People very often call getting to and staying in rank 5 of Powerplay... difficult.
But in fact it is not.
It just is insanely time consuming.
Time many of us just do not have.
And it is also extremely monomanic and demanding as it forces you to do only PP and nothing much else.
A few weeks ago I have been getting involved in PP for a second time, after I gave up he first time... depressed and disheartened.
I got to rank 5 this time and am struggling very hard to stay there, and I can just feel it slipping through my fingers and there's nothing I can do.
I know in advance that in perhaps another week... or two, I just won't be able to do this any longer.
The merit decay mechanism will break my spirit eventually. There is no way to escape this.
So failure, or the perception thereof, is guaranteed and this is depressing and disheartening.
It leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth and for a game this is very wrong.
For a game this is a bad mechanism, because it puts people off.
Of course I decided to do undermining, as I just can't see how other PP activities would earn me enough merits at all.
Within the time I spend playing FD everyday I have no time to do anything else if I want to keep my rank 5.
There is no time for varied gameplay and frolicking around. I am on the job now.
I must set and reach daily targets to keep up with the decay. It has become a time consuming, all absorbing job!
I thought would it not be better to make it less time consuming and just more difficult, more challenging?
I do play mostly in solo.
I am exclusively undermining, so I will talk about that.
The current level of merit decay, I have said it before, is just insane.
First: Why not create a more lenient merit decay system that leaves some breathing room at higher ranks?
Second: Instead make it so the PP activities scale in difficulty and danger with the ranking of the player. I feel this is more in the spirit of Elite.
For example the ships I encounter while undermining, in my case Kumo transports and Kumo Watch, are mostly weak and not well defended.
It does not matter what rank I am, the difficulty does not change. It is easy and not challenging most of the time. The only factor that determines attainability of a rank is the excruciating time consumption because of merit decay. There is nothing else to it.
I propose to make targets scale with the ranks of the players. Instead of encountering for example Haulers with two expert Sidewinder guards, make me encounter elite Dropships with 2 elite Vulture guards, or well armed T9's with 5 elite eagles, or an Anaconda with a bunch of Vipers.
Scale it up. Create a challenge instead instead of a demotivating and depressing merit decay black hole.
But in fact it is not.
It just is insanely time consuming.
Time many of us just do not have.
And it is also extremely monomanic and demanding as it forces you to do only PP and nothing much else.
A few weeks ago I have been getting involved in PP for a second time, after I gave up he first time... depressed and disheartened.
I got to rank 5 this time and am struggling very hard to stay there, and I can just feel it slipping through my fingers and there's nothing I can do.
I know in advance that in perhaps another week... or two, I just won't be able to do this any longer.
The merit decay mechanism will break my spirit eventually. There is no way to escape this.
So failure, or the perception thereof, is guaranteed and this is depressing and disheartening.
It leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth and for a game this is very wrong.
For a game this is a bad mechanism, because it puts people off.
Of course I decided to do undermining, as I just can't see how other PP activities would earn me enough merits at all.
Within the time I spend playing FD everyday I have no time to do anything else if I want to keep my rank 5.
There is no time for varied gameplay and frolicking around. I am on the job now.
I must set and reach daily targets to keep up with the decay. It has become a time consuming, all absorbing job!
I thought would it not be better to make it less time consuming and just more difficult, more challenging?
I do play mostly in solo.
I am exclusively undermining, so I will talk about that.
The current level of merit decay, I have said it before, is just insane.
First: Why not create a more lenient merit decay system that leaves some breathing room at higher ranks?
Second: Instead make it so the PP activities scale in difficulty and danger with the ranking of the player. I feel this is more in the spirit of Elite.
For example the ships I encounter while undermining, in my case Kumo transports and Kumo Watch, are mostly weak and not well defended.
It does not matter what rank I am, the difficulty does not change. It is easy and not challenging most of the time. The only factor that determines attainability of a rank is the excruciating time consumption because of merit decay. There is nothing else to it.
I propose to make targets scale with the ranks of the players. Instead of encountering for example Haulers with two expert Sidewinder guards, make me encounter elite Dropships with 2 elite Vulture guards, or well armed T9's with 5 elite eagles, or an Anaconda with a bunch of Vipers.
Scale it up. Create a challenge instead instead of a demotivating and depressing merit decay black hole.
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