Powerplay: Rebooting It

It is extremely grind/treadmill based

based It's a very gamey system (like Risk) this can be immersion-breaking for some players

(like Risk) this can be immersion-breaking for some players PP gameplay is repetitve (kill enemy couriers or agents, deliver stuff)

(kill enemy couriers or agents, deliver stuff) The rank decay is punishing and wipes out most player progress weekly, turning away casual players

and wipes out most player progress weekly, turning away casual players The rules are overly complicated and hard to understand for most (mainly because the ruleset doesn't relate to the BGS)

and hard to understand for most (mainly because the ruleset doesn't relate to the BGS) Powers are galactic level entities that are hard to influence personally (player actions are a drop in the ocean)

(player actions are a drop in the ocean) There is no in-game way of communicating or organising with fellow pledgers, so the sense of belonging to the faction is virtualy non-existant

or organising with fellow pledgers, so the sense of belonging to the faction is virtualy non-existant There are no powerplay missions , so no way to break the grind

, so no way to break the grind Powerplay is not linked to the background sim and operates as a separate layer (understanding one BSG is difficult enough, let alone two)

and operates as a separate layer (understanding one BSG is difficult enough, let alone two) Powers lack narrative background or lore, therefore they are hard to identify with

Pledging to a power makes the player a target - if the player adopts a non-combat playstyle, this can be a problem

- if the player adopts a non-combat playstyle, this can be a problem Most of the unique weapons/modules are ineffective whereas a couple are OP (mining lance vs Imperial Hammer anyone?) where is the balance?

whereas a couple are OP (mining lance vs Imperial Hammer anyone?) where is the balance? The unique modules do little to enhance the power's favoured career path

Rewarding players with one unrestricted unique module per power encourages players to keep joining different powers to get all the different modules/weapons and not care about the power itself

per power encourages players to keep joining different powers to get all the different modules/weapons and not care about the power itself There are not enough unique features per power (rank 4 hardly unlocks anything..every rank should unlock something cool)

per power (rank 4 hardly unlocks anything..every rank should unlock something cool) Power territory often spreads into areas that makes no sense (Edmund Mahon - Alliance PM controlling core Fed space? wha..?) this has made the galaxy map a bit of a mess since PP launch

(Edmund Mahon - Alliance PM controlling core Fed space? wha..?) this has made the galaxy map a bit of a mess since PP launch Power collapse was billed as a feature but has not been implemented yet, this makes the struggle between powers an infinite and pointless territory feud (who cares if their power is bottom of the table, they won't die so does it matter?)

(who cares if their power is bottom of the table, they won't die so does it matter?) NPC Power agents are found everywhere , rather than in logical places (why are enemy NPCs flying unchecked around enemy-power capital systems?)

, rather than in logical places (why are enemy NPCs flying unchecked around enemy-power capital systems?) It's a year after PP released and there are no power-specific skins or decals available

1. Pledge most of the minor factions to powers

Powers would automaitically 'exploit' a system that one of their factions control through the BSG - power exploitation bonuses would remain as they are now

Control systems would still exist, but instead of the current system, they would provide an influence/expansion bonus of 50% to the faction which controls it (basically it would be easier for the controlling faction to spread to neighboring systems)

2. Players pledge to powers via pledged-factions

Powers will link to the background sim

Factions are much smaller than a power, therefore a player is more likely to feel they are achieving something when they perform missions for them

Player factions are minor factions, therefore players will finally be able to pledge to their own faction (knowing who's who playerwise in the game would be very advantageous)

Powerplay influence struggles would take place inside systems between specific player groups, rather than thinly spread across the galaxy, which is extremely hard to keep up with

Currently players tend to care more about their own faction than their pledged power, having their faction linked to a power will cause an upsurge in Powerplay activities

Power combat zones would potentially be generated between player factions, allowing for a more realistic and meaningful rivalry between different player groups. Right now rivalry seems to be based on 'who said what about who on reddit... :-/'

Player groups tend to be quite organised, they would bring that organisation into the rather disorganised and chaotic Powerplay

Player info pane would display their pledged faction name, with the power denoted underneath

3. Powerplay ranks would be an extension of the faction influence bar

Faction rank levels beyond 'Allied' (pledger only) would be: Initiate (rank 1) Asset (rank 2) Operative (rank 3) Agent (rank 4) Specialist (rank 5)

Influence/rank with all allied power-pledged minor factions around the galaxy would automatically adjust to the players rank level, allowing the player to complete power missions in any system where the power is present (the best missions would still only be available from the players pledged faction however).

