Powerplay Merit Confusion

[CMD. Marderka]

SO, I had the impression that once you gain a Merit it wouldn't go anywhere, that is once you hit rank 1 you would keep rank 1 as well as rank 2, 3 and 4. I spent all week and all my money from mining (Pristine-Metallic Gas giant rings, lots of money) getting merits through Fortifying and by paying for extra garrison supplies and finally got to my next rank @ 750 Merits but at the end of the cycle it went down to 350. I got my 50,000 bonus voucher but . That 50k isn't anything when I spend close to 4m getting merits from getting extra supplies, 'exceeding the next quota'. So what the hell? I was looking forward to hitting that last rank and getting 50m a week but that seems impossible unless your a slave to getting merits all week in a BIG ship.

Furthermore, when I go to powerplay in the Galactic Map and view the top 10 systems that need help with restricted intel only one pops up now. So I get any restricted intel unless I go half way across the powerplay bubble to that one system. So what the hell? What happened to the other 9 systems I was seeing?

Gaining merits are not easy at all to get. The only way I can get merits is by fortifying or delivering restricted intel. I can't enter a conflict zone without almost dying immediately upon entry, even though I have a pretty good ship Asp Explorer with military grade armor, best shields and so on (http://coriolis.io/outfit/asp/25B5D5B4E4A5E5C7f2m0q0q252504040i03054c1lC567242h.Iw18WQ==.Aw18WQ==). The other ways of gaining merits is beyond me where you have to destroy envoy ships carriyng supplies or destroy any other ships, which is the same case for the conflict zones, I just have no chance in a fight when it is comes to NPCs.

I know the game should be challenging but when it comes to fighting NPCs I'm usually outmatched. Which leaves me to mining or boring missions delivering this and that. Please help make this game more interesting b/c it seems like it can be. I just feel like the only thing I'm doing in this game is jumping from system to system fighting people or delivering stuff. Gets boring quick. Exploring is cool I guess but that is still jumping from system to system and spending hours looking and hearing the jump screen.

Please help make this more enjoyable.

 

[MUSKETEER]

This cycle I'm getting my merits alone in Open in my silent running Cobra lol. It really doesn't take that long once you get the hang of it.

If you cannot do it alone just do it with other people in wings.

 

[Silvergun]

Merit Decay- https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=167408

Destroying supply ships is the easiest way IMO at 30 merits per kill and you don't even need something as expensive as an ASP to do it. I keep a few different Diamondback Scouts in enemy systems spread across the bubble.

 

[SCSkunk]

Also, if you haven't already, check Reddit for your chosen Power. You should be able to find a Starter Guide detailing your Power's methods, and also the Weekly Strategy.

 

[Bigglesof206]

From the combat point of view the ASP is certainly capable of fighting NPCs - I mean, you wouldn't want to attack Anacondas and the like (not at your apparent level of combat readiness) but you can certainly fight small ships - from your description I'd regard Adder, Viper, Diamondbacks, Cobra plus Keelback, Type 6, Type 7 as guys you ought to be able to kill. Your setup isn't really optimised for it though.

From the mining point of view, you are using tier 1 and 2 modules in tier 3 slots - is this due to lack of funds? If not then you'll be able to grab more minerals with a better refinery. You don't need the docking computer - you really only need one if you are driving a BIG ship...and even then it's more a luxury than a necessity.

You have a mining setup (not a great one, as you've underused the slot sizes). If you want to swap between fighting and mining then sell the mining stuff and put combat stuff on when going for combat, swap the mining stuff back in when you want to go mining.

For combat - use pulse lasers in both medium slots. That shotgun is only good at short range, and whilst it looks fun it's not really that good a weapon for dealing all round damage. You certainly do not want a mining laser in the second slot when fighting. The small weapon types are fine, although personally I'd make the beam lasers pulses, but for heavens sake change them ALL (All includes the tewo medium slots, by the way) to either fixed or gimballed mounts, putting turrets on an Asp is like putting a luggage rack on a Ferrari. I'm guessing you aren't a great fixed weapon user, the gimbals will be perfectly okay against NPCs - NPCs will use chaff to throw your aim off, when the auto aiming goes haywire then you just deselect the target and use the weapons in fixed mode for a few seconds, then retarget the NPC and let the auto aim go to town again as his chaff loses effect.

You do not need to Wake scanner, either another shield booster or, if you fit a heat sink launcher, that'd let you cool down to compensate for a shield cell (SCB) internally. Using the SCB makes your temperature rocket up - you fire a heat sink off and your temp immediately zooms back down to super frosty.

