Correct, but if we have traders dropping 20 tons by 20 tons, the cops will definitely catch the pirate before one can finish scooping. If the 80 tons were dropped at once, then it will speed up the process and the trader gets to leave.
The Powerplay discussion thread.
- Thread starter Matt
- Start date
Correct, but if we have traders dropping 20 tons by 20 tons, the cops will definitely catch the pirate before one can finish scooping. If the 80 tons were dropped at once, then it will speed up the process and the trader gets to leave.
Black markets sell for far less than normal commodity markets. 7-8k for gold equals 140-160kCr for 20t. Now count in the repair cost for interdicting in a ship that actually costs something, ammunition and the eventual rebuy and we suddenly have very laughable, if not non-existent or negative, profit.
Your profit/hour is in the millions. A pirate was lucky to reach 500k/hr pirating other players asking 30+ tons because of how prevalent combat logging and high jumping is.
Ofc pirating NPCs means making a net loss if you're flying anything bigger than an Asp because of integrity repairs and the NPCs carrying virtually nothing but biowaste and hydrogen fuel.
And how often do you think we get to sell at 100% gal average? If the prey drops 30t instead of abandoning it, I'm not going to kill them for it: I'm happy already that they decided to play it fair insted of pulling the cable.
I don't think you get to tell us how much we should be able to make.
Last edited:
When I first heard that Elite was coming back I was thrilled. After signing up and downloading the Beta version it brought back so many memories of the hours of fun I used to have. However, the advent of PP has turned what was a simply game into a much more confusing one. I for one like to play elite to escape my day and unwind a little absorbing everything there is to explore, trade and shoot people if they are wanted. But PP, if you choose to play it, has complicated what was a very simple game. Something that did not involve using too much brain power has turned into something on the edge of reality of bits to read and take in and work out strategies. Why make it so complicated????? If I wanted to read I'll grab a paper thanks. This is really making me have seconds thoughts.
I'm sitting on a stalled exploration trip I started in February and looking on Powerplay with a mixture of curiosity and bewilderment. I've been planning on reading the PP frontend while on a 100k+ls SC trip but haven't gotten around to doing so yet.
But just in concept the extremely meta-game nature of the thing seems incredibly awkward, I don't know if they wanted to implement factions it seems like something that should be going on in the background somewhere instead of beating you over the head with its 'rules'
I'm just a bit uncomfortable that instead of finding ways to add depth to the core game they went off on this tangent that adds another layer of artificiality to the game universe....
Maybe I'm wrong, but I do feel like I'll be ignoring powerplay when I return to human space, I just don't like the idea of cheesing off a whole segment of inhabited systems just through clicking a 'pledge' button - I've so far spent my game-play time trying NOT to make enemies.
But just in concept the extremely meta-game nature of the thing seems incredibly awkward, I don't know if they wanted to implement factions it seems like something that should be going on in the background somewhere instead of beating you over the head with its 'rules'
I'm just a bit uncomfortable that instead of finding ways to add depth to the core game they went off on this tangent that adds another layer of artificiality to the game universe....
Maybe I'm wrong, but I do feel like I'll be ignoring powerplay when I return to human space, I just don't like the idea of cheesing off a whole segment of inhabited systems just through clicking a 'pledge' button - I've so far spent my game-play time trying NOT to make enemies.
im still not convinced its as bad as everybody is making it out to be, if 4 people had the same set up as the grape chap above you could have half a t9 load in a couple of minutes, thats got to be faster than before drones were introduced
Speaking from practical experience, what you suggested isn't pragmatic.
When you have more than one person using collector limpet in an instance, it will bug out. Drones will chase after one another's cargo, they will expire randomly despite not targeting any cargo when launched.
Further more, traders are known to flee and combat log much more often than those that comply. Thus, those that have the patience to stick around and release cargo 20 by 20 with right timing is perhaps less than 1%.
Then, those that flee will need to have their cargo "manually removed," which cause the cargo to stretch across space and explode when there are more than 20 tons.
Last edited:
somebody should put together a short vid showing 4 people with the ability to launch 8 limpets each to demonstrate how long it would take to take half a t9 load, because seeing is believing
Basically this. We can't realistically ask the prey to wait forever while we suck their cargo out 20 by 20. They're already getting robbed, they're not going to be overly fond of having to waste even more time on top of it. Not to mention, while we're scooping/collecting, the target can simply log out using the legit escape menu option. They are never going to still be around by the time you're finished with the first batch of 20.
+1. Ive not pledged yet, but i will play like this when i do. I dont understand the op problem
Last edited:
Or you can even try to pirate NPC with friends of yours and see how your limpets bug out even with 20 tons of cargo. Also, not everyone carry an A3 collector drone, some don't even use collector drone and act as mere firepower/pursue ships.
The problem is that we won't be able to have half of a t9's load, which is approximately 250 tons, it is impossible to have 250 tons of cargo in an instance, ever since 1.3.
Have you ever tried piracy?
I mean pirating players. And not just for fun, for profit. Have you made a continued, concerted effort to make piracy, and only piracy, your primary source of income?
I have. I went from 1 to 20 million total assets entirely from stolen goods off players. Traders only see a tiny part of the process.
Pirates need to keep their ear to the ground. Find the trade routes before they're farmed out.
Then they need to outfit their ship. They can't spam SCBs, because cargo space is limited. They can't just recklessly upgrade all components, because speed is vital and every tonne counts. Every outfitting is a fine balance between deadliness and utility
They need to stake out supercruise, sometimes going an hour or more without seeing a player.
They need to survive PvP hungry bounty hunters and NPC cops, all after your growing target on your head in the shape of a bounty.
They need to regularly win interdictions, because losing means losing your prey.
