That's why I think they should make pp commodities like rare goods. You can only get one allotment, and need to deliver them before you can get another. Then reduce the requirements to compensate. Less merits also makes piracy more viable, and lets you do normal trade alongside.
Does powerplay even matter?
- Thread starter SouthernGorilla
- Start date
i think a lot of anti-solo mode powerplay sentiment involves choke points of high activity. It's obvious players have an easier time than in open ...that's why everyone goes to solo in community events and around engineers in general. Despite the impossibility of open being a perfect environment for powers to directly oppose eachother - it's significant enough to change player behavior on a wide scale just on the threat.
You can mitigate that though, with better npcs. Make the threat as real from npcs of losing your ship as it is in open from some pvp player.
That kind of balance is viable for powerplay, because power play is optional.
You can mitigate that though, with better npcs. Make the threat as real from npcs of losing your ship as it is in open from some pvp player.
That kind of balance is viable for powerplay, because power play is optional.
Well yep, that's just about it tbh. You haul, i'll haul... how exciting.. except you get to haul with zero consequences, because let's be honest, unless you're a n00b the NPCs give no problems. All they actually do is interdict and annoy at best. If PP was more connected with the BGS and everyone was playing in Open, you'd still be able to enjoy a 'solo' life if wanted. Ganking is in the minority and please don't try and make out it isn't. You could fly around with free will and do whatever, mostly.. But if you wanted to start actually joining in a trend or big move and join a power, get behind an agenda and then help push into another powers system for extra gains, you'd meet with some actual opposition. And then you'd have to start thinking on your choices, routes.. quickest and most dangerous.. or slowest and safer.. etc. That actually sounds like it could be a bit more fun than what we actually have which is shallow, boring and of course completely pointless. Unless you want (ironically) weapons and shielding.
Yeah, NPCs indeed are easily dealt with.... so easily so that they kind of seem pointless to the point that they may as well be removed from the game, or simply be put into passive mode and leave everyone alone as all they do is annoy at best. Maybe you like the superiority complex of never being threatened and all 'empowered' ? Sometimes that has to not be the case.. at most it's all rather drab and boring.
I'm in the open 100% now have been for mths.
I'm in a region of the bubble that's quiet. Yeah we get visitors bgs flippers etc. Even the odd ganker passing through.
But this morbid fear of open due to pvp is overstated in the extreme. Besides even if u do meet one you just high wake chances are he can't follow cos his murder boat has a short range fsd....but their cottoning onto that so be wary.
Having that sense of impending attack, the vulnerability, ADDS to the game.
Try it!
I'm hauling fortifys or undermining i come across cmdrs doing the same thing either allies or enemy's and the resulting scraps are scarey but doable survivable.
I even got attacked by a wing of empire dudes ( I was naughty in their space) and managed to high wake.
Sometimes I shoot back but mostly Ieg it! ALL my ships are engineered towards whatever their designed for...but all with underlying strengths. Shielded fsds, armoured powerplants, guardian reinforcements, engineered hull reinforcements (even in cargo vessels).
Truly I've yet to lose a ship in pvp combat or pve.
So it's powerplay open only for me. Not because it's hard or nessesary. Purely because I like that feeling of impending doom!
Keeps you on your toes, and makes the game just that little bit better.
I'm in vr so l can't chat ingame to passers by. Shame that but it don't stop me raising hell behind enemy lines, or defence back home.
The solo morbid fear of open is a mindset.
Yes l know there's 1000s of cmdrs with unengineered ships maxed cargo no guns paper ships...well they've only themselves to blame.
Or... solo means they get away with it...which is OK too..not everyone wants pvp or combat in any way.
I do respect all groups sections of our community. But this pp open only needs doing. Rubbernuke suggested mission only for solo which is a fab compromise. Along with other gives and takes.
Only wish we could change cc output of a given system by altering its economy thus raising output.
This game is amazing. And will be better soon I hope.
Wishing all you empire cmdrs gremlins in your engines hehehe.
o7
I'm in a region of the bubble that's quiet. Yeah we get visitors bgs flippers etc. Even the odd ganker passing through.
But this morbid fear of open due to pvp is overstated in the extreme. Besides even if u do meet one you just high wake chances are he can't follow cos his murder boat has a short range fsd....but their cottoning onto that so be wary.
Having that sense of impending attack, the vulnerability, ADDS to the game.
Try it!
I'm hauling fortifys or undermining i come across cmdrs doing the same thing either allies or enemy's and the resulting scraps are scarey but doable survivable.
