Powerplay: It should be possible for a combat pilot to reach rank 5

[jgm]

At current the only way that rank 5 is possible is by moving lots of documents/supplies/whatever around. As a combat pilot it's somewhat depressing that I can reach 1500 merits after with two or three days' effort and then realise that further effort is totally wasted in terms of reward. I'm never going to reach rank 5000 merits per week purely shooting things, and anything above 1500 (well, 750 after week 1) gains me nothing whatsoever.

Please could there be some thought put in to either putting some ranks between the current 4 and 5, stretching the ranks out a bit so that rank 4 is a bit harder to reach (3000? 5000?) but has a commensurate reward, or providing more merits for combat pilots? On the last point, we do not gain merits when shooting enemy PCs and we do not gain merits when taking out enemy NPCs in our own territory. Make an enemy PC kill worth 150 merits* and we'll start to see some of this cold war hotting up. Also, please scale merits in fights the same way that credits are scaled in combat zones: making everything worth 1 merit is frankly just lazy.

*Make a player worth fewer merits if they've been killed in the past x minutes, if you want, to avoid farming.

 

[PhazonAran]

We should have Power operations. Like big missions with a little scenario (spying, infiltration, sabotage, even killing someone in broad daylight to shock people !) that would give a big merit reward. The same timer system would be instored to prevent farming them except if you're ready to pay.

 

[Dbrn47]

You can't kill 333 ships a week?

5000 merits/15 merits = 333 (maybe 334) kills in enemy control.

 

[jgm]

We should have Power operations. Like big missions with a little scenario (spying, infiltration, sabotage, even killing someone in broad daylight to shock people !) that would give a big merit reward. The same timer system would be instored to prevent farming them except if you're ready to pay.

This would be fantastic, and with the overhauled missions system how hard would it be to add some of these? They're minor variations at most.

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You can't kill 333 ships a week?

Let's see:

Sitting in supercruise for a couple of minutes waiting for them to spawn, negotiating your way behind them (as they generally spawn near a gravity well), pulling them out of supercruise, retreating when you have taken enough interdiction damage to warrant repairs. Let's be generous and call it 10 kills per hour. That gives us around 35 hours a week, which is basically a full-time job.

 

[Brimstone]

This would be fantastic, and with the overhauled missions system how hard would it be to add some of these? They're minor variations at most.

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Let's see:

Sitting in supercruise for a couple of minutes waiting for them to spawn, negotiating your way behind them (as they generally spawn near a gravity well), pulling them out of supercruise, retreating when you have taken enough interdiction damage to warrant repairs. Let's be generous and call it 10 kills per hour. That gives us around 35 hours a week, which is basically a full-time job.

ive spent more than an hour interdicting and killing, and honestly the damage I take from it is negligible now. Also, they pop up in wings pretty regularly so you can get up to 4 kills out of one interdiction.

 

[jgm]

ive spent more than an hour interdicting and killing, and honestly the damage I take from it is negligible now. Also, they pop up in wings pretty regularly so you can get up to 4 kills out of one interdiction.

It's dependent on where your target is when you interdict them relative to the nearest gravity well (i.e. their speed) but I'm picking up 1-4% hull per interdiction.

I very rarely see wings, and even then they're usually locale NPCs rather than power-related. I wonder if it has anything to do with security level or type of system?

 

[Han Brannigan]

OP: I agree - hence my happiness on it being possible

We should have Power operations. Like big missions with a little scenario (spying, infiltration, sabotage, even killing someone in broad daylight to shock people !) that would give a big merit reward. The same timer system would be instored to prevent farming them except if you're ready to pay.

This. I hope for more and more diverse Power missions once this game has advanced to newer iterations.
Imagine attacking an Imperial Prisoner system for the Archon for example or destroying a known Pirate outpost for Hudson or ....

 

[Kastor]

combat zone ships should be worth at least 5 merits.

 

[rizal72]

+1 rep and *APPROVED*!

 

[random_tangent]

You need 1250 a week to get to, and maintain, rank 5. Jesus FD - clarify the decay mechanism in the manual. PLEASE. You do not need to make 5k per week to get to or to maintain rank 5. At the start of each cycle, you start with: half of your merit total from last week, a quarter of your merit total from the week before, and an eighth of your merit total from the week before that. Once you get to 5 and have been there for 4 cycles, that means you start each week with 8750. If 1250 is enough to maintain 5, then by extension, it is enough to get to rank 5 in the first place. Not sure how many weeks it will take.

