Feedback on the new CG

Andersen 77 · Monday at 10:55 PM

Posting this for the UI/game design team. This is from a perspective of a returning player.

1. Accepted the CG, no problem

2. Went to leftpanel and looks for Power Conflict Zones - none found. Strange, we are in Maughmer Ring which is the mission target.

3. Verified mission target area is Maughmer Ring | Maityan... yep, that's where I am

4. Flew into a regular "conflict zone"... nope, wrong factions are here

5. Flew back to Maughmer Ring station. Attacked by system security... this doesn't seem right...

6. Friend figured out you can scroll down in the CG on the left nav panel

7. Flew to LTT 7509 - Sharman Installation

8. Flew to Sharman Installation and entered. I guess this is a "Power Conflict Zone"

9. Who do we shoot? Figured out we had to scan the ships

10. Shot down some ships. Game didn't really tell us we were doing the right thing, but it worked. Not sure if we were supposed to turn in the bounties somewhere, but it seemed unnecessary since we moved into the top 100%.

imho there should really be a missions panel that works kind of like the engineers panel. The engineer panel is pretty good because it says "[ ] do x" and then it gets checked off.

Mako The Grey · Tuesday at 5:35 AM

Maughmer Ring is not the mission target...it's where you sighn up to support Aisling Duval.

ACTIVE CG - Join Aisling Duval's Call To Arms (Combat)

Summary System: Many, see description Station: Several (See description) Objective: Fight for Aisling Duval in the Power Conflict Zones Time limit: 17th July 3311 @ 06:00 UTC Description Princess Aisling Duval has issued a call to arms to repel Federal and corporate aggression. Following...

forums.frontier.co.uk

Pilots may contribute to this initiative by first signing up and then destroying Jerome Archer or Li Yong-Rui aligned vessels at Power Conflict Zones.
kills automatically tracked, nothing to hand in
Power conflict zones may be found at the front lines of Aisling's defence:
Jerome Archer's forces:

Santy - Noakes City, Szilard Terminal, the Onyx Bastion
LTT 7509 - Sharman Installation
LHS 6031 - Dobrovolskiy Station

Li Yong-Rui's forces:

Gondul - Bessel Landing, Fiorilla Dock, the Obsidian Directive
Daikulcandi - Krenkel Station
Rho Tucanae - Lewis Survey

Andersen 77 · Tuesday at 7:10 AM

Wel....

Blaggerdy · Tuesday at 9:16 AM

Read on

Ashnak · Tuesday at 9:28 AM

As for the friend/foe distinction:
I am pledged to LYR and of course

also signed up for LYR in the CG. When I entered the area around Obsidian Directive, I had red and green ships on my scanner, and of course I shoot the red ships. This, however, might be due to my pledge. During my forays, I saw two other players (hollow triangles) - one in friendly green, the other in neutral yellow. Since we were in a non-PVP PG (and I'm just trying out my new build - and I'm not too happy about it, needs some engineering), I didn't shoot (or scan) the yellow one. But this observation would be compliant with what OP wrote, i.e. the necessity to scan the ships in order to find out who they are pledged to if you aren't pledged yourself. I guess the idea with power conflict zones (and therefore this CG) is that you only participate if you're pledged to a power.

Aashenfox · Tuesday at 9:46 AM

You're not wrong this is poorly thought out in my opinion, you can see my detailed thoughts here in the existing thread about it:

Great Community Goal - well done FDEV!

Do you have to pledge to get the Frag Cannons? Or can you just pew pew?

forums.frontier.co.uk

Essentially it comes down to what Ashnak said, if you aren't pledged but 'sign up to' one of the powers, the experience is janky. Not to mention the plethora of other concerns I raised.

Mako The Grey · Tuesday at 11:55 AM

Andersen 77 said:
Wel....

View attachment 434373

And if you read further down....you'll see Maughmere Ring is not in the system you will find the ships you need to destroy to count for the CG

Power conflict zones may be found at the front lines of Aisling's defence:
Jerome Archer's forces:

Santy - Noakes City, Szilard Terminal, the Onyx Bastion
LTT 7509 - Sharman Installation
LHS 6031 - Dobrovolskiy Station

Li Yong-Rui's forces:

Gondul - Bessel Landing, Fiorilla Dock, the Obsidian Directive
Daikulcandi - Krenkel Station
Rho Tucanae - Lewis Survey

aRJay · Tuesday at 12:12 PM

Aashenfox said:
You're not wrong this is poorly thought out in my opinion, you can see my detailed thoughts here in the existing thread about it:

Great Community Goal - well done FDEV!