They need to communicate fast, and wait until the perfect moment to start firing: too early and your prey that may have cooperated dies or tries to escape, too late and your prey jumps away.
If the prey resists, you have to shoot out their drives and attach limpets, all while travelling and hundreds of metres a second. You have to choose the exact moment to stop following and start scooping, because get too greedy and ever increasing waves of cops will be breathing down their neck.
All the while praying their target doesn't combat log.
Then they need to scoop quickly and effectively, often while under attack from bounty hunters and the police.
They need to find, and then travel to, a suitable black market system, and avoid the authority scans on the way in, selling for a mere 75% of the good's total worth.
After all this effort, risk, time and danger, you're saying we should be satisfied with the same profit a trader gets from simply from moving from one station to another?!
im aware of the 20 tonne limit, i still want to see how long it takes to take half a t9 load, until i see it taking forever and not the couple of minutes i think it would take i dont think this change is as bad as its being made out to be.
Last edited:
Love your work here. This describes my piracy to a tee and I suspect 90 % of other pirates. I have always said this since alpha but those naysayers talking about piracy don't have a clue how much effort, skill and timing is required to pirate players. I usually usually say try it for yourself and see then come back and detract and naysay with some idea of the profession.
Some of the suggestions here are unnecessarily complex.
Cargo drops in open space were not a problem before, so there's no need to change that.
It was only a problem near stations and in combat zones. Keep the 20t limit, but only where it's needed. Hopefully this is a simple change, just a test for a station or a combat zone. If Frontier really want to limit canisters everywhere, then use a higher limit in open space.
The trader wouldn't wait around for 10 mins because of a broken game mechanic while the pirate is busy scooping. He would just log off legally, using the game menu.
Cargo drops in open space were not a problem before, so there's no need to change that.
It was only a problem near stations and in combat zones. Keep the 20t limit, but only where it's needed. Hopefully this is a simple change, just a test for a station or a combat zone. If Frontier really want to limit canisters everywhere, then use a higher limit in open space.
The trader wouldn't wait around for 10 mins because of a broken game mechanic while the pirate is busy scooping. He would just log off legally, using the game menu.
Hey Commander.
You are about to get Vaka under Lavigny-Duval's influence.
We need you to stay and help fortify it
You are about to get Vaka under Lavigny-Duval's influence.
We need you to stay and help fortify it
Nice and simple, I like it.
Am I the only player who feels that Powerplay was an epic amount of effort from Frontier, on something that is optional to most players? They could have worked on better missions, exploration
multiplayer etc, instead we have some weird online risk which seems to serve nothing more as a cash sink for rich players.
I initially was positive about Powerplay but after playing it I am massively disappointed from this direction Frontier has taken. I do not see the fun in this at all, the only cool thing are the power themselves, however after you join this and it becomes obvious that unless you are happy with obligatory grindfest everyweek (which you can buy btw) to uphold your rating this is going to be very boring with extremely boring and repetitive missions to support your powers. It's as if playing as a mindless transport drone for a power is somehow meant to be fun. Maybe the whole thing would be more meaningful if the powers were not capped at 10 prepare systems and 3-4 expansion systems per cycle. The cycle idea maybe isn't so bad, but i'm certainly no fan of splitting players into the hardcore from the casual, the whole attraction of Elite for me was that you just played how you wanted, and your contributions were not limited to how much time and money you plan to spend on the game (even if its only an illusion before PP).
And with other games where a powerplay kind of thing exists, there usually is some incentive for players to actually grind it out. The differences between the powers are not interesting or severe enough for me to really care about who owns any system at all, their differences in personality seem to be larger than their actual differences in reality. The ratings only seem to exist for the sole role of compensating for the hours of time and money a player sinks into PP, with no overall return for the player.
Anyways really disappointed with the past 3-4 months work since the Wing's update. I hope frontier returns to doing stuff that players actually want like adding more to more variety of space stations, better missions, exploration, pirating, bounty hunting, random events, capital ship events, group activities like trading in a wing. I even bought the new Diamondback Explorer and found it wasn't really good for anything at all other than blocking your view with ugly protruding wires on it's cockpit struts, and making you hate the colour yellow.
multiplayer etc, instead we have some weird online risk which seems to serve nothing more as a cash sink for rich players.
I initially was positive about Powerplay but after playing it I am massively disappointed from this direction Frontier has taken. I do not see the fun in this at all, the only cool thing are the power themselves, however after you join this and it becomes obvious that unless you are happy with obligatory grindfest everyweek (which you can buy btw) to uphold your rating this is going to be very boring with extremely boring and repetitive missions to support your powers. It's as if playing as a mindless transport drone for a power is somehow meant to be fun. Maybe the whole thing would be more meaningful if the powers were not capped at 10 prepare systems and 3-4 expansion systems per cycle. The cycle idea maybe isn't so bad, but i'm certainly no fan of splitting players into the hardcore from the casual, the whole attraction of Elite for me was that you just played how you wanted, and your contributions were not limited to how much time and money you plan to spend on the game (even if its only an illusion before PP).
And with other games where a powerplay kind of thing exists, there usually is some incentive for players to actually grind it out. The differences between the powers are not interesting or severe enough for me to really care about who owns any system at all, their differences in personality seem to be larger than their actual differences in reality. The ratings only seem to exist for the sole role of compensating for the hours of time and money a player sinks into PP, with no overall return for the player.
Anyways really disappointed with the past 3-4 months work since the Wing's update. I hope frontier returns to doing stuff that players actually want like adding more to more variety of space stations, better missions, exploration, pirating, bounty hunting, random events, capital ship events, group activities like trading in a wing. I even bought the new Diamondback Explorer and found it wasn't really good for anything at all other than blocking your view with ugly protruding wires on it's cockpit struts, and making you hate the colour yellow.