1. Allow Empire and Federation associated powerplay activities to contribute to the Empire or Federation rank grinds for ship access.
2. DRASTICALLY increase merit gain from all sources (and add more sources) so that the merit grind for rating 5 is actually even remotely worth it for every single power.
3. Add a lot more benefits for being highly rated with a power AND in their territory; I'm talking better paying missions, instantly being allied with local system factions associated with the same superpower as the powerplay leader, having access to wings of AI escort ships to help with combat and such (but only while IN your territory), getting huge discounts on power-associated ships in control systems, and anything else that you guys can think of. Instead of people power-hopping to get all the power modules, I want to see players pledge to a power for their benefits, get highly rated in that power (without grinding merits for a a lifetime) and flying ships associated with that power because it is strongly encouraged and has some form of advantage for doing so.
4. Make rating-associated pledge perks scale in effectiveness with how long a player has been pledged. I can't stress this enough; People need to have a reason not to randomly hop powers when it suits their needs (which easier merit grinding would encourage, but we definitely NEED easier merit grinding) SO why not make long-term loyalty to a power reward the player greatly. Obviously this would need to have diminishing returns after a long enough period of time to prevent it from getting too OP though.
5. Tie powerplay directly into the thargoid narrative, and use it to enhance and complexify said narrative. Currently all we can do is shoot thargoids. No other interactions have direct results that in any way benefit players. To de-polarize this AND make powerplay as relevant as it wants to be, why not make certain powers champion certain approaches to thargoid diplomacy? Make some powers that reward tons of money and/or merits for dropping thargoids items or somehow helping them. Make some that specialize in researching the thargoids, and some that reward you for killing them a lot more than the game currently does. Why the hell not?
6. Somehow tie powerplay to engineers in a worthwhile way (WITHOUT MAKING ONE REQUIRE THE OTHER). Maybe grant powerplay some means of rewarding players lots of useful materials/data to make powerplay more worth it as that stuff is basically endgame credits these days. Maybe let high-rated pledged players have easier access to certain engineers as a side approach to unlocking them. Wanna guess how many people would flock to a leader that rescues them from the Professor Palin grind in exchange for loyalty?
7. Buff or change all of the useless powerplay perks. Nobody gives a damn that Patreus makes ammo cost less at grade 5; Like why is that even a perk? Ammo costs are negligible beyond the early game. This is just one example.
I really thing this needs to (and could very easily) happen, and I'd love to hear you guys' followup ideas for how to better powerplay's implementation.
2. DRASTICALLY increase merit gain from all sources (and add more sources) so that the merit grind for rating 5 is actually even remotely worth it for every single power.
3. Add a lot more benefits for being highly rated with a power AND in their territory; I'm talking better paying missions, instantly being allied with local system factions associated with the same superpower as the powerplay leader, having access to wings of AI escort ships to help with combat and such (but only while IN your territory), getting huge discounts on power-associated ships in control systems, and anything else that you guys can think of. Instead of people power-hopping to get all the power modules, I want to see players pledge to a power for their benefits, get highly rated in that power (without grinding merits for a a lifetime) and flying ships associated with that power because it is strongly encouraged and has some form of advantage for doing so.
4. Make rating-associated pledge perks scale in effectiveness with how long a player has been pledged. I can't stress this enough; People need to have a reason not to randomly hop powers when it suits their needs (which easier merit grinding would encourage, but we definitely NEED easier merit grinding) SO why not make long-term loyalty to a power reward the player greatly. Obviously this would need to have diminishing returns after a long enough period of time to prevent it from getting too OP though.
5. Tie powerplay directly into the thargoid narrative, and use it to enhance and complexify said narrative. Currently all we can do is shoot thargoids. No other interactions have direct results that in any way benefit players. To de-polarize this AND make powerplay as relevant as it wants to be, why not make certain powers champion certain approaches to thargoid diplomacy? Make some powers that reward tons of money and/or merits for dropping thargoids items or somehow helping them. Make some that specialize in researching the thargoids, and some that reward you for killing them a lot more than the game currently does. Why the hell not?
6. Somehow tie powerplay to engineers in a worthwhile way (WITHOUT MAKING ONE REQUIRE THE OTHER). Maybe grant powerplay some means of rewarding players lots of useful materials/data to make powerplay more worth it as that stuff is basically endgame credits these days. Maybe let high-rated pledged players have easier access to certain engineers as a side approach to unlocking them. Wanna guess how many people would flock to a leader that rescues them from the Professor Palin grind in exchange for loyalty?
7. Buff or change all of the useless powerplay perks. Nobody gives a damn that Patreus makes ammo cost less at grade 5; Like why is that even a perk? Ammo costs are negligible beyond the early game. This is just one example.
I really thing this needs to (and could very easily) happen, and I'd love to hear you guys' followup ideas for how to better powerplay's implementation.
