Powerplay Powerplay - Fail or success?

[roger675]

I have been at powerplay for about 5 weeks, using that time to verify the spreadsheet I set up to measure progress and set future goals.

My conclusion is that it's not worth it. Reasoning follows:

The time it takes to qualify is excessive for the rewards. My earned points were 750, 1500, 1500, 2800, 2565. This corresponds to 25, 37.5, 30, 56, 51.3 hours. During that time, with my T9, I could have collected about 1.5 billion dollars, so the monetary aspect is certainly not good.

I then extended the spreadsheet, assuming 2000 new points per week (meaning about 40 hours of time minimum), and found out that I would get a Xmas gift of level 5 on Dec 24th. I think of myself as a long time player, so I was almost prepared to go that distance, but pushing the spreadsheet further shows that I would need to continue at that rate (2000 points per week) with occasional forays above that in order to preserve that standing. In other words, a minimum of 20 hours per week just to pick up 50 mil, and some unspecified rewards.

My conclusion is that the only people that will be willing to do this are those that program macros to do the work for them, ( I did that, but what's the point in having a bot or macro play for you???).

Would like to start a conversation around this, and talk to others that have given it a good try. Maybe I calculated it wrong. Cheers

 

[Lupis]

For me it's a resounding fail. I don't want another layer of grinding. Though some issues have been fixed now. I'm still against it. I think they could have put that work towards fixing other more important issues.

 

[Cyda]

For me it is a fail, there are many things I love about this game but PP is not one of them. That said though, there is nothing to replace it yet, and some people do seem to enjoy it (and I am happy to enjoy the 20% BH bonus), so there is that. I just feel the dev time could have been better spent elsewhere.

 

[Apos]

A success which failed at how some of its features were implemented.

 

[GaryII]

If you look only for CR/h then its a "fail"...

But by choosing Power you can start to roleplay this game.
sure content/activities are very "graindy", but technically nobody forces you to grid - its a free choice..

I am with Arissa Lavigny-Duval and its interesting to read weekly thread:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=183718

And as you can see there are a lot of activities to do to help your power even without "merit grinding"

My verdict for Powerplay is average - 6/10
And too bad that there are no changes for PP in upcoming 1.4

 

[Lupis]

I'll put a nice quote here:

I agree.

While I am a staunch critic of how BADLY DESIGNED powerplay is I do not want it taken out of the game, i want it fixed, iterated, expanded and done RIGHT.

CQC if well added and entreched into the game universe then perhaps we can get sponsors from our chosen PP, and gain fame while gaining merits through CQC.

as i replied to this quote. If this was added i'd rejoin PP asap.

 

[Saool]

I would say overall a success.

I know from the inside of the Mahon camp that it brings people together to play the game as a team and have some sometimes frustrating fun.

However it is unbalanced with the Empire being easy mode, and I distrust the weekly calculations and lack of communication from F-DEV about how PP works, to the point that I am currently pledged to ALD to milk the silly bonuses (I got 5.6 million from a RES site, in a little over 40 mins yesterday), and am doing absolutely nothing to help that power (I got get my merits to maintain rank 4 by undermining a system already over 100% undermined). When they get there preps back, if I am still pledged to ALD I'll be happily preparing the crappiest systems again.

So it is a success, but only half the success it could be.

 

[Snarfbuckle]

While the IDEA of powerplay is great the execution goes from flawed to terrible.

1. All factions are murderous fanatics advocating the death of all other factions and gives the highest reward for it.
2. Some factions commit all out WARFARE on systems their major faction lack ownership of.(Denton patreus and his private fleets for example)
3. Military takeover or creating insurrection and then "rescuing" a system (Arissa lavigny duval AND Denton patreus)
4. Realpolitik and dimplomatic crisis are nonexistent and there are no wardrums rattlings when an imperial senator send his PRIVATE FLEET into Federation systems
5. No faction really follow their philosophical description
6. All factions functions the same when they should really be different
7. All factions GOALS are the same (Take over territory)
8. Things move too fast (really, Arissa lavigny Duval manages to dig out 25000 tonnes of corruption reports ina week over EVERY system they take over??? - Where do they FIND all these reports)

Fdevs could make an entire paid expansion to flesh out PP into one huge ass metagame where all factions are TRULY unique.

-Let Archon Delaine BE the pirate, make him DIFFERENT, make him only rule Anarchy systems and exploit other factions systems, let his presence CORRUPT others systems.

 

[Marra Morgan]

Powerplay adds an interesting depth of role-play for me - allies, enemies and a reason to do stuff.
On this personal level, I'd say success.

