Powerplay Interesting you can now see where you are in the Top 10

[Factabulous]

Last Night, probably 2nd/3rd?

Today:

I guess the countdown is glitched - damn I was hoping to make top 10 but I doubt I can be bothered that long if it is running to Thursday

 

[Ian Doncaster]

It told me I was first last night with about 2800 merits, which I was fairly doubtful about the accuracy of and is really not a good sign for my Power if true.

 

[Factabulous]

Yeah, I was surprised to be anywhere near top - though I am testing out efficiency[1], rather than effectiveness[2], so I guess I shouldn't be that surprised.

[1] of ranking with power
[2] of power making progress

 

[Mordred115]

Last Night, probably 2nd/3rd?

View attachment 406328

Today:
View attachment 406329

I guess the countdown is glitched - damn I was hoping to make top 10 but I doubt I can be bothered that long if it is running to Thursday

My leaderboard is still completely greyed out...

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

My leaderboard is still completely greyed out...

You have to do the first set of assignments to access it, I think.

 

[Factabulous]

So have they nerfed ppl for exploits already?

I haven't been doing PP today and now seem to be Number 1 ...

 

[Rubbernuke]

So have they nerfed ppl for exploits already?

I haven't been doing PP today and now seem to be Number 1 ...

View attachment 406903

 

[BDelacroix]

Has to be something wrong. I'm not grinding hard and already in top 25% just kicking about doing things.

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

Has to be something wrong. I'm not grinding hard and already in top 25% just kicking about doing things.

then maybe you are doing it right. I'm not grinding either; I've tried out this and that, I did ferry a few loads of rares, made and collected quite a few escape pods, and collected around 20k merits over the week, and I too am firmly in the top 25% so far.

Maybe all the farmers just make a noise, and many more not so experienced players tried PP and are just slower than we are.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Maybe all the farmers just make a noise, and many more not so experienced players tried PP and are just slower than we are.

This is almost certainly it.

If you consider a typical trade CG (and even the super-popular ones aren't that far out of line with this)
- top 75% is 1000-1500t or just two trips in a big freighter (and that means the bottom 25% aren't even doing that much in an entire week)
- top 50% is maybe 5000t, or just one trip a day in a big freighter
- top 25% is 10000-20000t, which is still less than an hour's play a day if you've got a dedicated hauling ship
- even top 10% is only 20000-30000t at the minimum, which is still only an hour a day and a little more at the weekends
(and then it gets to silly amounts as you start to go through the higher percentages)
... and that's from the relatively small subset of people who are engaged enough to do CGs at all

Anyone on the forums will generally be getting top 25% just from playing the game, if they're playing the game to get those points / CG rankings.

 

[Rebel Yell]

Our Top Agent will receive the "Cursed Dubloon" for achieving the 1st place... (more news to come).

 

[Unknown Zombie]

then maybe you are doing it right. I'm not grinding either; I've tried out this and that, I did ferry a few loads of rares, made and collected quite a few escape pods, and collected around 20k merits over the week, and I too am firmly in the top 25% so far.

Maybe all the farmers just make a noise, and many more not so experienced players tried PP and are just slower than we are.

Yeah, you guys are flipping the right switches and pulling the right levers. I've been experimenting with activities (no rare trading though) and I've only got ~4600 merits so far.

Most of the things I can do in my Phantom don't earn much. Trading (not rare trading) is abysmal. Powerplay limited-availability commodities are almost as bad. "Aid & Humanitarian" missions are awful. Escape Pods are pretty good.

I reckon I could throw in the towel and haul some rares too, but I wanted to avoid that just because the earn rate compared to everything else is just busted and it must be unintentional.

I still do think some of the other activities are underpaid by too much, though.

But, having said all that, despite being such a low earner I'm still about halfway up the top 75% earners tier (like, top 60% ish?):

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

Yeah, you guys are flipping the right switches and pulling the right levers. I've been experimenting with activities (no rare trading though) and I've only got ~4600 merits so far.

Who are you pledged to?

Most of the things I can do in my Phantom don't earn much. Trading (not rare trading) is abysmal. Powerplay limited-availability commodities are almost as bad. "Aid & Humanitarian" missions are awful. Escape Pods are pretty good.

Basically you have to find out what the preferred activities for the given system types are. Luckily the galaxy map actually tells you that.

I got the impression that the powers award up to double the merits for their preferred activity than powers who don't have a preference for it. For instance there is this spreadsheet by @DSS Lev floating around that says 39 merits per escape pod for Archer (I think). Well, Kaine awards me 61 merits per pod in reinforcing systems. LYR pays 3 merits per ship scan, I get 5.

Or the rare trading - LYR has a preference for rare trading in both acquisition and reinforcement systems, and pays up to 40 merits per unit if player claims can be believed. Kaine does not and pays 19 merits per unit. If you manage to trade large enough quantities it's still somewhat profitable, but not "10k merits per hour" profitable.

I reckon I could throw in the towel and haul some rares too, but I wanted to avoid that just because the earn rate compared to everything else is just busted and it must be unintentional.

I still do think some of the other activities are underpaid by too much, though.

That's the thing - rare trading seems very generously balanced for some powers, and other activities either lag behind at best or are just terribly badly balanced at worst. With Kaine, I kind of feel I drew the short straw, cause none of the activities I tried so far pays as good as the ones for other powers. But then again maybe I haven't tried all possible activities yet. I hear mining is good for Kaine, but very restricted in what you're allowed to do between mining and selling (just hearsay). Haven't tried it yet.

Bottom line: You need to find the best activities for your power, following any "fastest way to earn merits" without taking the power into account is useless.

Just my two cents after doing a few very confusing days of that stuff.

 

[Unknown Zombie]

I'm in the same boat as you -- I'm pledged to Kaine.

I intend to try mining out to see how well it pays, but I need a solid block of playtime set aside for that and I haven't found the opportunity for that yet.

So, for now, searching for (and creating ) Escape Pods seems to be the best activity for me. I can't complain about that, tbh, because I have always been the kind of player to scoop Escape Pods when I see them and I've always wished S&R paid more. Well, this is pretty good buff to S&R in my book and it feels like I'm being rewarded for something I always did like to do.

I just wish packing a Krait full of Food Cartridges for a Donate Food Cartridges "humanitarian" mission didn't leave me feeling like I wasted my time with 12 merits, when it is supposed to be a "preferred activity." All of the "Aid & Humanitarian" missions merit rewards are dismal, considering you're straight-up burning credits to complete them. I could see the argument that Donate Credits missions should be bad earners despite being credit sinks, since you literally do nothing but click two buttons to complete it. However, Donate Commodity missions could use a buff I think, since it's basically putting you through the trade gameplay loop, except you have to know where to buy the requested goods cheap and it sill is 100% credit sink.

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

Don't know how it is in detail for the other powers, but merit payout for Kaine seems... lackluster. I mean, ferrying power commodities gives less than one merit per unit? Hmmm.

If you want to grind for Kaine, you can still do it with rares, even if it's not even closely comparable to a few other powers. I tried a few variants for science, and ended up with Soontil relics being the best of the ones I tried. Technically too close for optimum profit, but they make up for that with shorter jump times and REALLY high profit. But if I wanted I could just about ferry four 80t loads per hour (Inara says one round trip between Ngurii and the system I am selling in takes me 16 minutes), and I got 19 merits per unit, meaning you could get up to 6000 merits per hour.

But man, that's a soul crushing grind. I am having much more fun flying between wreckage signals and interdicting power NPCs inbetween to make and collect some more pods. Luckily I don't care about the rank grind and I'm not really in it for the module shopping, otherwise I might have already switched to another power .

 

[Ian Doncaster]

I am having much more fun flying between wreckage signals and interdicting power NPCs inbetween to make and collect some more pods.

There doesn't seem to be much better available for undermining, and it's slightly better for fortification because you get the "scan" awards too. Use an Operations controller for the collector limpets and you can repair some holo-ads too for a small bonus each time you resupply.

I'd say somewhere between 1000-2000 merits per hour depending on luck with the signals, which is way more than most activities give (well, it's combining of 2-4 activities, it should pay better than just doing one thing), but still well below rares.

I mean, ferrying power commodities gives less than one merit per unit?

I get 1.5 for undermining and 1.25ish for fortification (I think acquisition was 1, but haven't checked recently) ... which is better than pretty much any other (non-rares) use you could make of a station-to-station cargo run. If the progression so far continues you should get an allocation of ~250t at rank 100, which would at least make them worth carrying if you happened to be going that way.

"Flood with low value goods" even in the best case seems to be 0.2 merits/tonne (and that's with a "favoured action" bonus). Useless except as a "what else do I do with this spare hold space" action.
"Sell high-profit goods" can get up to 2 merits/tonne in ideal cases (without the bonus, so maybe 3 for a favoured power) but is looking more like 0.25-0.3 merits per tonne at most stations or if you're after large quantities of cargo (and with those per-tonne rates, it needs large quantities) so similarly not that good.

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

There doesn't seem to be much better available for undermining, and it's slightly better for fortification because you get the "scan" awards too. Use an Operations controller for the collector limpets and you can repair some holo-ads too for a small bonus each time you resupply.

I do have an operations controller onboard, but haven't gotten around to screwing around with the billboards yet .

I'd say somewhere between 1000-2000 merits per hour depending on luck with the signals, which is way more than most activities give (well, it's combining of 2-4 activities, it should pay better than just doing one thing), but still well below rares.

Yeah maybe lackluster was a bit overly dramatic. It's okayish so long as you don't compare it with the payouts of other activities and powers . I found out I could collect around ten pods, plus a couple of damaged ones, a few black boxes and a bit of wreckage components in all the wreckage signal sources in the system I was trying it in in about 20 minutes; for the pods alone I'd get just over 600 merits, plus the other stuff. It's not bad per se.

I get 1.5 for undermining and 1.25ish for fortification (I think acquisition was 1, but haven't checked recently) ... which is better than pretty much any other (non-rares) use you could make of a station-to-station cargo run. If the progression so far continues you should get an allocation of ~250t at rank 100, which would at least make them worth carrying if you happened to be going that way.

I could collect 40 power commodities and delivered them for fortification for 31 merits. Haven't tried undermining yet, but I was very disappointed by that. But it's very possible I am missing some other factors.

"Flood with low value goods" even in the best case seems to be 0.2 merits/tonne (and that's with a "favoured action" bonus). Useless except as a "what else do I do with this spare hold space" action.

I am not going to shovel crap, no matter what it pays .

 

[Ian Doncaster]

But it's very possible I am missing some other factors.

Could be the "system strength penalty" making a difference to that sort of thing?

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

Could be the "system strength penalty" making a difference to that sort of thing?

Probably something like that. I never did PP1 and am still a bit confused about some aspects of PP2, so I don't really have an eye for those details yet.

 

[Factabulous]

I'm doing undermining using Escape Pods from Amaethon megaships (not great for actually PP as there aren't that many, but ok if you just want to undermine randomly). Amaethon are (I think) the only ones still with Escape Hatches (they used to be common but fdev removed a lot years ago). Some have NPCs that completely ignore you (no need to even Silent Run), and don't spawn missions so you can spend hours in safety. Makes a change from Rares.

10-12k Merits/hr and a chunk of Control Points when you hand in. Seems like maybe Strongholds give more Merits, but that might have been me hitting a rank upgrade, or something to do with system strength.

Edit: Megaship looting is, ofc, still a bit broken, so I wouldn't recommend it to everyone. I think for one patch they managed to get all the pods to leave the hatch, but it wasn't a recent one. And limpets seem particularly prone to doing nothing around the megaships.