Powerplay: Ideas from the devs - Feedback wanted! #2
- Thread starter Zac Antonaci
- Start date
Merit Retention - is this going to be fixed at some point so it even vaguely resembles what's in the manual. Right now, I'm struggling to predict how many merits I'll need to farm for the forthcoming week and increasingly this activity is starting to take up all of my ED playtime, just to keep my current rank.
Can you please get the merit retention system back to what it was advertised as being in the PP manual.
Can you please get the merit retention system back to what it was advertised as being in the PP manual.
It has been fixed, it is now as it was intended. The manual was worded badly, specifically the use of the word "total" and the use of "current cycle value" does not mean what one would think..
Your merit total from the previous cycle is halved then added to your current cycle value. After two cycles, its value is halved again before being added. After three cycles, the value is halved once more. After four cycles the value is no longer added.
It should have read..
The number of merits earned on the previous cycle is halved then added to your current total. After two cycles, it's value is halved again before being added. etc..
Thanks for the clarification!
Having run the maths on that now, it does appear the PP isn't going to be sustainable for me past next week. I'm just not going to have the time to grind out all the merits to retain my rank.
Oh well, thus endeth PP.
Yeah..
Rank 1: 0/week (0 undermine kills)
Rank 2: 54/week (4 undermine kills)
Rank 3: 400/week (27 undermine kills)
Rank 4: 800/week (54 undermine kills)
Rank 5: 5334/week (356 undermine kills)
Rank 5 is particularly hard to achieve and maintain. But, rank 4 is fairly reasonable for many and just keeping rank 2 up should be doable for almost everyone. There are still good benefits at each stage, we don't all have to be rank 5 all the time.
I am at 5 now, but I wont be next week, and depending on the other things I want to do I will probably drop to rank 2.. then I might maintain that.
If you only have limited time actively playing then you don't want to wait around for 30 mins to get another allocation of packages, and in those 30 minutes you can probably manage 15+ kills or 225 merits.
If only they would give us our full allocation in one hit, i.e. if you haven't taken any packages for 4 hours, then you should be able to collect 4 * 2 * allocation size packages in one go.
If only we could store a ship with cargo, then we could collect one allocation, store the ship and undermine for a bit, come back and collect another, and so on.
There are so many ways to make power play less about waiting for things and more about doing things.
I'd rep you again if I could.
Agree with all of this, especially the not storing ships with cargo problem.
And there is the immersion breaking thing for me.
Why are all powerplay faction leaders cold blooded killers?
-Edmund Mahon is a leader of an independent faction who opposes opression and their systems banded together against outside forces attacking them. Yes, let's spread the non-opression part and hunt down Aisling Duvals freedom loving anti-slave supporters AND KILL THEM.
-Li Yong-Rui is a corporate CEO promoting science and trade and wants you to go over to a completely unrelated faction who is no actual threat to his business AND KILL THEM.
-Arissa Lavigny-Duval is an Empire anti corruption politician who promotes justice and fighting crime - Go over and KILL HER HALF-SISTERS FOLLOWERS...because that cannot be a crime can it?
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Why, what the hell is the POINT in murdering all these people for political points?
It's like you don't even want your side to colour the map in your chosen hue. How is colour unity across the map not a noble, sensible, and challenging goal? Just remember not to get trapped in Australia, it's a holding-pattern continent at best even with good card draws and the increasing-multiplier optional rule.
Wait, wrong board game >_____>
Cross post from other thread on Dev Answers.
Your questions need to be pondered/ answered and injected into gameplay. Very interesting post. Would building up from lower faction level make this any better? Assuming there are some real archetypal differences in the three Super-powers, do those inform the Power Play mechanics? Is murder of a few, many, thousands, millions acceptable to any of the super-powers as a way for an individual politician to rise in power?
There are some mirror attributes in each super-power but over-generalizing we can use FD's descriptions of Fed, Empire, Alliance and Independents to get a general feeling for laws and life within their borders.
Would PP work the same way under each Super-Power?
Does PP prohibit cooperation between powers?
Could Powers overlap some without conflict, especially where cooperating? If so, how could the unraveling or strengthening of such cooperation manifest in the game?
Would Federation Powers represent major Corporations as well as Politicians? In the dark future corporate run worlds wouldn't the Company be synonymous with the Politics? Would the worlds be branded by product or company rather than politically?
Cross post from other thread on Dev Answers.
Since no power is THE defacto power over a MAJOR faction (empire, alliance etc) they only INFLUENCE a system with their "control" by pushing an Agenda.
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I see no reason why some of them could not benefit from symbiotic relationships.
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Zachary Hudson and Denton Patreus are both opposites of the spectrum and are military hardliners so they would be opposites to each other.
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Arissa Lavigny-Duval and Aisling Duval are only on opposing sides in relation to the Imperial throne inheritance, something neither of them can affect since the emperor is alive.
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Li Yong-Rui could benefit from most of the others except Archon Delaine - What businessman would like a pirate.
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Edmund Mahon would most likely be against ANY Imperial or Federation influence but possibly Archon Delaine and his "free"booters and independent contractors
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Zemina Torval would most likely be able to work with most pro-empire, pro-slavery or pro-business. Might even stand Archon Delaine as long as she gets her slaves to give her more manpower for mining.
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It would expand the gameplay if systems could be share due to symbiotic alliances with perhaps a 50% system wide bonus from both parties.
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With all the factions characteristics it's sad to see that they all behave in cookie cutter designs with exactly the same mechanics.
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It would be awesomee if Archon Delaine could work behind the scenes for several factions and unless someone scouted a system with him and his allies in it they would never see him.
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Imagine the political fallout if Aisling Duval was found to be in cahoot (or in bed) with Archon Delaine and involved in slave trade so she could show how she "saved" them to her media followers...
If you still indulge in PP, and you still think it can be fixed....
Take a step back and stop trying too hard, its all broken and will always be 'poor'.
Stop kidding yourselves. The only way this game can improve is by removing PP entirely.
You need to persuade the people, like Michael and Sandro, who actually think its a great idea.
Sad, so 'really' sad.
Take a step back and stop trying too hard, its all broken and will always be 'poor'.
Stop kidding yourselves. The only way this game can improve is by removing PP entirely.
You need to persuade the people, like Michael and Sandro, who actually think its a great idea.
Sad, so 'really' sad.
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Hear hear! Tha' can't put lipstick on a pig!