Powerplay In which mode do you powerplay, and what would you do if Sandro's Open only bonus came in?

[Infidel Deity]

Would I stay even more in open, if we got ourselves a bunch of PP decals and paint jobs?
Yes!
This should definitely be one of the options in the poll! [yesnod]

A bunch of other decals would be super nice too!

 

[NickDupree]

Due to people sitting in HQ system constantly attacking all players even tho not powerplay aligned, I think Id fly to fort in open and back empty in solo. Still gives others options to stop me when have packages but avoids griefers on way back.
However depends how the option is implemented as to if that feasible. The danger will be if forget to change modes, which has happened before and used the 15 second option to avoid the same guy killed me 3 times before for no reason who has made insulting remarks to people in faction and been reported by them.

 

[Martin Schou]

Due to people sitting in HQ system constantly attacking all players even tho not powerplay aligned, I think Id fly to fort in open and back empty in solo. Still gives others options to stop me when have packages but avoids griefers on way back.

Must be nice being pledged to a power with outbound fortifications. Meanwhile Antal, Torval, Delaine and Mahon are stuck with inbound fortifications and a MASSIVE merit bottleneck in their headquarters.

 

[Robert Maynard]

But we have no stats for how many people play in which mode, and what would the effect be of an open only bonus on the modes people play in.

So, let the voting commence!

And let's see what conclusions we can draw from this!

Indeed we don't - Frontier do though.

Voting - on a forum that does not require members to own the game to be able to vote....

Probably very few - the sample size will be small and the poll is self-selecting (and irrespective of what the poll indicates, Sandro does actually have access to in-game analytics that let him see who did what, where and when....).

 

[Mephane]

I chose other.

I am not participating in PP in any capacity, but if I were, I'd seriously reconsider leaving PP altogether if there were a significant penalty for playing in modes other than open. And yes, a bonus for open is absolutely equivalent to a penalty for private and solo, because that bonus becomes the new baseline for "normal" and the other modes are effectively reduced below the new normal.

 

[Neil1889]

Sometimes I play in Private Group, but I don't mind Open play either.

I'd just switch to Open for all Powerplay activity.

As of late, I have done exactly that anyway.

 

[bigity]

I chose other.

I am not participating in PP in any capacity, but if I were, I'd seriously reconsider leaving PP altogether if there were a significant penalty for playing in modes other than open. And yes, a bonus for open is absolutely equivalent to a penalty for private and solo, because that bonus becomes the new baseline for "normal" and the other modes are effectively reduced below the new normal.

So, because of a penalty (which isn't a penalty) for something you don't do at all, you wouldn't do it at all?

 

[SushiCW]

Powerplay has only ever really had value to me as a way to find PvP, so Open was always the only thing that made sense. Unfortunately it turned out to not be very good at making PvP easy to find so I abandoned it.

 

[Cmdr BH Surfer]

For myself, and others I play with, the answer is it depends..

If we are in a Wing, undermining or fighting in an expansion system - we fly in open. We are the threat, hoping to run into enemy commanders that we can kill to take away any merits they have gained before turning in. If we are sniping a system, we will fly in a private group - so as to not alert our enemies of our presence.

If I am playing alone, flying a Cargo shop with limited defensive capabilities - I fly solo. Why bother taking the risk when running fortification or Prep? There is nothing to gain from it.

In the last Powerplay cycle, we had one hell of a prep race with Mahon for a contested system bubble (I'm with Hudson). We had battle advantage flying trade conda's, and ran in open hoping we would run into them to destroy their ships. Unfortunately for us, we did not see a single one of their ships. We assume they were all running cutters in private group. I would assume their reason for doing so was they knew they could not stand up to us in a fight, and there was no advantage for them in taking that risk and attempting to do so. We ended up loosing that prep war since we could not keep up with the amount of prep they were able to achieve with those cutters.

So to make a long story short. It's a risk / reward mechanic currently lacking and affecting powerplay balance. If you are a Combat pilot flying in open, you have less risk than a Cargo pilot. As a Combat pilot you have a higher reward potential (kill enemy commanders to erase merits, fortification supplies, prep nominations). As a Cargo pilot, you have absolutely no reward for flying in open.

 

[Daffan]

Open - oPen.

 

[Cmdr BH Surfer]

I'm certainly not adverse to the idea of Powerplay being open only. In fact I would actually support it. It would open up a number of gameplay opportunities.

Take for instance a Faction primarily trade based. Perhaps it would put them in a position where they would need to negotiate with other factions to provide escort service to their fortification / prep runs. Maybe paid services would be in the form of giving up a system to another faction. Might give them a reason to recruit some of their own combat pilots.

Perhaps for individuals running fortification runs, they would be well suited to fill up their cargo holds and wait to assemble a wing before heading out to fortify a system, maybe bringing a few dedicated combat pilots from their faction along with them.

Suddenly contested systems might get a little more interesting between fortification / undermining. With some actual "contesting" going on, instead of just the background spreadsheet simulations / sniping currently going on between player faction groups. Certainly something along these lines would be more aligned with the Devs vision of powerplay and this game in general?

 

[Cmdr BH Surfer]

Forgot to say, that the current mechanic of not being able to change ships when you have got Cargo in your hold has got to go though! Very dumb, makes NO sense.

You should be able to fill your hold with your available quota, then switch ships to head out to do something else like missions or bounty hunting.

Your ships are stored, so don't see any reason why they can't be stored with some cargo in them..

 

[SixxGunnz]

People forget that instancing has a lot to do with it and like to use the "they are in solo" excuse a lot. If someone is on PC and seeing numbers like undermining rise and when they go there and find no one it might be because it's being undermined in open on the Xbox. Shared galaxy but can't instance with each other.
Also I can't speak for PC but I can for Xbox. My group is heavily into power play 200+ members and we all play in open. The Xbox has a 16 player limit on the instancing. At times we have had 16 people in party chat and 4 wings of 4 in a system undermining together in the same instance. Others could be in the same system at the same time and and would never enter our instance. There have been times we have had 30- 40 people undermining the same system when it's done move on to the next in the list. Wash rinse and repeat. It's nothing to pull 15,000 to 20,000 merits a week.
My point is just because you are in that system and don't see anyone but you know they are there doesn't mean they are in solo. They might be on a different platform or a seperate instance.
Every action in powerplay can be counter acted without direct conflict. You worried about them undermining, then fortify. You see or suspect they are forifying then undermine it to counter.