Does powerplay even matter?
- Thread starter SouthernGorilla
- Start date
And it was yummy.
I can understand that point, but in the end its no different to someone pushing the BGS with repetitive actions- the whole game is built on grind wherever you go.
Looks at title
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But really though, as others have mentioned, not in the slightest. You grind for the 1 or 2 relevant modules you want and then forget it ever existed. It bears almost no impact on the game, and even if you wanted to theres not much you can really do to influence it.
Sorry, I just find it entertaining whenever this topic comes up. Pretty sure FDev's long since burried powerplay and wants to forget it exists. And frankly, a lot of us do too <.<; .
It's lopsided and despite the years of feedback and complaints, it's still has major issues.
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But really though, as others have mentioned, not in the slightest. You grind for the 1 or 2 relevant modules you want and then forget it ever existed. It bears almost no impact on the game, and even if you wanted to theres not much you can really do to influence it.
Sorry, I just find it entertaining whenever this topic comes up. Pretty sure FDev's long since burried powerplay and wants to forget it exists. And frankly, a lot of us do too <.<; .
It's lopsided and despite the years of feedback and complaints, it's still has major issues.
the actual activity wouldn't be too bad if the result mattered. Pushing the bgs changes the system state and faction in power etc... but none of that matters when you can find a system in practically any state selling whatever you want within a couple jumps. BGS flipping is in the same vein of pointlessness - not because the way you do is repetitive (though that's bad) but because it doesn't matter to anyone that you did it outside of roleplayers.
Same with powerplay, it's not the constant repeated activity of trucking things around that's the point. it's that every week you do all that and nothing changes because of it. A couple systems may switch hands, but who cares? It doesn't mean anything to anyone else not having a role playing investment in it. The actual gameplay and state do not really change.
Powerplay is a mouse wheel that goes nowhere unless Fdev manually moves their hand of god on something. Players have no agency in anything that matters. (which was the entire point of powerplay)
Its why I'd love the ideas of making at least some of it PvP, so that its more unpredictable.
But it looks as if any changes are set back another 6-12 months...again.
I think that's why the bubble needs to burn. The biggest problem with the basic mechanics of the game is how overly ignorable and redundant it all is when the systems with all of the various content are all so close to eachother.
Burn the bubble and scatter the remains of humanity. That's how you make the BGS matter. That's how things like poweplay would matter. The distance between things needs to get bigger. But that also means, fdev needs to make travelling that distance actually fun and not a punishing time sink that they've only used as a balance to achievement thus far.
Burn the bubble and scatter the remains of humanity. That's how you make the BGS matter. That's how things like poweplay would matter. The distance between things needs to get bigger. But that also means, fdev needs to make travelling that distance actually fun and not a punishing time sink that they've only used as a balance to achievement thus far.
If Powerplay was born whole (i.e. with collapse) and FD actually nurtured it it would matter. People were interested and pledged because of that consequence, only to be gut punched when FD admitted it (collapse) was not in. After that Powerplay is an empty game loop.
Obviously, poweplay if complete would have been quite effective at mattering to those who participated in it even if the bubble remained as-is. But i was considering the non-participant aspect more than the participant since even with it fully active - much of it is still roleplaying oriented and such things wouldn't matter to outside players (though i think a full powerplay would have had a much bigger percentage of participants vs non).
i dont think it could have really achieved it's full goal of letting players shape the game via their pledged power with the current way humanity is collected in the game. The distance between stations / resources needs to be much bigger to make the states and effects matter to players . For the individual impacts on the bgs to matter, players can't simply circumvent obstacles to what they prefer. So for the efforts of players impacting the BGS to matter (and thus powerplay), the bubble must burn.
Indeed! I'd love a bubble thats smashed to bits and its players living in the ruins.
That could also be not a lack of agency but simple stagnation. Each power has a certain number of supporters which is unlikely to vary massively. Any expansion in one direction would have to be accompanied by withdrawal in another simply because they don't have the resources to spread their focus.
I do know that once I stock up on prismatics I'm leaving the waifu for greener pastures. But I'm sure my departure will be balanced by a new arrival.
There are triggers that were supposed to impact power collapse and creation that dont exist. So a power withdrawing can do so forever without any repercussions. Powers can only expand so far before it becomes too expensive to expand any further. ...so you reach a balance between most powers where you just teeter on that balance point.
The stagnation is not due to the players or lack-there-of, but because the mechanism that should exist to accompany such a state doesn't exist.
Even when your power is consuming systems or has a lot (like mahon) ...the impact they have can easily be ignored by players because you can just jump elsewhere not impacted by the power effects with almost no compromise for the player to do so. because everything is grouped in a small bubble. So players have little to no agency in manipulating the BGS, no agency in which factions are powers and no agency in which powers collapse.
So even the minor factions won't really expand or disappear based on my actions. They'll just change order on the mission board.
Pain and modules. In that order.
In the grand scheme of things, not really. There are some benefits to being high ranked in a power. For example, if you're rank 5 in kumo crew, then in all of Delaines' exploited/controlled systems you will gain no bounties or fines ever. I'm using that right now to futz around in Odyssey without the consequences of having to go to a prison ship at the slightest misstep. Winters has a BGS effect boost, LYR has an exploration data value boost, don't remember what the others have off-hand.
Powerplay should be at the very core of the game, providing narrative and purpose to the actions of the playerbase as they vie to shape the galaxy. The fact that it is ignored and unloved by the developers shows lack of vision and its implementation in game as a mere bucketfilling enterprise displays the semi-incompetence of the game designers.
Honestly, given the current design, power collapse would be a terrible idea. The current system would result in one or two massive powers and everything else withered to nothing.
The real problem, imo, is a lack of short term goals. There is no long term win condition, so lacking short term objectives, it all ends up feeling pointless.
Some power related cgs would be neat occasionally.
The real problem, imo, is a lack of short term goals. There is no long term win condition, so lacking short term objectives, it all ends up feeling pointless.
Some power related cgs would be neat occasionally.
power collapse was never supposed to exist by itself. power promotion was also supposed to exist. Allowing factions that you push to expand to a certain number of systems into automatically becoming a power.
So there would be a mechanism for creating new powers and removing powers and this would keep going.
If it turned out one power grew to rule them all then so be it. However given the rules of expansion and the cost ...that would be highly unlikely if not impossible.
But whatever the layout turned out to be, it would be the players deciding it. If it ruined the makup of the who's in power in the galaxy, (big players in the empire or federation etc) then so be it. That's the way it would just have to be and the narrative would have to adapt.
