Powerplay Observation about ratings, cycles and timing.

[Stealthie]

I've been signed up with Aisling Duval for the shields.

Last Thursday (9th Nov) was 4 weeks of being pledged so I went down to Cubeo during the previous Saturday (4th Nov), filled up my Cutter with her tat and made the effort to deliver it diligently, rather than dumping it all in Lambda 1 Turcanae like everybody else seems to.

So, Thursday rolls around and I'm all set to go shield shopping.
I buy a bunch of prismatic shields, ferry them across to Laksak so Lei Chung can work his magic on them, ferry them back to my base again, fit them to my ships, realise that I need to make some other minor changes, get that stuff done and begin to test out the new shields in use.

It's Saturday again by now (11th Nov) and I notice I'm unable to buy any more Prismatic shields because I'm back down to 150 ratings.
Okay, this shouldn't be a big deal.
It was the previous Saturday when I earned the 750 ratings required to reach level 3 so I guess I've slipped back down to level 2 and I need to "top up" my rankings to get back to level 3 again.
I just got around to getting back to Cubeo again tonight, picked up another Cutter load of tat, delivered it and.... I'm STILL at level 2. Presumably until Thursday again.

To be frank, this is an utterly dumbass way for the cycle to work.

If you're going to have weekly cycles, the effects need to LAST A WEEK.
They either need to take effect immediately and last a week from the time you accomplish them or they need to take effect when the cycle starts and remain in effect for a full week after that.

I completed the requirements on the Saturday, got abso-****-lutely NO benefit from it for 5 days, I then get the benefit of it for two days, my rating then drops and I can't restore it and regain the benefits until the start of another cycle.

Okay, lesson learned.
If I do any more PP stuff, I guess the trick is to do it on a Wednesday night so you'll get the benefit of it for almost a full week but, jeez, with halfassed stuff like this involved, it's not surprising PP is the back-alley crack-den of ED.

 

[Martin Schou]

If I do any more PP stuff, I guess the trick is to do it on a Wednesday night so you'll get the benefit of it for almost a full week but, jeez, with halfassed stuff like this involved, it's not surprising PP is the back-alley crack-den of ED.

PowerPlay is pretty much the only part of Elite: Dangerous that is not designed around rewarding players for being selfish. PowerPlay is designed to be a group vs group activity, and sadly due to lack of forward thinking, it has stalled in its in-game development. However, the fact that it keeps players who are only looking out for themselves uninterested, does not seem to be a fault in the game design to me.

 

[Rubbernuke]

Indeed, in concept at least the tiers are supposed to be rewards for helping your power.

Just as BGS cycles are a day to allow fair per commander effects, so Powerplay has a weekly cycle to allow for large groups to have a fair amount of time to enact any plans.