Rank would still decay back, but much slower than it currently does (it wouldn't need to decay at the current rate because salary would no longer be a factor to consider)

Rank of player within their faction would be displayed in their commander info pane via an icon.

Merit rewards for killing enemies would vary depending on their power-rank: Rank 1 Kill = 50 Merits Rank 2 Kill = 100 Merits Rank 3 Kill = 250 Merits Rank 4 Kill = 500 Merits Rank 5 Kill = 1000 Merits





4. Introduce Powerplay exclusive faction missions

Spoiler

Provide higher credit values than normal missions (scaling with PP rank)

Would generate missions providing materials and commodities for pinned engineer schematics (not random like normal missions)

Theme of these missions would be hostile or provocative actions against rival power assets in the region

Would at times would require PvP (especially at higher Power ranks)

5. Scrap CC, merits and salary , as they would no longer be needed

CC would be redundant as power-influence would be spread via power-factions system control instead. This would give players another reason to get involved in manipulation of the BGS through actions like trade, smuggling, combat, bounty hunting, piracy etc.

Merits would no longer be necessary because faction mission completion would be the new way of gaining rank within the power.

Update: Changed my mind on this, merits could stay, but could be used as currency instead of credits to purchase power/faction exclusive ships/weapons & modules.

Changed my mind on this, merits could stay, but could be used as currency instead of credits to purchase power/faction exclusive ships/weapons & modules. The salary concept is dependent on a weekly grind/treadmill model, so must be binned. Instead, power-based missions would provide larger credit rewards, unique marterials and unique commodity returns based on rank (as well as rank progression itself).

Update: Changed my mind on this too - Instead of a set salary, merits attained could be converted directly into credits at the players discretion, with the rate you get depending on your power-rank. This is better than a set salary because you can earn merits/credits at your leisure, rather than have to run on the weekly treadmill.

Frontier probably won't like this suggestion as I know developers are never keen on the idea of abandoning finished work, but I think these features are poorly realised and are the primary reason powerplay is so unpopular, so removing them would go a long way to making PP more appealing.

Removal

6. Every rank within a power must give access to a unique weapon, utility or module

used

modules cannot be used when unpledged

Updated:

Spoiler All Rebuy's Void Unless Pledged to Owning Power (to discourage power switching for modules)



Arissa Lavigny-Duval (Bounty Hunting) Rank 1 - Fast KW Scanner (U) - 3x as fast as regular KW scanner Rank 2 - High bandwidth sensors (M) - All contacts in range are immediately identified (no getting wanted for shooting quickly) Rank 3 - Imperial Hammer (W) (size 1) - Double shot (green) & Imperial Hammer (W) (size 2) - Triple shot (green) - Current Version Rank 4 - Imperial mass driver (W) (size 3) - Single shot large railgun (purple) Rank 5 - Gutayama 'Imperial Hunter' Medium Interceptor

(Bounty Hunting) Aisling Duval (High-Value & Rare Trade) Rank 1 - Shielded Cargo Rack (M) (capacity up to 16) - invisible to cargo scan, lower chance of ejection through cargo hatch Rank 2 - Prismatic Shield Booster (U) - Shield booster that increases shield strength by a factor of 1.4 Rank 3 - Prismatic Shields (M) (All sizes) - Current Version Rank 4 - Prismatic Cell Bank (M) (All sizes) - Regenerates 50% more shield strength than standard shield cells Rank 5 - Gutayama 'Imperial Trader' Long-Range Trade Ship

(High-Value & Rare Trade) Archon Delaine (Piracy) Rank 1 - Fast Manifest Scanner - 3x speed of standard manifest scanner Rank 2 - Advanced collector & hatch-breaker controllers (M) - Controls 2x the amount of limpets than the regular version, 2x the yield for HB's, available in all size slots, not just 1,3,5,7 etc Rank 3 - FSD inhibitor (M) (sizes 1-7, increasing in range) - When activated, no ships within range can activate FSD for 1 minute Rank 4 - Cytoscrambler (W) (sizes 1,2, 3 & 4) - Longer range anti-shield beam weapon, devastating to shields, very high capacitor draw and power requirement (modified to beam weapon from current ineffective, short-range version) Rank 5 - Manticore 'Constrictor' Medium Pirate Ship

(Piracy) Denton Patreaus (Combat - Empire) Rank 1 - Advanced Chaff (U) - Chaff that lasts 2x the duration of regular chaff Rank 2 - Advanced Accelerator (W) (size 2) Rank 3 - Imperial Hull Plating (M) - Lightweight armor that has the resilience of Military grade armor Rank 4 - Advanced Accelerator (W) (sizes 3 & 4) - Current Version + size 4 Rank 5 - Gutayama 'Imperial Sentinel' Heavy Fighter

(Combat - Empire) Edmund Mahon (Bulk Trade) Rank 1 - Compact Cargo Racks (M) (sizes 1-6) - Cargo rack that fits 50% more cargo than regular cargo racks Rank 2 - Retributor Beam Laser (W) (sizes 1 & 2) - Current version + available in gimballed & turreted Rank 3 - Fighter Hull Composite (M) - Fighters produced by this module have extra strong armor Rank 4 - Advanced Point Defence (U/W) - Point defence turret that also acts as a weapon against hostile ships Rank 5 - Lakon 'Type 8 Clipper' Fast Trade Ship

(Bulk Trade) Felicia Winters (Passengers) Rank 1 - Space efficient passenger cabins (M)(All ratings) - Advanced space-saving techniques allow 50% more passengers to occupy these cabins Rank 2 - High-security diplomatic cabin (M)(sizes 5,6,7 & 8) - A special cabin type exclusive to FW that allows non-luxury Federal faction ships to carry VIP passengers Rank 3 - Pulse Disruptor (W) (sizes 1, 2, 3 & 4) - Turreted and gimablled unlocked for all sizes Rank 4 - Advanced Federal Reactive Surface Composite (M) - Special Federal armor that gets the benefits of normal reactive armor, but its weaknesses are at the level of military grade armour Rank 5 - Core Dynamics 'Falcon MkII Federal Bomber' Long-Range Medium Fighter

(Passengers) Li-Yong Rui (Exploration) Rank 1 - Fast & Longer-range scanner (M) (basic, intermediate & advanced) - Twice the speed of the regular discovery scanner, surface scanner can be used 3x distance away Rank 2 - Sirius Advanced Heat Sink (U) - Special heat sink that provides cooler temperatures for 2x the duration of regular heat sinks, also contains 5 shots instead of 3 Rank 3 - Pack Hound Missile (W) (sizes 1 & 2) - Current version + size 1 Rank 4 - Sirius Experimental Frame Shift Drive (M) (All sizes) - FSD range 25% higher than regular FSD range. Rank 5 - Sirius & Lakon 'Copperhead' Advanced Exploration Ship

(Exploration) Pranav Antal (Bounty Hunting) Rank 1 - Fast wake scanner (U) - Wake scanner that is 3x faster than regular WS Rank 2 - Tracking limpet (M) - tracks target on galaxy map for one hour Rank 3 - Extended Shield Cell Bank (M)(All sizes) - Shield cell banks that contain 2x the ammo of regular SCBs Rank 4 - Enforcer Cannon (W) (sizes 1,2, 3 & 4) - + gimballed version for all sizes unlocked Rank 5 - Manticore 'Wolf MkIII' Long-range Interceptor

(Bounty Hunting) Zachery Hudson (Combat - Federation) Rank 1 - Advanced ECM (U) - ECM that is capable of operating at a range of 2x that of the standard ECM Rank 2 - Heavy duty hull reinforcement package (M) - HRP that gives 50% more protection than the standard HRP Rank 3 - Pacifier Frag-Cannon (W) (sizes 1, 2 & 3) - Current version + size 2 Rank 4 - Advanced Federal Mirror Surface armor (M) - Special Federal armor that totally nullifies heat-based attacks Rank 5 - Core Dynamics 'Saker MkIII Federal Interceptor' Fast Medium Fighter

(Combat - Federation) Zermina Torval (Mining) Rank 1 - Asteroid tagger (U) - fire at asteroids to change their colour on the scanner Rank 2 - Fixed, Gimballed & Turreted Mining Lance (W) (sizes 1, 2 and 3) Rank 3 - Advanced refinery (M) (All sizes) - refinery that lets you set specific ores to bins, unwanted ore is automatically ejected Rank 4 - Advanced prospector limpets (M) - doubles asteroid yield of normal prospector Rank 5 - Gutayama 'Imperial Prospector' Advanced Mining Ship

(Mining)

* EDITS:



Order of Li-Yong's modules changed

Advanced Hatch-Breaker added to Archon Delaine, Cytoscrambler confined to rank 4 (all sizes)

Ships added to rank 5

7. Each power should have a pledge-locked engineer that upgrades their unique modules

8. Use 'Private group' functionality to manage player factions

9. Where are the Power skins & decals?

Additional: 10. Incognito Powerplay & Sleeper Agents

Players can take a break from Powerplay so they are not hassled by Power NPCs and rival players (but would keep their bonuses, unlocks and rank)

