Powerplay PP Rank Decay in 2.3 - One Item Wishlist, FDev!

[AgamemnonWhen]

So, after having done PP for a month, and having spent much of that time in this part of the forum soaking up the knowledge of PP Masters, there seems to be one desire we all have in common, regardless of political affiliation* or magpie-like acquisitiveness for new weapons.

Rank Decay.

If there is but one thing that FD could fix to shut us all up for a while, it seems that this would be it.

I'm no coder, but surely that would involve changing just one or two parameters in a file somewhere from "50%" to "10%" (o.n.o.) when 2.3 goes live. Not a big ask, surely, but it would make the quality of life for those of us who have engaged in PP so much better. It may even encourage people into the PP system, which can be no bad thing!

Then FD can stick it back on the back burner - whilst they work out the terms of the Thargoid invasion or how to build cities - with a view to looking at it properly for a later season; addressing all of our other desires for better missions, incorporation into the main game, or other improvements to political engagement.

So, come on, FDev - do us all a favour (like you did when you removed commodities from Engineering), and we will love you all the more for it!

What say you, Powerplayers?

*on the record, I joined for political reasons, with an option for an occasional source of income, not for the toys!

 

[kaboki]

Yes, would make me play PP, even better remove decay, and salary, just pay us creds when we actually do somthing for the power, remove PP modules and make them available to buy like other modules(incentive to join should be about changing politics not about getting a fancy module and quit and grind the next on in a diffrent power). I want to participate in pp, but reaching rank 5(wich one needs to be to actually make a difference) and stay there is a fulltime job.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

I suggested a while ago that the decay, should actually decay.
Based on participation.

So, basically as long as you keep participating in PowerPlay, your decay drops slower, the more you do.
If you stop participating entirely, then your decay increases.
Someone smarter than me can work out the maths behind that... Lol

Then, have the PowerPlay modules require you maintain rank 3, for 4 weeks instead of just grind it on the last week.

 

[fergal]

No.

PP is full of problems, I've never heard anyone who actually plays PP complain about their rating (I assume you mean rating not rank) decay.

All this will do is make some players be able to earn less merits (so play less PP) for the same weekly cr reward.

 

[krylite]

I think it's a good idea for a reduction in merit decay but I think it should be earned in some way and available for those serious on staying with a particular power. Like having a reduction on merit decay based on weeks pledged to a faction like 2% drop in decay per week pledged, where the minimum % decay after like 20 weeks could be something like 10-20% and fiddled for balance by FDev. And if the player defects, the counter for number of weeks pledged to max reduction in decay has to start again. Maybe also add like 1-2% to minimum decay for each different power pledged previously in the past as some penalty. Simple formulas that could be implemented fairly easily since the game already tracks a player's number of days and weeks pledged to each different faction every day.

Along with reducing merit decay, another balance to it could be to make it so preparations are only available in open enforced by losing all preparation cargo when logging into solo. So it would put a stop to 5C efforts of prepping bad systems while hiding in solo.

 

[aspiringexpatriate]

If Rating Decay were to go away, then, frankly, weekly salary should go away, and players who contribute should be rewarded based on their contributions at the time of their contributions. Right now, fast-tracking 700t of fortification supplies costs 7 million credits, and upon delivery you receive 7000 credits, or something equally ridiculous. The way it works now, Rating 5 CMDRs receive a 50 million salary, and can gather 54 million worth of fortification supplies to maintain their Rating. It is simple and loosely equitable, especially when waiting a half hour can reduce that cost by a half a million credits. Right now, maintaining Rating 5 is relatively easy and relatively rewarding, provided you're not in it for the salary but are in it for the Power.

Where Power Play really screws the pooch is for those CMDRs who contribute well over 5430 merits a week, especially in fast-tracked cargo. They receive nothing more than the knowledge that they're sustaining their Power at great personal cost, be it time or credits.

Additionally, CMDRs who sabotage the Power via prepping horrible and undesirable systems also receive exactly the same merits, rewards, and rating that those who work for the improvement of the Power. So if they rewarded based on tonnage delivered, well, preparation sabotage would gain a huge boost. Right now, the only thing that deters people from this is the fact that it's repetitive, dull, and costs 10 million for every 1000 tonnes put into a sabotage prep. And it's not much of a deterrent, given Aisling's perpetually horrible #1 preparation of Yaque.

That's right. Either Aisling has 30 'loyal' CMDRs who maintain their Rating 5 (while protesting their leadership) by pushing preparation materials to Yaque, or fewer CMDRs who lose money every week driving up that preparation target. I don't actually know what benefits Aisling CMDRs get from Rating 5 to make that anymore useful than maintaining Rating 3 or 4.

What purpose would reducing/removing merit decay serve? Well, if they didn't remove the salary, it would mean every CMDR who ever participates in Power Play would eventually start receiving a weekly salary of 50 million credits for doing nothing. That sounds fantastic or fantastically disgusting, depending on your point of view.

