The Powerplay discussion thread.
- Thread starter Matt
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I thought you have to have achieved a certain level in your combat/exploration/trading rank to be able to pledge?
crickets. Nobody can explain to the new guy how PP will help him or her progress from the basic Sidewinder, through various upgrades to an Asp or beyond? Surely, someone out there, perhaps someone with an almost parental deeply personal knowledge of the inner workings of the atari 800 can tell a guy how to make the millions necessary to progress to a better ship.
No rush, collect your thoughts; I got some IPA to drink.
No rush, collect your thoughts; I got some IPA to drink.
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Not Elite if it requires some reading 
Everyone wanted depth added to the game, now they're drowning in it.
The irony is not lost on this little black duck.
Everyone wanted depth added to the game, now they're drowning in it.
The irony is not lost on this little black duck.
Again, not an answer. I ask again for someone to simply answer a very basic question. I'm simply asking you to show any player how participation in PP will earn him credits to upgrade ships. This should be a relatively straight forward answer because one would imagine that there would be a profit making ability in this game style. If you tell me I need to go farm somewhere to cover the cost of PP participation; then I'm done with PP - simple as that.
And let's be honest - If this is true, that it does cost to participate in PP, then someone should have said that from the very beginning.
And let's be honest - If this is true, that it does cost to participate in PP, then someone should have said that from the very beginning.
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I enjoy that there is some learning curve and you don't get everything instantly with basically zero effort. I remember someone saying in the forums that a game like this is meant to be played for years, not days or few weeks. It's not brainless grinding if you don't choose to do so. It's quite ok that even if you don't touch the PP, you still can have the gaming experience you are looking for, most probably.
Everyone can choose what they do, when and how. Heck, you are not even forced to play open if you don't want to. The powerplay adds some depth to the game but not sure as I'm totally new with the PP still, how does it last in long run. I think there still should be some more depth though. Of course there is secret roadmap as every SW company has and there are certain smaller program targets which are achieved during the journey on the roadmap onwards.
Maybe all this will eventually fit in places and pieces as expansions and improvements keep coming. Still ED is not under monthly fee, which I am very happy about. Probably I would pay monthly fee for a game like this anyway
But for newcomers like myself, and peeps who just have started to play ED, I don't really see PP giving any extra benefit in the short run. The system as it is, serves more the peeps who have been around so much that they really have a) multiple ships b) hundreds of millions of extra credits to sink in stuff like buying merits.
But, I still don't see this as a problem, still a new player can completely ignore the PP until he/she sees that they could participate in it. You don't need to 100% fully understand the full game mechanism and all details to play. There is time and place for everything. Of course more hardcore-gamers do things in much different pace, fortunately there is the opportunity for them as well.
I have many friends who have families and they are still sitting in the sidewinder with 5k credits. We all have been there. They just are looking for a different gaming experience like having few beers and chatting meanwhile killing few pirates and having a good laugh. We do that every now and then. And yes, it's very much fun.
Only thing what I am personally missing at the moment or I see as a small minor setback for my personal gameplay, is the option to choose any ship where/with to start when I click start from the start menu. In other multiplayer games where you have such many different ways to play the game, they have the option to play "different" character for example. Sometimes I feel like exploring/trading/bounty hunting/participating PvP/participating PP, but I see that any refitting/ship changing is too time-consuming and expensive (for me) that I am at the moment stuck to what I do. Which is bounty hunting and killing something -missions. In ED the "what should do today" -decision _must_ last for days/weeks/maybe even months At least for myself. Of course this is due to my personal interest how I like to play. I personally admire peeps who can make like 6 months lasting agenda for them and hop into explorer and make hundreds of jumps towards unknown
Everyone can choose what they do, when and how. Heck, you are not even forced to play open if you don't want to. The powerplay adds some depth to the game but not sure as I'm totally new with the PP still, how does it last in long run. I think there still should be some more depth though. Of course there is secret roadmap as every SW company has and there are certain smaller program targets which are achieved during the journey on the roadmap onwards.
Maybe all this will eventually fit in places and pieces as expansions and improvements keep coming. Still ED is not under monthly fee, which I am very happy about. Probably I would pay monthly fee for a game like this anyway
But for newcomers like myself, and peeps who just have started to play ED, I don't really see PP giving any extra benefit in the short run. The system as it is, serves more the peeps who have been around so much that they really have a) multiple ships b) hundreds of millions of extra credits to sink in stuff like buying merits.
But, I still don't see this as a problem, still a new player can completely ignore the PP until he/she sees that they could participate in it. You don't need to 100% fully understand the full game mechanism and all details to play. There is time and place for everything. Of course more hardcore-gamers do things in much different pace, fortunately there is the opportunity for them as well.
