Powerplay Is powerplay pointless or am I doing it wrong?

snadge · May 1, 2016

Joined PP a few weeks ago to be eligible for faction specific goodies but as I work away from home I haven't reallly had a chance to experiment fully.

Anyway, with a few days to myself, I decided to plunge in at the deepend, looking for things to do to expand my merits pool I find that I have three choices, deliver corruption reports, 10 at a time for 10 merits and 1000cr, deliver garrison supplies for the same deal or kill corrupt security services in expansion systems.

So I delver both types of report, doesn't matter what distance or state the systems are in, even if they are vastly oversubscribed, the rewards are the same, 5 hours and I have like 80 merits, that is if I do not want to start throwing 100k credits at this system to reset the 30 minute timer.

Tried killing in expansion systems, between 400 credits and 10k credits bounty, no merits, my ammo costs more, Now I find out I have to grind like an idiot to retain my merits to be eligible.

What is the point of this, is it broken or am I doing it totally wrong, I am unwilling to spend my own credits to get the required merits to be able to purchase the faction specific gear so to me ATM this is pointless, a waste of my gaming time.

stocko1111 · May 1, 2016

You're doing it right, this is powerplay. You can make more merits by flying to an enemy controlled system and interdicting and destroying enemy ships. It's much more interesting than being a postman and you can easily get to the 50mil a week mark in a day by doing this.

GJ51 · May 1, 2016

[h=2]

Is powerplay pointless or am I doing it wrong?[/h]

---YES---

stocko1111 · May 1, 2016

But yeah, powerplay is pretty much pants and needs a big improvement.

Gedemon · May 1, 2016

Is powerplay pointless or am I doing it wrong?

Yes it is almost completely pointless and fully immersion breaking, with just 3 positive points:

- it provide a minimal PvP background in the galaxy for those that want it
- if you're not afraid of the grind you can get a specific module to your ship (no idea if they are worth it)
- it's almost independent of the main game, so it doesn't break it yet (but this may change, and that point will switch to the negative list which is too long for a single post)

snadge · May 1, 2016

Gedemon said:
Yes it is almost completely pointless and fully immersion breaking, with just 3 positive points:

- it provide a minimal PvP background in the galaxy for those that want it
- if you're not afraid of the grind you can get a specific module to your ship (no idea if they are worth it)
- it's almost independent of the main game, so it doesn't break it yet (but this may change, and that point will switch to the negative list which is too long for a single post)

Well the PvP does interest me but I have that covered with my pirating DBS (for immersion so traders do not feel as threatened as they would with a big ship).

I don't mind a bit of a grind to get something but this seems ridiculous, 80 merits after 5 hours constant PP gameplay and the mechanics are just super boring.

I can't really pass judgement on that because atm I have no opinion, the main game has only one way of making credits, smuggling, everything else is just pants and the game suffers because of it, smuggling is super easy money for a repetitive mechanic.

I will try killing in an enemy controlled system, see if that ups my merits, if it doesn't, well I will just give it up, the constant enemy interdictions, especially invisible ones are a total immersion breaking mechanic and one I could do without.

Soopyyy · May 1, 2016

I did it for 12 weeks. It's pretty pointless.

MUSKETEER · May 1, 2016

When you interdict enemy PP ships in controlled systems you get 30 points per kill. On average I probably get 1000 merits per hour while playing alone and interdicting enemy PP ships. The figure varies depending on the system and how crowdy the instance is.

Once you reach rank 5 you only need about 5300 merits weekly to maintain it.

snadge · May 1, 2016

MUSKETEER said:
When you interdict you get 30 points per kill. On average I probably get 1000 merits per hour while playing alone and interdicting enemy PP ships. The figure varies depending on the system and how crowdy the instance is.

Once you reach rank 5 you only need about 5300 merits weekly to maintain it.

c
This sounds more my style, what ship do you use?c ould it be viable in my DBS

MUSKETEER · May 1, 2016

I've got two powerplay ships - FDL and Cobra
When I interdict I prefer a Cobra.
When I do CZ type of powerplay I do it in an FDL.

DBS will be fine for interdictions.

stocko1111 · May 1, 2016

I'd recommend finding a small system with just one star and station. That way you know all the traffic will be headed in one direction and easier to find targets.

ever · May 1, 2016

snadge said:
Joined PP a few weeks ago to be eligible for faction specific goodies but as I work away from home I haven't reallly had a chance to experiment fully.

Anyway, with a few days to myself, I decided to plunge in at the deepend, looking for things to do to expand my merits pool I find that I have three choices, deliver corruption reports, 10 at a time for 10 merits and 1000cr, deliver garrison supplies for the same deal or kill corrupt security services in expansion systems.
.

Hello Commander,

Power Play is a team sport. Each week the Powers on top 3 gain different bonuses. PP emphases your team and not so much your individual progress. More fun and sense it makes when you join an organised player group. Things happen in PP, it's just very difficult to get an overview of them. The fact that you only have 2 types of things to do, hauling and undermining, and there is almost no narrative, makes things boring or hard to comprehend. Organised groups usually provide the narrative and they'll give you an idea of the history of a Power. Go to your chosen Power's forum or reddit and get in touch with a group, if you are interested in PP.

Some changes are due to come soon, the first one is a contest between player groups, in order to have the first player based Power in the game. There have been talks of introducing the relegation mechanic or the collapse mechanic for the Power(s) on the bottom. If more Power Play actions will be available is a just speculation at the moment.

Tataboj · May 1, 2016

Join your communication channels of your power. Then you get a purpose.

EUS · May 2, 2016

You're mostly not doing it wrong, except for the part of killing for no merits. That part you did wrong.

Earth Ultimatum IV. · May 2, 2016

Yes, you're doing it wrong. Many posters too.
Join a faction. Gather up with other faction members on discord and reddit. Team up, communicate, contribute. Find a common goal, watch your faction and other factions closely and what happens around them, check the BGS too as it affects your power. Roleplay too.
It's great fun, makes you feel like a member of something bigger. And the paycheck of 50mil per week can't be argued against.