Ten ways powerplay misleads players

[Ben Ryder]

I've been playing power play for about 6 weeks. I get it. I think I'm 'doing it right'. I'm having fun.

The point like the rest of the game, is what you make it. At the very least it is a great role playing opportunity.

I could go in to a big explanation. I agree the system is a mess because it is simply not user friendly and lot's of people simply don't get it or are looking for a point to it. It's just a side game.

A lot of people are 'doing it wrong'. They are grinding for merits etc.

If you do it right, it's a lot of fun.

Best advice I can give about power play is, get involved in it and remember that Power Play is only a tiny tiny part of the game and its up to you how you engage with it. If you find you change the way you play significantly to accommodate power play then 'you are doing it wrong'. Fro example, if you want the fancy weapon, sign up, play as normal for three or four weeks and then just fast track your way to the rank you need in the 3rd or 4th week. Kind of like you would if you wanted a new ship. Play as normal and when you have the credits and the time is right, buy it. If you are trying 'win' or mini max power play for some kind of bonus 'your doing it wrong'. Whatever you are doing should be fun and that is an option that power play does not take away. That's totally down to you.

Well good luck all.

Nice thread and very well put together OP +1

Sometimes I read 'Power Play made me play solo, made me grind, made me x, y and z '. It doesn't make you do anything.

 

[Magic Man]

OP, very well written.

The main problem is that the majority of players simply don't know how PP works. I'll include myself in that, tried it a couple of times but was confused by the issues you point out.

The majority of players will never read an instruction manual let alone understand the nuances underneath PP in order to play it as intended. You need to be able to grasp a basic understanding of what to do from the screens themselves without resorting to reading instructions - you can't with the current implementation because of the terminology conflicts, implied meanings, confusing layouts etc.

 

[Matzov]

I've been playing power play for about 6 weeks. I get it. I think I'm 'doing it right'. I'm having fun.

The point like the rest of the game, is what you make it. At the very least it is a great role playing opportunity.

I could go in to a big explanation. I agree the system is a mess because it is simply not user friendly and lot's of people simply don't get it or are looking for a point to it. It's just a side game.

A lot of people are 'doing it wrong'. They are grinding for merits etc.

If you do it right, it's a lot of fun.

Best advice I can give about power play is, get involved in it and remember that Power Play is only a tiny tiny part of the game and its up to you how you engage with it. If you find you change the way you play significantly to accommodate power play then 'you are doing it wrong'. Fro example, if you want the fancy weapon, sign up, play as normal for three or four weeks and then just fast track your way to the rank you need in the 3rd or 4th week. Kind of like you would if you wanted a new ship. Play as normal and when you have the credits and the time is right, buy it. If you are trying 'win' or mini max power play for some kind of bonus 'your doing it wrong'. Whatever you are doing should be fun and that is an option that power play does not take away. That's totally down to you.

Well good luck all.

Nice thread and very well put together OP +1

Sometimes I read 'Power Play made me play solo, made me grind, made me x, y and z '. It doesn't make you do anything.

100% this. I could not agree more.

 

[Acenoid]

To prepare a system you need to earn 100 in it [...] I have seen people put 4000 into systems that have no opposition.

What I wanted to say is, that the people might not care about the PP-outcome at all and just aim at the easiest and shortest route to earn credits. For example in my faction I would always have to fly back to the homeworld / HQ to get those garrisons and place them on the targets. For preparation I would just have to grab the military assets from a nearby control planet --> much less time to grab the merits...

 

[JemyM]

What I wanted to say is, that the people might not care about the PP-outcome at all and just aim at the easiest and shortest route to earn credits. For example in my faction I would always have to fly back to the homeworld / HQ to get those garrisons and place them on the targets. For preparation I would just have to grab the military assets from a nearby control planet --> much less time to grab the merits...

This is true. We have people grinding merits out in the nowhere.

 

[INSTG8R]

This is true. We have people grinding merits out in the nowhere.

Yeah they are grinding in my yard and I don't like it...

 

[JemyM]

The majority of players will never read an instruction manual let alone understand the nuances underneath PP in order to play it as intended. You need to be able to grasp a basic understanding of what to do from the screens themselves without resorting to reading instructions - you can't with the current implementation because of the terminology conflicts, implied meanings, confusing layouts etc.

Spot on. I have seen more complicated games being better presented and thus easier to understand.

 

[JemyM]

Added some pictures to the OP.

 

[Snarfbuckle]

OP, very well written.

The main problem is that the majority of players simply don't know how PP works. I'll include myself in that, tried it a couple of times but was confused by the issues you point out.

The majority of players will never read an instruction manual let alone understand the nuances underneath PP in order to play it as intended. You need to be able to grasp a basic understanding of what to do from the screens themselves without resorting to reading instructions - you can't with the current implementation because of the terminology conflicts, implied meanings, confusing layouts etc.

