Powerplay 2.0 deep dive - Frontier Live 27th March

[Sol Valou]

YES

Oof. Well thanks for the quick confirmation. I understand the reasoning behind the game's chosen infrastructure and whatnot, it just hurts because you know, it's 2024 and this is just so...90's? I'm reminded of early QuakeCon and people travelling miles and miles with their full rigs to go to a LAN party lol.

Also hey neighbor! Just noticed you're from Minnesoooda, I myself am a cheesy Wisconsinite. * waves furiously in Midwestern *

I work 2nd shift so I also usually play way past local prime time. I fear when PP 2.0 drops and I eagerly travel to a stronghold carrier group I'll be disappointed to never find anyone else there. It is what it is. QQ

 

[Jmanis]

Every single test I and others have done, and every anecdote I've heard, and my general experiences in this game all indicate that the answer to this question would be:

YES

I typically play during the European prime time, rather than my local prime time. During the former, I can go to Deciat or the latest CG in Open and expect to see nobody. During my local prime time, I can do the same and expect to see multiple Commanders, some of them hostile.

Meanwhile, in Australia, i can log on in either my own prime time, or that of EU/US, and still find nobody. Thanks tin can internet! That includes the Salome event and while the Titans were being downed, and even a bunch of surface and space CZs that were CG related.

 

[-VR- berni420]

Would be so happy to see open only

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Going further off topic here, but this brings up something I've been meaning to ask about specifically. My previous inquiries around organized PvP just mentioned the San Tu star system. From my perspective looking at this game and its unique situation, I would assume that at least two big groups of players interested in PvP combat would grassroots organize using Powerplay or BGS factions to enjoy ongoing pew pews with each other.

Does the p2p networking in this game truly fight against players that hard? Do folks in this hypothetical need to be located relatively close regionally, friend everyone from the opposing team and/or muck around with port forwarding in order to facilitate & stabilize this type of larger scale group activity?

I imagine similar community run events like group exploration and races suffer the same cruel fate?

IIRC, they have moved from San Tu, but it still exists. A few years ago i spent some time in the system and had a couple of organized PvP fights there. It was fun and everyone was enjoying it. We even had fights with different rules, and because my opponents knew i wasn't skilled at PvP or had PvP built ships, they brought out non-meta ships to fight me with (still got my rear end kicked )

 

[galahad2069]

they have moved from San Tu

Puppis Sector TO-R b4-4, aka “Puppy Rocks" is the new place (because it's an uninhabited system, so no more grind to keep it Anarchy).
1 jump from Shin.

 

[[VR] DDM_Reaper20]

Oof. Well thanks for the quick confirmation. I understand the reasoning behind the game's chosen infrastructure and whatnot, it just hurts because you know, it's 2024 and this is just so...90's? I'm reminded of early QuakeCon and people travelling miles and miles with their full rigs to go to a LAN party lol.

Also hey neighbor! Just noticed you're from Minnesoooda, I myself am a cheesy Wisconsinite. * waves furiously in Midwestern *

I work 2nd shift so I also usually play way past local prime time. I fear when PP 2.0 drops and I eagerly travel to a stronghold carrier group I'll be disappointed to never find anyone else there. It is what it is. QQ

"Were they sent to hell?"
"Worse. Wisconsin."
(Dogma -- FANTASTIC movie!)

 

[Rubbernuke]

I hope that they include BGS level gameplay into powerplay. It what I have been saying should be happening for ages. More integration, proper change throughout the galaxy, visual changes. I'm liking what I am seeing. I'd prefer if they keep solo and private groups being able to play m, but just have open play reward you more. Give an incentive for direct PvP. But people who prefer to be alone can still contribute.

I think it will, in that to keep solvent powers have to keep the systems they live in happy and secure by doing missions. But we will have to see.

 

[Rubbernuke]

Every single test I and others have done, and every anecdote I've heard, and my general experiences in this game all indicate that the answer to this question would be:

YES

I typically play during the European prime time, rather than my local prime time. During the former, I can go to Deciat or the latest CG in Open and expect to see nobody. During my local prime time, I can do the same and expect to see multiple Commanders, some of them hostile.

