How to fix Powerplay

[Merkk]

Do away with the "Take papers deliver there" thing. Absolutely worthless, uninspired and insulting.


Break up pledge and allegiances separately, Empire, Federation and Alliance, pledges being locked to your allegiance, ie an imperial aligned player would not be able to pick Zachary Hudson as their pledge.


Lock your pledge under contracts, 1 week gets no bonus, 1 month gets increased rewards and permanent gets a considerable increased rewards, albeit at the cost of paying 5% (Or another low number) of credits earned through it (Perhaps remove the ability to list for them again unless the player buy permission to list again to them at twice the price they paid to defect or a timed delay)


Now for the actual gameplay stuff, add PLEDGE AND ALLEGIANCE SPECIFIC missions, such as;

1. attacking planetary bases, destroying buildings (Such as storage, munitions depots, food warehouse, etc)
2. destroying drilling operations (The currently empty, useless and guarded for nothing drilling machines) and raiding local planet authority.
3. Missions to go attack a space station, not the huge Coriolis ones, rather smaller stations (the ones that can only accommodate small/medium ships) in a special instance, with local security to make the mission harder.
4. Missions to go hunt for attacking a convoy of important enemy supplies to cripple their advance.
5. Missions to fight in huge conflict zones that will heavily impact the outcome of a system's owner, dangerous ones that will perhaps require you to bring allies (Both ally and enemy reinforcements not being infinite (Capital ships could take part of it is it is Allegiance powers attacking/defending))
6. Missions for truckers to deliver black market goods to the enemy stations (Such as delivering small arms to rebel groups within the enemy's base to attack the enemy pledge from the inside)
7. Missions to go route an enemy capital ship attacking an allied one or a parked one in enemy territory.
8. Missions for explorers to go out and scout planets of enemy positions, which in turns appears as a combat mission.

And to add a twist, make it so there are missions for PVP to happen and sabotage someone else's mission, this is powerplay and PVP should be part of it more than it is right now. Doing any of these actions would obviously have credits rewards but also increase your standing with your allegiance and pledge.

Powerplay should be locked for Open Play, as it affects the BGS.

 

[hammer326]

Hey Merkk,

Great thread! Love what I'm hearing so far. As someone who for 2 years has played and not seen the most remote incentive to care about anything Powerplay, this stuff would not only change my mind but get me legitimately excited for it. Particularly love the PVP aspect, as PVP right now is seldom deeper or more meaningful than glorified trolling. I also like the idea of attacking surface installations (including the drilling operations which to this day have no gameplay significance) to affect Powerplay.

Also love the idea of it being Open Play exclusive; so many friends get into this and then hide in a private group or more often Solo because they're scared of the two whole gankers active any given moment, like they don't know theres only 5 million cheaper properly singleplayer space games out there.


Anyway, +1 from me!

 

[UFO Reality]

another +1 for the OP.

 

[JosiahD]

Do away with the "Take papers deliver there" thing. Absolutely worthless, uninspired and insulting.


Break up pledge and allegiances separately, Empire, Federation and Alliance, pledges being locked to your allegiance, ie an imperial aligned player would not be able to pick Zachary Hudson as their pledge.


Lock your pledge under contracts, 1 week gets no bonus, 1 month gets increased rewards and permanent gets a considerable increased rewards, albeit at the cost of paying 5% (Or another low number) of credits earned through it (Perhaps remove the ability to list for them again unless the player buy permission to list again to them at twice the price they paid to defect or a timed delay)


Now for the actual gameplay stuff, add PLEDGE AND ALLEGIANCE SPECIFIC missions, such as;

1. attacking planetary bases, destroying buildings (Such as storage, munitions depots, food warehouse, etc)
2. destroying drilling operations (The currently empty, useless and guarded for nothing drilling machines) and raiding local planet authority.
3. Missions to go attack a space station, not the huge Coriolis ones, rather smaller stations (the ones that can only accommodate small/medium ships) in a special instance, with local security to make the mission harder.
4. Missions to go hunt for attacking a convoy of important enemy supplies to cripple their advance.
5. Missions to fight in huge conflict zones that will heavily impact the outcome of a system's owner, dangerous ones that will perhaps require you to bring allies (Both ally and enemy reinforcements not being infinite (Capital ships could take part of it is it is Allegiance powers attacking/defending))
6. Missions for truckers to deliver black market goods to the enemy stations (Such as delivering small arms to rebel groups within the enemy's base to attack the enemy pledge from the inside)
7. Missions to go route an enemy capital ship attacking an allied one or a parked one in enemy territory.
8. Missions for explorers to go out and scout planets of enemy positions, which in turns appears as a combat mission.

And to add a twist, make it so there are missions for PVP to happen and sabotage someone else's mission, this is powerplay and PVP should be part of it more than it is right now. Doing any of these actions would obviously have credits rewards but also increase your standing with your allegiance and pledge.

Powerplay should be locked for Open Play, as it affects the BGS.

Don't have any particular objections to your suggestion.....apart from the last point. Totally disagree with restricting Powerplay to open only. Under no circumstances should that occur.

 

[Merkk]

Don't have any particular objections to your suggestion.....apart from the last point. Totally disagree with restricting Powerplay to open only. Under no circumstances should that occur.