Are merit decay, the current weekly cycle, and the benefits for rating bonuses the best way to make Power Play enjoyable and useful for the game and its participants?

Heck no, but adjusting just one of them would be utterly ridiculous and even worse balanced than it already is.

 

[krylite]

The purpose to reduce merit decay mainly stems from the wish to reduce time needed to maintain higher ranks. Some complain after the grind to get to rank 4 or 5, they should a get a break from having to do the current amount of merits needed each week to maintain the rank because the time needed continues to be tedious, however it seems to individual pledgers. I'd actually not thought about the salary when thinking about ways to reduce merit decay because I don't often make positive credit income from pp hauling even at rank 5 as I mostly use fasttrack. But good point about the salaries. I suppose if they changed powerplay to a merit decay system suggested in this thread, a decrease in salary should be commensurate. For Aisling pledged cmdrs at rank5, they get a bonus to increasing a faction's influence which helps in flipping system goals to help lower fortification triggers for Aisling control systems. I believe Felicia Winters at rank 5 has this same particular ability.

 

[bigity]

I'm not sure this would work with 5C being a thing either. At least as it stands now they have to maintain at least rank 2 in order to get a vote.

 

[kaboki]

Yeah if decay is removed, it means salary has too go too, i would love it. Just give us money for what we do when we do it, remove pp modules. I play elite sometimes for 3 weeks everyday, then i take a break for one month, then maybe play for 2 weeks, then take a 2 weeks break and so on. I would love to participate in PP, but i cant, because its a fulltime job(the word salary speaks for itself)that you need to be around 24/7, 365 days a year unless you dont want to start all over again after each small break.

My reason for playing PP has never been the salary, nor the PP modules(dont own any of them), but I care about the politics, heck i could even worked for my power for free if i was able to have rank 5 anytime i decided i want to play PP(the rank that is needed to even have a slight influence on the power).

 

[AgamemnonWhen]

I'm not saying REMOVE decay - I realise that I'm not going to get money for nothing - just REDUCE the decay: But the longer you don't work for your faction, the quicker it decays, EG:

PowerPlay Merit Decay for inactive PPers

• Week 1 with no PP activity: 10% merit decay
• Week 2 with no PP activity: 25% merit decay
• Week 3 with no PP activity: 50% merit decay
• Week 4 with no PP activity: 75% merit decay

This means that to maintain your PP merits, you'd need to keep up at least "little and often" activity, but it wouldn't be a demanding & discouraging grind unless you stopped 'working' for more than a week or two. Providing you did PP activity for your faction regularly, sustaining your PP standing wouldn't be such a time-sponge.

Example: I'm going on holiday in a few weeks, and I won't be able to log in for a fortnight - by the time I get home, with the harsh 50% decay we currently have, I will have to work really hard to get my merits back up to a sustainable level, and I'm not yet sure whether that's something I want to / can be bothered to do (unless 2.3 makes some exciting PP changes, which I think is unlikely).

It's like a full-time job - and with only a few hours per week it's actually taking up much more time than I'd like! I want to explore, to mine, to trade - none of which I will have time for if I want to maintain my PP merits! At least with my "realspace" job, I get paid holiday...

I want to support my PP faction, as it's the only real way we can openly declare our affiliations in ED, and I'm not even fussed about the weapons (but I'll admit I do want the wages, even if they are reduced): I just don't want to have to be stuck in a rut of delivering the same rare mystery parcels or shooting the same old enemies for my entire (and limited) game-time.

 

[aspiringexpatriate]

It's like a full-time job - and with only a few hours per week it's actually taking up much more time than I'd like! I want to explore, to mine, to trade - none of which I will have time for if I want to maintain my PP merits! At least with my "realspace" job, I get paid holiday...

I want to support my PP faction, as it's the only real way we can openly declare our affiliations in ED, and I'm not even fussed about the weapons (but I'll admit I do want the wages, even if they are reduced): I just don't want to have to be stuck in a rut of delivering the same rare mystery parcels or shooting the same old enemies for my entire (and limited) game-time.

I agree with this sentiment. Something needs to change, because a lot of us are turning into zombies. We're trying to maintain the fun, but we just keep needing new blood to keep the Power alive.

And that's fine, it is, but there's something annoyingly mind-numbing about a weekly deadline every week for the rest of the game's duration.

I don't think merit-decay is the problem. I think the entire concept for the system is the problem.

 

[Justinian Octavius]

I have to agree with the feeling in this thread. I love PowerPlay & think it could add a whole genuine 'political' dynamic of gameplay to ED but to get above & maintain Rating 2/3 takes either way too much cash or time, which I frankly, 'need' to spend doing other stuff (like unlocking Engineers or ensuring I have enough cash that I can re-buy my ship & have a number of 'lives'). Apart from tweaking Merit Decay another idea might be Power specific missions that give Merits instead of money. I.e. 'Massacre the Power X Convoy', 'Assassinate X for your Power' or similar. They could become available at Raking 3, for instance, & imho would be a fun way of expanding Power Play using existing in game mechanics.