And all of that could be done
physically in SC via BGS states and more involved SC too- so its really augmenting what exists. In essence beef up the PvE and PvP because the 'moves' are already there. On a higher level you could do things like this (OT mind)-
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...ignment-numbers-have-bgs-consequences.543240/
So there your local effort has a knock on effect at a higher collective level. You don't need to understand very much other than support your team.
I don't disagree with this concept in principle, but I do disagree in specifics, since I think this would only tend to result in runaway growth and/or collapse. Ideally, no single point of failure should completely ruin a faction; they should lose in chunks, but be able to fall back and regroup.
That's where introducing some sort of structural level to the bubble would be very important, where territory can be gained or lost as the result of certain key systems.
'Value' in ED is also hard to quantify for an effective reward as well. Stations and assets are valuable, but for many the disappointment lies in the unchanging headspace above 'allied' because...well, nothing changes other than a label in the context of the lore and wider game. You can't place stations or megaships, and FCs although placeable are invincible so can't be leveraged as pieces.
I mean, you can build synergy between superpower / power, system faction and pilot for rewards (I mean FD are there 80% now with Powerplay), its just attaching a reward to the outcome correctly.
True... I personally think that the biggest trouble is, ultimately, even creating assets and the like doesn't really
do anything. So you make a new station; so what?
That's a direction Fdev could really stand to expand. This is the sort of territory I think could be done quite well with Procedural Generation. You already have a wide variety of assets that just generate randomly across the surface of planets, not to mention installations and satellites in space, and so on. All you need is a system whereby players can modify a sliding scale by which these assets are procedurally generated in specified areas, with each having preset buffs that players are interested in acquiring.
For example, say you improve a Refinery system. This would increase the profits of selling minerals there, but would do so even moreso for members of the controlling Power. Then you improve high-tech systems, further increasing the demand for refined minerals. All of this would be indicated visually by the gradual procedural generation of refineries, installations, factories, and so on.
Then you can have simple ways for enemies to benefit from attacking, instead; the wealthier and more generated a system, the larger the rewards in terms of credits and materials and infamy enemy players get for taking it over.
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At that point, all you really need is a serious long-term credit sink for players to invest in. Credits have little value for endgame players right now, because there's basically nothing to spend them on after a certain point. Since credits or materials are the only real way to reward players, that means rewards are also meaningless.
By adding something like colonization, which could also be done almost completely procedurally, you could create an entirely automatic way for players to spend almost unlimited time and credits achieving something permanent and meaningful in the galaxy.
