I'll clarify a bit. The frustration level at the FLC is extremely high right now. We are tight-knit group; we have more loyalty to each other than we do to FDev-created NPC Felicia Winters, to Elite: Dangerous, or even to our very good friends at Hudson. The FLC is a small group; two months ago we began inviting Hudson players to our Enjin site to promote better coordination and they already outnumber us there. Since Christmas 2015 we have poured billions of credits into the preparation and expansion of HIP 44811, Amuzgo, DR Crucis (wasn't that a fun week?), LTT 5964, and Hyades Sector IC-K B9-4 (they should let us rename it for all the work we've done in that bubble). In the case of Hyades and LTT, we coordinated massive snipe and blanket undermining operations to remove them from their previous owners. I do not mean to exclude the work of our allies at Hudson; without them none of this would have been possible, but I am only speaking of the FLC here. The frustration level at Hudson doesn't seem to be as high.
What we perceive in Frontier's response to this cycle's bugs is a complete disregard for the time and effort we have poured into their game. They wanted massive galactic struggle, and they got it. I think all ten powers have gone above and beyond anything that Frontier thought was possible, from an organization standpoint. This has been an amazing war and I am grateful to everyone involved, even our most bitter enemies. At times we have been compared to (edit: the leaders of Germany during World War II) and wife-beaters, and while I don't appreciate those comparisons, I do appreciate our opponent's passion for this game. Below I will list the most immediate issues we have:
1)
HIP 47328 should be an expansion for Winters this cycle. This is another bubble that we and Hudson worked hard to take from ALD over the course of several cycles. After that we put in 28k prep merits in the last 24 hours of the cycle to come over the top of ALD's 12k.
2)
Winters cannot continue the prep war this cycle. Continuing preps would not be the end of the world (though a full cycle prep war like the one we will probably see at Ch'iang Fei would be very expensive), but we are in turmoil. Why are we in turmoil? We had to avoid taking the 5c expansion of Barathaona (again). Collusion piracy to the rescue once again; I think we coordinated to do four or five systems with Hudson commanders.
3)
The wrong system is in turmoil. Mehudi was not one of our collusion targets. Indeed, the turmoil screen in-game shows that we only paid the default upkeep on it last cycle. Yet somehow, it's in turmoil instead of one of the systems we targeted.
Most importantly:
4)
Frontier doesn't think the problems are bad enough to merit a real fix. I have listed only Winters problems here because they are the ones I am familiar with. It appears that Patreus also attempted a controlled turmoil and ended up with no system, or possibly their headquarters, in turmoil. Hudson and ALD will fight a week-long prep war over a system that should be in expansion this cycle. No power has expansions this week at all. There are probably more issues which I'm failing to remember right now. These are just the issues from this week. Power Play's short history is riddled with bugs; sometimes we are lucky enough to get a fix, sometimes we get nothing more than a shrug of the shoulders.
At the FLC there is a general feeling that investing more time into Power Play is a waste. However, as I mentioned in the opening, we are a very close group and very loyal to each other. We are currently discussing whether to continue with Power Play as it is, or to pursue other goals within ED, or to move on to another game altogether. I certainly applaud Frontier for creating a game compelling enough to bring us together, but as a group we may have reached the breaking point.
While I've been writing this, Slurmz has posted a
more succinct message to our subreddit. If you are a Winters pledge who is not part of the FLC, I strongly recommend making your voice heard either here or there in the next few days. As he mentions, the FLC represents over 90% of Winters' effective merits, so the decision we make will likely affect the continuation of Winters as a power in Elite: Dangerous.
