Elite Dangerous | Community Goal Update and Powerplay Conflict Zones

[Paul_Crowther]

Greetings Commanders,

We have added an additional tier to the active Community Goals to allow for more Commanders to earn the rewards.

With Winter's victory seemingly within reach, supporters of Grom may not be taking things lying down - Conflict Zones have erupted throughout LP 855-34!

Please note: We have applied a speculative solution to an issue involving Powerplay Conflict Zones with this update. If you continue to experience issues with Powerplay Conflict Zones please report them on our Issue Tracker and let us know in this thread.

 

[HeatherG]

Thank you Paul!

 

[Cagerontwowheels]

what CG? Winters has already acquired the system via powerplay, now its time to reinforce, not acquire it!

Let me guess - fdev did not remember we could acquire the system independently to the CG. What if Grom would win the system now? It goes back to grom with no undermining done?
What if winters wins, will it loose all reinforcment progress of this week and revert to zero?
Did fdev think this through?
Did fdev think this?
Did fdev think?

 

[Shadowsnog]

there shall come a day, when fdev will not try to backstab federation at every opportunity
but it is not this day

 

[vanFace]

there shall come a day, when fdev will not try to backstab federation at every opportunity
but it is not this day

Why should that day ever come? Basically the feds are US and imps UK, so we know where their heart is beating.

 

[WILLIAM BILL ADAMA]

what CG? Winters has already acquired the system via powerplay, now its time to reinforce, not acquire it!

Let me guess - fdev did not remember we could acquire the system independently to the CG. What if Grom would win the system now? It goes back to grom with no undermining done?
What if winters wins, will it loose all reinforcment progress of this week and revert to zero?
Did fdev think this through?
Did fdev think this?
Did fdev think?

And Jerome Archer will get that system next-next week, I think.

 

[Rubbernuke]

So you have a Fed, another Fed and an ex Fed going at it in a CG / PP mash up?

 

[nemolomen]

there shall come a day, when fdev will not try to backstab federation at every opportunity
but it is not this day

I honestly hope that day never arrives…

 

[Flimley]

I like things. \o/

 

[JR250]

there shall come a day, when fdev will not try to backstab federation at every opportunity
but it is not this day

At times it seems a little biased. Winters was made to be weak by not taking her post after winning the election. Articles speculated she may never take office. When winning the election, she replaced Hudson as the Fed president but didn't inherit any of his systems or gain anything at all. The shadow president holds more Stronghold systems than the actual president - something not present in either Empire or Alliance powers. Curious.

They are quick to set a CG or post a news article any time the Empire invades a Fed system in hopes to rile up a fight - a fight they always lose, btw. Curious how it's never between Alliance and Empire.

And Jerome Archer will get that system next-next week, I think.

I was under the impression that was Archer supporters fighting against Grom. Unfortunately, fighting against Grom scores points against Winters as well. Still, much rather have it go to Archer than Grom.

PP1.0 had Aisling and her ex, Patreus, being friendly to each other. PP2.0 has Fed president and shadow president as "hostile". Same goals, same laws, same space, but hostile. Most Winters and Archer factions are allies but we can't cross-help without undermining the other.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

At times it seems a little biased. Winters was made to be weak by not taking her post after winning the election. Articles speculated she may never take office. When winning the election, she replaced Hudson as the Fed president but didn't inherit any of his systems or gain anything at all. The shadow president holds more Stronghold systems than the actual president - something not present in either Empire or Alliance powers. Curious.

Though Aisling Duval started Powerplay 2 ahead on Strongholds, and Patreus barely behind ALD. If ALD has pulled ahead since that can hardly be put down as Frontier's decision.
(It's perhaps more about different priorities - AD may have fallen behind ALD a bit on Strongholds, but has moved way ahead on Exploited/total systems)

They are quick to set a CG or post a news article any time the Empire invades a Fed system in hopes to rile up a fight - a fight they always lose, btw

I feel "every time there's some sort of conflict, Frontier puts up a CG for the Empire to lose" is more of a complaint for the Empire than the Federation?

