Why do power play when you could have done so much more

[Soon(TM)]

I saw that FD have put a great deal of effort and thought into the premise of power play and I truthfully do think they meant it to add depth to the game.

Unfortunately, like many other people, I find it pointless and a distraction from the fun parts of the the game.

I wish FD had turned their attention and funds towards the mission system for 1.3 instead of power play.
I would much prefer more diverse missions with chain events and other things rather than power play.

I had hoped that we would get escort missions, recon missions, raid missions on pirate asteroid bases, chain missions that lead to a massive battle at the the end with NPC com chatter with audio...

Heck why not missions for the Faction leaders that offer modules as rewards, id rather that than the Power Play mechanic.

Power Play to me is pretty meh, so is CQC..... The next big update needs to be something special

But hey ho, I continue in hope.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

It's possible that mission overhauls require Powerplay to be in place first, as a foundation. Mission overhauls might also require other elements in place, such as NPC wings and their recruitment, CMDR crew members, passengers and their transport, ships docked inside larger ships, planetary landings, etc.

I imagine that such mission overhauls could indeed include integration with Powers on various levels, from single chained missions to help a Power or sabotage a rival, to Power-based community goals open to Power players and non-aligned players (obviously the biggest rewards come to those who are pledged and are of the higher ratings).

Also, Powerplay is most definitely not for beginners as we understand them. To succeed requires time, commitment, and investment of resources, and the ability to see former friends as potential enemies. That is not easy. Yet many players, even beginners, may want to be a part of this, to shape the Galaxy their way and work with others to do so, for whatever personal or altruistic reasons. To them, that is their story: not being a privateer going from job to job, but being The Man itself, part of what they see as the winning team. To the rest of us, they're obviously supporting characters of course.

 

[Brownshortz]

I haven't partaken in PP yet, but I have chatted online to numerous people in my friends list that have. Almost without exception they are all becoming disillusioned with the lack of fun things to do. One of there main gripes seems to be the lack of incentive. One guy

complained that he kept getting interdicted by Fed Drop Ships and pythons....he'd fight for 5 mins to take them out and get 200 cr reward and a huge repair bill after taking 5 % damage. Seems like a crazy game mechanic to me...who in their right mind came up

with that? After hearing these reports I feel I was justified in my decision to hold off playing it for the time being. I'll stick to doing BB missions and hanging around RES sites for the time being I think.

 

[Shiny Danger]

THink about how easy it is to add powerplay in though. It's a few meters and a few rewards. Most of the work probably went into the Art and Lore groups ratehr than the programmers. Any basic programmer could probably write up the basic mechanics in python or something(minus the networking stuff but you'd hope Frontier made that as accessible as possible to themselves). It adds something very cheaply to a game that started out with comparatively little. If this was all in at launch we probably wouldn't have cared.

 

[Soon(TM)]

But where are the really good missions where you have a wing and some trade ships, and you have to escort and defend them on route to a station?

Where are the missions where you lead a strike group to take out a pirate base that's been harassing the local systems?

Where are the space trucker missions where you have to take some combat weapons or something through contested territory that requires you to hire a npc wing or have friends with you due to the threat level?

Where are the chain missions that end in capital ship battles, I mean two big capital ships shooting each other and us weaving in and around the huge beam laser blasts. Then a group of FDL ships drop in armed to the teeth with missiles, you guard them while they pummel the enemy cruiser, now that's a mission worth playing

The CG videos FD release on YouTube make you think the game is like that....... But it just isn't!!

It really isn't....

 

[Zulu Romeo]

But where are the really good missions where you have a wing and some trade ships, and you have to escort and defend them on route to a station?

Where are the missions where you lead a strike group to take out a pirate base that's been harassing the local systems?

Where are the space trucker missions where you have to take some combat weapons or something through contested territory that requires you to hire a npc wing or have friends with you due to the threat level?

Where are the chain missions that end in capital ship battles, I mean two big capital ships shooting each other and us weaving in and around the huge beam laser blasts. Then a group of FDL ships drop in armed to the teeth with missiles, you guard them while they pummel the enemy cruiser, now that's a mission worth playing

The CG videos FD release on YouTube make you think the game is like that....... But it just isn't!!

It really isn't....

Sure, scripted missions that you seem to desire are rudimentary just now, and may improve once further foundations to accommodate them are in place. They might even be able to accommodate the actions and whims of the players who take part. That is still to come.

