I'm worried about Powerplay's state at launch

[lilikin]

As someone who has played the beta (on a mates machine) for several hours and spoken to my friend I have found no 'game breaking' bugs. Everyone calm the hell down and see what happens at release, the OP is worried about something he hasn't even played yet, I am actually very impressed at the polish of the beta release with all the new bits and apart from pictures (currently just silhouettes) and the such which aren't supposed to be there it looks fantastic.

Personally roll on monday

 

[tdshooter]

probably they said this beta would be about twice as long as normal

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

probably they said this beta would be about twice as long as normal

They said they are looking at release at next Tuesday, as usual. There's no point to delay 1.3 to be frank.

 

[Flavourless]

It's the most stable update beta I've seen too. Very good effort.

Lucky you. I have already experienced more client crashes with this release than in total since I joined the beta program.
1.3 will be buggy on release no doubt. But its just a video game.

 

[Tinman]

probably they said this beta would be about twice as long as normal

No they didn't as far as I know. Source?

As I said previously. Yesterdays Dev Update talks about expected release next week.

 

[ste]

those who play less will get less rewards than those who play more. upsetting isn't it? yea i know..

You mean people who play for 5 mins in between the adverts for corrie expect to earn the same amount of money as someone who plays everynight? Seems reasonable.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

Maybe this is not right thread, but I want to laugh to so manically sadly every time I hear some "casual player" with "max outfitted Anaconda" complaining about 1.3.

Seriously, guys. We know what you want. Stop it. It's embarrassing.

 

[{SAS}Stalker]

those who play less will get less rewards than those who play more. upsetting isn't it? yea i know..

So much misrepresentation its unreal.

The current reward system doesn't matter really how many hours you put in, if you are in the bottom 50% then everything you have done you have done so for nothing. The system is set up though so that you are competing with your fellow faction members more than other factions and the best faction you can be involved in personally is one that is failing or has a large percentage of people in it that are rarely contributing.

 

[ste]

It seems sad the most important thing, the only reason something is worthwhile and the enjoyment of it is measured in how much pretend money reward they get from it.

 

[Nyres]

What is the problem with the reward system as of now? I do not have beta access mind you.

from one of the powers in a video the top 10 Players, not percent get a 100percent bonus to bounty vouchers in that system. Basicly the top 10 players get a major bonus and the rest of the players get at best the module after multiple weeks.

 

[Mephane]

What is the problem with the reward system as of now? I do not have beta access mind you.

Powerplay rewards are based on a competitive ladder. Every week your contribution is reevaluated, then you are ranked on a ladder with all other players in your power, and the perks and rewards you get are based on your position on that ladder. For example, you must be in the top 50% to get the faction-specific equipment. There are even uber-perks for only the top 10 (not 10%; just 10) players, like a get-free-out-of-jail card or 90% ammo cost reduction. If you're a casual player, you need not even apply unless you are happy with just the breadcrumbs that fall to the floor (your main purpose will be to boost the ladder position of everyone above you; just like in a community goal - the more players at the bottom of the food chain, the more slots are within the top 50% etc bracket). And everyone in the same power as you, is first and foremost a rival for merits, and not an ally against opposing powers.

It seems sad the most important thing, the only reason something is worthwhile and the enjoyment of it is measured in how much pretend money reward they get from it.

That is a misconception. It is not that we are all anxious we are not getting the best rewards for outselves. In fact I would prefer it if no personal rewards were put into power play at all, and the ranks were merely a way of assigning voting power and bragging rights. Most of us complaining here are quite active players with good chances at scoring in the top 50% consistently if we orient our gameplay around it. The fundamental issue is not even that there are rewards, but the way they are distributed destroys any form of cooperative spirit and pits us against each other, perpetually (unlike a CG which is temporary, and only awards bonus credits).

 

[Silent_Star]

Are we allowed to post polls again? I think a poll to postpone PP another week would be a good way to show FDEV that we can wait for a stable release.

This.
I rather wait longer so the devs can fix all the issues and deliver another good update without problems.

 

[Agarthan]

Powerplay rewards are based on a competitive ladder. Every week your contribution is reevaluated, then you are ranked on a ladder with all other players in your power, and the perks and rewards you get are based on your position on that ladder. For example, you must be in the top 50% to get the faction-specific equipment. There are even uber-perks for only the top 10 (not 10%; just 10) players, like a get-free-out-of-jail card or 90% ammo cost reduction. If you're a casual player, you need not even apply unless you are happy with just the breadcrumbs that fall to the floor (your main purpose will be to boost the ladder position of everyone above you; just like in a community goal - the more players at the bottom of the food chain, the more slots are within the top 50% etc bracket). And everyone in the same power as you, is first and foremost a rival for merits, and not an ally against opposing powers.



That is a misconception. It is not that we are all anxious we are not getting the best rewards for outselves. In fact I would prefer it if no personal rewards were put into power play at all, and the ranks were merely a way of assigning voting power and bragging rights. Most of us complaining here are quite active players with good chances at scoring in the top 50% consistently if we orient our gameplay around it. The fundamental issue is not even that there are rewards, but the way they are distributed destroys any form of cooperative spirit and pits us against each other, perpetually (unlike a CG which is temporary, and only awards bonus credits).

