Powerplay Powerplay - Fail or success?

[GaryII]

How often do you come across wings? It seems like I hardly ever find any. Do you wait for them, or do you just interdict them when they appear?

I guess, 1 from 4 times, but I do not undermine often, since its very booring and unbalanced (combat ships vs trade or week combat ships...) at this moment...

In general, I do not wait, I interdict asp, and I have the best A4 interdictor for maximum range..

 

[GaryII]

I could go into a re-labeled Conflict Zone and blow up ships for merits, and make another invisible counter go up again. Or, in an extremely un-Alliance fashion, I could interdict civilian traffic in their systems, murder them, gain bounties on myself... to make an invisible counter go up somewhere.

Unfortunately currently all Elite feels full for re-labeled things, not only PP related stuff..
I do not know, maybe FD just do not have time and resources to make core game better..all time goes to make new things - CQC, Horizons...

 

[NeilF]

Add me to the "fail" pile...

While I like the dynamic changes it makes to system's politics and financials (trading), but the way it has gone about achieving this is just unnecessarily complex and also introduces, in truth, no new game mechanics. So, there seems to have been a huge amount of effort for very little gain. And it's frustrating to see so much effort used up on questionable developments when the core game is generally being overlooked,

As I've said elsewhere, the Powers should be automated, with them deciding what action to take in what systems. Then by utilising Factions (a power appears as one in all systems it affects/reaches?), players can help that Power by simply undertaking missions (from the bulletin board) for the appropriate Faction (Power).

And most importantly of all, the missions should ideally be more interesting/varied... In an ideal world we'd get more competitive ones even akin to Community Goals at times. eg: Two Power trying to supply the most goods to a location. Competing over Combat Zones to help Power achieve their goals. And new mechanics even for convoy escort/attack or station blockade/running etc. (With stats/results split intelligently between OPEN and SOLO/GROUP etc)

 

[lefty1117]

Looking back on it I think if they had gone the route of handling powerplay mechanics through the mission board system, it would have been more immersive, would have paid better, and would have at least "felt" like there was more variety. With one PP mission on the bulletin board you could potentially impact the local faction influence, support your Power, and make some $$$. By breaking it out the way they did there's not a ton of incentive to grind out merits and it's out of reach altogether for a lot of casual players, which is a shame.

 

[POPsou]

I don't see the point of powerplay for many reason

1: People farm and undermine system in solo mode. Which mean. They're free to do what the hell they want with no resistance.

2: The 4 week gift... Everything sucks except for the prismatic shield. The prismatic shield is great because it allow you to use an inferior class shield with the same power. Which mean that can be great for a trading/combat vessel or a pirates ship. I mean. Archon should had something like a stealth module or the alliance maybe a better FSD. Nah. They give bull module for everyone else.

3: Too many different faction. It would have been cooler if we had like 4 faction.. But each faction had an actually cool ranking system. Different base layout/ Faction ship etc.. Just make it that people can't leave a faction without forfeiting their faction ship. Or make it permament. Choosing a faction should be a life contract.

4: Cool skin for each faction. Come on FD. I mean. I can make you one if you want. I can build up something in one hours with photoshop. Why can't you ?





4:

 

[Ralph Rodriguez]

Powerplay = utter utter bilge!

 

[Heater]

In it's current state, a complete fail.
Good idea, but poor implementation.

 

[Jaeger]

I call it PowerFolly. When you create a focus group to discuss and design game features, then totally ignore it and build something totally different.. that's because you are dead set on your personal folly.

It could have been good, but the whole concept of merit decay ... the grindathon is a game philosophy. FD have lost their way, we have procedural generated rogue style profit generating cash cow... not a game for gamers by gamers.

Abject failure.

 

[PeachingTony]

In it's current state, a complete fail.
Good idea, but poor implementation.

^ as he said

 

[CATPAIN KIRK]

Fail - being able to visibly associate with a faction as such is a great idea, but it should have been done in the BGS. I really don't understand why they made that grindy, superimposed, turn based prep-expansion-fortification-merit-perk mumbo-jumbo even FD themselves don't fully understand to this date.

