The now-infamous Cycle 52 happened, and much of the old leadership said screw it and quit powerplay basically.
The short story is that Engineers broke a crucial push in powerplay that week, and the way FDev handled it was appalling.
Now, it wasn't instantaneous, but we began to bleed manpower, and even I left Hudson about cycle 56, finally fed up with trying to cobble together the scraps.
If FDev didn't care enough to try and honestly fix the issue - and we all know they could but didn't want to - I didn't see the point in keeping it up.
Since then, its been the Empire basically parading about a dead horse to make themselves feel better.
Took a little bit of time to nudge it down, so it wasn't obvious at first, but it was only a matter of time since that.
The short story is that Engineers broke a crucial push in powerplay that week, and the way FDev handled it was appalling.
Now, it wasn't instantaneous, but we began to bleed manpower, and even I left Hudson about cycle 56, finally fed up with trying to cobble together the scraps.
If FDev didn't care enough to try and honestly fix the issue - and we all know they could but didn't want to - I didn't see the point in keeping it up.
Since then, its been the Empire basically parading about a dead horse to make themselves feel better.
Took a little bit of time to nudge it down, so it wasn't obvious at first, but it was only a matter of time since that.
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Actually, i think the new player power Yuri Grom did more to hurt the feds than anything. Much of the feds loss's came from being pushed out of that area.
I have had to regroup and create a new front line to try and hold it back. 7th place is not 11th.
Not good, I'm truly sorry to here that. I love to poke fun at the Feds but only in jest and fuel a bit of rivalry. I know a lot of people put a great deal of time and commitment into PP and I find it sad that this covers it off. Thanks for the update all the same.
O7
Thanks for the update, I'm sorry to hear its happened this way. I played PP for the Empire and enjoyed it very much, and whilst I like to poke fun at the Feds it's only in jest to fuel the rivalry - makes it more fun. It genuinely saddens me to hear the Feds were harmed by what seems to be poor implementation.
The reason I took a break was because of the Engineers implementation, I figured with the release of 2.3 now maybe a good time to start 2.2 content.
What a kick in the head, I would expect the same reaction had it happened to the empire or any other faction.
The reason I took a break was because of the Engineers implementation, I figured with the release of 2.3 now maybe a good time to start 2.2 content.
What a kick in the head, I would expect the same reaction had it happened to the empire or any other faction.
The Federation powers are in the center part of the bubble, surrounded by enemies that can attack them on all sides, and they never had the player support that FDev probably assumed one of the two major factions (I don't include the Alliance as a major faction because FDev does nothing with them, no ships, no navy progressions, etc) would get.
Their outnumbered players did a good job for the first year of PP, but like others have noted here, the mess of cycle 52, along with no update to the bare PP mechanics after a year, caused a mass exodus of PP players.
It wasn't just the Federal players who left, numbers went to about 1/3 from where they were before week 52, everyone left.
The positioning of the new Yuri Grom power did nothing to address the player number imbalance, it has only made it worse.
The two federal Powers, the Kumo Crew and Mahon were the 4 most attacked powers week in and week out (because most of the players are in the empire)
Placing the new Yuri Grom power next to these 4 powers shows either malicious intent or complete ignorance of PP player distributions (more likely) by FDev.
Their outnumbered players did a good job for the first year of PP, but like others have noted here, the mess of cycle 52, along with no update to the bare PP mechanics after a year, caused a mass exodus of PP players.
It wasn't just the Federal players who left, numbers went to about 1/3 from where they were before week 52, everyone left.
The positioning of the new Yuri Grom power did nothing to address the player number imbalance, it has only made it worse.
The two federal Powers, the Kumo Crew and Mahon were the 4 most attacked powers week in and week out (because most of the players are in the empire)
Placing the new Yuri Grom power next to these 4 powers shows either malicious intent or complete ignorance of PP player distributions (more likely) by FDev.
The introduction of The Engineers not only brought cycle 52, but for some time we also had extremely powerful npc's.
There used to be much more interdictions, especially in PowerPlay. Many quit Powerplay to reduce the interdictions.
There used to be much more interdictions, especially in PowerPlay. Many quit Powerplay to reduce the interdictions.
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The increased security response times that the engineers patch also introduced made it virtually impossible for newer or combat poor players to earn undermining merits in High and Medium (maybe even low) security systems.
This caused undermining to virtually stop, and 1 year latter this imbalance still hasn't been addressed.
Wikanawal was Delaines most undermined system most weeks, for the past month or so. It was Anarchy and it attracted the Fed/Grom/Antal underminers.
Now its not Anarchy, and its only got 90 merits in it this week, I'm guessing the noob underminers got smashed by security forces and they lost their merits and didn't come back
In the past you could show a new guy in a cobra how to use an interdictor, and the leave them on their own and they could get 1500 merits that week, quite easily.
Now I hear of new guys in Vultures dying to NPCs while trying to undermine, then leaving PP.
And with Guardians PVE piracy, so also Powerplay piracy took a hit. Independents can't pp pirate anymore.
The Commanders hit pp piracy even more.
Powerplay declined and I think Hudson has a headstart controlling the starter systems. So took a bigger hit than the others.
The Commanders hit pp piracy even more.
Powerplay declined and I think Hudson has a headstart controlling the starter systems. So took a bigger hit than the others.
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Yeah, removing piracy from the "pirate" power was another good touch, but to be honest the 10 merits per ton meant no power was using this method before anyway. Now its 1 merit per ton for the feds and imperials, its obviously still not used.
It looks like the change to stop independents pirating each other, and start normal "kill" undermining, was introduced with the Grom power to ensure Grom could help undermine Delaine.
Killing the ship AND the marked slaves, instead of liberating them. No roleplay.
But off topic.
But off topic.
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The botched tick screwed Patreus over hard, too, but you all always forget that. The Empire faced the same NPCs the Federation did after 2.1 launched, but for whatever reason, we didn't bleed members. Strange.
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Wow. Your salt alone would supply entire nations lol.
You should try to dig up my old posts when it happened. THAT was salt.
Still am salty about it. Sure doesn't help the longer I look at it either.