Powerplay SNIPING in Powerplay

[Doktor Smyth]

A ship destroyed should instantly count as undermining. It makes no sense to tie this together with turning in the vouchers.

That's what I was thinking too. Why not just credit the kill/cargo steal immediately ? It's the kill/steal that hurts the enemy, not the turn-in. Why have vouchers and turn-in's ? What is the benefit of that anyway ?

It'd be nice to have the stats show up on the galaxy map, though, so as to visualize it.

 

[Commodore Brock]

Hello Commanders!

I would think that a number in the range of 500 - 1000 would be an appropriate start. It's a decent amount of vouchers.

In fairness, any limit that isn't sky high should cause a significant reduction in sniping capability.

Fairness? It takes 11 hours to get 10000 merits. I don't equip my ship with nothing but lasers so i have don't have to rearm every 5 minutes. Let alone having to cash in merits at 500 intervals. Why should people who actually get involved in powerplay and do great amounts of work be punished?

 

[wolfger]

Is this argument really still going on? <sigh>

That's what I was thinking too. Why not just credit the kill/cargo steal immediately ? It's the kill/steal that hurts the enemy, not the turn-in. Why have vouchers and turn-in's ? What is the benefit of that anyway ?

It'd be nice to have the stats show up on the galaxy map, though, so as to visualize it.

This. If FD decides sniping is a "problem" (which I disagree with), then this is the way to deal with it, NOT limits. Turn-in is already an unnecessary pain in the buttocks. Just allow instant credit for each kill.

 

[Smurfprime]

Is this argument really still going on? <sigh>



This. If FD decides sniping is a "problem" (which I disagree with), then this is the way to deal with it, NOT limits. Turn-in is already an unnecessary pain in the buttocks. Just allow instant credit for each kill.

I would be totally OK with this. The only problem I have is that players can hoard and drop to circumvent the reporting mechanics and prevent detection. There are several ways to address that and this is one of the more logical approaches.

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Fairness? It takes 11 hours to get 10000 merits. I don't equip my ship with nothing but lasers so i have don't have to rearm every 5 minutes. Let alone having to cash in merits at 500 intervals. Why should people who actually get involved in powerplay and do great amounts of work be punished?

I am totally OK with capping undermining merits to force a more frequent turn.

Considering that it would take 100 hours (at Rank 5) to get that many free fortification merits, not counting shipping time and return trips. Setting a reasonable cap would be fair and still leave undermining as the undisputed easiest way to get merits. The trip home to cash in the vouchers is one of the very few costs of doing business associated with undermining.

 

[Zeta Legion]

If it takes 100 hours to get 10000 merits through methods other than undermining, then maybe they shouldn't be so goddamn boring (not to mention time consuming).

anything other than undermining means you are either A) spending unhealthy amounts of time sitting at your PC waiting for your weekly allotment to spawn, or B) spending basically all the cash you would've earned from the rank bonus just to maintain it without spending days real-time sitting at a station collecting mailbags for delivery.

Maybe if there were other ways to participate in PP activities (besides undermining) other than being a horrifically underpaid delivery boy more people would help do them.

I'd love to help fortify my faction, but anything other than undermining is just soul-crushingly dull and incredibly unrewarding.

 

[Smurfprime]

The better solution may be to lower the Fortification Trigger and increase the Undermining Trigger for the smaller Powers.

If a Power in 8/9/10 position on the standings had their Fortification trigger lowered by say, 10/15/20 percent, it would allow them to more quickly fortify their control systems without directly encouraging players to defect to them in order to Merit Grind faster. If Undermining Triggers were raised by the same percentage, it wouldn't stop Undermining, just even it out a bit more.

It would make things a little easier for players who have fewer numbers, without having an adverse affect on all of the other powers.

I am not sure fortification is an issue for the factions at the bottom of the ranking. For example, Archon, IIRC has never been in turmoil because they have never been allowed to expand to the point that turmoil was even mechanically possible even though they are thoroughly undermined every week.

 

[Smurfprime]

If it takes 100 hours to get 10000 merits through methods other than undermining, then maybe they shouldn't be so goddamn boring (not to mention time consuming).

anything other than undermining means you are either A) spending unhealthy amounts of time sitting at your PC waiting for your weekly allotment to spawn, or B) spending basically all the cash you would've earned from the rank bonus just to maintain it without spending days real-time sitting at a station collecting mailbags for delivery.

Maybe if there were other ways to participate in PP activities (besides undermining) other than being a horrifically underpaid delivery boy more people would help do them.

I'd love to help fortify my faction, but anything other than undermining is just soul-crushingly dull and incredibly unrewarding.

Exactly right. As it stands currently fortification is boring, time consuming and expensive compared to undermining. You cannot even kill enemy ships in your own control system to help defend them against undermining.

Sniping circumvents the reporting mechanics and forces blanket fortification every week (even when sniping is not actively taking place because there is no way to tell the difference) which sucks the life out of the game.

 

[GluttonyFang]

Exactly right. As it stands currently fortification is boring, time consuming and expensive compared to undermining. You cannot even kill enemy ships in your own control system to help defend them against undermining.

Sniping circumvents the reporting mechanics and forces blanket fortification every week (even when sniping is not actively taking place because there is no way to tell the difference) which sucks the life out of the game.

Fortification is boring, indeed.

Sniping as it stands is an useful mechanic that smaller powers and larger powers can use to surprise one another. Taking the ability away seems to benefit larger powers more than smaller ones in the sense that larger power have more forces to react while small ones do not.

There is never blanket fortification, however, there's fortification necessary to keep a power out to turmoil. I think the latter should be considered and done if a power wishes to stay out of turmoil, consider it a minimum standard.

 

[Andromalius]

Sniping would be less painful for supporters (I quit PP a long time ago) if it didn't include being up at 6 AM in front of the computer. If you got a job you can't take part anyway.

 

[Smurfprime]

Looks like they solved the balance issues with a nuclear nerf to interdiction and undermining in general.

 

[GluttonyFang]

Looks like they solved the balance issues with a nuclear nerf to interdiction and undermining in general.

With proper interdiction skills, it isn't much of a hindering factor.