Players who are members of neutral player-factions would not be locked out of Powerplay, as they would still have a Power-pledge slot available

Additional: 11. Power & Superpower Rebuys

Rebuy's within friendly capital systems are reduced by: 30% (ranks 1 & 2) 60% (ranks 3 & 4) 90% (rank 5)

Rebuy's within friendly control systems are reduced by: 25% (ranks 1 & 2) 50% (ranks 3 & 4) 75% (rank 5)

Rebuy's within friendly exploited systems are reduced by: 20% (ranks 1 & 2) 40% (ranks 3 & 4) 60% (rank 5)

Rebuy's within superpower control & exploited systems are reduced by: 10% (ranks 1 & 2) 20% (ranks 3 & 4) 30% (rank 5)

Rebuy's within enemy control systems are reduced by: 15% (ranks 1 & 2) 30% (ranks 3 & 4) 45% (rank 5)



Additional: 12. Use Merits as a Currency Instead of a Grind Bar

Additional: 13. Introduce 'Defector' & 'Deserter' Player Status

Last Edit 16-11-2016 : Added sections 10,11,12 & 13 and made various tweaks to unique module suggestions

The 1.3 Powerplay update was probably the most disliked patch for Elite: Dangerous so far.When it is ever mentioned on the forum or Reddit, most players say they have either never gotten involved, they played it for a while and got bored, or that they only used it as a method to get access to the unique modules then quit (the latter being the most common). I very much doubt this is what Frontier had in mind when they came up with the idea.So why is Powerplay so unpopular within the community, a few reasons could be:My take on it is this; FDev, you already built a working background sim, why did you spend lots of time and effort building a second one that was totally disconnected from the first? IMO it was a poor design choice that has lead to lots of problems and player dissatisfaction.So with all that in mind, here are some ideas for improving & reworking Powerplay:I think the first thing that has to be fixed is the disconnect between Powerplay and the background sim. If each system has 3 or 4 factions that are pledged to the nearest powers, this would provide a mechanism for joining the BGS and powerplay. If this were to be implemented, there would a method of providing Powerplay focused missions that could reward the player with a combination of credits, power rank and special materials/commodities for upgrading unique power modules (more on that further down).This would change the way in which power influence and control is spread across the galaxy, proposed changes are:The current system requires players pledge directly to powers in the powers menu. It is a little hard to believe that someone can just pledge to a political entity without any history or checks and be welcomed into the faction with no questions asked. A better way would be if players were required to build up reputation with one of the pledged factions (mentioned previously) first.My proposal is that once the players rep with a pledged faction is in the 'allied' zone, they would be able to pledge to that faction, and by extension pledge to the power. The advantages to this are:Currently a pledgers rank is determined by how many 'merits' they gain week to week, but as I've already discussed, this system is very grind-dependent and the decay every week is so punishing it puts most players off getting involved. A player's standing within their pledged power should be controlled via the influence bar of their pledged faction. How I see it working is as follows:In pledging factions to a power, we would now have a mechanism of linking standard faction missions to PP, giving us Powerplay missions. These missions would only be available to players who are either pledged to the faction in question, or are pledged to a faction under the same power. Powerplay missions would have the following characteristics:Once powerplay is linked directly to the BGS through factions, the contriversal PP features of 'Command Capital' (CC), 'Merits' & 'Salaries' become redundant, this is because:Powerplay through the BGS is the way it should have always been, because bolting a separate layer of functionality (PP model) onto the game when there was already a functioning BGS available seems like reinventing the wheel to me.A rework of these three features would also remove the 'gamey' risk feel from Powerplay, along with most of the grind factor (missions are more engaging and fun than killing endless enemy logistics couriers for no obvious reason...).Another of the main problems of Powerplay, is that it offers access to one unique item per power that can berebought whether you are pledged or not. This results in most players doing a round-robin of the powers, collecting all the unique modules and weapons they can. Once they have everything they want, they unpledge and go back to being factionless. To discourage this playstyle, I think each power needs to offer more to their pledgers,giving them access to one new unique module for each rank in their power (the higher the rank, the more powerful the module).These unique modules would be designed with the powers ethos in mind - for example Li-Yong Rui is exploration focused, so his unique items should give exploration-focused players an edge in this career path (unique explorer ship, better FSDs etc).The trade-off would be these unique. This would alleviate the problem of players changing powers all the time to gain modules - it would be highly risky using them when not pledged to the owner-power.Another trade-off would be that unique modules (excluding ships) could only be stored in pledged-power control systems (no transfer available). This would mean a risky trip to retrieve them if the player ever defected.The minimum pledge time to access uniques should also be lowered to 1 week per rank, as we would now have one unique item per power