Do you Feel the Winds of Change?
Reading through the documentation on PowerPlay I came across the mention of 'Control Effects', which sound actually pretty interesting. As most current discussions have centred on the controversial rewards structure and the mechanics of affecting political change, it's probably a good idea to have a look at these Control Effects in a separate thread here to talk about their pros and cons and also how they could feed back into the larger discussion about PP.
Instead of writing out my interpretation of this feature, here's just the copypasted description from the PP doc.
Immediately after reading that, I realised that a previous assumption I had about PP was off- that it was something that would take place outside the rest of the game and you could just ignore it if you wanted. But imagine this... what if you're a smuggler and a Power who's shutting down Black Markets everywhere is gaining a lot of traction and support? What if they're absolutely dominating a large portion of human space? It means that you can't do your business in the areas where this Power is in control. It may even mean that you need to start thinking about supporting Powers who are in opposition to this Black Market Shutting Down Power, to get back the play space that has been taken from you progressively since this Power came into dominance.
2 things.
1. By having Powers start to take liberties away from you, imposing restrictions, inhibiting your choices, you've now become more concerned politically- you have real opposition and something to fight against/for. You want to run those guys out of town (the jerks).
2. By developing a real motivation for wanting to work actively against this Power, the raison d'etre for getting involved in Powerplay stuggles has moved away from superficial shiny bonuses to actually getting the Galaxy in the shape you want it.
Imo a lot of the implementation of PP leaves a lot to be desired, but looking at things from the point of view of Control Effects I can see a ton of potential here waiting to spring forth.
Imagine a Power whose Control Effect is- random stop and search interdictions increased by 25/50%. As a normal pilot you might just reconsider piloting a course around that Power, even though it takes you 15 more stops to get where you're going.
Or what would happen in Systems where fines and bounties are reduced to 0? What would that look like, play like?
There's a ton of scope to shape the personalities of Systems under the control of various Powers, injecting some much needed variation throughout human space.
What I would like to see:
Control Effects have enough of an impact on Systems that people begin to care about the politics behind them, potentially enough to want to do something about it.
PP is designed in a way where people think it's a fun system to play, is interesting, with a decent amount of variation and depth. Endless grind is an unpopular choice on the forums atleast and I wish there was something which could be done about that (edit: PP fixed?). More interesting gameplay mechanics than 'deliver endless amounts of of x to y', please! :S
What I would not like to see:
Control Effects have enough of an impact on Systems that people begin to care about the politics behind them, potentially enough to want to do something about it.
Powerplay is boring. Even though you're a smuggler and there are no more black markets, you'd rather self destruct than pledge to a Power who can do something about it.
---
TLDR: We're getting ahead of ourselves talking about rewards then we should be thinking first about Power policies and how they will affect things around us as players. How do you want the Galaxy to work, what policies will you support or fight against? Rewards should be the icing on the cake, not the main reason for getting involved in PP. (since politics is about affecting change)
Reading through the documentation on PowerPlay I came across the mention of 'Control Effects', which sound actually pretty interesting. As most current discussions have centred on the controversial rewards structure and the mechanics of affecting political change, it's probably a good idea to have a look at these Control Effects in a separate thread here to talk about their pros and cons and also how they could feed back into the larger discussion about PP.
Instead of writing out my interpretation of this feature, here's just the copypasted description from the PP doc.
Immediately after reading that, I realised that a previous assumption I had about PP was off- that it was something that would take place outside the rest of the game and you could just ignore it if you wanted. But imagine this... what if you're a smuggler and a Power who's shutting down Black Markets everywhere is gaining a lot of traction and support? What if they're absolutely dominating a large portion of human space? It means that you can't do your business in the areas where this Power is in control. It may even mean that you need to start thinking about supporting Powers who are in opposition to this Black Market Shutting Down Power, to get back the play space that has been taken from you progressively since this Power came into dominance.
2 things.
1. By having Powers start to take liberties away from you, imposing restrictions, inhibiting your choices, you've now become more concerned politically- you have real opposition and something to fight against/for. You want to run those guys out of town (the jerks).
2. By developing a real motivation for wanting to work actively against this Power, the raison d'etre for getting involved in Powerplay stuggles has moved away from superficial shiny bonuses to actually getting the Galaxy in the shape you want it.
Imo a lot of the implementation of PP leaves a lot to be desired, but looking at things from the point of view of Control Effects I can see a ton of potential here waiting to spring forth.
Imagine a Power whose Control Effect is- random stop and search interdictions increased by 25/50%. As a normal pilot you might just reconsider piloting a course around that Power, even though it takes you 15 more stops to get where you're going.
Or what would happen in Systems where fines and bounties are reduced to 0? What would that look like, play like?
There's a ton of scope to shape the personalities of Systems under the control of various Powers, injecting some much needed variation throughout human space.
What I would like to see:
Control Effects have enough of an impact on Systems that people begin to care about the politics behind them, potentially enough to want to do something about it.
PP is designed in a way where people think it's a fun system to play, is interesting, with a decent amount of variation and depth. Endless grind is an unpopular choice on the forums atleast and I wish there was something which could be done about that (edit: PP fixed?). More interesting gameplay mechanics than 'deliver endless amounts of of x to y', please! :S
What I would not like to see:
Control Effects have enough of an impact on Systems that people begin to care about the politics behind them, potentially enough to want to do something about it.
Powerplay is boring. Even though you're a smuggler and there are no more black markets, you'd rather self destruct than pledge to a Power who can do something about it.
---
TLDR: We're getting ahead of ourselves talking about rewards then we should be thinking first about Power policies and how they will affect things around us as players. How do you want the Galaxy to work, what policies will you support or fight against? Rewards should be the icing on the cake, not the main reason for getting involved in PP. (since politics is about affecting change)
Last edited:
