(first off, if you don't know what Fifth Column is, here ya go: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_column)
Why do we need this? Let me start by giving you a scenario.
Let's say this group of wealthy Anaconda, Corvette and Cutter commanders pledges allegiance to Zachary Hudson. Let's also say powerplay has been going well for Zachary Hudson the last few cycles, but since those guys have joined the power, a system with a negative command capitol with an expansion cost under 30 suddenly got a few tens of thousands of preparations sent to it. The existing organized Zachary Hudson backing power players may give it their all to keep that system away from being expanded into, but the resources of those other guys, people often called 5th column (5C for short), are more than enough to get that negative income system over 100,000 preparations.
Let's say this was going on and one of Zach's advisors told him about this. I think if Zach would want to open the gates of hell or worse on Emperor's Dawn, he'd want to do likewise to those 5th column people attacking the federation from the inside.
My situation in the Aisling Duval power is that I've been fighting to try to prevent Kuki An, a -21cc income system, from being on the prep list by switching out my python for a Type-9 Heavy to double my cargo and fast tracking preparation materials left and right. About 100 million credits later, I've personally contributed around 12,000 perparation materials to Nyalayan but it's is still 6000 behind Kuki An. Furthermore, to keep Kuki An off the prep list entirely, Velnambe has also been prepped, but it's about 15,000 behind Kuki An. I don't know about the rest of you folks, including Frontier Development, but I think it's serious crap that a power leader would allow someone to attack their power from the inside and even pay them up to 50 million credits a week to do it.
To fix the problem of allowing 5th column actions to occur within a power, I have a few ideas:
Option 1: Ban commanders from a power for a minimum or two weeks for preparing negative income systems. Displaying the names of commanders that prepare a system at that system's station(s) would also be nice.
This would slow down the occurrence of "prep wars" and help keep out 5th column players. More importantly, it would be proof that leaders like Zachary Hudson wouldn't shake hands with a known traitor.
Option 2: Put penalties in place for not doing power play in open. Example: All power play materials are 50% less effective in open play and 66% less effective in private group play (so delivering 100 materials would only count as 50 or 34 in solo or private play respectively). This could be done by causing playing in solo/private for a few minutes resulting in the materials they have becoming damaged/heavily damaged after a few minutes of playing in solo/private or switching from open to solo/private in space (so you can't just log out and switch to solo to avoid interdiction and still get full credit for playing in open).
Powerplay is heavily, if not completely determined by the players. As such, it should always be possible for players to be able to directly oppose the efforts of other players through actions such as interdiction. You can win a war in real life by going into some "offline mode" where there are no enemy soldiers, you shouldn't be able to do that effectively in Elite Dangerous either.
One side effect would be adding a layer of PvP to Elite Dangerous. This would make powerplay more exciting.
As a negative side effect, a 5C group could hog all the platforms to the only space port in a system and get away with it, but that's part of why playing in solo doesn't completely undo your efforts. As for playing in private, that penalty suggested is higher because 5C efforts can be made even more effective in there (protection from wingmen).
Those are just a few ideas I have off the top of my head. Whatever FD has in mind, we need PowerPlay updated as soon as possible.
Update 1: Here's another idea I came up with:
Option 3: After maintaining rating 5 (or at least 4?) for a period of time, let's say 8 or 10 weeks, you get a special form of nominations that allows your power to drop control systems.
This would allow you to get rid of deficit inducing systems in favor of replacing them with more profitable systems. The counter 5th column application here is, if a bad system gets expanded into (something with a 25cc income or less that actual ends with losing CC due to CC overheads), you could use this special nomination to cut losses incurred by the harmful addition to your power.
FistfulOfSmurf also had a few ideas:
Why do we need this? Let me start by giving you a scenario.
Let's say this group of wealthy Anaconda, Corvette and Cutter commanders pledges allegiance to Zachary Hudson. Let's also say powerplay has been going well for Zachary Hudson the last few cycles, but since those guys have joined the power, a system with a negative command capitol with an expansion cost under 30 suddenly got a few tens of thousands of preparations sent to it. The existing organized Zachary Hudson backing power players may give it their all to keep that system away from being expanded into, but the resources of those other guys, people often called 5th column (5C for short), are more than enough to get that negative income system over 100,000 preparations.
Let's say this was going on and one of Zach's advisors told him about this. I think if Zach would want to open the gates of hell or worse on Emperor's Dawn, he'd want to do likewise to those 5th column people attacking the federation from the inside.
My situation in the Aisling Duval power is that I've been fighting to try to prevent Kuki An, a -21cc income system, from being on the prep list by switching out my python for a Type-9 Heavy to double my cargo and fast tracking preparation materials left and right. About 100 million credits later, I've personally contributed around 12,000 perparation materials to Nyalayan but it's is still 6000 behind Kuki An. Furthermore, to keep Kuki An off the prep list entirely, Velnambe has also been prepped, but it's about 15,000 behind Kuki An. I don't know about the rest of you folks, including Frontier Development, but I think it's serious crap that a power leader would allow someone to attack their power from the inside and even pay them up to 50 million credits a week to do it.
To fix the problem of allowing 5th column actions to occur within a power, I have a few ideas:
Option 1: Ban commanders from a power for a minimum or two weeks for preparing negative income systems. Displaying the names of commanders that prepare a system at that system's station(s) would also be nice.
This would slow down the occurrence of "prep wars" and help keep out 5th column players. More importantly, it would be proof that leaders like Zachary Hudson wouldn't shake hands with a known traitor.
Option 2: Put penalties in place for not doing power play in open. Example: All power play materials are 50% less effective in open play and 66% less effective in private group play (so delivering 100 materials would only count as 50 or 34 in solo or private play respectively). This could be done by causing playing in solo/private for a few minutes resulting in the materials they have becoming damaged/heavily damaged after a few minutes of playing in solo/private or switching from open to solo/private in space (so you can't just log out and switch to solo to avoid interdiction and still get full credit for playing in open).
Powerplay is heavily, if not completely determined by the players. As such, it should always be possible for players to be able to directly oppose the efforts of other players through actions such as interdiction. You can win a war in real life by going into some "offline mode" where there are no enemy soldiers, you shouldn't be able to do that effectively in Elite Dangerous either.
One side effect would be adding a layer of PvP to Elite Dangerous. This would make powerplay more exciting.
As a negative side effect, a 5C group could hog all the platforms to the only space port in a system and get away with it, but that's part of why playing in solo doesn't completely undo your efforts. As for playing in private, that penalty suggested is higher because 5C efforts can be made even more effective in there (protection from wingmen).
Those are just a few ideas I have off the top of my head. Whatever FD has in mind, we need PowerPlay updated as soon as possible.
Update 1: Here's another idea I came up with:
Option 3: After maintaining rating 5 (or at least 4?) for a period of time, let's say 8 or 10 weeks, you get a special form of nominations that allows your power to drop control systems.
This would allow you to get rid of deficit inducing systems in favor of replacing them with more profitable systems. The counter 5th column application here is, if a bad system gets expanded into (something with a 25cc income or less that actual ends with losing CC due to CC overheads), you could use this special nomination to cut losses incurred by the harmful addition to your power.
FistfulOfSmurf also had a few ideas:
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