Powerplay How would YOU revive Powerplay?

[6xes]

Oh, I know the answer. Just waiting for you to swallow the bait.

Forget the sabotage. What it really did was expose the futility of Powerplay. It was the bullet that made the dead horse jerk. Right now, without those flaws, without opposition, it has even less appeal. 0 drama. Now I'm guessing, but proactive players must be at an all time low.

PP reddits are pretty telling. Post counts and activity seems to have hit the deck.

I'm slow clapping you Vectron. Slow clapping.

Your not wrong in voicing the futility of the game.. and ive heard the argument its impossible to collapse a power
Imagine if a New player Faction was to ever Rise up from the ashes and completely obliterate the Federation or Alliance for that matter.. God forbid that ever occurring **rolls eyes** Elite would lose its identity!!

So the game is Rigged.. and kept in a perpetual state for the Franchise to continue
also
No attempt at collapsing a power from the powers opposing leaders(complacency adds no fun to the game), and so the Status Quo remains

Until such time things change... you can Flog a Dead Horse so many times, Fun at first.. but the novelty wears off after a while!

Back to the OP
Random Galactic disasters affecting BGS and thus affecting PP
CG to re-build from Galactic Disasters

Ability to Disable Station security protocols, so you can occupy and stage a Takeover of the System
Ability to increase and decrease population to affect the CC values of a system bubble, with incremental regen depending on States and influence in the system

Have i already mentioned OPEN PLAY ONLY??
edit: exception BGS for the safe spacers

 

[aspiringexpatriate]

PP reddits are pretty telling. Post counts and activity seems to have hit the deck.

Most discussions have moved to Discord.

Also, we saw a rise in new player activity after consolidation vote came into play.

 

[Arkadi]

What do you think would "revive"/improve powerplay?

And are you currently in a PP faction and doing PP work?

For me fortifications have alway been the weakest mechanic in powerplay and thats bad becouse fortification is the singlemost important activity for a power to prosper.

All powers need solid fortifications to:

+ maintain a strong CC income
+ to defend against undermining
+ to protect systems when in turmoil

Also the activity of fortifying across the whole game is one of the most arduous and unfun activities you can possibly do becouse:

- 30 minute allocations is a lame mechanic
- it is a gigantic time-sink
- no way to change ship once power-commodities are loaded
- no storage for power-commodities
- it's hauling... again, the game already is so full of hauling

What would help:

What so many already proposed. Powerplay needs to be integrated into the mission boards. Fortification should be more variable. Mission boards in control-systems could issue various missions for fortification. There could be so many different and more fun missions for fortification in the different powers than stubborn A-B hauling:

there could be missions like:
*bring 5 tons of a rare good to bribe a politician in favor of your power (acquire rare goods for the cause)
*steal documents from an escorted diplomats ship to prove corruption of an political adversary (hatch-breaker mission)
*asassinate a dreaded criminal in the name of your power leader
*escort missions: protect a ship until it reaches it destination
*protect trade: calssical bountyhunting mission. clear the vicinity from wanted criminals.

And, what's important, once a system is fully fortified it would stop to spawn fortification missions!

 

[Hexcaliber]

Players looking to take part in PP, should not feel they are just joining a treadmill for specific equipment as is currently the case. Joining a faction or choosing to leave one should not be taken lightly.

Add penalties for a period of time when a player opts to leave a faction. Penalties like being hostile or even KOS within the former factions borders, reduced rewards from any missions taken within those borders, harsher insurance costs when replacing a ship at a station within said border, a sales tax on any items sold there.

The bonuses from exploitation and increasing influence are a good enough draw for players looking to join one faction over another. To that end, remove PP equipment rewards to independent brokers, and have the items purchased with PP merits or a new PP currency. Replace the former equipment reward with an additional bonus that makes sense for the chosen faction. Players then taking part in PP can get the power play equipment they want without the need to hop from one to the other all the time, they simply need to travel to the broker that sells what they want.

