you want humanity to head in" makes them look quite a bit more sensible than the others.
The only particularly interesting PowerPlay character for me is Winters. Antal comes close, but the writing on their PP screen makes them too obviously sinister; much more PR focus there counterbalanced by occasional Galnet [1] reports from other points of view, or mission text from unsympathetic minor factions in their exploited systems would have been better. (To go back to AC, Zakharov did the "friendly neighbourhood techno-utopian" disguise far better, and the mask slipped only gradually)
Winters appears at first glance to be the idealist/reformist of the Federation - not the militarism of Hudson, nor the corporatism of the superpower as a whole - the similar role to Duval in the Empire. Unlike Duval, though, who could plausibly be exactly who she claims to be - a young idealist who traditionalists are carefully moving out of the immediate line of succession - Winters served under Halsey.
Halsey took a much more authoritarian, militaristic and pro-corporate line (indeed, were it not for her disappearance, Halsey and Hudson would probably have been extremely similar powers). Winters served loyally and faithfully enough to be the third highest ranked Liberal, able with no reported question from her own party to take on the role of Acting President and then formally become Shadow President after the confidence vote, with no previous reports in anonymous briefings, Galnet news, etc. of her opposition to the direction Halsey was taking the Federation - and yet now, she's taking (from opposition, admittedly) a much different stance. That inconsistency is potentially rather interesting and makes me want to find out (gradually! subtly!) more about her backstory and motivations.
[1] This is another place where FFE's approach of having five different news sources each with their own recognisable editorial lines would be beneficial here - let players get a few different perspectives on the same event from people with obvious agendas of their own and have to make up their own minds about reliability. Unfortunately preparing that content properly is very difficult to get right.
The same can be said for combat zones. How many times can an endless wave of about the same volume and mix of ships remain interesting, when it becomes very obvious very quickly that it's having no effect on anything.
Distress call is simply a variation on an assassination mission. Paid to go to a place, interact with a target. It's possibly a trap. It's an activity though that explorers can do, because it doesn't need to be nearby. It can take a looong time, the call can be 15,000LY away, so the reward is pretty high and "grind" ain't so bad. That example by itself is a 16 hour mission. It can be a trap, a pirate making the call. Pirates can also answer the call as well and turn up shadowing the player.
Just because it's "multiplayer" doesn't mean it needs or should be infinite events, those kill immersion, because the player quickly realises it's just a long progression without any variance in difficulty. WoW. go in a cave, kill everything, enemies get progressively harder. Run away or stay and level up. Mission complete. Next cave. Tech wise, just trigger an event unique for an island when the first player hits it. Next bulletin mission creates an all new version of the same event.
Also, I would chain things together, which can also be done in a random fashion. The distress call may be irreparable and the ambassador is on an urgent mission to Planet $ForgotToPutInTheRightText$Code. It can be a cruiser stranded in space that needs protection before it's engines come on line, where the pirate attention gets bigger and bigger the more that get killed and the more time goes on. Wave 2 > Wave 1, with a 30 second gap inbetween for desperately recharging shields. First person into the mission triggers it, calls friends and wing and/or group over to join in. Structured to take 2-3 hours (or you could go mental and give it 8 hours, so there's time for forums to react) to complete, so there's plenty of time for people to mosey on over.
Elite's island tech gives it the perfect platform for this type of content. Not just the same old "spawn X ships infinitely" whether it's a RES or a nav beacon, or a crime sweep.
None of this needs to be hand-tailored, just needs a bit of variety in the mission descriptions (which is happening now anyway with other missions), and variety in location, distance, reward, and "class" of distress call.
There's a lot of multiplayerable, co-operative variety there, and that's just with 5 minutes thinking on it.
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I agree with most of what you've said Drew. After poking around in the PP beta and just after release I stopped playing. It's not a conscious boycott; I just don't like what Power Play brings to Elite: Dangerous for many of the same reasons that you've outlined in your blog post.
I'm disappointed that the game I waited 20 years for is still a mile wide and an inch deep 6 months after release. I can understand that Frontier want to enhance and improve upon what 'Elite' is but Power Play is just as you say, Space Risk bolted onto a maybe-MMO.
