I think you have a fantastic idea. It definitely addresses the issue I was making about a more logical format in which we are all operating.
GIVE THIS GUY A BEER!
PLEASE MAKE POWERPLAY IN "OPEN ONLY"
- Thread starter CMDR KOBAL
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I think you have a fantastic idea. It definitely addresses the issue I was making about a more logical format in which we are all operating.
GIVE THIS GUY A BEER!
Hey, try reading the thread before commenting! Your vid has already been linked a couple of times xD
..besides, I thought this vid shows better whatd actually happen to new Powerplayer haulers in OpenOnly much of the time..
Wow... whoever produced both of those... I need to get some letters sent to Hollywood to let the comedic writers and producers know their jobs are safe.
I want the last two minutes of my life back.
All those suggestions about giving spec opps npc's, increasing difficulty, FD do absolutely everything to NERF npc's, I don't think it's accident. So balancing solo/pg by increasing difficulty have no chances to go through.
Ahh, so harsh
Then you have a paradox:
NPC difficulty is nerfed or very low.
Powerplay NPCs offer no resistance and generally are not pro-active.
Only other players provide challenge in PP.
But Powerplay currently is across all modes- with no NPC challenge in a feature you opted into, what can you do? You are pretty much saying PP should be a one dimensional shooting gallery.
Where is the logic?
It's not going to happen. But it's probably going to be because of the work involved, not due to a perceived need to nerf NPCs. This proposal would only apply to PowerPlay NPCs, which would only spawn if you were pledged to a power, and would only escalate in difficulty if you went to an area of heightened activity. So it would be entirely opt-in, with multiple layers of opting in, and wouldn't affect the difficulty of the game overall. It would also help serve the needs of Solo players who would like a "hard" mode to play in, where they can engage in challenging scenarios where their actions actually matter.
I have been described as "painfully honest", "a callous misanthrope", "just plain mean", and several things that would earn me a vacation from here should I repeat.
I have never denied any of these accusations.
I am also a Professional Blasphemer, Promoter of Apostatism, and Asker of Uncomfortable Questions.
Now that's a mouthful. I'd be curious to know what a Promoter of Apostatism says.
Players who oppose open only PP and those who oppose to increase difficulty of npc's are usually same person or one group. Increased game difficulty is a problem for them, not player vs player interaction, by accident it's same but prime reason is huge increase in game difficulty, PvP compered to level of npc's is like jump from tutorial to nightmare setting in other games, and it's FD fault, because you cant get grasp on PvP combat in any available PvE scenario, even those wing assassination FDL's are nerfed for no reason, and usually use "non lethal" weapons with no meaningful experimental effects.
By all means i want power play in open only, i just don't think it's realistic, i was saying on numerous occasion that we should start from increased bonuses from doing PP in open and enhance gameplay, primarily to remove BOT's and AFK activities, sad part is that we have means to do it, but for some reason FD not implement this, example, PP conflict zones didn't get phasing spec opps, this simple change eliminates AFK turret boats, for me they didn't touch it for some reason, and i prefer to not think why.
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There are no uncomfortable questions, only uncomfortable answers, it's the people compelled to resort to uncomfortable answers that claim the questions are uncomfortable and therefore shouldn't be asked. It sounds like you are my kind of person!
But if you increased the challenge of NPCs as suggested, then what happens is areas that get 'hot' become more and more difficult for lone commanders in solo, making PG and Open (i.e. working in teams) more vital. It does not exclude any mode then, its just ramping the difficulty higher. It would also make fortifying / UM harder as time goes on, so larger powers have to work harder to fort.
I thought about your idea more and came up with this (I also posted a new thread with it).
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The idea is we take the 'tiers' GUI from community goals and apply them to the undermining Powerplay GUI. As each tier is reached, Powerplay NPCs get progressively more numerous, aggressive and powerful in that control system. So you go from cannon fodder Tier 1 to Spec Ops level in Tier 10. But, as each tier is reached merits from kills scales as well- so at Tier 1 its 10 merits (rather than 30 currently) and at Tier 10 its 100 per kill (or whatever is deemed 'balanced').
To make SC interdiction more interesting, at Tier 10 you would have the PP equivalent of military couriers in that system flying in supercruise only- tough transports with an escort that have a high merit value (say, 500 merits each). This would balance out the NAV beacon farming method.
This idea works across modes, so Solo players are not excluded- its down to your ship (and your) capabilities until you can no longer cope alone. It makes the abstraction of attack more realistic (i.e. a defender would want to defend better at places under heavy attack). It could also be done alongside Sandros idea of 'mega undermining' (i.e. if undermining is 100% + more than fortifying that system is fully undermined regardless) and it actually tests your ship and skills. At higher tiers it would then make sense for players to be in Open more because there is more to defend from players undermining (i.e. each high value NPC is almost equal to one large fortification delivery). This opens up a second front that a fortifier must respond to, and becomes an optional (but also vital) push into Open mode. A defender can stay in solo, but will become outstripped by a determined attack.
I'm sure this is true for some but I don't necessarily think the overlap between those groups is that huge. A small but vocal minority want the game to be easy with AFK turret farming and derpy NPCs. A much larger group is in a perpetual state of agitation about gankers, partially because the human element stokes their sense of injustice, but also because ganking usually feels like a random and totally unavoidable death coming out of nowhere while you're minding your own business.
Having hot zones with high power NPCs wouldn't create the same kind of situation, because the danger would be predictable and avoidable. Plus if you're not pledged to a power the whole situation doesn't exist in the first place. It's like wing assassination missions or a high threat level USS in that you have to sign up for it first.
This group is most likely responsible for multi accounting and bots, and is not interested in playing space sim game like we all here do, my assumption is that this group is most important for FD now, you cant explain this in any other way, we get OOPP and similar threads all over again, we see game overhauls, but all those exploitative mechanics are all left untouched, even if after several patches it require little dev's time to make it work for us. You cant say, that FD ignore their customers, they don't, there is just group of people who is more important to them now and by multi-accounting are real supporters of the game, it may sound like conspiracy theory, but its logical explanation. Lead designer who was aware of all PP problems and offered solutions get removed shortly after.
I don't know if I'm quite as far down the rabbit hole as you but I will agree that in general producing an MMO; even a pseudo-MMO-lite like E
is fraught with perverse incentives that seem to run contrary to the goal of building a fun well designed game. It's a shame that Frontier never granted PC players their promised multiple save slots, because if they had I think it would have changed a lot of the conversations around other potentially beneficial mechanical changes which have historically received a lot of pushback from fans.But this is the problem- unless FD redo the entire feature, you are left with little room to do anything.
Do nothing and Powerplay just dies even more.
Open makes players the main opposition protagonists and has the biggest potential for change.
If CZs are not updated then weighted merits are needed for AFK.
If PP NPCs are not made to scale (like the recent idea posted a few back) then you are left with an empty feature that promotes grind races (since few, if any, PP NPCs actually hunt you).
Any change that FD do (unless its tied to 2020) will be small in scope, and thats what we have to use to give our ideas context.