Add power play mission brokers whose missions depend on the players current influence and further the aims of the faction to which they belong while helping undermine others. Taking part in those missions helps offset decay of merits, (perhaps even occasionally rewarding a merit or two for successful mission completion on top of typical mission rewards).

Spawn rare random events on the borders between PP factions as hot points. Think PP CG's, where everyone in the PP factions forming the border can take part and compete against members of the opposing faction/factions, and where the reward for wining is a faction wide boost for the week.

 

[Darkfyre99]

I am not currently pledged to a Power, but as my signature below indicates, I support the Emperor. I had pledged to her when Powerplay first came out, but quit after a couple of weeks, because I wasn't enjoying myself.

The parts of the game I enjoy most in Elite: Dangerous are manipulating the Background Simulation, and running missions. When making decisions on what factions I should support or undermine in my current theatre of operation, I base those decisions on what would best help the Emperor, or harm her enemies. Who is in charge of a system matters, and thus there is a possibility for espionage-like play. This single element of Powerplay is one I consider well thought out and implemented.

The reason why I'm no longer pledged to Arissa Lavigny-Duval directly is because I thrive on variety. Running missions[SUB]1[/SUB] ensures I go to different systems for different reasons, each with different challenges to overcome. If I want to support ALD, however, I have to do one of two things. I can constantly do ABA cargo runs, which gets old very quickly, or I can do combat, an activity I don't enjoy, but can tolerate in small doses.

In other words, if I want to participate in powerplay, I have to quit doing things I enjoy in Elite: Dangerous, and start doing things I don't. While I enjoy reading about powerplay, I can only participate indirectly, by supporting various minor factions.

Powerplay would become enjoyable, and I would be pledged to ALD once again, if Powerplay were integrated into the BGS. If missions I ran in control systems could count towards fortifying systems ALD controlled, or undermining systems of other powers, I would have a reason to pledge to a power again. If those activities also earned me merits, I would have even more of a reason to pledge to a power, since I would be further rewarded for being an "Agent of the Empire."

_________________
¹Not all missions have to count towards power play. They should only count when they make sense, when they are taken from factions that support your faction, or are hostile to your enemies. For example, it would make little sense to fortify a system by supporting a minor faction which is hostile to your Power.

 

[Cmdr-Wotherspoon]

Powerplay would become enjoyable, and I would be pledged to ALD once again, if Powerplay were integrated into the BGS. If missions I ran in control systems could count towards fortifying systems ALD controlled, or undermining systems of other powers, I would have a reason to pledge to a power again.

This makes a lot of sense. Even better, integrate PowerPlay into the BGS bidirectionally, such that if the system is controlled by an Empire-based Power, any Empire-based minor factions would get an influence bonus.

Make Powerplay *matter*.

 

[krylite]

I'd agree about suggesting allowing some BGS to work with powerplay. Such as missions helping certain devoted factions to a power also adding to fortification and gaining merits for the pledged player.

Meanwhile before major changes, maybe Fdev could just modify the upkeep formulas to allow the powers bubbles from headquarters to be able to expand maybe an extra 15% for net positive CC control system spheres, which could capitalize on the recent renewed interest in powerplay and the overall increase in new and old players returning to ED.

I'm not sure how the lore and roleplay fits in but kind of weird that in the Star Trek world the Federation in the 24th century is currently about 8000 LY across with much of the Alpha and Beta quadrant settled and bordered by the Federation, Klingons, Romulans Kardassians, etc. , while the Elite powers bubble of civilization is just a diameter of about 350 LY! Maybe it's because StarTrek has materializers for many raw materials and transporters, artificial gravity etc., while Elite has only superior hyperdrive? Digressing but fun to think about..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFtc2Ypwzl0

 

[Martin Schou]

...

No one in the organized groups saw a point in increasing undermining triggers or reducing fortification triggers when consolidating - avoiding crappy expansions was plenty of reason to consolidate. But hey - when you're part of the problem it's far easier to pretend that you know better than everyone else.