It's like they realised the BGS leaves a lot to be desired in order to provide a believable, living and breathing colonised bubble and then decided to print "MONOPOLY" all over it to cover it up instead of fixing it whilst weaving PP in.

Well - gave it a fair chance but for me it's not working.

It's like instead of carefully growing muscles and organs on the skeleton the release was, they decided to dump a pile of mincemeat next to it - now it sits there and starts to smell, but instead of cleaning it up they try to dress it up by sticking a few anchovies into it...

 

[ShottyMonsta]

Fail - being able to visibly associate with a faction as such is a great idea, but it should have been done in the BGS. I really don't understand why they made that grindy, superimposed, turn based prep-expansion-fortification-merit-perk mumbo-jumbo even FD themselves don't fully understand to this date.

It's like they realised the BGS leaves a lot to be desired in order to provide a believable, living and breathing colonised bubble and then decided to print "MONOPOLY" all over it to cover it up instead of fixing it whilst weaving PP in.

Well - gave it a fair chance but for me it's not working.

It's like instead of carefully growing muscles and organs on the skeleton the release was, they decided to dump a pile of mincemeat next to it - now it sits there and starts to smell, but instead of cleaning it up they try to dress it up by sticking a few anchovies into it...

Hehe

Well I actually quite like the idea. Don't personally have any issues with the 'tick' based system. My issues are - all factions work mechanically identically and those mechanics are shallow, badly thought out and boring (like the rest of the game). And the other issue is the grindfest induced by merit decay. There are so many design decisions in this game that I fundementally disagree with, but it sure is satisfying to fly the spaceships in combat so I dabble every now and again.

 

[DraigUK]

I have been at powerplay for about 5 weeks, using that time to verify the spreadsheet I set up to measure progress and set future goals.

My conclusion is that it's not worth it. Reasoning follows:

The time it takes to qualify is excessive for the rewards. My earned points were 750, 1500, 1500, 2800, 2565. This corresponds to 25, 37.5, 30, 56, 51.3 hours. During that time, with my T9, I could have collected about 1.5 billion dollars, so the monetary aspect is certainly not good.

I then extended the spreadsheet, assuming 2000 new points per week (meaning about 40 hours of time minimum), and found out that I would get a Xmas gift of level 5 on Dec 24th. I think of myself as a long time player, so I was almost prepared to go that distance, but pushing the spreadsheet further shows that I would need to continue at that rate (2000 points per week) with occasional forays above that in order to preserve that standing. In other words, a minimum of 20 hours per week just to pick up 50 mil, and some unspecified rewards.

My conclusion is that the only people that will be willing to do this are those that program macros to do the work for them, ( I did that, but what's the point in having a bot or macro play for you???).

Would like to start a conversation around this, and talk to others that have given it a good try. Maybe I calculated it wrong. Cheers

I've been at PP two weeks and got to rank 5 in my first 3 days (about 12 hours play total) when I didn't really have a clue what I was doing.

Thereafter I only need 5k merits to maintain rank 5 which takes me about 5-6 hours play. A week. Which is nothing. I can get it done in one day on a weekend if I wished to.
I think it's fine.
I don't use macros, or spreadsheets, I play. Implying I use a macro because I can do something you fail at is ridiculous. On top of that I've never used a bot or macro to do anything for me in this game, you already have, which is pathetic.

For me I quite like it, although things need improving for sure.

The 50 mill a week is nice, as is being able to earn 2 mill in 20 mins or so, but that isn't why I do PP.

Starting a conversation with a conclusion based on your low standards of using bots/macros to get things done and implying others must also do so getting to rank 5 because you fail at getting there is a pretty crap way to try and start any conversation.

 

[Krezan]

Bit of both. Needs more doing to it to keep it interesting. At the moment it's a cross between box grinding (nothing wrong with that but duh) and shooting things for hardly any profit. Undermining kicks all off them into dust and is a bit more exciting. Needs more ways to contribute. Dropping battle weapons, exotic metals (oo-err), enemy black boxes, etc.

 

[Herik]

I have been at powerplay for about 5 weeks, using that time to verify the spreadsheet I set up to measure progress and set future goals.