I have many friends who have families and they are still sitting in the sidewinder with 5k credits. We all have been there. They just are looking for a different gaming experience
like having few beers and chatting meanwhile killing few pirates and having a good laugh. We do that every now and then. And yes, it's very much fun.Only thing what I am personally missing at the moment or I see as a small minor setback for my personal gameplay, is the option to choose any ship where/with to start when I click start from the start menu. In other multiplayer games where you have such many different ways to play the game, they have the option to play "different" character for example. Sometimes I feel like exploring/trading/bounty hunting/participating PvP/participating PP, but I see that any refitting/ship changing is too time-consuming and expensive (for me) that I am at the moment stuck to what I do. Which is bounty hunting and killing something -missions. In ED the "what should do today" -decision _must_ last for days/weeks/maybe even months
At least for myself. Of course this is due to my personal interest how I like to play. I personally admire peeps who can make like 6 months lasting agenda for them and hop into explorer and make hundreds of jumps towards unknown Yet another non-answer. It must be really hard to answer.
Shortly, participation in PP and completing the PP missions will earn players merits, and with enough merits per week, player is given a reward of credits. Additionally, some powers grant access to special weapons and better trade rates etc. All this is been explained in multiple threads which you can very easily search with "powerplay" in the search box. Heck, there is even player created powerplay manual created which you can find from the threads (don't remember the url). I'm would think someone has linked that already in this thread.
If you are looking for someone to tell you how to most efficiently minmax, mebbe you should be finding that out by yourself? All the information is available if you just spend little time to look for it and then read it.
If you are looking for someone to tell you how to most efficiently minmax, mebbe you should be finding that out by yourself? All the information is available if you just spend little time to look for it and then read it.
See. It's so hard to explain that people have reduce to insults. Ralf, so far I've seen 1 merit equal 100Cr. 1 merit for an Anaconda or 1 merit for an eagle. Don't matter what you're shooting at if you spend more on ammo than 100cr does it.
Forget it. I'm dumping this PP and going back to the old game.
Forget it. I'm dumping this PP and going back to the old game.
I'm sorry if you see my reply as an insult. Forums are full of whine but also full of information which is in your reach. For me it seems that you are asking people to gather the information and wrap it up into nice package and hand it to you. I tried earlier to explain but not successful, that the core content is still the same. PP is an addition to those "who have seen and been here for a long time already". It's not an upgrade to get more money for quickly. Anyway, hope that you can experience the game as you want and look for. Again, apologies if I have in any way offended you.
Edit: The merit system might need some revamping, but it's not only "shoot this pewpew", there are other options as well to earn merits. Additionally, according to my understanding you get more merits if you go into "hostile" space and pewpew opposing faction ships.
Edit: The merit system might need some revamping, but it's not only "shoot this pewpew", there are other options as well to earn merits. Additionally, according to my understanding you get more merits if you go into "hostile" space and pewpew opposing faction ships.
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Completing tasks in PP earns you Merits.
The number of merits you have at the end of a week (with some carry-over from previous weeks) determines your current Standing.
Your Standing level provides a number of benefits, including a weekly cash payment, which can be in the millions if you manage ridiculous contribution levels.
Incidentally, this is a public forum, not a personal conversation with you. It's poor etiquette to repeatedly post the same query just because you don't receive an immediate response.
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Here is the PowerPlay manual for dummies made by CMDR Sentience, which is better than the official one.
I only played yesterday for three or so hours after reading the official manual, and got a hang of it after doing different types of missions. One of the types requires you to visit the Power HQ system, others you can do pretty much everywhere within the Power's influence. I believe you can also go to enemy territory to run interference, not sure how that works, though.
I don't mind the complexity, but the UI does need work. Galaxy map is gorgeous, but should give a better indication of what I can do at any given moment. And the Powers popup UI requires quite a bit of back and forth to understand, and figure out what to do. Then there's a lot of new terminology, much of it not helpful at all to figure out what to do with it. Should I bring thingamajigs for Expansion from HQ to somewhere, or maguffins from here to there gets quite messy. Finally, the trigger levels for each type of activity need a lot of work (way too easy/low this week), but that's to be expected as PP just launched.
Also, the tactics and strategy is not explained anywhere. For Expansion, I believe we (group of players loyal to a Power) should try to maximize the CC gain, and maximizing the spend each cycle - I think. And expanding towards systems with high ROI (marked as green in galaxy map) is another goal.
Much of this is emergent so can't be put into a manual just yet, though, so it might become very interesting as people get a hang of it. I hope FD has a solid team of writers who can weave a narrative around that, as PP has a lot of great potential for storytelling and gameplay.
I only played yesterday for three or so hours after reading the official manual, and got a hang of it after doing different types of missions. One of the types requires you to visit the Power HQ system, others you can do pretty much everywhere within the Power's influence. I believe you can also go to enemy territory to run interference, not sure how that works, though.