(I recall all the Empire supporters complaining that Frontier has set the Federation up as the "default" power, because they're clearly pro-Fed...)

Curious how it's never between Alliance and Empire.

Tricky to set up, since the two barely share a border without going through Federal space first. Alioth's original position as an Imp/Fed disputed system was geographically a bit weird back in FE2/FFE.

(Also no-one cares what the Alliance does, and I say this as a Kaine pledge. It'd be an Empire walkover and everyone knows it - at least Fed/Imp is usually somewhat closer and more interesting)

PP1.0 had Aisling and her ex, Patreus, being friendly to each other. PP2.0 has Fed president and shadow president as "hostile".

Yes, though PP1 also had Hudson and Winters being friendly, and PP2 has Aisling and Patreus being hostile, so that evens out.


Aisling's other famous ex is the Federal Vice President's son (the one who didn't try to have Halsey killed, that is) but no-one is suggesting that Aisling and Winters - who have significant ethos overlap too! - should be marked as friendly so that they can better defeat Archer and ALD. Fun as that might be...

 

[Frank_G]

Greetings Commanders,

We have added an additional tier to the active Community Goals to allow for more Commanders to earn the rewards.

With Winter's victory seemingly within reach, supporters of Grom may not be taking things lying down - Conflict Zones have erupted throughout LP 855-34!

Please note: We have applied a speculative solution to an issue involving Powerplay Conflict Zones with this update. If you continue to experience issues with Powerplay Conflict Zones please report them on our Issue Tracker and let us know in this thread.

Hi Paul,

First off, well done to you and the team for the recent colonisation update, and now this adjustment. I know the colonisation system is a headache but the communication and update is a step in the right direction, so well done!

Some honest feedback about powerplay...
It is boring.
From my limited view of what other players are doing it seems the meta is either rares trading, or downloading data at surface ports. Neither of those activities are - imho - in the spirit of Elite: Dangerous; rares trading is a good addition, but it feels like none of the other powerplay tasks are enjoyable or aren't free of bugs (holoscreen hacking for example only works half of the time - with some limpets flying away from the holoscreen and not attaching) data ports at surfaces bring with them all the odyssey problems. Sorry but on foot stuff in general is again simply boring and copy paste each time (I haven't recently tried the data ports but I'm sure the download time hasn't been changed and is far too long)

But what I really want to talk about in terms of powerplay is the in-space aspect:
Since powerplay 2.0 released I have flown to a lot of power wreckage signal sources, power convoy signal sources, and a few other types I forget the names of.
I once had a really great experience; I flew to a wreckage signal source (threat 2), and there were two small enemy ships, we started fighting. Then an enemy anaconda + 2 small ships in it's wing jumped in and joined the combat, I started to feel out-numbered, but then two allied ships jumped in. Long story short it was a really good experience - a close fight and not one-sided, but an incredibly rare one, as ever since, I have only ever seen 1 or 2 small ships at wreckage signal sources no matter the threat level.
Today after seeing details of the update, I thought I'd give signal sources another go. It was another boring experience.
Not only were there only small ships at wreckage signal sources (regardless of the threat level). But at some signal sources there were no ships at all.
Another problem I've noticed all along, is that enemy powerplay ships seem to have extra armour HP. So a powerplay viper III takes as many shots as an elite anaconda pirate (for example when you take a source and return mission and you get a notification of enemies inbound). I also noticed this same HP issue at powerplay combat zones.
I'm not against the extra HP for power play ships, but the problem then adds to the fly-away / run-away issue. If I interdict powerplay ships (even if they're elite FDLs) they try to high-wake asap. In wreckage signal sources or powerplay CZs they do the same as soon as their hull goes below 50%
In powerplay 1 this wasn't an issue; if you interdicted enemy ships, they would fight you, and it would often be a good fight - t9 with a fighter hanger and a wing - they'd fight you.
So why I say it's boring is because everything either flies away or is a small tanky ship that will also fly away.

