We are play game, not played by game.

LBV 2012-26 · Tuesday at 1:48 PM

Not everyone has that much time to play games. Many people turn on a game just for an hour of relaxation, they have a lot of daily life ahead of them. Not everyone has the energy to spend thousands of hours on a game, please fdev don't keep trying to grind players to make them repeat through pointless gameplay for meager rewards. I can't understand why there are always people who think there's no problem with the current powerplay balance, much less why there are still people who think merits income needs to be nerfed or even the leveling bar raised.Don't be so selfish. I really hope fdev can fixed the bugs of gameplay and rebalance the Powerplay 2.0 system. The rebalancing of the engineers system not too long ago has shown that fdev is not incapable of doing a good job, it's just a matter of wanting to do it or not.

Koma Pahu · Tuesday at 1:53 PM

The game is what it is. I didn’t play for around 2 years because I didn’t have the time it needs. It’s not a casual game, there are other games for that.

jacklul · Tuesday at 1:55 PM

You don't have to be rank 100 in powerplay to enjoy the game.

LBV 2012-26 · Tuesday at 2:00 PM

jacklul said:
You don't have to be rank 100 in powerplay to enjoy the game.

At least make it easier for players to be able to get the modules that Powerplay gives, some of them are very detrimental to some of the gameplay experience and the balance between the two sides of the pvp players. Such as if you don't have prism shield and pacifier, beat a player who has those is harder.

Shadowsnog · Tuesday at 2:08 PM

you control the buttons you press.
if you want to nolife the game and grind, you can grind.
if you want to leisurly enjoy any of the aspects of the game at your own pace, do that.

as an 'rp' federation pledge i feel you. ive been doing the 'right thing'* for felicia and all i got were those pesky stroboscope ticklers. and as such im glad i can finally (eventually) get my hands on the other modules as well.

ultimately if you want a certain module that much, you can pledge to the power that grants it as a first reward.
but with pp2 theres finally an option to stay pledged to the power of your choice and still get all the rewards. if you deserve it. and deserving it is the right thing to do (as all my enemies are ontologically evil).

* "We should do what is right, not necessarily what is easy or popular." - Felicia Winters

Koma Pahu · Tuesday at 2:12 PM

Shadowsnog said:
ultimately if you want a certain module that much, you can pledge to the power that grants it as a first reward.
but with pp2 theres finally an option to stay pledged to the power of your choice and still get all the rewards. if you deserve it. and deserving it is the right thing to do (as all my enemies are ontologically evil).

Yeah, if you want the PP experience, enjoy the experience. If you want the modules, just grind them like you used to in the old system - I do acknowledge that it’s more work than it used to be.

LBV 2012-26 · Tuesday at 2:17 PM

Shadowsnog said:
you control the buttons you press.
if you want to nolife the game and grind, you can grind.
if you want to leisurly enjoy any of the aspects of the game at your own pace, do that.

as an 'rp' federation pledge i feel you. ive been doing the 'right thing'* for felicia and all i got were those pesky stroboscope ticklers. and as such im glad i can finally (eventually) get my hands on the other modules as well.

ultimately if you want a certain module that much, you can pledge to the power that grants it as a first reward.
but with pp2 theres finally an option to stay pledged to the power of your choice and still get all the rewards. if you deserve it. and deserving it is the right thing to do (as all my enemies are ontologically evil).

* "We should do what is right, not necessarily what is easy or popular." - Felicia Winters

Those pitifully small amounts of merits you can get per hour are a big problem compared to the huge amounts of pp rank. Even if it was just rank 5 to unlock the first ranked module, there wouldn't be that many people complaining about it. fdev is trying to teach players to play the game, which is bad, it's completely up to the player to choose whether to follow a power and be loyal forever or just choose a power to pick up the module and leave afterward.

Helmut Grokenberger · Tuesday at 2:24 PM

Games live on a spectrum, from casual mobile couch games to no-life MMOs. At some point you will have to make your peace with the fact that some play styles are incompatible with wanting to gain certain rewards or merits. In Elite's case, playing casual and getting all the module rewards doesn't work. Simple as that. You can still have fun in the game - I do, even though I can only play very casually right now. And I made my peace with the fact that I will never own prismatic shields.

If your only goal is to do PvP, for example, and you deem you can't play without prismatics, that's a problem.

Koma Pahu · Tuesday at 2:25 PM

LBV 2012-26 said:
Those pitifully small amounts of merits you can get per hour are a big problem compared to the huge amounts of pp rank. Even if it was just rank 5 to unlock the first ranked module, there wouldn't be that many people complaining about it. fdev is trying to teach players to play the game, which is bad, it's completely up to the player to choose whether to follow a power and be loyal forever or just choose a power to pick up the module and leave afterward.

How dare they choose how they want the game to be played! Everything should be free at the stater system so you can get the true sandbox experience.

You could also not pledge and not get the modules and try something else. I’ve seen good players in starter ships consistently take down experienced PvPers in the meta ship over in the other ‘Verse.

I know I’m only a PvEer, but the “meta” builds are rarely optimal for me. I could struggle learning to play what the internet says is the best ship, or build a ship that plays to my strengths.

Pville_Piper · Tuesday at 3:00 PM

Helmut Grokenberger said:
Games live on a spectrum, from casual mobile couch games to no-life MMOs. At some point you will have to make your peace with the fact that some play styles are incompatible with wanting to gain certain rewards or merits. In Elite's case, playing casual and getting all the module rewards doesn't work. Simple as that. You can still have fun in the game - I do, even though I can only play very casually right now. And I made my peace with the fact that I will never own prismatic shields.