I don't mind the complexity, but the UI does need work. Galaxy map is gorgeous, but should give a better indication of what I can do at any given moment. And the Powers popup UI requires quite a bit of back and forth to understand, and figure out what to do. Then there's a lot of new terminology, much of it not helpful at all to figure out what to do with it. Should I bring thingamajigs for Expansion from HQ to somewhere, or maguffins from here to there gets quite messy. Finally, the trigger levels for each type of activity need a lot of work (way too easy/low this week), but that's to be expected as PP just launched.
Also, the tactics and strategy is not explained anywhere. For Expansion, I believe we (group of players loyal to a Power) should try to maximize the CC gain, and maximizing the spend each cycle - I think. And expanding towards systems with high ROI (marked as green in galaxy map) is another goal.
Much of this is emergent so can't be put into a manual just yet, though, so it might become very interesting as people get a hang of it. I hope FD has a solid team of writers who can weave a narrative around that, as PP has a lot of great potential for storytelling and gameplay.
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I am not scared of complexity. My original point was meant to be "what is this?" and "what should I do?"
I have limited time to play games due to real-life. Perhaps 5 hours a week, often much less, so I dont want to burn precious time just trying to work out something with zero help from the game or the developers. Instead of investing time trawling forums to try and divine the instructions, I just close ED and spend my 60 minutes of leisure time doing something entertaining instead.
I can take complexity if there is some initial help from the game (e.g. Civ5 has great "advisors" for the first few play-throughs as well as a great civopedia so you you can at least work out what "command capital" is, and ED itself even has some nice in-game tutorials for flying etc so I am happy to spend time learning) but with ED & PP I am just thrown in at the deepend without anything to help, or crucially even telling me what power play is for.
Seriously, what is the point of power play? What is it for and what should I be doing?!
That is a genuine question to someone who just installed the patch without playing the beta or following forum threads and genuinely has no idea what power play does. Thanks to those who have given me some explanations (although to be honest they've just generated more questions for me than answers), its a real shame that ED cant help me out itself like complex games like Civ5 does.
I have limited time to play games due to real-life. Perhaps 5 hours a week, often much less, so I dont want to burn precious time just trying to work out something with zero help from the game or the developers. Instead of investing time trawling forums to try and divine the instructions, I just close ED and spend my 60 minutes of leisure time doing something entertaining instead.
I can take complexity if there is some initial help from the game (e.g. Civ5 has great "advisors" for the first few play-throughs as well as a great civopedia so you you can at least work out what "command capital" is, and ED itself even has some nice in-game tutorials for flying etc so I am happy to spend time learning) but with ED & PP I am just thrown in at the deepend without anything to help, or crucially even telling me what power play is for.
Seriously, what is the point of power play? What is it for and what should I be doing?!
That is a genuine question to someone who just installed the patch without playing the beta or following forum threads and genuinely has no idea what power play does. Thanks to those who have given me some explanations (although to be honest they've just generated more questions for me than answers), its a real shame that ED cant help me out itself like complex games like Civ5 does.
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As a new player myself I can generally say I understand what the OP means....
The game in general is just kind of 'Here's your shiny new ship, here's your controls to test it out, now go and do whatever you feel like with no guidance'
I found all the information I need to play the game from player content on YouTube and from a friend I know that plays. I am still finding out new things almost everyday but it would help massively if there were some sort of player introduction to things you can do in this game.
The game in general is just kind of 'Here's your shiny new ship, here's your controls to test it out, now go and do whatever you feel like with no guidance'
I found all the information I need to play the game from player content on YouTube and from a friend I know that plays. I am still finding out new things almost everyday but it would help massively if there were some sort of player introduction to things you can do in this game.
Could NOT agree more. Powerplay is just an annoying time-sponge.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding the mechanics but I think powerplay will get more involving as time passes and we see how the map changes and how the playerbase 'nominate' certain systems to concentrate on.
One of the systems my power is trying to 'prepare' is being contested by Aisling Duval, the totals keep going up but we are never quite reaching Aislings totals. I don't have an overriding compulsion to spend all day helping my power but it does interest me and I do play a part.
Maybe these high value systems will then become sort of front-lines between the 2 powers and there could be some sort of huge all out war between commanders in the system ? Love to see that.
Apparantly fd got the idea for PP from numberwang......
The point is to strengthen and expand the reach of a Power you pledge allegiance to. This will (hopefully) result in exciting roleplaying opportunities for players and devs, and emergent gameplay for those who don't care about RP.
You get rewards in the form of a weekly credit allowance with some added perks depending on the Power, and based on how much you contributed toward Preparation, Expansion, Control and Undermining in the past four weeks. What these four actions mean in practice is in the official PP manual and guide I linked to earlier.