Do you have to pledge to get the Frag Cannons? Or can you just pew pew?

forums.frontier.co.uk

Essentially it comes down to what Ashnak said, if you aren't pledged but 'sign up to' one of the powers, the experience is janky. Not to mention the plethora of other concerns I raised.

But is the experience enough better to justify pledging if you have no intention to actually do PP?
Potential hypocrites might want to know.

Helmut Grokenberger · Tuesday at 12:24 PM

aRJay said:
But is the experience enough better to justify pledging if you have no intention to actually do PP?
Potential hypocrites might want to know.

No. I am not pledged to either party of the conflict, I am a Kaine pledged mercenary getting paid in shinies, I have no ball in this game otherwise. And I say it's fine enough.

Let's be honest here. It clearly is a bug and not intentional that the whole UI is missing when you are not pledged. Maybe Frontier didn't think about it when testing, maybe they thought "eh, it'll do", whatever it is - it doesn't exactly ruin the CG. Apart from the fact that you have to figure out on your own who to shoot at (gosh), the CG provides what it says on the tin - you shoot ships, you contribute, you get a shiny toy.

The CZ I fought in was a lot of fun - fighting around a megaship is cool, and I didn't mind the duration. At first, with not getting the UI and all that, I thought "cool, it's just a perpetual zone of fighting". Only later I learned about the bug.

Of course it would be nicer if it was bug free. But clearly that ain't happening.

The rest of the issues is mostly a lack of reading the description. The CG description clearly says where to go and fight, both in-game and on the forum threads.

Aashenfox · Tuesday at 12:41 PM

aRJay said:
But is the experience enough better to justify pledging if you have no intention to actually do PP?
Potential hypocrites might want to know.

I think yes. If I gave zero fs about pwoer play modules and pledged whoever suited me wherever I happen to be, then I would simply align with the chosen pp side that had skin in the game at every CG and not have messed up UI. However, the new powerplay is clever, or rather, the old one was stupid. Because if you didn't care about powerplay, then you pledged each one in turn and ground out the merits for the equipment you wanted, then move onto the next, eventually leaving you with no alignment and no investment. If you DID care about powerplay, you STILL had to do this first before choosing a long term pledge. The new way, where you have to actually pledge for a serious amount of time and merits, to unlock ALL the PP modules, which is a worthy goal, is definitely an improvement.

I for one, who flitted between whoever suited me, am now an Archon disciple, and I will stay that way forever, as I don't want to make 600k merits ever again and I will forever have access to ALL the PP modules.

So once again I give credit where it's due, this is much smarter (or less stupid

), but if you don't care about any of that, yes, you'll have a smoother experience pledging one of the combatants. I also agree with what Helmut said, it doesn't 'ruin' it, but FD is acting like a triple A developer again all of a sudden, so I expect better, especially from community goals that every player is expected to try.

lysan · Tuesday at 2:32 PM

Extremely BORING CG if you ask me and why is on foot combat not included?

KRISXR · Tuesday at 3:59 PM

I read all of the powers claims at a random port not in the area of interest, chose archer, went to a system and port where it said to go, and participated. Idk I followed the the instructions and didnt have a problem.

I think ground combat would have been a nice addition. The last CG I would do some flight combat, and then do some ground combat. Leave after a space combat zone and then fly down to a surface combat zone. It felt really cool and added to the immersion. Landing a corvette by the settlements was alot of fun, really gave a good sense of scale for the ship. I felt like an elite bounty hunter/mercenary.

I like the setting, taking place by a port, that's cool, and watch your fire. I would have liked to have seen some wanted enemies, not all but the occasional one for a quick warrant scan and a few extra credits. I have seen war correspondents and elite wings of enemies, allies, and neutrals (Li Yong-Rui).

All rather trivial wishes for me, nothing disappointing, just not as dynamic.

aRJay · Tuesday at 4:18 PM

lysan said:
Extremely BORING CG if you ask me and why is on foot combat not included?

Because PowerPlay doesn't have on foot CZs and this fortnight they are using PP mechanics.

Nidoboros · Tuesday at 6:40 PM

I think the same 'everyone is yellow' bug popped up for me a few times during the last CG, and finally went away after I killed enough of one side to put their BGS faction into hostile? I figured it was working as intended so didn't mention it.