Powerplay Faction: Aisling Duval Cycle 518/2.27 The Top (May 1st to 8th 2025/3311)

professor hex

professor hex
A moment to savour. Further prodigious growth, utilising more of a mix of methods this cycle, saw Aisling emerge for the first time as the largest power (+25, 1491). We overtook Big Ed Mahon, who was not exactly slouching (+10,1487). Reaching the top is tough, staying there is likely to be harder still.

New systems (ones with actual names) include Aling (which could be spelled better), Kao Wanga, Lulus, Marogee, Mirona, Swahili, and Vauahtunu. Excited miners rather overdid Mu-2 Pavonis and Zang Tangma.

In fact all powers grew, especially Li Yong Rui (+21, 847) and Aunty Arissa (+20, 1394), who edged out Aisling pledges contesting Han Crua. No reports of activity there reached us. The organised ADC community represents many but not all pledged Cmdrs.

Similarly, Motilone and Paresa were acquired by outsiders. The former was available for many weeks, but we will honour our agreements with Talon Order and Nova Navy respectively by asking Cmdrs to refrain from reinforcement there.

Good to see Granny (+7, 486) and dishy Denton (+8, 631) rally after recent tribulations, but there is growing concern at the attacks over weeks now on Uncle Yuri Grom. Around 10 million so far anonymous merits caused Fong Wang to drop, although massive defensive traffic saved Nuenets and V886 Centauri.

This is reminiscent of the botting that drove EGP from Powerplay 1.0. It would be helpful if power bounties had not been lost from station boards since colonisation launched. We ask FDev to investigate and to confirm this was done by fair means within ToS.

Maybe you could lift the weird booze ban in Aisling’s space too, so we can throw a proper party, lawfully? We’ll celebrate anyway. Congratulations and thanks to all contributors. Have fun out there.


Objectives for Cycle 519/2.28 (until May 15th)
  • Join the Discord for insight, mentoring, BGS, and PVP. Powerplay is a community game, so connect with us. It is not practicable to keep all public objectives up to date nor is it necessarily in our interest to reveal them all. Targets may change frequently.
  • Reinforcement: make Isiti a Stronghold. Push Nora, Beara, HIP 1419 to fortified. Reinforce recent acquisitions Mu-2 Pavonis, Zang Tangma, Inars, Core Sys Sector CB-O a6-0, HIP 114188, HIP 104023, Mironen, Marogee, Aling, HIP 97344, LTT 2513, Lulus, HIP 306, Nauahtunu, HIP 59455, ICZ KC-U b3-6, Kao Wanga, Core Sys Sector EB-O a6-2, Tucanae Sector GB-W b2-5, Col 285 Sector BH-J b23-5, Scorpii Sector GW-W b1-4, Col 285 Sector SP-K b23-6, HIP 14752, Faros, Q2 Eridani, HIP 99994, Rukarwadja, Arevat, Uygur, Honir, Mohangda, HIP 862, HIP 6262, HIP 109368.
  • Acquisition targets: Nicopa, HIP 277, Brulidji, Kaukas, Raijuhty.
  • Aisling Duval powerplay is committed to the ZYADA alliance: Zemina Torval, Yuri Grom, Arissa Lavigny-Duval, Denton Patreus, Aisling Duval. We ask all Aisling Duval Agents to respect this alliance by not attempting to undermine our allies’ systems.
 

Rebel Yell

Rebel Yell
professor hex said:
This is reminiscent of the botting that drove EGP from Powerplay 1.0. It would be helpful if power bounties had not been lost from station boards since colonisation launched. We ask FDev to investigate and to confirm this was done by fair means within ToS.
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They have to remove all activities which are easily exploitable from acquisitions and undermining, instead of having gifted more powers with them.
 

professor hex

professor hex
Rebel Yell said:
They have to remove all activities which are easily exploitable from acquisitions and undermining, instead of having gifted more powers with them.
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All I know is: the numbers have been surprisingly large, nobody has claimed responsibility, and Grom has raised this with FDev. I do not know what methods have been used.
 