The one good thing about Power Play for me has been having the time to start playing Mass Effect again
Fly safe CMDRs, maybe see you in 1.4.
I'm disappointed that the game I waited 20 years for is still a mile wide and an inch deep 6 months after release. I can understand that Frontier want to enhance and improve upon what 'Elite' is but Power Play is just as you say, Space Risk bolted onto a maybe-MMO.
The one good thing about Power Play for me has been having the time to start playing Mass Effect again
Fly safe CMDRs, maybe see you in 1.4.
Hi Drew, Thanks for taking the time to write about Power Play.
I agree very much that ED would benefit from more mystery. Searching for wrecks and salvaging valuble loot would be great.
We could also use more story. I love story and backgruond. There are quite a few sutle hints in GalNet, but they are so far only loose threads.
I do however think that PP is a good hook to hang both mystery and story on. It feel like a valuble addition to the game for both pledged and unpledged players (i'm unpledged).
What has PP done for me as a a player so far? It has added atmosphere (to space ;-)), at least in open. It has also made me sell my Vulture. I could not fly a Core Dynamics ship after Hudson took the office.
I dont't agree taht PP is like risk. At lest not for the Players. In Risk you now the board. In PP the board changes and Power characters have their own hidden agenda.
Reading GalNet, it seems to be a lot of hidden agenda. You run the risk (no pun intended) of suporting the exact opposite of what you stand for.
I hope FD looks seriously at your suggestions for some mystery. Good luck.
Delightful article, very well expressed something I think a lot of people, even those who support PP, might have been feeling themselves.
The problem is, when you're not given much in the way of the individual power-players' motivations, and you don't tie concrete rewards in-game to actions performed, you very much have an entirely vestigial system that exists for its own sake. Why expand a power's territory? Why should I care about Alissa's struggle? So more stars are shaded in her color? She won't pay me if I fight for her. Ferrying her little pamphlets is boring and the rewards are a pittance. Why bother?
Moreover, something you did not mention is how absolutely ridiculous it is that Powerplay can be entirely ignored without any real negative impact on gameplay. How important are these struggles really, if you can get by just fine in the galaxy as if they weren't there at all. If it doesn't matter if they are there or not-there, how important can any of it really be?
In effect, who cares? Why bother?
FD has not implemented anything yet that answers that question.
I was taught in my writing classes that the essential question that a writer must answer for his audience is "Who cares?". The reader (or in our case, the gamer) has to be given a reason to personally invest in the story. We need something or someone to connect to, we need to feel like it's important, otherwise it's all just spinning wheels. FD spent lots of time and effort on this update but completely ignored the central question: "Who cares?"
Not me. I went and fought for Alissa, killed 20 of her enemies, and turned in the vouchers claimed for... 2,000cr. A pittance. Pennies. Chump change. At the end of the week I got my 'salary'... 1,000cr.
I wipe my butt with 1,000cr, Alissa. I burn it for heat. It's nothing to me. Why in the galaxy would I care one fig for a power struggle that is not interested in rewarding my time or influencing my life in any way at all?
Easy answer: I wouldn't, and I don't.
The problem is, when you're not given much in the way of the individual power-players' motivations, and you don't tie concrete rewards in-game to actions performed, you very much have an entirely vestigial system that exists for its own sake. Why expand a power's territory? Why should I care about Alissa's struggle? So more stars are shaded in her color? She won't pay me if I fight for her. Ferrying her little pamphlets is boring and the rewards are a pittance. Why bother?
Moreover, something you did not mention is how absolutely ridiculous it is that Powerplay can be entirely ignored without any real negative impact on gameplay. How important are these struggles really, if you can get by just fine in the galaxy as if they weren't there at all. If it doesn't matter if they are there or not-there, how important can any of it really be?
In effect, who cares? Why bother?
FD has not implemented anything yet that answers that question.
I was taught in my writing classes that the essential question that a writer must answer for his audience is "Who cares?". The reader (or in our case, the gamer) has to be given a reason to personally invest in the story. We need something or someone to connect to, we need to feel like it's important, otherwise it's all just spinning wheels. FD spent lots of time and effort on this update but completely ignored the central question: "Who cares?"
