Powerplay Is powerplay worth it?

CMDRBuxton

CMDRBuxton
I've only recently started hanging out in CZs and noticed my combat rank was increasing nicely but it didn't pay as well as bounty hunting in a HazRES. I'd also like to increase my Federal ranking (currently 50% Rear Admiral).

One part of the game I've never bothered with is PP. My only experience was winging up to trade with a friend who'd pledged with some power and getting interdicted every few minutes.

Is there a power where I could earn more while hanging out in CZs working on my combat ranking? Hopefully getting a boost to my Federal rank at the same time.
 

Starwolfe

S
All of the above plus what you have not thought of yet?

Interdiction seem to be getting fixed in beta, making it so you only have to worry about that part when you carry merits or PP cargo.

However it does end up being a massive time sink and cash drain if you seek to make significant contributions or do much more than just do the 4 week visit for PP parts.


Then the bugs... Cycle 52 was it for me, and I don't see me getting serious about it again until they either drastically fix or rework the whole damn thing.
 

UnhappyDev

UnhappyDev
I'll be getting the prismatics from Aisling next week and then I'll be un-pledging.

I don't know what I'll celebrate more, leaving PP or Christmas.

Granted, I just don't think it's for me but the deal-breakers are:

- Restricted movement around the bubble. I hate being hostile in cool systems e.g. Maia. Also, I hate being hostile in CG systems, making me a target for power playing CMDRs and Federal Agents alike.
- In game, it all seems quite meaningless. I don't feel at all connected the the PP player base. I don't care if we gain 1 system or lose another.
- The rewards are not enough incentive to play - 5 mill is too little for rank 4. For rank 5, 50 mill is too little cash for too much grind
- Leaflet dropping. Don't get me started.


*stomps off unhappily*
 

PhanttoM

PhanttoM
Yes and no. It really depends on how much one wants to get involved with it.
The only thing I use Power Play for, is the 20% extra bonus to bounties and access to the Imperial Hammer Railgun. (Arissa Lavigny-Duval)

Most of the time for me, this means just earning rating 2 which gives access to the 20% bounty bonus. (or 30/40/50 percent if she makes it to galactic standing 3/2/1)
Rating 2 is trivial to gain or maintain, but the other ratings are NOT worth maintaining - In the time it takes to earn or maintain rating 3-5, one can earn considerably more by just doing regular bounty hunting.


UnhappyDev said:
<snip>
- Restricted movement around the bubble. I hate being hostile in cool systems e.g. Maia. Also, I hate being hostile in CG systems, making me a target for power playing CMDRs and Federal Agents alike.
<snip>
Click to expand...

Really annoying, but this is changing soon. https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/309692-2-2-Update-Powerplay
 

MarcusAvon

M
I'm torn about trying Powerplay, I dont really understand how it works but trying seems like the best way to learn. But I dont want to cause myself massive problems in the process. Maybe its something I'll try once I have a lot more money and can afford a few re-buys.
 

withnail

withnail
Just dabble around at rank 4, which is easy to maintain.

Join an organised group too. Powerplay is most fun when you play as a team.
 

UnhappyDev

UnhappyDev
MarcusAvon said:
I'm torn about trying Powerplay, I dont really understand how it works but trying seems like the best way to learn. But I dont want to cause myself massive problems in the process. Maybe its something I'll try once I have a lot more money and can afford a few re-buys.
Click to expand...

Might be worth waiting until the patch drops; there are some changes there that smooth out a few rough edges in PP.
 

Martin Schou

Martin Schou
PowerPlay isn't a money maker. Anything you can do to make money while doing PowerPlay is more profitable if you focus on that instead.

For example, if you want to do combat to get to rating 4 or 5 (for 5 million or 50 million a week), you can make far more money doing combat elsewhere and in a shorter period of time. With merit hauling, you cannot make money - you can carry free merits around, but the delays you face to avoid, and the payout you get is far lower than what you can do with regular trading.

As a PowerPlay veteran I honestly don't like that PowerPlay comes with monetary rewards, because it gives people the impression that it can be used to make money in the same way that any other career can. PowerPlay doesn't work as a career, and if you try to use it as a career you'll end up hating it, because you end up locking yourself into a constant grind to achieve a specific rank each cycle.

PowerPlay should be seen as a type of end-game, as it's a consumer of time and money rather than something that provides other things.