That would defeat the entire point of being a social activity to do. If you can't actually stop people from doing these things then what's the point of powerplay? Risk vs reward is something awfully disregarded here. Risk is what makes a game fun and engaging.

 

[ebbrell]

I m hoping when / if the that goods appear they are another super power in the power play stuff. Imaging other super powers joint peace treats with them, while others don't...

We may all end up fighting borders to keep them at bay

 

[JosiahD]

That would defeat the entire point of being a social activity to do. If you can't actually stop people from doing these things then what's the point of powerplay? Risk vs reward is something awfully disregarded here. Risk is what makes a game fun and engaging.

Your opinion, not everyone would agree. Private groups can be just as social yet you wish to exclude them from Powerplay, so if it was just about social activity that doesn't add up. And if it's just about PvP (and I don't think you're suggesting it should just be about PvP), that can already be used to oppose Powerplay actions - it will just never be that effective simply due to instancing and matchmaking implications.....in open to boot, never mind opponents in solo or private. Remember that you can't directly oppose someone who is in open but simply not instanced with you (or even just in a different timezone) either - no different to someone opposing activities from solo or private group anyway. Bottom line is you can try to force everyone into open but it still won't mean you can oppose them with direct PvP actions, or any other interaction, anyway. So there is no real benefit from blocking solo and private from Powerplay, and it actually would be counterproductive in my opinion as even fewer people would bother to participate if they can't avoid the jerks by jumping into private or solo.

 

[Merkk]

Your opinion, not everyone would agree. Private groups can be just as social yet you wish to exclude them from Powerplay, so if it was just about social activity that doesn't add up. And if it's just about PvP (and I don't think you're suggesting it should just be about PvP), that can already be used to oppose Powerplay actions - it will just never be that effective simply due to instancing and matchmaking implications.....in open to boot, never mind opponents in solo or private. Remember that you can't directly oppose someone who is in open but simply not instanced with you (or even just in a different timezone) either - no different to someone opposing activities from solo or private group anyway. Bottom line is you can try to force everyone into open but it still won't mean you can oppose them with direct PvP actions, or any other interaction, anyway. So there is no real benefit from blocking solo and private from Powerplay, and it actually would be counterproductive in my opinion as even fewer people would bother to participate if they can't avoid the jerks by jumping into private or solo.

Are you trying to say getting people to play together in open creating emergent gameplay, instead of having everyone taxi papers around in solo, is a bad idea?

You also seem to be hinting that PVP players are "jerks". That's a little biased, don't you thinik? You don't want it to be in open because you might get ganked.

 

[JosiahD]

Are you trying to say getting people to play together in open creating emergent gameplay, instead of having everyone taxi papers around in solo, is a bad idea?

You also seem to be hinting that PVP players are "jerks". That's a little biased, don't you thinik? You don't want it to be in open because you might get ganked.

Are you suggesting that this so-called emergent gameplay is universally considered a good idea? Because I can tell you that couldn't be further from the truth. Much of what certain people consider emergent gameplay is abhorrent, antisocial clap-trap as far as many others are concerned. Attracting people to open though is a good idea, even I'm on board with that - forcing them to just to participate in Powerplay is not. And I didn't say all PvPers are jerks - are you suggesting that there are no jerks amongst the PvP community though? There are jerks in all gaming communities regardless of persuasion - the fact is that the ability to chose solo or private is a valuable method for many of us to exercise our right to choose who we do or do not play with by avoiding open if we so desire. Probably the best feature of the game alongside the galaxy model. Forcing Powerplay to open only would be counterproductive to your other suggestions re Powerplay gameplay.

 

[Retrograde]

I agree with this (perhaps except the open requirement). Powerplay needs a big overhaul. I love the idea of different powers competing and creating different spaces in the galaxy, but now it seems mostly wasted. It would be lovely to see it more integrated with other systems.

Some further suggestions:

1. Integrate with BGS. Minor factions should support a power (or be independent), not a superpower. If you want to help your power in a system, you can help the minor faction that supports that power.
2. Since a power's hold on a system comes from minor faction influence, there are different degrees of control, including shared systems. If a power has more than, say, 60% control, then implement the various power effects on trade, security, etc. Make these effects really obvious - show on system map, trading interface, etc. Also show images of the power name and leader everywhere.
3. Powers should have different relationships to each other - war, cold war, ally, neutral. This creates more dynamics and lets imperial and federal powers work together, shaping imperial, federal, and alliance space. It should also drive the mission system.
4. Make powers completely dynamic, 100% gameplay-driven systems. Please drop the contests! Any minor faction that spreads to 5+ systems automatically becomes a power, up to a maximum of, say, 12 most influential powers. So a power can be relegated down to minor faction if another minor faction gets more systems than you have.
5. Move perks, e.g. special weapons, to the superpower level. So for example, all players of a certain rank in powers supporting the Federation can access some equipment, not individual powers.
6. When a minor faction rises to become a power, its effects on local systems is determined by the government type of the minor faction, e.g. corporate, feudal, theocracy, etc. This determines whether certain trade goods are banned or allowed, security raised or lowered, etc.
7. You rise in the ranks with a power mainly by doing missions for that power. Each power should always have a CG running, perhaps voted on by players. Other missions are determined by the power type and relationship state with other powers. Only theocracies deliver pamphlets!