However, the best missions are the ones that don't tell you they are missions.

Sometimes you just choose to wing up with a friend who is on a trade mission or a smuggling mission with battle weapons, or decide to take out that station crawling with pirates, or get FDLs in wings together in a busy high-intensity combat zone between rival factions trying to control the system... Depending on what you find, who you encounter, and the outcomes of those things, the mission may take a completely different route altogether.

These tend not to be handed to you on a bulletin board. Sometimes, you seek them, and sometimes they seek you. Best of all, they're already here.

Those missions begin and end wih you.

Go out there and continue your adventure.

 

[Mohrgan]

I wonder if FD ever thought that they would need to make in-game cut scenes.... My impression is that FD wants to build a framework for the players to find their fortunes, on their own. I never got the impression that Elite was intended to carry you along your path of the hero. I can find that experience in any number of games. I'm cool with E: D being different.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

I wonder if FD ever thought that they would need to make in-game cut scenes.... My impression is that FD wants to build a framework for the players to find their fortunes, on their own. I never got the impression that Elite was intended to carry you along your path of the hero. I can find that experience in any number of games. I'm cool with E: D being different.

A Heroic Journey storyline would certainly be a constrictive scenario. Many people I've seen in the game are perfectly content with playing the villain.

What we have right now are the basics of different levels of gameplay and it's certainly possible to build something else on top of that, be it a mystery to solve such as Thargoids or worse, or an event that could change the dynamics of major parts of the game, such as a supernova. The scripted events could be in a Choose Your Own Adventure style, I think, based on the results of community goals or various single missions, or other things we can't yet imagine, and play out like that.

There's lots of potential. Potentially lots of potential.

 

[Jaeger]

However, the best missions are the ones that don't tell you they are missions.

Sometimes you just choose to wing up with a friend who is on a trade mission or a smuggling mission with battle weapons, or decide to take out that station crawling with pirates, or get FDLs in wings together in a busy high-intensity combat zone between rival factions trying to control the system... Depending on what you find, who you encounter, and the outcomes of those things, the mission may take a completely different route altogether.

These tend not to be handed to you on a bulletin board. Sometimes, you seek them, and sometimes they seek you. Best of all, they're already here.

Those missions begin and end wih you.

It's this kind of attitude that means we cant have nice things. Has there ever been a more patronizing perspective on lack of game content? ... No, no there has not.

 

[RMORTI]

Imagine instead that you have the same factions and can choose which faction to work for. Say I join Empire and will work as an explorer. I go out, find new systems and come back to Empire systems to Download my data. This data is used by Empire to decide where to expand. So the result of exploration feeds directly into the potential for Empire to expand. Next, say I find a nice system that is suitable for expansion but so does a player from Federation. Now we get conflict and those players inclined to combat are involved in a fight for control of a system. Meanwhile, both Empire and Federation want to build stations in their new systems. Now the traders are involved bringing critical raw materials out to those stations. And stations can't be built without materials and that requires miners. Miners have to bring materials to stations under construction to sell and thus the more material they bring and sell combined with what traders bring, then the faster the station is built and outfitted and the system can be controlled.


This is dynamic game play. This could bring players together to promote objectives. But this is not what we got.

 

[Jaeger]

There's lots of potential. Potentially lots of potential.

Yup we need semantic calculus to identify where the game content is...

mission^2 = Df(content) \ DT

 

[[HJ]-RedRaven]

THink about how easy it is to add powerplay in though. It's a few meters and a few rewards. Most of the work probably went into the Art and Lore groups ratehr than the programmers. Any basic programmer could probably write up the basic mechanics in python or something(minus the networking stuff but you'd hope Frontier made that as accessible as possible to themselves). It adds something very cheaply to a game that started out with comparatively little. If this was all in at launch we probably wouldn't have cared.

In my opinion, a comment like this typically displays a poor understanding of the complexities of code.

Indeed, Powerplay 'looks simple' on the outside - many of the best pieces of code are simple and elegant but allow for very complex interactions. Powerplay is all about changing the shapes of the power's bubbles of influence. The goal is to advance your power's bubble as far as you can and limit the progress of the other bubbles. Players can choose where to apply different types of influence (preparation, reinforcement or maintenance of control) and you can choose to go to another power's bubble and undermine any of those three

The isssue Powerplay has is that every action is worth the same amount. 1 merit. 1 ship, whether its a tiny F-63 Condor or an Anaconda killed serving your power is 1 merit. Similarly, 1 ton of garrison materials or Intel is also 1 merit. These need to change to add further complexity. At the moment it is very easy to undermine a power's expansion efforts.

