Powerplay So how is powerplay?

[Rauminen]

Yup, Winters would have been my first choice - was, actually, in the beta (way back when). After fooling around there though, I left PP alone for a good long while on the live game.

Recently I've joined the forces of ALD, mostly as a means of making some credits, and oh boy. It works. Even too well.

Few technicalities, as I haven't seen an answer to your question regarding the effort required.

Keeping rank at 5 (5k merits) takes about 6 hours of gameplay and say 45 mil credits if you're fortifying. Spending less cash means it'll take more time - I don't think you can make it much faster by spending the remaining 5 mil (4.5 mil to be exact) though. Maybe 4 and a half or 5 hours with a T9. Mind, you have a whole week to do it.

Until recently, undermining was a very lucrative alternative to go merit-wise. However with the new changes to interdiction, I'm not too sure how the merit/hour looks like now. I did get to rank 5 with undermining, and I did do it in a single day's game session just a week before 1.4 came out. Since this is the first PP-week of the release, I guess the jury is still out.

I also find that larger powers have a tight community core as well - it's just that your individual actions do not count as much as for the smaller ones. You can find some really dedicated players at the heart of every single power - I guess it's natural. The question is, would you want to be part of a thousand-strong community, or rather you'd like to share efforts with only a few dozen people, where you have a chance to know everyone.

 

[Knightshark]

Yup, Winters would have been my first choice - was, actually, in the beta (way back when). After fooling around there though, I left PP alone for a good long while on the live game.

Recently I've joined the forces of ALD, mostly as a means of making some credits, and oh boy. It works. Even too well.

Few technicalities, as I haven't seen an answer to your question regarding the effort required.

Keeping rank at 5 (5k merits) takes about 6 hours of gameplay and say 45 mil credits if you're fortifying. Spending less cash means it'll take more time - I don't think you can make it much faster by spending the remaining 5 mil (4.5 mil to be exact) though. Maybe 4 and a half or 5 hours with a T9. Mind, you have a whole week to do it.

Until recently, undermining was a very lucrative alternative to go merit-wise. However with the new changes to interdiction, I'm not too sure how the merit/hour looks like now. I did get to rank 5 with undermining, and I did do it in a single day's game session just a week before 1.4 came out. Since this is the first PP-week of the release, I guess the jury is still out.

I also find that larger powers have a tight community core as well - it's just that your individual actions do not count as much as for the smaller ones. You can find some really dedicated players at the heart of every single power - I guess it's natural. The question is, would you want to be part of a thousand-strong community, or rather you'd like to share efforts with only a few dozen people, where you have a chance to know everyone.

If some powers have only dozen players while other have thousands, how does balance work?

 

[Apos]

If some powers have only dozen players while other have thousands, how does balance work?

Mahon and Winters have small playerbases, so the rankings speak for themselves in that regard.

Delaine is heavily assaulted every week, so the fact that he still survives while in a position in space without many profitable systems is a testament to that as well.

Antal is a freshman in organization, but they have been picking up the pace and their future is also bright with the systems they have been absorbing lately. They have been also doing their own thing, taking Takurua for RP purposes, which isn't necessarily that bad, they do have my thumbs up for that pursue.

 

[Knightshark]

Mahon and Winters have small playerbases, so the rankings speak for themselves in that regard.

Delaine is heavily assaulted every week, so the fact that he still survives while in a position in space without many profitable systems is a testament to that as well.

Antal is a freshman in organization, but they have been picking up the pace and their future is also bright with the systems they have been absorbing lately. They have been also doing their own thing, taking Takurua for RP purposes, which isn't necessarily that bad, they do have my thumbs up for that pursue.

But what prevents that the big factions wipe out the small once if the differences in player base are so large?

 

[Apos]

But what prevents that the big factions wipe out the small once if the differences in player base are so large?

Good expansions in the past and efficient fortifications.

Which is why 5th collumning is going rampart lately, since it would take too long for the bigger powers to harm the organised ones. So they have to resort to scumbagery to satisfy their ego instead.

 

[Cliffson]

If some powers have only dozen players while other have thousands, how does balance work?

Well it kind of does and doesn't

The powers with a lot of players have a lot of merit grinders who are just there for the bonuses, and they don't necessarily do useful things, and can in cases do harmful things like expand to bad systems.

A small organised power is hard to push into turmoil as it can easily fortify enough systems each cycle to counteract any amount of undermining. Where as a big power, as it will only have a small proportion of organised players can more easily be put into turmoil as they find it harder to fortify everything.

But there is currently no win or lose to it so it doesn't seem to matter.

 

[Knightshark]

Good expansions in the past and efficient fortifications.

Which is why 5th collumning is going rampart lately, since it would take too long for the bigger powers to harm the organised ones. So they have to resort to scumbagery to satisfy their ego instead.