If your only goal is to do PvP, for example, and you deem you can't play without prismatics, that's a problem.

Good point and that is largely how I've chosen to play the game, do what I enjoy and do the occasional grind to get what I want.

PP2 has piqued my interest though... I find it adds to the game a bit of purpose and texture. I don't intend to grind out to get the modules, but they'll come along sooner or later.

LBV 2012-26 · Tuesday at 3:21 PM

Koma Pahu said:
How dare they choose how they want the game to be played! Everything should be free at the stater system so you can get the true sandbox experience.

You could also not pledge and not get the modules and try something else. I’ve seen good players in starter ships consistently take down experienced PvPers in the meta ship over in the other ‘Verse.

I know I’m only a PvEer, but the “meta” builds are rarely optimal for me. I could struggle learning to play what the internet says is the best ship, or build a ship that plays to my strengths.

This design itself is highly problematic and should allow the player to enjoy the content of the game rather than the process of acquiring it. Good design is to let the player enjoy the convenience and benefits of Powerplay modules, not to let the player do boring things repeatedly in the process of acquiring these modules. This is more likely to wear down the player's patience. Even if fdev chose to include some more distinctive rewards for each level, such as modules that used to appear in CGs, or give some modules must redeem with materials, instead of this perfunctory-as-hell mini care pack, it would be much better than what that have now.

Helmut Grokenberger · Tuesday at 3:29 PM

Pville_Piper said:
Good point and that is largely how I've chosen to play the game, do what I enjoy and do the occasional grind to get what I want.

PP2 has piqued my interest though... I find it adds to the game a bit of purpose and texture. I don't intend to grind out to get the modules, but they'll come along sooner or later.

Same. I enjoy the new power play, it gives me some guidance and purpose playing the game, and for the most part I enjoyed the activities I dabbled in - for a limited time. And then I tried something else. At first I was a bit bummed about the limited merit earning potential of the way I play, but then I thought: Who cares. I am not too focused on the module reward carrot, and the rank and merits are just a funny number going up.

Koma Pahu · Tuesday at 3:40 PM

LBV 2012-26 said:
This design itself is highly problematic and should allow the player to enjoy the content of the game rather than the process of acquiring it. Good design is to let the player enjoy the convenience and benefits of Powerplay modules, not to let the player do boring things repeatedly in the process of acquiring these modules. This is more likely to wear down the player's patience. Even if fdev chose to include some more distinctive rewards for each level, such as modules that used to appear in CGs, or give some modules must redeem with materials, instead of this perfunctory-as-hell mini care pack, it would be much better than what that have now.

I disagree. PP needs balancing - and stopping things having merit randomly, isn’t a great way of doing things IMO - but I don’t agree that it’s bad game design at all.

metatheurgist · Tuesday at 4:00 PM

I wonder how much action PP would even get if the modules weren't a thing.

Koma Pahu · Tuesday at 4:02 PM

metatheurgist said:
I wonder how much action PP would even get if the modules weren't a thing.

We’ll see in a few weeks. But as much as I love the Mandalay I don’t think it’s the reason for the surge in returning players.

aRJay · Tuesday at 4:16 PM

metatheurgist said:
I wonder how much action PP would even get if the modules weren't a thing.

Well the modules didn’t interest me enough to play the last PP and everything I have read so far has convinced me to leave it till maybe new year and then see what is being said about it.

mtfatboy3006 · Tuesday at 4:37 PM

I hate tedium, but I don't want "Tiny Glade" in space, either. Taking away too much cost of progression is a different kind of tedium. Like No Man's Sky...

OK, now that I see the idea in print, I probably would play a "Tiny Glade in Space" a little. But not like I play this game.

Shadowsnog · Tuesday at 4:48 PM

metatheurgist said:
I wonder how much action PP would even get if the modules weren't a thing.

a lot

Kira Mikamy · Tuesday at 4:50 PM

Not everyone has the energy to spend thousands of hours on a game

thats why theres the 100hours story driver single player games, theres tons of it.

imagine starting play world of warcraft and pretend to make endgame content after 100 hours, you need thousand of hours to achieve it

zeta · Tuesday at 6:20 PM

LBV 2012-26 said:
At least make it easier for players to be able to get the modules that Powerplay gives, some of them are very detrimental to some of the gameplay experience and the balance between the two sides of the pvp players. Such as if you don't have prism shield and pacifier, beat a player who has those is harder.

I can sympathize with your frustration. The prismatic shield (and possibly pacifiers though you could do PAs) are more or less necessary to be competent in pvp. We had a discussion about this in another thread, e.g. that prismatics are special and from the POV of PP2.0, it may still attract more players to Aisling D and takes a bit too long.

Unfortunately pvp is not a priority for FDEV.

You could have pledged to Aisling for 4 weeks, wait and spend a few hours to haul some stuff to get the PSGs you want (that's what I did, predicting the grind in PP2.0 may be worse).

Unfortunately for you the ship has likely sailed and even if FDEV will take your suggestion into consideration AND implements a change, likely it will take more time than just sucking it up.

You should know that a decent number of PVPers, while use a PSG, don't stack A-rated heavy duty boosters, but instead stack D-rated boosters (for speed) and play with a 3000 MJ shield. You can get close to that with A-rated boosters and A-rated shield, a heavy duty armor and lots of hull or SCBs. For most fights, your bottleneck won't be the shield but the skill, though you could certainly last little longer with prismatic shield.

Sorry for your troubles, just try to enjoy the game as is.