Let's talk about how 2.1 has affected power play.

[Ozzburne]

There have been many threads on the boards about this subject. I made one myself a few weeks ago, but no one ever searches past the front page, so not surprising more cropped up(I probably missed an existing one as well)

PP NPC's are out of control post 2.1 and I'm sure FDev will adjust it but they've been busy putting out the million other fires 2.1 caused and is still causing. Kind of what happens when you have a half thought out truncated beta, so not really surprised. It'll be good to play again in about 2 weeks or so until the next horizon expansion comes out, hopefully with a better beta system.

Ziljan I seem to see you in a lot of these threads playing the lone devil's advocate.

 

[AdamBell]

Flew into a RES, was attacked by an NPC, shot back and got a bounty because stupidly they're allowed to kill people with impunity. Immediately stopped participating in PowerPlay. PP is so tedious that anything discouraging people from taking part in it is good, to push Frontier to fix it.

 

[Kyle Nix]

It takes an average of 60 merits to keep rating two. That's the equivalent of killing two PowerPlay ships or making four deliveries. I'm not sure what you're doing that makes this a grind.

The fact that Rank 3 requires much more just to achieve, let alone keep/exceed?

Also, I consider myself a mercenary but circumstances at times confound my ability to find a Conflict Zone I can survive in. With the latest publish, I dread even TRYING a Combat Zone anymore so I'm stuck running Fortification supplies on the 30 min timer either way. And I'm NOT going to spend money to rush the process, I have a tight budget to maintain if i ever want a Python

 

[Privata]

2.1 fixed powerplay for me.
I hated how powerplay was magic before and you could only see PP ships in SC , it was stupid.

What they should do in my opinion is make powerplay more rewarding , but keep the risk high , as afterall powerplay in lore is borderline criminal

 

[Bigglesof206]

Powerplay is broken, and FD are not going to hurry to fix it - which is understandable as there arent' that many people actually playing it - only FD know how many, and they won't say, but 'not all that many' is easy enough to deduce from what they DO say.
FD did not consider how 2.1 would affect PP, and probably wouldn'#t have been any wiser had they tried to, as they apparently don't know quite how bits of it actually work.

PP pledging has always carried with it an increased danger from NPCs, as PP faction NPCs attempt to kill you - so your interdiction rate was increased noticeably by pledging. For some, perhaps mahy players today that could be a concern - if you don't like NPC interdictions now, then you won't like PP very much if you pledge. I would normally suggest that it would be an idea to wait for FD to fix things before joining in, PP rank can involve a fair bit of dedication to maintain - especially at level 5 - and there are faster ways to make credits. I wouldn't hold your breath though, I'm fairly convinced that FD have no idea how to fix it - they're currently not even sure how it's broken.

Gotta add - if you think holding rank 2-4 is a grind, the PP is not going to make you smile, holding rank 4 is probably 2.5 hours work a week....it's only rank 5 that gets really at all grindy.
Dave

 

[CMDR Adelind]

2.1 fixed powerplay for me.
I hated how powerplay was magic before and you could only see PP ships in SC , it was stupid.

What they should do in my opinion is make powerplay more rewarding , but keep the risk high , as afterall powerplay in lore is borderline criminal

This. ^

Before, killing NPC's in Elite was like shooting ducks. Now they shoot back.

 

[The Wallet Inspector]

I noticed very few players now in Open have powerplay tags anymore, they are almost all NO FACTION. I assume they have either got what they wanted, or it is more hassle than it was worth to remain loyal to a faction. I tried it for a bit, and may still return to it.

 

[Privata]

I noticed very few players now in Open have powerplay tags anymore, they are almost all NO FACTION. I assume they have either got what they wanted, or it is more hassle than it was worth to remain loyal to a faction. I tried it for a bit, and may still return to it.

Powerplay is not about the money , its about supporting a faction you like more than the reward.
I am pleged to the alliance and will be forever

 

[Nerwan]

Yep, I left too. I'm good a killing NPCs but RES became way too annoying.

 

[Banana's_Are_Good_For_You]

Surely is more difficult and the NPC's are appearing in place where they didn't use to.
I'm not overly familiar with how they spawn but it might make a bit more sense if there was a better balance on how they spawn.
Ships that are associated with the controlling power should always outweigh the numbers of rivals which would make those not associated with the controlling power appear more like raiding parties, which would seem likely.
As it stands and from the ss earlier, the balance looks off.

Another thing which could add a sense of realism is if a system is in turmoil then the NPC divide should be 50 / 50 or 33x3 depending on how many are involved to try and reflect that. It would also be cool that only the closest powers NPC's should be there...or if there was a way to know which power caused the turmoil but I'm not sure if that is possible.
Info could be gained by Reddit though as most were outlining their targets.
May not even need to be tied to turmoil but down to how much undermining is done to a system. Again, this would present the system as being less secure.

I still hold my PP flag but I haven't done the merit thing in a long time, I'm 5C apparently and got hate mail so I RP'd it. I still work for the grapefruits but have little time for humans.

I'm pretty much in free space and only encounter such things if on missions.
I imagine it could be bad though but fixable.

 

[Troy_McClure]

Found the PP wing presence annoying in my DBS, so switched to my Vulture..now I just kick their assses!
.
We're you in LTT 15574 at Haxel yesterday hearing gunfire outside..that was me killing Fed Agents & Fed security wings..well they started it!
.
Also the HazRES in this system used to be chocca with cmdrs, haven't seen more than a few since 2.1 dropped..I just kill PP foes - Wanted or not!
.
Always used to live & let live but since this new aggressive precedent has been set by the AI..I will extend this to faction players from now on
.

 

[freedom4556]

I just joined LYR too. Flying around in my FDL. Having a completely different experience from the OP. I see lots of mid size lower rank ships with decent size bounties (50-150k). They don't find me though, I have to find them.

Very few are PP related which is frustrating because I joined PP specifically for the extra challenge, but it seems like the same challenge as 2.0, but it's just harder to find PP targets.

You should see how well Ed Lewis handled it during one of those Horizons beta livestreams. It was the one where he kept leaving Farseer Inc to try and fight at a nav beacon, and even with a wing of 3 CMDRs covering him he still manages to draw all the PP NPC aggro and get killed. Several times. (He thinks cops are doing it b/c he's not paying too much attention).

Then chat convinces him to unpledge. The next pass at the beacon it takes him a full minute to find a wanted target.

Ed was only rank 1 with no merits (it was the Galactic Intern account). Perhaps the PP NPC's aggression could scale with your PP rank?