How does this work? If the Power is Aisling, isn't the system Imperial?
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Newcomer / Intro System ownership
- Thread starter Frankymole
- Start date
No- at least for this version of Powerplay.
I could explain it but in a few weeks it might all change.
I could explain it but in a few weeks it might all change.
It's always been this silly. It's one of the things that have bugged me about PP1 since day one. I don't have Nuke's optimism.
Superpower = the Federation, the Empire, the Alliance, or independent.
Power = which of the powerplay characters controls or exploits the system.
Power = which of the powerplay characters controls or exploits the system.
Exactly. If an Empire powerplay character controls the system... why isn't it an Empire system??
That's because the minor faction that controls the system isn't Imperial. The design of powerplay (and in my opinion, this isn't ideal) means it's only the government type that is important to how it aligns with the power who controls the system.
So by design at the moment, an Imperial dictatorship (for example) is less ideal than an independent cooperative for that particular power. As Imperial minor factions don't have suitable governments, an independent minor faction has to be pushed by players in those systems for maximum benefit.
In theory the cause-and-effect should be the other way round, and Powers influencing cross-superpower systems should be natural and encouraged as a way of expanding the superpower (or alternatively, for containing superpowers, for the independent Powers):
- Powerplay at least in version 1 represents "soft" influence by the figurehead (e.g. Denton Patreus getting systems into unpayable debts) rather than anything more concrete, per word of Frontier.
- all the Powers have as one of their abilities the ability to make same-superpower BGS actions more effective than cross-superpower ones in their controlled and exploited space
- so firstly Patreus starts lending money to the system ... and then a few months later the Empire is often in charge formally because the balance of BGS action has given the Imperial factions in the system a lead, and it's all nicely thematic with soft power leading to hard control
In practice it doesn't work anything like that because:
- even with the bonus, passing traffic tends to reinforce the system controller anyway under the current BGS balance
- it's far too small an effect to overrule deliberate attempts to change or maintain system ownership, which are so common for both Powerplay and non-Powerplay reasons that most of the time passing traffic is irrelevant anyway
(The need for Hudson and A Duval specifically to deliberately place cross-superpower factions in control to get the Powerplay strength bonuses complicates it further, of course; they actively get harmed by using their own ability to put same-superpower factions in charge, because Powerplay 1's design was massively flawed in lots of ways)
- Powerplay at least in version 1 represents "soft" influence by the figurehead (e.g. Denton Patreus getting systems into unpayable debts) rather than anything more concrete, per word of Frontier.
- all the Powers have as one of their abilities the ability to make same-superpower BGS actions more effective than cross-superpower ones in their controlled and exploited space
- so firstly Patreus starts lending money to the system ... and then a few months later the Empire is often in charge formally because the balance of BGS action has given the Imperial factions in the system a lead, and it's all nicely thematic with soft power leading to hard control
In practice it doesn't work anything like that because:
- even with the bonus, passing traffic tends to reinforce the system controller anyway under the current BGS balance
- it's far too small an effect to overrule deliberate attempts to change or maintain system ownership, which are so common for both Powerplay and non-Powerplay reasons that most of the time passing traffic is irrelevant anyway
(The need for Hudson and A Duval specifically to deliberately place cross-superpower factions in control to get the Powerplay strength bonuses complicates it further, of course; they actively get harmed by using their own ability to put same-superpower factions in charge, because Powerplay 1's design was massively flawed in lots of ways)
TLDR: "Power" does not equal "control". It equals... something more subtle that isn't quite control, and its directly liked to the person in question, rather than the superpower which that person might be aligned to. And yes, the Powerplay system uses the word "control"... but it doesn't literally mean that.
To give an example using your star system: suppose you fly into the main starport in this system. The starport is Independent-aligned. But it's Aisling's portrait flying from the holo-flags. She's their hero, even if she's not their direct ruler. And both the local authorities and the Aisling gang seem to be content with this arrangement.
Why is it like this?
Well, back when the game was launched, Powerplay wasn't a thing. The characters currently in Powerplay might have been mentioned offhandedly in news articles but would have zero impact on gameplay.
Players can freely join and depart from supporting a Superpower, virtually consequence-free, though their affiliated minor factions, but didn't have any way of directly "pledging" allegiance to a superpower. Players thought that "pledging" ought to carry more consequences: rewards for pledging, and punishments for betraying the team.
Frontier didn't want to completely scrap and replace the faction-superpower system, so instead they added a third level in between the local factions and superpowers: thus the Powerplay Powers were born.
To give an example using your star system: suppose you fly into the main starport in this system. The starport is Independent-aligned. But it's Aisling's portrait flying from the holo-flags. She's their hero, even if she's not their direct ruler. And both the local authorities and the Aisling gang seem to be content with this arrangement.
Why is it like this?
Well, back when the game was launched, Powerplay wasn't a thing. The characters currently in Powerplay might have been mentioned offhandedly in news articles but would have zero impact on gameplay.
Players can freely join and depart from supporting a Superpower, virtually consequence-free, though their affiliated minor factions, but didn't have any way of directly "pledging" allegiance to a superpower. Players thought that "pledging" ought to carry more consequences: rewards for pledging, and punishments for betraying the team.
Frontier didn't want to completely scrap and replace the faction-superpower system, so instead they added a third level in between the local factions and superpowers: thus the Powerplay Powers were born.
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