Update 2: It's hard to believe, but the aisling power has managed to defeat it's overwelming 5th Column element. However, such hard prep wars are sure to leave people burned out, and if I was Frontier development, I'd do something to relieve "prep wars," especially since both prep war systems exceeded 320k.
Update 1. Fixed some typos and added more of my suggestions.
You may have noticed in Aisling Duval's preparation screen this cycle the staggering amount of preparation in both Chnumar, a deficit inducing system, and Hip 77470, a decent system the Aisling community has been working constantly and very hard to prepare. Both of these systems have well over 150,000 preparations, probably the biggest preparation numbers in the history of PowerPlay (PP).
It is my understanding that the 5th column (5C) activity is viewed as acceptable by the developers. However, Aisling's power has a 5C element that's been so strong these past few cycles that damage has been done to the Aisling power that is, with the current state of PP, beyond repair.
Before I put forth my suggestions, I would like to ask Frontier Development at least two questions.
First and foremost, is this truly intended? Was it expected that 5C action would be the most effective way to weaken a power? At the end of last cycle, Aisling's CC balance has dropped from around -550cc to -742cc largely from an expansion into a system with a strong, negative CC potential executed by a powerful 5C element (I saw a traffic report showing 53 Imperial Cutter visits to Chnumar! My community has barely been able to fight that with only about 30 cutter visits to Hip 77470, and we have over 400 people!). Since Aisling has also lost one of it's best income systems at the end of last cycle while not losing both systems in turmoil, it has been wondered if it could be a serious PP bug, a result that shouldn't be possible (https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=230859).
The bottom line is, I need to know if 5th column activity is meant to have such an impact. We can fortify systems undermined by those outside our power, and that's largely possible regardless of the opposition (since you only need 100% fortification to have the full effect, whereas the sky is the limit for preparation and expansion (Aisling is headed towards the other end of the galaxy and beyond this cycle)), but Aisling is almost completely defenseless from the permanent damage of having bad systems expanded into.
My second question is, if the 5C activity resulted in the collapse of the Aisling power, would prismatic shields be removed from the game? If so, this should be communicated to the player base so they more fully understand the consequences of their actions.
If this is not intended, then I would like to put forth some suggestions to fix this, the first three being some of the ones I would favor the most:
1. Reward commanders who heavily support their power.
So far, I have accumulated over 21,000 merits with Aisling Duval entirely from fast tracking preparation materials using the strategy posted on this thread: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=230880. If nothing else, I would greatly appreciate being rewarded for going above and beyond the call of duty for my power, especially since putting this much dedication into the "prep war" my community is in against the 5C element started to get on the verge of hindering my completion of academic tasks, as I didn't really start working on homework until yesterday due to being occupied with PowerPlay (so I'm barely getting one of my assignments done one time). My situation is one made by a choice of free will, this is clear, but I'm mentioning this to express the severity of the situation.
Fun fact: I still had over 14k merits after the prep war, meaning I must have hit around 28,000 by the end of the cycle. Seeing extra rewards for such powerful efforts would be great.
2. Add a feature to allow dropping any control system. Example: give long term, dedicated power members the ability to vote to remove deficit systems.
Because undermined system reduction to CC is based entirely on CC income, it is not possibly the shed a bad system by asking another power to undermine it, especially with either 5C or unguided players (those who don't understand PP well due to lack of in-game explanation) fortifying those bad systems. I would like to see a feature in place that would allow power players to deliberately lose a control system from within your own power, especially bad ones.
3. Make power specific modules from other powers available in multiple classes so they are on par with Prismatic Shields being available in all classes.
One of the largest draws to joining the Aisling power is that it is the only power to offer it's equipment at all class sizes, especially since prismatic shields can have extremely well shielded cutters like this one: http://coriolis.io/outfit/imperial_...n5n5i5i326g.Iw0gMZdPEA==.CwBhEYy6dhmBcBM4lKA=
If all powers had their modules available in multiple sizes, it would at least somewhat balance the draw of joining a power simply for their special module. As it is, there's a lot of reason to join Aisling's power solely for her module due to it's class flexibility, and a lot of those people can contribute 5C action during the 4 weeks they are pledged.
I would like to give one suggestion that could implement the first two suggestions, but mostly the first:
Add a sixth rating.
