I've lost my suspension of disbelief. This isn't subtle manipulation, its an exploit

[fergal]

First things first. Put Wu Chelki into your Galactic Map.
For those of you that don't know, go to the Navigation Tab, then put Wu Chelki in the search area. You don't need to type it, you can copy it from here then paste it in (with ctrl-v)

Now click on the View tab, then click on the Power Play view.

You can laugh, I certainly did. It shouldn't really be possible though.
This isn't secretively working behind the scenes to take down a faction from the inside.

There is no way Archon Delain can rise to be in charge of one of the 10 Powers in the galaxy and yet have no ability to see whats going on.
I can't fathom the reason someone could give him for doing this.

Heads would be rolling, these guys (and Archone Delaine knows who they are, they get merits from him at his control systems) would find their name on a builtin board mission with a title like: Need some wayward preparers retired.

What actually happens?
Nothing.

The game has no ability to detect this, to punish it, or stop it.

(I know you didn't actually put Wu Chelki into the map)

Spoiler

 

[Aewarin Jameson]

I am not appreciating the significance - can you explain ?

 

[fergal]

I am not appreciating the significance - can you explain ?

If you were playing PP you would be laughing.

Its about the worst system in the galaxy.

I'm not filtering out systems in that view, thats whats there.

 

[Aewarin Jameson]

It also appears disjoined, not part of the rest of the persons control.

Unless it;s the view, I thought that all control systems were neighbors to each other and you couldn't just randomly jump to any system to prepare / control it (as how it looks now)

I could admittedly be missing the point so apologies if I am

 

[fergal]

It also appears disjoined, not part of the rest of the persons control.

Unless it;s the view, I thought that all control systems were neighbors to each other and you couldn't just randomly jump to any system to prepare / control it (as how it looks now)

I could admittedly be missing the point so apologies if I am

its not the view.
Its no where near his land. Its at the absolute edge of inhabited space.
Someone has delivered more than 5000T to there to expand to the worst place in the universe.

I just laughed again, of course I'm not a member of his group.

 

[Alex Brentnall]

The whole point is there are people within the faction (and other factions) preparing systems (and gaining rewards for their contribution) that will loose that factions income and power.

It is 100% deliberate and has been discussed many times especially the fact that the rest of the faction can do little to oppose the few that seek to damage it. Imo powerplay is rather broken and unfinished, I almost expected a rollback to 1.2 given the problems last weekend but it seems E3 was quite the incentive not to. Either way its just another reason I have travelled 40,000LY to avoid it for the first few weeks whilst things die down a bit and all the mess is sorted out.

 

[FuzzySpider]

its not the view.
Its no where near his land. Its at the absolute edge of inhabited space.
Someone has delivered more than 5000T to there to expand to the worst place in the universe.

I just laughed again, of course I'm not a member of his group.

Why?! Why has someone done this?

Hang on, can you actually choose where your faction expands to in this way? I thought the expansion options were prescribed to you?

 

[fergal]

Why?! Why has someone done this?

Hang on, can you actually choose where your faction expands to in this way? I thought the expansion options were prescribed to you?

lol, no that would be sensible.
you can go wherever in the galaxy you like.
of course it costs the faction more money the further out the system is, so it needs to be pretty special to get one a little bit away.
This one isn't a little bit away, its the absolute maximum distance from him.

 

[Skeloton]

Should have been a semi autonomous that selected 10 systems to expand to every week.

 

[Commander Dave]

Why is it the worst place in the universe?
Seems like a place you could start expanding from. Build a power base and move on from there.
That it is miles away from everything else matters not one jot.

 

[DrakeAurum]

I'm betting it's for artistic reasons. They're going to do this for another seven systems in carefully-selected locations, and when they're done Delaine's territory will literally look like a spider.

 

[FuzzySpider]

lol, no that would be sensible.
you can go wherever in the galaxy you like.
of course it costs the faction more money the further out the system is, so it needs to be pretty special to get one a little bit away.
This one isn't a little bit away, its the absolute maximum distance from him.

