Powerplay Faction-exclusive special reward

[Davadin]

OK, so everyone's talking about Aisling's prismatic shield. Fine. I saw the stat on coriolis and other site like that, and it's great. Takes 4 weeks and some effort to hit the ranking, but then that's it.

My question is, are ALL other rewards THAT much crappier that literally NO ONE on the forum talks about them?

I just happen to support Hudson, and my main combat ship is a vulture. So that shotgun cannon doesn't really work for me. But reading all other faction's reward, they all look pretty cool.

So why is the prismatic being singled out that much?

Anybody using other perks and actually like it?

 

[GluttonyFang]

OK, so everyone's talking about Aisling's prismatic shield. Fine. I saw the stat on coriolis and other site like that, and it's great. Takes 4 weeks and some effort to hit the ranking, but then that's it.

My question is, are ALL other rewards THAT much crappier that literally NO ONE on the forum talks about them?

I just happen to support Hudson, and my main combat ship is a vulture. So that shotgun cannon doesn't really work for me. But reading all other faction's reward, they all look pretty cool.

So why is the prismatic being singled out that much?

Anybody using other perks and actually like it?

Oh don't worry, faction module bias' been talked to death around the beginning of PP, developers claim to have looked into them and after however long the 1.3 release and now, it appears that the data they are receiving and collecting give them ground to believe that everything is working as intended and properly.

So yea, either the developers believe the faction rewards are equal or they simply don't care, either way, don't expect any answer to any sort of faction reward imbalance at this point.

You should try the cytoscrambler to truly appreciate the dichotomy between module usefulness, I mean, it's enough to make one of most active player group to quit PP entirely around the time PP started, so...

Join the faction you want reward from and forget about it.

 

[5miley]

The Imperial Hammer is used by PVPers
The Advance Plasma Cannon ideal for the large ships

Both are effective for alpha damage

Currently working my way up for the Advance Plasma

 

[Rubbernuke]

The Utopian Enforcer Cannon is a great little weapon- good kinetic damage, good ammo reserve and good range.

 

[Martin Schou]

You should try the cytoscrambler to truly appreciate the dichotomy between module usefulness

At least the Cytoscrambler actually works. Granted, it sucks horribly because it only has a 500 meter range which makes it useless for attacking anything other than a Type-9, but at least it does what it says on the tin.

Try using the Mahon Retributor - that one is actively broken. All it has ever been capable of doing, is create nice sparks and flames on the dashboard of your target while draining an 8A power distributor faster than you'd believe. It's only taken about 42 weeks of PowerPlay for FDev to acknowledge that it needed fixing, and we'll likely not see any fix for it until 2.1.

 

[Davadin]

Oh don't worry, faction module bias' been talked to death around the beginning of PP, developers claim to have looked into them and after however long the 1.3 release and now, it appears that the data they are receiving and collecting give them ground to believe that everything is working as intended and properly.

So yea, either the developers believe the faction rewards are equal or they simply don't care, either way, don't expect any answer to any sort of faction reward imbalance at this point.

You should try the cytoscrambler to truly appreciate the dichotomy between module usefulness, I mean, it's enough to make one of most active player group to quit PP entirely around the time PP started, so...

Join the faction you want reward from and forget about it.

so which one do i want one from?? is the prism shield really is the best? know that this is a noob talking. My question isn't "why are those weapons so imbalanced?", but rather "is it true it's imbalanced? if so, which one really is best? prism?"

The Imperial Hammer is used by PVPers
The Advance Plasma Cannon ideal for the large ships

Both are effective for alpha damage

Currently working my way up for the Advance Plasma

what's alpha damage?
Plasma is good to be used by large ships? or to shoot large ships?


How about Hudson's shotgun?

 

[GluttonyFang]

so which one do i want one from?? is the prism shield really is the best? know that this is a noob talking. My question isn't "why are those weapons so imbalanced?", but rather "is it true it's imbalanced? if so, which one really is best? prism?"

Competitive wise...

Prismatic is pretty much useless other than on large ships that have to rely on shields (FDL/Python/Courier can be considered for using it, though).

Imperial Hammer is an advanced weapon that really test the steadiness of a player's aim for precision module targeting.

Pulse Disruptor can counter the silent rail meta to a degree, but not very useful in a 1v1 since you'll most likely be facing your opponent which gives little exposure to important modules.

Advanced Plasma Accelerator is more useful on nimble ships since it count on consistent damage with considerable burst rather than pure burst like normal accelerator and rail.

Pacifier Cannon is a close range counter to the current silent rail meta against silent ships at close range.

Everything else you can toss in the trash can and pretend they don't exist.

 

[Tataboj]

Actually, don't you want to focus on and play PP itself, rather than just grind for ship modules?

 

[Crimson Kaim]

I would really love the disruptor laser and the enforcer cannon. Also the advanced PA looks nice. I am using a Pacifier and I quite like it. I don't like the prismatics gut I would try out the hammers. But my favourite weapon would probably the disruptor laser as it stands now.

 

[Apos]

In Mahon we're still waiting for the rest of our exploited system bonuses to work, let alone our actual weapon which won't be fixed until 2.1.

Seeing how fast it drains the capacitor now, it will most likely still be useless, but I'm eager to be impressed for once.

 

[Carradin]

what's alpha damage?