 

[Brimstone]

It's dependent on where your target is when you interdict them relative to the nearest gravity well (i.e. their speed) but I'm picking up 1-4% hull per interdiction.

I very rarely see wings, and even then they're usually locale NPCs rather than power-related. I wonder if it has anything to do with security level or type of system?

That could be true about the security levels, or it could be down to just luck .

What ship are you using? I'm using a Python, and I was losing 1% every 3 or so interdictions I think. I was paying attention to it, because the devs mentioned that hull damage from interdictions was reduced, but I stopped because I lost my shields while taking down an elite Fer de Lance, and the system authority started wailing on me.

 

[Dbrn47]

This would be fantastic, and with the overhauled missions system how hard would it be to add some of these? They're minor variations at most.

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Let's see:

Sitting in supercruise for a couple of minutes waiting for them to spawn, negotiating your way behind them (as they generally spawn near a gravity well), pulling them out of supercruise, retreating when you have taken enough interdiction damage to warrant repairs. Let's be generous and call it 10 kills per hour. That gives us around 35 hours a week, which is basically a full-time job.

10 kills an hour? You'd be doing it in the wrong place. I rounded up AT LEAST 500 merits in an hour before the cycle. What's that round up to.. 34 kills? It may have even been more. I was in a Vulture and also interdicting wings when they spawned as well.

 

[GhengisSean]

This would be fantastic, and with the overhauled missions system how hard would it be to add some of these? They're minor variations at most.

- - - Updated - - -



Let's see:

Sitting in supercruise for a couple of minutes waiting for them to spawn, negotiating your way behind them (as they generally spawn near a gravity well), pulling them out of supercruise, retreating when you have taken enough interdiction damage to warrant repairs. Let's be generous and call it 10 kills per hour. That gives us around 35 hours a week, which is basically a full-time job.

Rank 5 gives people who want to grind grind grind a reason to play PP. Just because people have jobs doesnt mean they shouldnt put goals in the game for people who dont. Or maybe people with sleeping disorders that can find a LOT of time to play. Its the top rank, if it was easy to achieve then everyone would be rank 5 and it wouldnt be an achievement.

 

[jgm]

10 kills an hour? You'd be doing it in the wrong place. I rounded up AT LEAST 500 merits in an hour before the cycle. What's that round up to.. 34 kills? It may have even been more. I was in a Vulture and also interdicting wings when they spawned as well.

I've been undermining Hudson. I've been in half a dozen of his systems and it's all been much the same. Where are you to be pulling in two kills a minute?

 

[Dbrn47]

I've been undermining Hudson. I've been in half a dozen of his systems and it's all been much the same. Where are you to be pulling in two kills a minute?

I was in LHS 142 (I think that was the spot, it's a Hudson Control zone) for my example. Federal Agents and Logistics ships are extremely easy to kill and there were plenty of times where they would spawn with 1 or 2 wing mates. 1 Large beam and 1 large cannon. They were melting and I was in the zone because I wanted rank 4 before the cycle, but then it cycled early.

 

[Jason S]

Even if it were 35 hours to achieve top rank. This I think is ok as it is the top rank and should be rather exclusive.
Perhaps it may be good though to balance the methods of getting there, at least balance a bit if not entirely.

 

[andyraptor]

Making requests is absolutely fine. ...... but MB has already said that they will review things when they have data to pour over. ... in the meantime you can just try your best and add to the data pool I'm afraid

 

[jgm]

What ship are you using? I'm using a Python, and I was losing 1% every 3 or so interdictions I think

This morning it looks like I'm seeing something similar. Guess I had a hangover on my client because yesterday evening it was significantly higher.

 

[Drelthar]

it's "only" 667 kills per week to get level 5. It actually doesn't sound like -that- much when you think of it like that. Also, after you do that once, it's then half that many per week to stay at rank 5. I reckon if I just totally devoted my entire weekend to this, I could do it.

I.... I can't play games in that way though, never been a completionist

 

[Krait_79]

combat zone ships should be worth at least 5 merits.

The 1 lousy merit is a joke!