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

[kilvenny]

Firstly, thank you Drew for your comments. I wrote a reply and deleted it because it was too verbose, this is the summary.

1) I believe FD misread the appeal of multiplayer teaming and pvp and are playing catch up in that area. The plan to go to XBox was brought forward requiring more focus on multiplayer.
2) Exploration is visual - so a high cost in visual content. I think FD are focused on the expansions for this as the most cost effective/efficient way of providing exploring content
3) Powerplay - I though the lack of bio on the power leaders was to place emphasis on the power not the person
4) Exploration - The galaxy map should have shown only your current position and any system you can travel to with current jump range. System map only what you know, everything else is unidentified astronomical object you have to fly to in order to identify. Scanner should have required user interpretation of its data. As you learn or buy new information the maps show your "discovered" or purchased data.
5) UA was a great concept and the galaxy needs more of these mysteries to discover and solve - great idea for payable content to be honest.

I am an original Elite player and I was a KS. I love the solo experience, but I do think that the multiplayer and PP have the potential to turn this game into a living galaxy, but its going to take several years for the full experience to be realised and while we wait for that patience is required.

 

[FuzzySpider]

Although I like the idea of space politics, the superimposed way PP was implemented with all these overly complicated rules feels incredibly unorganic.

Agreed.

I actually wouldn't mind space politics. I'd find that quite interesting. But we don't actually have space politics - we have a game of "risk in space" with a few portraits. Each and every power has the same goal, get more territory from the other powers. There is no real difference in ethos, no powers are trying to negotiate a truce or a peace (even though some of these powers belong to the same major faction they all treat each other with equal hostility), and no diplomacy or methods to make a treaty.

You have to do X task to attain Y number of merits. When you get enough of those merits (a fixed number) you get various perks. Merits decay at a certain percentage of what you've earned, apparently, no matter what you do or who you are or who you're working for. And territories change hands all at the same time every single week. This last point is particularly jarring. You can't, for example, get a bunch of your faction together, work like crazy to raise the influence level of your faction in a system, and then flip that system during a weekend. You have to run the same missions and just hope to reach a number by the end of the week. Absolutely no realism to that at all.

One word sums powerplay up quite nicely:

Arbitrary.

Anything this arbitrary in what is supposed to be a living and dynamic universe is an absolute immersion killer.

Not suprisingly, I find myself in full agreement with Drews writeup. I think FDev need to pull the plug on powerplay temporarily and try to rework it from the point of view of an immersive experience rather than trying to recreate a board game in space.

 

[Ekar]

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.

I wouldn't mind if the whole rules presentation of PP was moved over to the ED wiki.

In the future, I would love players to be able to work together to colonise planets, but that process should be complicated with a fair amount of rules adhered to in order to be successful. But those rules shouldn't clog up the actual game... they should be a resource you can access online when you need it- unsure about something, maybe how a certain Government type affects things? Just hit the wiki. Keep the game unobstructed, clean and focused on the first person experience.

 

[avow555]

Not very impressed with PP at all it feels quite empty and lacking in any long term gameplay.
Rather poorly thought out bolt on which doesn't in any way add to Elite.

 

[SkipRat]

I completely agree with this. I think the development team need to read this and then really think about the direction they want to take the game in. For me, I feel the vocal whiny minority are having too much say in this game and for the worse, IMO. Complaining about this, that and everything under the sun, cry the generation of instant gratification with the attention span of a bubble. The premise of the game was about the individual verse the galaxy, even if it was filled with other players in a sort of MMO. You got in your ship and did what you wanted. However, a lot of people failed to realise that the release of the game was nothing more than the start of the real development process and that it was always going to take time to implement all the features correctly.

Okay, okay, the game is not there just yet (still another 5-10 years of development hopefully), as people said, the game was as wide and flat as a plate on it's release, but then it was was basically an empty room awaiting the arrival of the delivery men. And, over time that empty room will slowly begin to fill as the game is developed. As such however, I don't think the game is ready for Power Play, I think they could have slowed it down, built up the characters, developed the back ground stories to all of them and allow the players to get that feeling over time for who they want to support. Not rush it to appease a vocal minority who have no patience. Just look at the way toys across the globe were being throwing out the pram so people could have their free steam key, because "their" games collection is more important than anything or anyone else in this world. Heaven forbid, if you really had something to cry about. Remember people, the customer is not always right, far from it. So yes, I think a lot of players or doing more damage than good. But I digress...