What PowerPlay offers that you don't really get elsewhere in the game, namely a sense of community working towards constant weekly goals.
 

GJ51

GJ51
CMDRBuxton said:
In what way? Takes too much time? Too many interdictions? Bugs?
Click to expand...

Pretty much.

I looked at it for about 2 mins. and thought ... "Wait, you mean some guy from the Empire is in control of a Federation system"? After that, I just didn't have the motivation to even try to figure any of the rest of it out. As I sat on the sidelines longer and longer and read feedback I realized that I had made the right decision to not waste my time.

Only regret is no access to the Blue Princess's mighty shields - big whoop.
 

Ben Ryder

Ben Ryder
Is power play worth it.

Yes

Especially if you want to be a significant part of a fun power and fun is your idea of an end game. And you dont even need to pledge to take part in Antal's Utopian antics.

Try https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteAntal/

VALQajX.png


and if you'd rather not, that's fine
 
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GG7

G
50 Million Credits per week for a few hours of hauling PP stuff here and there? You bet! :D

Its actually a lot more fun and far more lucrative than I thought it was! The fact that Merit Points carry over each cycle, once your reach the 10,000 merit level rank, you usually only have a few thousand to make up the next week, and so on. I literally just surpassed 8,000 merits for this week at the time of this post, and I have put in less than 3 dedicated PP hours since the cycle started. That merit point carry over is great, and you can use that to make it easier on yourself the following week! I usually hit my 10,000 goal with ease days before the cycle ends. :D

Gotta be the easiest money in ED I have seen to date, and that includes Sothis and all the usual suspects. :) I just focus on System Prep and Fortification, which involves hauling special PP specific cargo to various systems. I just pay for the instant restock option over and over until I have my 350 tons and away I go. Rinse and Repeat until you have contributed to all the strategic systems involved for that cycle. You need to spend some of your $$ to get it done quickly, but it all comes back when you get paid for that week.

This is the most time efficient way to make $$ in PP. Combat in PP on the other hand is a waste of your time as far as merit points are concerned. Fun if you want to do some Pew Pew, but definitely not the smartest route to take in PP as far as earning $$. I tried all of it when I first started, and hauling is the way to go.

And contrary to what I have read here and elsewhere... My interdiction frequency has not changed at all since I signed up with Patreus 5 weeks ago. As far as I am concerned, the BSG feels no different than before I was in PP. Only difference is seeing Allied or Hostile sometimes when you jump into a system controlled by another power.

I'd recommend PP to anyone who is looking for one of the special weapons modules, or a steady high dollar income every week. Just buy yourself an Anaconda, grade 5 it's FSD up to a 50+ Ly jump range, max your cargo capacity to 300+ and the PP world is your oyster! :D
 
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Mystweaver

Mystweaver
For me at least, Powerplay was the quickest way I could make money in a wing with my Templar buddies.

Now bare in mind that his was back-in-day when I only had a Cobra Mk 3. With Powerplay in a CZ & Interdicting with a wing of new friends (now not so new :)), we blew up zillions of ships a week which in turned was earning me 50mil a week...

Soon I was in an A-grade Vulture, and then an A-Grade FDL.

Once I got to the FDL, I found that once I hit my 10k merits a week, Bounty Hunting was the way to go for a better revenue stream (I still kept up with PP though as it only meant I had to maintain a max of 5k per week which isn't so hard if you have the time).

Now however, I don't do powerplay for the cash... I do it for the special equipment/weapons.

To make cash, I now use my Python or Asp for Missions, or my Federal Gunship for War/Civil War Massacre Missions and can make considerably more than PP...

However, I would never have got the above ships (all A-Graded now and engineered) without Powerplay.

So my recommendation is that if you are in a ship smaller than a Vulture, and/or you just want to make some quicker cash - join a player group and Merit hunt with them... Powerplay for me is all about winging up, kicking and taking names :)
 

Gavin Burke

G
MarcusAvon said:
I'm torn about trying Powerplay, I dont really understand how it works but trying seems like the best way to learn. But I dont want to cause myself massive problems in the process. Maybe its something I'll try once I have a lot more money and can afford a few re-buys.
Click to expand...

I tried PP in the first week of getting this game, almost threw me outta the game it was that unforgiving (i.e. I didn't really know what I was doing around the galaxy but yeh was wanted in mosy systems I went, interdicted constantly)
 
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