Not me. I went and fought for Alissa, killed 20 of her enemies, and turned in the vouchers claimed for... 2,000cr. A pittance. Pennies. Chump change. At the end of the week I got my 'salary'... 1,000cr.
I wipe my butt with 1,000cr, Alissa. I burn it for heat. It's nothing to me. Why in the galaxy would I care one fig for a power struggle that is not interested in rewarding my time or influencing my life in any way at all?
Easy answer: I wouldn't, and I don't.
Interesting and well thought out article.
I haven't myself tried pp yet properly, but i share some of your concerns. On the other hand I have found that having faces in the game really makes a difference and galnet is much better.
I think the game needs to push on the player more. At the moment I can find stuff to do if I go looking for it, nothing wrong with that but I'd like to see the game put me in difficult positions, ask questions of me, even if I'm not looking for it. I never really find myself asking "what's going to happen here?" At least not enough. More surprises please, and feel free to make life hard for me and see how I cope/escape.
This is getting better all the time though, the ai is one example of this. Frontier have executed everything very well and quickly, and there's plenty of time for them to address these concerns.
I haven't myself tried pp yet properly, but i share some of your concerns. On the other hand I have found that having faces in the game really makes a difference and galnet is much better.
I think the game needs to push on the player more. At the moment I can find stuff to do if I go looking for it, nothing wrong with that but I'd like to see the game put me in difficult positions, ask questions of me, even if I'm not looking for it. I never really find myself asking "what's going to happen here?" At least not enough. More surprises please, and feel free to make life hard for me and see how I cope/escape.
This is getting better all the time though, the ai is one example of this. Frontier have executed everything very well and quickly, and there's plenty of time for them to address these concerns.
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Agree with many of the points in the article.
To me - Powerplay feels like something that should be there just to fill out the background a bit, add a bit of flavour - even if it didn't have player invollvement.
That said I do understand that a lot of people are happy to pledge and join in - and that's fine - but that just doesn't suit my style of play as an independent. The current implementation encourages commitment to a faction and that's not something I want to do.
I might get involved if they were to introduce some way for an independent to do a contract job or mercenary style stuff but otherwise I'll work around it I expect.
I would like to see the things that are in the DDF archive implemented though - maybe they're still coming who knows..
To me - Powerplay feels like something that should be there just to fill out the background a bit, add a bit of flavour - even if it didn't have player invollvement.
That said I do understand that a lot of people are happy to pledge and join in - and that's fine - but that just doesn't suit my style of play as an independent. The current implementation encourages commitment to a faction and that's not something I want to do.
I might get involved if they were to introduce some way for an independent to do a contract job or mercenary style stuff but otherwise I'll work around it I expect.
I would like to see the things that are in the DDF archive implemented though - maybe they're still coming who knows..
Thanks Drew- same feeling here. Especially this part resonates:
We have a whole Galaxy to explore- no other game has that... Elite needs to capitalise on its strengths more.
Regarding PP: I hate the boardgame vibe of it but let's face it- all games have these kinds of logical rules underpinning them, not all of them so in your face as PP currently looks though. I hope this is meant as a first pass and that in time, the rules will seamlessly fade away into the background and the stories, experiences and ramifications of being involved in ED politics will come to the fore.
DB said something about wanting to be brought into a 'world', not a 'game'.. PP is game with a capital 'G'. But any world worth its salt has its political dimension and PP is trying to fill that side of things in an involving way for players, so I don't fault FD for trying to get this up and running. I hope it has a long way to go.
But yeah.. the Galaxy beckons.
Thanks for taking the time to write
We have a whole Galaxy to explore- no other game has that... Elite needs to capitalise on its strengths more.
Regarding PP: I hate the boardgame vibe of it but let's face it- all games have these kinds of logical rules underpinning them, not all of them so in your face as PP currently looks though. I hope this is meant as a first pass and that in time, the rules will seamlessly fade away into the background and the stories, experiences and ramifications of being involved in ED politics will come to the fore.
DB said something about wanting to be brought into a 'world', not a 'game'.. PP is game with a capital 'G'. But any world worth its salt has its political dimension and PP is trying to fill that side of things in an involving way for players, so I don't fault FD for trying to get this up and running. I hope it has a long way to go.
But yeah.. the Galaxy beckons.
Thanks for taking the time to write
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