I don't think that should be a problem as there are other ways to make merits. Preparation doesn't have to happen every week.
Powerplay Suggestion to counter 5c / zombie grinders (yes, another one)
- Thread starter Cori
- Start date
I don't think that should be a problem as there are other ways to make merits. Preparation doesn't have to happen every week.
Preparations are the heart of PP, and the current consolidation vote which allows powers to have 0 preparations is removing any remaining point PP has.
I'm sympathetic to the grinding/5C problems Aisling has faced, but she is currently ranked as high up as her players want her to be (3rd). I doesn't seem to have hurt your galactic standings at all.
Maybe we can also hear some Mahon pledged players about the first world problems they also face
Preparations are the heart of PP, and the current consolidation vote which allows powers to have 0 preparations is removing any remaining point PP has.
I'm sympathetic to the grinding/5C problems Aisling has faced, but she is currently ranked as high up as her players want her to be (3rd). I doesn't seem to have hurt your galactic standings at all.
Maybe we can also hear some Mahon pledged players about the first world problems they also face
Right now preparations are not the heart of PP, because, as pointed out, there is nothing to prepare. Preparation has no positive value for the powers themselves in these circumstances. It has value to individual commanders as a way of making merits, but that's all.
Right now there are three inescapable rules of Power Play that have locked it into stasis:
1) there is a finite number of populated systems (leading to a finite, even smaller number of profitable systems)
2) not allowing for the new consolidation mechanic, it would be fairly easy to take control of an unoccupied system, requiring only two weeks of effort directly targeting that system
3) conversely, it is currently rather hard to shake a system out of control, requiring two weeks of effort against the whole Power.
Until at least one of these three points is addressed nothing big will change.
Really, there needs to be a way to directly target, release (or defend) controlled systems rather than the entire Power. This would allow for something along the lines of border skirmishes or territorial wars, whereas the current mechanics really require full-on attack on an enemy Power to achieve anything.
I don't disagree with your points, but let me address your 3rd one.
It virtually impossible to make a power lose a system you want them to.
They will fortify their good systems as a priority, leaving the systems that they don't really want, which are the systems the other powers don't really want.
Its far too difficult to turmoil all of the powers right now (and has been for the entirety of PP)
I don't like the "worsening economy" mechanic, buts its what we have, either by design of FDev or not.
The powers have to be forced to expand, this is the only thing that will make it easier for them to be turmoiled.
Obviously the players (well the loyal ones) in each power don't want this, everyone would like a mechanic to remove the loss making systems, and to stop all the terrible preps from expanding, but this has to be allowed to happen to make turmoil, and losing systems, much more frequent.
Allowing a power to stop 100% of their preps is making many of the powers unturmoilable.
Indeed, you just stated the point I was trying to make there rather better than I did.
Preparations are the heart of PP, and the current consolidation vote which allows powers to have 0 preparations is removing any remaining point PP has.
I'm sympathetic to the grinding/5C problems Aisling has faced, but she is currently ranked as high up as her players want her to be (3rd). I doesn't seem to have hurt your galactic standings at all.
Maybe we can also hear some Mahon pledged players about the first world problems they also face
Forced scarcity is critical to powerplay, not preparation. The defense bonus is the problem, not consolidation. Powers shouldn't be forced to yo-yo back and forth in order to keep the game from total stagnation — I know you've been away for some months, but I'm surprised you're against consolidation. It would have saved Kumo quite a bit of grief.
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I'm not against the consolidation mechanic, just being able to get to 0 preparations.
1, 2 or 4 preparations seems much better than 0, 1 or 4.
As for grief that happened to the Kumo Crew, the engineers update caused this, it made PP unplayable and ensured all our expansions won.
When FDev said they wouldn't roll back what their bugs caused I was done with a bare bones feature that hadn't had anything added to it in the 1 year since it was introduced.
Now its nearly 2 years old and all FDev have done is add this consolidation vote system and a new 11th power.