 

[Martin Schou]

As for changing PowerPlay altogether, I'd make it such that players pledge allegiance to one faction of their choosing. That allegiance then determines the advantages and disadvantages they face across the galaxy. I'd allow for upwards of 33 PowerPlay characters, each championing their own government and allegiance, following the allowed combinations of allegiances and government types.

	Alliance	Empire	Federation	Independent
Anarchy	y	y	y	y
Communism	y			y
Confederacy	y		y	y
Cooperative	y		y	y
Corporate	y	y	y	y
Democracy	y		y	y
Dictatorship	y	y		y
Feudal	y	y		y
Patronage	y	y		y
Prison Colony		y		y
Theocracy	y		y	y

Let's say for the sake of argument that I'm pledged to an Alliance Corporate faction called Alliance Office of Statistics (the player made faction I helped create).

When dealing with that faction (in whatever way), I get a 20% bonus (or 20% discount where applicable, but such that I can't just buy and sell stuff at the same station and make money out of thin air).

Since it's an Alliance faction, when I deal with any Alliance faction, I get a 10% bonus. Reputation defaults to Friendly.

Since it's a corporate faction, when I deal with any corporate factions, I get a 5% bonus. Reputation defaults to Cordial.

These stack, so if I'm dealing with other Alliance corporate factions, I get a 15% bonus. Reputation defaults to Allied.

If I deal with Empire or Federation factions, I face a small penalty of 5%. Reputation default to unfriendly. This stacks with the government type bonus, cancelling it out to 0% and neutral reputation).

If I deal with government types that are hostile to mine (Corporate and Communism I would suspect), I face a 10% penalty. This also stacks, so one could end up with a 15% penalty, in which case the reputation would default to hostile.

Bonuses can be adjusted to make more polarizing things of course.

If a PowerPlay champion is the highest ranked in his allegiance, their followers gets bonus A.

If a PowerPlay champion is the highest ranked in his government type, their followers gets bonus B.

PowerPlay champions ranked 1, 2 and 3 overall, give their followers get bonus C (at varying levels).

Now, this suggestion does mean that some characters need to be remade to champion just one government type supported by their major allegiance.

E.g. ALD and Patreus need to figure out who gets Feudal and who gets Patronage, Torval would likely end up with Dictatorships and Aisling Corporate (makes more sense than Anarchy and Prison Colony). Hudson would need to change as well, and the most reasonable outcome there is Confederacy. Yuri Grom would likely end up with independent Dictatorships, Antal with Communist and Archon with Anarchies. These are just guesses based on their current ethos and established information.

This kind of change could/would give everyone a stake in the galaxy's political makeup, and it'd result in some interesting situations. Li Yong-Rui and Mahon are both Corporate champions, so they'd be rather natural allies, but Winters would be a more obvious choice for cooperation than Hudson, and it would make for interesting inter-allegiance conflicts. For example, it might make more sense for Winters commanders to fight for an independent corporate faction than for a Federation democracy in order to give her a leg up on the scoring chart.

Speaking of scoring. This becomes far easier than the current mess where no one really understands how to calculate it.

A champion gets 15 points for each controlled system (e.g. Alliance Corporate in control), 10 points for each allegiance controlled system (e.g. Alliance) and 5 points for each government controlled system (e.g. Corporate). Additionally they get 3, 2 and 1 point for controlled assets following the same rules. That means a system is worth a minimum of 18 points to someone (15 for the system, 3 for the controlling asset). By having assets affect the score, all conflicts have values, not just the ones for control.

I'll add in a table with scores for the current characters based on eddb data, once I manage to complete the query.