For example, at rating 6, which could be earned at either 20,000 and 25,000 merits, you have somewhere between the same or double the commodity allocation as rating 5 (so 50 or 100), up to four times the nominations (1000), a 150,000,000 credit salary or higher (so at least triple), and the potential to nominate a control system to be removed which would be more effective on negative income systems while profitable systems would be virtually impervious to it (something this powerful would require being pledged for at least 10 weeks, I'd think). For those wondering if 20k is possible, I got to this amount within 4 days, so constantly fast tracking merits on the weekend can make it very possible to hit 20,000.
4. Change undermined system costs to allow undermined low profit systems to cost almost as much as undermined high profit systems.
It is possible to ask another power to undermine select systems in your power in order to get it removed over the course of two cycles. However, since the worst systems hardly cost any more when undermined, especially compared to other systems (imagine if Sol was undermined and compare that to an undermined 20cc radius income system), it is greatly impractical to attempt to lose a bad system by asking another power to undermine it, especially if 5C/inexperienced players fortify it all the time. If a system getting undermined was based more on a fixed amount (so, undermine cost would be upkeep + 50 + at least half radius income rather than the usual upkeep + radius income), it would be at least a little more possible for a power's community to use controlled turmoil to leave a bad system behind.
5. Encourage doing PowerPlay in open (and only in open) while penalizing, or even disabling PowerPlay in solo or private.
My community would absolutely intercept and engage 5C players if they could, but they seem to exclusively play in solo/private. I would very much appreciate a system to be put in place to at least discourage playing in solo the whole time if you're primarily doing powerplay. Example: Playing in solo means 100 of a power commodity is worth 100 merits, but if you have that commodity in solo or private for even an instant, it becomes damaged and only worth 50, half as much (and if you picked up another 50 and stayed in open, you'd have 100 merits woth from 50 undamaged commodities and 100 damaged commodities). Since PP is heavily, if not entirely PvP focused, implementing this suggestion should be a mandatory priority, even over working on Horizons content. I know this is an old suggestion, but it cannot be stressed enough how much good on a number of levels (at least fairness and more changes for PvP dogfights) limiting the effectiveness of hiding in solo play would do for PowerPlay.
That's all I'll suggest in this post. I really hope that at the minimum Frontier Development communicates it's current stance on PowerPlay's 5C elements considering the intense prep war the Aisling community had to fight very hard in order to win.
Update 1. Fixed some typos and added more of my suggestions.
You may have noticed in Aisling Duval's preparation screen this cycle the staggering amount of preparation in both Chnumar, a deficit inducing system, and Hip 77470, a decent system the Aisling community has been working constantly and very hard to prepare. Both of these systems have well over 150,000 preparations, probably the biggest preparation numbers in the history of PowerPlay (PP).
It is my understanding that the 5th column (5C) activity is viewed as acceptable by the developers. However, Aisling's power has a 5C element that's been so strong these past few cycles that damage has been done to the Aisling power that is, with the current state of PP, beyond repair.
Before I put forth my suggestions, I would like to ask Frontier Development at least two questions.
First and foremost, is this truly intended? Was it expected that 5C action would be the most effective way to weaken a power? At the end of last cycle, Aisling's CC balance has dropped from around -550cc to -742cc largely from an expansion into a system with a strong, negative CC potential executed by a powerful 5C element (I saw a traffic report showing 53 Imperial Cutter visits to Chnumar! My community has barely been able to fight that with only about 30 cutter visits to Hip 77470, and we have over 400 people!). Since Aisling has also lost one of it's best income systems at the end of last cycle while not losing both systems in turmoil, it has been wondered if it could be a serious PP bug, a result that shouldn't be possible (https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=230859).
The bottom line is, I need to know if 5th column activity is meant to have such an impact. We can fortify systems undermined by those outside our power, and that's largely possible regardless of the opposition (since you only need 100% fortification to have the full effect, whereas the sky is the limit for preparation and expansion (Aisling is headed towards the other end of the galaxy and beyond this cycle)), but Aisling is almost completely defenseless from the permanent damage of having bad systems expanded into.
My second question is, if the 5C activity resulted in the collapse of the Aisling power, would prismatic shields be removed from the game? If so, this should be communicated to the player base so they more fully understand the consequences of their actions.
