When you see week in and week out your hard work just get wiped clean you start to wonder why you're bothering at all. Nothing has a lasting effect.. Your fortification, your undermining doesn't impact next week's fortification or undermining or the economy of the system or the npcs. You throw tens of millions into a system and in a blink on thursday it's gone. Start over and do it all again, every single week.
It's a lazy mechanic and it's turning people off to what should be a fast paced ever changing game and turning it into a slow, dull repetitive and ultimately pointless exercise.
I have never liked nonsense artificial cycles. FD needs to stop with the constant manual manipulation required by the game and work to fully automate in-game activity, the galaxy map, and powerplay.
There should be no cycles, just triggers allowing a constant fluid progression of powerplay. I'll run down what that would look like (just the aspect of powerplay that is affected by ending cycles)
Income
CC is calculated hourly.
Fortification and Undermining
You fortify something to the trigger.. now it's fortified with a slow decay. It's fortified until it hits 0.
Undermining is done the same, and they accelerate the decay of the other when active in the same system.
Triggers increase and decrease depending not just on governments but on how long a system remains in either state over time.
Preparation
Prep is done on a trigger and time limit combo. Once the prep trigger is reached by a power, a timer begins and if that power holds top prep for that time - continuously they begin expansion. Timer resets whenever they lose top position and begins for the new top power. A power can only trigger the prep timer if they have enough cc to expand to it. This CC is held in escrow once the trigger is reached for prep and until the expansion is successful or the top power is replaced by another.
Expansion
Expansion is similarly done with a timer and trigger mechanism. With the additional effect of opposing expansion reduces the expansion number (the merits cancel eachother). The expansion number must remain above the expansion trigger for the given timer continuously for expansion to succeed. Once the expansion trigger is reached an opposition trigger appears. This is somewhere below the expansion trigger and above 0 depending on the system attributes. If opposition can keep the expansion below the opposition trigger for a given time (second timer) the expansion fails. After a certain amount of time, if the expansion doesn't fail or succeed, the expansion trigger increases and the difference between it and the opposition trigger decreases, making it increasingly easier to oppose. If expansion is triggered after prep but never reaches the expansion trigger after a given amount of time, the expansion fails.
Turmoil
Turmoil occurs in a system when CC reserves are less than 0 for more than 3 hours. The highest cost systems become at risk and enter "turmoil". if CC remains below 0 for 6 hours, those systems revolt and are lost. Turmoil systems cost the same as undermined systems for upkeep. Fortifying them brings upkeep to standard non-fortified amounts * 1.5. Losing a system causes prep triggers for the power that lost the systems to be temporarily hugely increased for a given cooldown period.
Rank and Salary
Ranks are based on time since pledged and your merit rate every 7 days after your pledge. 1st week you can only be rank 1. Rank 2 is unlocked week 2 but will only be awarded if you meet the rank rate for level 2. Rank 3 unlocked at 3 weeks and rank 4 at 4 and rank 5 at 5. The rates you have to reach are based on the time you have been pledged (the longer you are pledged the lower this rate is for each rank) which is the modifier and a fixed amount for each level, for example rank 1 is 0. Rank 2 is 500. Rank 3 is 1000. Rank 4 is 2000. Rank 5 is 5000.
There is no Salary awarded for any of the ranks. Rather missions are available for given ranks that offer rewards exclusive to that rank. The powerplay missions would range from combat to trucking to piracy They'll all involve the acquiring of merits in one form or another and pay sums of money that reflect the rank.
It's a lazy mechanic and it's turning people off to what should be a fast paced ever changing game and turning it into a slow, dull repetitive and ultimately pointless exercise.
I have never liked nonsense artificial cycles. FD needs to stop with the constant manual manipulation required by the game and work to fully automate in-game activity, the galaxy map, and powerplay.
There should be no cycles, just triggers allowing a constant fluid progression of powerplay. I'll run down what that would look like (just the aspect of powerplay that is affected by ending cycles)
Income
CC is calculated hourly.
Fortification and Undermining
You fortify something to the trigger.. now it's fortified with a slow decay. It's fortified until it hits 0.
Undermining is done the same, and they accelerate the decay of the other when active in the same system.
Triggers increase and decrease depending not just on governments but on how long a system remains in either state over time.
Preparation
Prep is done on a trigger and time limit combo. Once the prep trigger is reached by a power, a timer begins and if that power holds top prep for that time - continuously they begin expansion. Timer resets whenever they lose top position and begins for the new top power. A power can only trigger the prep timer if they have enough cc to expand to it. This CC is held in escrow once the trigger is reached for prep and until the expansion is successful or the top power is replaced by another.
Expansion
Expansion is similarly done with a timer and trigger mechanism. With the additional effect of opposing expansion reduces the expansion number (the merits cancel eachother). The expansion number must remain above the expansion trigger for the given timer continuously for expansion to succeed. Once the expansion trigger is reached an opposition trigger appears. This is somewhere below the expansion trigger and above 0 depending on the system attributes. If opposition can keep the expansion below the opposition trigger for a given time (second timer) the expansion fails. After a certain amount of time, if the expansion doesn't fail or succeed, the expansion trigger increases and the difference between it and the opposition trigger decreases, making it increasingly easier to oppose. If expansion is triggered after prep but never reaches the expansion trigger after a given amount of time, the expansion fails.
Turmoil
Turmoil occurs in a system when CC reserves are less than 0 for more than 3 hours. The highest cost systems become at risk and enter "turmoil". if CC remains below 0 for 6 hours, those systems revolt and are lost. Turmoil systems cost the same as undermined systems for upkeep. Fortifying them brings upkeep to standard non-fortified amounts * 1.5. Losing a system causes prep triggers for the power that lost the systems to be temporarily hugely increased for a given cooldown period.
Rank and Salary
Ranks are based on time since pledged and your merit rate every 7 days after your pledge. 1st week you can only be rank 1. Rank 2 is unlocked week 2 but will only be awarded if you meet the rank rate for level 2. Rank 3 unlocked at 3 weeks and rank 4 at 4 and rank 5 at 5. The rates you have to reach are based on the time you have been pledged (the longer you are pledged the lower this rate is for each rank) which is the modifier and a fixed amount for each level, for example rank 1 is 0. Rank 2 is 500. Rank 3 is 1000. Rank 4 is 2000. Rank 5 is 5000.
There is no Salary awarded for any of the ranks. Rather missions are available for given ranks that offer rewards exclusive to that rank. The powerplay missions would range from combat to trucking to piracy They'll all involve the acquiring of merits in one form or another and pay sums of money that reflect the rank.
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