Powerplay Tier progression is .. strange..

[Kayin]

It's pretty much impossible to get to Tier 3 or higher when pledged to Torval unless you become a pirate and go undermining. Which is the exact opposite of her philosophy.

Torval's philosophy is a peaceful one with deep roots in slavery. She's made several trade routes very profitable as a result. She's all about self defence and violence when necessary. Her tier 3 item is a mining lance for goodness sake. It's intended to help miners defend themselves from pirates.

But seriously
- Fortification: haul stuff to the capital
- Expansion: haul stuff to the expansion world
- Preparation: haul stuff to a controlled world

Hauling is great, but at tier 1 you're limited to 10 merits every half hour. So in order to progress..
Tier 2: I have to haul 10 tons every half hour until I hit 100, That's 5 hours of work.
Tier 3: I have to haul 15 tons every half hour until I hit 750. That's 25 hours of playtime.
Tier 4: I have to haul 20 tons every half hour until I hit 1500. That's 37.5 hours of playtime.
Tier 5. I have to haul 25 tons every half hour until I hit 10,000. That's 200 hours of playtime.

There are only 168 hours available in a given week, so Tier 5 is already impossible. I have this thing I like to do - called eating. In order to do that I have to work. I'm sure the majority of us here are familiar with this concept.

Basically, to hit tier 3 or higher I *have* to become a pirate. To hit Tier 5, I have to forfeit every second of free time in my real life so I can pirate in Elite. Then finally I can get a 50% increase in rare profits, which I don't actually have time to do because I'm too busy being a pirate.

This wasn't very well thoughout. Am I the only one who finds this really strange?

 

[Martin Schou]

Alternatively you could use fast tracking to get to and maintain your rating. It's what the rest of us non-combat pilots do

 

[Adeptus Kaze]

You are correct in that the simplist non-credit intesnisve solution is to go Undermining. You can even do this in a Friendly fashion by sticking to other Power's SCRAP targets. No big deal. In fact, we have a juicy 10-system SCRAP list for You on the Elite Antal Reddit, that I will re-post here:

SCRAP Request:
When a power needs to oppose an unwanted expansion, or to undermine unwanted systems, it is customary to send a "SCRAP Request" to other powers. If any of your Pilots need to Grind some Merits to gain/maintain Rank this week, Utopia is looking to purge the Morally Corrupt and shed these systems from our ranks. Please feel free to Undermine in the following systems with our compliments:

Minerva
Xi Mu
HIP 117972
Ahemez
Neris
HIP 1389
HR 17
Silvandza
Nguna
HIP 2725


Happy Undermining,
Ambassador Kaze

The other option is to do as Matin Schou recommends, and use those HUGE slave and mineral-driven profits to simply buy your way to rank 5. We have several players in Prenav Antal space who have done just that over the last few weeks.

Fortification is hugely important to prevent the turmoil of your Power right now. Especially since Torval so often comes underneath Federation and Alliance guns.

Invest your Trade dividends in Political Cargo Allocations, and You will have Rank 5 in no time. After the second week it becomes self-sustaining as You drop the 50 Mill paycheck into Expansion and Fortification (but especially Fortification).

The Price is from 0 to 10,000 merits: 100 Million Credits in a Week. With Zemina's Trade Routes, You can easily do this even if You have to build up for a couple of weeks. Second Week is about 50 Million Credits; 3rd week and forward take care of themselves.

You can to it CMDR! o7
Ambassador Kaze

 

[Martin Schou]

Fortification is hugely important to prevent the turmoil of your Power right now. Especially since Torval so often comes underneath Federation and Alliance guns.

Emphasis added.

Ehh ... what? I don't seem to recall us (Mahon guys) undermining Torval often or even lately. Are you, as an Antal Ambassador, privy to information that I, as a Mahon strategist and coordinator, don't have?

 

[geoffrey.hdt]

I have no problem to maintain my rank 5.
Sure, if you want to get 50 millions per week in doing nothing, you might be disappointed.

You can base you reasoning on that you may need to spend 50 millions to fast-track and haul your 5000 tons of commodities by the end of the cycle. It can be done in less than 2 hours with an Anaconda / T9. Then you have maintained your rank 5 in the shortest amount of time/effort. (I don't do that)

But every merit that earn without fast-tracking saves you 10k credits, which is:
- 500k collecting an allotment (50 tons per 30 minutes).
- 100k for any ship you take down at a combat zone.
- 300k for any ship you take down by undermining.
- 900k for any wing of 3 dangerous ships (like Sidewinders...) you take down by undermining.

But sure, keep whining about that it is too long/hard and you have better things to do...then head back to the community goals, RESs, or trading, and let us know how much you earn per hour, right?