Not to mention that ED manuals in general are CRAP in explaining ANYTHING in detail so im not sure that would have helped.

Example of a missing instruction in ED Manual:
-Detailed explanation how Hull and Armour work in relation to module damage

 

[Negative Entropy]

"LY" in lists means distance to you, not to HQ
LY to HQ is important. But the LY in the list lists distance to you, not the HQ. You can only see Distance to HQ if you view the system on the map. While it's easy to prepare and expand to a system 150LY away from HQ, such systems are almost impossible to fortify. Greater distances means both higher triggers to fortify and greater distances to travel for powers who fortify by delivering commodities to or from the HQ. Since distance to HQ is important, this misleads players to misjudge distances. Showing Distance from HQ would be nice.

View attachment 50971

It is not as simple as this.
I like having distance from you in the lists, and it should also be on the map in most cases.
for fortification it does not matter as usually when you fortify you start at HQ, pick up supplies, then look at list before you head out to see where to take it. so in this distance from you and distance from HQ are the same.
On the other hand when you prepare you want to know how far the prepared system is from you, not from HQ

 

[Matzov]

It is not as simple as this.
I like having distance from you in the lists, and it should also be on the map in most cases.
for fortification it does not matter as usually when you fortify you start at HQ, pick up supplies, then look at list before you head out to see where to take it. so in this distance from you and distance from HQ are the same.
On the other hand when you prepare you want to know how far the prepared system is from you, not from HQ

you are right, it is not quite so simple, as all the numbers matter. It is also surely not as simple as being in your HQ to begin a fortify supply run every time either. I agree with the OP that the distance to you HQ is vastly more important than distance to you, in basically every tactical and strategic way, for prep and fortify especially. Although, Under the proposed new rules, it becomes marginally less important as distance from 'home' will not be such a big factor in upkeep, if I have read them right.

 

[Leo Sagan]

OP, you made a very insightful list of things FD could do to improve PP : hopefully, they'll work on it.
+REP.

 

[Spider95]

Spot on OP! The interface is really bad in so many ways!

Have some rep.

(\(\;;/)/)

 

[JemyM]

It is not as simple as this.
I like having distance from you in the lists, and it should also be on the map in most cases.
for fortification it does not matter as usually when you fortify you start at HQ, pick up supplies, then look at list before you head out to see where to take it. so in this distance from you and distance from HQ are the same.
On the other hand when you prepare you want to know how far the prepared system is from you, not from HQ

Lets look at the steps one by one. The point comes in at #3.

1. When you "prepare" you compete with your own power in the top-10 and may be in the process of defeating better systems (We had someone outcompeting everyone with a system that had -9 as value last cycle). The impact right now is that if active players want to outdefeat a preparation-grinder, they need to put in about 3-5 commodities per 1 commodity by the grinder to "up" the good systems. So a grinder who prepped a bad system with 500 may have caused their own power a 2000 commodity loss, if the other players try to correct their behavior.
2. Preparation has a price. When you "prepare" you pay a COST for the system with your powers "Total Command Capital [CC] Available". So the bad system doesn't just defeat good systems, it also consume the lifesource of the power.
3. After you prepared and paid for the system (if it won the top-10 list), you must now expand to it before it gives you a benefit. Now the "price" for this expansion is the expansion-trigger, which is primarily based on the Distance to HQ.
4. Undermining is how a power can fail, so after you expanded and the system is controlled, you might need to fortify the system to protect it. Fortification requires you to bring commodities from your HQ to fill up a fortification-trigger. The fortification-trigger is directly based on the distance from HQ. A fully loaded Type-9 can take cargo about 90LY without refueling. 90LY equals a trigger of roughly 7500 which is 15 trips, and 150 manhours counting freebies at rank 4. Fortifications needs repeating every week with no current way of sacrificing a bad system.

So like Matzov said. Distance to HQ is vastly more important than distance to you, in basically every tactical and strategic way. And by displaying "distance to you" they make new players use the list to find "nearby places to powerplay" and thus fool them into killing their own power more effectively than competing powers.

I know one potential strategy (which I wont mention here) that doesn't need to bother about Distance to HQ and it should only be taken by powers that are acutely aware of what they are doing and the risks they take, and at that point the LY in the list still don't matter.

 

[JemyM]

you are right, it is not quite so simple, as all the numbers matter. It is also surely not as simple as being in your HQ to begin a fortify supply run every time either. I agree with the OP that the distance to you HQ is vastly more important than distance to you, in basically every tactical and strategic way, for prep and fortify especially. Although, Under the proposed new rules, it becomes marginally less important as distance from 'home' will not be such a big factor in upkeep, if I have read them right.

While it will cost less upkeep, they are still harder to fortify with a higher distance to hq.