I went into this cycle with 6800 merits, and only 680 of them carried over from the cycle before last. I assumed that I would lose that much- minus the amount for upkeep of rank 4- but I ended up with 3309 left... really? The math doesn't add up.. where did the other 1720 go? This is extremely frustrating to lose all those merits!
Powerplay Faction: Zachary Hudson What happened to my merits???
- Thread starter Othniel
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Each week's merits live in a separate bucket. At cycle tick, you are awarded a new rank, given your paycheck for the week that just ended, then your merits are halved. Each week's merits live in their own bucket, each bucket is halved separately and buckets older than three weeks are thrown out altogether.
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The current implementation of merit decay is incredible demotivating. It is set up in such a way that it will always break your back eventually.
It is one of the reasons many CMDRs like me stop playing PP eventually.
In general I love ranking in games and I succeeded keeping rank 5 for four weeks, but then just couldn't do it anymore.
Ranking in PP sucks your soul dry and leaves you completely demotivated. It is an entirely negative experience.
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It is not that difficult to design a merit system that allows for a bit more breathing room instead of forcing players to commit all their time and then some to PP just to keep their rank.
FD should start with adding many more ranks in smaller increments (at least 20, but I prefer even more). They should remove the ridiculously high 50 mil pay out and change it into something more realistic.
They should design it so that players are actually able to play PP in a much more relaxed manner that also leaves time to enjoy other aspects of the Elite universe without feeling the constant negative pressure of merit decay.
Currently when you (a player with an average amount of play time per week) are rank 5 you are not even able to enjoy the perks of that rank, because you simply must commit all your time to PP or otherwise the merits will evaporate before your very eyes.
I am a Lavigny-Duval player. When I was rank 5 I had to choose between trying to keep rank 5 or trying to earn the bounty hunt bonuses belonging to my rank.
If I did the first I could not earn the bounty hunt bonuses of rank 5, if I did the latter I would lose my rank after one cycle.
It completely sucked the fun out of PP and I decided it was not worth the stress and stopped playing PP completely although I am still pledged.
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Earning 10,000 merits is no easy task- as I am finding out. I can only devote about 3 hours per day to playing [yesnod]. As Iskariot pointed out- it can easily ruin your real life trying to maintain. To find a middle ground, why not employ a progressive erosion that starts at a lower percentage, but increases more and more the longer you stay rank 5, or make it TWO weeks. That will keep the lifers from becoming overlords and allow the so called "casual gamers" like myself to enjoy it and feel good enough about dropping more money for Horizons.
I mean, REALLY? Do I have to schedule vacation with my manager at work, tell the wife to go live somewhere else, let the grass grow over, the dog make a mess, and pretend my son doesn't exist in order to get to level 5??
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On the Hudson subreddit you'll find a like to the Federation TeamSpeak server. Find some folks to wing with and you'll make between 700-1000 merits per hour. If you can't do 10k in one week, do 7k for two weeks in a row and you'll hit rank 5, and then only need about 5400 merits to maintain it.
I play 2-3/day, I held rating 5 for 6 weeks. All my gameplay went towards this goal. If I took a night off, I had to do double time the next night.
It became work, and I never ended up going to RES sites to take advantage of the bonus that came with rating 5.
Dropped PP, and found the fame fun again. Robigo runs is the most fun I've had in this game other than exploring.
Tl;dr rating 5 is for those that have time on thier hands.
OP.. your figures seem to be fine... I finished the last cycle with 18k merits, and started the current one with 8.5k.
Depends what you need from the game. If it's the money then definitely I wouldn't be wasting my time undermining. Much more money from RES, trade and smuggling.
I've already got all the ships I wanted in the game and I have no need to accumulate more wealth so I do PP for PP, not for 50 Million payout. I have 100% freedom with what I do, and I do PP because I like it. If I want a break from PP, I have a break. For me it's not a problem to do 10k merits again if I feel like doing PP again. I'm not a money slave like most of the people in this game.
Depends what you need from the game. If it's the money then definitely I wouldn't be wasting my time undermining. Much more money from RES, trade and smuggling.
I've already got all the ships I wanted in the game and I have no need to accumulate more wealth so I do PP for PP, not for 50 Million payout. I have 100% freedom with what I do, and I do PP because I like it. If I want a break from PP, I have a break. For me it's not a problem to do 10k merits again if I feel like doing PP again. I'm not a money slave like most of the people in this game.
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Well, as usual- I made a fuss then finally committed to joining a wing... I got over 5500 with them in two days, then I was able to get to finish out to 10200 merits last night by myself.
However, I can say that my enjoyment level was not good... The Brits seem to keep from blaspheming or using the F bomb most of the time- so I'd rather join a wing in the morning-noon EST... but at night in the US, all sorts of foul language flies about- and even sexually immature statements. I am sure some will be offended, but if there are any others who play this game without using foul language and other types of obscenity, please message me so we can form a wing and I don't have to worry about my son hearing the chatter.
However, I can say that my enjoyment level was not good... The Brits seem to keep from blaspheming or using the F bomb most of the time- so I'd rather join a wing in the morning-noon EST... but at night in the US, all sorts of foul language flies about- and even sexually immature statements. I am sure some will be offended, but if there are any others who play this game without using foul language and other types of obscenity, please message me so we can form a wing and I don't have to worry about my son hearing the chatter.
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Combat oriented players could spend the 50m salary buying those merits through fortification. The time it takes doing it depends on your cargo space. I got a Corvette with 608 cargo space so each trip offers 608 merits. Each trip, for me, takes 12 minutes only. You can do the rest of the math. Although I've spent my entire salary just to maintain my rank 5, I got plenty other time to do RES. And it's all profit. Rinse and repeat every cycle. Cheers.
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Most popular systems are Tun and 17 Draconis. You go there (in case of 17 Draconis you bring a load filled with food, in Tun you can get that directly) and grind charity missions. Just switch between the open/solo/private modes to refresh your bulletin board. It will be the most boring thing you ever did in this game, but it will get you there. 17 Draconis is quite far out but can offer better mission spawn rates, especially when there is a war going on in the system I believe.
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