Edit:

Scores are based on some relatively old data - specifically this particular distribution:

	Alliance	Empire	Federation	Independent
Anarchy	28	1	2	1414
Communism	17	0	0	376
Confederacy	7	1	1063	342
Cooperative	36	0	1	476
Corporate	121	2050	2742	1844
Democracy	80	0	2554	890
Dictatorship	30	899	6	748
Feudal	28	239	1	518
Patronage	70	2110	1	245
Prison Colony	0	38	0	108
Theocracy	1	1	2	84

I'm assuming ALD gets Patronage and Patreus gets Feudal for these scores

And with these numbers, this becomes the new PowerPlay results:

	Complete	Allegiance	Government	Score
Winters	2,742	6,372	6,757	138,635
Li Yong-Rui	1,844	7,045	6,757	131,895
Aisling	2,050	5,339	6,757	117,925
Archon	1,414	7,045	1,445	98,885
ALD	2,110	5,339	2,426	97,170
Grom	748	7,045	1,683	90,085
Hudson	1,063	6,372	1,413	86,730
Antal	376	7,045	393	78,055
Torval	899	5,339	1,683	75,290
Patreus	239	5,339	786	60,905
Mahon	121	418	6,757	39,780

Now, there are a few things that really stand out here.

One - Mahon is dead last. This is because the Alliance is absolutely tiny compared to the other allegiances, with 418 systems while the Empire (the 2nd smallest) is 5,339. This means that collapse needs to disappear, as otherwise the Alliance would always be at constant threat of collapse, which makes no sense.

Second - one could argue that independents shouldn't get a massive bonus from their allegiances. They're independent, so it's not like an independent Democracy can call for help from an Independent Confederacy. If we do away with the allegiance score for independents, we get this result instead:

	Complete	Allegiance	Government	Score
Winters	2,742	6,372	6,757	138,635
Aisling	2,050	5,339	6,757	117,925
ALD	2,110	5,339	2,426	97,170
Hudson	1,063	6,372	1,413	86,730
Torval	899	5,339	1,683	75,290
Li Yong-Rui	1,844		6,757	61,445
Patreus	239	5,339	786	60,905
Mahon	121	418	6,757	39,780
Archon	1,414		1,445	28,435
Grom	748		1,683	19,635
Antal	376		393	7,605

This makes the independent powers drop like a rock, as they are suddenly out 70,450 points, and as a result Li Yong-Rui is now the only independent power not in the bottom three. This doesn't change the fact that threat of collapse due to being in the bottom three would need to go away.

Collapse altogether, really, unless the player made factions that are pledged to a character wants to challenge them, at which point you could run some CGs to see if they can manage to overthrow them. This would also allow player factions without a PowerPlay rep to compete for a spot, but competing doesn't guarantee a spot. A Federation Democracy would (with the suggested scoring system) instantly occupy the 2nd spot, and there's no guarantee that the existing powers like the idea of losing some of their bonuses.

 

[Tenshi]

I use to do power play but after a while all I was doing was grinding merit points just to keep my rank. The decay was really bad for me who has limited time to play the game, power play is only designed for people who can play for 3 or 4 hours every day or more to be fair.

Personally I would like to see a complete revamp to the mechanics.

What I would like to see is dynamic missions instead of merit points and delivering items or destroying another powers ships in an act of pirating. Also medals that can be obtained while a player is pledged to a power, if they leave that power the medals are removed. The medals though would decrease the decay players see on their ranks, these medals only come after a certain mission. Or enemy ships killed etc.

Some of the missions could be things like uploading propaganda news to data links at outposts, or to smuggle in some spies at a station etc etc. But each mission part of the reward would be an advancement on your rank or merit points. Would certainly make power play more interesting if you could mix up the style some what.

Other than that I don't do power play anymore it is a waste of time, people sabotaged their own sides by voting for systems that would bankrupt the power and it was all rather pointless.

 

[Ralph Vargr]

Shut it down, and release the devs and server capacity for it.

 

[Skyjack]

Integrate it into the game in general and bgs in particular.

A mission a day keeps the decay away. Variety of military/recon/logistics/trade missions for your power. Ideally, themed ones.

Incentivise loyalty and identification with your leader rather than a round trip to collect all pp gear.