[VR] Bulbulunufus

[VR] Bulbulunufus
The wildcards that come along with decentralisation that has emerged from PP2.0's radically different mechanics make things less predictable, which is.... "good". But it's weird that it is focused on Grom and also the locations are not well explained by normal powerplay concerns (e.g. Archer wanting to reclaim territory), from what I can tell. Normally you'd look to a local faction or other, but I don't recall that that adds up in this case either. Someone flexing an exploit or newfound meta might spread it around. It feels like a punishment beating for Grom having offended someone, but who? Then again, who can say what's going through the mind of a wildcard actor. Maybe this is just "stuff that happens" under PP2.0. At the end of the day, Grom's position is unlikely to be significantly changed though - the attack will presumably end in a limited time.
 

professor hex

professor hex
[VR] Bulbulunufus said:
The wildcards that come along with decentralisation that has emerged from PP2.0's radically different mechanics make things less predictable, which is.... "good". But it's weird that it is focused on Grom and also the locations are not well explained by normal powerplay concerns (e.g. Archer wanting to reclaim territory), from what I can tell. Normally you'd look to a local faction or other, but I don't recall that that adds up in this case either. Someone flexing an exploit or newfound meta might spread it around. It feels like a punishment beating for Grom having offended someone, but who? Then again, who can say what's going through the mind of a wildcard actor. Maybe this is just "stuff that happens" under PP2.0. At the end of the day, Grom's position is unlikely to be significantly changed though - the attack will presumably end in a limited time.
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I can't say any more than I have said, and I really don't know any more. Automated activity was a permanent feature of PP1.0, though it did reduce in the later months. So let's hope FDev confirm this is legit, or quash it if it is not. Bulb I have just read your update for Winters. Thank you for your congratulations to Aisling.
 

[VR] Bulbulunufus

[VR] Bulbulunufus
professor hex said:
I can't say any more than I have said, and I really don't know any more. Automated activity was a permanent feature of PP1.0, though it did reduce in the later months. So let's hope FDev confirm this is legit, or quash it if it is not. Bulb I have just read your update for Winters. Thank you for your congratulations to Aisling.
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Not interrogating you, dont worry. Just speculating out loud like everyone else. I'm less interested in the means - hopefully anything untoward will be remedied - and more intrigued by the motive, to be honest.
 

Rebel Yell

Rebel Yell
professor hex said:
I can't say any more than I have said, and I really don't know any more. Automated activity was a permanent feature of PP1.0, though it did reduce in the later months. So let's hope FDev confirm this is legit, or quash it if it is not. Bulb I have just read your update for Winters. Thank you for your congratulations to Aisling.
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I don't think is "automated" but a baseline exploit; and as we had/have quite a lot of broken/unbalanced things in the current PP 2.0 framework, I am just (for the specific case) more surprised about the mass abuse of that because to be such "efficient" it requires anyway a number of accounts to be involved.

So, for sure it's being organized/coordinated somewhere then...

[VR] Bulbulunufus said:
Not interrogating you, dont worry. Just speculating out loud like everyone else. I'm less interested in the means - hopefully anything untoward will be remedied - and more intrigued by the motive, to be honest.
Click to expand...

...yeah, I'd like to know the reasons.
 

Rubbernuke

Rubbernuke
Rebel Yell said:
I don't think is "automated" but a baseline exploit; and as we had/have quite a lot of broken/unbalanced things in the current PP 2.0 framework, I am just (for the specific case) more surprised about the mass abuse of that because to be such "efficient" it requires anyway a number of accounts to be involved.

So, for sure it's being organized/coordinated somewhere then...



...yeah, I'd like to know the reasons.
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As a vet of soul crushing 'what have they done now?' I can say that the only solace you'll get is when it stops, because FD will never directly tell you if it was legit or an exploit. That, or watch the patch notes and read between the lines.....
 
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Rubbernuke

Rubbernuke
Rebel Yell said:
Indeed... or a sudden shadow-fix :D
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The only times I've seen FD overtly spank some cheeks was early on with a merit exploit in PP1. One day loads of UM merits suddenly vanished and people were like 'wut'? But then you also had the very public (and welcome) open dealings and (almost sort of) help with vote rigging and consolidation where FD chatted to the PP elders and offered solutions. In a feature driven by players being open about how you are doing things builds confidence while being ninja just fosters distrust, even when it might resolve.
 
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