Power play to me, just seems out of place at the moment, especially when considering that exploring needs a serious overhaul, Bounty hunting needs a bit of an overhaul outside of station missions (FD done a fantastic job with the ranked linked missions you get from stations, a huge step in the right direction), IMO.

I also don't feel the constant whining of far to many people over what can only be considered the square root of naff all, is as shocking as it is disturbing in the realisation that they are probably like this in real life too and not helping the games development in any shape or form.

I think FD, need to stick to there original ideas and plans for the game, rather than trying to appease a bunch of players who are probably not going to be here for the long haul in the spirit of the game.

 

[B33 ENN]

With a due sense of trepidation, my thoughts on PowerPlay.

http://www.drewwagar.com/progress-report/elite-powerplay/

Great read, Drew; and I think it is something many of us will relate to almost word for word. I know I do, particularly the last part:

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… ?

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

What you've noted there in your concluding words is something I alluded to myself elsewhere in these forums. I expected the lore and atmosphere of this universe to speak to me through emergent events that would unexpectedly cross my path in my journey.

This is why I'm taking a break from the game. I've searched, but it's just not there; but it was supposed to be. David Braben spoke about Elite in very similar terms himself, way back when, and it should have, at least to some degree, been there by now. No excuses.

Instead, we get Powerplay, and as much as I appreciate the effort and talent that's gone into it from the developers, I'm sad to feel that the only thing I really like about it is the character artwork.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Can't load the page... looks like your site is suffering from overload.

 

[Frank]

I gave Moosegun rep for his comment about not lumping all us old timers together. I'm completely and utterly not bothered by Power Play. There had been a lot of complaints on the threads from people who had all the money in the Galaxy, and had more medals and honours than Idi Amin. They were asking what they should do now. I thought Power Play was supposed to be the answer to that question. They get to be the shadowy power behind the figureheads. Players with vast followings get to order their minions to aid the power of their choice. This is less like a game of Risk and more like a game of Chess where the pieces are directed by vast hordes of invisible shoulders.

I couldn't care less about a mechanic like that, but if it keeps some players happy then I'm happy. All this intrigue and back stabbing doesn't affect my galaxy. I've pledged with Mahon but that's more to show my allegiance to the Alliance.

I do understand the argument that busying themselves on this stops FD working on hand-carved missions. I'm thinking that once Power Play settles down it won't need much maintenance <pause for sarcastic effect>, and we can get some more meaty missions. Optimistic I know, but then Frontier Developments has a good track record.

I got everything I was expecting when I put money down on the Kickstarter, Elite with a great dogfighting feel and spectacular graphics. Everything else; Rift support, wings, the amazing Fantastic Books, this forum, it's all been a bonus.

 

[marx]

First, let me "answer" the rhetorical question from Drew's post, because I think it's important.
As he put it: "What the &^*% are they doing to my game? "
It's not your game, nor anyone else's. It's owned and developed by Frontier. Unfortunately, they have finite resources, and as such can't put everything in all at once.

As we've seen, the major updates so far all had one big theme. 1.1 was the Community Goals update, giving players more stuff to do together. 1.2 was the Wings update, giving players the tools to be able to play easier together. 1.3 was the Power Play update, the subject of discussion now. Notice a pattern here? All three so far were aimed to fix the biggest shortcomings and most complaints against ED: namely, that for an MMO game, it didn't have neither the necessary tools nor the goals to keep people engaged. PP basically added an optional end-game mechanic, something that people can play even if they've reached their largest ship goals, if they are so inclined.

I've seen people in the thread say that nobody asked for PP. I'd say that's false: plenty of people said that the game lacks any end-game for them, any meaning to keep playing after they get an Anaconda. While I don't agree with this goal-oriented approach, I'd still say it's a valid concern for many. Of course, people didn't specifically ask for this, but let's not forget that Frontier have been quite clear about there being an Imperial succession war in the future: how else would you rather they have done that? I don't think missions or community goals would have been sufficient, not for a multiplayer game.

Yes, you might like it better if the focus was on single player content. That is what Elite was, but I think Frontier have been quite clear about from the very beginning that they are designing ED to be a multiplayer game, that you can play on your own if you are so inclined. (Solo mode.)
Now, what you wrote up that you'd like to see would basically be the Exploration update. Frankly, I'd love to see that too, because even though I've done plenty of combat, I still remain an explorer. But I am not representative of the entire player base, nor is anyone else here. FD basically has to weigh where attention is needed the most, and what / how most people play.