Internally, remove the refinery and limpets, move the FSDI down to replace the totally unnecessary docking computer (you can barrel roll an Asp in the mail slot, if you can fly OUT of a slot you can certainly fly your ship INTO one) and you now have 3 size 3 free slots to fill. personally I'd have a Fuel Scoop (to make travelling a lot less hassle), a hull reinforcement package, and an SCB in there....all size 3 of course. The gun/internals changes will turn your Asp into a much tougher, harder hitting beast, but it will drop your jump range a fair bit - you'll still be able to get places faster than my FAS manages.

As and when you get the cash you want to change some of those B grade modules to A's, they are limiting your jump range quite a lot if you hadn't noticed. An A class jump drive and power supply, when you can afford them, will get you an extra 5ly or so jump range.

For a small cash outlay swapping the 5C shield to a 5C bi weave will give you a small decrease in shield strength in exchange for faster recharging - fighting NPCs should not see you losing the whole shield very often, and a faster recharge means you are back to 100% sooner, and can pull the next guy out of supercruise all that much sooner too.

Dave

 

[NickDupree]

Rank 5 is certainly not for everyone and requires quite an investment in time and effort.

Rank 4 is achievable by most.
For fortification I very rarely pay. I dock at hq, then when doing other stuff around keep coming back to computer every 30 minutes and collect another load whilst watching tv, doing chores etc inbetween. When hold filed go deliver, pick up some trade goods for trip back and repeat.
If your running small number of merits as cycle end approaches to next/maintaining rank then ok spend some credit but no more than you can afford and always keep rebuy and some for trade goods etc.
I never undermined until started to try to go for rank 5. Only fortifying I recon it would be very difficult to get and maintain rank 5 unless you have a heck of a lot of time/credits on your hands.
As others have said even with just an asp explorer undermining should be possible and certainly when winging up. Doing undermining on your own is a lot harder to gain merits quickly, not due to the combats be harder but due to the fact npcs spawn a lot slower.

Whichever power you chose hopefully you should be able to find player willing to help with advice or to wing up via Reddit or various other groups setup. If you share which one you pledged to hopefully people will point you to right places...

Stick with it, for me the best thing about powerplay is not the money (which isnt bad), its the comeradary and comunity with other players in your power and trying to work together a shared goal.

 

[Bigglesof206]

I agree with all Nick said too.... undermining on your own, well that kinda depends on yourself - undermining in a wing is going to rack up merits lots faster, being a guy with a job that often makes me wish I were deafer than I already am (and after 2 years of playing 'World of....' in a clan on TeamSpeak) I actually prefer to fly alone simply because I'm absolutely fed up listening to other people yelling all the time ;-)
There is no doubt at all that you'll get merits faster undermining in a wing.

From your description of PP mechanics it looks like you are Hudson? If so then go look at the reddit, the info for Hudson teamspeak is on the reddit page, you'll get a lot of help if you go there and check in.

Rank - rank 4 is easy to get and hold, anyone can do it. Honest -) As Nick says, don't pay to fast track - my Asp can carry something like 60 tons, so if I were trying to get 1500 merits I'd do most undermining...even fast tracking it all still leaves you with 25 trips to fly, which is a bit much. If you undermine to rank 4, then stay at rank 4 (only approx half the kills needed to stay at a rank, so a bit over 750 merits a week to stay there) by undermining or, as Nick says, clicking for free supplies whilst doing other real life stuff for the other 29 mins 50 s of your time, and with some bounty hunting (you get a nice bonus to payments, go kill bad guys for fun and profit) and you'll be able to buy a combat specific ship - for example a Vulture - which, once properly kitted out for fighting, will make killing NPCs SOOOO much easier.

I used an Asp to trade rare goods to get the cash for a Vulture, undermined and did combat stuff in the Vulture to earn the cash for a FAS, and from that point on it's plain sailing to earn merits to get and keep rank 5 via undermining. By earning rank 5 pay for a few weeks, and bounty hunting, I bought a Clipper which can carry 200 tons, I used that for Fortification as a break from endless NPC slaughtering, and my level 5 pay eventually brought me an Anaconda - 400 tons trading - buy judicious use of fast track and free stuff by waiting I manage to keep around 20-25 M Cr a week whilst fortifying with the Conda. I'm not saying this is the best route, but it is A route to getting and keeping rank 5....I strongly endorse the suggestion to wing up for undermining, unless you are as anti social as I am <g>

Dave

 

[CMD. Marderka]

Thank you very much everyone for your input. This game does take a little more time than others to figure out. A lot more helpful with others though .

A 'bigg' thank you to Dave. I will move some stuff around to see if that works better. Much appreciated.