Multiplying the number of merits by five to undermine/fortify is one thing, and I get it. I even claimed this was a good idea in <some thread somewhere>. Purpose of this thread isn't to complain about "extra grinding"
Doing so without rebalancing (and fixing) the merits earned for anything other than supercruise kills is pure madness.
Earning 15 merits per supercruise kill was shooting fish in a barrel enough, and transporting up to 100 tonnes of a cargo to help fortify a system is simple enough too.
But seriously. 50,000 merits to just nullify a fortification effect by having to hijack cargo, where I risk losing 40 merits if I accidentally kill the ship, am lucky to get away with one or two tonnes before cops arrive to kill me, and earning a paltry 1 merit for each tonne? Meanwhile it's just going to take 30 trips (or 30 players each doing a single trip) in an Imperial clipper to fortify the system?
That's just plain ridiculous.
Federal and Independent forces hit Patreus' systems because his systems are on the front lines between Imperial and Federal space. While some players care about their powers influence and thwarting the enemies, I'd wager most care about getting easy merits for ranking up; this is fair, but this also means (and I suspect this is what was meant to happen) that there's an expectation for the Imperial factions to feud among themselves. I can't speak for the other Imperial powers, but if they too have to do the cargo hijacking (which i suspect is the case) this is an absolute waste of time and effort now thanks to the 5x merit increase to undermine, without even considering how difficult cargo hijacking is compared to other merit-earning activities and their merit rewards.
This is what needs to happen to merit earnings to bring things back into balance. Note: this isn't a whinge about "I can't earn merits to rank up", this is about balancing the mechanics of powerplay and how Powers can engage against each other.
- Military strike kills need to scale for the ship size, just like combat bonds. 2 for the smallest ship, up to 10 for the largest.
- Supercruise kills can stay at 15 merits per kill for any ship.
- Each tonne of powerplay cargo stolen from a ship needs to be worth 10 merits for undermining *at least*.
- Treachery penalty can stay for killing ships belonging to a power aligned to the same major faction.
In addition, the following mechanics (bugged or not) need to change:
- Bugs with Supercruise kills *must* be fixed. These bugs include:
* Remove the ability to earn undermine merits from such kills when that ship doesn't belong to the controlling power (e.g earning merits and contributing undermine points for killing an alliance ship in a federal system, when I'm part of an Imperial Power. It should only reward killing Federal ships)
* Remove the ability to earn undermine merits from such kills when that is not how your faction undermines the power at that stage. (e.g As a pledger to Patreus, I am supposed to support resistance fighters in Military Strikes to oppose Hudson's expansion. Despite this, I can happily and more easily pull ships out of supercruise for 15 merits per kill. The ability to do that should be removed).
- Kills of foreign-power ships in your own control systems should reward you with merits (say, 5) which contribute to fortifying that control system, just like supercruise kills (less merits though, as hunting in your own system is and should be safer).
- Power-specific cargo recovered from enemy ships, where it is *not* your factions way of undermining should still give undermine merits when handed in at a control system, but just less, say, 2 merits (as the primary reason you'd be doing this is the result of a supercruise kill, earning you 15 merits *if* that's how your faction does it)
The whole point of this 5x merit increase was to encourage more tactical play, which is obviously a goal of FD with PowerPlay. Addressing these issues and implementing some of these changes will have a far greater effect than simply increasing the number of merits needed to achieve tasks.
Doing so without rebalancing (and fixing) the merits earned for anything other than supercruise kills is pure madness.
Earning 15 merits per supercruise kill was shooting fish in a barrel enough, and transporting up to 100 tonnes of a cargo to help fortify a system is simple enough too.
But seriously. 50,000 merits to just nullify a fortification effect by having to hijack cargo, where I risk losing 40 merits if I accidentally kill the ship, am lucky to get away with one or two tonnes before cops arrive to kill me, and earning a paltry 1 merit for each tonne? Meanwhile it's just going to take 30 trips (or 30 players each doing a single trip) in an Imperial clipper to fortify the system?
That's just plain ridiculous.
Federal and Independent forces hit Patreus' systems because his systems are on the front lines between Imperial and Federal space. While some players care about their powers influence and thwarting the enemies, I'd wager most care about getting easy merits for ranking up; this is fair, but this also means (and I suspect this is what was meant to happen) that there's an expectation for the Imperial factions to feud among themselves. I can't speak for the other Imperial powers, but if they too have to do the cargo hijacking (which i suspect is the case) this is an absolute waste of time and effort now thanks to the 5x merit increase to undermine, without even considering how difficult cargo hijacking is compared to other merit-earning activities and their merit rewards.
This is what needs to happen to merit earnings to bring things back into balance. Note: this isn't a whinge about "I can't earn merits to rank up", this is about balancing the mechanics of powerplay and how Powers can engage against each other.
- Military strike kills need to scale for the ship size, just like combat bonds. 2 for the smallest ship, up to 10 for the largest.
- Supercruise kills can stay at 15 merits per kill for any ship.
- Each tonne of powerplay cargo stolen from a ship needs to be worth 10 merits for undermining *at least*.
- Treachery penalty can stay for killing ships belonging to a power aligned to the same major faction.
In addition, the following mechanics (bugged or not) need to change:
- Bugs with Supercruise kills *must* be fixed. These bugs include:
* Remove the ability to earn undermine merits from such kills when that ship doesn't belong to the controlling power (e.g earning merits and contributing undermine points for killing an alliance ship in a federal system, when I'm part of an Imperial Power. It should only reward killing Federal ships)
* Remove the ability to earn undermine merits from such kills when that is not how your faction undermines the power at that stage. (e.g As a pledger to Patreus, I am supposed to support resistance fighters in Military Strikes to oppose Hudson's expansion. Despite this, I can happily and more easily pull ships out of supercruise for 15 merits per kill. The ability to do that should be removed).
- Kills of foreign-power ships in your own control systems should reward you with merits (say, 5) which contribute to fortifying that control system, just like supercruise kills (less merits though, as hunting in your own system is and should be safer).
- Power-specific cargo recovered from enemy ships, where it is *not* your factions way of undermining should still give undermine merits when handed in at a control system, but just less, say, 2 merits (as the primary reason you'd be doing this is the result of a supercruise kill, earning you 15 merits *if* that's how your faction does it)
The whole point of this 5x merit increase was to encourage more tactical play, which is obviously a goal of FD with PowerPlay. Addressing these issues and implementing some of these changes will have a far greater effect than simply increasing the number of merits needed to achieve tasks.
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