And you forget PvP in this context is to make up for the lack of vE or just opposition in Powerplay.
Out of all the features in ED, Powerplay is the one that requires a structured opposition to be interesting.
Frontier Should Abandon "OPEN" Mode to Save Elite
- Thread starter Larry B Baker
- Start date
Out of all the features in ED, Powerplay is the one that requires a structured opposition to be interesting.
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
Which refers to an optional activity that players can already choose to engage in when engaging in Powerplay. What those players can't do is force any other player to play the way they want them to.
.... and restructuring does not need to include PvP-gating to be of benefit to players in general.
Unlike the entire game, Powerplay allows and encourages killing rivals....what people were expecting then is beyond me.
And comes down to what FD will do. Sandro saw the need for something to replace the paper thin loop we have via players- which is a shortcut to providing that opposition.
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
It does - and no player who engages in it needs to do so in Open, as it was consciously implemented for all players, in all three game modes. In the AMA around the time of Powerplay's launch we had DBOBE himself commenting on players in Solo affecting the feature:
For fun
That said, it could be worth thinking about reducing the impact that solo & group players have on the political simulation.
Unlike community goals, Powerplay is a swinging balance - ie solo players are also balancing solo players.
We'll see what Frontier choose to do. Will mentioned, some time ago, that some of the proposals in the first Flash Topic were under consideration. Whether that has changed remains to be seen.
And after retrospection FD then pondered making it Open because they can't make NPCs do what they want to do, not without a massive overhaul (and even bigger risk).
Every so often I need a good sparring match to keep my senses sharp and forum muscles toned.
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
It was indeed included as one of the potential changes in an investigative thread that was clearly stated not to be a fait accompli.
Some time later Sandro said, in what seems to have been his last livestream on the Elite Dangerous project, the following:
While this section of the stream is often used to promote Open only arguments (noting that another Dev indicated that Frontier are "well aware that the majority of players don't get involved in PvP"), its use omits the last part, i.e. "So that shouldn't be taken though as a 'so we're gonna do open only power play' that it's absolutely the furthest from our minds." which would seem to indicate that the impetus behind Open only wasn't quite what some might have hoped that it was.Sandro Sammarco; Lavecon Recap and Mining Focused Feedback said:
I just told you the impetus for it- replacing NPCs for players. Out of all EDs features Powerplay is inches from being able to be Open- the UI, its lack of abstraction etc. while the NPCs and gameplay are the furthest away and make solo and PG far too simple.
Four times Sandro has essentially said Powerplay is dysfunctional mode wise, suggesting weighting twice, and Open twice as well. At no time has FD ever suggested substantial improvements to the PvE layer. Maybe they will, but right now the clock is ticking to make these changes.
Its sad since Sandro was essentially browbeaten by slippery slope arguments and not by people who are actually interesting in making Powerplay interesting and unpredictable.
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
I was referring to Frontier's impetus, not that of Open only proponents among the player-base - who, in the Flash Topic threads, jubilantly expected the BGS to be next on the list of features to be made Open only, ignoring Sandro's very clear statement that Powerplay was the only game feature even possibly under consideration for such a change.
And I told you the impetus for it- PvE Powerplay is horrific because the NPCs and underlying PvE Powerplay 'is' is a micron thick. NPCs lack capability as well as context, while groups (who form rivalries) provide both context (i.e. why is Grom hitting this particular area) as well as being able to complicate the lives of other pledges.
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
Whether players in general share that impetus is likely to depend on their opinion regarding the merits, or lack thereof, for PvP-gating an existing pan-modal game content that forms part of the base game - actively excluding players from affecting the feature in modes other than Open and completely removing it from console players without premium platform access.
Depends if they want a game that offers more than the same thing repeated all the way across it. Powerplay repeats and amplifies the worst of CGs and the BGS without bringing anything new.
It also gives FD an opportunity to add solo and PG gameplay that does work too, unpicking the mess Powerplay generates.
Gankers are easy to avoid by mode choice, evasion or block, and I don't believe anyone is quitting because of them. They're irrelevant.
And I'm ready with the gold award if this thread goes in the usual direction.
Logged back into the forums, same crap. Think I'll log back off again for another couple years.
Hahaha imagine.
Deleted member 110222
D
I'd recommend it.