The Powerplay discussion thread.

[Hilight]

The only gamplay element where the game lets you get better and develop skill is combat. Combat aside the game mostly demands patience from the players. There is no real skill involved in exploring or trading. have.

It takes a certain amount of time to get really good at several apsects of the game...I know I certainly am a better trader now than two months ago..it takes a awhile to get a good feel for trading no matter if use a trading tool or do it without one. It's kinda like fishing..practically anybody can catch a fish but it takes motsy and experience to make it really enjoyable and to catch really good fish. If you don't think so, see how long it takes you to find three or four stop trade routes. After you do it for awhile you'll get much better at it...using power play creatively takes some experience as well. For example my nephew found he got a lot of gravy bounty hunting when he defected from one power to another..his old power sent a bunch of assassins after him and he collected bounty's on them when he killed them..he said it was great that they just sent him stuff to shoot-- it was bounty hunting without all that pesky hunting LOLOL Personally, I've been supporting two powers at once, one overtly and the other in a more roundabout fashion

 

[zzzornbringer]

not really very constructive feedback but i too hope that they improve the system.

honestly, i don't know what's the goal. there are some characters that control certain areas of the galaxy. but what effect does it have on the galaxy? does it even matter?

you can do stuff to influence all this. but to what extend? what do you have to do and what are the consequences?

i seriously don't know these things but i have the suspicion that powers don't really affect the galaxy all that much. do they give you discounts? can they clear your bounty?

is it something like factions and reputation grind in world of warcraft? each power represents a faction that you can grind reputation for to get special things?! i would be ok with this but it seems that you have to put a lot of effort into the powers and your influence/rewards is very small/minor.

i'm going to wait a bit. maybe take a look at it at some point. but as of right now, i'm not aligned with a power. the system is just convoluted and i just don't understand it. the 4 (!) tutorial videos didn't help me all that much. maybe i have to watch it a couple more times.

 

[B1rdy]

That is why is say, " read the manual."

That adds to my point. You have to read a several pages long manual and the game-play defining result being: deliver things or destroy ships for your power.

woooo, you lost me there.

That was just an example for what I was trying to point out. You have to dig through a complex set of variables just do the same as ever.

First thing is, Elite isn't a combat game, get that out of your head now. Second thing is Powerplay is a strategy game that requires cooperation, that developes team work command and control. A depth of gaming that Elite has not had since the introduction of powerplay. Powerplay is multimedia gaming what many were wanting.

This game has a lot of combat for not being a combat game. ;-) I know what you mean. Your second point: Well, it's basically a good idea, but it somehow feels a little disconnected from the basic game. I don't feel or even see a real struggle. There no real goal for your power to archive, taking some systems feels to arbitrary. There is no interesting stuff to go for, like someone else postet already: only some star systems change color - so what. I not like: We need to hold system XY because there's some unique stuff.

Edit:

It takes a certain amount of time to get really good at several apsects of the game...I know I certainly am a better trader now than two months ago..it takes a awhile to get a good feel for trading no matter if use a trading tool or do it without one.

For finding the best traderoute you just need to know what a economy needs and produces and of your course time to check all the prices - there seems to be not much skill involved in that.

For example my nephew found he got a lot of gravy bounty hunting when he defected from one power to another..his old power sent a bunch of assassins after him and he collected bounty's on them when he killed them..he said it was great that they just sent him stuff to shoot-- it was bounty hunting without all that pesky hunting LOLOL

That's pretty good and enhancing the game experience, because it is challenging and rewarding.

 

[SerrinTheElf]

I see, I hope somebody will try this out soon, so we can get confirmation on this (I would but I don't play enough to try this out any time soon).

Thank you guys for all your replies

 

[Kazacy]

Maybe is far fetched but what if a power will collapse? You will be able to keep your shiny toys with insurance? Because you know nobody will make them anymore.

 

[Munial]

presumably you can move them to a new ship if you buy them back within 10 mins, like every module you sell?

 

[Kryfield]

It's obviously intended that pirates can ask for more than 20t of cargo. For example, yesterday my Asp was interdicted by an NPC pirate who said "All I want is all you've got".