I recall the initial ideas right before powerplay 2 came out that it would be open only and flying in enemy territory would be a hard time, and I know that would be a lot of work for the team to achieve, and I'm sure we can all live without that for the time being. But I also recall a time when assassination missions / takedown pirate x missions were different - the enemy pilots in the pirate's wing wouldn't attack you at the same time - and then it changed and now the whole wing attacks you at the same time. That was a great addition, so I'm optimistic that you and the team will be able to make in-space powerplay combat more of an Elite: Dangerous thing rather than a competent / high-wake away thing

 

[JR250]

Tricky to set up, since the two barely share a border without going through Federal space first. Alioth's original position as an Imp/Fed disputed system was geographically a bit weird back in FE2/FFE.

You would think but both Aisling and Mahon are intertwined in Fed space right now. Here's one example of a system currently controlled by Mahon and being undermined by AD: https://inara.cz/elite/starsystem/12885/. Why isn't this highlighted somewhere with a CG or even a news article?

(Also no-one cares what the Alliance does, and I say this as a Kaine pledge. It'd be an Empire walkover and everyone knows it - at least Fed/Imp is usually somewhat closer and more interesting)

That's no longer the case. As a Winters/Fed pledge at the receiving end of constant Alliance aggression, we definitely care what they do. We have Fed systems that have always been Fed, right in Fed space, controlled by Fed factions, but invaded and currently exploited by the Alliance. I'm sure I'm just being sentimental but these were our allies and we respected our boundaries until the Alliance went berserk in PP2. No longer the peace-loving, toke-smoking, cheerful hippies Power they once were. It'd be nice if they had their newfound angry skills put to the test against the Empire once in a while.

Yes, though PP1 also had Hudson and Winters being friendly, and PP2 has Aisling and Patreus being hostile, so that evens out.

Patreus supports slaves, Aisling does not. They ought to be hostile to each other. But Winters and Archer? One can sell you weapons for cheap, the other gives you a discount on bananas and aspirin.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

But Winters and Archer?

Archer's pet project was the Proactive Detection Bureau, which Winters hates and is dismantling. Republican-aligned figures assassinated the last two Liberal Vice-Presidents and nearly got the President. I don't think you can argue that those two are ideologically or personally closer than ALD and her lapdog Patreus, for example.

It'd be nice if they had their newfound angry skills put to the test against the Empire once in a while.

That I do agree with - I dropped out of organised Kaine Powerplay after discovering that of the two major groups, one had the policy "attack only Winters" and the other had the policy "attack no-one". And in fairness, "attack no-one" is how Powerplay is supposed to be played, so I can't object too much to that, but attacking someone should mean attacking every neighbour (especially Mahon, whose Leesti-area strongholds are far too close to Tionisla)

Nevertheless, the organised PP groups aside, the Alliance is far less supported than the Empire at the CG level.

Why isn't this highlighted somewhere with a CG

Frontier seem to be picking the Powerplay-related CG locations as ones which don't already have heavy action: the current CG system did have some Grom and Winters scores before the CG started but neither side was exactly making a serious attempt to take it. Similarly the previous Patreus/Archer contest.

(Acquisitions are probably also "safer" for Frontier to avoid accusations of non-neutrality than targeting existing systems. Maybe the next one will be a Duval/Mahon contested acquisition? Though there are a lot more Kaine/Mahon ones of those to stir up.)

 

[Dillon Fallon]

what CG? Winters has already acquired the system via powerplay, now its time to reinforce, not acquire it!

Let me guess - fdev did not remember we could acquire the system independently to the CG. What if Grom would win the system now? It goes back to grom with no undermining done?
What if winters wins, will it loose all reinforcment progress of this week and revert to zero?
Did fdev think this through?
Did fdev think this?
Did fdev think?

Equally, anyone trying to take over the system should have been aware that there was a very good chance FDev will override their work following the results of the CG.

Not implementing the final result following the efforts of players working in a CG is going to look far worse than overriding the efforts of players doing something outside it.

 

[Danieros]

I was curious why the CG had a 2-week duration. These kinds of CGs are usually defined in the first hours.

Bravo to Frontier for throwing a twist!