rank.Here are some unique ship, weapon, utility and module ideas (power ethos may be slightly adjusted for variation):Now we have engineers, players expect to be able to upgrade all of their ship components. It would make sense that there would be engineers out there who serve specific powers and are only accessible to pledged commanders. Unlocking ratings in power-engineers would be tied to the players power-rating, rather than the 'level-up' mechanism of standard engineers. The unique modules should require special materials that are only available as a reward for completing power-locked missions (giving players even more motivation to partake in powerplay).As minor factions would now be pledgable, player factions would need to work slightly different from normal NPC factions. This is because player groups don't want just anybody joining their ranks - their leaders will want some degree of control of who joins.I suggest the use of ED's private group system to control membership of player factions. Every player faction would have a private group associated with it by default (even if they only play in open) with certain players set up as admins that can view and administer members through the private group menu. If an unaligned player wishes to pledge to a player faction, they will have to 'apply to pledge' (instead of simply the 'pledge' option that you would get with NPC factions). From there a player faction admin will be able to either 'accept' or 'refuse' the players pledge request. Un-actioned requests would show up on the list as 'pending'.Another enhancement with the player faction group feature could be a 'faction' comms channel for text chat, alongside direct, and wing.To most, this seems like quite a straight-forward feature to implement and you would have thought they would have been included in the original Powerplay release, yet Fdev have not provided power-unique livery for ship models.Although maybe not as important as the previous points above, many players have been asking for these to be implemented ever since PP released a year ago. It's quite puzzling how they are still not in the game (as well as the basic superpower logo decals for that matter).Perhaps Fdev should prioritise these decals over event decals (which the game seems to get loads of) which while fun for those who manage to get them, are less important than in-game faction decals.These liveries should be pledge-locked like the unique modules.A while back, during a forum discussion with Sandro Sammarco regarding the future of Powerplay, SS mentioned that Fdev were considering an 'Incognito' option for Powerplay, so players could take a break from PP without unpledging from their power. This was due to the increased risk of being pledged to a power, which can make operating non-combat ships extremely difficult (especially now we have improved AI).There is a way this concept could fit quite nicely into my idea above, at the same time providing a way of allowing players who are members of neutral player factions a route into Powerplay.Players would have two pledge slots; one for a power-aligned faction, and one for a non-power aligned faction. Only one could be a player's 'active faction' at any one time, and only one of the two can be a player faction. Whenever the player wishes to temporarily opt-out of Powerplay, they simply switch their active faction (this would have a cool-down period of a certain time to stop exploits) and they become a 'sleeper agent' of the non-active faction. Advantages of this concept are:A potential advantage to pledging to a Power could be a reduction in rebuy costs when operating within friendly & superpower power territory as well as enemy control systems to encourage PvP. I propose:This is quite a simple concept, instead of trying to get as many merits in one week before they are all lost (which is rubbish) - merits should be used as a secondary currency within the players Power & Superpower.All unique power ships, weapons or modules would be 100% payed for with merits. Superpower unique ships could also be 50% funded by merits if the player is pledged to a qualifying power.For example; an Imperial Cutter costs about 200 million credits - instead, a player who is pledged to Aisling Duval for example, could choose to pay 50% of the cost with merits (at a better rate than converting those merits to credits). So in the end, the Cutter would cost the player 100 million credits, plus 25,000 merits (or something like that).As mentioned before, one of the main issues with Powerplay is players simply using it to get access to unique modules & weapons, then unpledging. As it stands, leaving a Power to join another triggers the 'Defection' event, where the player is chased by NPC agents of the power they have left. After a certain amount of time (can't remember the exact duration) these NPC's stop chasing the player and all returns to normal - the player gets to keep the unique modules and moves on to the next power.I suggest that while a player is in the 'Defection' cool-down, it is shown as astatus like 'Enemy' or 'Hostile' to pledged commanders (former power only) like this;This status would also be displayed outside of the defection cool-down period if they equip unique weapons or modules that belong to powers they are no longer pledged to. This status would provide a 500 merit bonus to any commander pledged to the defectors former power who manages to kill a commander with this status.If a player leaves a power, but still uses unique modules that they no longer have access to, they are designated with a, that like the Defector status, entitles any pledged commander to 500 merits if they kill them;As stated before, unique modules would not be available to rebuy at this point.