Hi it's me again, the noob. Something I am still struggling to figure out is why anyone not interested in PvP content would choose to engage in Powerplay aside from acquiring the modules. Just to shoot npc ships and haul cargo under some other pretext than what the rest of the game already provides? Are BGS buckets not good enough? What difference is there, from a gameplay perspective or a roleplaying standpoint, in supporting the Prismatic Princess over captain Andy Anderson of the Allied Apathy Association?
For me, there’s two reasons why I was stoked for PowerPlay, and a bit let down by the fact that earning merits boiled down to two uninteresting choices: ABA hauling, and NPC farming.
First and foremost, it’s primarily about role playing. During the gap between the Kickstarter and the Alpha, as I learned more about how the Elite Universe had evolved between FFE and ED, the character Inga Stevenson developed. I fleshed out her backstory, and spent some time in FE2 (not a fan of FFE) scouting the Empire for her homeworld. I eventually settled on Emerald, in the Cemiess system, as the most interesting one given her background.
I also decided she would be an Imperial Slave until release, to explain how she kept losing everything to the inevitable wipes and voluntary resets that happened prior to Gamma… which was announced right after I decided to do another voluntary reset.
Her good (though perhaps atypical) experiences with Imperial Slavery made her a traditionalist, and her background readily drew me towards messing with Federation factions via the BGS. Why would she mess with Imperial factions, if she approved of the status quo? Promote? Yes, but not mess with.
With the introduction of PowerPlay came a more nuanced view of Imperial Society. In the person of the four Imperial Powers, came four political movements is society: the Hawks, the Reactionaries, the Traditionalists, and the Progressives. Needless to say, Inga was naturally drawn to the Traditionalist, the future Emperor Arissa Lagivy Duval. Which is ironic, because as a non-combat oriented player, none of the bonuses, nor the module, was attractive to me. From a purely meta-gaming standpoint, the Progressive Aisling Duval would’ve been a better fit. But Inga’s background had her oppose the People’s Princess… at first.
After discovering that hauling merits was utterly uninteresting, and not being a combat-oriented player, I switched back to BGS manipulation. I set up shop along the Hudson/ADL border, and alternated between igniting the fires of revolution in Hudson's systems, and buffing faltering Imperial systems among ALD's systems. This occupied me a long time, until BGS 2.0 transformed BGS manipulation from byzantine trading of influence, reputation, and faction states, into a straight up influence grind. Grinding is uninteresting to me, so I departed on Distant Worlds 2, both to do some deep space exploration with the new exploration mechanics, and to give Inga a chance to do some self reflection, and write her memoir: "All the Good Names Were Take for the Memoir of an Imperial Slave."
Frontier’s decision not to have Imperial Slavery in-game mechanics reflect the in-game lore gave me, the player, a causus belli for Inga to switch factions. I'm a believer in world building via game mechanics, and so the fact that Imperial Slaves are transported as commodities, instead of as passengers as stated by the lore, suggests to me that the Pilots Federation is supporting unregulated Imperial Slave trading. She'd heard about the unregulated slave trade before, but hadn't realized that it was so widespread in the Pilots' Federation. And the Emperor was doing
nothing about it! So she switched to supporting Aisling Duval and the Progressive movement instead.
The other reason why I was stoked for PowerPlay is that it added yet another factor to consider when it came to deciding which faction to work for. I'd always had role-playing considerations when it came to the game (which was a good fit for BGS manipulation... at least under BGS 1.0), so considering the PowerPlay angle added a new dimension to the game. I play games to make
interesting decisions, and "no brainer" choices doesn't fit my definition of interesting. BGS 2.0 removed most of the interesting decisions I needed to make, but at least I still need to consider how it would affect PowerPlay.
Of course, having switched over from Arissa Lagivy Duval to Aisling Duval, I've noticed that to support the People's Princess usually requires me working
against Imperial factions, which I find anti-thetical from a role-playing perspective, as well as to my long-term goals for the game. I'm hoping that PowerPlay 2.0 will correct this flaw in the design.
Finally, although I have little interest in Player vs Player
combat, I found that once the... unpleasant players moved on from player-killing to 5C activities, the occasional PvP encounter was definitely a fun, though rare, experience. That was my one regret about moving to the BGS side of things: most of the PowerPlay action was focused on control systems and the occasional expansion,
not exploited systems.