There's quite a few flaws in the system, though. I hope they'll be ironed out in time.

Measuring my gameplay on a spreadsheet in credits per hour etc would be a big personal fail for me. The moment my leisure-time starts to resemble my job, I know something has gone terribly wrong!

 

[JessieColt]

It depends on what criteria you are using to determine whether or not PP is a fail or success.

Based on your post, you are using PP to make money, assuming you would make more money from PP participation than just normal activities (trading).

Using that criteria, yes, PP would be considered a fail, since it has already been noted since PP release that you can make far more credits elsewhere.

Is PP a "grind"? Only if you make it one.

You can just as easily haul your 30 minute Prep/Expansion allotment to a Control System for fortification and during the run, also haul other cargo for trading at systems along the way, or at your destination.

Fast Tracking PP materials is basically just a credit/gold sink. In place so that players who have an over abundance of credits have something to spend them on, if they want to.

Personally, I am in no rush to hit Rank 5, and see no need to do so. There is nothing available at Rank 5 from any of the powers that would cause me to sink hours and hours and thousands of credits into trying to reach, or maintain, that Rank.

I am perfectly happy with Rank 4 and it takes less than 2 hours of dedication to the PP faction to maintain that rank without impacting my other game activities or feeling like it is a grind.

For me, PP is a success. Although one that everyone, even the Devs, agree needs a few adjustments.

PP offers additional activities for the user base.
It contributes to RP for those who engage in RP
It offers more than trucking and fighting, in that there is clearly strategy and cooperation that is needed among the players themselves.

 

[Apos]

If the incentive is money, then PP is definitely a success, since the 4,500 cr/ton smuggling routes have PP to be thanked for.

And you don't need to grind absolutely anything to use them.

 

[Corrigendum]

I have personally really enjoyed Powerplay. It's provided a lot of meaningful content for me at least. Granted, it's proven to have some easter eggs *cough* bugs *cough* and could do with a few serious tweaks, but without it I would never have had cause to leave Solo or interact with anyone in the community.

Powerplay was released a couple weeks after I purchased Elite. During those first two weeks I was already growing bored, and would likely have had a bitter case of buyer's remorse had Powerplay not been released.

I'll now stand aside while the whining about ALD commences.

 

[Darth Ender]

Comparing trade grinding to powerplay as some metric of success or failure is in itself a failure. Trade grinding is one of the most broken aspects of the game. The fact that players can still rock shieldless T9's with no weapons and make it from A to B all day long for a guaranteed known profit is evidence that things still aren't balanced in that aspect of the game. So I dont agree with the premise.

Powerplay is not about min-maxing your personal income. It's about pushing for your "team". There are plenty of things that can be improved in power play and features that have been mentioned that are still missing but if you think the point of powerplay is to benefit you then you're doing it wrong.

 

[Dubber]

I have been at powerplay for about 5 weeks, using that time to verify the spreadsheet I set up to measure progress and set future goals.

My conclusion is that it's not worth it. Reasoning follows:

The time it takes to qualify is excessive for the rewards. My earned points were 750, 1500, 1500, 2800, 2565. This corresponds to 25, 37.5, 30, 56, 51.3 hours. During that time, with my T9, I could have collected about 1.5 billion dollars, so the monetary aspect is certainly not good.

I then extended the spreadsheet, assuming 2000 new points per week (meaning about 40 hours of time minimum), and found out that I would get a Xmas gift of level 5 on Dec 24th. I think of myself as a long time player, so I was almost prepared to go that distance, but pushing the spreadsheet further shows that I would need to continue at that rate (2000 points per week) with occasional forays above that in order to preserve that standing. In other words, a minimum of 20 hours per week just to pick up 50 mil, and some unspecified rewards.

My conclusion is that the only people that will be willing to do this are those that program macros to do the work for them, ( I did that, but what's the point in having a bot or macro play for you???).

Would like to start a conversation around this, and talk to others that have given it a good try. Maybe I calculated it wrong. Cheers

I'm rank 5, never used a bot or any other cheating technique and take offense that you would suggest it. Your numbers are way off.

 

[FleetAdmiralJ]

Well, I think the entire point of Powerplay was to give users who already had ALL THE MONEY (or players who were bored of only grinding for money or who wanted to role play) something to do, so I suppose it's not surprising that it isn't necessarily focused on earning players money.

