What is an powerplay

[Georgeboy1999]

As you can see by the joke title. What is powerplay? I get that it is about the politics but what are the perks. I saw the credit bonus in exploited systems, what is a exploited system? The bits to the right, combat, social and so on, What do these mean. I don't want to be told the best one from the get go, I just need some guidance as to what is what.

 

[drholliday]

An exploited system is a system that's not controlled by the power but within a radius of 15ly of one. Sort of a sphere of influence of a controlled system.

 

[cmdr_Havalok]

Here is a Power Play guide: PP Guide

Basically, within the Federation, the Achenar Empire, the Alliance of Independent Planets and the true Independents there are individuals. Movers and Shakers. 10 of them. Each looking to increase their influence over the galaxy. There are 4 in the Empire, 2 Feds, 1 Alliance, and 3 Independents. YOu pledge your support to one if them and perform activities on their behalf. These give you merits to hand in to improve your Rank within their organization. For the Big 10 its all about Real Estate. Star Systems generate income called Command Capital (CC) but they also cost CC to maintain. A CONTROL system generates this CC from every system within 15 LYs of it, these are EXPLOITED systems. The exact amount of CC depends on the stuff in the systems as well as the individual governments in each of those systems. A good system generates more CC than it cost to maintain. There are the systems you own or CONTROL. The idea is for all your CONTROL systems to generate extra CC. This will allow you to target new system you want to bring under your control. You start PREPARING these systems. Multiple powers can prepare the same system. Who ever does the most preparation at the end of the cycle (a cycle is 7 days Thurs-Thurs) can then try to EXPAND into that system next cycle. If you successfully expand you now control that system and add it to your CC generation/costs. And the cycle begins anew.

Each Power Player has a Reddit and Forum community. Some are better than others. Here real players try to coordinate the efforts of the group for the best results (in theory).
There is a strong Role Play element by pledging support to this or that Power. Not to mention that other PP players and NPC are now flagged as enemies and may attack you.
There is a fair amount of combat but some PPs use it more than others to Expand and Undermine. Pick your Power carefully if you are looking for combat. <cough.cough.Archon Delaine>
Good money can be generated in PP. Since you spend a lot of time working for your Power Player its only fair they pay you a little bit. Its fairly easy to earn enough merits to hit and maintain RANK 4 which pays 5 Mil each week. With some dedication you can hit and maintain RANK 5 which pays 50 millions per week. At least it does for Archon, I think all the Powers are the same but I'm not sure. There are also other perks detailed in the guide for each Power.

I hope all that helps

 

[Dakron Nova]

Powerplay was a knee jerk reaction by FD to address some criticism, by some CMDRS, that the galaxy was dead and the background simulation was neither deep enough or working properly. The perception of what they delivered was that it was a rushed unintegrated grind for combat orientated PvP'ers and didnt resolve the main gripes with the game.

.....the views above are from the impression I have from forum posts and do not necessarily reflect my own. However I don't PP and am not aligned to any power.

 

[Georgeboy1999]

Thanks for the help but one more thing. When cmdr_Havalok said that when you join a pp some players and npcs will turn against you, I want to know if this affects landing at stations. If so how would I know if a station will try to kill me. When I pledge allegiance to a pp do I have to do specific tasks or can I continue doing what I am doing e.g. killing pirates, scanning planets for data and selling it, trading.

 

[Arjin]

Powerball is a lottery here in the USA currently up to 1.3 billion,, oh wait you said Powerplay.. https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=155114 but only get involved if you love politicians...

 

[goemon]

Thanks for the help but one more thing. When cmdr_Havalok said that when you join a pp some players and npcs will turn against you, I want to know if this affects landing at stations. If so how would I know if a station will try to kill me. When I pledge allegiance to a pp do I have to do specific tasks or can I continue doing what I am doing e.g. killing pirates, scanning planets for data and selling it, trading.

a station will not turn against you because of powerplay (you may become wanted in some systems, though, through powerplay related actions - and through that, a station in those systems you are wanted in, may open fire of you after you got scanned by the security ships. but thats no big deal.)

 

[cmdr_Havalok]

Thanks for the help but one more thing. When cmdr_Havalok said that when you join a pp some players and npcs will turn against you, I want to know if this affects landing at stations. If so how would I know if a station will try to kill me. When I pledge allegiance to a pp do I have to do specific tasks or can I continue doing what I am doing e.g. killing pirates, scanning planets for data and selling it, trading.