@Zion makes good points - players need to make their own way - Elite has never been a game where the road to success is shown to you.

The deeper Powerplay game will develop over time - much like a hockey or football season develops as teams gain and lose points on whatever ladder you care to follow. We are only 3 moves into the season - the best games are yet to come!

 

[obliterator]

It's this kind of attitude that means we cant have nice things. Has there ever been a more patronizing perspective on lack of game content? ... No, no there has not.

Amen to that...

 

[IronGremlin]

Imagine instead that you have the same factions and can choose which faction to work for. Say I join Empire and will work as an explorer. I go out, find new systems and come back to Empire systems to Download my data. This data is used by Empire to decide where to expand. So the result of exploration feeds directly into the potential for Empire to expand. Next, say I find a nice system that is suitable for expansion but so does a player from Federation. Now we get conflict and those players inclined to combat are involved in a fight for control of a system. Meanwhile, both Empire and Federation want to build stations in their new systems. Now the traders are involved bringing critical raw materials out to those stations. And stations can't be built without materials and that requires miners. Miners have to bring materials to stations under construction to sell and thus the more material they bring and sell combined with what traders bring, then the faster the station is built and outfitted and the system can be controlled.


This is dynamic game play. This could bring players together to promote objectives. But this is not what we got.

So much yes.

This is infinitely superior to the fetch and deliver garbage that we got instead.

 

[RMORTI]

And if there were not enough explorers going out to find new systems for a faction, then missions would generate to incentivize exploration. Not enough miners working, then missions would incentivize such activity. Trade economies would also promote bringing materials to stations under construction.

Factions might be embroiled in a major war on a common border, but at the same time expanding vigorously into an opposite direction. These newly aquired systems would eventually feed credits back into the conflict at the border, perhaps tipping the scale for one facton or another.

Instead, I'm floating in the dark double scanning systems that belong to nobody, selling the data to anybody, and I doubt any faction will ever settle out here regardless. Nothing other than curiosity and an intense desire to be far far away from PP drives me to be out here.

 

[Bryan]

I have to say Power Play has brought me back into the game. It is a great concept but why did they have to label it Power Play?
They could have just arranged it as for us to Join a Faction and take on many new roles in Elite Dangerous.

But the updates are good and that's why I'm Back. I hope they keep up the updates and hope they will let us have the ability
to store our commodities. Having a place to store your goods like on the Factions Main Station would give us some authority in
the game. It would give us power and the drive to go out and mine more and do some great trading with one another.
Well it's a much better game now and i hope they continue Thank You Bryan

 

[simulacrae]

I would much prefer more diverse missions with chain events and other things rather than power play.

I imagine much of this is dependant on the tier 2 AI which are being worked on ... so keeping fingers crossed

 

[Crimewave]

Imagine instead that you have the same factions and can choose which faction to work for. Say I join Empire and will work as an explorer. I go out, find new systems and come back to Empire systems to Download my data. This data is used by Empire to decide where to expand. So the result of exploration feeds directly into the potential for Empire to expand. Next, say I find a nice system that is suitable for expansion but so does a player from Federation. Now we get conflict and those players inclined to combat are involved in a fight for control of a system. Meanwhile, both Empire and Federation want to build stations in their new systems. Now the traders are involved bringing critical raw materials out to those stations. And stations can't be built without materials and that requires miners. Miners have to bring materials to stations under construction to sell and thus the more material they bring and sell combined with what traders bring, then the faster the station is built and outfitted and the system can be controlled.


This is dynamic game play. This could bring players together to promote objectives. But this is not what we got.

Now that sounds like a proper game, somebody hire this guy

 

[kazana]

Why do power play when you could have done so much more

It's actually quite simple.
They created it to harvest countless internet tears from posters like you then let those tears ferment for about 14 months at moderate temperatures to sell it as (the already patented) "Hamster Deluxe Fuel"™ to EvE Online. The proceeds then primarily go to buying an island for the core group of founders, the remainder being spent throwing lavish parties for the employees including double shots for the forum moderators who'll need it.

 

[Ralph Vargr]

So much yes.

This is infinitely superior to the fetch and deliver garbage that we got instead.

I like transporting scrap and biowaste. I get paid.