PowerPlay weapon unlocks are a big part of what's wrong with it

[Franc Kaos]

Certainly for many players active on the forums at least, the main incentive for any activity seems to be credits and equipment rewards with any kind of "fun" aspect being a distant second.

Multiplayer mayhem: The game itself creates that incentive by having no loyalty to anything in the game, and ...poor consequences to anything you do and no real multiplayer interaction (aside from helping the BGS tick I guess), or needs.

You begin the game by choosing a side, Empire, Federation, Pirates* or Independents (after watching an intro that introduces the politics of the galaxy and what belonging means), and tho you can change later, you will never be trusted again by your previous home, and it will take a long (long) time for your new home to trust you. Taking missions in enemy territory will leave you open to attack and gaining access to the naval path would have a proper progression with missions and rewards tied only to that path.

The Powerplay factions don't give out unique rewards because then you're not joining for an ideology but for a thing, so, those powerplay factions have underlying beliefs, war / peace with the Thargoids, drugs good / bad with the Feds, ending / maintaining slavery in the Empire, and even tho the galaxy is in a state of cold war, there are many player v player altercations, mostly in the anarchy systems (making them actually, y'know, dangerous), but also be careful in LoSec territories too.

To survive you need to belong in a <scifi term for> guild, doing missions in wings; on base attacks, two or three SRVs along with flight support from SLFs and ships, protecting trade routes and capital ships, and you know that gorgeous PP coloured map? actual dynamic movements depending on player actions.
I get you can't let a PP faction die, but have real consequences to doing badly, if Li Yong-Rui is doing badly then he has to be bailed out by the Sirius bank and those players supporting him will be driven to entice more players to him.

If you're gonna sell a multiplayer game, make sure multiplayer is at the heart of it, with Fdev as the dungeon master, changing things up and keeping the players on their toes... So, easy peasy!

o7 [alien]

* Pirates maybe open up once you've been playing for a while and has their own unique bases and hierarchy (Pirate Lord, Cabin Boy etc).

 

[Maka Gucci]

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Ya, you have a point. The powers are using their exclusive goodies to keep people on board I guess, since they know many won't find incentive to help them otherwise.

It still boils down to viewpoint.

Does PP exist to wall these modules behind time sinks, or do the modules exist to reward loyalty to Powers.

I don't think the tier 3 rewards are the reason for PP, and I don't think PP should be conformed to ease of access for the items. If you are looking at 6 items, all behind a 4 week wall, then ya, half a year could sound pretty ridiculous for what you're getting.

I'm a little odd for a gamer though. I don't think everything needs to balance or be available regardless of game choices, especially when there is a story/reasoning behind something.

If I could change one thing in PP, it would be the top tier benefits.

Does anyone stick with a Power for the modules though?

I've been with AD exclusively, and I hull tank more than anything. People stay with the Powers and the communities around them regardless of the modules, it's only the module shoppers that come and go.
Your analogy was on point because the movie is the constantly changing narrative attached to the shifting borders of PP, and the popcorn is the module that some are far more interested in.

For we who support our powers in an ongoing sense, the credits of the movie never role.. Each week, is either victory of defeat. We either celebrate a job well done, or look at what we need to do differently in this endless game of miss direction and merit bombs.
(There does perhaps need to be a way for a Power to actually lose, and be forced into retreat.)

When you are dropping a merit bomb, 10k merits is nothing, you want at least 10 times that. As such I think the numbers required to earn the rewards could be drastically reduced without effecting the PP game as it is.
So what if players earned 50 mill for 5000 merits. I'm still not gonna stop there, and neither will any serious cmdrs. But it might encourage more casual people to play the PP game each week.

Personally I think there should be less grind related mechanics all around, particularly when it comes to PP. But we know that's not in FDevs MO.. Best we can hope for is to have a few number changed.

 

[Pendergast]

My suggestions scratches both itches however, module shoppers will stay and hopefully be drawn into the narrative; and those that don't care about the modules nothing changes.

 

[CMDR Dreamstate]

Powerplay was designed horribly by a new team that had no idea what they were doing at the time, so enough said really

The fact the grind is quite big, with so many factions, means that the majority of the casual player base will never own any of the weapons etc, or just one or two.

I love the idea of Powerplay, as I was considering allying with the anime chick (Aisling), but as soon as I learned about the grind and that all progress is halved every week for no sensible, logical, sane reason for a GAME, I instantly said to myself "**** that ****! Terrible game design!"

 

[rrobes]

I did PP in it's beginning.

However, the merit decay was so undesired that it drove me out of PP in a short time. I hate to constantly take the same ground over and over again, without end. I want to play a game, not work at a job.

The way I see the specialized weapons process is to abuse it; pledge, do nothing for 4 weeks, then earn the necessary merits, buy 10 or so of the weapon and bail out on the power.