The damage output from a single volley of all your weapons. Having a high alpha damage is useful for taking down shields before an opponent it able to pop a shield cell bank. Not sure how old the term is, but it didn't originate with Elite. Personally, I first ran into it playing Starfleet Command many years ago.

Plasma is good to be used by large ships? or to shoot large ships?

Both. Plasma accelerators are one of the few weapons that come in a huge variety for the largest hardpoints, making them good for large ships. On the other hand, they also fire the slowest projectile in the game, making them mostly useful for shooting at large ships. And for that purpose, smaller ships using them on medium hardpoints can benefit as well.

 

[5miley]

The damage output from a single volley of all your weapons. Having a high alpha damage is useful for taking down shields before an opponent it able to pop a shield cell bank. Not sure how old the term is, but it didn't originate with Elite. Personally, I first ran into it playing Starfleet Command many years ago.


Both. Plasma accelerators are one of the few weapons that come in a huge variety for the largest hardpoints, making them good for large ships. On the other hand, they also fire the slowest projectile in the game, making them mostly useful for shooting at large ships. And for that purpose, smaller ships using them on medium hardpoints can benefit as well.

According to this thread

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=137104


The Cannon is slower and weaker than the PA

Dont know if they have been buffed since that thread was posted

 

[Carradin]

Interesting. Good to know, always thought the PA was slower. I guess it might just feel slower because it is far more visible. Thanks for the link

 

[DR_KATTZ]

Enforcer cannons is the only real combat ASP build. Those 4 cannons make them deal the damage of 3 class 2 autos.

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Nope. Cannon is still crappy. They need to buff C1 and C2 cannons, they do pathetic damage for their classes and fire rate.

 

[Dracaya Tzentchel]

The damage output from a single volley of all your weapons. Having a high alpha damage is useful for taking down shields before an opponent it able to pop a shield cell bank. Not sure how old the term is, but it didn't originate with Elite. Personally, I first ran into it playing Starfleet Command many years ago.


Both. Plasma accelerators are one of the few weapons that come in a huge variety for the largest hardpoints, making them good for large ships. On the other hand, they also fire the slowest projectile in the game, making them mostly useful for shooting at large ships. And for that purpose, smaller ships using them on medium hardpoints can benefit as well.

Alpha damage comes from the term 'alpha strike' which is a US Navy term for basically launching everything you have from a carrier and having it all hit a target at once. Most of us nerds learned the term from Battletech's Mechwarrior though where 'alpha strike' is an ability which allows your mech to fire every mounted weapon in one action.

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But to be on topic for a bit: Prismatic shields are really great on large ships but usually only trade vessels fit them because of the power hog and the fact that having more shield capacity still doesn't solve the key issue of shields, their recharge rate, it just means you have a larger buffer.

I don't PvP at all, so I can't really speak of how all that works, but my understanding is that the current preferred PvP meta is to go stealth mode, which means that you can't fit a shield because it immediately beefs up your sensor signature.

Prismatics mostly get talked about because they can be fit in multiple classes while every other PP module has a single version, which makes them much more difficult to fit into some ship builds... also some don't seem to work.

Personally I wish PP had fewer rewards because grinding is such a pain to have to deal with when you're actually trying to 'play PP' but I understand that some people need incentives.

 

[Rubbernuke]

Engineers will lessen the desire for them I think, depending on what criteria they have.

 

[Ziljan]

Engineers will lessen the desire for them I think, depending on what criteria they have.

I imagine that in order to keep PP rewards relevant, they will probably have either power specific engineers, or recipes that will provide an additional boost to existing PP modules.

If the bonuses are as weak or annoyingly limited as PP modules then Engineers will likely be as controversial as PP has been. Can you imagine the thread headlines if Engineer module "bonuses" were on the order of a Cytoscrambler? Yikes.

Then again, the Cytoscrambler still exists as a legitimate reward for 4 weeks of effort in ED... And the Pulse Disruptor still only effects other CMDRs, not NPCs. The Cobra Mk IV also exists. Ok the more I type, the more concerned I am getting for engineers, so I'm going to stop right now. Let's just assume that 2.1 includes a fix for broken PP modules and a possibly a power specific refresh/boost with engineers.

 

[Mephane]

If the bonuses are as weak or annoyingly limited as PP modules then Engineers will likely be as controversial as PP has been. Can you imagine the thread headlines if Engineer module "bonuses" were on the order of a Cytoscrambler? Yikes.

I'd honestly prefer that over engineers simply turning a gun or module from A to A+ rating.

 

[DR_KATTZ]

Black Market PP modules anyone?! I feel we going through this effort to flesh out contacts and engineers, how about a pilots relationship to the seedy underbelly of the blackmarket?? THat would be cool and really make the more criminal minded more engaged. Also I want imperial hammers on my Viper MK4! But 4 weeks is too long! I got 2 millions mr. Black marketeer! MAKE it happen. What's that??? You need stolen art work and stolen military plans AND kill your former best friend Ernie in Alpha Fornacis? OKAY Fred!

 

[Ziljan]

I'd honestly prefer that over engineers simply turning a gun or module from A to A+ rating.

In the past, they stated that the Engineer modules would be a net benefit, with Upgrades A that are somewhat balanced by downgrade B.

Eg. A++ with B-

Whereas PP module are all over the map:

Ranging from the best modules at: A++ with B--
all the way down to "garbage" modules at: A+ with B----