In the end, Open Powerplay will not be for everyone, just as exploring or mining is not for everyone. It will be played by people who play in open and for those who want to cause trouble for rivals in a structured way.
On that we agree.
Its the inefficency in the proposal that makes the regular activities slower to do, and less certian of victory.
There is certainly a degree of truth to this statement, which is why I play in Open. But given how instancing in this game "works," I don't see this
inefficiency having that much of an impact, outside of the situation we have now in combat expansions. Anybody who plays outside their local prime time will get an effective free pass, and even those who
do play during their local concurrently frequently require matchmaking assists like winging up or friends lists to actually play
in the same instance.
That is why I think whenever people talk about how brilliant PvP can be in Powerplay, they inevitably talk about Combat expansions, almost inevitably right before the tick. It takes
hundreds of players
willingly joining Open to have fun, playing concurrently in the same region of space to get enough players to instance together to get PvP action.
Right now it makes little sense other than for pride to play in Open, its more efficient to be in PG to turretboat or wing UM. It makes sense to be in solo to haul, because your opposition are poorly equipped and does not bend the rules.
And I have no problem with that. Especially the "does not bend the rules" part. I'd much rather have those who won't
willingly play in Open without bending the rules playing in other modes, than have them forced into Open where they'll inevitably combat log, use exploits, or cheat. In other modes, they won't negatively impact my game, and under Sandro's proposal, their respective efficiences will cancel each other out.
I'll be honest- if FD come up with something that I think is better, I'll argue for another 60 pages for it, even if its across modes. But until that happens, from my own experiences from flashes of what Open PP is like, I'll always support it.
And that's why I oppose forced Open Powerplay. My experiences in Open from other Powerplayers was a lot of fun. The four months I spent in Open fortifiying had some of the most positive adversarial PvP I've experienced in this game. But those positive experiences were drowned out, at least at first, by the sheer number of
unpledged commanders simply there to blow up ships. Those unpledged commanders weren't a threat to me, but they were certainly
annoying. They can be fun in small doses, and tolerable in slightly larger ones, but at the numbers I was encountering for those first weeks? If they had continued for much longer, I would've been tempted to move to other modes just to get away from them for a while.
The key to those positive experiences in my opinion was having to opt in
twice: once for Powerplay, and once for Open. I would much rather have the benefits of both Powerplay participation
and Open participation, and the positive effects they can have to my game, than return to those first few weeks of Open Powerplay.
Its available, but no-one sees it as entertaining to join. Being everything to every commander has not worked and it needs a clearer reason for inclusion. If dev time is limited, then all the options to change Powerplay are limited as well unless FD change their minds. And out of whats been discussed, Open does that- it sidesteps the issue of limited AI and abstracted combat by using other players to fill in the gaps. If everyone is doing that, then it has a new niche that is unique in ED.
That's the thing, though. It's
not everything to every commander, in fact it pretty much only appeals to ABA cargo haulers and combat farmers,
unless you're willing to use it as an "excuse plot" for other activities. Combine that with the other systemic problems, and you get the current state of Powerplay. Modes doesn't have anything to do with it. Open Only will certainly change the status quo, but it'll do so by being even
more unappealing to all those players who play in other modes because they don't enjoy PvP.