There isn't even a collapse mechanic, I remember the PP selling blurb was "Powers will rise and powers will fall"
Yeah you missed my point. If consolidation had been in at the time, it would have helped you.
"When FDev said they wouldn't roll back what their bugs caused I was done with a bare bones feature that hadn't had anything added to it in the 1 year since it was introduced."
And now you're back, apparently an agent of chaos!
Its not Fdev's thats the problem...
Its the community who are unwilling to change attitudes and encourage open play.
Leaders of respective powers bear this responsibility if we want change in powerplay
The FEAR of the one outweigh the COURAGE of the many!!
Sorry, I am new to PP and I was trying to find a way to play PP. I have only seen 2:
1) Give money, bring cargo from A to B.
2) Participate in CZ. For some powers only. If they are expanding only.
3) Kill other players of other factions.
So,
1) Is boring as hell and brings nothing new to the gameplay besides terrible interface. 2) Could not find any for my fraction. 3) 30 merits per kill? Rly? Much risk, low profit and the guy would still pull the plug in case of loose.
Anything beside that for me in PP gameplay-wise?
1) Give money, bring cargo from A to B.
2) Participate in CZ. For some powers only. If they are expanding only.
3) Kill other players of other factions.
So,
1) Is boring as hell and brings nothing new to the gameplay besides terrible interface. 2) Could not find any for my fraction. 3) 30 merits per kill? Rly? Much risk, low profit and the guy would still pull the plug in case of loose.
Anything beside that for me in PP gameplay-wise?
You don't get 30 merits for killing enemy players. You get them for killing enemy NPCs, and it has to be done in their own controlled systems.
PP is admittedly not for everyone: frankly the in-game rewards are terrible. I participate more because it creates a much more involved community around promoting the interests of the Power. Without the other players there probably wouldn't be enough reason.
What you are saying is 100% correct, but its also 100% correct for the entire Elite Dangerous game.
What can you do in Elite?
1) go somewhere and look at something (exploration)
2) go somewhere and deliver cargo (trading, smuggling)
3) go somewhere and kill a ship (bounty hunting, murder)
PP is a rolling set of 11 Community Goals, where the results from the previous weeks community goal have an effect, and the goals for the next weeks community goal are determined 100% by the players, nothing is pre-scripted.
You can argue that the rewards are less than doing the exact same activities outside of PP, but there is no money sink in Elite other than PP, what else is there to buy after you have a cutter/corvette?
This is exactly why I imagine most player keep playing PP, its the social communities which each faction has.
Ok, well I should have maybe expanded on what I meant by the coward's comment, that was my fault. I have never really been that great at putting my thoughts into writing. So, what I mean is that FDev have a hard job and they are trying to please everybody, they won't make PP open only as they will get allot of hate from one portion of the player base, and they are scared of that. I love this game and I appreciate the job that they have done so far, I do think that there are things that they should have done and I don't agree with some of their choices but at the end of the day it is their game. I still think that because PP at its core is about conflict, it should be PP only so there is actual conflict and not this ships passing in the night thing. As far as I know most PP "leadership" ask their groups to play in open, however EGP don't and neither do the 5c that is fact and we would love to get a better way than the consolidation vote to help mitigate the 5c.
Ok, here goes the last reasonable PvP idea besides piracy.
For me, proper comunity interactions would be like "Your wing drops in a sector, intercepts enemy player transports, they cry out and then enemy fractions wings come for your head. You fight or run". Here we get community around BGS and stuff and the most boring gameplay possible in-game.
Yep, and I hoped PP would bring me something fresh, something I haven't seen before in game. Too bad. Have to stick to "sit for a month, donate 7.5mln, buy weapons" strategy.
P.S. Elite is a real set of good mechanics and a terrible game over them. Still, the only space sim avaliable.
P.P.S. Sorry, just a cry of my soul as FDev screwed another cool feature.