So either.

1. Someone has their "home system" out there, and wants to link it with their faction.

2. Someone is completely confused.

3. Someone is actively trying to undermine this faction from within.

Why don't they make it so that factions can only attempt to take systems that are on their borders? Systems within, say, 15 LY of a system that faction already owns? That would be easy to implement.

 

[fergal]

Why is it the worst place in the universe?
Seems like a place you could start expanding from. Build a power base and move on from there.
That it is miles away from everything else matters not one jot.

Well I suppose that could be your story you tell Archon Delaine as to why he is going to be earning -20 CC instead of 100-120.
He looks like a reasonable guy.

But you can't actually expand from there, its the edge. You can see all the systems to go to in the picture. The systems are centered on there, none are hidden.

 

[Fen Harel]

PP is structured so that a group of bad actors - those who want to damage a power - can set it in motion to do stupid things. The dumbest being to have it prepare systems that have a net loss of CC, are in the middle of space they already control, etc. Whether the system mentioned by the OP is ultimately good or bad for the Archon, I don't know, but it is certainly possible that a fifth column, traitors, jerks etc. have being sabotaging the progress of the faction they have pledge to.

I don't know why someone would go to the trouble of doing that, it seems more in keeping with Other Space Sims.

Nevertheless, my personal view is that we don't need to change this. The loyal players within a power should be able to figure out which systems are bad for that power, and the number of loyal players should be able to outnumber the bad apples. It may not be enough to keep out all bad systems from being prepared each cycle, but in general the loyal players should be able to dominate the traitors.

If they can't then - again in my view - that power should fall.

 

[fergal]

So either.

1. Someone has their "home system" out there, and wants to link it with their faction.

2. Someone is completely confused.

3. Someone is actively trying to undermine this faction from within.

Why don't they make it so that factions can only attempt to take systems that are on their borders? Systems within, say, 15 LY of a system that faction already owns? That would be easy to implement.

Well the current system is you can take any system that your members can be bothered delivering materials to.
I would guess FD thought that the overall number of players would average out deliveries to a sensible place, so any strange choices wouldn't happen.

You also need to purchase the materials at 10000 cr per ton to have that much. So someone or a group of players have spend maybe 50 million cr on materials, then actually delivered over 5000 T down there.

 

[Commander Dave]

But you can't actually expand from there, its the edge.

The edge of what?
Expanded space?
Well if it gets expanded into then it's no longer the edge.
That's how expansion works.
There are no edges.

 

[Araviel]

not hard to figure out who those guys are,, wonder how many times they got to prove their point that numbers win?

 

[Vlad Archer]

PP mechanic needs expansion moderators
But seriously that mechanic is sick. Immersion breaking, etc. Use your favoured word.

 

[Fen Harel]

Why don't they make it so that factions can only attempt to take systems that are on their borders? Systems within, say, 15 LY of a system that faction already owns? That would be easy to implement.

There are strategic reasons for preparing a system which is a distance away from main area. Arissa's forces are doing that with a system that is much closer to the Federation, and if this is successful and we can sucessfully expand into Pancienses, it will be a short hop from there into the heart of Hudson's area.

The reason of course is purely, um, to facilitate, lets say, tourism. So, nothing for the Feds to worry about.

- - - Updated - - -

The edge of what?
Expanded space?
Well if it gets expanded into then it's no longer the edge.
That's how expansion works.
There are no edges.

I think he means the edge of human space. A power can't expand into systems that do not already have stations or outposts.

 

[fergal]

The edge of what?
Expanded space?
Well if it gets expanded into then it's no longer the edge.
That's how expansion works.
There are no edges.

As far as what I've read, stations will not be dynamically added to the game.
Until that changes that is the edge of populated space. You can't go any further out than that, and Archon Delaine would go bankrupt if he kept doing that.