The Powerplay discussion thread.

i'll just put my question here, so i don't have to open new thread. so guys, is there a way to make those 10,000 merits without actually losing a lot of money? and are ratings really updated once a week, or my game is bugged? i've done some math about those merits that you get by delivering packages to systems your power can expand, but i didn't see actually that any profit can be made. right now i'm talking about archon delaine, and his kumo packages. problem is that ''fast track quota'' is always 1,000 cr per one package, and in the end you'll lose a lot of money. am i missing something? i know you can wait 30 minutes for free quota, but obviously, if you play just let's say 10 hours a week, you won't get much for free.
I think the general concensus is if merits is all you are after, the best way to farm them is to go to an opposing power's controlled system, and start taking out opposing power's ships. They are work 15 merits each. This method just costs fuel and ammunition, though you will rack up a bounty on yourself.
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If you want to do the hauling side of it for fortification/preparation/whatever, I find sometimes you can get a lucrative trade route going between your capitol and target systems that makes enough profit to cover the fast track costs. This is pretty easy in a Type 7, maybe not so much in something that carries less cargo. Otherwise, yes, you will need to spend your own money.
 
There's no back-end server. I was going to build one out but the volume of data just isn't worth it.

I did, however, put the data in to separate files. So you can pull them with e.g. http://www.powerplayreport.com/data/antal.json. The data files are:

antal.json
delaine.json
duval.json
hudson.json
lavigny-duval.json
mahon.json
patreus.json
torval.json
winters.json
yong-rui.json

Feel free to use them as you see fit.


Awesome - here is what it looks like:

Untitled.png

What would be useful is some kind of timestamp in the file, so I can detect when it was last changed. At the moment it's using a slack command to my nodejs-based middleware, which pulls these in, formats it and then respond directly to the user to requested it via a webhook - but it would be useful to have a daily cron task that can check a timestamp and if it's changed then report it in a general channel.

Also if you want to look at a way to aggregate these into a single file easier, I'm happy to help :)
 
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great stuff, im still unpledged but still like to follow whats going on whit PP.
this is a great tool for us who are watching from the side line.
 
I think the general concensus is if merits is all you are after, the best way to farm them is to go to an opposing power's controlled system, and start taking out opposing power's ships. They are work 15 merits each. This method just costs fuel and ammunition, though you will rack up a bounty on yourself.
-
If you want to do the hauling side of it for fortification/preparation/whatever, I find sometimes you can get a lucrative trade route going between your capitol and target systems that makes enough profit to cover the fast track costs. This is pretty easy in a Type 7, maybe not so much in something that carries less cargo. Otherwise, yes, you will need to spend your own money.
firstly, thanks for asnwer. taking out opposing power's ships seems fine, i'll definitely try that. but about trading, i have conda, so 452 cargo space, that means 4,520,000 credits for fast tracking each run, i still haven't found 4,5 mil route one way :D. am i doing maths wrong?
 
Awesome - here is what it looks like:

Nice. Great to see someone else making use of the data.

What would be useful is some kind of timestamp in the file, so I can detect when it was last changed. At the moment it's using a slack command to my nodejs-based middleware, which pulls these in, formats it and then respond directly to the user to requested it via a webhook - but it would be useful to have a daily cron task that can check a timestamp and if it's changed then report it in a general channel.

The HTTP response should have an etag in it; you can use this to see when the contents change.

Also if you want to look at a way to aggregate these into a single file easier, I'm happy to help :)

Yeah I considered putting it all in one file but ended up with separate data files for each power. My thinking was that people might want the data for individual powers. It also makes life easier as/when powers rise and fall.
 
I respect you , and your lack of time. but one of the worst things about gaming today is everything is aimed at the casual audiance.
 
firstly, thanks for asnwer. taking out opposing power's ships seems fine, i'll definitely try that. but about trading, i have conda, so 452 cargo space, that means 4,520,000 credits for fast tracking each run, i still haven't found 4,5 mil route one way :D. am i doing maths wrong?
I should have been more specific. What I was referring to is picking up one collection, then fast tracking another, effectively doubling your rate. The rest of the cargo I fill up with trade goods. Next stop, sell goods, profit pays for another fast track, rinse and repeat. I don't fill my ship entirely with the PP cargo.
 
Powerplay Advocates

I'm contemplating pledging to a power, however I'm hesitant because of the idea of being limited and worried of having to watch my back when I decide to venture across systems.

Aside from all the moaning and groaning, are there any people here who can convince me or any other doubter to join the club?
 
Bah - no need to have any money at all, let alone be rich. I pledged purely for the fun of it and so far it has added a layer of intrigue which I do hope develops into better things. Let's hope FD and the community can truly flesh out the uniqueness of the factions and their society and goals.
 
You really have to watch your back regardless of whether you are in a power or not. At least being in a power will get you a pass from your compatriots.
 
I'm contemplating pledging to a power, however I'm hesitant because of the idea of being limited and worried of having to watch my back when I decide to venture across systems.

Aside from all the moaning and groaning, are there any people here who can convince me or any other doubter to join the club?

Hi I've been play power play a lot over the last week and it's cool.
You do not need to invest any credits at all to participate. You get free stuff.

