The Powerplay discussion thread.

[Bragor]

Thank you for your work, it's greatly appreciated.

• I feel Winters deserves a special mention this Cycle. She is a mid-sized Power by activity while receiving huge amounts of hostile activity, yet her supporters have handled Fortification with the increased triggers beautifully. Very little over-fortification and no vulnerable systems to speak of. This is a Power that's getting a lot done with limited resources.

And as one of Felicia's Followers I want to especially thank you for this accknowledgment.

 

[Anthemeia]

Requested Qualify of Life fixes for Powerplay

Problem: Filling cargo holds with PP materials and dropping these materials off involves excessive clicking and button-holding, which are player activities that detract from the game.

The current process: Tedious reloading of screens and selecting the same options over and over again.

Filling up: Hold down a button until you max out your 30 minute allotment. Confirm. Go to a confirmation page. Confirm again. Scroll down. Select fast track. The screen reloads. Scroll down again. Hold down a button until you max out your 30 minute allotment. Repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat.

Dropping off: Hold down the button as hundreds of PP materials tick off, one by one.


Proposed Alternative: Make it the same as trading goods.Filling up: Fill up as many as you like. Each time you buy one more than your 30 minute cap allows, the cost goes up. This way, you can buy all you want without having to go through the confirmation/fast track/reload/scroll business twenty times for one trip. Just like trade goods, display units acquired with the cost increasing per X units.

Dropping off: Instead of ticking off each individual unit, have two options. One works just like trade goods, where the first ten or so tick off individually, then it ticks off by tens, then hundreds. The second option is "Deliver all PP materials to this station."

Rationale

One of the reasons I don't do much with PP is that it adds a lot of tedium to gameplay. Clicking through multiple confirmation screens, holding down buttons while I read something on a second screen - this is not interesting, exciting, or worthwhile gameplay. In other words, I am spending a portion of my time playing the game not even paying attention to the game. By adopting features of the already implemented trade system, PP would be more enjoyable.

Thanks for your consideration of this proposed fix, devs.

 

[Schlack]

Could you also please ensure that powerplay trigger values are based upon actual values and not those from the incorrect Galmap? https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=161396

Cheers.

 

[thatdude90210]

That wasn't really meant to be a wholly serious comment - since Aisling has done, what, 4x times the total Prep of Patreus? If they really wanted to outdo you in prep in any one system, they would win. There's no shame in that, they probably have something like 3x the players you do.

Aisling's group got spread a little thin. We were fighting Winter's in 3 fronts, 2 of which they didn't have to spend any credits. They were undermining 2 of our expansions while contesting a 3rd. I think we spend more on the each of the 2 expansions than any contested prep systems.

 

[Cradle2Grave]

Which one's the babe?

 

[Cadoc]

Which one's the babe?

I think you mean Torval.

 

[Cradle2Grave]

I'll be Dean.

 

[jgm]

What ARE they even? They keep going up and up and up for every expansion phase, but they're not shown on the map. It is impossible to tell which systems will produce them, where they're coming from, or how to avoid them. A. Lavigny-Duval's faction is now paralyzed by overheads that just came out of NOWHERE. Is this supposed to be an absolute bar to a faction expanding beyond a certain point? This is not a fairly or sensibly implemented mechanic and needs to be fixed immediately.

You might find this useful: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=159305

 

[Crowax]

Well, to be honest, it didn't came out of nowhere. We were expecting it for quite some time, even warning people not to expand, but since there is no way in game to communicate and organize beside forums and reddit, and because most people don't care/listen it's bound to happen eventualy to every power. Unless this ALD situation finally opens up other peoples eyes, eventually each power will reach some cap and stay at it (with small changes during cycles).

 

[Cadoc]

If anybody has suggestions on how to improve the formatting of future posts, I'd welcome the help. The reddit post looks better and is more readable, I just can't get the posts here to look decent.

 

[NRCrosby]

• I feel Winters deserves a special mention this Cycle. She is a mid-sized Power by activity while receiving huge amounts of hostile activity, yet her supporters have handled Fortification with the increased triggers beautifully. Very little over-fortification and no vulnerable systems to speak of. This is a Power that's getting a lot done with limited resources.

Thanks for the special mention Cadoc We do have some mighty fine Pilots in our ranks, plus there all great guys and gals too.

 

[Gormadoc]

What ARE they even? They keep going up and up and up for every expansion phase, but they're not shown on the map. It is impossible to tell which systems will produce them, where they're coming from, or how to avoid them. A. Lavigny-Duval's faction is now paralyzed by overheads that just came out of NOWHERE. Is this supposed to be an absolute bar to a faction expanding beyond a certain point? This is not a fairly or sensibly implemented mechanic and needs to be fixed immediately.

Overheads are calculated on number of control system and the distance of control systems from HQ.

So yes everytime you expand and get one more control system overhead raises for all your control systems.

 

[lefty1117]

Yes, I suppose that's a way they can prevent one power from dominating the galaxy

 

[lefty1117]

I'm in Hudson - took a look at our Fortify situation.

We successfully fortified 10 systems last week - a first for us, we're usually fully cancelled out.

We also had two of our systems that were fully undermined - we were not able to reach fortify trigger.

The combined penalty of TWO undermined systems wiped out the CC savings from TEN fortified systems. In fact we are 50+cc in the hole when you combine the two. It can't be stressed enough that fortification is probably the single most important thing any power can do, and should be a top priority when the cycle starts. At least, that should be the case while the undermine penalties are so severe.

 

[nats]

If I ever wondered whether PP was going to be bad for the game and turn it into a spreadsheet this thread has proved that beyond a doubt. I never thought I would see an Elite game being analysed in such a way. Elite used to be immersive, exciting, fun. What the hell has happened?

 

[Cadoc]

If I ever wondered whether PP was going to be bad for the game and turn it into a spreadsheet this thread has proved that beyond a doubt. I never thought I would see an Elite game being analysed in such a way. Elite used to be immersive, exciting, fun. What the hell has happened?

Well, IMO Powerplay gameplay is boring as *hell* right now and the perks my Power offers are absolute trash, so I amuse myself by analysing the gameplay more than participating in it. I'll probably get bored of it before too long, but until then, it's a nice distraction.

 

[Ichijo]

Powerplay weapons tested yet?

Specifically has anyone seen the pack hound rack from Li Young Rui in action yet? I want to try out the Itano Circus.

 

[Woody Malden]

Imperial powers wouldn't be anywhere near as redonkykong imbalanced if undermining an """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""allied""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" power wasn't the most anti-fun activity in the game.

the revelation that that's the case has all but completely killed my interest in the game lately, since there's no point in messing with minor/major faction stuff if i can't actually oppose anyone i care about opposing, and i so hard do not want to just grind for enough money to afford one of the bigger ships

 

[BigGr33n]

Yup, it's stupid. No merits for killing enemy ships in your control systems, defending should be rewarded too.
Not to mention no merits for killing enemy cmdrs.

I agree with everything here. If I kill an enemy I want the Merits for it. If the Enemy interdicts me, they are going to get merits if they kill me, I should get the merits if I kill them instead.

 

[lefty1117]

I'm of the opinion that there should be no npc interdictions at all in the home systems. They're the power HQ for crying out loud, they should be the safest systems in the galaxy.