As already noted , stations in and of themselves will always let you land. However, the tasks you need to perform for your Power may get you WANTED in a given system and if scanned while trying to DOCK, well, the local Authorities might start shooting. That's part of the fun. I'm wanted for over 100,000 CR in about 5 different systems right now. You can, of course, keep doing what you want to do, but that may not necessarily benefit the Power you have pledged to. Combat is prevalent with most of the powers in some way or another, but not scanning or trading that I know of. That doesn't stop you from these things however. Each power has certain bonus and one power may have bonuses that help your chosen profession. For example, a couple of powers grant a 10% bounty hunting bonus. Another always has black markets in CONTROLLED or EXPLOITED station. You should open the PP tab under the Galaxy and System Map in your Left UI. Read each Player. They each have an ethos that describes how they try to do things. Also read the Prep, Expansion, and Control sections to see how they perform these tasks. Each power is slightly different.

Did you read the Guide I linked above?

I typically spend 2-4 hours each week with Expansion or Undermining, maybe a little Fortification to keep me at RANK 4 and then do whatever I feel like the rest of the week. I watch the Reddit and Forums to see if there is any particular focus or strategy for the cycle. I've found the Archon Delaine guys to be well coordinated and helpful.

 

[Bigglesof206]

You will be attacked by NPCs more often if you pledge to a power, as a lot of NPCs out there belong to factions - for example if you join a Federal faction (Hudson or Winters) you'll find yourself being interdicted by NPCs labelled as being from some Imperial faction or other. If you aren't pledged to a power then these guys will leave you alone instead.

If you DO pledge then get into the volume of space belonging to the power you want to join before clicking the button to join, as it can be quite busy fending off continual interdictions as you try to get out of Dodge into friendly territory!

Each power has a range of tasks to complete to defend it's territory whilst expanding into new or contested space, they also work to chip away at the other powers' defences. It is up to the player to join in or not - the rewards aren't excessive, you can earn a lot more credits doing other stuff. You can dip in and out as much as you like - the less time you spend doing powerplay stuff the less points you will tend to earn (merits) which will of course tend to limit your rank progression and your weekly pay from the power. There is absolutely nothing to stop you doing all the usual stuff whenever you want, other than your pledging being a bit like hanging a small target on your back for NPCs and CMDRs of other powers to shoot at.

Dave

 

[d8veh]

I've been using power play most of the time I've been playing. I've had negligible interference from other powers, but that maybe because I've spent most of my time in systems that are exploited or controlled by my own power, although even when I go to systems where I'm marked as hostile, nobody seems to want to bother me.

Joining a power can get you a lot of extra money if you use it for your advantage. Zachary Hudson has given me over 500 million extra in just two weeks. That's for doing just what I would have been doing anyway. That's right 1/4 billion a week for nothing!

The idea is to choose a power that gives bonuses for what you like doing. I like bounty hunting. There's two of them that give bonuses to bounty hunters.

 

[cmdr_Havalok]

I've been using power play most of the time I've been playing. I've had negligible interference from other powers, but that maybe because I've spent most of my time in systems that are exploited or controlled by my own power, although even when I go to systems where I'm marked as hostile, nobody seems to want to bother me.

Joining a power can get you a lot of extra money if you use it for your advantage. Zachary Hudson has given me over 500 million extra in just two weeks. That's for doing just what I would have been doing anyway. That's right 1/4 billion a week for nothing!

The idea is to choose a power that gives bonuses for what you like doing. I like bounty hunting. There's two of them that give bonuses to bounty hunters.

Might want to check your math. At Rank 5 (the highest rank) Hudson pays out 50 million/week, same as all the other PPs.

 

[d8veh]

Might want to check your math. At Rank 5 (the highest rank) Hudson pays out 50 million/week, same as all the other PPs.

I've checked my maths. I have meticulous records. You get 50 million salary plus 100% bonus on bounties. Last week I got total bounties of 516,267,706 of which ZH gave me half, so that's 258,130,853 bonus plus 50 million salary = 308,130,853 in the week. To get that, I had to pay out 18 million for reinforcement supplies, but I made 5.5 million trading while I did it and you get 500,000 for delivering the reinforcements.