I even got attacked by a wing of empire dudes ( I was naughty in their space) and managed to high wake.
Sometimes I shoot back but mostly Ieg it! ALL my ships are engineered towards whatever their designed for...but all with underlying strengths. Shielded fsds, armoured powerplants, guardian reinforcements, engineered hull reinforcements (even in cargo vessels).
Truly I've yet to lose a ship in pvp combat or pve.
So it's powerplay open only for me. Not because it's hard or nessesary. Purely because I like that feeling of impending doom!
Keeps you on your toes, and makes the game just that little bit better.
I'm in vr so l can't chat ingame to passers by. Shame that but it don't stop me raising hell behind enemy lines, or defence back home.
The solo morbid fear of open is a mindset.
Yes l know there's 1000s of cmdrs with unengineered ships maxed cargo no guns paper ships...well they've only themselves to blame.
Or... solo means they get away with it...which is OK too..not everyone wants pvp or combat in any way.
I do respect all groups sections of our community. But this pp open only needs doing. Rubbernuke suggested mission only for solo which is a fab compromise. Along with other gives and takes.
Only wish we could change cc output of a given system by altering its economy thus raising output.
This game is amazing. And will be better soon I hope.
Wishing all you empire cmdrs gremlins in your engines hehehe.
o7
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Does power play even matter? Nope, move along.
And that's what it all boils down to, it's "unfair" because it doesn't suit your playstyle. You just want to kill people and you can't do that if they're in solo. You don't care about the strategy of picking which system to take over or any of the lore behind it. You just want to park near the star and wait for people to pop in with their big, slow freighters so you can zip in with your gankwagon and shoot them. And somehow you think that would be fun for the people in the freighters. Just like it's fun for the cashier at the liquor store when a thug shoves a gun in his face. Fact is, based on the numbers I've seen, it's almost certain that the overwhelming majority of players would be perfectly content if PvP disappeared entirely. At the very least, many of us are annoyed that it's always one-sided. Space-faring cargo ships would be armed to the teeth like WWII bombers were if there was any credible threat. Something like the T7 wouldn't even exist. Freighters would all look more like the T10. But game devs think cargo ships should be nothing more than ice cream trucks serving up tasty treats to wannabes. I mean, wouldn't it be more fun for you if you had to choose your route carefully to avoid the flack from a dozen turrets? You'd meet with some actual opposition. And then you'd have to start thinking on your choices, angles.. quickest and most dangerous.. or slowest and safer.. etc. But that isn't what you want, is it? You want to drop in behind a T7, pull it out of SC, then avoid it's forward guns while disabling or destroying it with your purpose-built combat ship. You're not after a challenge at all. If you were you could be in a haz RES or a CZ getting all the kills you wanted. But you want easy kills. And you're mad because people refuse to volunteer. Your gripe has nothing at all to do with PP.
Mate, you're going round in circles....
Firstly, you're generalizing... I really don't wanna 'park near the star' and wait for T7s... A minority maybe, but, then i'm sure most deal with that in one way or another. At what point did you assume that was my playstyle? You're ranting, FDEV forum stylee...
Secondly, what 'numbers' are you talking about? I feel you're making it up.. and most freighter style ships in ED can high wake and move on no probs if they have a little know how and have engineered and planned for it. WWII has nothing to do with it.... it's a moot point and affects a few at most.
And finally... balance. Yep, maybe a T7 should be able to be tanked up more and deal with possible 'problems' but, that's down to FDEV. And that's always been the main gripe of this game and has been outlined again and again, with many a tear and many a rant, but, it's how the game is and still is many years on.
The other half of the problem is there's no incentive for anything but ganking. Piracy is dead because there's nothing you can practically steal and make any money at, and pvp is dramatically less effective - for any practical purpose - than doing virtually anything else. So all 'fair' pvp pretty much has to be set up beforehand, tournament-style.
If the fighting was traders vs pirates, who A: needed to be set up for piracy, meaning they need to sacrifice just as much as the traders, and B: can't kill their target or they lose their payout, then things could actually be interesting. But because piracy is essentially impossible to do, instead people just blow up everyone they see.
I'm 100% for piracy. I'm 100% against ganking, and even of murder, even when said murder is nominally in the service of one's power. Murder should always be a bad thing, unless you're claiming a bounty. Consider real life; any government that practices extrajudicial killing very quickly faces serious repercussions from the international community. By contrast, piracy is basically a completely normal part of life in some parts of the world, to the extent that many companies set aside significant portions of their budget to pay off ransom demands and cover losses.