And yes, at level 4 it would take 40 hours a week to earn 2000 merits by not paying any money (2000 credits / 50 earned every hour = 40 hours). However, if you have a ship as big as a Type 9, then hopefully you can do some trading that will earn you quite a bit of money that would allow you to fast track without taking a loss, allowing you to reach Level 5 quicker. And this is assuming you are ONLY earning credits by shipping paper and not by undermining, which I understand involves blowing people up and can earn you merits faster (I've never actually gone out and undermined myself).

Myself, what I'll sometimes do is if I'm doing something else, I'll set a timer for 27 to 28 minutes, and when it goes off, start the game, pick up my 25 merits, then quit, and when my Type 7 is full of 200 merits (about every 4 hours) I'll take 15 minutes to fly them to where they need to go and back. That way the actual amount of time I"m playing the game is maybe like 30 to 45 minutes for what would otherwise be 4 hours of work. And if I have time to just play it, then I will go around and do trading between counters, and either put the money toward fast tracking or just use it to make money.

I think where Powerplay has it's troubles is how it has implemented some of it's mechanics, and it's flow of information. For example, 5th columning is now the most effective way to undermine a rival power. Information given in game is misleading: example, a system on the preparation list may SAY it makes a profit, but when one factors in overhead per system, it actually would not make you money. Other things like that.

I like what they've tried to do with Powerplay. It adds another interesting level to the game. I also think it needs some work. I don't think I would consider it a failure yet.

 

[Dubber]

And yes, at level 4 it would take 40 hours a week to earn 2000 merits by not paying any money (2000 credits / 50 earned every hour = 40 hours). However, if you have a ship as big as a Type 9, then hopefully you can do some trading that will earn you quite a bit of money that would allow you to fast track without taking a loss, allowing you to reach Level 5 quicker. And this is assuming you are ONLY earning credits by shipping paper and not by undermining, which I understand involves blowing people up and can earn you merits faster (I've never actually gone out and undermined myself).

Myself, what I'll sometimes do is if I'm doing something else, I'll set a timer for 27 to 28 minutes, and when it goes off, start the game, pick up my 25 merits, then quit, and when my Type 7 is full of 200 merits (about every 4 hours) I'll take 15 minutes to fly them to where they need to go and back. That way the actual amount of time I"m playing the game is maybe like 30 to 45 minutes for what would otherwise be 4 hours of work. And if I have time to just play it, then I will go around and do trading between counters, and either put the money toward fast tracking or just use it to make money.

I think where Powerplay has it's troubles is how it has implemented some of it's mechanics, and it's flow of information. For example, 5th columning is now the most effective way to undermine a rival power. Information given in game is misleading: example, a system on the preparation list may SAY it makes a profit, but when one factors in overhead per system, it actually would not make you money. Other things like that.

I like what they've tried to do with Powerplay. It adds another interesting level to the game. I also think it needs some work. I don't think I would consider it a failure yet.

Do some undermining, 750 an hour is doable. Then go back and haul if that's your bag

 

[Phil^]

If its design was solely to provide a time and credit sink - its succeeded perfectly.
If it was meant to be enjoyable and fair at the same time - its failed.

I don't see how it can easily be remedied on that front. Many of the problems seem to be fundamental in its design and long-running unfortunately.
All in all, it was an interesting idea but wasn't implemented as best it should have been.

 

[Jpotter]

For me it's a resounding fail. I don't want another layer of grinding. Though some issues have been fixed now. I'm still against it. I think they could have put that work towards fixing other more important issues.

+1 totally agree. It started out ok, then the bugs emerged, the problems in CC calculations, the hidden calculations, then the constant changing the rules after launching PP. I quit playing as it became obvious PP today is greatly bugged and in the future will need a major revamp; until then - I'm not participating in the bug/frustration/grind fest.

 

[Monolith Preacher]

I think the faction specific weapons are a good idea, even if a couple of them are admittedly lackluster or buggy. In a similar regard, the dynamics of PP seem interesting, but I'm already worried about potential "match fixing" so to speak, but maybe that's speaking from a jaded pirate's angle on the affair.

I've only been playing a month, so I don't purport to be an expert, but I thought a more new opine might have some relevance.

 

[Webferret]

Being I originally found PP to be very lack luster for me. I have taken the time to actually do some of all facets of PP and have found I dont mind parts of it. I can actually hit Rank 3 or 4 now with a little effort (No interest in grinding my life away for Rank 5 though).

So would say PP is a win, but with quite a few things that need attention to detail to get right, and as others have mentioned it adds a ton of RP factor to Elite: Dangerous, which was lacking prior to PP (IMO).