Wow, this looks like fun and engaging content. Where do I sign up?
Here are a few screenshots
Patreus Recruits Mercenaries to Aid Invasion Forces
A list of objectives:
Destroy the Rebels
Construct Military Bases Around Ceptus III
Assist Mining Efforts to Increase Ship Building
And it looks like they are the local missions that can be accepted.
This is what was used to sell Elite Dangerous, and PowerPlay specifically when it was launched, where is all this good stuff?
Patreus Recruits Mercenaries to Aid Invasion Forces
A list of objectives:
Destroy the Rebels
Construct Military Bases Around Ceptus III
Assist Mining Efforts to Increase Ship Building
And it looks like they are the local missions that can be accepted.
This is what was used to sell Elite Dangerous, and PowerPlay specifically when it was launched, where is all this good stuff?
Good pointing out those special "powerplay missions" in the trailer. Nice music too, one of my favorites of the ED trailers. Wonder if the music is in the game, or it should be in somewhere maybe pp/combat related. Well maybe those ideas will come eventually. I'd noticed the Planet Coaster announcement came about six months earlier than this trailer.
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They've stated repeatedly that the mission generation system operates through the local factions, so Powers cannot offer missions directly. That was the primary reason they scrapped Power Play 'missions' as such. They spent a lot of time trying to figure out, and realised they couldn't actually do it without breaking the game. Now we all have 3 weekly missions to choose from, and that's it. Well, opposition and undermining count separately as well, so we have 5 missions to choose from.
Basically, Mis's proposal was presumably to leave preparation as is, but make every expansion or control system's government be the primary power play point of contact. That way missions could be offered, and integrated into power play mechanics without breaking the BGS. And presumably 'strong' governments would either offer more rewarding missions or simply more of them, while 'weak' governments wouldn't encourage CMDR support of the Power, except grudgingly.
At least that was how I understood his proposal.
And, yeah, that video makes power play look enjoyable, but I wonder if part of the problem stems from the concept of 'pledging'. If the idea is these are all mercenary contracts and none of the powers encourage loyalty, then why are we pledging at all? We should be equally available to run missions for Patreus against Antal one hour, and missions for Delaine against Hudson in the next hour.
There are several concepts of power play that don't really mesh well with lore explanations, or gameplay concepts. It feels like the Power Play we got was a compromise they threw together because they couldn't get what they really wanted. Which, honestly, makes the month long beta for 1.3 fairly confusing, because nothing else changed.
Basically, Mis's proposal was presumably to leave preparation as is, but make every expansion or control system's government be the primary power play point of contact. That way missions could be offered, and integrated into power play mechanics without breaking the BGS. And presumably 'strong' governments would either offer more rewarding missions or simply more of them, while 'weak' governments wouldn't encourage CMDR support of the Power, except grudgingly.
At least that was how I understood his proposal.
And, yeah, that video makes power play look enjoyable, but I wonder if part of the problem stems from the concept of 'pledging'. If the idea is these are all mercenary contracts and none of the powers encourage loyalty, then why are we pledging at all? We should be equally available to run missions for Patreus against Antal one hour, and missions for Delaine against Hudson in the next hour.
There are several concepts of power play that don't really mesh well with lore explanations, or gameplay concepts. It feels like the Power Play we got was a compromise they threw together because they couldn't get what they really wanted. Which, honestly, makes the month long beta for 1.3 fairly confusing, because nothing else changed.
There was the hint of PP communications too if memory serves in that video. But yes, where did these features go?
At least we have the decals now.
(Sarcasm? Sarcasm.)
(Sarcasm? Sarcasm.)
Community Goals are faction independent & Powers each have a HQ where the missions could specifically be tied to; i.e. issued from there then visited to collect any rewards & complete the mission.
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Then every control system needs an invisible local government added, set to 0% influence which can't be seen, and this faction will be used to generate missions in a separate menu, like the separate passenger missions menu.
I haven't heard FDevs comments on this before, but ofcourse it can be implemented, its just a matter of allocating personnel to do it.
Better yet, there should be a local faction with the same name as the Power, that takes control of the local system in all control systems. This solves all sorts of illogical questions, like if Torval has a Federal system as a control system of hers, why do Torval players not get a bounty for killing Hudson pledged players in this federal system?
Ofcourse having PP local factions kick out normal local factions from their control systems would just start a new river of salt on the forums.
This is a common complaint from players who want to play PP "casually". Why can't they just do some missions (even if they are just fortification or undermining) and get their rewards?
Right now you need to do some work for the first week, then you get your rating for that week, applied to the next week, and at the end of this second week you get the cr rewards.
Also the cr rewards for handing in undermining merits is just an insult, it should be 0, not the nominal amount it is right now.
Either that, or reduce the weekly rewards and increase the per handed in merits rewards, so they are the same at the end of the next week, but if players leave before then, they still get half the reward.
Personally I like the idea of delaying rewards, such as waiting for the next week for your rating 2 bonus and higher rating cr rewards, and waiting 4 weeks to unlock the module reward, but I think the Elite community at large hates this and is one of the easy to fix reasons PP is so unpopular.
I also don't know if delaying rewards actually makes more players stay pledged for longer, which is why I assume the delay exists.
Are there currently many new players who pledge to a power just to get their module, and after 4 weeks decide to stay, or do they just move on to the next power to get their module?
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It still amazes me that it took more than one and a half years for the power play decals to get out to the players. 
What a cluster f... ! [yesnod]
Other than that; pretty dishonest video.
What a cluster f... ! [yesnod]
Other than that; pretty dishonest video.
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Another invisible local government is an unnecessary complication though. Instead, the control sphere system could be abandoned, and the Powers compete for minor factions at their home systems. Then not only could the home system of the owned minor faction have Powerplay missions, you could increase the CC gained from a minor faction by expansion.
What Powerplay really needs is improved focus and better rewards. There could be objective systems and if a Power controlled enough objectives, stage II and III module rewards could be released, and faction ships with 6% improvements on base ships. The engineers could be linked to Powers. The pop chart rank system is too abstract to add to gameplay, and the supposed method for a power to disband is too abrupt to be introduced.
Powerplay also suffers because the war mechanics are so poor. The BGS mechanics are not good either, though this is disguised by the success compared to all the other awful mechanics. How can you defend a mechanic where it is easy for a mining system with a thousand inhabitants to expand into a system with ten billion inhabitants, but not the other way around? Why would the governing faction of a system go into famine and the non-government factions not suffer also? Not to mention skimmer missions or 'conflict zones.' Like Powerplay the BGS needs a remake with strong intuitive mechanics which allow the game to emerge.
What Powerplay really needs is improved focus and better rewards. There could be objective systems and if a Power controlled enough objectives, stage II and III module rewards could be released, and faction ships with 6% improvements on base ships. The engineers could be linked to Powers. The pop chart rank system is too abstract to add to gameplay, and the supposed method for a power to disband is too abrupt to be introduced.
Powerplay also suffers because the war mechanics are so poor. The BGS mechanics are not good either, though this is disguised by the success compared to all the other awful mechanics. How can you defend a mechanic where it is easy for a mining system with a thousand inhabitants to expand into a system with ten billion inhabitants, but not the other way around? Why would the governing faction of a system go into famine and the non-government factions not suffer also? Not to mention skimmer missions or 'conflict zones.' Like Powerplay the BGS needs a remake with strong intuitive mechanics which allow the game to emerge.