I don't understand what do you mean buy "Mindlessly doing A to B Runs"? While a big part of Powerplay is hauling from A to B, since some powers like Winters and Aisling Duval are hauling powers, some other powers are actually combat powers. STILL even though Winters was a hauling power, we witnessed last cycle an incredible amount of people who never done combat before, or who were mainly haulers drop their T-9s and Cutters, get in a combat ship and engaged in a war campaign that lasted 5 days. It was intense, a lot of our members felt "patriotic" in a sense because of how immersing the gameplay was, with wings being organised almost 24 hours a day and people queuing to take part. Add to that the blockades that were done by PvP Commanders, a lot of cycles haulers have to run through blockades, where other PvPers fly CAP (combat Air Patrol) or escort the haulers to protect them from the enemy, a lot of strategy is involved.
The sad part is that FDev have no clue about this gameplay, they do not play their games obviously. Another sad truth is that they don't care about their customers, you paid for the game already, why should they care, they try to please casual gamers, while skill gaming is not respected by the developers and this is why Elite could have been one of those games you talk about, instead Elite is just a small game. Sad.
Ok, so there are two components here.
First is about the mechanics themselves, which most powers are mainly based around hauling or at least one of their activities are hauling. I don't recall if there are any powers that don't have at least one hauling component. As I recall when i did a count of this, about half the powers have at least 2 hauling activities.
Second is about the mindless part, which may also be phrased as grinding. There is a lack variation in activities you can do to support your power. Its either combat or hauling and its really, effectively PvE grind over and over again. The more you grind, the more you contribute. Now, i'm sure we can discuss the PvP aspect and how you can do that to hinder other powers, but as someone who doesn't really care about PvP and that despite what some people say, Powerplay is driven by PvE actions, i'll consider PvP a niche activity of Powerplay that affects it minimally (as things stand, without changes - whether it would be a good idea to make it open only or change PvP rewards, well, let's not go down that rabbit hole, i've had this out with OO proponents before, and would simply distract from the discussion and go nowhere).
What i'd love to see from Powerplay (and i've been saying this since 1.3 when it was revealed) was to allow a wider range of activities work for Powers. Remember when Powerplay missions were mooted? Or perhaps things like you can support Toval through mining and other powers through other activities. So those who enjoy certain activities, not just hauling and combat can also have a power they can contribute to. A power for explorers. A power for miners. A power for people who like driving SRVs even!
But it would require a much more involved development and maintenance and balancing would be a major issue if it wasn't the same for all powers.
Now, you also raise a point about getting involved in combat and feeling "patriotic" (or love of the group) and yes, i get this. my favourite part of a BGS conflict is when there is a war on. Combat zones are a lot more fun for me than elections.
But what you are talking about there is simply what can happen with group play and working towards a common goal. PP isn't needed for that. And while that group combat experience was nice, its an occasional things. Most powers are then just going to go back to A to B hauling after.
This is why i say it needs a complete rework to get my interest (or maybe a rework would turn me off it even more, depending on how it was implemented), because without a greater variety of activities, this is how i view it, mindlessly repeating the same actions, week in, week out, with no end to it.
Look at it. What has actually changed in the PP political landscape in the last 5 years? Ok, FD hand of godded a new power in. What else? Any powers collapsed? Any powers achieved any sort of supremacy? Some sort of reward for their efforts? Nope, its just jockeying for position through pure unadulterated grind. Borders move a bit here and there, but to anyone outside PP, like me, there hasn't been any meaningful change to the PP territorial landscape since it was released. All i see is the same blobs on the map. All i see is annoying PP NPCs taking up spawn slots in RES and nav beacons. All i see is a useless game feature that negatively affects my ability to bounty hunt in my own system because every time i drop into somewhere its at least 50% powerplay NPCs.