There are some fairly simple changes that could be added to make Piracy a more viable mode of gameplay. For one, make Hatchbreakers automatically eject the most valuable goods. Second, give players a way of telling whether the person interdicting them is a pirate or a ganker. If you think you're going to get killed anyway, you'll just commit suicide before they can pirate you, but if you think you can survive, you might let them take some of your cargo, and after they'll let you be on your way.
Third, change goods to make piracy a reasonable option. For example, reduce the raw quantities of powerplay goods hauled; running full cutters of powerplay goods is terrible for piracy, there's no way you can pirate that much. Cap it at 50 for tier 5 players, and remove the ability to purchase more. Make them very valuable to enemy players, too. Also, fix Rare Goods so they're worth hauling, too, so players often carry large amounts of low-profit goods and small cargos of high-profit rare goods.
Those changes alone would go a long way towards making Piracy a better option, before you even get into a more reasonable and enjoyable C&P system.
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Can I engineer it to add more guns? That would be cool. Can I engineer a T7 to 1v1 a Fer-de-Lance?
Point is, what I fly has nothing to do with this thread or the concept of powerplay. Open vs Solo is a non-issue.
Because I'm following you. I asked about powerplay and you came in complaining you couldn't kill people. None of what you've said has in any way been relevant to the question I asked.
Make npcs more intelligent and thus more difficult. This would be done by adding archetypes that make their behavior less predictable. Also, by including a semi-persistent memory of what the player has done to their faction on top of new options at their disposal such as calling in support wings or demanding that the player take corrective action / work for them etc to avoid being attacked later.
Make these more difficult npcs highly triggered on powerplay
Make these more difficult npcs highly triggered on frequency of player visitation (repeatedly going to the same place will result in higher likelihood of interaction)
make these more difficult npcs more difficult in the sense of how they will respond to you having more options ....rather than just cheating
Make these npcs persist across re-instancing if the re-instance occurs within 6 hours (so players can't simply drop connection to deal with them).
Make these npcs respond to your previous ways of dealing with them (part of being more intelligent).
These npcs would eliminate the farmability of locations in a way that feels organic and scales appropriately with the profit (be them credits/merits/etc) that the player is getting.
Organize these in a way that minimizes them in certain safer systems ...while simultaneously limiting the profit potential in those systems to at or below galactic average always...regardless of state. Encouraging those who want to make a fast credit to take a higher risk.
That improves not just powerplay, but mining, trade and combat. Regardless of what mode you're in.
It greatly impacts powerplay because powerplay currently encourages of repeated visitations by few commanders who can sway the entire cycle for a power. This would drastically limit the power and influence a single player can have in a power without any risk. Significantly limiting a minority effort disproportionately influencing any given cycle ...which improves powerplay drastically and goes a long way into removing the hatred of solo play that such gameplay has traditionally be hidden in.
Make these more difficult npcs highly triggered on powerplay
Make these more difficult npcs highly triggered on frequency of player visitation (repeatedly going to the same place will result in higher likelihood of interaction)
make these more difficult npcs more difficult in the sense of how they will respond to you having more options ....rather than just cheating
Make these npcs persist across re-instancing if the re-instance occurs within 6 hours (so players can't simply drop connection to deal with them).
Make these npcs respond to your previous ways of dealing with them (part of being more intelligent).
These npcs would eliminate the farmability of locations in a way that feels organic and scales appropriately with the profit (be them credits/merits/etc) that the player is getting.
Organize these in a way that minimizes them in certain safer systems ...while simultaneously limiting the profit potential in those systems to at or below galactic average always...regardless of state. Encouraging those who want to make a fast credit to take a higher risk.
That improves not just powerplay, but mining, trade and combat. Regardless of what mode you're in.
It greatly impacts powerplay because powerplay currently encourages of repeated visitations by few commanders who can sway the entire cycle for a power. This would drastically limit the power and influence a single player can have in a power without any risk. Significantly limiting a minority effort disproportionately influencing any given cycle ...which improves powerplay drastically and goes a long way into removing the hatred of solo play that such gameplay has traditionally be hidden in.
My 12yrs daughter loves to camp at the star and wait for the "big haul"
nothing bad in doing that, even killing a pledged sidey could matter for the game if the player is holding merits.Thankyou, but what you confirmed then is a bad thing (imho) .. why would Power A sanction/condone/permit the murdering of one of its followers? Typical FDEV logic
The ones belonging to your same power need to be checked if they are randoms or affiliated to other squadrons... reason is simple: 5C.
Glad my ship is white then.