Frankly, PP as it is now seems like a good framework to me, but one that needs more content. More mission varieties, possibly more powers (though I'm not yet sure if there would be enough player activity for more), and of course more lore like you've said. All good suggestions, and now that the core system is in place, it should be much easier to expand upon it. I just hope that the developers won't abandon improving it when they focus on the next problematic area.

That being said, we'll have to see what the next update will be all about. Personally, I'd say that missions need the most attention and more content now, and I was hoping that the overhaul would bring that, but as it turns out, the overhaul has been mostly an under-the-hood one. It was necessary to do that first, of course. But now we should soon see if they get more variety, more content added - passenger missions, of course, and DB also mentioned espionage, and personally, I'd love to see more exploration missions.


So basically, my point can be summed up as: Elite is primarily a multiplayer game, and there are various areas that need more attention, but FD's resources are finite. They can't satisfy everyone all at once. We'll soon see where their next area of focus will be at. But let's not forget that exploration is not what everybody wants, and plenty of people want to play Elite together with other people, organizing for their goals. That was very much lacking at launch, and remedying that has been the main focus so far. I'd say that the systems for that are in place by now, and while they do need improvement, that's no longer about developing new gameplay mechanics. Personally, I expect the first expansion to be much more about adding to the game's world, and going back to the sense of exploration and adventure like you wrote. For which we do need new gameplay mechanics, not just more of the same content. Which is why I'm very curious about what FD are going to be announcing next.


Oh, and one more thing: I'm also sorry that Senator Loren was not included in-game as a power, but FD decided to go with ten powers at the start, and they already had four Imperial powers lined up. Five would have been too much, and much as Loren is more fleshed out due to your book, her replacing anyone from the four would in my opinion have been worse.

 

[Kernel Kwatz!]

I can't disagree with anything you've said.

I will say that my experience is slightly different though. As a writer myself, I've very much got into Powerplay. That's because in my mind - and on my page - it's become a glorious cast of characters with parallel or contra motivations, working together or finding themselves at odds, each and every action having consequences, each character having agency. For me these characters live and breathe and have personality. I can go and meet them and fight for or against them - I can heckle them and demand they tell me why I should fight for them... and get escorted off by Senatorial security for my trouble, admittedly, but in my mind I can do that.

Now this I don't mind. Elite giving your imagination free reign to fill in the gaps in the back story. It's an embarrassing thing to admit to - surely a good indicator of what a tremendously sad git I am - but on more than one occasion I have had to stop myself form conducting imaginary post-match interviews with the assembled members of the press after a particularly satisfying session of Football Manager. But there are gaps that allow you the freedom to exercise your imagination and their are gaping voids that your imagination has to work pretty hard to cover, and then only with a narrative that is gossamer thin. It's my impression as a Beta backer that ED has more of the latter.

PP has not added to my sense of immersion and this is a shame because I have been hoping all along that ED will create a game in which we could formally build up an in-game character over months and years and to have meaningful interactions with other players and NPCs. Right now neither of these things are happening. On a more existential level, the game has no telos (which I understand some people will think is a good thing) and when this is combined with what I think is some really thin game play ("Ferry this canister here. Shoot 5 ships there" type of thing) it all adds up to a pretty dull game. I'm now looking towards SC to be the game that gives me my space jollies because I sadly don't see how ED are going to turn things around. I fear that dullness was baked into the game very early on in development. (I appreciate that some will strongly disagree with me here.)

I will try to end on a positive note. ED have done technical wonders and they should be proud of that.

 

[Katkon]

I actually enjoy PowerPlay. I genuinely thinks it enhances the game by providing more story, more face, more reasons for caring, more meaning.... and ultimately more fun. Those who don't like it - and one can never please everybody - are still able to play and completely ignore PP and enjoy all the other 'free' enhancements that 1.3 brought. Problem solved: if you don't like PP you can simply choose not to play it, while letting those who do, continue to have fun. It's a proverbial win-win!

 

[Kernel Kwatz!]

It's a proverbial win-win!

Do you think that FD are thinking the same? They are surely disappointed with the reaction from the community, no?

 

[Isinona]

For a game series that was influenced by the original Star Wars films, Powerplay does seem more suited to the Star Wars prequels.