Well it kind of does and doesn't

The powers with a lot of players have a lot of merit grinders who are just there for the bonuses, and they don't necessarily do useful things, and can in cases do harmful things like expand to bad systems.

A small organised power is hard to push into turmoil as it can easily fortify enough systems each cycle to counteract any amount of undermining. Where as a big power, as it will only have a small proportion of organised players can more easily be put into turmoil as they find it harder to fortify everything.

But there is currently no win or lose to it so it doesn't seem to matter.

That's very interesting. So is there any way to find out how large/active the playerbases are of the factions are. Judging by this forum Winters seems pretty dead.

 

[Apos]

That's very interesting. So is there any way to find out how large/active the playerbases are of the factions are. Judging by this forum Winters seems pretty dead.

We don't have an exact number, only FD has those.

Winters is definitely not dead, they are just more secluded in their reddit and a site they have created to organize things. You can find all the reddits here: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=189656

 

[_Flin_]

But what prevents that the big factions wipe out the small once if the differences in player base are so large?

There are no mechanisms to directly attack other powers' systems.
The only things that are possible are
- Opposition of Expansions (can be countered by working harder on the expansions)
- Signing up for a power you want to harm and prepare and expand into bad systems (5th columning, frowned upon)
- Pushing a power into turmoil (by undermining) so it loses systems. This can be countered by clever fortifying.

The last one is the "real" way to attack powers. But the better organized powers have system setups that are very hard to attack and easy to defend. They need to spend less for defense than other's for offense. And they have "I Win" values they have to reach to prevent any harm to them.

The bigger powers are less organized. They have lots of "merit grinders" that are in it for the weekly paycheck or just don't have a clue how the whole thing works. Therefore they ended up with loads and loads of bad systems, Aisling Duval being the prime example for that. To attack them is easy. They weren't used to opposition in the first turns, and are now neckdeep in a unfavorable setup.

So actually it is the smaller powers that have the advantage, because they made their moves more carefully and didn't just stomp down on everything in their way.

The bigger powers (esp. ALD and AD) will have a very hard time to rebuild their position into a more favorable setup. This will take multiple turns of concentrated and careful gameplay, while at the same time keeping the marauding hordes of their players in check. Which is highly unlikely.

 

[Knightshark]

Ok, so i checked PP ingame and now i'm wondering: why is Mahon #1? I though he's the underdog and their reddit says Alliance is the hard mode.
Btw, he really looks like Alexis Tsipras (who has overtaken the EU in a distant future now called Alliance) - No way i'm going pledge to him!

 

[Apos]

Ok, so i checked PP ingame and now i'm wondering: why is Mahon #1? I though he's the underdog and their reddit says Alliance is the hard mode.
Btw, he really looks like Alexis Tsipras (who has overtaken the EU in a distant future now called Alliance) - No way i'm going pledge to him!

Because the Alliance prevails over any obstacle by the power of freedom that we learned to value from the oppression the federation and the empire tried to impose on independent systems.

Funny thing is, FD probably still considers us an underdog, but getting where we are certainly wasn't easy.

 

[Rubbernuke]

Ok, so i checked PP ingame and now i'm wondering: why is Mahon #1? I though he's the underdog and their reddit says Alliance is the hard mode.
Btw, he really looks like Alexis Tsipras (who has overtaken the EU in a distant future now called Alliance) - No way i'm going pledge to him!

Archon and Antal are hard mode. Archon especially, since the the whole Empire wants them dead.

 

[Knightshark]

Because the Alliance prevails over any obstacle by the power of freedom that we learned to value from the oppression the federation and the empire tried to impose on independent systems.

Funny thing is, FD probably still considers us an underdog, but getting where we are certainly wasn't easy.

I must say, everything i read in this thread so far sounds very good. Thanks!

 

[hoppingdeth]

Well being a member of Archon I can safely say it's no easy ride. You will get the attention of every other cmdr in every other power at some point. Just the way it is.

 

[GluttonyFang]

PP is now out for quite some time and has received a lot of criticism. I'm wondering:

Did it improve? Do you like it? For what reason would you recommend committing to support a power (or not)?

Join only if you feel committed to a certain ethos or is just here to make money.

If you try to play PP competitively, you'll end up wanting to rip your brains out with how FD handles PP.

FD has done a lot of things quite well, but PP is not one of them. They are trying, but as it is currently, don't bother, it's not a leveled playground.

If you want to afk/auto-win, join any Empire power that isn't Torval. If you want to work for your success, join Mahon/Hudson/Winters. If you want to stay out of all the drama, join Antal/Li. If you really really want a challenge or crank up the difficulty level to the highest, join Archon.