Powerplay Cycle 105 Charts 'n' Stuff

Cycle-104-Charts-n-Stuff

Official data isn't out yet, so here are the numbers from very late in the cycle (they will be far more accurate then the official numbers) for the expansion and opposition merits.

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The above chart shows the massive imbalance thats still in PP, even with the reduced player numbers.

Mahon (whos ranked first nearly every week) won another profitable expansion with not even enough opposition to get the to 100% mark.
All of the other 10 powers are still scared to challenge Mahon in any way.

Delaine had a level of opposition to his expansions that I'm sure will push the weekly total number of merits much higher than usual.
I'm still convinced that all the opposition to Delaine is just an FDev data entry clerk who last week accidentally typed in an extra 0 in the database for Delaines opposition numbers.
Either that or some exploit that only works with combat expansions, and doesn't work with undermining.

When the official numbers are released I'll post the usual charts.

*EDIT

Data for cycle 105 is out now.

Known Merits

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Aisling did the most total merits again, but Winters moved up to 2nd, followed closely by Hudson then ALD.
On the effective merits chart, Winters did the most merits, although some of them are in expansions that didn't go through (even with my more up to date data) so Hudson probably did the most amount of effective merits.
ALD and Aisling did their usual high amount as well.

There is a large drop to the second tier of powers, with Patreus moving way up to 5th most effective number of merits.

Unknown Merits

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On the total number of merits chart, Delaine moved back up to close to 1 million merits in total opposition and undermining.
Winters is a large way back in second place, with undermining on everyone down by a very large amount.

The effective merits chart shows Patreus in first place, with 100,000 merits in undermined systems.
Aisling, Sirius, Antal and Torval had 0 systems undermined.
 
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All of the other 10 powers are still scared to challenge Mahon in any way.

I think right now PP fighting is really between the Feds and the Imps, and if you are neutral you tend to benefit more.

To take down a well organised power like Mahon would require co-ordination and a lot of time, with a prelude of BGS attacks leading up to blanket snipe undermining followed up week after week, with further BGS strikes to mess up economies.

If anything the gigantic attacks in PP don't last long enough. Rum addled pirates undermined about 50% of Antals systems, but due to the BGS work shrugged it off. The Feds hit Mahon but did not really follow it through due to various pressures. As time goes on Powers will become more BGS entrenched and large scale war will be ineffectual.
 
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If anything the gigantic attacks in PP don't last long enough. Rum addled pirates undermined about 50% of Antals systems, but due to the BGS work shrugged it off. The Feds hit Mahon but did not really follow it through due to various pressures. As time goes on Powers will become more BGS entrenched and large scale war will be ineffectual.

"there is nowhere profitable left to expand to" is what you hear from comment after comment.
DP Camel was a profitable system and was a similar distance for Mahon, Hudson, Sirius and Antal.
Hudson, Sirius and Antal players chose to give this area up to Mahon for free, even after Antal players tried to out prep Mahon for it the previous week.

Even with all the undermining to fortification ratio imbalances that are in PP, I think what just happened with the Mahon expansion is the real problem with PP.
 
I think what just happened with the Mahon expansion is the real problem with PP.

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Everyone is too polite!

I think in that case it was that although Utopian players can shift prep, so can Mahon pledges who are slightly more numerous and also a pinch of bad luck.

I still think if there was a way to supercharge / force multiply undermining it would add dynamism, and that maybe a game mechanic could be made out of alliances.
 
DP Camel was a profitable system and was a similar distance for Mahon, Hudson, Sirius and Antal.

Hudson already tried an attack on Mahon while fighting against the Empire, and that didn't go too well. Sirius isn't in any shape to challenge anyone (not enough players), and Antal doesn't really have the player base to challenge Mahon.

It's also ignoring that the Aisling expansion into AF Leporis contested 45 CC for the Winters expansion, which Hudson would typically help fight, and that the Archon expansion into Huilliche contested 28 CC for Antal.

Why would it be more important for the Feds to fight a Mahon expansion that doesn't contest their income, than an Aisling expansion that does? And why would it be more important for Antal to contest a Mahon expansion than an Archon expansion that does?

Now, if Antal didn't have to fight off an Archon expansion and if the feds didn't have to fight off an Aisling expansion, it'd make more sense for them to oppose the Mahon expansion, but ignoring a loss that's bigger than the possible gain from DP Camel would be stupid.

I suppose what I'm saying is:

"I would like to extend my appreciation for Archon getting helping Mahon get his expansion by putting up expansions as distractions for the powers that would oppose the expansion."
 
I have a proposal for Sandro to change slightly the mechanics and make things more dynamic and get a way out of the current stalemate. I'm not going to propose a major overhaul, just a small tidbit:

Add to Control Systems a "support value" which is strengthened if the system is fortified and slowly decays if the system is neglected (and decays a bit faster if the system is regularly undermined). If support falls below a certain threshold, the system will turmoil spontaneously. This simulates the fact that if a system don't see the support of the power they're voting for, then they may look elsewhere.

This will have the following positive effects:
1- avoid the SCRAP mechanics: if a power doesn't want a system they just have to avoid fortifying it; no need to pledge to opposing powers to undermine one's own system (thanks Vectron for the correction);
2- favour active communities, thus reflecting the balance of forces on the map;
3- there was a 3 when I started to write, but now I forgot it :D edit: now I recall, this opens up the option to communities to make deals by retreating voluntarily from some areas of space.

In any case, I think this would be easy to implement and it would add some dynamics to the game and at the same time help solving the problem of unwanted systems.
 
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no need to pledge to opposing powers to undermine one own's system (sorry for the English, I'm not sure it's written this way);

I think it's "one's own", but I think we all understand your sentiment either way.

Depending on how it's done, I do like the notion. If it's through a single cycle, I'd have to object, but if it's done across multiple cycles, it's fine.
 
"I would like to extend my appreciation for Archon getting helping Mahon get his expansion by putting up expansions as distractions for the powers that would oppose the expansion."

Well you are welcome, still looking for the gratitude from Antal and Patreus players for pushing them up the galactic standings :p

*edit, updated the original post
 
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