This is part of a series of proposals to improve PowerPlay in various ways. The goal is to make PowerPlay a more interesting, dynamic, and rewarding experience, without needing to scrap the whole thing and rebuild from the ground up - evolution rather than revolution. Each proposal is intended to be relatively straightforward to implement (though of course we have no special insight into the specifics of the Elite codebase), and most of them (except where mentioned) stand alone and do not need a lot of other changes to make them work.
Please limit discussions to the specific topic at hand - pros, cons, tweaks, etc. If you have alternative proposals, by all means make a separate topic! The parent thread for this series is here: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...out-incrementally-improving-powerplay.551571/ Although the authors are Winters/FLC commanders, these proposals have been made and discussed by pilots from many Powers.
Free PowerPlay cargo accumulates to a higher total
Free PowerPlay cargo currently accumulates every half hour at a rate depending on current rating - 10/15/20/25/50 tons per half hour. However, the maximum available and the rate accumulated are currently the same. This proposal maintains the existing rating-dependent accumulation rate, including while offline, or undocked flying around doing other activities, but raises the cap to 1000 tons.
Discussion:
The current situation forces commanders to either stay logged on permanently, or to log in every half hour to pick up their free cargo. This wastes player time, computer power, bandwidth, and server capacity. It also encourages behaviour such as automation and scripting that should be generally discouraged.
This proposal does not change how much free PP cargo is accumulated each half hour, but it does allow more cargo to accumulate and be collected all at once. The nominal figure of 1000 tons allows a full load of any current or projected craft, and represents 10 hours of accumulated free cargo at rating 5. 10 hours allows even the most diligent (and/or obsessive) commander to get a healthy amount of rest and recuperation without worrying that they are letting their power down and missing out on free goods.
This proposal also allows commanders to participate in other non-PowerPlay activities for multiple hours at a stretch without worrying that they are letting their side down by not lurking in a station loading up every half hour.
If it is found that this makes hauling too powerful relative to UM, a reduction in per-half-hour rates would be warranted.
This proposal does not affect the top haulers in most powers, since they do not rely on the free cargo, they fast-track the majority of their cargo and earn enough money to offset this, and this behaviour is unchanged. This proposal mainly benefits the less hardcore “mid tier” player who enjoys playing Elite and PowerPlay, but also has a job and a family to attend to, and wishes to play other parts of the game as well as helping out their power.
Open Question: should the cap also be rating-dependent, for example should the cap be ten hours of the half-hourly grant, according to rating, i.e. 200/300/400/500/1000 tons.
Please limit discussions to the specific topic at hand - pros, cons, tweaks, etc. If you have alternative proposals, by all means make a separate topic! The parent thread for this series is here: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...out-incrementally-improving-powerplay.551571/ Although the authors are Winters/FLC commanders, these proposals have been made and discussed by pilots from many Powers.
Free PowerPlay cargo accumulates to a higher total
Free PowerPlay cargo currently accumulates every half hour at a rate depending on current rating - 10/15/20/25/50 tons per half hour. However, the maximum available and the rate accumulated are currently the same. This proposal maintains the existing rating-dependent accumulation rate, including while offline, or undocked flying around doing other activities, but raises the cap to 1000 tons.
Discussion:
The current situation forces commanders to either stay logged on permanently, or to log in every half hour to pick up their free cargo. This wastes player time, computer power, bandwidth, and server capacity. It also encourages behaviour such as automation and scripting that should be generally discouraged.
This proposal does not change how much free PP cargo is accumulated each half hour, but it does allow more cargo to accumulate and be collected all at once. The nominal figure of 1000 tons allows a full load of any current or projected craft, and represents 10 hours of accumulated free cargo at rating 5. 10 hours allows even the most diligent (and/or obsessive) commander to get a healthy amount of rest and recuperation without worrying that they are letting their power down and missing out on free goods.
This proposal also allows commanders to participate in other non-PowerPlay activities for multiple hours at a stretch without worrying that they are letting their side down by not lurking in a station loading up every half hour.
If it is found that this makes hauling too powerful relative to UM, a reduction in per-half-hour rates would be warranted.
This proposal does not affect the top haulers in most powers, since they do not rely on the free cargo, they fast-track the majority of their cargo and earn enough money to offset this, and this behaviour is unchanged. This proposal mainly benefits the less hardcore “mid tier” player who enjoys playing Elite and PowerPlay, but also has a job and a family to attend to, and wishes to play other parts of the game as well as helping out their power.
Open Question: should the cap also be rating-dependent, for example should the cap be ten hours of the half-hourly grant, according to rating, i.e. 200/300/400/500/1000 tons.