What should I do? Does he know that he'll only see 20t even if I drop everything? Will he think I'm not complying and blast me? I wish NPCs would be more specific in their demands.

So I sent him a message "How much cargo can your eagle carry?". He didn't reply, so I just jumped out and continued on my way.

There are suggestions here about starports or police blasting excess canisters with lasers, or removing them with drones. And ideas for super-canisters or canister clusters to reduce the in-game object count. These are not needed and add complexity. They may look pretty for some future release, but they are not a simple fix. We've already got collector drones for faster scooping.

The current system works OK at starports and combat zones. The previous system worked OK for piracy elsewhere. All that is needed is a fix to apply the canister limit only in those places where it's needed and revert to no limit (or a higher limit if that's necessary) in other places. Any word yet from the developers?

 

[Distance]

It's obviously intended that pirates can ask for more than 20t of cargo. For example, yesterday my Asp was interdicted by an NPC pirate who said "All I want is all you've got".

What should I do? Does he know that he'll only see 20t even if I drop everything? Will he think I'm not complying and blast me? I wish NPCs would be more specific in their demands.

So I sent him a message "How much cargo can your eagle carry?". He didn't reply, so I just jumped out and continued on my way.

There are suggestions here about starports or police blasting excess canisters with lasers, or removing them with drones. And ideas for super-canisters or canister clusters to reduce the in-game object count. These are not needed and add complexity. They may look pretty for some future release, but they are not a simple fix.

The current system works OK at starports and combat zones. The previous system worked OK for piracy elsewhere. All that is needed is a fix to apply the canister limit only in those places where it's needed and revert to no limit (or a higher limit if that's necessary) in other places. Any word yet from the developers?

That npc bug has been in for ages. I dropped 40t of palladium for an npc eagle as a test a while ago. 40t got him to stop shooting and then it just flew off. Npc pirate demands should be tied to what their ship can carry, it's little things like that which turned me off pve. If you want to pirate npc T9's with 40t of fruit and veg be my guest. That's why the only form of piracy that could make you break even was pvp piracy and now that's bitten the dust.

They may as well remove "be a pirate" from their sales page at this point.

 

[random_tangent]

Let me explain it this way.

The Manual says "Your merit total from the previous cycle is halved then added to your current cycle value. After two cycles, its value is halved again before being added. After three cycles, the value is halved once more. After four cycles the value is no longer added."

Here are some figures that shows you what different levels of weekly merit income and how many weeks it would take you to achieve max rating (5). First number is the amount of merits you gain, second number is the amount of weeks it will take you to achieve rating 5 with that amount of income.


1300 = 39
1400 = 27
1500 = 22
1600 = 18
1700 = 16
1800 = 14
1900 = 13
2000 = 12
2100 = 11
2200 = 10
2300 = 9
2400 = 9
2500 = 8
2600 = 8
2700 = 7
2800 = 7
2900 = 7
3000 = 6
3100 = 6
3200 = 6
3300 = 6
3400 = 6
3500 = 5
3600 = 5
3700 = 5
3800 = 5
3900 = 5
4000 = 4
4100 = 4
4200 = 4
4300 = 4
4400 = 4
4500 = 4
4600 = 4
4700 = 4
4800 = 4
4900 = 4
5000 = 3

When you reach rating 5, you only grind for 1250 merits a week there after to keep getting 50,000,000cr a week.

Want furtther advice then pledge to Torvil. The faction that understands the mechanics of powerplay and whose members will guide you through mature organization to reach your goals.

Yeah, that's not what I was asking. I understand all that. I've posted extensively explaining it to other people in threads called things like "5k a week to maintain rank5?!?!?!". What I'm asking, is how much time IN GAME it takes to accrue 1250 merits, because I haven't played PP yet, I'm at work, and I'm curious...

 

[Cmdr Moritz]

New idea..

What if police npcs always shoots floating canisters if they are marked stolen and impound legit canisters? -knowing that npc cops is typically present were there is a risk of cargo spamming.

 

[Kryfield]

New idea..