If this is not intended, then I would like to put forth some suggestions to fix this, the first three being some of the ones I would favor the most:
1. Reward commanders who heavily support their power.
So far, I have accumulated over 21,000 merits with Aisling Duval entirely from fast tracking preparation materials using the strategy posted on this thread: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=230880. If nothing else, I would greatly appreciate being rewarded for going above and beyond the call of duty for my power, especially since putting this much dedication into the "prep war" my community is in against the 5C element started to get on the verge of hindering my completion of academic tasks, as I didn't really start working on homework until yesterday due to being occupied with PowerPlay (so I'm barely getting one of my assignments done one time). My situation is one made by a choice of free will, this is clear, but I'm mentioning this to express the severity of the situation.
Fun fact: I still had over 14k merits after the prep war, meaning I must have hit around 28,000 by the end of the cycle. Seeing extra rewards for such powerful efforts would be great.
2. Add a feature to allow dropping any control system. Example: give long term, dedicated power members the ability to vote to remove deficit systems.
Because undermined system reduction to CC is based entirely on CC income, it is not possibly the shed a bad system by asking another power to undermine it, especially with either 5C or unguided players (those who don't understand PP well due to lack of in-game explanation) fortifying those bad systems. I would like to see a feature in place that would allow power players to deliberately lose a control system from within your own power, especially bad ones.
3. Make power specific modules from other powers available in multiple classes so they are on par with Prismatic Shields being available in all classes.
One of the largest draws to joining the Aisling power is that it is the only power to offer it's equipment at all class sizes, especially since prismatic shields can have extremely well shielded cutters like this one: http://coriolis.io/outfit/imperial_...n5n5i5i326g.Iw0gMZdPEA==.CwBhEYy6dhmBcBM4lKA=
If all powers had their modules available in multiple sizes, it would at least somewhat balance the draw of joining a power simply for their special module. As it is, there's a lot of reason to join Aisling's power solely for her module due to it's class flexibility, and a lot of those people can contribute 5C action during the 4 weeks they are pledged.
I would like to give one suggestion that could implement the first two suggestions, but mostly the first:
Add a sixth rating.
For example, at rating 6, which could be earned at either 20,000 and 25,000 merits, you have somewhere between the same or double the commodity allocation as rating 5 (so 50 or 100), up to four times the nominations (1000), a 150,000,000 credit salary or higher (so at least triple), and the potential to nominate a control system to be removed which would be more effective on negative income systems while profitable systems would be virtually impervious to it (something this powerful would require being pledged for at least 10 weeks, I'd think). For those wondering if 20k is possible, I got to this amount within 4 days, so constantly fast tracking merits on the weekend can make it very possible to hit 20,000.
4. Change undermined system costs to allow undermined low profit systems to cost almost as much as undermined high profit systems.
It is possible to ask another power to undermine select systems in your power in order to get it removed over the course of two cycles. However, since the worst systems hardly cost any more when undermined, especially compared to other systems (imagine if Sol was undermined and compare that to an undermined 20cc radius income system), it is greatly impractical to attempt to lose a bad system by asking another power to undermine it, especially if 5C/inexperienced players fortify it all the time. If a system getting undermined was based more on a fixed amount (so, undermine cost would be upkeep + 50 + at least half radius income rather than the usual upkeep + radius income), it would be at least a little more possible for a power's community to use controlled turmoil to leave a bad system behind.
5. Encourage doing PowerPlay in open (and only in open) while penalizing, or even disabling PowerPlay in solo or private.
My community would absolutely intercept and engage 5C players if they could, but they seem to exclusively play in solo/private. I would very much appreciate a system to be put in place to at least discourage playing in solo the whole time if you're primarily doing powerplay. Example: Playing in solo means 100 of a power commodity is worth 100 merits, but if you have that commodity in solo or private for even an instant, it becomes damaged and only worth 50, half as much (and if you picked up another 50 and stayed in open, you'd have 100 merits woth from 50 undamaged commodities and 100 damaged commodities). Since PP is heavily, if not entirely PvP focused, implementing this suggestion should be a mandatory priority, even over working on Horizons content. I know this is an old suggestion, but it cannot be stressed enough how much good on a number of levels (at least fairness and more changes for PvP dogfights) limiting the effectiveness of hiding in solo play would do for PowerPlay.
That's all I'll suggest in this post. I really hope that at the minimum Frontier Development communicates it's current stance on PowerPlay's 5C elements considering the intense prep war the Aisling community had to fight very hard in order to win.
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