No. PP has been designed like a board game but it is stacked in favour of numbers like any war is. All that is left now, if all remains equal, is a war of attrition. Either ALDs players get bored and go and pew-pew in CQC and ALD overstretches, or we (winters et al) end up with our space being whittled away slowly and surely by the oncoming zerg.
ALD is more than 50% of all the PP activity. Think critically about what this means for the game as it stands. Don't just spue out a story. Apply some thought to what it means to PP long-term. Look at what people are saying about PP and what can be done to make it more FUN for more of its players, to stop people from leaving on all sides. At the moment, the only thing propping up the powers opposed to the ALD-zerg is a want to use the time to get better; think harder; fight harder. This doesn't stop the war of attrition from happening, but it does mean that as it happens, each of us are able to walk away with something better than just being another mindless drone in the zerg.
PowerPlay is unsustainable in its current form from a player's perspective, there's no harm in each of us wanting to take away the most we can from it and use the time to have fun alongside players we've learned to respect over the weeks, but we need a unified voice from all sides of the game for F Dev to take another pass at dealing with what is becoming a slow painful slide in to early-age senility for PowerPlay, a flagship release of the Elite Dangerous universe.
I agree that PP is currently unsustainable. I think FDev stretched too much in adding in 10 Powers from the start.
The player base is spread out too much in some areas, and is too concentrated in others. But the mishmash of bonuses and requirements doesn't really do much to help bridge the gaps either.
As soon as the merit increase when into place for combat, everyone pretty much knew what was going to happen. There was going to be a large shift toward combat. I still think that the only reason why ALD is holding to the top spot is the bounty bonuses.
I don't undermine because of the distances involved. I am in a vulture, with a jump range of 15.63ly. Trying to get to a system 500ly away to help undermine is just not worth it to me. Not when I have to come back 500ly to turn in my combat vouchers for merits without dying.
Same with Preparation, Non-Combat Expansion, and Fortification.
I fail to see why Fortification materials cannot be collected at any Control system and can only be collected at HQ, and with a limited number unless you want to spend serious credits to fast track.
Players with limited hours for game play aren't going to spend 30 minutes trying to travel all the way to HQ from wherever they are, just to spend another 30 minutes traveling to the far edges of controlled space to deliver a crappy 10 tons of material.
If I can only play 1 hour a day, I certainly want to maximize my own game time, and not spend all of the time flying from one location to another for such a small gain.
I am sure all of us who participate in PP can come up with 5, 10, or even 50 suggestions for how things could be different. Some suggestions might make things better, some worse.
I think 1 thing that could be done would be to change the modules. Instead of making the Power specific, make them all available to everyone who PP's but they cost Merits to purchase instead of credits.
This way it wouldn't matter what Power you are pledged to, you could still get the modules you wanted without having to switch sides/defect.
I also think bonuses should be available to everyone, based on Rank, not on Power and Standing. 5/10/15/20/25 percent increases based on Rank. For everything. So if you bounty hunt, you would get a up to a 25% payout bonus based on your Rank with whatever power you are pledged to, not based on which Power offers Bounty bonuses. Ditto for trading and Exploration data, influence, etc.
The only differences between the powers should be their politics, not their goodies. Loyalty would mean something then between the powers.