What if police npcs always shoots floating canisters if they are marked stolen and impound legit canisters? -knowing that npc cops is typically present were there is a risk of cargo spamming.

In what way is that an improvement over the simple fix, "keep the canister limit at starports and combat zones, remove it in empty space"?

 

[Cmdr Moritz]

In what way is that an improvement over the simple fix, "keep the canister limit at starports and combat zones, remove it in empty space"?

It is not, by far partly due to more work implementing it.. Its just the rules of the forum for keeping this thread up..

 

[Distance]

Well apprently MB hasn't played the game . . .

There's always been a cap to prevent griefing by dumping canisters to kill everyone's frame rate - it's been there since beta.

Michael

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=157537&page=2&p=2409022&viewfull=1#post2409022

It's not looking good.

 

[Arjin]

I think powerplay rocks ed is a good dev im sure they will improve it they been fixing lot of things since alpha when i backed.

I think people need to cut FD some slack.

I know they are creating the game in their idea of the perfect galaxy, just more ideas in the idea pool the better as sometimes even the most creative folks hit speed bumps.

 

[Kiblams]

Yeah, that's not what I was asking. I understand all that. I've posted extensively explaining it to other people in threads called things like "5k a week to maintain rank5?!?!?!". What I'm asking, is how much time IN GAME it takes to accrue 1250 merits, because I haven't played PP yet, I'm at work, and I'm curious...

I told you how long in my last post it will take if you are not using combat, though the 12.5 hours is if you don't spend 25million credits to fast track them. For combat my understanding is that you get either 1 merit or 15 merits per kill, so should be simple to work that out; 84 kills if you get 15 merits each.

 

[random_tangent]

I told you how long in my last post it will take if you are not using combat, though the 12.5 hours is if you don't spend 25million credits to fast track them. For combat my understanding is that you get either 1 merit or 15 merits per kill, so should be simple to work that out; 84 kills if you get 15 merits each.

Apologies - I only read up as far as the chap's reply whom I was in conversation with. It's the timeout/buyout bit I'm not familiar with at the mo (having not played PP). I'm sure this will all become clear when I pledge, but it sounds like if you're getting them from combat it doesn't apply anyway, so 84 kills is the answer. 10-15 a day, every day.

 

[Distance]

We are looking to make a change so that the limit is higher when in deep space than when you're near a station or outpost.

Michael

Well we have a decent answer finally.

 

[NeilF]

Yeah, that's not what I was asking. I understand all that. I've posted extensively explaining it to other people in threads called things like "5k a week to maintain rank5?!?!?!". What I'm asking, is how much time IN GAME it takes to accrue 1250 merits, because I haven't played PP yet, I'm at work, and I'm curious...

The simplest grind is the killing of agents in a Power's controlled system. eg: To get 15 points:-

[video=youtube;Qm5WQwfcoGc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm5WQwfcoGc[/video]

I did this a dozen times or so, realised how insanely grind-tastic and farcical ED had finally gotten - actually promoting/designing this as a good way for the game to go - that I just gave up with PP really.

Anyway to get your 1250 = 1250/15 = 84 of these kills if your brain doesn't have a spasm in protest in what you're making it put up with...

Note: It will cost you over half a million in bounty/fines.

 

[Kiblams]

I did this a dozen times or so, realised how insanely grind-tastic and farcical ED had finally gotten - actually promoting/designing this as a good way for the game to go - that I just gave up with PP really.

Anyway to get your 1250 = 1250/15 = 84 of these kills if your brain doesn't have a spasm in protest in what you're making it put up with...

Note: It will cost you over half a million in bounty/fines.

I tried it with just using the commodities and at rank 1 you can only get 10 per half hour, so I decided to pay to fill up my Type 9 and ended up spending over 5million credits to get ~500 merits. What do I get in return at the end of the week? 50k... Even at rank 5 you are still spending 25million each week to stay at rank 5 which will get you a net profit of 25million at the end. It's just a very strange additon to the game when you think about it, unless you find a reason to care about a power of course.

 

[Cmdr Moritz]

Well we have a decent answer finally.

Yes! Finally!