Powerplay Does Powerplay restrict the vastness of ED?

[Vendrium]

I'm quite new to the game - just started last weekend and so I was wondering and exploring "Powerplay".

When I bring up the map to see every faction's territory - I was wondering:

Elite Dangerous allows us to explore 400 billion star systems and yet the territory that each Powerplay faction controls seems to be but a tiny grain of sand compared to that.

If someone chooses to participate in the whole Powerplay mechanic and primarily focus on it, it seems to me that they are limiting themselves to a "hand full" of systems, is that correct?

Or am I forgetting something here?

 

[sp0q]

Not exactly - the rest of the 400 billion systems is free of human plague so it's of use only to explorers. Taking part in PP does not change that.

 

[CMDR Byr Goefin]

I am in group that focuses on PP.

Very often, members head for the Deep Void on a pilgrimage of sorts.

The human bubble impacts everyone but explorers. There is no trading, no bounty hunting, no pirating, and no smuggling out in the Deep Void.

There is only the Void.

 

[Martin Schou]

If someone chooses to participate in the whole Powerplay mechanic and primarily focus on it, it seems to me that they are limiting themselves to a "hand full" of systems, is that correct?

Edmund Mahon currently exploits more than 1,100 populated systems with more than 2,500 stations between them.

Add to that an unknown amount of unpopulated systems, and once Horizons comes online Mahon has more systems and planets to explore than you could reasonably expect to explore for a really long time.

It's still quite a ways off of 400,000,000,000, but it is slightly more than a handful.

If you dedicate yourself to PowerPlay then yes, you won't get to explore the entire galaxy, but then again, with 400,000,000,000 stars in the galaxy, you won't ever manage to explore the entire galaxy.

Even if you limit yourself to populated space, you're still looking at more than 19,000 systems and a huge amount of unpopulated systems within, say, 25 light years of populated systems. Add Horizons into the mix and you'll definitely start to have problems if you intend to visit and land on each planet. Even if we make a simple assumption that you'll spend only one hour exploring each planet, and each populated system has one planet you can land on, then once Horizons is available, you'll have to spend more than 19,000 hours just to visit them.

Let's make a further assumption. Let's say you play 16 hours a day doing nothing but this. Now you're looking at 1,187 days and 12 hours worth of game time.

If you start at 8 AM on January 1st 2016, you'll be done by 8 PM on March 31st 2019.

Incidentally, for Mahon the numbers are a **bit** more forgiving, because then you'll be done by March 7th, 2016, but that's not quite true, because it assumes that Mahon won't expand into new systems in the mean time (and I'm pretty sure he will).

And keep in mind that these estimates are being extremely generous in terms of the time spent per day, landfall planets per system and the amount of time you'll spend exploring them.

Don't make the assumption that the populated bubble being tiny in comparison to the galaxy means that it is tiny in terms of the content available.

 

[Bigglesof206]

PP faction membership means that you will be interdicted by NPCs more often. ALMOST every time this happens you can simply submit, then boost away before any damage is done, and either jump into supercruise - or, in extreme cases - jump to another system to complete the escape. VERY occasionally the interdiction seems to be bugged, and you'll find escape rather harder, but it's not frequent.

That's it really, if you go exploring then once you are out of the more heavily travelled areas (the powerplay bubble, so to speak) you'll very rarely see any interdiction taking place, and being in a PP faction has little or no effect on your experience.

PP is like a game of RISK, but it just kinda goes on endlessly - it can add interest, especially if you pay attention to the diplomacy and reddit info, because you'll then be seeing the ideas and machinations that a relatively small group of active players put into trying to swing the evolution of 'known space'. If this doesn't interest you then avoid PP, doing it for the credit paypacket each week isn't a sensible option as you can earn more elsewhere in ways that have a less noticeable effect on your in game experience.... if you want to trade using a T6 or T7 then avoid PP, the interaction (read 'interdiction' for that) will frustrate your trading - PP increases your interdiction rate by a good amount!

Dave​

 

[Martin Schou]

PP faction membership means that you will be interdicted by NPCs more often. ALMOST every time this happens you can simply submit, then boost away before any damage is done, and either jump into supercruise - or, in extreme cases - jump to another system to complete the escape. VERY occasionally the interdiction seems to be bugged, and you'll find escape rather harder, but it's not frequent.

That's it really, if you go exploring then once you are out of the more heavily travelled areas (the powerplay bubble, so to speak) you'll very rarely see any interdiction taking place, and being in a PP faction has little or no effect on your experience.

PP is like a game of RISK, but it just kinda goes on endlessly - it can add interest, especially if you pay attention to the diplomacy and reddit info, because you'll then be seeing the ideas and machinations that a relatively small group of active players put into trying to swing the evolution of 'known space'. If this doesn't interest you then avoid PP, doing it for the credit paypacket each week isn't a sensible option as you can earn more elsewhere in ways that have a less noticeable effect on your in game experience.... if you want to trade using a T6 or T7 then avoid PP, the interaction (read 'interdiction' for that) will frustrate your trading - PP increases your interdiction rate by a good amount!

Dave​

While this is absolutely true, I fail to see the relevance.

 

[Schlack]

What PP does provide is a certain geography to the inhabited space in which it occurs.

 

[Zephyriel]

Powerplay exists within the limits of human inhabited space. It's a game of power and politics, so obviously if you want to take part in it, you have to remain inside the inhabited bubble. It's just an additional activity to do in inhabited space. Nothing prevents you from going out there and explore.

 

[zimms]

I think the biggest constraint is not the interdictions, but the fact that you can't go out to explore. You're away for a while and you start from 0.

 

[DNA-Decay]

Power Play is plenty big enough.

I've never even been to every Mahon Control System, and I held rank 4 for six weeks.

And just about every activity has some bearing on Powerplay.
eg Exploration data affects the Background Sim.
The Background Sim affects Fortification costs.

There has been recent talk of weaponising UAs to shut down trade routes.

Everything has an interdependance, but if you ignore Powerplay you are only missing out on some content - it doesn't affect your personal journey through the ranks.