My conclusion is that it's not worth it. Reasoning follows:

The time it takes to qualify is excessive for the rewards. My earned points were 750, 1500, 1500, 2800, 2565. This corresponds to 25, 37.5, 30, 56, 51.3 hours. During that time, with my T9, I could have collected about 1.5 billion dollars, so the monetary aspect is certainly not good.

I then extended the spreadsheet, assuming 2000 new points per week (meaning about 40 hours of time minimum), and found out that I would get a Xmas gift of level 5 on Dec 24th. I think of myself as a long time player, so I was almost prepared to go that distance, but pushing the spreadsheet further shows that I would need to continue at that rate (2000 points per week) with occasional forays above that in order to preserve that standing. In other words, a minimum of 20 hours per week just to pick up 50 mil, and some unspecified rewards.

My conclusion is that the only people that will be willing to do this are those that program macros to do the work for them, ( I did that, but what's the point in having a bot or macro play for you???).

Would like to start a conversation around this, and talk to others that have given it a good try. Maybe I calculated it wrong. Cheers

Of course it's not a 'Fail'; It caused some changes in the galaxy. You know...you spin these wheels because you wanted this kind of play,...you had your fun, now you go on to something else. New folk will come in and do the same, and the galaxy changes again, seems like a success to me, all within the boundaries FD has set.

 

[NeilF]

Of course it's not a 'Fail'; It caused some changes in the galaxy. You know...you spin these wheels because you wanted this kind of play,...you had your fun, now you go on to something else. New folk will come in and do the same, and the galaxy changes again, seems like a success to me, all within the boundaries FD has set.

True, and that indeed is a +ve aspect of Powerplay. But consider how much else of Powerplay is "questionable"?

The +ve aspects you mention could have been delivered by a far simply solution, more integrated into the existing Factions and Bulletin Board mechanics. ie: We'd have the same changes to the political backdrop, but without all the meta-board game and questionable new grind mini-games.

And with that saved/reduced development time, the core game could have had some much needed attention.

 

[Lily from anim.o.v.e]

Ok, i have gotten in touch with this part now, and it is annoying, boring and pointless. The way how ranking up works is a real pain and low brain grind. repeatable on 30 minute base. This is a job worse than actually what a simple production robot has to do in the industry. The capital should give a palyer a long term goal, which lasts for a week. Givign tasks on special systems to perform and help reaching aspecific goal via various different tasks. Not just deliver letters here and there.

The basic idea of having a faction you work fo an all that, great, the execution, not so much.

They could at least having changed the the rewards.

like: bringing those papers to a system of a longer distance rewards you with twice or 3x the amount points. (while the system itself only receives the 10 points of fortification). Also, lower the rewards for already fortified systems, like 0.8x. But Elite so far is a grind in which time is the most precious component. And the game hardly rewards doing the same action requiring 2x as long. because it will nearly al the time NOT be 2x or more rewarding. Tahts why so many people pile those papers at the HQ's neighbour planet. instead of brining them where they are needed.

 

[shadragon]

I'd like to see regular game activities (missions, mining, exploring, RES bounty hunting, etc.) count toward your power merits in addition to PP goals. CG's (if the system is in their area of responsibility you can have a PP war over who owns that system WHILE the CG is on the go. Winner members get a bonus to the CG)

Stuff that engages rather than grinds.

 

[NeilF]

I'd like to see regular game activities (missions, mining, exploring, RES bounty hunting, etc.) count toward your power merits in addition to PP goals. CG's (if the system is in their area of responsibility you can have a PP war over who owns that system WHILE the CG is on the go. Winner members get a bonus to the CG)

Stuff that engages rather than grinds.

Agreed... If you're doing stuff that results in a transaction in a system where your Power (Faction) has influence, it should work in their favour. Obviously then, depending on what they need to be done in that system it may be more/less effective. And indeed, they may post mission on the bulletin board specifically for their main requirements (eg: to help increase their power, or undermine another Power/Faction in that system).

In that fashion you can take part in Powerplay as a passing interest, or whole heartedly...