Invites of the engineer kind - based on your playstyle/rep/ranks, so you access powers approving your modus operandi more easily and with less intentional grind.

And I quite like the general direction of the Martin Schou scheme above, as long as it is integrated with BGS. (also just wanted to note that ALD is patronage through and through, in fact I'm someone who likes the concept of patronage IRL, philosophically - and ALD public stunts are an excellent way to explain it to someone)

 

[DogSnax]

Since the power play came out I joined a power and never ranked above rank 2. While I understand the reason behind merit degradation it is keep players more engaged, but many would believe PowePlay is a waste of time. I personally believe Power play should be more engaging and should have more incentive ways for others to player to be engaged.

I think it’s complicated
A first timer wouldn’t know what do to or what it does without watching the intro videos on youtube. So, I suggest adding mission to help understand what you can or cannot do and how to take advantage of a chosen power.

Its seems stand alone and not fairly well integrated.
I think there should be integration with some resent major update, like the Engineer update. For example, if you are aligned to a specific chosen power at rank 3 there is a minor material reduction cost towards a specific engineer. Or using the PowerPlay as an alternative route to unlock invitations verses having to unlock an engineer from another engineer.

It’s not interactive.
While power balance does shift, it feels passive and doesn’t really feel like you’re a part of anything. Achieving something that effects powerplay feels very minor. While you can vote at high ranks on the fate of the system it’s still up to rest of the other players to be actively deal with those choices.

I suggest, along with adding mission boards, I think having interactive mission boards for high ranking individuals should be able give up some of their merits to create a mission for a lower rank individual to complete. A mission example would be, 50 additional merits for 3 ships destroyed undermining in ‘so and so’ system. Another example, 5 addition merits earned if 10 supplies delivered to ‘so and so’ system for fortifying. This should direct those who don’t know what they’re doing into areas that could have a major impact if focused upon. along making high ranking players feel like they are in control.

Other thoughts.
There are exclusive modules in power play, I personally think there is not enough. There should be more new exclusive modules to a chosen power.

 

[AgamemnonWhen]

Some great ideas here but the general theme seems to be "Make it simpler" and "Make it part of the Regular Missions system".

Most of us who have considered PP, especially the RP types, like to commit to a particular power or faction and help them grow; but having a disjointed, isolated and ambivalent section of the game which just seems like hard work rather than engaging content isn't helping. I'm not even fussed about the fancy weapons, I just wanted to pledge to my chosen leader and do missions to support her (and a regular income is welcome), and maybe get the odd mod/fuel discount or better trade pricing in my faction's controlled space - and vice-versa in enemy territory.

I've only been pledged for a week and I'm bored already - and I love this kind of thing!

Hopefully, FDev are looking at this thread and considering ways to improve or integrate PP into the mainstream and make it more "available". Would be lovely to hear if there's a roadmap for improvements post-2.3 and as we head towards the next season(s).

 

[Barking_Mad]

I'd like to be able to play the game as I normally do, running missions for factions etc. whilst at the same time gaining rank with the main power (or powers). Then once you reach a certain ranking with the main power you 'come to their attention as a successful pilot' and thus gain access to new missions generated by the main powers themselves. These might be layered in the same way local factions are and as you continue to go up the scale you get more lucrative and dangerous missions that can have more serious effects on the balance of power. Maybe some top end missions would be assasination ones for instance (edit: this might only work if you could actually walk about!) This in turn would feed into power play and your ability to affect toppling of systems.

I dont really understand the numerical mechanics of PP (I tried but my mind goes blank at the sheer amount of numbers), so Im not sure how you'd simplify them but it perhaps needs to feel a little more believable, even if that just involves hiding the numerical components of it a little better and giving them a message based face - if you know what I mean

 

[AveMe]

1. Integrate it into rest of the game.
2. Make it more PvP-focused. It'd not only make it more interesting, A lot of murderers would start fighting each other in powerplay
instead of sitting in starting area and killing sidewinders. Also, integrating most of community goals into it would help too.
Instead of army of PvP ships killing traders we would have real PvP and escort ships defending trade ships.
3. Remove the bfsm damn decay. Current powerplay is basically Sisyphean task. Kill endless waves of NPCs or carry endless amounts of cargo until the bar fills, and then wait until it resets.