Weirdly the times I've been on for my old power (Antal) and current one (The King™) I've always seen the people I've talked to on Discord and Reddit- and that was from Australia, Finland, Germany, Italy, America and (IIRC) Japan (guy was on holiday). Another time I can remember also when Antal was being carpet UMed by two guys- I was following them on the map and through station reports and tracked them down. We gathered a group of players, found them and fought at about 4am in the morning.

Plus a better test would be to see how the largest combative groups in PP fare- FUC and ZYADA, who encompass 8 of the 11 powers.

 

[Brrokk]

I wonder about FD's intentions. My view is that if PP2 is significantly Open-only, I'll probably ignore it. That's partly because I don't like PvP games and also because Open in ED is frankly buggy. Yet, I think their stated intention was to make PP attractive to more players. I don't think the circle can be squared.

 

[angusmadmac1]

The instancing can be so bad I had 4 commanders and my FC at the blue snowball so far enough from everybody else and we still couldn't instance together and yes we had set our routers to the preferred settings. In fact elite is the only "multiplayer " game where I have special settings , all others it's plug and play .

 

[Rubbernuke]

I wonder about FD's intentions. My view is that if PP2 is significantly Open-only, I'll probably ignore it. That's partly because I don't like PvP games and also because Open in ED is frankly buggy. Yet, I think their stated intention was to make PP attractive to more players. I don't think the circle can be squared.

It certainly can be done, it just takes the will to do it. I mean you could do:

NPCs beefed up and scaled to effort / risk reward for missions (solves solo being a cakewalk)

PP missions that use mission difficulty scaling (prices in danger)

PvP linked to top 10 like ranking where remaining alive and being an ace (at cargo runs / attacking / other) personally rewards you far beyond normal, incentivize people to participate.

Split the 'hunt commanders' in the UM part- so to UM to kill, but cargo guys get an 'anti UM' bonus for not being intercepted (at a ratio).

 

[Shurimal]

I've done it twice, for Cytoscramblers and Pacifiers. Considered Pack Hounds but NPCs don't seem to have significant missile defences normally.

Packhounds are fun, just got them myself yesterday Though NPC-s do have significant missile defences, in fact. Most pirate ships have a PDC or two—even packhounds can have trouble getting through sometimes. But the fireworks is pretty.

I stayed out on the fringes of the Bubble and rarely saw anyone during those two months despite being in Open.

Same, spent most of the time inopen in LYR space and saw another commander only once. He was pledged to Hudson, but didn't hang around in the system for long. Must have scared him off as I was doing some pirate hunting pulling wanted NPC-s from supercruise and as a result appeared as a hollow triangle on his radar

NPCs beefed up and scaled to effort / risk reward for missions (solves solo being a cakewalk)

Should be easy as this is how things work for mission NPC-s now. I'm combat Elite and rarely see anything but Deadly+ Anacondas and Pythons sent after me during missions.

PP missions that use mission difficulty scaling (prices in danger)

Also, should be easy as missions seem to be scaled to player level—most missions, even cargo ones, I see on boards are Threat 6 and higher. Which is odd since aren't mission boards supposed to be "global", so have missions of all level on them?

 

[Unknown Zombie]

I had a chance to watch the VOD last night and to me it seems like a step in the right direction.

I enjoyed the communities that interacted with PP. I was (still am, I reckon) in a Discord server with other people pledged to Li-Yong Rui and we had spreadsheets and stuff that we would fill out when we delivered the powerplay materials and stuff. I quite enjoyed all of that, and it gave my gameplay sessions a bit of purpose, but the minor annoyances eventually did me in and I stopped participating.

The way the UI worked for hauling the powerplay-specific items was a real chore. Between the clumsy navigation and having to wait around for your "assigned allotment" to refresh, it was just too tedious.

Hearing the developers talk about being able to perform different activities for our powers make it sound like less of a menu-jockeying hurry-up-and-wait affair than the old system. I hope that we basically get "powerplay mission boards" and we can have a variety of tasks to complete for the power. I really do enjoy doing random missions from the mission boards (but don't really care to work the BGS), and so a reason or cause to fight/work for that has more visible feedback than the BGS provides would enhance my desire to play.