It's not a very good mechanism but not an unexpected tactic given the state of PP.

Not directly related but part of PP, a player from a rival Power, be it live or NPC, should be fair game in either of the two Power's territories. It should only result ins a credit to the victor and not a bounty/warrant/fine. Just my opinion.

 

[Suvi Anwar]

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Does PP exist to wall these modules behind time sinks, or do the modules exist to reward loyalty to Powers.

Some things to consider...

The PP factions have a single module that becomes available if you stick out the month, a-single-module. For a large number of players there is no incentive to stick with any single group after the "reward" is unlocked and a number of that module is stockpiled. If each one of these groups had multiple modules that unlocked over time, that would incentivize players to stay with a PP group much longer, and possibly permanently. But since there is a solitary reward, players move on to the next, and then the next, and...

So in my opinion, the PP mechanic really only serves as a time sink to obtain the modules, not as a reward mechanism for loyalty.

Edit: And that really lends to a much larger problem in ED, and that is rewards. CR and Mats are basic but can be obtained anywhere in the game. Rewards should include tangible things like emblems and paint jobs and clothing, maybe module upgrades. There's a lot that is missing in this game, rewards being a big one.

 

[MadDogMurdock]

Those modules don't even exist as far as I'm concerned.

Not a chance in hell I'm going to touch the complete crock that is PP.

 

[Deep Thought 42]

Guess if I was king for a day you leave the faction you lose the weapon.

I would do it a bit diferent lol
when you abandon a Superpower you get to keep your PP Modules
If you get scanned by a loyal CMDR whilst in PP terroity with PP Modules mounted A kill order placed on you whilst your in there territory gaining merits & CR for the Loyal PP CMDR upon your disposal

Also since theses modules are bespoke repairs when not pleged should be blackmarket prices lol
&
If your loyal for two or more months repairs & servicing become free at any PP Station

 

[Unknown Zombie]

I joined the PP faction I'm in fully intending to be a module shopper. I intended to get the module and bail, but after joining up and hanging around the Discord for the month I needed to earn the modules I ended up hanging around because the community made the whole aspect interesting and interactive. So I stayed there, and still participate in PP activity.

It is what you make of it. (That is true for anything in life)

 

[Maro-Val]

Power play lol. Huge success and an example of fine development. So much that everyone that i know, is unpledging the moment they buy each power module.

i guess power play is part of the.. "vision".

 

[Straha Yeagar]

I joined the PP faction I'm in fully intending to be a module shopper. I intended to get the module and bail, but after joining up and hanging around the Discord for the month I needed to earn the modules I ended up hanging around because the community made the whole aspect interesting and interactive. So I stayed there, and still participate in PP activity.

It is what you make of it. (That is true for anything in life)

Sometime I wonder what would happen if there was another version of this exact same game, except that players could have any ship, any module, any upgrade, any jump range, go to any system at any time, where there are no credit, material, or time sinks. I think we'd end up with a bunch of kids that ate all the ice cream, went to bed complaining of a stomach ache, then whine the next day because there isn't any ice cream left.

 

[Dietger]

There is no incentive to stick with a power longer than it takes to unlock the special weapon. Why not have all the specials weapons/modules available to all factions after a period of time and rank so no longer need to defect and start over in each one? This would encourage players pledging once and sticking with it.

I agree here. Part of the problem is, leaving being so easy getting all the toys is the smart thing, while sticking to one chosen power seems silly. Here is hope this'll change sometime soon.

 

[hems303]

Personally I think I might get there if I didn't know that I was jumping ship in 4 weeks anyways. There are several weapons I want, so I know ahead of time no point investing any thought into a faction as I just going to defect anyway. If I could get all the modules in time in a single faction I would be incentivized to pick one I wanted to support.

Totally this! I have just defected from Hudson after 30+ weeks of dedicated and careful/thoughtful PP'ing... just to get the toy from Le Yong Rui.... I have no real interest anymore in the faction itself and presume Le's poor ranking position is entirely down to idiots like me just bumbling in to get the wonky missiles... and blah!!! to the needful strategy in getting Le's position improved.... very short-sighted setup IMHO... I agree with the OP

o7

 

[Straha Yeagar]

Totally this! I have just defected from Hudson after 30+ weeks of dedicated and careful/thoughtful PP'ing... just to get the toy from Le Yong Rui.... I have no real interest anymore in the faction itself and presume Le's poor ranking position is entirely down to idiots like me just bumbling in to get the wonky missiles... and blah!!! to the needful strategy in getting Le's position improved.... very short-sighted setup IMHO... I agree with the OP

o7

And yet people still complain about the four week waiting time with pretty much zero commitment, or having to do much of anything at all to get the modules...pointless waiting time, why can't I just have it now then? And at the same time, complaints roll about pretty much every activity in the game that people have to do to gain credits, modules or ships. Nothing is big enough or fast enough, and it's all a grind.