That sounds horrible, factions should rise together and fall together. If it doesn't feel like a team then what the hell is the point? That's part of what's broken right now, you are working together with other people on a CG to rid a sector of criminals you are in a knock down drag out fight with them, but this jerkoff attacks you because he didn't get credit for a kill. You should be thankful when you pop into an instance and see another PC in your faction, not that they are just another person in your way. In fact I'm going to go farther the NPC's should be so difficult that it is more beneficial for players to work together against them than not.

 

[{SAS}Stalker]

That sounds horrible, factions should rise together and fall together. If it doesn't feel like a team then what the hell is the point? That's part of what's broken right now, you are working together with other people on a CG to rid a sector of criminals you are in a knock down drag out fight with them, but this jerkoff attacks you because he didn't get credit for a kill. You should be thankful when you pop into an instance and see another PC in your faction, not that they are just another person in your way. In fact I'm going to go farther the NPC's should be so difficult that it is more beneficial for players to work together against them than not.

There's a reason that FDev introduced a rep penalty yesterday for killing your own faction brothers. Prior to that and because ensuring your faction brethren fail, killing them made it more likely that you wouldn't.

 

[Patrick_68000]

After reading other threads, I see mainly problems with Powerplay and also with 10%. Everything else looks very good

 

[Varrag]

I am not having problem with PP if it turns out to be grindfest aimed towards people lucky (?) enough to have enough spare time to burn in that kind of game. Then I'll know that it's just not for me; and I am totally ok with that.

On the other hand, I reckon that FDEV invested lot of energy and resources into PP. Obviously, they set their hopes quite high. Which is slightly worrying because -at least according to general sentiment in beta discussions- PP doesn't seem to be what most of us were expecting. And I am not talking about bugs and other technical issues which can and will be fixed, but the most basic underlying concept - you aren't changing that on dime, so perhaps it tells something about the FDEV's vision about where they want to take this game.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

This.
I rather wait longer so the devs can fix all the issues and deliver another good update without problems.

There's issues and there's fundamental misunderstanding of gameplay design. For second, they won't delay release. Yes, kicking and screaming, 1.3 will come out next week.

 

[Ancipital]

People say this every release and yet FD roll out a perfectly fine update.

Wait, are you actually playing ED? Maybe you're too new to remember some of the more disastrous patches, released with oft-reported but totally ignored showstopper bugs, like the "boops of death" ship exploding bugs and the like..

 

[HeimdallofHavn]

So much misrepresentation its unreal.

The current reward system doesn't matter really how many hours you put in, if you are in the bottom 50% then everything you have done you have done so for nothing. The system is set up though so that you are competing with your fellow faction members more than other factions and the best faction you can be involved in personally is one that is failing or has a large percentage of people in it that are rarely contributing.

This is not entirely accurate either.

Everyone who participates and does the bare minimum which would take less than half an hour a week will get the base second tier reward for the power. So here casual players are catered for.

In my opinion the problems with the reward structure are:


1. The overall success of the power is not rewarded (close to enough)

I am currently earning 350 merits doing a very short hop with leaflets preparing a system that will actually hurt my faction if it joins.

So whilst I earn merits to rise up in rank tiers, I am sabotaging the overall success of my power.

The only rewards that somewhat focusses on the overall success of the power, is the small increase in bonuses for the top three ranked powers overall.

If we are being asked to grind, at least makes us grind in a way that will benefit our faction.


2. Working for your power gives you no direct financial reward

If you want money you must use the tried and trusted ways of combat, bounty hunting, trade or mining.

This means that if you still need credits, you are forced into non-powerplay activities


3. Temporary grind is rewarded more than loyalty to your power

After four weeks in a power with some grinding in the last week you will have access to the power specific weapon modules.

These modules are kept even if you leave or defect to join another power to repeat the process.

Min-maxers will be motivated to power-hop from power to power in order to get access to all power specific modules, destroying any real feeling of teamwork and loyalty


4. It is massively easier to earn power merits by hauling missions, than by combat.

Combat missions give you one merit for killing an anaconda, whilst a short haul in a trading anaconda taking 5 minutes earn you 350 merits.

This again, is an example where the individual merit rewards work against the overall success of the power since for many powers, combat missions are critical for overall success.


5. Power tier ranking for the higher ranks solely being determined by your relative position in the power

This seems to be what most? people are complaining about. Basically to get access to the specific weapon modules at tier 3, you have to be in the top half of the players in the power.

Personally I really don't find this to be an absurd hurdle, but others argue that this system will only promote internal clan rivalry as opposed to internal clan cooperation and rivalry with external powers


Conclusion

The overall structure of a weekly turned based powerplay (preparing, expanding, undermining, fortifying etc.) seems to be really well designed and adds a whole new interesting layer to Elite Dangerous gameplay.

With an adjusted reward structure which should not be too hard to implement, it seems to me that powerplay as a feature can be a great success.

I wish Frontier the best of luck

Cheers,

Heim