Powerplay The need for Merit buffs and Module access changes.

[Vermin]

I'm just gonna say it. The state of earning merits is dire and needs severely adjusting.

It's all well and good to have the high number of merits involved to reach rank 100 and to reach the leaderboards, thats fine.

What is not fine, is module access, or the lack thereof without spending a ludicrous amount of time grinding for next to no merits.

Trading rares is fine for traders, if you enjoy that, more power to you, but for other professions, you've very much left out in the cold when it comes to a decent merits income without exploiting the systems. Which i shall not get into here.

Lets start with modules; These should be the first things to unlock in the tree. Up to maybe rank 30 or so for all of them. Why? Because there are meta-tier modules locked behind this, and forcing people into a year or more worth of grinding to access them stifles build diversity and makes access to endgame activities, such as PvP, incredibly asinine and time consuming.
Players who don't care about Powerplay will drop the system as soon as they unlock the modules anyway, so what exactly is the point in massively time-gating their access to such kit?

Secondly, lets address merit acquisition; Some activites pay significantly more than others (Looking at you rare trading) whilst the higher risk activities, such as dealing with Black Markets or Bounty Hunting, earn you an absolute pittance. This is not fun for players to engage with and forces them down gameplay routes they may not want to otherwise interact with.

All in all, the new system is a good addition to the game, however it is so ridiculously filled with time-gating for even the most minor of actual benefits it hampers the whole thing. We're already seeing people turn away from it a week after release and for a new feature, thats not good. There are multitudes of issues with it currently, balance being one of the bigger issues. (I shant go into the concept of Open-Only Powerplay here despite it almost being a requirement for fairness, you can read about that in the thread dedicated to it)

Frontier, you took a good route in fixing the engineering grind and making it palatable for more players to engage with, it would be nice to see the momentum kept for the new Powerplay too. Don't let this become an anti-player system like times of old. o7

 

[Rebel Yell]

Players who don't care about Powerplay

...shouldn't engage powerplay.

 

[Vermin]

...shouldn't engage powerplay.

Sure, but then equally, tangible, often meta-tier assets shouldn't ideally be locked behind it.

Tech Brokers wouldn't be a bad place to stick them overall. Personally I like the new system, but I don't like being time-gated to this degree to build competant ships, i would expect not to be the only one either.

 

[Dragsham]

Fdev are culturally grindy, as regards elite. And l do not know why. Obviously they don't wanna give anything away or make any aquisition ingame (modules, modified weps, mats etc) too simple to get.
There has to be a better way?
Or is there?
Idm grinding but I'm probably in a minority.
Then you see how some gamers have progressed through PP2.0 ranking, and I'm not even close to how they grinded their way to 100+. Just a question of perspective.
If there is another way fdev don't see it.
Through PP2.0 does patently need a balance pass for earning merits, it's still going to be locked behind a grindwall.
Look at smuggling, doesn't feature in PP2.0 at all! Neither does piracy.
So much for us folks to gripe about. And I'm chief amongst them.

 

[Rebel Yell]

Sure, but then equally, tangible, often meta-tier assets shouldn't ideally be locked behind it.

Tech Brokers wouldn't be a bad place to stick them overall. Personally I like the new system, but I don't like being time-gated to this degree to build competant ships, i would expect not to be the only one either.

I agree, but didn't happen.

 

[Vermin]

I agree, but didn't happen.

Didn't happen initially no, but unless there is pushback, it won't ever change, and regarding this topic, there should indeed be pushback.

I understand its hard for some players to get onboard with the topic regarding this due to them having gotten the modules in the previous iteration of the system, however one could argue that is reason enough to lower the access requirements to such modules or even change the way they're aquired.

For example, they could be tied to specific tech brokers in each faction stronghold with somewhat costly material and or commodity costs.

There are certainly ways to make it more player friendly and keep the concept of the new system intact.

 

[DemiserofD]

I think the biggest problem is the even distribution of perks across ranking up, which incentivizes grinding.

If we reference other games, most of them give the MOST power right away, and then your relative power diminishes as your time investment goes up. For example, you might start with a 25% bonus, and then get 20%, then 15%, then 10%, then 5%, 4%, 3%, and so on.

This allows players to reach a point where they feel they can rest on their laurels, while still allowing the more dedicated players a reward they can enjoy.

The trick, though, is making sure you don't incidentally encourage players to swap powers to module shop. Perhaps a good way to do this would be to frontload SOME modules but not others, making swapping powers more of a sacrifice.

For example, Aisling followers might get Prismatics at rank 15(instead of 35), and then the APA, Hammer, and Mining Lance at 20, 25, and 30. Then, they'd get the Retributor and Concord Cannon at, say, 45 and 50, and then the Federal modules at 75 and 80.

That way, unlocking baseline modules is easier, but sticking with your power remains the best choice overall.

 

[Vermin]

I think the biggest problem is the even distribution of perks across ranking up, which incentivizes grinding.

If we reference other games, most of them give the MOST power right away, and then your relative power diminishes as your time investment goes up. For example, you might start with a 25% bonus, and then get 20%, then 15%, then 10%, then 5%, 4%, 3%, and so on.

This allows players to reach a point where they feel they can rest on their laurels, while still allowing the more dedicated players a reward they can enjoy.

The trick, though, is making sure you don't incidentally encourage players to swap powers to module shop. Perhaps a good way to do this would be to frontload SOME modules but not others, making swapping powers more of a sacrifice.

For example, Aisling followers might get Prismatics at rank 15(instead of 35), and then the APA, Hammer, and Mining Lance at 20, 25, and 30. Then, they'd get the Retributor and Concord Cannon at, say, 45 and 50, and then the Federal modules at 75 and 80.

That way, unlocking baseline modules is easier, but sticking with your power remains the best choice overall.

It would be better, though still not ideal.

Honestly at this point, at least personally, I would rather see them put in the tech brokers.

The system is overall, fairly good with PP2.0, it has some glaring issues with balance and how players interact with the system, but the concept is solid, there is really no need to lock modules behind it at this point.

There is another option I suppose.. you could have tech brokers in the faction's home system dish them out for both credits and a material unlock cost, and also keep them in the powerplay structure, in such that they're free if you do the latter route. Once unlocked, they don't cost anything, This allows for them to remain an unlock there, and one worth getting for those who build a lot of ships, but doesn't time-gate anyone who wants them sooner for a specific purpose as they would be able to unlock, and then pay for them via the tech broker prior to unlocking them in the rank tree.