 

[SciTrekker]

PP has 2 types of activities: combat and hauling. Having jumped back into PP after leaving it long ago, I did some initial math to see how much time I'd have to devote to hauling in order to get to Rating 3 for those highly sought after prismatic shields. I must have been so ignorant my first time at PP that I didn't realize the idiotic time commitment for a new PP player who prefers hauling over combat. As someone stated above, hauling is the most important activity to undertake (specifically fortifications).

10t every 30 minutes. That's 20t per hour (1t = 1 merit).

Rating 3 requires 750 merits. 750t X 1hr/20t = 37.5 hours (not counting travel time to deliver the goods).

Given it can be reduced by reaching Rating 1 in week 1, then Rating 2 in week 2 and maybe Rating 3 in week 3 would reduce it a bit, I discard this strategy as "blazing my own trail" since that is a recipe for "how to play the game."

If anyone at FDev truly believes that expecting a player to devote 37.5 hours in a single week just doing PP hauling is a good or even acceptable game design, I think they need their head examined.

 

[Gully Foyle]

What do you think would "revive"/improve powerplay?

And are you currently in a PP faction and doing PP work?

Having Rousing Speeches from our glorious donut boy MAHON!

Improve it? Increase the combat bonds for killing rival faction intruders.

 

[xDreadnoughtx]

No one in the organized groups saw a point in increasing undermining triggers or reducing fortification triggers when consolidating - avoiding crappy expansions was plenty of reason to consolidate. But hey - when you're part of the problem it's far easier to pretend that you know better than everyone else.

What precisely are you accusing me of there Vectron?

Perhaps you need to man up a bit. Spend a little less time getting your thrills from spreadsheets and a bit more time encouraging FD to make something more of PP than some bean counting, formula driven snore fest.

BGS integration without the merit nonsense is the way to go, or the aforementioned bullet.

The other thing? I shall say no more.

- - - Updated - - -

1. Integrate it into rest of the game.
2. Make it more PvP-focused. It'd not only make it more interesting, A lot of murderers would start fighting each other in powerplay
instead of sitting in starting area and killing sidewinders. Also, integrating most of community goals into it would help too.
Instead of army of PvP ships killing traders we would have real PvP and escort ships defending trade ships.
3. Remove the bfsm damn decay. Current powerplay is basically Sisyphean task. Kill endless waves of NPCs or carry endless amounts of cargo until the bar fills, and then wait until it resets.

But but but but..... Too exciting, too much interesting interaction in open, no more spreadsheets, no more numbers recon, no more drones grinding fetching required bean numbers!

PS - broadly agree.

 

[Lngjohnsilver1]

What do you think would "revive"/improve powerplay?

And are you currently in a PP faction and doing PP work?

First time caller - long time listener.

It just doesn't look or feel balanced. Okay so some of the major powers will have more assets and more to offer but if I have learnt one thing from Online games over the last i dunno how many years of playing em is this - Players will almost always go with the one thing they think will benefit them the most in the most realisable asset they need - which in this case is money! You need MONEY to buy ships and everything else that the ships support. No money, no game. Irrelevant to what your merit points are, or anything else - if you aint got the moola your out. So... with that in mind i think they need a long hard look at how many powers there are, what they support and the monetary benefits (actual or realised - e.g. good cash missions or good trade data, or specialist equipment etc.) given by each. If they can't make the benefits of all Powers similar enough so that pledging to one power is not excessively better than pledging to any other but different enough and focused enough to actually do what they are stating - a power for the combat types, a power for traders, a power for smugglers, a power for explorers etc. then no-one will see the benefit to their particular playing style - yes?