So there's a long-standing debate whether Powerplay 2.0 should go open only. FDEV first floated this idea years ago and have been sitting on it ever since, with the occasional vague reference to it's possible inclusion later down the line. I don't personally believe they have much intent or will to do this because of the inevitable storm it will create from the solo/group community. It's a tricky situation because FDEV won't want to drive away solo & private mode players, but they also won't want the Powerplay feature to stagnate like it did before in 1.0.
It is more plausible then that they could instate some kind of partial/hybrid system to try to appease both side of the argument (lol yeah I know... unlikely). Anyway I'll just summarise the problem so everyone understands why there are two sides here:
Solo & Private Group Players :- It's quite simple, they do not wish to be excluded from a strand of the game or feel coerced to play with potentially hostile or goofing around players, often citing the fact that player-interaction and/or PvP is an optional activity that some players do not wish to deal with.
Open Play & PvP Players : - They are attracted by unpredictable, unscripted and high-risk scenarios that can occur when there is player opposition to achieving a goal. The argument is that many players consider it unfair for a player or player group to perform hostile or invasive territory-control actions (undermining etc) from the safety of solo or private group - opting to use these modes for a tactical reason rather than a social reason and never being vulnerable to direct counter-attacks.
With these considerations in mind we could suggest the following solution:
Stronghold / Fortification and other defensive actions : Cross-mode, non-weighted (as it currently works)
Players would be able to do everything they can do now from all modes to maintain hold over their territory, nothing changes. Rewards would be equal (except the lack of being able to gain from killing enemy players ofc).
Preparation & Expansion into unclaimed systems : Cross-mode, actions weighted 2:1 in favour of open play
To expand into new, unclaimed systems, players would be able to remain in private modes, but any action performed in open-play would be double-effectiveness for PP territory metrics and personal rewards (to balance risk vs reward).
Undermining & other hostile actions vs enemy power holdings : Open-only, actions can be performed in private modes but will not affect power holdings, ranking or territory
If players wish to perform hostile actions in enemy power territory (and have it affect the powerplay metrics) then they would have to do it from open play. The gameplay loops could still be allowed from private modes, but it would be clearly communicated that this will be ineffective from a Powerplay metric perspective, not counting towards territory gain/loss and only generate a fraction of the usual merit rewards. It would only be allowed from a gameplay/practice/progression angle.
This would result in a fair balance, allow solo and private groups to participate in Powerplay, but would also prevent certain player groups from dominating PP2.0 from the safety of private modes (which is dull and puts open players off taking part). It would also allow players to more effectively patrol their own territory and fight off intruders (because those intruders would not be able to use Solo & Private modes as a covert attack route any longer).
At the very least this solution could be trialled for a few months... if it failed to generate the desired outcomes if could be reset back to normal if it failed to take off. Least they would have tried.
Note to mods - I think this idea is sufficiently different from the current mega-thread about Open Only PP, please do not merge this thread in there as it will get lost in that monster.
We definitely need more bananas. I'd gladly pay 30,000 ARX for a banana decal!