1. At rank one you get a free 1000cr every week and some free stuff to participate. There you go 1000cr for next to nothing
2. It ups the danger, but just as much as you want. The Hostile tag just means you are fare game to other players. I've had no problems flying all over the galaxy and docking where ever I like.
3. There's more to do and you only need to do it if you want to.
4. If you have time and credits to burn then , yes there are bigger rewards but you still have to have got the credits from somewhere in the first place
5. You can join a community hub if you like
6. You can quit a faction at pretty much any time you like with no problems
7. If you get bored of a power you can defect and keep some of your bonuses and have the thrill of being on the run for a few days
8. you can do all the stuff you normally do.
9. It adds a bit of a strategy game on top
10. All list should go up to ten :)

Have a go. You can quit anytime you like with nothing lost.
 
You need to be rich. I just lost money so gave up for now......
Not true, really. (I mean, you may have lost money, and that sucks... but you don't have to be rich to do Power Play stuff).

My suggestion would be to look through the Powers and see what kind of bonuses they give. Each one is different, and some give more bonuses towards trading, while others combat. So if you have a preferred play style, you can join that power and you'll get access to some additional, "special" missions. You'll also have a little bit of peace of mind knowing that if you see another player in Open Play and they're also pledged to the same power, the odds of them ganking you for no reason is pretty slim. (Though, likewise, the odds of other powers' commanders attacking might be higher, but at least you will know this...)

So far, I haven't really noticed NPCs being more or less jerks than they normally were, so if you normally play Solo, you won't likely see much difference there.

Pros:
* It gives you some neat little bonuses for certain types of gameplay.
* It widens the types of missions you might be able to do.
* It lets you play a "bigger game" with trying to expand the Power's holdings, etc., and gives you an opportunity to join a group if you want.
* Can give you a better Role-playing experience if you're into that.

Cons:
* A little harder to "do your own thing" with respect to just the actual political play; you can easily do "useless" things if not involved with a community, or be seen as some kind of saboteur by some communities.
* Can still fell grindy with preparation and fortification missions.

You can always pledge to a power for a while, try it out, and if you don't like it leave and go to the other side of explored space, and not really have any problems.
 
Best way to handle PP: pledge. Do nothing for 3 weeks. Work in the fourth week, leave in the fifth. Rinse and repeat.
 
Thanks to Ben Ryder and Valander for the excellent constructive feedback. Rep for you both.

Everyone please continue to give their own experience and tips. I hope this can be helpful to anyone else on fence about deciding whether to participate or not.

Scudmungus - I was actually considering joining either Edmund Mahon or Arissa. I like the sound of getting bonuses for bounties.

The forum is already full of cons and gripes of whats wrong with powerplay, however i would like to hear more pros on the feature. Please save the pessimism for the other threads.
 
I was actually considering joining either Edmund Mahon or Arissa. I like the sound of getting bonuses for bounties.
Don't forget you can also get rewards for undermining other powers, so even if you pick a more peaceful power, you can still enjoy a more active role.
 
I'm contemplating pledging to a power, however I'm hesitant because of the idea of being limited and worried of having to watch my back when I decide to venture across systems.

I'm in a similar position it seems. I was personally hesitant because I don't have much cash and no interest in grinding. Theres not much to gain in PP, and I didn't want to limit my trade routes by being hostile.

So I setup in a smaller more affordable ship, to offset losses. Missions pay better now and replaced my trade runs until I really need some big hauls.

The thing to watch out for, is amassing large bounties through PP activity. I don't expect these will disappear if you unpledge, I've not tried -FD have suggested including faction wide bounties one day, so amassing lots local bounties now, may mean you find yourself outlawed for example; all Fed space, in the future. Not destroying ships helps mitigate that and there are PP missions to take cargo from ships by force which don't require you destroy them.
 
math incorrect. my numbers suggest NO decay from merits earned last week, then decay as before on merits earned.

week 1: earned 1600 or so, carryover as 1890 (think this is where they fudged the normal value, once, to account for early ending and the fact that vouchers not handed in weren't counted)
week 2: earned 1000, previous carryover 1890 for total of 2890
week 3: carryover value 1945 (100% of last weeks earned, plus 1/2 of the 1890 earned in week 1)

What this model suggests to me is that merits earned don't decay until 2 cycles, or a full calendar cycle from the end date, which, TBH, is not what any of us expected.

Freelancer's numbers also check out with my model as well.

Edit- it also suggests the merits "EARNED" decay model, not that silly accumulating 'get 1250 to maintain rating 5' model that was tossed around so much.

Right, I have added a second calculator with merits based on an earned decay model. This is completely not how it's written in the manual, but maybe it's how it works... I would say either the manual is wrong, or their maths are wrong. The fact that the first week we had some special carry-over doesn't help much either.

In any case, this is what the manual says:

Your merit total from the previous cycle is halved then added to your current cycle value. After two cycles, itsvalue is halved again before being added. After three cycles, the value is halved once more. After four cyclesthe value is no longer added.

Which ends up in the "silly accumulating 'get 1250 to maintain rating 5' model".

Using the earned decay model it's more like 'get 5300+ to maintain rating 5'.

Maybe we will have to wait for some weeks to figure it out... until the 1st week weird decay is no longer affecting the numbers.

Cheers!
 
Didn't get PowerPlay weekly bonus

I've been pledged to Aisling Duval for 2 weeks now.

Last week I earned over 1,500 merits, which put me at Rating 4.

I'm supposed to get a 5,000,000 credit bonus.


Edit:

Nevermind I've figured it out, you get the bonus of the rating you were the week before, so next week I should get my 5mil
 
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