To paraphrase Drew, "Give us adventure, Lucasfilm, not politics. That’s the essence of Star Wars."

Remember The Phantom Menace's opening crawl?

"Turmoil has engulfed the Galactic Republic. The taxation of trade routes to outlying star systems is in dispute."

I had flashbacks to reading that sentence loom up at the cinema when first reading what Powerplay was.

I'd prefer to be directly interacting with the Han Solos, Greedos and Boba Fetts of the Elite Universe than working indirectly for the Bail Organas and Chancellor Valorums. Hopefully these adventures will come soon too!

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

Kind of agree. I would also like to to see the background simulation working with the powers. So some of the minor factions are allied to the powers etc. At the moment they seem completely disconnected when they should be closely linked together.

 

[FuzzySpider]

For a game series that was influenced by the original Star Wars films, Powerplay does seem more suited to the Star Wars prequels.

To paraphrase Drew, "Give us adventure, Lucasfilm, not politics. That’s the essence of Star Wars."

Remember The Phantom Menace's opening crawl?

"Turmoil has engulfed the Galactic Republic. The taxation of trade routes to outlying star systems is in dispute."

I had flashbacks to reading that sentence loom up at the cinema when first reading what Powerplay was.

I'd prefer to be directly interacting with the Han Solos, Greedos and Boba Fetts of the Elite Universe than working indirectly for the Bail Organas and Chancellor Valorums. Hopefully these adventures will come soon too!

Do you think that Powerplay is David Brabens Jar-Jar-Binks moment?

 

[drew]

Oh, and one more thing: I'm also sorry that Senator Loren was not included in-game as a power, but FD decided to go with ten powers at the start, and they already had four Imperial powers lined up. Five would have been too much, and much as Loren is more fleshed out due to your book, her replacing anyone from the four would in my opinion have been worse.

Just to be clear here. I actually *don't* want Senator Loren to be a part of PowerPlay. I've not been asking for it. Having that character's evolution driven by player generated actions is incompatible with where I'd like to take that character myself in the future. It's not 'sour grapes'.

However - my point still stands. Loads of lore/fiction characters could have been used.

And yes, I know it's not 'my' game.

Cheers,

Drew.

 

[Pappy55uk]

I fully agree with a lot of what people here are saying. I have tried power play and to me it feels like a bit of a waste of time. I love the idea of the powers shifting but it could have been implemented in to the current mission systems. Do any of us older crew remember how the Military Missions worked in Frontier Elite II and Frontier First Encounters? This would have been perfect and would tie in nice with the current Bulletin Board system.

The main thing that I don't like about power play is that it limits your options for trading ect. I know it's fully optional but if I choose to take part it is very little reward for a lot of work. I like to fight in combat zones occasionally. If I fight for my faction in a combat zone 1 merit per kill is a little low. It does not matter if I kill a 'Harmless' sidewinder or an 'ELITE' Anaconda I still get 1 merit. So why would I want to put my ship at risk to engage the bigger ships? There is no risk vs reward.

At the end of the day I backed on Kickstarter and have given FD my hard earned money in the faith of their vision on the game. Which I still believe in. I am patient and I feel a lot will be fixed. I just hope they take some of our constructive criticism into account.

 

[CMDR Brock Samson]

Just to be clear here. I actually *don't* want Senator Loren to be a part of PowerPlay.

You're breaking my heart, Drew.

 

[dannysquid]

I don't mind the idea of politics in the game, but sticking it in an abstract (and very dull) strategy layer really doesn't feel like the ELITE way. Would Han Solo be sitting at his flight computer worrying about CC points and bar charts?

Game of Thrones works because it has a load of clearly-defined characters with incompatible goals locked in huge dramatic conflict. Powerplay is just pictures and a block of dry text.

I worry that the developers are drifting wildly off-course.

Admittedly, I wouldn't mind so much if the strategy layer was actually fun or interesting. Really it's just watching numbers go up and down. It's probably fun for Frontier to watch their galaxy evolve, but it's not so much fun for us to participate in.

 

[Poseidal]

You're breaking my heart, Drew.

View attachment 43893

I think she's better not tied town to a post like an Empress would be.

I think we haven't seen much wit from the existing PP characters, other than the jabs at each other from Aisling and Torval and Arissa's "Aid mission" where it looked like a clothing donation from the text but dryly accepted weapons and reactive armour as the actual goods.